Michael Arlen
Michael Arlen, born Dikran Kouyoumdjian in 1895 in Rustchuk, Bulgaria, was a prominent British author and playwright known for capturing the essence of the Roaring Twenties. He fled to England with his family in 1901 to escape persecution, eventually changing his name and becoming a UK citizen in 1922. Arlen gained widespread recognition with his bestselling novel, *The Green Hat* (1924), which vividly portrayed the glamorous yet cynical world of London café society. His writing style has drawn comparisons to that of American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, although Arlen often felt like an outsider in the social circles he depicted. He enjoyed a brief period of fame, marrying Greek Countess Atalanta Mercati in 1928 and later residing in Cannes.
Despite his early success, Arlen's literary output diminished, and he struggled with writer's block after publishing his last novel, *The Flying Dutchman*, in 1939. His later works, particularly his short stories featuring elements of horror and mystery, like "Gay Falcon," remained influential. This character inspired a series of films and radio adaptations, showcasing Arlen's lasting impact on crime fiction. He passed away in New York in 1956 after a long illness, leaving behind a legacy that includes both celebrated novels and notable contributions to the detective genre.
Subject Terms
Michael Arlen
Bulgarian-born British essayist, novelist, and short fiction writer.
- Born: November 16, 1895
- Birthplace: Rustchuk, Bulgaria
- Died: June 23, 1956
- Place of death: New York, New York
Biography
Michael Arlen was born Dikran Kouyoumdjian in Rustchuk, Bulgaria, in 1895. His father was Sarkis Koujoumdjian, an Armenian merchant. In 1901, the family fled to England to escape persecution from the Turkish Muslims. They settled in Lancashire. Arlen attended a public school and briefly St. Andrews University in Scotland. Breaking away from his family, who disowned him, he spent a year in France, and then moved to London.
In 1922, he became a citizen of the United Kingdom and changed his name to Michael Arden, the pseudonym under which he had begun to publish novels and short stories. His 1924 novel, The Green Hat, was an immediate best seller—perhaps the first novel in England to sell a million copies—and it and the play version that he also wrote earned him instant fame. The Green Hat tells the romanticized but cynical story of fashionable London café society in the glittering decade of the Roaring Twenties. Arlen is often said to have chronicled the era in Britain as F. Scott Fitzgerald did in America, but Arlen was always a foreigner, never quite able to penetrate fashionable society as he wanted.
In 1928, Arlen married the Greek Countess Atalanta Mercati. He later spent time in Cannes, France, on the Côte d’Azur. His last novel, a political thriller The Flying Dutchman, was published in 1939, and his last short story, “Gay Falcon,” in 1940. After that, he seems to have had permanent writer’s block. At the outbreak of World War II, he moved to the United States. He died in New York in 1956, after a long illness with cancer. His son, Michael J. Arlen, wrote a biography of his father, Exiles (1970).
Arlen’s novels fell out of popularity quickly. A few of his short stories have lasted longer, specifically those that had elements of horror or mystery, such as “The Ancient” (1922), which was also printed under the title “The Smell in the Library.” “The Gentleman from America” (1924) was republished in a mystery collection titled A Century of Thrillers from Poe to Arlen (1934). “Midnight Adventure” (1938) was included in Fifty Years of the Best from Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (1991).
Even so, Arlen’s place in crime fiction rests almost entirely on one short story, “Gay Falcon.” Also called “A Man Named Falcon,” it features a gentleman sleuth named Gay Stanhope Falcon. The character concept was taken up by Hollywood in 1941, which that year released The Gay Falcon, with George Sanders in the title role, with the character renamed Gay Lawrence, better known as “the Falcon.”
A dozen more feature films continued the series, using plots from various sources. The third Falcon film, for example, was the first film adaptation of detective fiction writer Raymond Chandler’s novel Farewell, My Lovely, substituting the Falcon for Chandler’s private investigator Philip Marlowe. “The Falcon” also starred in radio shows and a television series. Arden himself wrote none of these plots, only the original short story creating the character, ironically in his last published story.
Author Works
Drama:
Good Losers, pr. 1931, pb. 1933 (with Walter Hackett)
Why Shelmerdene Was Late for Dinner, pr. 1924 (adapted from an Arlen story)
Dear Father, pr. 1924 (also known as These Charming People, 1925)
The Green Hat, pr. 1925 (adapted from Arlen's novel)
The Zoo, pr. 1927 (with Winchell Smith)
Long Fiction:
The London Venture, 1920
Piracy: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, 1922
The Green Hat, 1924
Young Men in Love, 1927
Lily Christine, 1928
Men Dislike Women, 1931
Man's Mortality, 1933
Hell! Said the Duchess, 1934
The Flying Dutchman, 1939
Short Fiction:
The Romantic Lady, 1921
"The Ancient", 1922 (also known as “The Smell in the Library”)
These Charming People, 1923 (abridged as The Man with the Broken Nose, and Other Stories, 1927)
"The Gentleman from America", 1924
May Fair, in Which Are Told the Last Adventures of These Charming People, 1925 (abridged as The Ace of Cads, and Other Stories, 1927)
Ghost Stories, 1927
Babes in the Wood, 1929
The Ancient Sin, and Other Stories, 1930
The Short Stories, 1933
The Crooked Coronet, and Other Misrepresentations of the Real Facts of Life, 1937
"Midnight Adventure", 1938
"Gay Falcon", 1940 (also known as “A Man Named Falcon”)
Bibliography
Arlen, Michael J. Exiles. Farrar, Staus and Giroux, 1970. A family memoir by Arlen's son.
Fowler, Christopher. "Invisible Ink: No 84—Michael Arlen." The Independent, 2 July 2011, www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/invisible-ink-no-84-michael-arlen-2305794.html. A brief review of the highlights of Arlen's career as the F. Scott Fitzgerald of 1920s British high society.
Keyishian, Harry. Michael Arlen. G. K. Hall, 1975. Biography by an English professor from Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Woodfin, Barbara. "Arlen, Michael (Dikran Kouyoumdjian) (1895–1956)." The Modernist Journals Project, www.modjourn.org/render.php?view=mjp‗object&id=mjp.2005.01.065. Accessed 30 June 2017. Overview of Arlen's life and work, just over 1,000 words.