Irving Wallace (1916-1990)

American author, whose bestsellers have been translated into several languages, among others into Finnish. In his works Wallace combined careful research and inventive, readable storytelling. Although Wallace was often scorned by serious critics, his 16 novels and 17 nonfiction works sold some 250 million copies around the world.

"The picture did have some virtues." (George Cukor on his film The Chapman Report, based on Wallace's novel)
Irving Wallace was born in Chicago, as one of two children of Bessie Liss and Alexander Wallace, who was a clerk in a general store. Both of his parents were born in Russia and emigrated to the United States in their teens. Wallace grew up in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He attended Williams Institute, Berkeley, California, and Los Angeles City College. Wallace started his career as a journalist at the age of fifteen, when his early texts, among them the article 'The Horse Laugh', appeared in newspapers and magazines. He studied creative writing at the Williams Institute in Berkley and from the mid-30s he worked as a free-lance correspondent. In 1941 he married Sylvia Kahn; they had two children.

During World War II Wallace served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and he was a writer in the First Motion Picture Unit and Signal Corps Photographic Center. He also wrote for such periodicals as The American Legion Magazine, Liberty, The Saturday Evening Post, Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Collier's. From 1948 to 1958 he wrote screenplays for routine Hollywood films, among them THE WEST POINT STORY (1950), JUMP INTO THE HELL (1955), and THE BIG CIRCUS (1959). Wallace wrote BAD FOR EACH OTHER (1953) with Horace McCoy, who had published his most famous novel They Shoot Horses, Don't They in 1935. In spite of his success in Hollywood Wallace saw it as a place of "indignity, disrespect, disdain" - like many writers from Chandler to Faulkner.

The Chapman Report (1960) - Wallace's breakthrough novel, influenced by the Kinsey report. Dr Chapman conducts a study of female sex behavior in an American suburb, and raises with the arrival of his research group passions and controversy. Wallace's message, along with sex, was that a survey cannot reveal the true picture of the relationships between men and women. A screen adaptation in 1962, directed by George Cukor, who defended the film by saying that the novel 'presented something contemporary about outwardly respectable women who were frigid and took lovers and went to psychiatrists'. - In the film Shelley Winter is a married woman with a passion for a man who doesn't really love her. Glynis Johns seeks experience with a beach boy and Claire Bloom is a nympho who commits suicide after being gang-raped.
Wallace's first novel, THE SINS OF PHILIP FLEMING (1959), did not attract critical attention. The second, THE CHAPMAN REPORT (1960), was a success and was made into a film in 1962, starring Jane Fonda, Shelley Winters and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. After The Chapman Report Wallace published mostly popular novels, and co-authored with his son David Wallechinsky THE BOOK OF LISTS (1977) and its sequels. In 1972 Wallace was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News / Sun Times Wire Service at the Democratic and Republican national convections. In his novels Wallace blended sex, politics, jet set life, epoch-making discoveries, intriguing villains from the Soviet Union, and all the necessary elements of the international bestseller of the Cold War period. A typical product was THE PRIZE (1962), which penetrated into the lives of a group of Nobel Prize winners - a French husband-and-wife team of chemists, an American heart surgeon, and a German-born physicist sought after by the Communists of East Germany. The book was filmed in 1963, starring Paul Newman, Elke Sommers, and Edward G. Robinson.

In 1964 Wallace received Supreme Award of Merit and honorary fellowship from George Washington Carver Memorial Institute for writing THE MAN (1964). Wallace other awards include Commonwealth Club silver medal (1965), Bestsellers magazine award (1965), Paperback of the Year citation (1970), Popular Culture Association award of excellence (1974), Venice Rosa d'Oro award (1975). Wallace died of pancreatic cancer on June 29 1990 in Los Angeles.

Several of Wallace's novels have been made into films. The Man was filmed in 1972. It was a story about the first African American president of The United States, who is resented by white southerners and by blacks. In THE WORD (1972) a gospel, ostensibly written by Jesus's brother, is discovered. The story combines this religious theme with international business and politics. THE FAN CLUB (1974) was about Hollywood's sexiest star who is kidnapped by four men. THE R DOCUMENT (1976) was political thriller about Christopher Collins, the Attorney General, who fights with the director of the FBI over the proposed 35th Amendment to the Constitution. THE PIGEON PROJECT (1979) explored the idea of the elixir of life and what happens if it were invented.

'Maybe we should both stop thinking. Maybe Shakespeare was right -'
'Yeah, yeah, I know that one. Hello, Horation. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horation, that are dreamt on Your philosophy."
'You better believe it, Liz. I - I'm beginning to.'
(from The Miracle, 1984)
THE SECOND LADY (1980) focused on the true identity of the First Lady. THE ALMIGHTY (1982) was set in the media world, in which the head of the New York Record uses terrorism and espionage to exceed the circulation of the New York Times. THE MIRACLE (1984) was set in the near future, and based on the story of Bernadette, the young peasant girl who first saw Mary at the Grotto in Lourdes in 1958. Franz Werfel used the same subject in his novel The Song of Bernadette (1941), which was filmed in 1943 and won three Oscars.

