Aping Edgar (Encouragement for Creators)

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I’m aping Edgar ‘cuz he’s the best!

His prose is a bit unpolished, and his seemingly innumerable novels are filled with shady, two-dimensional characters and outlandish plots. And yet, his sensational tales unfold briskly, with a raw narrative energy that swept readers into the heart of the story; a narrative energy which was unmatched by his contemporaries — including Dorothy L. Sayers, who criticized the writer for distracting the average reader from better (more literary) works. However, among working class men throughout the 1920s, along with their long-suffering wives, each of his novels was eagerly anticipated and devoured with great relish. In fact, one of his publishers once stated that one out of every four novels being read in England at any given time, was an Edgar Wallace thriller!

This statistic is no doubt due to the writer’s staggering output: 170 novels, 957 short stories, 18 stage plays, plus historical nonfiction, poetry and screenplays. Wallace, who was born in London in 1875, was so amazingly prolific that by 1929 he was publishing close to three dozen books a year! He could complete a novel in 72 hours — increasingly motivated by the need to pay off the many loan sharks who fed Wallace’s addiction to gambling on the horse races! But how exactly did the man do it? How could he be so productive and still have time to run for Parliament?!? Determination, fortitude, a need for money, and a good working system.

Before discussing his writing methods, we should cover the obstacles he overcame to become a best-selling novelist: Edgar Wallace was born into poverty. He was the illegitimate child of traveling actors, a scandalous and stigmatizing fact in the 1890s. His mother quickly placed him with a family that already had 10 kids; and as a result, he was brought up in a poor and uneducated household. His life in the slums greatly affected his health and stunted his growth; and thus, when he was eventually shipped off to a boarding school, he was constantly bullied and frequently beaten. So Wallace “escaped” from the world of formal education at age 12.

Hey, I only smoke because Edgar smokes! He’s da writer, but he’s murdering both of us!

Along his journey to success, he sold newspapers and delivered milk, worked in a rubber factory and served as a ship’s cook. He went to South Africa with a British regiment, finagled a transfer to the Royal Army Medical Corps; and later became a war correspondent, a post from which he was fired. Then he became a publisher, a position from which he went in debt. Through it all, he endured several personal tragedies, including the death of a daughter, the death of a wife (after only 2 years of marriage), the divorce of a second wife, and … Sigh! You get the picture.

Wallace finally met with some good fortune once he realized his forte: fiction writing. Perhaps he even found a way to escape, at least for brief periods, his many misfortunes. He’d lock himself away for days at a time, dictating his novels onto wax cylinders. During the process he’d drink 30 to 40 cups of tea a day, while smoking 80 to 100 cigarettes! (Please don’t try this at home!) Later, Wallace would have his secretaries transcribe the recordings. There was no editing — Wallace hated editing. His publishers must have hated editing too, because after doing nothing more than a little fact checking here or there, they published every single word the man wrote!

Wallace’s novels have sold over 50 million copies. His fiction has been adapted for 160 films or television shows. Although he’s mostly forgotten today, he’s considered one of the greatest 20th-century writers of the thriller — and certainly the most prolific. He was the first British crime writer to depict the police heroically solving mysteries, as opposed to the amateur detective so popular in the fiction of his day. He wrote the screenplay for the first sound movie version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and eventually became a script doctor for RKO Studios. But Wallace’s greatest claim to fame will always be “The Eighth Wonder of the World”!

Wallace had a creative hand in the development of one of the most iconic fictional characters ever presented on celluloid: KING KONG! He was called in early in the development of RKO’s classic 1932 “monster” movie, and he’s responsible for taking the giant gorilla all the way to the top … of the Empire State Building!

Stop that buzzing noise! I’m trying to create up here!

So, take inspiration from the writer who never allowed the adversities of life to keep him from creating — who persevered through sweat and tears to leave behind a tremendous body of work. “Ape” his determination and fortitude. Once you do, there’ll be no stopping you. You’ll climb to new heights — like Edgar Wallace and King Kong — of artistic, scientific, or entrepreneurial achievement.

“My heart is stirred by a noble theme … my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.” (Psalm 45:1 NIV)

“…I am as full of words as the speediest writer pouring out his story.” (Psalm 45:1 TLB)

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The Price of Fame (Encouragement for Creators)

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He was an accomplished actor of both stage and film, a soft-spoken gentleman with refined features, a distinctive voice, and an air of gentility. He was a well-travelled connoisseur of fine wine and food, who enjoyed collecting interesting and unusual recipes from the places he visited, a hobby that led to his writing three cookbooks. He had a degree in art history, a subject about which he frequently lectured and wrote books.

He established himself as an actor in the 1944 film noir classic Laura, starring Gene Tierney; he gave voice to the radio show crime fighter Simon Templar in The Saint; he was a leading man in several Hollywood films, including The House of the Seven Gables and Dragonwyck; he portrayed such famous historical figures as Joseph Smith, Prince Albert, Richard III and Sir walter Raleigh; he costarred with such A-list actors as Gregory Peck, Ronald Coleman, Ava Gardner, Tyrone Power, and Charles Laughton; he played priests and prosecutors, doctors and dandies. Imagine his shock, when Vincent Price suddenly found himself typecast as a villain, and trapped in horror movie roles!

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was born in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1911. He was the offspring of a prosperous and prominent family of entrepreneurs: his grandfather, Vincent Clarence, secured the family fortune, when he invented “Dr. Price’s Baking Powder,” the first cream of tartar baking powder; and his father, Vincent Leonard, Sr., was the president of the National Candy Company. Vincent Price graduated from Yale University, where he wrote for the campus humor magazine, The Yale Record. After teaching for a year, he entered the University of London, intending to work on his Master’s degree, but was lured away by the call of the theatre.

Ultimately, Price appeared on stage, television, radio, and in over one hundred films. He enjoyed a career that lasted over fifty years, and spanned the genres of film noir, drama, mystery, thriller, comedy and horror. And he has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: one for motion pictures, one for television. He was an intelligent and refined performer, a multi-talented actor who ended up starring in an almost uninterrupted string of horror films and TV shows, starting with House of Wax in 1953, and lasting until about 1983. How did Price feel about playing bloodthirsty madmen for over a quarter of a century? He took it all in stride, making the most of each and every role, enjoying himself and — dare we say it? — laughing all the way to the bank!

Sometimes our talents take us places we never dreamed or expected. It may not be exactly what we planned, perhaps not even what we trained for, but we need to make the most of every opportunity — or setback. In other words, if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

Flourish despite your circumstances — and bloom where you’re planted. Price did this. He didn’t simply resign himself to acting in horror movies; he took ownership of each role, brought all his talent to the table, elevated the genre to an art form, and went down in history as The Master of the Macabre. If we were going to be scared to death, we’d want Vincent Price, suave and sophisticated, to do the scaring. And he did, in House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, The TinglerThe Bat and many other movies.

“Live wisely … and make the most of every opportunity.” (Colossians 4:5 NLT) “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28 NIV)

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