American mystery writer, whose most famous character is the Boston-based private eye Spenser. Parker introduced his hero in The Godwulf Manuscript in 1973.

"I walked back across the park and crossed Fifth Avenue and turned uptown. There was a plate glass window on the Hotel Pierre and I checked my reflection as I went by. I was wearing a leather jacket and a blue-toned Allen Solly tattersall shirt and jeans, and Nike running shoes with a charcoal swoosh. I paused and turned the collar up on my leather jacket. Perfect. Did the traffic slow on of Fifth Avenue to look at me? Maybe."
(from Taming a Sea-Horse, 1986)

Robert B. Parker was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and then served two years with the U.S. Army in Korea. In 1957 Parker earned his M.A. in literature from Boston University. Between 1957 and 1962 he worked in industry as a technical writer and in an advertising business.

In 1962 Parker began his sixteen-year academic career. Parker earned his Ph.D. in literature from Boston University in 1971. His dissertation was entitled "The Violent Hero, Wilderness Heritage and Urban Reality: A Study of the Private Eye in the Novels of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Ross Macdonald." In 1976 Parker became a full professor at the North-eastern University of Boston, but three years later he retired to devote himself entirely to writing. By this time he had already published five Spenser novels. In 1976 Parker's Promised Land won the Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America for best novel.

Spenser is an ex-boxer and ex-state policeman, who is also a gourmet cook and a reader of serious literature. He is named after Edmund Spenser, Shakespeare's contemporary, whose greatest work, The Faerie Queene (1590-96), examined knightly virtues. His best friend is an African American bodyguard and hit man named Hawk, and his lover is the Jewish feminist therapist, Susan Silverman, who has a Ph.D. in psychology. Hawk and Susan are in fact extreme extensions of Spenser's personality, Susan representing his rational and social side, and Hawk his asocial, violent tendencies. Spenser's financial situation is steady - he has no problems with the rent for his office but he often works without being paid. In Sudden Mischief (1998) he helps Susan, and in Hush Money (1999) he helps Susan's friend and Hawk's friend - without charge of course.

Spenser books are narrated from the first-person and written in taut, sparing prose. The dialogue is razor-sharp and witty. Spenser's thoughts are not always clear, for himself or the reader, and on many occasions Susan only finally reveals his motives. In each story there is a moral or ethical dilemma, which is set against Spenser's personal code of behaviour. Parker's work has spawned a number of spin-offs. The television series 'Spencer: For Hire,' starring Robert Ulrich and Avery Brooks, ran during the mid-1980s. Hawk got his own series, 'A Man Called Hawk,' in 1988-89.

Hawk is introduced in The Promised Land (1976). "Shepard appeared from the door past the stairs. With him was a tall black man with a bald head and high cheekbones." Susan Silverman joins Spencer's world in God Save the Child (1975). "Susan Silverman wasn't beautiful, but there was a tangibility about her... It was hard to tell her age but there was a sense about her of intelligent maturity which put her on my side of thirty." Their relationship is examined more deeply in the ensuing novels; Susan leaves Spenser for some time as she embarks on a new career, but later Spenser rescues her from captors in A Catskill Eagle (1985). In Double Deuce (1992) Susan wants Spenser to move in with her, but Spenser prefers to have a separate place for himself. Paul Giacomi, Spenser's surrogate son, is introduced in Early Autumn (1981). Other major regular characters are Lieutenant Martin Quirk and Sergeant Frank Belson. Pearl, Spenser's hunting dog, is referred by Susan as their "baby."

Spenser is one of the great characters in detective fiction along with Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, and Lew Archer. Perhaps he is also the descendant of the knight Marlowe sees over the entrance doors of the Sternwood palace in The Big Sleep: "... there was broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armour rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn't have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair."

Parker has also published work not connected with Spenser. Three Weeks in Spring (1979) Parker wrote with his wife, Joan H. Parker. All Our Yesterdays (1994) was a multigenerational saga about an Irish-American family from the early years of the twentieth century. In 1989 Parker completed Raymond Chandler's fragment of a Philip Marlowe novel, Poodle Springs. Perchance to Dream (1994) was a sequel to Chandler's classic The Big Sleep. With Night Passage (1997) Parker started a new series. The protagonist, Jesse Stone, is a former Los Angeles police detective, who becomes the chief of police in a small Massachusetts town ironically called Paradise. In Family Honour (1999) Sunny Randall, a female private eye was created for the actress Helen Hunt, who will play Sunny in the film version due out in 2000.

For further reading: Mystery and Suspense Writers, vol. 2, ed. by Robin W, Winks (1998); World Authors 1985-1990, ed. by Vineta Colby (1995); Colloquium on Crime, ed. by Robin Winks (1986); Private Eyes: One Hundred and One Knights, A Survey of American Detective Fiction, 1922-1984, by R. Baker and M. Nietzel (1985) Sons of Sam Spade by David Geherin (1980)

• ed.: The Personal Response to Literature, 1971
• The Godwulf Manuscript, 1973
• ed.: Order and Diversity, 1973
• God Save the Child, 1974
• Mortal Stakes, 1975
• Promised Land, 1976
• Three Weeks in Spring, 1978 (with Joan H. Parker)
• The Judas Goat, 1978
• Wilderness, 1979
• Mature Advertising, 1980
• Looking for Rachel Wallace, 1980
• Early Autumn, 1981
• A Savage Place, 1981
• Ceremony, 1982
• Surrogate, 1982
• The Widening Gyre, 1983
• Love and Glory, 1983
• Valediction, 1984
• The Private Eye in Hammett and Chandler, 1984
• Parker on Writing, 1985
• A Catskill Eagle, 1985
• Taming a Sea-Horse, 1986
• Pale Kings and Princes, 1987
• Crimson Joy, 1988
• Playmates, 1989
• Poodle Springs, 1989 (with Raymond Chandler)
• Stardust, 1990
• A Year at the Races, 1990 (with Joan H. Parker)
• Spots Illustrated Training With Weights, 1990 (with J. Marsh)
• Pastime, 1991
• Perchance to Dream, 1991
• Double Deuce, 1992
• Paper Doll, 1993
• All Our Yesterdays, 1994
• Walking Shadow, 1994
• Spencer's Boston, 1994
• Thin Air, 1995
• Chance, 1996
• Small Vices, 1997
• Night Passage, 1997
• Sudden Mischief, 1998
• Trouble in Paradise, 1998
• Hush Money, 1999
• Family Honour, 1999
• Hugger, Mugger, 2000