Earl Derr Biggers 1884—1933

Earl Derr Biggers was an American novelist and playwright best remembered for his detective novels featuring the fictional Chinese American detective Charlie Chan, from which many films were made. His first successful novel Seven Keys to Baldpate became a hit Broadway stage play, and later adapted to seven different film versions. More than 10 years after this early success Biggers had even greater success with his series of Charlie Chan detective novels whose popularity extended even to China, where audiences in Shanghai appreciated these Hollywood films (source Wikipedia).