Photo: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images (2017)
Sample of authors
King, Stephen
Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine. His father, Donald Pollock, a vacuum cleaner salesman, sailor and philanderer (King has a half-sister in Brazil), went through a number of aliases before he changed his surname to King. When Stephen was two years old, his father went out to buy cigarettes and never came back. Stephen grew up in poor circumstances with his mother Ruth and his...
Literary figures
Merlini
Gender: Male
His first name is never mentioned, but as a stage magician he is known as The Great Merlini. He is a former circus artiste, but when we meet him in Clayton Rawson’s detective story, Merlini is running a store for magic supplies in Times Square in New York and solving inexplicable murders – so-called impossible crimes. He doesn’t like the subway, beer, opera, golf and sleep, but loves surfing, tabl...