Robbins, Harold

(US, 1912–97)

Harold Robbins made his name in the 1950s as the author of a string of best-sellers about the seamy side of American life, and A Stone for Danny Fisher (1955), the story of the descent into crime of a promising championship boxer, later adapted for film as the Elvis Presley vehicle King Creole, remains widely regarded as Robbins's single best novel. More typical is 79 Park Avenue (1955), a story about a high-class call girl in New York. The Carpetbaggers (1961), a tale about the decadent lifestyles of the rich, marks a change of focus from pulp to high gloss in Robbins's books, and The Betsy (1971), a glamorous, big-business story about an inventor's fight to put his dream car into commercial production, and Memories of Another Day (1979), the rags-to-riches tale of a poor Midwesterner making it as a powerful union boss, are both representative of Robbins's later work.

Arthur Hailey, Mario Puzo  WB