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Richard S Prather

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Name
  
Richard Prather


Role
  
Novelist

Richard S. Prather httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumbd

Died
  
February 14, 2007, Sedona, Arizona, United States

Awards
  
THE EYE – Lifetime Achievement Award, Shamus Award for Best P. I. Series/Characters – The Hammer

Books
  
Case of the Vanishing Beauty, Way of a Wanton, Strip for Murder, The Peddler, Always Leave 'Em Dying

Richard Scott Prather (September 9, 1921 – February 14, 2007) was an American mystery novelist, best known for creating the "Shell Scott" series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms David Knight and Douglas Ring.

Contents

Early life and career

Prather was born in Santa Ana, California and spent a year at Riverside Junior College (now Riverside Community College). He served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II, from 1942 through the end of the war, in 1945. That year he married Tina Hager and began working as a civilian chief clerk of surplus property at March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. He left that job to become a full-time writer in 1949. The first Shell Scott mystery, Case of the Vanishing Beauty, was published in 1950. It would be the start of a long series that numbered more than three dozen titles featuring the Shell Scott character.

Later career

Prather had a disagreement with his publisher, Pocket Books, and sued them in 1975. He gave up writing for several years and grew avocados. In 1986, he returned with The Amber Effect. In 1987, Prather's penultimate book, Shellshock, was published in hardcover by Tor Books. He donated his papers to the Richard S. Prather Manuscript Collection at the University of Wyoming, in Laramie, Wyoming.

Death

At Prather's death in 2007, he had completed but not published his last Shell Scott Mystery. His final novel, The Death Gods, was published October 2011, in print and ebook formats by Pendleton Artists, with permission of the Richard S. Prather Estate and Linda Pendleton.

Personal life

Prather's wife, Tina, died in April 2004, after 58 years of marriage.

Awards and honors

  • Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award (1986)
  • Twice served on the Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America
  • References

    Richard S. Prather Wikipedia


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