Incubator escapee wiki

Arthur Hailey

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Use British English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox writer

Arthur Frederick Hailey, AE (5 April 1920 – 24 November 2004) was a British/Canadian novelist whose plot-driven storylines were set against the backdrops of various industries. His books, which include such best sellers as Hotel (1965), Airport (1968), Wheels (1971), The Moneychangers (1975), and Overload (1979), have sold 170 million copies in 38 languages.<ref name=Holley>Template:Cite news</ref>

Early lifeEdit

Arthur Frederick Hailey was born on 5 April 1920, in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, the only child of George Wellington Hailey, a factory worker, and Elsie Wright Hailey. An avid reader,<ref name=Independent>Template:Cite news</ref> Hailey began to write poems, plays and stories at a young age.<ref name=Telegraph/> He once said, "My mother left me off chores so I could write."<ref name=Independent/> Elsie encouraged her son to learn typing and shorthand so that he might become a clerk instead of a factory worker.<ref name=Telegraph>Template:Cite news</ref>

At fourteen, Hailey failed to win a scholarship which would have enabled him to continue his schooling.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> From 1934 to 1939 he was an office boy and clerk<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> in London. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1939, and served as a pilot during World War II, eventually rising to the rank of flight lieutenant.<ref name=Telegraph/> In 1947, unhappy with the post-war Labour government,<ref name=Independent/> he emigrated to Canada, becoming a dual citizen.<ref name=Scotsman>Template:Cite news</ref> Settling in Toronto,<ref name=Telegraph/> he held a variety of jobs in such fields as real estate, sales, and advertising.<ref name=Holley/> He was editor of a trade magazine called Bus and Truck Transport.<ref name=Scotsman/> During these years, he continued to write.<ref name=Independent/>

CareerEdit

Hailey's professional writing career began in 1955 with a script called Flight into Danger, which was purchased by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and telecast on 3 April 1956.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This story of a plane flight in jeopardy after its crew is incapacitated was "the smash hit of the season," won enormous acclaim, and was broadcast internationally.<ref name=Rutherford>Template:Cite book</ref> It was adapted as a novel by "John Castle" (a pseudonym for Ronald Payne and John Garrod), with Hailey credited as co-author; it was published by Britain's Souvenir Press in 1958 under its original title, but renamed Runway Zero-Eight (Doubleday) for its 1959 American publication.<ref name=Sheila>Hailey, Sheila (1978). I Married a Best Seller: My Life with Arthur Hailey. Open Road Media, 2014. Kindle Edition.</ref> The story was filmed in 1957 as Zero Hour! (Paramount), and for television in 1971 as Terror in the Sky.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

With the success of Flight into Danger, Hailey was in demand as a television writer, and wrote for such shows as Studio One, Kraft Television Theatre, Playhouse 90, and Suspense. In 1959, he adapted his teleplay No Deadly Medicine (for which he won an Emmy nomination) into his first novel The Final Diagnosis. Published by Doubleday, it is the story of the chief pathologist at a Burlington, Pennsylvania, hospital. The book received good reviews,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and was a selection of the Literary Guild of America.<ref name=Sheila/> Hailey's second novel, In High Places (Doubleday) was published in 1962. Dealing with international politics<ref name=Sheila/> the book was again selected by the Literary Guild, and was a best seller in Canada.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Hailey's commercial breakthrough came in 1965 with publication of Hotel<ref name=Thurber>Template:Cite news</ref> (Doubleday), which followed five days in the lives of employees and residents of New Orleans' luxurious St. Gregory Hotel. The book spent 48 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, peaking at No. 3,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and became the eighth highest-selling novel of the year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> It established the template for Hailey's future works: ordinary people involved in extraordinary situations in a business or industry which is described in meticulous detail.<ref name=Independent/>

Following the success of Hotel, Hailey moved to California. In 1968 he achieved international fame<ref name="O'Donnell">Template:Cite news</ref> with his fourth novel, Airport (Doubleday), the story of one eventful night at a midwestern international airport. The novel was No. 1 in the New York Times for 30 weeks, and became the top-selling novel of the year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The film adaptation, released in 1970, was the second-highest-grossing film of the year (second only to Love Story)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and received ten Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture.<ref name=Academy>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The success of the film, together with that of 1972's The Poseidon Adventure, led to the proliferation of "disaster films" during the 1970s,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> which included three additional films in what became the Airport franchise.

