Maurice Leblanc

Maurice Marie Émile Leblanc was born 11 December 1864 and began writing Lupin stories in 1905 for the magazine Je sais tout, likely at editorial request. By 1907 the reviews and sales were strong enough that he graduated to full-length novels and effectively dedicated the rest of his career to the character. Like Conan Doyle before him, Leblanc appeared to resent his creation's success, viewing the crime fiction as a detraction from more respectable literary ambitions; he tried several times to launch other characters, including private eye Jim Barnett, but eventually merged them back into Lupin. He also wrote two science fiction novels - Les Trois Yeux in 1919, about televisual contact with three-eyed Venusians, and Le Formidable Evènement in 1920, about an earthquake spawning new land between England and France - but continued penning Lupin tales well into the 1930s. He was awarded the Légion d'Honneur and died in Perpignan on 6 November 1941.