For further reading: Irving Wallace: A Writer's Profile by John Leverence (1974); Contemporary Popular Writers, ed. by David Mote (1997) - See also other bestseller writers: Barbara Cartland, Louis L'Amour - REVIEWS IN FINLAND: Tohtori Chapmanin raportti, 1961 (The Chapman Report) - "Varakkaiden ja toimeettomuuteensa pitkästyneiden seurapiirirouvien asuttamaan kalifornialaiseen asumalähiöön, mistä miehet aamuisin lähtevät liiketoimiinsa, tulee paikalliseksi sensaatioksi tieteellinen tutkijaryhmä suorittamaan näiden naisten sukupuolisesta käyttäytymisesta... Romaani sinänsä on silti vain kaupallisuuden merkeissä kirjoitettu, viikkolehtien jatkoromaanien tasoa edustava sepustus, jolla kirjastoissa ei ole olemisen oikeutta, koska yhteiset varat on käytettävä parempaan." (Kerttu Manninen, Arvosteleva kirjaluettelo 1/1962) - Kauneusfarmi, 1978 (The Fountains) - "Rahalla, menestyksellä ja seksillä parfymoitu amerikkalainen menestysromaani unelmatehtailun ihmemaasta.... Pintataidoin luonnosteltuja kohtalotarinoita. Kauneusfarmin elämönmuoto olisi satiirisemmasta näkökulmasta katsottuna ollut maittavampi." (Kerttu Manninen, Arvosteleva kirjaluettelo 9/1978) - Pakopaikka, 1980 (The Pigeon project) - "Kaukasuksella vanhuutta tutkiva englantilainen tiedemies keksi ihmisen ikää puolella pidentävän lääkkeen. Neuvostoliitto katsoo, että keksintö kuuluu heille. Keksijä pakenee Venetsiaan, jossa kommunistinen pormestari sulkee kaupungin saaden apua sisäministeriltä (kommunisteilta?)... Nälkää näkevä maailma ei ole valmis käsittelemään keksinnön tuomia ongelmia. Kirjan perusidea on hyvä, kokonaisen kaupungin sulkeminen täydellisesti tuntuu mahdottomalta." (Ritva-Liisa Pilhjerta in Arvosteleva kirjaluettelo 11/1980)
Selected works:

Screenplays: The West Point Story, 1950 (with John Monks Jr. and Charles Hoffman); Meet Me at the Fair, 1953; Desert Legion, 1953 (with Lewis Meltzer); Split Second, 1953 (with William Bowers); Bad for Each Other, 1953 (with Horace McCoy); Gun Fury, 1953, with Roy Huggins; The Gambler from Natchez, 1954; Sincerely Yours, 1955; Jump into Hell, 1955; The Burning Hills, 1956 (novel by Louis L'Amour); Bombers B-52, 1957, The Big Circus, 1959 (with Irwin Allen and Charles Bennett)
THE FABULOUS ORIGINALS, 1955
THE SQUARE PEGS, 1957
THE FABULOUS SHOWMAN: The Life and Times of P. T. Barnum, 1959
THE SINS OF PHILIP FLEMING, 1959
THE CHAPMAN REPORT, 1960 - film 1962, dir. by George Cukor, starring Shelley Winters, Claire Bloom, Glynis Johns, Jane Fonda, Efrem Zimbalist Jnr
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WIFE, 1961
THE PRIZE, 1962 - film 1963, dir. by Mark Robson, starring Paul Newman and Elke Sommers
THE THREE SIRENS, 1963
THE MAN, 1964 - film 1972
THE SUNDAY GENTLEMAN, 1965
THE PLOT, 1967
THE WRITING OF ONE NOVEL, 1968
THE SEVEN MINUTES, 1969 - film 1971, dir. Russ Meyer - "His films are exaggerated live-action cartoon, overstated satires on sex and violence unlike any others. " (from VideoHound's Complete Guide to Cult Flicks and Trash Pics, 1996) - A bookseller is arrested for disturbing an obscene novel, and many people are unexpectedly involved in the court case. Full of 'daring' words and cameo performances.
THE NYMPHO AND OTHER MANIACS, 1971
THE WORD, 1972 - television miniseries in 1978
THE FAN CLUB, 1974
ed.: THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC, 1975 (with David Wallechinsky)
THE R DOCUMENT, 1976
ed.: THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC PRESENTS THE BOOK OF LISTS, 1977 - Listojen kirja (with David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace)
THE TWO: A BIOGRAPHY, 1978 (with Amy Wallace)
ed.: THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC #2, 1978 (with David Wallechinsky
ed.: THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC PRESENTS THE BOOK OF LISTS #2, 1978 (with David Wallechinsky, Sylvia Wallace, and Amy Wallace)
THE PIGEON PROJECT, 1979 - Pakopaikka
THE SECOND LADY, 1980
ed.: THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC PRESENTS THE BOOK OF PREDICTIONS, 1980 (with David Wallenchinsky and Amy Wallace)
ed.: THE INTIMATE SEX LIVES OF FAMOUS PEOPLE, 1981 (with Amy Wallace, Sylvia Wallace, and David Wallechinsky)
ed.: THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC #3, 1981 (with David Wallechinsky)
THE ALMIGHTY, 1982 - Kaikkivaltias
ed.: THE PEOPLE'S ALMANAC PRESENTS THE BOOK OF LISTS #3, 1978 (with David Wallechinsky and Amy Wallace)
ed.: SIGNIFICA, 1983 (with Amy Wallace and David Wallechinsky)
THE MIRACLE, 1984 - Ihme
THE SEVENTH SECRET, 1986
THE CELESTIAL BED, 1987
THE GUEST OF HONOR, 1989