Michael Harrison (writer)
Michael Harrison | |
|---|---|
| Born | 25 April 1907 Milton, Kent, England |
| Died | 13 September 1991 (aged 84) Hove, Sussex, England |
| Pen name | Quentin Downes |
| Occupation | writer |
| Genre | Detective fiction, Fantasy fiction, Science fiction |
Michael Harrison (25 April 1907 – 13 September 1991[1]) was the pen name of the English detective fiction and fantasy writer Maurice Desmond Rohan.[2][3]
Biography
[edit]Michael Harrison was born in Milton, Kent, England, on 25 April 1907.[4] He attended the University of London and served briefly in the British Military Intelligence during World War II.[4] He married Marie-Yvonne Aubertin.[5]
Career
[edit]Harrison published seventeen novels between 1934 and 1954, when he turned to writing detective fiction. He wrote pastiches of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes and Poe's C. Auguste Dupin and was a noted Sherlock Holmes scholar.[3] His most successful work, In the Footsteps of Sherlock Holmes, was published in 1958[1] and was followed by The London of Sherlock Holmes[1] and The World of Sherlock Holmes.[1]
Harrison was awarded the Occident Prize for Weep for Lycidas (1934),[4] was named Duke of Sant Estrella by the Kingdom of Redonda (1951), and was named Irregular Shilling by The Baker Street Irregulars of New York (1964).[4] He was a member of the Society of Authors, Crime Writers Association, Baker Street Irregulars of New York, and the Sherlock Holmes Society of London.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Redmond, Christopher (2009). Sherlock Holmes Handbook: Second Edition. Dundurn Press. p. 282. ISBN 9781770705920.
- ^ Carty, T.J. (2015). A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language. Routledge. p. 96. ISBN 9781135955786.
- ^ a b Clute, John; John Grant (1997). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 453. ISBN 0-312-15897-1.
- ^ a b c d "Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin". Retrieved 6 May 2008.
- ^ "The Peerage". Retrieved 31 January 2007.
