Michael Harrison
Born(1907-04-25)25 April 1907
Milton, Kent, England
Died13 September 1991(1991-09-13) (aged 84)
Hove, Sussex, England
Pen nameQuentin Downes
Occupationwriter
GenreDetective 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

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

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

  1. ^ a b c d Redmond, Christopher (2009). Sherlock Holmes Handbook: Second Edition. Dundurn Press. p. 282. ISBN 9781770705920.
  2. ^ Carty, T.J. (2015). A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language. Routledge. p. 96. ISBN 9781135955786.
  3. ^ a b Clute, John; John Grant (1997). The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 453. ISBN 0-312-15897-1.
  4. ^ a b c d "Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin". Retrieved 6 May 2008.
  5. ^ "The Peerage". Retrieved 31 January 2007.

External links

Authority control databases
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