S.S. Van Dine was the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright, an American art critic and author born on October 15, 1888, in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is best known for his detective novels featuring the fictional amateur sleuth Philo Vance. Wright's writing career began in journalism and art criticism, but he gained fame in the 1920s and 1930s with his mystery novels. The first Philo Vance novel, "The Benson Murder Case," was published in 1926. Wright passed away on April 11, 1939, in New York City.
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