Born Salvatore Albert Lombino in 1926, the American author legally changed his name to Evan Hunter in 1952. He began his writing career publishing short stories under his birth name before adopting various pseudonyms to distinguish his mainstream fiction from his genre work. His first major success came with The Blackboard Jungle, a semi-autobiographical novel about the challenges of an inner-city school, which was adapted into a hit film in 1955.\n\nHunter achieved his greatest enduring fame under the pen name Ed McBain, creating the celebrated 87th Precinct series. These novels became staples of the police procedural genre, known for their gritty realism and focus on teamwork rather than a single brilliant detective. While he initially utilized other pseudonyms such as Richard Marsten, Hunt Collins, and Curt Cannon, most of these early genre works were eventually reissued under the highly successful McBain moniker.\n\nIn addition to his prolific novelistic output, Hunter was a talented screenwriter. He famously wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock's classic 1963 thriller The Birds, adapting Daphne du Maurier's short story for the screen. Through his dual identity as a literary novelist and a master of crime fiction, Hunter left a profound legacy on mid-century American popular literature before his death in 2005.
