Ernest Bramah

Ernest Bramah Smith was born in Manchester, England, in 1868. At 16, he dropped out of Manchester Grammar School, with a poor academic record and went into farming, first as a farm pupil and then in his own right. It was while farming that Bramah began to contribute local vignettes to the Birmingham News. He eventually obtained a position as secretary to Jerome K. Jerome and rose to become editor of one of Jerome's magazines. Bramah attained success with his creation of Kai Lung, a wandering Chinese storyteller. In 1914, Bramah created Max Carrados, a blind detective, (arguably amongst the first if not actually the first) and wrote many stories that established him as a staple in detective fiction.