Irving Wallace, a renowned U.S. novelist, short-story writer, and screenwriter, made a name for himself by crafting popular fiction based on current events. His writing career began at a remarkably young age of 15, when he started writing for various magazines.
He went on to write screenplays for numerous studios from 1950 to 1959, before shifting his focus solely to writing books. His first major bestseller was "The Chapman Report" (1960),a fictional account of a sexual research team's investigations into the lives of the wealthy in a Los Angeles suburb.
Wallace's other notable works include "The Prize" (1962) and "The Word" (1972). His meticulously researched fiction often had the flair of spicy journalism, and his books were structured around a strong narrative line, infused with sex, facts, and a moral that brought cohesion to the conflicting elements.
The universal appeal of Wallace's books made most of them best-sellers, and their recurring dramatic confrontations made them well-suited for screenplay adaptation, with most of them being filmed. Additionally, Wallace collaborated with his family on several nonfiction works, including "The People's Almanac" (1975) and "The Book of Lists" (1977),both of which spawned sequels.
