Irving Wallace

Irving Wallace was an American novelist, screenwriter, and magazine writer whose fiction often placed public institutions under unusual pressure. The Man imagines an unexpected presidential succession that brings a Black senator to the White House, using speculative politics to examine constitutional procedure, prejudice, executive authority, and national division. University archives preserve Wallace's manuscripts, research notes, correspondence, proofs, and screen work, including extensive material for The Man. His other widely known novels include The Chapman Report, The Prize, The Plot, and The Word, while his nonfiction ranged across popular history and biography. Wallace's long magazine and film experience helped shape books built from large casts, topical research, and public controversies, with political or social questions driving the narrative design.