Editing Leslie Charteris

{{short description|British-Chinese author}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name        = Leslie Charteris
| image       = Leslie Charteris.jpg
| imagesize   = 
| caption     = 
| birth_name  = Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin
| birth_date  = {{birth date|df=y|1907|5|12}}
| birth_place = [[British Singapore]]
| death_date  = {{death date and age|df=y|1993|4|15|1907|5|12}}
| death_place = [[Windsor, Berkshire]], England
| occupation  = Thriller writer, screenwriter
| nationality = British & American (naturalised, 1946)
| period      = 20th century
| genre       = Thriller
| subject     = 
| movement    = 
| spouse      = {{marriage|[[Audrey Long]]|1952|1993}}
| influenced  = 
| signature   = 
| website     = {{URL|www.lesliecharteris.com/}}
}}
'''Leslie Charteris''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|tʃ|ɑr|t|ər|ɪ|s}}; born '''Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin'''; 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a [[List of British Chinese people|British-Chinese]] author of [[adventure fiction]], as well as a screenwriter.<ref name="bio">[http://www.saint.org/lcbio.htm "Biography of Leslie Charteris."] ''saint.org''. Retrieved 4 September 2016.</ref> He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of his hero [[Simon Templar]], alias "[[The Saint (franchise)|The Saint]]".{{TOC limit|limit=2}}

==Early life==
Charteris was born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, in Singapore. His mother, Lydia Florence Bowyer, was English. His father, Dr S. C. Yin ([[Yin Suat Chuan]], 1877–1958),<ref>[http://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/Digitised/Article/freepress19580403-1.2.5.aspx "Dr S.C. Yin (Son Created The Saint) Dies at Age 82"."] ''The Singapore Free Press'', 3 April 1958. Retrieved 10 April 2014.</ref> was a Chinese physician who claimed to be able to trace his lineage back to the emperors of the [[Shang dynasty]].<ref name="bio" />

Leslie became interested in writing at an early age. At one point, he created his own magazine with articles, short stories, poems, editorials, serials, and even a comic strip. He attended [[Saint Andrew's School, Singapore]], and after moving to England, [[Rossall School]] in [[Fleetwood]], Lancashire. His formal education continued at [[King's College, Cambridge]], where he read law. However, he dropped out in his first year to focus on developing his burgeoning literary career.

In 1926, Leslie legally changed his surname to "Charteris". In the [[BBC Radio 4]] documentary ''Leslie Charteris – A Saintly Centennial'', his daughter stated that he had selected the name from a telephone directory. This information is contradicted by other sources, however.  William Ruehlmann (author of ''Saint with a Gun:  The Unlawful American Private Eye'',<ref>{{cite book | isbn=0814773931 | title=Saint with a Gun: The Unlawful American Private Eye | last1=Ruehlmann | first1=William | date=6 August 1984 | publisher=New York University Press }}</ref> in an introduction to the 1988 edition of ''The Saint in New York'', "He acquired..., in 1928, the legal name of Charteris, after the roguish Col. Francis, gambler, duellist and founder of the Hellfire Club"<ref>Introduction by William Ruehlmann, ''The Saint in New York'' by Leslie Charteris, International Polygonics, Ltd., New York City, NY, 1988</ref> – however this confuses the rake [[Francis Charteris (rake)|Col. Francis Charteris]] with [[Francis Dashwood, 11th Baron le Despencer]], also a rake and founder of the [[Hellfire Club]].

==Career==
Charteris wrote his first book during his first year at [[King's College, Cambridge]]. Once it was accepted, he left the university and embarked on a new career, motivated by a desire to be unconventional and to become financially well off by doing what he liked to do. He continued to write British thriller stories while working at various jobs, from shipping out on a freighter to working as a barman in a country inn. He prospected for gold, dived for pearls, worked in a tin mine and on a rubber plantation, toured Britain with a carnival, and drove a bus.

===Origin of Simon Templar===
{{Main|The Saint (franchise)}}
Charteris's third novel, ''[[Meet the Tiger]]'' (1928), introduced his most famous creation, [[Simon Templar]].<ref name=NYT>[https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/18/obituaries/leslie-charteris-dies-mystery-writer-was-85.html "Leslie Charteris Dies; Mystery Writer Was 85."] ''[[The New York Times]]'' 18 April 1993.</ref> However, in his 1980 introduction to a reprint by Charter Books, Charteris indicated he was dissatisfied with the work, suggesting its only value was as the start of the long-running Saint series. Occasionally, he chose to ignore the existence of ''Meet the Tiger'' altogether and claimed that the Saint series actually began with the second volume, ''[[Enter the Saint]]'' (1930); an example of this can be found in the introduction Charteris wrote to an early 1960s edition of ''Enter the Saint'' published by Fiction Publishing Company (an imprint of [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday]]).

