Edward Gorey, mystery fan.

Sign for the Edward Gorey House.
Photo by Elizabeth Foxwell.

I recently visited the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA, which was a fascinating place—full of collections compiled by the distinguished artist and author (winner of the Tony Award for set design and costume design for Dracula—the docent referred to the Gorey House as "the house that Dracula built"). His book collection included some 26,000 volumes and is now housed at San Diego State University (about 35 percent of it can be searched here).

Gorey (1925–2000) was a devoted mystery fan. A short browse through his library yields 41 works by Agatha Christie, 39 works by Wilkie Collins, 30 books by Guy Boothby, 24 books by Margaret Sutton [Rachel Beebe], 16 Nancy Drew books, 16 novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor, 11 works by Jane Langton, 8 books by Patricia Wentworth, 7 books by Catherine Aird, and 6 books by Ross Macdonald [Kenneth Millar].

Some sample titles:

• Catherine Aird [Kinn Hamilton McIntosh], The Religious Body (1980 ed.); Henrietta Who? (1981 ed.); The Stately Home Murder (1980 ed.)
• Grant Allen, Miss Cayley's Adventures (1899)
• Agatha Christie, Death in the Air (1935); Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985); Mort Sur Nil [Death on the Nile] (1948; note that Gorey earned a degree in French literature from Harvard); Murder in Three Acts (1934) 
• Wilkie Collins, Armadale (1866); No Name (1978 ed.); The Dead Secret (1979 ed.)
• J.S. Fletcher, The Markenmore Mystery (1923); Ravensdene Court (1922)
• Michael Gilbert, The Black Seraphim (1985); End-Game (1983)
• Patrick Hamilton, Hangover Square (1941); Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953)
• Jane Langton, Divine Inspiration (1994 ed.); Emily Dickinson Is Dead (1985); Murder at the Gardner (1989)
• Ross Macdonald, The Doomsters (1958); The Blue Hammer (1976)
• A.E.W. Mason, They Wouldn't Be Chessmen (1985 ed.)
• Ed McBain [Evan Hunter], Lightning (1985)
• Phoebe Atwood Taylor, The Cape Cod Mystery (1965 ed., 1988 ed.); The Criminal C.O.D. (1972 ed.); Death Lights a Candle (1989 ed.), Diplomatic Corpse (1986 ed.); The Left Leg (1988 ed.)
• Patricia Wentworth, Grey Mask (1952 ed.); Poison in the Pen (1980 ed.); She Came Back (1981 ed.)
  
  
  

  

  Edward Gorey in his kitchen, Aug 1999. 
  Wikimedia Commons, 
  Photographer: Christopher Seufert 

  
  

Rebecca Josephy on magic and detective fiction.

On The Magic Book podcast, Rebecca Josephy (Oakland Univ) talks about the collection she edited, Magic, Magicians and Detective Fiction: Essays on Intersecting Modes of Mystery (McFarland, 2025), on the use of magic and magicians in mysteries, including discussion of impossible crimes and supernatural elements. It analyzes this subgenre's nineteenth-century roots and features reflections on writers such as Canadian-born author Grant Allen (An African Millionaire), Japanese writer Edogawa Ranpo, and American magician-author-editor-illustrator Clayton Rawson. Josephy, a French literature and detective fiction specialist, contributes an essay on gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, created by Maurice Leblanc.

• Review of Magic, Magicians and Detective Fiction in Mythlore, vol. 43, no. 2 (2025). 

• Read about Josephy's earlier Clues article, "A Study in Daniel: Tracing the Biblical Origins of Sherlock Holmes" (38.1, 2020)

The best of Grant Allen.

Grant Allen.
NYPL

Author Brian Busby, series editor for Canada's Ricochet Books that is reissuing vintage noir works by Canadian writers, discusses his choices for the best books of Canadian-born mystery author Grant Allen (1848–99), who was attended on his deathbed by physician friend and neighbor Arthur Conan Doyle. Calling Allen "a writer of great imagination . . . [with] memorable characters and . . . a dab hand at clever, intricate plots," Busby acknowledges that he is still working his way through Allen's oeuvre. However, some of his picks are The Devil's Die (1888), the prize-winning What's Bred in the Bone (1891), and Hilda Wade (1900, Allen's work with a nurse sleuth completed posthumously by Conan Doyle).

Victorian yellowbacks in Canada.

Strange Secrets, a collection of ghost stories
(London, 1890). Image from the
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Toronto.

The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library of the University of Toronto offers a nice online collection of cover images from Victorian yellowbacks—most notably from works by Canadian-born Grant Allen (mystery writer as well as friend and neighbor of Arthur Conan Doyle).

