Edward Sidney Aarons (1916 – June 16, 1975) was an American writer who authored more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1975. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also wrote numerous stories for detective magazines such as '' Detective Story Magazine'' and ''Scarab''. Among other works of fiction, Aarons is known for his spy thrillers, particularly his "Assignment" series, which are set all over the world and have been translated into 17 languages. The 42 novels in this series starred

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

agent

Sam Durell Edward Sidney Aarons (1916 – June 16, 1975) was an American writer who authored more than 80 novels from 1936 until 1975. One of these was under the pseudonym "Paul Ayres" (Dead Heat), and 30 were written using the name "Edward Ronns". He also ...

. The first "Assignment" novel was written in 1955, and Aarons continued writing the series until up to his death.

Early life

Aarons was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

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, and earned a degree in

Literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and

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from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. He worked at various jobs to put himself through college, including jobs as a newspaper reporter and fisherman. In 1933, he won a short story contest as a student. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was in the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

, joining after the attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Re ...

in 1941. He finished his duty in 1945, having obtained the rank of

Chief Petty Officer A chief petty officer (CPO) is a senior non-commissioned officer in many navies and coast guards. Canada "Chief petty officer" refers to two ranks in the Royal Canadian Navy. A chief petty officer 2nd class (CPO2) (''premier maître de deuxi� ...

''Assignment'' series

Fictional CIA agent Sam Durell is the protagonist for all of the stories in this series. Though the publisher listed these as the “Assignment series”, it is just as well known as the “Sam Durell series". In later editions, the publisher also used “Sam Durell” in the blurb immediately after the front cover - For example, ''Assignment Ceylon'' has “This is number thirty-six of the famed Sam Durell novels—one of the bestselling suspense series in the history of publishing.” One consistent element is that all of the story titles started with the word “Assignment.” The stories were written over a span of 28 years, from 1955 to 1983. Each book set, more or less, in the time it was written. When initially issued the stories were not numbered and the publisher showed the list of available stories in the “Assignment” series in alphabetical order though often the alphabetical list did not include all of the previous stories. Later re-prints numbered the stories based the order in which they were first published though the list of stories just before the title page was still in alphabetical order. The list is shown in numbered/published order here. Each story is a standalone work and while they can be read in any order reading them in the order given here will provide some continuity as there are occasional references to people or incidents from previous assignments. The publications were inconsistent in their formatting of the title with many editions using five dots as in ''Assignment . . . . . Angelina'' on the title page though some used a dash, others used a colon, and a few break the title on two lines with no punctuation. The formatting on the front covers was also mixed with most editions breaking the title onto two lines though a few had two lines with the ''Assignment'' followed by a hyphen or colon. The spines tended to use a hyphen though a few use a colon and ''Assignment Ceylon'' had no punctuation. For consistency, all of the titles are listed here with a hyphen. # ''Assignment to Disaster'' (1955) # ''Assignment—Treason'' (1956) # ''Assignment—Suicide'' (1956) # ''Assignment—Stella Marni'' (1957) # ''Assignment—Budapest'' (1957) # ''Assignment—Angelina'' (1958) # ''Assignment—Madeleine'' (1958) # ''Assignment—Carlotta Cortez'' (1959) # ''Assignment—Helene'' (1959) # ''Assignment—Lili Lamaris'' (1959) # ''Assignment—Zoraya'' (1960) # ''Assignment—Mara Tirana'' (1960) # ''Assignment—Lowlands'' (1961) # ''Assignment—Burma Girl'' (1961) # ''Assignment—Ankara'' (1961) # ''Assignment—Karachi'' (1962) # ''Assignment—Sorrento Siren'' (1962) # ''Assignment—Manchurian Doll'' (1963) # ''Assignment—The Girl in the Gondola'' (1964) # ''Assignment—Sulu Sea'' (1964) # ''Assignment—The Cairo Dancers'' (1965) # ''Assignment—School for Spies'' (1966) # ''Assignment—Cong Hai Kill'' (1966) # ''Assignment—Palermo'' (1966) # ''Assignment—Black Viking'' (1967) # ''Assignment—Moon Girl'' (1967) # ''Assignment&mdas
Nuclear Nude
' (1968) # ''Assignment—Peking'' (1969) # ''Assignment—White Rajah'' (1970) # ''Assignment—Star Stealers'' (1970) # ''Assignment—Tokyo'' (1971) # ''Assignment—Golden Girl'' (1971) # ''Assignment—Bangkok'' (1972) # ''Assignment—Maltese Maiden'' (1972) # ''Assignment—Silver Scorpion'' (1973) # ''Assignment—Ceylon'' (1973) # ''Assignment—Amazon Queen'' (1974) # ''Assignment—Sumatra'' (1974) # ''Assignment—Quayle Question'' (1975) # ''Assignment—Black Gold'' (1975) # ''Assignment—Unicorn'' (1976) # ''Assignment—Afghan Dragon'' (1976) After Edward S. Aarons' death in 1975 his brother, William B. Aarons (1914-2002), continued to publish the series as executor of the Edward S. Aarons' estate. Volumes 43 to 48 state Will B. Aarons as the author but were

ghost written A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

by Lawrence Hall.Footnote
to "An Introduction to Edward S. Aarons’ Assignment Series" by Doug Bassett.
# ''Assignment—Sheba'' (1976) # ''Assignment—Tiger Devil'' (1977) # ''Assignment—13th Princess'' (1977) # ''Assignment—Mermaid'' (1979) # ''Assignment—Tyrant's Bride'' (1980) # ''Assignment—Death Ship'' (1983) Among his early works are ''The Art Studio Murders'' (1950) and ''The Decoy'' (1951).

References

External links

Edward S. Aarons Bibliography

Edward Ronns Bibliography
(A pseudonym used by Edward S. Aarons)
Will B. Aarons Bibliography
(William was Edward S. Aarons' brother and arranged to continue the ''Sam Durell'' series after Edward's death)

Sam Durell Novels Description
* (this bibliography is limited to the author's

speculative fiction Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...

work.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Aarons, Edward S 1916 births 1975 deaths American spy fiction writers Columbia College (New York) alumni Place of death missing American male novelists 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers United States Coast Guard personnel of World War II United States Coast Guard non-commissioned officers