How Did the United States Treat the Creator of…The Saint
Just a reminder of how one Leslie Charteris was treated by the Chinese Exclusion Act…and California’s anti-Chinese laws. Just in case you didn’t know, Leslie Charteris was the creator of this literary figure…
Charteris himself wasn’t far removed from his character. Born in Singapore to an English mother and Chinese father, he had an exceptional education culminating in studies at Kings College, Cambridge. He relocated to the United States in 1932, where he continued to publish short stories and got a job writing for Paramount Pictures. He naturally found his way to Palm Springs. (Charteris was excluded from permanent residency in the United States because of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was particularly pernicious in California, and prohibited immigration for persons of “fifty percent or greater Oriental blood.” As a result, Charteris was forced to continually renew his six-month temporary visitor’s visa. Eventually, an act of Congress personally granted him the right of permanent residence in the United States, with eligibility for naturalization, which he later completed.)