This post is about someone who wrote more than 170 novels, 18 plays and 917 short stories. In 1928 a quarter of all books sold in the UK were by this author. One more clue: this person wrote the screenplay for King Kong.
I hope that you fell into my trap and think it is Agatha Christie. Actually it is Edgar Wallace, born in London in 1871. He was fostered by a porter at Billingsgate market and his wife, they later adopted him. He left school at twelve to sell newspapers at Ludgate Circus and eventually became a war correspondent for the Daily Mail in the Boer War, alongside Winston Churchill and Bill Deedes.
I am reading The Man Who Bought London, first published in 1915. It is an entertainment; part thriller, romance, fairytale with sinister baddies, multiple murders and an implausible plot; most enjoyable. The hero is called King Kerry, so maybe an inspiration for King Kong’s name. It has been republished in paperback this year by Hesperus Press.
Edgar Wallace’s huge output was achieved in a short period. He died in 1932 of diabetes while working on the King Kong script. P G Wodehouse and Agatha Christie both lived much longer. The former wrote about 90 books, 40 plays and 200 short stories. Christie was a little less prolific but is thought to be the best selling novelist of all time (according to The Guinness Book of Records).
Before you leap to the Comment button, I am aware that Barbara Cartland also had a long life and wrote at least 723 books and some more but they are not on my bookshelves.