Henry Slesar | |
---|---|
Born |
Brooklyn, New York, United States |
June 12, 1927
Died | April 2, 2002 New York City, U.S. |
(aged 74)
Pen name | O. H. Leslie Jay Street |
Nationality | American |
Genre |
Dark fantasy Detective fiction Science fiction Mysteries Thrillers |
Henry Slesar (June 12, 1927 – April 2, 2002) was an American author, playwright, and copywriter. He is famous for his use of irony and twist endings. After reading Slesar's "M Is for the Many" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock bought it for adaptation and they began many successful collaborations. Slesar wrote hundreds of scripts for television series and soap operas, leading TV Guide to call him "the writer with the largest audience in America."
Henry Slesar was born in Brooklyn, New York City. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, and he had two sisters named Doris and Lillian. After graduating from the School of Industrial Art, he found he had a talent for ad copy and design, which launched his twenty-year career as a copywriter at the age of 17. He was hired right out of school to work for the prominent advertising agency Young & Rubicam.
It has been claimed that the term "coffee break" was coined by Slesar and that he was also the person behind McGraw-Hill's massively popular "The Man in the Chair" advertising campaign.
During World War II, for some years he served in the United States Air Force, which influenced his story "The Delegate from Venus". Afterwards, he opened his own agency.
Slesar was married three times: to Oenone Scott, 1953-1969; to Jan Maakestad, 1970-1974; and to Manuela Jone in 1974. He had one daughter and one son.