James Hadley Chase

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James Hadley Chase bigraphy, stories - writer

James Hadley Chase : biography

24 December 1906 – 6 February 1985

James Hadley Chase (24 December 1906 – 6 February 1985)Obituary Variety February 13, 1985 was an English writer. While his birth name was René Lodge Brabazon Raymond, he was well-known by his various pseudonyms, including James Hadley Chase, James L. Docherty, Raymond Marshall, R. Raymond, and Ambrose Grant. He is one of the best known thriller writers of all time. The canon of Chase, comprising ninety titles, has earned for him a reputation as the king of thriller writers in Europe. He is also one of the internationally best-selling authors, and 50 of his books have been made into films.

Professional background

Military services

During World War II he served in the Royal Air Force, achieving the rank of Squadron Leader. He edited the RAF Journal with David Langdon and had several stories from it published after the war in the book Slipstream: A Royal Air Force Anthology.http://jameshadleychase.free.fr/bio.htm

Writing background

After Chase left home at age 18, he worked in sales, primarily focusing on books and literature. He sold children’s encyclopedias, while also working in a bookshop. He also served as an executive for a book wholesaler, before turning to a writing career that produced more than 90 mystery books. His interests included photography (he was up to professional standard), reading and listening to classical music, being a particularly enthusiastic opera lover. Also as a form of relaxation between novels, he put together highly complicated and sophisticated Meccano models.

Prohibition and the ensuing Great Depression in the US (1929–1939) had given rise to the Chicago gangster culture just prior to World War II. This, combined with Chase’s book trade experience, made him realise that there was a big demand for gangster stories. After reading James M. Cain’s novel The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934), and having read about the American gangster Ma Barker and her sons, and with the help of maps and a slang dictionary, he wrote No Orchids for Miss Blandish in his spare time, allegedly over a period of six week-ends (though his papers suggest it took longer.) The book achieved remarkable notoriety and became one of the best-selling books of the decade. It was the subject of a well-known 1944 essay, "Raffles and Miss Blandish" (vide Raffles), by George Orwell. It also became a stage play in London’s West End (produced by George Black), was filmed in 1948 and Robert Aldrich did a remake, The Grissom Gang in 1971.

During the war, Raymond edited the RAF’s official magazine and from that period comes Chase’s unusual short story The Mirror in Room 22, in which he tried his hand outside the crime genre. It was set in an old house, occupied by officers of a squadron. The owner of the house had committed suicide in his bedroom, and the last two occupants of the room had been found with a razor in their hands and their throats cut. The Wing Commander tells that when he started to shave before the mirror, he found another face in it. The apparition drew the razor across his throat. The Wing Commander says, "I use a safety razor, otherwise, I might have met with a serious accident — especially if I had been using an old-fashioned cut-throat." The story was published under the author’s real name, Rene Raymond, in the anthology of RAF writings Slipstream in 1946.

During World War II, Chase became friendly with Merrill Panitt (subsequently editor of TV Guide) who provided him with a dictionary of American slang, detailed maps and reference books of the American underworld. This gave Chase the background for his early books with American settings, a number of which were based on actual events occurring there. Chase never lived in the United States though he did make two brief visits, one to Miami and the other en route to Mexico.

Chase was subject to several court cases during his career. In 1942, his novel Miss Callaghan Comes to Grief (1941) a lurid account of the white slave trade, was banned by the British authorities after the author and publishers Jarrolds were found guilty of causing the publication of an obscene book. Each was fined £100. In the court case, Chase was supported by distinguished literary figures such as H.E. Bates and John Betjeman. Later, the Anglo-American crime author, Raymond Chandler, successfully claimed that Chase had lifted a section of his work in "Blonde’s Requiem" (published 1945) forcing Chase to issue an apology in The Bookseller.