Arthur Hailey
Arthur Hailey was a British-Canadian author born on April 5, 1920, in Luton, England. He had a challenging upbringing, dropping out of school at fourteen and working various jobs before serving in the Royal Air Force during World War II. After the war, Hailey immigrated to Canada and began his writing career by selling a television script to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He gained prominence in the literary world with a series of best-selling novels, including "Hotel," "Airport," and "Wheels," characterized by their intricate plots set around large institutions facing crises. His meticulous writing process typically involved extensive research followed by outlined organization and dedicated writing time, which contributed to his notable success. Despite facing criticism for a perceived formulaic style, Hailey's storytelling ability resonated with readers, leading to numerous book adaptations into films. Later in life, he lived in Napa Valley and the Bahamas, where he continued to write, although his later works did not achieve the same level of acclaim as his earlier novels. Hailey passed away on November 24, 2004, leaving behind a legacy marked by significant commercial success and influence in the genre of dramatic fiction.
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Arthur Hailey
Writer
- Born: April 5, 1920
- Birthplace: Luton, Bedfordshire, England
- Died: November 24, 2004
- Place of death: Lyford Cay, New Providence Island, Bahamas
Biography
Arthur Hailey was born to a working-class family in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, on April 5, 1920. He dropped out of school when he was only fourteen, holding a number of jobs before enrolling in the Royal Air Force, where he served from 1939 to 1947. He was married twice and had six children. After World War II, Hailey immigrated to Canada, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1953.
He sold his first television script, Flight into Danger, to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and eventually wrote many other teleplays. When one of them was converted into a successful novel by other writers, Hailey adapted another of his teleplays, No Deadly Medicine (for which he won an Emmy Award), into a novel, The Final Diagnosis, published in 1959. There followed more than a decade in which Hailey turned out some of the biggest best-sellers in American publishing history, notably Hotel in 1965, Airport in 1968, Wheels in 1971, and The Moneychangers in 1975.
Hailey’s work schedule during this incredible run was always the same: a year of research, six months of outlining and organizing all of his detailed material, and a year and a half of writing. Most of these novels sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and Hotel was on The New York Times’ best-seller list for a year; several books, including Hotel and Airport, were made into commercially successful films. The Hailey story line was basically the same: a large institution, such as a hotel or an airport, which the public uses but knows only from the outside; a series of crises; multiple plot lines; and tons of detail and technical information from behind the institutional walls. Hailey was criticized for his formulaic writing, but he was a compelling storyteller where many others who attempted to mimic his style were not.
In his later career he moved to Napa Valley, California, and then to the Bahamas, where he continued to turn out novels, including Overload, Strong Medicine, The Evening News, and Detective, all recognizable by the Hailey melodramatic formula but none as successful as his blockbusters of the 1960’s and 1970’s. He died in the Bahamas on November 24, 2004. He won numerous awards, especially for his earliest work, and was envied by countless lesser writers who imitated his style but only rarely found his incredible success.