After the financial success of Airport, on the advice of his tax attorney, Hailey moved as a tax exile to the Bahamas<ref name=Comet>Template:Cite news</ref> settling in Lyford Cay on New Providence Island. He had intended to stay for just two years, but liked it so much<ref name=Comet/> that he remained there for the rest of his life. In 1971, he published Wheels (Doubleday), set in the automobile industry; like Airport, it was a no. 1 New York Times best seller,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the highest-selling novel of its year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Hailey followed it with two additional no. 1 sellers: The Moneychangers (Doubleday, 1975),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> about the banking industry; and Overload (Doubleday, 1979),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> about an electric utility company.

In 1979, following publication of Overload, Hailey announced his retirement. After undergoing quadruple heart bypass surgery, however, he felt rejuvenated, and returned to work.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His novel Strong Medicine (Doubleday), about the pharmaceutical industry, was published in 1984 and was another major best seller; it became the thirteenth highest-selling novel of the year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> His commercial success had declined somewhat<ref name=Hamilton>Template:Cite book</ref> by 1990 with publication of The Evening News (Doubleday), and with his final novel, Detective (Crown), which appeared in 1997. Hailey continued to write, but—except for the slim The Lyford Legacy: A Brief History of Lyford Cay from 1788 (Lyford Cay Foundation, 2000),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>—Hailey now wrote only as a hobby.<ref name=Holley/>

Arthur Hailey's papers are housed at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, and at the Harry C. Moore Library of the College of The Bahamas.<ref>Lundstrom, T.E. (2013). The Arthur Hailey Collection. The International Journal of Bahamian Studies, 19, 1-2. Retrieved from http://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files/article/viewFile/183/235</ref>

Writing method and critical receptionEdit

File:Обложка Артур Хейли На высотах твоих.jpg
The cover of the Soviet edition of Hailey's In High Places

Hailey would usually spend three years<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> on each book. First, he would dedicate a year to research, then six months reviewing his notes, and finally 18 months writing.<ref name=Thurber/> His research was painstaking:<ref name=Scotsman/> he read 27 books about the hotel industry for Hotel,<ref name="O'Donnell"/> he spent months at a Detroit car plant for Wheels,<ref name=Scotsman/> and he spent time—at the age of 67—with rebel guerillas in the jungles of Peru<ref name=Independent/> for The Evening News. Hailey had no discernible literary pretensions; he said, "I'm a storyteller and anything else is incidental."<ref name=Thurber/>

Hailey was not a critical favourite. In the New York Times, Martin Levin called him "a plodding sort of writer."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Martha Gellhorn, reviewing The Evening News for The Daily Telegraph wrote, "This is not a book you cannot put down; it is a book you can hardly hold up. It will sell in millions and be translated into 34 languages. Possibly it is more readable in Icelandic or Urdu."<ref name=Telegraph/> And Time magazine, reviewing Wheels together with Harold Robbins's The Betsy, said, "Yes, junk fans, it is a mano a mano for novelists who are all thumbs. Two of the greatest schlockmeisters in the history of solid waste have just published novels about the auto industry."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

But Hailey's ability to tell a story was recognised by some critics. In the New York Times, John Reed conceded, in a review of Wheels, that "Mr. Hailey is nothing if not a competent craftsman."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, in his New York Times review of The Moneychangers wrote, "What I had in mind was diversion, and, to tell the shameful truth, I found it."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Reviewing Detective, Publishers Weekly wrote, "Old pro Hailey... remains adept at hooking readers with his propulsive brand of storytelling."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

Hailey was married twice. In 1944 he married Joan Fishwick (1918–2004), with whom he had three children before divorcing in 1950. In 1951 he married Sheila Dunlop (1927–2017), with whom he also had three children.<ref name=Holley/> In 1978 Sheila Hailey published I Married a Best Seller: My Life with Arthur Hailey (Doubleday), which was not always complimentary,<ref name=Hamilton/> but the couple remained together for 53 years.

Arthur Hailey died at age 84 in his sleep on 24 November 2004, at his home in Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, of what doctors believed to be a stroke.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

NovelsEdit

Selected screen adaptationsEdit

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Arthur Hailey Template:Airport

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Arthur_Hailey&oldid=41656"