Charteris wrote a few other books, including a novelization of his screenplay for the [[Deanna Durbin]] mystery-comedy ''[[Lady on a Train]]'', and the English translation of ''Juan Belmonte: Killer of Bulls'' by [[Manuel Chaves Nogales]]. However, his lifework – at least in the literary world – consisted primarily of Simon Templar Saint adventures, which were presented in the novel, novella, and short-story formats over the next 35 years. From 1963 onward, other authors [[ghostwriting|ghost-wrote]] the stories, while Charteris acted as an editor, approving stories and making revisions when needed.

===Move to the United States===
Charteris relocated to the United States in 1932, where he continued to publish short stories and also became a writer for [[Paramount Pictures]], working on the [[George Raft]] film ''[[Midnight Club (film)|Midnight Club]]''.<ref>DelFattore 1989</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2016}} Charteris also wrote scripts for [[Alex Raymond]]'s newspaper comic ''[[Secret Agent X-9]]'' in 1935 to 1936. One story was drawn by Raymond, and the other two by Raymond's successor [[Charles Flanders]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/r/raymond.htm|title=Alex Raymond|website=lambiek.net|access-date=August 5, 2021}}</ref>

However, Charteris was excluded from permanent residency in the United States because of the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]], a law which prohibited immigration for persons of "50% or greater" Oriental blood. As a result, Charteris was continually forced to renew his six-month temporary visitor's visa. Eventually, an act of Congress personally granted his daughter and him the right of permanent residence in the United States, with eligibility for naturalization, which he later completed in 1946.<ref> Introduction by William Ruehlmann, The Saint in New York by Leslie Charteris, International Polygonics, Ltd., New York City, NY, 1988</ref><ref>{{citation | title = United States Congressional Serial Set | publisher = [[U.S. Government Printing Office]] |year = 1943}}</ref>

===Other activities===
In 1936, Charteris was a passenger on the maiden voyage of the ''[[LZ 129 Hindenburg|Hindenburg]]''.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Zg5I5sq2RLw Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200610044328/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5I5sq2RLw&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite AV media|title=Author Leslie Charteris, a Passenger on Zeppelin Hindenburg's Maiden Voyage...,|publisher=CriticalPast|date=16 June 2014|orig-year=1936|via=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg5I5sq2RLw}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In America, ''The Saint'' became a radio series starring [[Vincent Price]].  In the 1940s, Charteris, besides continuing to write ''The Saint'' stories, scripted the ''[[Sherlock Holmes]]'' radio series featuring [[Basil Rathbone]] and [[Nigel Bruce]].<ref>Marks 2008</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2016}} In 1941, Charteris appeared in a ''[[Life Magazine|Life]]'' photographic adaptation of a short story of ''The Saint'', with himself playing the Saint.<ref>Charteris, Leslie. "The Saint Goes West: The Mystery of the Palm Springs Playboy." ''Life Magazine'', 19 May 1941 pp99-105;120.</ref><ref>Barer 2003</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2016}}

===The Saint on film===
Long-term success eluded Charteris' creation outside the literary arena until RKO produced an eight-film series between 1938 and 1943: 
''[[The Saint in New York (film)|The Saint in New York]]'' (1938) with [[Louis Hayward]] as The Saint;
''[[The Saint Strikes Back]]'' (1939), 
''[[The Saint in London]]'' (1939, filmed on location), 
''[[The Saint's Double Trouble]]'' (1940),
''[[The Saint Takes Over]]'' (1940), and 
''[[The Saint in Palm Springs]]'' (1941) all with [[George Sanders]] as The Saint. Another Briton, [[Hugh Sinclair (actor)|Hugh Sinclair]], took over the role in ''[[The Saint's Vacation]]'' (filmed by RKO's British studio in 1941) and ''[[The Saint Meets the Tiger]]'' (again produced by RKO in 1941 but shelved until [[Republic Pictures]] released it in 1943).

