Earl Derr Biggers

Seven Keys to Baldpate (Dodo Press) Earl Derr Biggers

Earl Derr Biggers (1884-1933) was an American novelist and playwright best known through adaptations of his novels, especially those featuring the Chinese- American detective Charlie Chan. He was born in Warren, Ohio, and graduated from Harvard University in 1907. Many of his plays and novels were made into movies. He was posthumously inducted into the Warren City Schools Distinguished Alumni Hall of Fame. His novel Seven Keys to Baldpate (1913) led to seven films of the same title (each largely forgotten) and at least two with other titles but essentially equivalent plots. Among his famous works are: Love Insurance (1914), Inside the Lines (with Robert Welles Ritchie) (1915), The Agony Column (1916), The House without a Key (1925), The Chinese Parrot (1926), Fifty Candles (1926), Behind that Curtain (1928), The Black Camel (1929), Charlie Chan Carries on (1930), Keeper of the Keys (1932), and Earl Derr Biggers Tells Ten Stories (1933).