Jack BoyleJack Boyle (1881-1928) was an American writer and former convict best known for creating Boston Blackie, the gentleman thief and underworld rogue who became one of the durable figures of early twentieth-century American crime fiction. Boyle wrote theearliest Boston Blackie stories under the pen name "No. 6606," a reference to his prison experience, and the character's original magazine appearances began in The American Magazine in 1914 before continuing in other periodicals. His knowledge of prison life, criminal codes, and the social border between respectability and the underworld gave the Blackie stories a sharper edge than ordinary light mystery fiction.Although Boyle's literary output was limited, Boston Blackie had a long afterlife in American popular culture, moving from magazines and book form into silent films, later motion pictures, radio, and television. The character's appeal lies in contradiction: thief and hero, criminal and moralist, fugitive and protector, a man who breaks the law yet often seems more honourable than those who hide behind it. For readers of classic crime fiction, pulp-era storytelling, gentleman-thief fiction, early American mystery, and the roots of noir and hardboiled crime, Boyle's Boston Blackie remains an important and entertaining source text. Read More Read Less