author
Earl Derr Biggers
1884–1933
Best remembered as the creator of Charlie Chan, this American novelist and playwright helped shape one of the early 20th century’s most famous detective series. His stories mixed mystery, travel, and stage-ready storytelling in a way that reached readers far beyond the page.
6 Audiobooks
Seven Keys to Baldpate
by Earl Derr Biggers
苦悶の欄
by Earl Derr Biggers
Love Insurance
by Earl Derr Biggers
Inside the Lines
by Earl Derr Biggers, Robert Welles Ritchie
The Agony Column
by Earl Derr Biggers
The house without a key
by Earl Derr Biggers
About the author
Born in Warren, Ohio, in 1884, Earl Derr Biggers studied at Harvard and began his career in journalism before turning fully to fiction and the theater. That background gave his writing a brisk, readable style and a strong sense of scene.
He is most closely associated with Charlie Chan, the Honolulu detective who first appeared in The House Without a Key in 1925. The character became the center of a successful run of mystery novels and inspired many film adaptations, making Biggers far more widely known than many of his literary contemporaries.
Biggers also wrote plays and other novels, but Charlie Chan remains his lasting claim to fame. He died in Pasadena, California, in 1933, leaving behind work that still interests readers curious about classic mystery fiction and popular culture of the early 1900s.