John Ball
Novelist, Author
1911 – 1988
Who was John Ball?
John Dudley Ball, writing as John Ball, was an American writer best known for mystery novels involving the African-American police detective Virgil Tibbs. Tibbs was introduced in the 1965 novel In the Heat of the Night, which won the Edgar Award for Best First Novel from the Mystery Writers of America and was made into an Oscar-winning film of the same name.
Ball was born in Schenectady, New York, grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and attended Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He wrote for a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Brooklyn Eagle. For a time he worked part-time as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, was trained in martial arts, and was a nudist. In the mid-1980s, he was the book review columnist for Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Ball lived in Encino, California, and died there in 1988. He was a member of the exclusive Baker Street Irregulars, a society of ardent Sherlock Holmes fans. He was invested in the BSI in 1960 as "The Oxford Flier."
Ball's Last Plane Out consists of two stories which share characters and then meld together.
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- Born
- Jul 8, 1911
Schenectady - Also known as
- John Dudley Ball
- Spouses
- Patricia M. Hamilton
(1942/08/22 - )
- Patricia M. Hamilton
- Nationality
- United States of America
- Profession
- Education
- Carroll University
- Died
- Oct 15, 1988
Encino - Resting place
- Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Submitted
on July 23, 2013
Citation
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"John Ball." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 May 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/john_ball_1911>.
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