Donald Edwin Westlake (born July 12th, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York), is a prolific American writer, with over a hundred books, specializing in crime fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional bit of science fiction. He is a three-time Edgar award winner, and was made a Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America in 1993, the highest honor they bestow. July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other meanings, see Brooklyn (disambiguation). ... Sherlock Holmes, pipe-puffing hero of crime fiction, confers with his colleague Dr. Watson; together these characters popularized the genre. ... The caper story is a subgenre of crime fiction. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ... The Mystery Writers of America are an organization for mystery writers. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

Westlake attended Harpur College in Binghamton, New York, and left early. He spent two years in the USAF. He is married to Abigail Westlake aka Abby Adams Westlake and Abby Adams, a writer of non-fiction, frequently gardening, sometimes family history. Her two published books are An Uncommon Scold and The Gardener's Gribe Book. Binghamton is a city in upstate New York in the United States. ... Seal of the Air Force. ...

In addition to publishing prolifically under his own name, Westlake has published under numerous pseudonyms, including John B. Allen, Curt Clark, Tucker Coe, Timothy J. Culver, Morgan J. Cunningham, Samuel Holt, Sheldon Lord (with Lawrence Block), Allan Marshall, Richard Stark, and Edwin West. A pseudonym (Greek: false name) is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to their legal name (whereas an allonym is the name of another actual person assumed by one person in authorship of a work of art; e. ...

Westlake is known for the great ingenuity of his plots and the audacity of his gimmicks. His writing and dialogue are lively. His main characters are fully rounded, believable, and extremely clever. Westlake's most famous characters are the hard-boiled criminal Parker (written under the Richard Stark name) and Parker's comic flip-side John Dortmunder, the hard-luck criminal genius -- who originally began as Parker getting caught (to Westlake's surprise) in a comic situation in what became the novel The Hot Rock. Parker, as played by Mel Gibson in Payback (for which he was renamed Porter) Parker is a Donald E. Westlake character who appears in his Richard Stark-signed novels. ...

Most of Westlake's novels are set in New York City. In the Dortmunder novels, there is usually a detailed shortcut somewhere through the city. Several of Westlake (Stark) novels have been made into motion pictures, most notably The Hot Rock in 1972 with Robert Redford, Payback in 1999 with Mel Gibson, and What's the Worst That Could Happen? in 2001 with Martin Lawrence as well as many others. Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... Robert Redford Charles Robert Redford Jr. ... Revenge is retaliation against a person or group in response to wrongdoing. ... Mel Gibson. ... Whats the Worst That Could Happen? is an American comedy movie starring Martin Lawrence (as a master thief) and Danny DeVito (as a billionaire businessman) that was distributed by MGM in 2001. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

External links

• Official webpage
• Better bibliography
• Annotated booklist
• 1990 Audio Interview with Donald Westlake - RealAudio