A ninth film, ''The Saint's Return'' (known as ''[[The Saint's Girl Friday]]'' in the US) from 1953, with Louis Hayward returning as The Saint, is sometimes regarded as part of the RKO series. However, it was produced by British Hammer Film Productions, based on a special agreement between Hammer Films and Leslie Charteris, which gave Charteris a percentage in the film. RKO acted only as the film's US distributor, six months after the UK release.

Both George Sanders and Leslie Charteris had complaints about the Saint pictures; Sanders because he disliked playing the same role again and again, and Charteris because of the liberties taken by the screenwriters. RKO dropped the Saint series and replaced it with ''The Falcon'', another debonair amateur sleuth played by Sanders. Charteris saw this as a ploy to deprive him of his royalties and sued RKO. Sanders bailed out of the ''Falcon'' series after three films, and was replaced by his brother, [[Tom Conway]].

A film loosely based on the character simply titled ''[[The Saint (1997 film)|The Saint]]'' was released in 1997 with [[Val Kilmer]] in the title role.

===The Saint on TV===
In 1962–1969 the British-produced television series ''[[The Saint (TV series)|The Saint]]'' went into production with [[Roger Moore]] in the Simon Templar role.

Many episodes of the TV series were based upon Charteris' short stories. Later, as original scripts were commissioned, Charteris permitted some of these scripts to be novelized and published as further adventures of the Saint in printed form (these later books, with titles such as ''[[The Saint on TV]]'' and ''[[The Saint and the Fiction Makers]]'', carried Charteris' name as author, but were in fact written by others). Charteris lived to see a second British TV series, ''[[Return of the Saint]]'' starring [[Ian Ogilvy]] as Simon Templar, enjoy a well-received, if brief, run in the late 1970s (with Charteris himself making a cameo appearance in one episode) and, in the 1980s, a series of TV movies produced by an international co-production and starring [[Simon Dutton]] kept interest in ''The Saint'' alive. Also, an ill-fated attempt at a 1980s TV series was made in the United States, which resulted in only a pilot episode being produced and broadcast. He also produced the original theme tune for the series, as can be seen in the end credits.

==Later life==
The adventures of ''The Saint'' were chronicled in nearly 100 books (about 50 published in the UK and US, with others published in France). Charteris himself stepped away from writing the books after ''[[The Saint in the Sun]]'' (1963). The next year, ''[[Vendetta for the Saint]]'' was published and while it was credited to Charteris, it was actually written by science fiction writer [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]]. Following ''Vendetta'' came a number of books adapting televised episodes, credited to Charteris, but written by others, although Charteris did collaborate on several Saint books in the 1970s. Charteris appears to have served in an editorial capacity for these later volumes. He also edited and contributed to ''The Saint Mystery Magazine'', a digest-sized publication. The final book in the Saint series was ''[[Salvage for the Saint]]'', published in 1983. Two additional books were published in 1997, a novelization of the [[The Saint (1997 film)|film loosely based on the character]], and an original novel published by "The Saint Club", a [[fan club]] that Charteris himself founded in the 1930s. Both books were written by [[Burl Barer]], who also wrote the definitive history on Charteris and ''The Saint''.

Charteris spent 55 years – 1928 to 1983 – as either writer of or custodian of Simon Templar's literary adventures, one of the longest uninterrupted spans of a single author in the history of mystery fiction, equalling that of [[Agatha Christie]], who wrote her novels and stories featuring detective [[Hercule Poirot]].

A comic book adaptation of ''The Saint'' was produced in Sweden from 1969 to 1991 with at least 170 stories produced. As part of the contract, all story ideas had to be approved by Charteris himself before the story was completed. Among the creators of these stories were writers [[Norman Worker]] and [[Donne Avenell]]; the latter also co-wrote the novels ''[[The Saint and the Templar Treasure]]'' and the novella collection ''[[Count on the Saint]]'', while Worker contributed to the novella collection ''[[Catch the Saint]]''.

