Background
Born at Campbellford, Ontario, he journeyed with his father"s medicine show, then boxed professionally.
Born at Campbellford, Ontario, he journeyed with his father"s medicine show, then boxed professionally.
In 1937 (age 27) he began his prolific pulp writing career, with a sale to Weird Tales. He wrote many stories for Uncanny Tales, a Canadian pulp magazine. He was the author of some two-dozen paperback books, largely of the true-crime variety.
Kelley claimed to be ‘king of the Canadian pulp writers’ and ‘the fastest author in the East’.
He died in Toronto. Kelley claimed that when began a novel he had no idea how it would end, and had used 30 pseudonyms. He is most noted for The Black Donnellys.
The Black Donnellys is reputed to be the Harlequin book with the most printings, with 15 printings of two editions between April 1954 and April 1968. Another source states 400,000 copies in 22 editions were sold.
However successful the books were, they were denounced as grossly inaccurate.
James Reaney, citing Alfred Scott Garrett, states that Kelley "totally misportrayed Mr. and Mistress James Donnelly”, effectively murdering them again. The book was described as "sensationalistic and not very factual".
Citing John Robert Colombo, the tale was likely "concocted" by Kelley and Herbert Emerson (single “m”) Wilson.
"Since this Wilson was born in Canada and Edward Arthur Wilson was born in England, there is hardly any likelihood there was a real connection between them.".
