arthur hailey hote

阿瑟·黑利（英语：Arthur Hailey，1920年4月5日—2004年11月24日），作家，具有英国和加拿大双重国籍。二战时曾为英国皇家空军飞行员，最终阶级为空军上尉。战后定居多伦多。主要作品有《大饭店》（1965年）等。

Arthur Frederick Hailey, AE (5 April 1920 – 24 November 2004) was a British-Canadian novelist whose plot-driven storylines were set against the backdrops of various industries. His books, which include such best sellers as Hotel (1965), Airport (1968), Wheels (1971), The Moneychangers (1975), and Overload (1979), have sold 170 million copies in 38 languages.

Early life

Arthur Frederick Hailey was born on 5 April 1920, in Luton, Bedfordshire, England, the only child of George Wellington Hailey, a factory worker, and Elsie Wright Hailey. An avid reader, Hailey began to write poems, plays and stories at a young age. He once said, "My mother left me off chores so I could write." Elsie encouraged her son to learn typing and shorthand so that he might become a clerk instead of a factory worker.

At fourteen, Hailey failed to win a scholarship which would have enabled him to continue his schooling. From 1934 to 1939 he was an office boy and clerk in London. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1939, and served as a pilot during World War II, eventually rising to the rank of flight lieutenant. In 1947, unhappy with the post-war Labour government, he emigrated to Canada, becoming a dual citizen. Settling in Toronto, he held a variety of jobs in such fields as real estate, sales, and advertising. He was editor of a trade magazine called Bus and Truck Transport. During these years, he continued to write. Initially, the Haileys lived at 2747 St Clair Ave E. in East York, before moving in 1955 to 100 Sylvan Avenue in Scarborough. The Haileys moved again in 1962 to 11 Fallingbrook Woods in Scarborough. Additionally, the Haileys owned a cottage on Kennisis Lake.

Career

Hailey's professional writing career began in 1955 with a script called Flight into Danger, which was purchased by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and telecast on 3 April 1956. This story of a plane flight in jeopardy after its crew is incapacitated was "the smash hit of the season," won enormous acclaim, and was broadcast internationally. It was adapted as a novel by "John Castle" (a pseudonym for Ronald Payne and John Garrod), with Hailey credited as co-author; it was published by Britain's Souvenir Press in 1958 under its original title, but renamed Runway Zero-Eight (Doubleday) for its 1959 American publication. The story was filmed in 1957 as Zero Hour! (Paramount), and for television in 1971 as Terror in the Sky.

With the success of Flight into Danger, Hailey was in demand as a television writer, and wrote for such shows as Studio One, Kraft Television Theatre, Playhouse 90, and Suspense. In 1959, he adapted his teleplay No Deadly Medicine (for which he received an Emmy nomination) into his first novel The Final Diagnosis. Published by Doubleday, it is the story of the chief pathologist at a Burlington, Pennsylvania, hospital. The book received good reviews, and was a selection of the Literary Guild of America.

Hailey's second novel, In High Places (Doubleday) was published in 1962. Dealing with international politics the book was again selected by the Literary Guild, and was a best seller in Canada.

Hailey's commercial breakthrough came in 1965 with publication of Hotel (Doubleday), which followed five days in the lives of employees and residents of New Orleans' luxurious St. Gregory Hotel. The book spent 48 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, peaking at No. 3, and became the eighth highest-selling novel of the year. It established the template for Hailey's future works: ordinary people involved in extraordinary situations in a business or industry which is described in meticulous detail.