William H. Hallahan
 | This article, William H. Hallahan, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |
William Henry Hallahan III (December 12, 1925 – August 21, 2018) was a American Edgar-award winning novelist[citation needed]. He is best known for his work in the mystery, suspense and occult fields.[1]
Personal life
Hallahan was born on December 12, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York, to William H. Hallahan, Jr., and Berenice E. Lyons, the third child in a family of six boys and one girl. He served in the US Navy in World War II as a radioman second class in Natal, Brazil, a key location for logistical and troop support for the Northern Africa arena. He attended Temple University on the GI Bill, and graduated with a B.S. in Journalism (cum laude) and an M.A. in English (cum laude).
Hallahan had a highly successful writing career that spanned seven decades. His first job was with Temple University, where he was a college English instructor, but he soon left this position to start his business career as a writer and editor of the Boot and Shoe Recorder at Chilton Publications. In 1957, he entered the ranks of the advertising world as a copywriter for M. Russell Berger, a small Philadelphia advertising agency. After a brief stint at the agency, Hallahan joined the international ad agency N.W. Ayer, then headquartered in Philadelphia, as copy chief, where he worked on accounts such as United Airlines, the Plymouth Division of Chrysler and other similar clients.
In 1968, Hallahan was sent to the Detroit offices of N.W. Ayer as part of a team to try to save the Plymouth account from leaving N.W. Ayer. The account nonetheless left, and Hallahan was then to serve as the creative director for the entire agency. He declined, and instead joined an ad agency that became Garceau, Hallahan and McCollough. At the same time, Hallahan also began to conduct a mail-order copyrighting course to help teach writers how to write copy.
Hallahan began to turn his focus on writing a novel. In early 1971 his wife Marion sent his first novel The Dead of Winter to a literary agent, and on Christmas Eve of 1971, the agent called to say that the book would be published the following year.
Writing career
Hallahan published over twelve books in the mystery, occult and non-fiction genres. His first novel, The Dead of Winter, was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best First Mystery, and his fourth novel, Catch Me: Kill Me, was nominated and won the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Novel in 1978.[2] His third novel, The Search for Joseph Tully, was a New York Times Bestseller and hailed as one of the most frightening books of all time. For the book opening, mock gravestones that read “Here Lies Joseph Tully” were lined up and down Park Avenue in New York.[3]
His series character Charlie Brewer, the fallen but philosophical CIA spy, first appeared in the Edgar award-winning Catch Me: Kill Me, and continued as the protagonist in The Trade, Foxcatcher and Tripletrap. [4]
Hallahan had an equally successful career as a historian, including his acclaimed work Misfire and his two Revolutionary War books: The Day The Revolution Began: 19 April 1775 and The Day The Revolution Ended. [5]
Selected Works[6]
Mysteries
- The Dead Of Winter –Nominated for Edgar Allen Poe award for Best First Mystery Novel
- The Ross Forgery
Charlie Brewer Series
- Catch Me: Kill Me – Winner, Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best Mystery Novel. The first in the Charlie Brewer series
- The Trade
- Foxcatcher – the third in Hallahan’s Charlie Brewer series pits Brewer against longtime careerist McCall in a battle to send prohibited repair components for Iran’s aging US-acquired spyware.
- Tripletrap
- The Baltimore Game(unpublished)
Occult
- The Search For Joseph Tully
- The Monk
- Keeper Of The Children
Non-Fiction
- Misfire
- The Day The Revolution Began
- The Day The Revolution Ended
Short Stories
- The New Tenant, Modern Masters of Horror
- Meet Me at the Grave, Solved 1992
Essays and Articles
- I Knew I Couldn’t Win, 1981 Edgar Allen Poe Awards Dinner: Mystery Writers Annual – Special Edgar Award Winners Issue, page 14
- The Making of a Suspense Novelist, The Writer Magazine, March 1982
Notes
Category:1925 births Category:2018 deaths
| This article, William H. Hallahan, has recently been created via the Articles for creation process. Please check to see if the reviewer has accidentally left this template after accepting the draft and take appropriate action as necessary.
Reviewer tools: Inform author |
- ^ "William H. Hallahan - Biography". www.williamhhallahan.com. Retrieved 2019-09-16.
- ^ "William H. Hallahan - Mysterious Press". mysteriouspress.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
- ^ Cook, Bonnie L. "William H. Hallahan, 92, advertising executive and acclaimed mystery writer". https://www.inquirer.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
{{cite web}}: External link in|website= - ^ "Tripletrap by William H Hallahan". www.fantasticfiction.com. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
- ^ www.publishersweekly.com https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-380-97616-4. Retrieved 2019-09-17.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ "William H. Hallahan - Books". www.williamhhallahan.com. Retrieved 2019-09-16.