Earl Derr Biggers - Complete Works of Earl Derr Biggers

The Complete Works of

EARL DERR BIGGERS

(1884-1933)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2019

Version 1

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The Complete Works of

EARL DERR BIGGERS

with introductions by Ian Dickerson
www.lesliecharteris.com

By Delphi Classics, 2019

Complete Works of Earl Derr Biggers

First published in the United Kingdom in 2019 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2019.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78877 977 7

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Warren, a city in Trumbull County, Ohio Biggers birthplace

Biggers as a young man

A first draft of this novel, the first to feature Charlie Chan, was completed in September 1924. It was initially titled Moonlight at the Crossroads , but shortly before it was to follow the standard route of being serialised in the Saturday Evening Post , Biggers and his publishers agreed to retitle it The House without a Key .

The story was a huge success the first instalment ran on 24 January 1925 but Charlie Chan was not the focal point; indeed, he appears roughly a quarter of the way through. As far as Biggers was concerned it was a romantic mystery with the protagonist being John Quincy Winterslip, who has travelled to Hawaii to find who killed his Aunt Minerva.

Biggers later expanded on the origin of the title; one night during his visit to Hawaii in April 1920 he and his wife were going out for the evening and asked their host, What time do you lock up? She replied We dont lock up Mr. Biggers. That front door is never locked. And she went on to tell him that as far as she knew the front door never had a key.

The Los Angeles Times , amongst many other newspapers, loved the novel:

A swift-running narrative in which rollicking fun, glowing humor and now and then a bit of sly irony are delightfully compounded with murder and mystery and intrigue and romance. The humor is not of the broad variety, but is that subtle quality that results when the cold, stiff and formal culture of chilly Boston contacts with the free and easy modes of life in the lazy latitudes of Honolulu This is one of the most fascinating mystery stories of the yearThere is not a dull page in the book. The mystery remains a mystery to the last.

It was adapted for film in 1926 the first of forty-seven Charlie Chan movies and again as Charlie Chans Greatest Case in 1933.

Chang Apana (1871-1933) was a Chinese-Hawaiian member of the Honolulu Police Department, first as an officer, then as a detective. He was the inspiration for Biggers fictional Asian detective Charlie Chan.

The magazine in which the novel was serialised

The first edition

The 1933 film adaptation, starring Warner Oland as Charlie Chan