David Whitelaw (1875–1970) British writer, editor and illustrator.

Life and work

David Whitelaw was born in Holloway,

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...

, then still in

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

, to David Whitelaw and Hannah Baxter. Both of his parents died during his infancy and he and his elder brother Stephen (1873 - 1936) were raised by their grandparents, Theodore and Eliza Baxter, members of the North London branch of the

Sandemanian The Glasites or Glassites were a small Christian church founded in about 1730 in Scotland by John Glas.John Glas preached supremacy of God's word (Bible) over allegiance to Church and state to his congregation in Tealing near Dundee in July 1725 ...

church. After brief spells in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

in the 1890s, Whitelaw returned to London to work for various

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

newspapers as an illustrator and journalist, later becoming editor of The London Magazine and The Premier Magazine. The Premier Magazine, published by the

Amalgamated Press The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...

, (based at Fleetway House in Farringdon, London) ran between 1914 and 1931 and published atmospheric adventure and mystery fiction including authors such as

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was a war correspondent during th ...

Sax Rohmer Arthur Henry "Sarsfield" Ward (15 February 1883 – 1 June 1959), better known as Sax Rohmer, was an English novelist. He is best remembered for his series of novels featuring the master criminal Dr. Fu Manchu."Rohmer, Sax" by Jack Adrian in Da ...

Rose Champion de Crespigny Rose Champion de Crespigny (born Annie Rose Charlotte Key; 9 November 1859 – 10 February 1935) was an English artist and author, who published many novels as Mrs Philip Champion de Crespigny. Rose was the daughter of Admiral Sir Astley Coope ...

and

Achmed Abdullah Achmed Abdullah (12 May 1881 – 12 May 1945) was the pseudonym of American writer Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff (his legal name). He is most noted for his pulp stories of crime, mystery and adventure. He wrote screenplays for some successf ...

. His first novel "M'Stodger's Affinity" was published in 1896 and this was followed by a steady output of romantic thrillers. He had over 50 novels published during his lifetime and his stories were also serialised in the Amalgamated Press published The Thriller magazine. Many of his works went through multiple publication runs and translation into numerous languages. He also wrote several plays for stage and television. In 1932 he invented the spelling card game ''

Lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...

'', which won worldwide popularity. In his 1944 book "The Lexicon Murders" the killer uses the card game for the purpose of a secret code. Lexicon has been translated into many languages and Braille. It is still in production today. He was for many years a member, and later chair of, The

Savage Club The Savage Club, founded in 1857, is a gentlemen's club in London, named after the poet, Richard Savage. Members are drawn from the fields of art, drama, law, literature, music or science. History The founding meeting of the Savage Club took ...

Published work

Books by David Whitelaw include: Fiction: *Prince Charles Edward and the '45 (1890) *M'Stodger's Affinity (1896) *The Gang (1909) *The Princess Galva (1911) *The Man with the Red Beard (1911) *The Secret of Chauville (1911) *The Girl From the East (1919) *The Little Hour of Peter Wells (1913) *A Castle in Bohemia (1914) *The Imposter (1915) *The Mystery of Enid Bellairs (1915) *A Flutter in Kings (1916) *The Madgwick Affair (1918) *The Master of Merlains (1918) *The Valley of Bells. A Romance (1918) *The Man on the Dover Road (1919) *Pirates' Gold (1920) *The Lady of Arrock (1921) *The Stones of Khor (1924) *For Conduct Unbefitting (1925) *A Hair of the Dog (1925) *The Island of Romance (1926) *The Villa Petroff (1926) *Madcap Betty (1927) *The Man From Mexico City (1927) *Black Out (1928) *Mystery at Furze Acres (1929) *Number Fifteen (1931) *Spanish Heels (1932) *The Roof (1933) *Murder Calling (1934) *Hotel Sinister (1935) *Murder in Motley (1935) *The Big Picture (1936) *Wolf's Crag: The Little Hour of Peter Wolf, Junior (1936) *The Face (1937) *The Feud (1937) *Horror on the Loch (1938) *Blackmail De Luxe (1939) *Frame-Up (1939) *Girl Friday (1940) *The Jackal (1940) *Horace Steps Out (1941) *Black-Out Murder (1943) *The Lexicon Murders (1944) *The Ryecroft Verdict (1946) *Lovers in Waiting (1947) *Garments of Repentance (1948) *The Moor (1949) *The House in Cavendish Square (1950) *The Yellow Door (1951) *Presumed Dead (1952) *Murder Besieged (1953) *Legacy in Green (1954) *Presumed Dead (1955) *I Could A Tale Unfold (1957) Non Fiction: *Corpus Delicti (1936) *A Bonfire of Leaves (autobiography - 1937)

External links

* * * * http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/58/a1138358.shtml * http://www.philsp.com/data/data248.html
Play by David Whitelaw on Great War Theatre website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitelaw, David 1875 births 1970 deaths English crime fiction writers Glasites