The Crime and the Criminal

Richard Bernard Heldmann, an English novelist who was born on 12 October 1857 and died on 9 August 1915, wrote under the pen name Richard Marsh. He wrote a lot in the later years of the 19th century. His supernatural thriller book The Beetle is his best-known work. In 1880, Heldmann started writing and publishing fiction, first as boys' school and adventure stories for magazine publishers. Recent research has revealed that Heldmann was condemned to 18 months of hard labor on 10 April 1884 in the West Kent Quarter Sessions for issuing several counterfeit checks in Britain and France throughout 1883. After being released from prison, Heldmann chose a pseudonym, and in 1888, fiction written under the name "Richard Marsh" started to appear in literary magazines. In 1893, two novels were published under this pseudonym. In the 1890s and the first decade of the 20th century, Marsh wrote and published a lot. On August 9, 1915, at Haywards Heath, Sussex, he passed away from heart illness. Many of his books were released after his death.