“Nobody
reads a mystery to get to the middle.
They read it to get to the end.
If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.” –
Mickey Spillane
Born on this date in 1918, Spillane
was a master of “successfully getting to that last page” with his tales. Born Frank Morrison Spillane, “Mickey”
created one of the most memorable of characters, the hard-boiled detective Mike
Hammer. At the height of his popularity
in 1980, Spillane, who died in 2006, was responsible for a remarkable 7 of the
year’s 15 top-selling fiction books featuring his hero.
Like many great writers, Spillane
used “life experiences” as background for his own work, starting during his
high school days in New Jersey. His jobs
included a time with the circus, lifeguarding, meatcutting, bartending and
flying – something that led to time in the Army Air Corps during World War II.
Spillane, who died in 2006, said he
was “a writer not an author” who also loved to read, especially about history. “I think a lot of authors like history
because they want to be part of it,” he once said. During the course of selling
well over 225 million copies of his books, he succeeded.
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