Willard Huntington Wright

Willard Huntington Wright (1888–1939) was an American critic and, under the pen name S. S. Van Dine, a best-selling author of detective fiction. Born in Virginia and raised in California, he was literary editor of the Los Angeles Times and then editor of The Smart Set, and wrote on modern painting, the philosophy of Nietzsche and aesthetics, in books such as Modern Painting and What Nietzsche Taught. After a breakdown he turned to detective stories, and The Benson Murder Case of 1926 introduced the aristocratic amateur sleuth Philo Vance, whose cases became bestsellers and films.