Leslie H. Whitten

Leslie H. Whitten is an American author and journalist. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Whitten spent most of his life in the northeastern United States, where he attended Lehigh University for a while before taking off to Paris and then Mexico, and then back to Paris. He met his lifelong wife, Phyllis in Paris where they were married in 1951. They spent most of the 1950s in Europe, where Whitten got his start in journalism. The couple eventually moved back to Maryland, and Whitten worked as an investigative reporter for the Washington Post.

Whitten is the author of eleven novels and a few non-fiction titles. He started his fiction career as an author of Gothic horror with his 1965 novel Progeny of the Adder. He followed up two years later with Moon of the Wolf.  These books were originally published by Doubleday and later released in paperback editions by Ace. Moon of the Wolf was adapted into a made-for-TV movie of the same name; it aired in 1972 as an ABC Movie of the Week. Whitten’s fourth novel was an occult thriller, The Alchemist, which sold to Charterhouse in 1973 and was subsequently released in paperback by Avon. They followed up with paperback reprints of his first two novels. His only other horror novel, The Fangs of Morning, was published by Leisure Books in 1994 in a 2-for-1 omnibus edition with a reprint of The Alchemist (which was also reprinted by Zebra Books in 1986).

Whitten currently resides in an assisted living center in Adelphi, Maryland. I’m sorry to report that Phyllis, his wife of 65 years, passed away earlier this year. They had three sons and five grandchildren. Mr. Whitten is 89 years old.

To browse the list of his titles currently available in print and eBook editions, click here.

These cover scans are from the library of author Christopher Fulbright.