Huxley's "The Gioconda Smile" (radio, 1945).

Charles Boyer and Ann Blyth in
A Woman's Vengeance (1948)

There have been several film, TV, play, and radio versions of "The Gioconda Smile" (1921) by Aldous Huxley, who was born today in Surrey in 1894. "The Gioconda Smile," listed as one of the best mystery short stories of all time, was adapted as the film A Woman's Vengeance (1948) with Charles Boyer and a 1950 play with Basil Rathbone. The story involves a man who faces questions after the death of his wife and his marriage to a much younger woman. This 1945 radio version is from the Molle Mystery Theater.

Happy birthday, Aldous Huxley.

Caricature of
Aldous Huxley, NYPL

Author Aldous Huxley, best known for the utopian novel Brave New World (1932), was born today in Surrey in 1894, the great-nephew of Matthew Arnold. He also made a few contributions to mysterydom: the short stories "A Deal in Old Masters" (The Strand, Feb. 1923; repr. Detective Stories from the Strand, ed. Jack Adrian, New York: Oxford UP, 1991) and "The Gioconda Smile" (English Review, Aug. 1921; later adapted as a play starring Basil Rathbone, adapted for TV several times; and selected as one of the 12 best detective short stories of all time). He died the same day as JFK's assassination: November 22, 1963.