Raoul Whitfield
Raoul Whitfield (November 22, 1896 – January 24, 1945) was an American writer of adventure, aviation, and hardboiled crime fiction. During his writing career, from the mid-1920s to the mid-1930s, Whitfield published over 300 short stories and serials in pulp magazines, as well as nine books, including Green Ice (1930) and Death in a Bowl (1931). For his novels and contributions to the Black Mask, Whitfield is considered one of the original members of the hard-boiled school of American detective fiction and has been referred as "the Black Mask's forgotten man".
Raoul Whitfield | |
|---|---|
| Born | Raoul Falconer Whitfield November 22, 1896 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Died | January 24, 1945 (aged 48) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery, Washington D.C., U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Ramon Decolta, Temple Field |
| Occupation | Author |
| Spouses | Prudence Ann Smith
(m. 1923; div. 1933)Lois Bell (died 1943) |
By the mid-1930s, the amount of work Whitfield produced dropped substantially as he suffered what the Black Mask editor Joseph Shaw described as a "personal tragedy." Both his second and third wife died by suicide; in his later years, despite coming into money, Whitfield was broke and suffering from tuberculosis. He would die of the disease in 1945.