Darwin LeOra Teilhet (May 20, 1904 – April 18, 1964) was an American mystery novelist, advertising executive, journalist and a film screenwriter and consultant.
Biography
Teilhet was born in
Wyanet, Illinois
Wyanet is a village in Bureau County, Illinois, United States. The population was 886 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Ottawa Micropolitan Statistical Area.
History
Wyanet's history dates back to 1821; it was officially plated in 1854 and ...
, to a Dutch mother, and a father of French descent. As a teenager, he traveled in France and worked as a juggler in a circus there. He wrote a monthly column on broadcast radio for ''
Forum
Forum or The Forum (plural forums or fora) may refer to:
Common uses
* Forum (legal), designated space for public expression in the United States
*Forum (Roman), open public space within a Roman city
**Roman Forum, most famous example
*Internet ...
'' magazine from 1932 to 1934 whilst he headed the broadcast radio advertisement unit of
N. W. Ayer & Son. Teilhet was an officer in the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
serving first in making propaganda in Washington D.C. before being transferred to London and attaining the rank of major. He was scheduled to perform intelligence operations during Operation Overlord, yet was sent home to America after contracting pneumonia. He later became executive assistant to the president of Dole Pineapple in Hawaii.
Teilhet taught journalism classes at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, and worked as a screenwriter and consultant for various film producers.
Teilhet created his main detective protagonist, Baron von Kaz, a Viennese, at the instigation of James Poling of
Doubleday Books
Doubleday is an American publishing company. It was founded as the Doubleday & McClure Company in 1897 and was the largest in the United States by 1947. It published the work of mostly U.S. authors under a number of imprints and distributed th ...
. He wrote some of his mystery novels with his wife, Hildegarde Tolman Teilhet (November 22, 1905 – January 24, 1999). Novels were published by Darwin Teilhet, Darwin L. Teilhet, Darwin and Hildegarde Teilhet or his
pseudonym
A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...
s, Cyrus Fisher (juvenile fiction), William H Fielding and Theo Durant. Teilhet was a
Newbery Honor
Newbery is a surname.
People
*Chantelle Newbery (born 1977), Australian Olympic diver
*David Newbery (born 1943), British economist
*Eduardo Newbery (1878–1908), Argentine odontologist and aerostat pilot
*Francis Newbery (disambiguation), seve ...
award winner for his Cyrus Fisher novel, ''
The Avion My Uncle Flew''.
[
]
Teilhet chose the pseudonym "Cyrus Fisher" as a tribute to his late father-in-law,
Cyrus Fisher Tolman (1873–1942), Professor Emeritus of Economic Geology at Stanford University, as well as a tribute to his son Cyrus Jr. who died suddenly at the age of three months.
There is a "Cyrus Fisher Tolman Professor in the School of Earth Sciences" professorship named in his honor, at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University.
Teilhet died in
Palo Alto
Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.
The city was estab ...
, California. He and his wife are buried together in
Golden Gate National Cemetery
Golden Gate National Cemetery is a United States national cemetery in California, located in the city of San Bruno, south of San Francisco. Because of the name and location, it is frequently confused with San Francisco National Cemetery, which ...
.
Novels
* Death Flies High (1931)
* Murder in the Air (1931)
* The Talking Sparrow Murders (1934)
* Bright Destination (1935)
* The Ticking Terror Murders (1935)
* The Crimson Hair Murders (1936) with Hildegarde Teilhet
* The Feather Cloak Murders (1936) with Hildegarde Teilhet
* Journey to the West (1938)
* The Broken Face Murders (1940) with Hildegarde Teilhet
* Trouble Is My Master (1942)
* Retreat From the Dolphin (1943)
* Odd Man Pays (1944)
* My True Love (1945)
* The Fear Makers (1945)
*
The Avion My Uncle Flew (1946) as Cyrus Fisher
* Something Wonderful to Happen (1947)
* Ab Carmody's Treasure: Mystery and Adventure in Guatemala (1948) as Cyrus T. Fisher
* The Happy Island (1950)
* The Mission of Jeffery Tolamy (1951)
* The Unpossessed (1951) as William H Fielding
* Steamboat on the River (1952)
* Take Me As I Am (1952) as William H Fielding
* Beautiful Humbug (1954) as William H Fielding
* The Lion's Skin (1955)
* The Road to Glory (1956)
* The Hawaiian Sword (1956) as Cyrus T. Fisher
* The Big Runaround (1964) aka Dangerous Encounter
Selected filmography (writer)
* ''
They Wanted to Marry
''They Wanted to Marry'' is a 1937 romantic comedy film directed by Lew Landers from a screenplay by Paul Yawitz and Ethel B. Borden, Ethel Borden, based on a story by Larry Bachmann and Daniel L. Teilhet. RKO produced and distributed the film, r ...
'' (1937), from a short story
* ''
No Room for the Groom'' (1952), from his novel, "My True Love"
* ''
The Fearmakers
''The Fearmakers'' is a 1958 American film noir crime film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Dana Andrews. The screenplay is based on the 1945 novel of the same name by Darwin Teilhet. The film centers on seemingly nonpartisan political ...
'' (1958), from his novel, "The Fear Makers"
References
External links
*
LibraryThing page*
* (mainly as 'Teilhet, Darwin L., 1904–' without '1964', previous page of browse report)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Teilhet, Darwin
1904 births
1964 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
American mystery writers
American male screenwriters
American children's writers
Newbery Honor winners
People from Bureau County, Illinois
Writers from Palo Alto, California
Stanford University faculty
People of the Office of Strategic Services
20th-century American male writers
Screenwriters from California
Screenwriters from Illinois
20th-century American screenwriters