Evan Hunter, aka Ed McBain, Richard Marsten, Hunt Collins, Curt Cannon,
Ezra Hannon and John Abbott, died yesterday at 78. (Even Evan Hunter,
his name for his literary fiction, which included The Blackboard Jungle,
was adopted: he was born Salvatore Lombino.) Credited with creating the
police procedural with the long-running 87th Precinct series set in a
fictional Manhattan (Isola=island in Italian) under the Ed McBain name,
Hunter also was a screenwriter and wrote the original screenplay of The Birds. Fiddlers, the 55th 87th Precinct book, will appear September 12.