Through the lens with George Bernard Shaw.

George Bernard Shaw.
Library of Congress,
Prints and Photographs Div.

An interesting online exhibition by the London School of Economics archives looks at playwright George Bernard Shaw as a skilled photographer. Photo subjects include sci-fi and mystery author Grant Allen (I introduced the Valancourt Books edition of Allen's Miss Cayley's Adventures), writer Rebecca West, and artists Augustus John (father of Ian Fleming's half-sister Amaryllis) and Neville Stephen Bulwer Lytton (grandson of novelist Edward). Also featured are some photos by Shaw's friends such as T. E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) and Shaw productions such as Major Barbara with Wendy Hiller.

Canada Literary Tour: No mystery.

Grant Allen

I must confess to irritation that "Canada: A Literary Tour" on the Library and Archives Canada Web site has absolutely no mention of Canadian mystery contributions to its literary landscape. Not even Grant Allen (b. in Kingston, Ontario, in 1848)—grandson of the fifth Baron Longueuil (the only Canadian barony), friend of Arthur Conan Doyle, and creator of some of the earliest female fictional detectives (Lois Cayley, Hilda Wade). Surely multiaward-winning Louise Penny contributes substantially to a rendering of Quebec?

Brock University has a great Crime Fiction Canada resource. Perhaps the Crime Writers of Canada will compile their own mystery map of Canada.

Happy birthday, Grant Allen; Rupert Holmes.

Mystery author Grant Allen, who thought he would be remembered for his scientific journalism rather than the fiction he despised, was born today in Canada in 1848. He died in 1899, attended by his friend and neighbor Arthur Conan Doyle. A major influence on H. G. Wells (who once trashed Allen in a review), he is mentioned in The Time Machine. Some of Allen's better known works are An African Millionaire (1897), "Pallinghurst Barrow" (1892), "The Great Ruby Robbery" (1892), and Hilda Wade (completed by Conan Doyle, 1900), the latter featuring an early female detective. His Miss Cayley's Adventures (1899), which also features a forthright female sleuth, has been reissued by Valancourt Books with a new introduction by me.

And Tony winner (for The Mystery of Edwin Drood), mystery writer, composer, and musician Rupert Holmes turns 62 today. To see Holmes performing his hit song "Him," go here.

The Return of Miss Cayley.

A new edition of Miss Cayley's Adventures—written by Grant Allen and introduced by me—is now available from Kansas City's Valancourt Books. It has not been in print since 1902.

Miss Lois Cayley, an early female detective, debuted in the Strand in 1898 and appeared in book form in 1899. A model of the New Woman, she travels around the world thwarting con men, solving mysteries, rescuing people in trouble, and scaling mountains with aplomb. The Canadian-born Allen, best known for the controversy surrounding his New Woman novel The Woman Who Did (1895) and his marked influence on H. G. Wells, also wrote sci fi, mystery, and paranormal works that include An African Millionaire, "The Great Ruby Robbery," "Palinghurst Barrow," and What's Bred in the Bone. His friend and neighbor Arthur Conan Doyle completed Hilda Wade, Allen's work featuring another female detective, per Allen's deathbed request. Allen died in October 1899.

As I am very concerned with mystery history, particularly the scarcity of affordable works featuring nineteenth- and early-twentieth- century female detectives, I was eager to see Miss Cayley's Adventures back in print. I'm glad it's now part of Valancourt's offerings of 1890s fiction.

About the illustration: "I am going out, simply in search of adventure." Illustration by Gordon Browne for Miss Cayley's Adventures, by Grant Allen. New York: Putnam, 1899. Introd. Elizabeth Foxwell. Kansas City: Valancourt, 2008.

Happy birthday, Grant Allen, August Derleth, and Rupert Holmes.

February 24th proves to be a popular day for mystery birthdays.

The pioneering Grant Allen (seen at left) was born on this day in 1848. He died in 1899. He achieved a certain level of notoriety with his novel The Woman Who Did (1895), which advocated free love. Some of his better known mystery works are An African Millionaire (1897), Miss Cayley's Adventures (1899), and Hilda Wade (completed by his friend Arthur Conan Doyle, 1900), the latter two featuring early female detectives.

August Derleth, well known for his science fiction, works of the macabre, and admiration for H.P. Lovecraft but also author of a number of Sherlock Holmes pastiches featuring Solar Pons, was born today in 1909. He died in 1971.

And mystery author Rupert Holmes, Tony-winning composer of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and forever dubbed the "Pina Colada guy" for his hit song "Escape," turns 60 today. His latest novel is Swing, featuring a 1940s jazz musician who is implicated in a murder.