Michael Avallone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michael Avallone (born in New York City, 1924, died 1999) was a prolific American author of mystery and secret agent fiction, as well as many novels based upon various television series and films. His lifetime output is known to have exceeded 1,000 works, including novels, short stories, and articles, published under his own name or numerous pseudonyms.
Avallone published his first novel, The Tall Dolores, in 1953 introducing the character of "Ed Noon", the private detective protagonist of the story. Avallone went on to write three dozen Ed Noon novels, the most recent of which was published in 1989. The final volume, "Since Noon Yesterday" is, as of 2005, unpublished.
During his career, Avallone wrote many officially licensed novels tying-in with popular TV series and films of the time, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii 5-0, Mannix, Friday the 13th Part 3, and even The Partridge Family. He also wrote a series of novellas in the late 1960s featuring an U.N.C.L.E.-like organization called INTREX. Avallone is sometimes cited incorrectly as the creator of Man from U.N.C.L.E. (as in the January 1967 issue of The Saint Magazine).
Avallone also wrote numerous entries in the Nick Carter: Killmaster series beginning in the 1960s (these books are credited to the fictitious title character), and, under the pseudonym "Troy Conway" wrote a handful of entries in the tongue-in-cheek Rod Damon: The Coxeman novel series between 1967 and 1973, that parodied the Man from U.N.C.L.E.. One of the more unusual entries in his canon was the novelization of the 1982 TV mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, based on the life of Golda Meir.
Among the many pseudonyms that Michael Avallone used (male and female) were: Mile Avalione, Mike Avalone, Troy Conway, Mark Dane, Steve Michaels, Edwina Noone, Priscilla Dalton, John Patrick, Jeanne-Anne dePre, Dorothea Nile, Sidney Stuart, Dora Highland, Stuart Jason, Vance Stanton, Max Walker, and Lee Davis Willoughby.
From 1962 to 1965, Avallone edited the Mystery Writers of America newsletter.
