American writer and editor (1919–2011)
Edward Wellen (born Edward Paul Levy;[1][2] October 2, 1919[1] – January 15, 2011[3]) was an American mystery and science fiction writer.
Early life and career
Born to a Jewish family in New Rochelle, New York City,[4] Wellen was the son of Russian-born tailor, Hyman Levy, and a Russian American mother, Lillian Wilensky. The name Wellen was an anglicized version of his mother's maiden surname, to which she and her children reverted after she and Levy divorced, not long after Edward's birth.[5][6] As Edward Wellen, he attended the Huguenot School, Isaac A. Young Junior High School and New Rochelle High School,[1] graduating cum laude in 1937.[7]
After working a number of years for the Pelham Coal and Oil Company in Pelham, New York, Wellen served in the North African, Mediterranean and European theatres with the Chemical Warfare Service in World War II,[8][9] earning the European–African–Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and seven battle stars. In 1945, while still in Europe, he attended Shrivenham American University. Later he attended City College of New York, graduating in 1955.[1]
In 1960, Wellen wrote a script for the ABC series Bourbon Street Beat entitled "Swamp Fire",[1] which aired on April 11,[10] directed by Andre de Toth.[11] In 1964, first prize in Birmingham (Alabama) Festival of Arts television script competition went to Wellen's The Hubert Otis,[1] described by Variety as "a satire about a nobody with a yen to become a somebody by retaining a pubrelations firm."[12]
As of 1993, it was estimated that, in addition to two novels, Wellen had published 250 mysteries in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and assorted anthologies.[13] That same year, Wellen's novella Mind Slash Matter, about a screenwriter prematurely afflicted with Alzheimer's Disease facing the added challenge of solving the murder for which he has just been framed, debuted in the Ed Gorman–Martin H. Greenberg anthology, Predators.[14] In his 1995 collection, Tales of the Batman, Greenberg informed readers that Wellen's novella had been optioned by Tri-Star Pictures as a vehicle for Robin Williams.[15] Although that project never came to fruition, an audiobook featuring actor René Auberjonois was released that year, to generally favorable reviews.[16][17]
Personal life and death
Predeceased by his sister, Barbara Helen Schreiber,[18] Wellen never married.[13] He died on January 15, 2011.[3]
United States Army