Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace was born in Greenwich. His mother was an actress, his father he never knew. He grew up and was educated in South London. After a succession of different jobs, he started to write short stories based on his own experiences. In 1893 he joined the Royal West Kent Regiment. Three years later, he transferred to the Medical Staff Corps where he rose to the rank of corporal. When he went to South Africa in 1896, he was producing poetry in the style of Rudyard Kipling. With the publication of these verses, he began to establish a reputation for himself. His army pay was supplemented with regular articles for various Cape Town newspapers. In South Africa he met his first wife, with whom he had two sons and two daughters. Returning to England, he published his second book of poetry, but it failed just as the first one. In 1905, he began writing his first novel. As he could not find a publisher, he created his own company, The Tallis Press. Many novels followed, some written in just one weekend. In the late Twenties, he began to sell film rights to his novels. He earned a lot of money, but spent even more. When he died, he left debts totalling £ 140.000. Visit also this site.