Stephen Marlowe Biography

Stephen Marlowe was a popular fiction novelist best known for his detective thrillers about international espionage with main character Chester Drum, a globe-trotting private eye. He wrote more than 50 novels in different genres from crime to science-fiction to historical fiction. Marlowe’s first novel, “The Second Longest Night,” was published in 1955. Many of his books were published by Fawcett. Stephen Marlowe was born as Milton Lesser, but legally changed his name to Stephen Marlowe—one of his many pen names—in the late ‘50s. Although he was born in Brooklyn, New York, Marlowe spent much of his career living abroad, in France, Spain, and Switzerland. He won the Prix Gutenberg du Livre, a French literary award, in 1988 and a lifetime achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America in 1997.