==Personal life and death==
Charteris also wrote a column on cuisine for an American magazine, and invented a wordless, [[Ideogram|pictorial sign language]] called Paleneo, which he wrote a book about. Charteris was one of the earliest members of [[Mensa International|Mensa]].<ref name=MensaItaly>[http://www.mensa.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=28 Cos'è il Mensa?] Mensa Italy</ref><ref name=ContemporaryAuthors>''Contemporary Authors, New Revision Series'', Volume 58, Page 80</ref>

Charteris married four times (see the Family section below for details).<ref>Introduction by William Ruehlmann, The Saint in New York by Leslie Charteris, International Polygonics, Ltd., New York City, NY, 1988</ref>  In 1952, Charteris married Hollywood actress [[Audrey Long]] (1922–2014); the couple eventually returned to England, where he spent his last years living in [[Surrey]]. Their address was Corfield, Ridgemead Road, [[Englefield Green]].<ref>[https://www.englefieldgreen.org/index.php?Page_ID=141457&sp=12 Englefieldgreen.org: Village History]</ref> He died at Princess Margaret's Hospital [[Windsor, Berkshire]], on 15 April 1993, survived by his wife and daughter, Patricia Charteris Higgins.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.beaconfh.com/obituary/patricia-higgins | title=Obituary for Patricia Charteris Higgins at Beacon Cremation & Funeral Service -Pere Marquette Chapel }}</ref> Audrey died at Egham, Surrey in September 2014, aged 92.<ref>'[https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-saint-writers-widow-left-almost-400000-in-irish-estate/36270552.html The Saint writer's widow left almost €400,000 in Irish estate]', ''Independent.ie'', 29 October 2017</ref>

==Family==
He was married four times:
#(in 1931) to Pauline Schishkin (1911–1975), daughter of a Russian diplomat and mother of Charteris' only child, a daughter, born in 1932<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.beaconfh.com/obituary/patricia-higgins | title=Obituary for Patricia Charteris Higgins at Beacon Cremation & Funeral Service -Pere Marquette Chapel }}</ref>
#(in 1938) to Barbara Meyer (1907–1950), editor at ''[[The American Magazine]]''
#(in 1943) to Elizabeth Bryant Borst (1909–2003), Boston society woman and night club singer
#(in 1952) to [[Audrey Long]] (1922–2014), film actress

Charteris was the brother of Rev [[Roy Henry Bowyer-Yin|Roy Bowyer-Yin]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.saint.org/2010/12/roy-henry-bowyer-yin-1910-2010.html|title=Roy Henry Bowyer-Yin (1910–2010)|publisher=blog.saint.org|access-date= 8 March 2014}}</ref>

==Works==
For a list of all Charteris's works, see [[List of works by Leslie Charteris]]; for a breakdown of Simon Templar novels, novellas and short story collections by Charteris, see the list at [[Simon Templar]].

In addition, Charteris authored numerous uncollected short stories and essays.<ref name="saint.org">{{cite web| last=Saint.org |title=Bibliography of Leslie Charteris |url=http://www.saint.org/books.htm}}</ref>

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
{{Refbegin}}
* Barer, Burl. ''The Saint: A Complete History in Print, Radio, Film and Television 1928–1992''. Jefferson, North Carolina: MacFarland & Company, 2003 (originally published in 1992). {{ISBN|978-0-7864-1680-6}}.
* [[Joan DelFattore|DelFattore, Joan]]. "Leslie Charteris". In Benstock, Bernard and Thomas Staley. ''British Mystery Writers, 1920–39''. Detroit: Gale Research, 1989. {{ISBN|978-0-8103-4555-3}}.
* Marks, Jeffrey Alan. Anthony Boucher: a biobibliography. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-3320-9}}.
* Tuska, Jon. ''The Detective in HollywoodThe Movie Careers of the Great Fictional Private Eyes and Their Creators''. New York: Doubleday, 1978. {{ISBN|978-0-3851-2093-7}}.
{{Refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.lesliecharteris.com/ Leslie Charteris official site]
*[http://www.saint.org/ The Saintly Bible] The Saint site
*{{IMDb name|id=0153546|name=Leslie Charteris}}
*{{Internet Archive author|sname=Leslie Charteris}}
* {{Gutenberg author | id=56842 | name=Leslie Charteris}}

{{The Saint}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Charteris, Leslie}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1993 deaths]]
[[Category:English crime fiction writers]]
[[Category:English thriller writers]]
[[Category:English comics writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:People educated at Rossall School]]
[[Category:Cartier Diamond Dagger winners]]
[[Category:English people of Chinese descent]]
[[Category:British people of English descent]]
[[Category:Mensans]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:Constructed language creators]]
[[Category:Creators of writing systems]]
[[Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers]]
[[Category:Writers of Sherlock Holmes pastiches]]
[[Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction]]