Propper, Milton M.

American crime writer and lawyer, born into a middle-class family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he also lived for the greater part of his life. He was very close to his parents, particularly his mother, and even as an adult lived with them. Little is known about Milton M. (Morris) Propper’s early years, but we do know that he read a lot of books and that during his time in the Nazareth Hall Military Academy boarding school in Pennsylvania he amused his schoolmates by, for example, writing playscripts and other entertaining pieces. While at the University of Pennsylvania he started to write book and theatre reviews for the newspaper Record. In 1926 he graduated with a B.A., and went on to study at Pennsylvania Law School where he was also deputy editor for the respected magazine Law Review. He gained his legal qualifications in 1929, and the same year got his first crime novel, The Strange Disappearance of Mary Young, published. This came very close to being filmed, but the plans were scrapped on account of the economic depression.