Survey on some authors - please help?

Question

I'm researching some 20th Century writers and I'd like to know how well-known, if at all they are. Please look at the list below and say which, if any, you've heard of and what you know of them. If you've never heard of any of them, please answer!

1. Hall Caine

2. Edgar Wallace

3. E. Phillips Oppenheim

4. Sydney Horler

5. Compton MacKenzie

6. "Sapper"

Cheers

Answer 1

no idea who they are what do they write about

Answer 2

I have to be honest with you, I haven't heard of any of them. Sorry!

Answer 3

Sorry, but I've never heard of any of these.

Answer 4

the only one iv ever heard of is compton mackenzie because my mum had a book by him

Answer 5

Compton MacKenzie wrote Whisky Galore (made into film about 50 years ago). Edgar Wallace wrote detective stories, some turned into shorts series The Mysteries of Edgar Wallace (?). Don't know others.

Answer 6

This is off the top of my head - I haven't looked any of them up.

I know Compton MacKenzie wrote 'Whisky Galore' and I have read something more serious by him but the title escapes me. Flourished in the 1930s-1940s.

'Sapper' wrote the 'Bulldog Drummond' stories, part of the genre that has been memorably described as 'snobbery with violence'. I seem to remember that he had a fiancée called Phyllis.

Edgar Wallace was massively popular between the 1st and 2nd World Wars. A thriller writer. "The Four Just Men" is the only title that springs to mind.

E. Phillips Oppenheim rings quite a loud bell, but I can't place him,

Hall Caine a very distant bell.

Sydney Horler I am not aware of ever having heard of.

Added:

That's 'Bulldog' Drummond who had the fiancée called Phyllis, not 'Sapper'.

I'd be much better on the 'golden age' puzzle detective story writers of that period than the thriller or 'shocker' genre. At some point I am going to remember why E. Phillips Oppenheim is such a familiar name but I'm getting mixed up with S F X van Dusen and Philo Vance, and that is Jacques Fontrelle (?) who only stays in my mind because he went down the Titanic.

Sorry about the 'stream of conciousness' - I have no idea what sort of survey you are doing.

Answer 7

I've never heard of any of these authors and I have an MFA in English/Literature (on top of my English Lit BA). Either I fell asleep in class for a few semesters/years, or you've got some pretty obscure authors here. Now I'm curious.

Answer 8

never heard of any of them!

Answer 9

Never heard of any of them

Answer 10

Off the top of my head, only Edgar Wallace sounds familiar.  Whats the book titles?  I'm better at remembering them.