1. Les Whitten was an American investigative reporter at the Washington Merry-Go-Round under Jack Anderson, as well as translator of French poetry by Baudelaire and influential novelist of horror and science fiction books.
11 Facts About Les Whitten
1. 2.
Les Whitten's father was an electrical engineer and executive with the manufacturer Graybar.
3.
Les Whitten grew up in Washington, DC, and attended the Woodrow Wilson High School.
4.
Les Whitten started at Lehigh University by majoring in civil engineering.
5.
Les Whitten then moved to Mexico and again to Paris, continuing to try to be a writer, before shifting back to journalism in order to support his new family.
6.
Les Whitten then joined the Munich office of Radio Free Europe in 1951, where he worked until 1957.
7.
Les Whitten faced indictment in a First Amendment and ten years in jail.
8.
Les Whitten wrote multiple novels, as well as other books including a children's book, a biography of lawyer F Lee Bailey, and a translation of French poet Charles Baudelaire, in his spare time while working as a journalist and then full-time later.
9.
On November 11,1951, Les Whitten married Phyllis Webber was born on August 6,1928 and in Paris.
10.
Les Whitten died age 89 on December 1,2017, of sepsis in a hospital in Adelphi, Maryland.
11.
The Weekly Standard credits Les Whitten for having "reinvented Horror and Science Fiction" book genres.