The Tall Dolores by Michael Avallone - Illustration by Daniel Schwartz - Perma Book 1954

Michael Angelo Avallone (October 27, 1924 – February 26, 1999) was an American author of mystery,

secret agent Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ''e ...

fiction, and novelizations of television and films. His lifetime output was over 223 works (although he boasted over 1,000), published under his own name and seventeen pseudonyms.

Biography

The son of Michael Angelo Avallone, Sr,Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, vol. 2, R. Reginald, 1979, pg 802 Avallone was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

on and died in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

on . He was married in 1949 to Lucille Asero; they had one son before the marriage was dissolved. In 1960 he married Fran Weinstein, and together they had one son and one daughter. In addition to his writing, Avallone was a guest lecturer at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, and

Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's C ...

Works

His first novel, ''The Tall Dolores'', published in 1953, introduced Ed Noon, P.I. The most recent installment, ''Since Noon Yesterday,'' was published in 1989. The final volume, ''The Ninth of Never'', was never published. Avallone was prolific at writing movie and TV tie-ins, numbering more than two dozen, beginning with 1963's '' The Main Attraction''. His most successful was the first of the ''Man From U.N.C.L.E.'' novels, ''The Thousand Coffins Affair''. "I did it for a flat fee of $1,000 with a handshake deal to do the rest of the series," he said in 1989. "Then Ace double-crossed everybody and they got follow-up writers to do the others. They sold it to 60 foreign countries, and it stayed in print until 1970. Every copy of the book says April, 1965 — there's no record of a printing order or anything — but they had five printings in the first three months! Everything to worked right in ''The Thousand Coffins Affair'' and it sort of set the pattern for all kinds of TV spy books. I was very satisfied with it, and despite the monetary beating I took, it did get me a lot of work down through the years." Avallone said he faced some minor editorial restrictions on the ''U.N.C.L.E.'' book, at the studio's insistence. The villainous organization of the book, Golgotha, was described by Avallone as being German. "MGM insisted on making them Russians — and of course this is 1964, the height of the Cold War," he said. Due to his involvement in the tie-ins, the cover of the January 1967 issue of ''The Saint Magazine'', edited by

Leslie Charteris Leslie Charteris (; born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin; 12 May 1907 – 15 April 1993), was a British-Chinese author of adventure fiction, as well as a screenwriter.Hawaii Five-O'', ''

Mannix ''Mannix'' is an American detective television series that originally aired for eight seasons on CBS from September 16, 1967, to March 13, 1975. The show was created by Richard Levinson and William Link, and developed by executive producer ...

'', '' Friday the 13th Part III'', '' Beneath the Planet of the Apes'' and ''

The Partridge Family ''The Partridge Family'' is an American musical sitcom created by Bernard Slade, which was broadcast in the United States from September 1970 to March 1974 on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. After the final first-run telecast on ABC in March ...

''. A series of novellas in the late 1960s featured the U.N.C.L.E.-like INTREX organization. Under the name "Nick Carter," he wrote some of the '' Nick Carter'' spy novels beginning in the 1960s. As "Troy Conway," he wrote the tongue-in-cheek porn series ''Rod Damon: The Coxeman'', and parodied ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' from 1967 to 1973. He also wrote the novelization of the 1982 TV

miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...

A Woman Called Golda ''A Woman Called Golda'' is a 1982 American made-for-television film biopic of Israeli Prime Minister of Israel, Prime Minister Golda Meir directed by Alan Gibson (director), Alan Gibson and starring Ingrid Bergman in what would become the fina ...

'', based on the life of Israeli Prime Minister

Golda Meir Golda Meir (; 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978) was the prime minister of Israel, serving from 1969 to 1974. She was Israel's first and only female head of government. Born into a Jewish family in Kyiv, Kiev, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine) ...

. Among his other pseudonyms (male and female) were Mile Avalione, Mike Avalone, Priscilla Dalton, Mark Dane, Jeanne-Anne dePre, Dora Highland, Stuart Jason, Steve Michaels, Dorothea Nile, Edwina Noone, Vance Stanton, Sidney Stuart, Max Walker, and Lee Davis Willoughby. From 1962 to 1965, Avallone edited the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the E ...

newsletter.

Tie-in pseudonym confusions corrected

There were three books published under the "Max Walker" pseudonym, which was not a " house name", but only one was Avallone's, which has led to some latter-day confusion. The first two, authored by Jim Lawrence were #s 2 and 3 in the four-book '' Mission: Impossible'' tie-in series of original novels (1967–1969) from

Popular Library Popular Library is a New York paperback book company established in 1942 by Leo Margulies and Ned Pines, who at the time were major pulp magazine and newspaper publishers. The company's logo of a pine tree was a tribute to Pines, and another ...

. The third, a screenplay novelization of '' The Last Escape'' (1970), was written by Avallone as a rush-job favor for Popular Library editor Patrick O'Connor (1925–2012) when Lawrence either proved unable to meet the deadline or turned in a manuscript that O'Connor deemed unusable. Why the "Walker" by-line was retained is unknown. Avallone is also sometimes credited as having written under the pseudonym "John Patrick", but this is also misleading. The confusion comes from a bait-and-switch byline presentation on his novelization of '' The Main Attraction'' (1963). The film's screenwriter, the ''actual'' John Patrick, was highly prolific and, at the time, very much a celebrity author. The Belmont Books release says "

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

-Winner John Patrick" prominently under the red block-letter title; and in easy-to-miss small print along the bottom of the cover says "Adapted as a novel by Steve Michaels" — the latter name. of course, being Avallone's pseudonym on the project. This highly unusual and no-doubt contractual micro-minimization of the novelist in favor of the screenwriter is repeated on the spine of the book, which doesn't mention "Steve Michaels" at all, and inside the book, on a page facing the title page.

Awards

Avallone was inducted into the "New Jersey Literary Hall of Fame". He was nominated for the 1989 Anthony Award in the "Best Paperback Original" category for his novel ''High Noon at Midnight''.

References

External links

ThrillingDetective.com biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Avallone, Michael 1924 births 1999 deaths 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers American mystery writers American male novelists American male short story writers 20th-century American short story writers 20th-century pseudonymous writers