Edgar Wallace (1875-1932) was an English writer born into poverty to a single mother. Wallace's birth mother found him a foster family that later adopted him, and Wallace grew very close to the family, especially the mother, Clara Freeman. After joining the military at age 21, he started his literary career by writing serialized short stories. His career quickly grew from there, and Wallace went on to write eighteen plays, forty short story collections, and over one hundred novels. After a failed political bid in London, Wallace moved to Hollywood to begin a film career equally impressive to his literary works. Wallace is credited for one-hundred and sixty films. He was working on the film King Kong when he passed away in 1932, leaving five children and his massive collection of work behind.
