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American novelist Louis Joseph Vance was born in Washington, DC, in 1879. He was educated at New York University's Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute. He began writing at age 22, first short stories and poems, and then novels. His most famous works are the "Lone Wolf" series of detective thrillers, featuring the mysterious Michael Lanyard, aka "The Lone Wolf". The series of eight books was wildly successful, and was made into a radio series, a television series and more than 20 films.

He died under somewhat mysterious circumstances in his New York City apartment in 1933. A heavy drinker, he had been depressed over the break-up of his marriage (he and his wife of more than 30 years were separated, though not yet divorced) and, intoxicated (according to the coroner), he fell asleep with a lit cigarette on a stuffed chair in his living room. The cigarette apparently fell into a can of benzene, which was used to clean the chair (another story is that it was to lessen the pain he was suffering from a broken jaw). The benzene ignited, the chair caught fire and he was burned (some sources say asphyxiated) to death. The authorities ruled the death as accidental, but suspicions persisted that it was actually a suicide.

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Louis Joseph Vance

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