A. E. Apple

A. E. Apple (6 June 1891 — 27 May 1963) was an American-Canadian author of crime thrillers. He is remembered for the two characters he created—Mr. Chang and Mr. Rafferty.

Life and career

A. E. Apple was born Elmer Albert Apple on June 6, 1891, in Findlay, Ohio, to Charles Barnabas Apple and Minnie Dorrian. In his pseudonym A. E. Apple, he transposed the first two names.

Apple was an author of ramshackle crime thrillers, mostly at shorter lengths for Detective Story Magazine. His stories include a series featuring the Chinese villain character Mr. Chang—Canada's version of Mr. Fu Manchu, a character created by Sax Rohmer. In the novel Mr. Chang's Crime Ray: A Detective Story (9 April 1927 Detective Story Magazine; fixup 1928), Chang is determined to steal the eponymous Invention, a short-range, semi-portable Death Ray that must be plugged into an electrical outlet via a long power cable. 

Apple ended the Mr. Chang series in 1931.

Apple's other character was Mr. Rafferty—which is Canada's version of "Raffles," a character created by E. W. Hornung.

Apple wrote a syndicated column "The Referee" and also True Romances under a pseudonym.

Personal life

Apple married Beatrice Gladys Muriel Nixon on September 10, 1919, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They were the parents of at least 1 son and 1 daughter. 

According to his son, Barnabas William Nixon Apple, his father separated from his mother and moved back to Cleveland (from Canada) to be with his family, and lived at a large institution in the Cleveland area as head gardener, and didn't do any more writing.

Death

Apple died on 27 May 1963, in Cleveland, Ohio, at the age of 72.