Sidney Sheldon

Sidney Sheldon (1917-2007) was an American screenwriter, television producer and novelist who turned to thrillers in his fifties and became one of the best-selling fiction writers of all time. He was born Sidney Schechtel in Chicago on 11 February 1917 and died of pneumonia in Rancho Mirage, California, on 30 January 2007.

Before writing novels he had a full career in show business. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (the award is dated 1947 or 1948 depending on the source) and a Tony Award in 1959 for the musical Redhead. On television he created The Patty Duke Show (1963 to 1966) and I Dream of Jeannie (1965 to 1970), which earned him an Emmy in 1967, and later Hart to Hart (1979 to 1984).

His first novel, The Naked Face, appeared in 1970 and was nominated by the Mystery Writers of America for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. It was followed by The Other Side of Midnight (1973), Rage of Angels (1980) and Master of the Game (1982), among others. His books have sold more than 300 million copies in 51 languages, and The Naked Face was filmed in 1984 with Roger Moore.

For collectors, The Naked Face is the natural starting point: the first edition was published by William Morrow in New York in 1970, with the first British edition from Hodder & Stoughton. It was his first novel and was shortlisted for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel, which gives it a place in crime-fiction collections beyond his later best sellers.