Emmerson Wain Manning

Very little biographical information about this author is easy to confirm, but the surviving record shows that he wrote Practical Instruction for Detectives: A Complete Course in Secret Service Study, published in Chicago by F. J. Drake & Co. in 1921.

In the book’s preface, he presents himself as someone who had spent many years working with two large private detective agencies, both as an operative and as an official. That background shapes the book’s plain, practical style: instead of telling dramatic crime stories, he focuses on methods, observation, and the everyday discipline of detective work.

Today, Manning is remembered mainly through this book, which has remained available in public-domain and reprint editions. Even with so few personal details confirmed, his writing still stands out as a concise snapshot of private investigation in the early 1900s.