Novelist. After graduating from the Faculty of Political Science & Economics at Waseda University, he worked a series of odd jobs, including as a clerk at a trading company. He was an admirer of the 19th-century American writer Edgar Allan Poe, and his nom de plume is considered wordplay on that author’s name. His literary debut was Nisen doka (The two-sen copper coin) in 1923, after which he published numerous mystery stories, including D-zaka no satsujin jiken (The case of the murder on D. hill), Injyu (The beast in the shadow), and Genei-jo (Castle of illusion), as well as children books like Kaijin niju menso (The fiend with twenty faces) and Shonen tantei-dan (Boy detectives club). He enjoyed immense popularity as creator of the detective Akechi Kogoro. In 1947, he founded and served as the first president of the Tantei sakka kurabu (Detective authors club), which in 1963 was renamed the Nihon suiri sakka kyokai (Mystery writers of Japan). In 1954, he launched the Edogawa Ranpo Prize with his own funds to encourage younger writers to continue the tradition of Japanese mystery novelists. He was awarded with the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon in 1961.