Trivia

Reportedly needed quick cash to buy some land for a house in 1946, so he wrote the detective novel "I, The Jury" in less than a month. Although he had been a professional writer for magazines, "I, The Jury" was his first novel. It sold over three million copies and made him a celebrity due to his frank combination of sex and violence. He went on to write several more novels with his main character from "I, The Jury", hard-living private eye Mike Hammer. Several actors have played Hammer over the years in the movies and on television. Spillane even portrayed Hammer himself in The Girl Hunters (1963) and parodied his own image in some funny Miller Lite beer commercials in the 1970s.

In 1989 the house where he lived for 35 years was destroyed by the winds of Hurricane Hugo.

He referred to his books as "the chewing gum of American literature". He said he wrote when he needed money.

On a dare from his publisher, he wrote a children's novel called "The Day the Sea Rolled Back" (about two boys who find a shipwreck loaded with treasure). The book went on to win a Junior Literary Guild award. Following this success, he wrote a second children's novel called "The Ship That Never Was".

Also worked as a circus performer. At one point in the 1950s he was in an act in which he was shot out of a cannon.

Stopped publishing Mike Hammer novels twice in his writing career. The first break began in 1952, following the publication of "Kiss Me, Deadly" (and coinciding with Spillane's conversion to the Jehovah's Witness religion) and ended with the publication of "The Girl Hunters" in 1962. He again stopped publishing Mike Hammer novels in 1970 after the publication of "Survival . . . Zero!". He did not release another Mike Hammer novel until 1989's "The Killing Man.".

Grew up in Elizabeth, NJ, and attended Fort Hays College in Kansas, where he was a standout swimmer before beginning his career writing for magazines.

According to the press materials for "Dead Street" (his final crime novel), he had worked on the book for more than five years before its publication. However, according to Spillane's friend and writing partner Max Allan Collins, Spillane may have worked on "Dead Street" on and off for as long as 20 years. Spillane also had hoped that "Dead Street" would be adapted as a film, and felt the main character (Jack Stang, a retired cop) would make a good role for an aging actor. He had hoped that Stang would be played by Charles Bronson, and that his love interest would be played by Lee Meredith (a good indicator of how long Spillane had worked on the book).

Named the main character in his last crime novel, "Dead Street" (2007), after his close friend Jack Stang. The two had been friends since the 1940s and appeared in the film Ring of Fear (1954) together. Spillane had even hoped that Stang would play Mike Hammer in a film, and financed a screen test for Stang in the 1950s.

Became a Jehovah's Witness in 1951.

Biography/bibliography in: "Contemporary Authors". New Revision Series, Vol. 125, pp. 361-366. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2004.

In 1956, the result of a poll of America's favorite books was published. The Bible was in first position; seven of the other nine books in the top ten were by Mickey Spillane. At the time, he'd only published these seven books.

To this day, Mickey Spillane is one of the few authors to have played his own fictional character on screen.

Mentioned in Marty (1955).

At the time of his passing in 2006, Mickey Spillane had a few unfinished novels. His friend and fellow writer Max Allan Collins, completed the novels on Spillane's behalf.