Ss van dine biography definition

American journalist and author (1888–1939)

S. S. Van Dine (also styled S.S. Van Dine) is the pen name used by American art criticWillard Huntington Wright (October 15, 1888 – April 11, 1939) when he wrote detective novels. Wright was active in avant-garde cultural circles in pre-World War I New York, and under the pen name (which he originally used to conceal his identity) he created the fictional detective Philo Vance, a sleuth and aesthete who first appeared in books in the 1920s, then in films and on the radio.

Early life

Willard Huntington Wright was born to Archibald Davenport Wright and Annie Van Vranken Wright on October 15, 1888, in Charlottesville, Virginia. His younger brother, Stanton Macdonald-Wright, became a respected painter, one of the first American abstract artists, and co-founder (with Morgan Russell) of the school of modern art known as "Synchromism". Willard and Stanton were raised in Santa Monica, California, where their father owned a hotel. Willard, a largely self-taught writer, attended St. Vincent College, Pomona College, and Harvard University without graduating. In 1907, he married Katharine Belle Boynton of Seattle, Washington; they had one child, Beverley. He abandoned Katherine and Beverley early in their marriage. Katharine was granted a divorce in October 1930. he married for a second time in October 1930. His second wife was Eleanor Rulapaugh, known professionally as Claire De Lisle, a portrait painter and socialite.

Writing career

A

 by Carol Westron

S.S. Van Dine is the pseudonym used by Willard Huntington Wright when writing detective novels. For the larger proportion of his life he lived, worked and wrote as Wright. His work as a critic, editor and literary writer was not only different from his later work and life as a writer of detective stories, for the major part of his life he actively despised and disparaged detective stories and other commercial genres. For this reason, I have decided to call him by his real name, Wright, until the point in his life when he became a writer of detective stories and adopted the pseudonym Van Dine.

Willard Wright was born in Virginia, but was brought up in California, where his father owned a hotel. He was educated at St. Vincent College, Pomona University and Harvard University, but failed to graduate. In 1907, when he was just nineteen, he married Katherine Belle Boynton and they had a daughter, Beverley. The marriage swiftly failed and the couple divorced.

In 1909 Wright became literary editor of the Los Angeles Times. He became well-known for his scathing book reviews and was particularly critical of romance and detective novels. He was a friend and follower of H.L. Mencken, the satirist, journalist and scholar, and many of his opinions mirrored those of Mencken. He was also influenced by Oscar Wilde, Ambrose Bierce and Theodore Dreiser. Wright's first, literary novel, The Man of Promise (1916) was written is the style of Dreiser's work. Thanks to the influence of Mencken, in 1912 Wright became the editor of the New York literary magazine The Smart Set. He used his position to publish short stories, plays and poems by many controversial writers who have become literary icons, such as D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Ezra Pound and W.B. Yeats. In 1914 he was dismissed by the magazine's conservative owner, who felt that Wright was intentionally shocking and provoking the magazine's middle-class readership by focusing on unconvent

It truly gives me great pleasure to be able to put a few words to paper to mark the re-issue ofThe Benson Murder Case, the first mystery novel by S.S. Van Dine, one of America‘s all-time greatest writers of detective fiction. His books may be largely forgotten today, almost a century from the first publication of this book, but undeservedly so. Van Dine should be mentioned in the same breath as other leading golden age authors, such as Ellery Queen or Agatha Christie. His Philo Vance books were phenomenally popular in their day. 

According to his biographer, John Loughery, in Alias S.S. Van Dine, “Throughout the late twenties, Willard Huntington Wright (S.S. Van Dine) had been one of Scribners‘ best-selling authors. His detective novels, translated into eleven languages, had sold more than a million copies by the end of the decade. With his Van Dyke beard and pearl-handled cane, he was a striking (if enigmatic) figure in New York Society …“ In his “lavish years, Willard could have been a character in a Fitzgerald short story… In his prime, Willard was one of the most interviewed writers in America, and one of the most affluent.“

S.S. Van Dine was born Willard Huntington Wright in 1888 and initially made his name as an art critic. He also reviewed books, being the literary editor of The Los Angeles Times, and published several books under his real name, including a novel, The Man of Promise (1916). Among his non-fiction books are Modern Painting (191) and The Future of Painting (1923). Earlier, in 1913, he had also published a collection of poetry, later saying, in a private letter: “Having repented of my early indiscretions, I have (suppressed) the entire edition, and if by any hook or crook you manage to get a copy of it, it will be because my plans for confiscation were incomplete.“ 

When Wright turned to crime fiction, under the nom de plume S.S. Va