“S “is for Spillane, Frank Morrison (1918-2006)

“S “is for Spillane, Frank Morrison (1918-2006). Author. Nicknamed “Mickey” by his father, Spillane was born in Brooklyn. After service in World War II, he returned to New York and the comic-book business. Needing money for a house, he turned out his first novel, I, the Jury (1947) in three weeks. The protagonist, Mike Hammer, a hard-drinking private investigator fond of buxom women and vigilante justice, became a household name by 1953, with five more Hammer novels selling millions of paperbacks.  The Mike Hammer character was developed for radio, movies, and TV. In 1953 he moved his family to Murrell's Inlet, where he resided until his death. In 1995 he received the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. As of 2025 Frank Morrison Spillane's books had sold somewhere between 200 and 225 million copies.