The Armed Services editions and mysteries.

Cover of Armed Services edition
of Rex Stout's Not Quite Dead
Enough (1945)

I just finished Molly Guptill Manning's When Books Went to War: The Stories That Helped Us Win World War II, which provides a lively and often poignant discussion of the importance to service members of the Armed Services editions in World War II. They were produced to be sturdy, lightweight, and sized for a pocket, and the Council on Books in Wartime, in charge of the effort, tried to supply a book "to fit the tastes of every man" (79). (One of the council's members was Farrar & Rinehart's Stanley Rinehart, son of Mary Roberts Rinehart). The council printed more than 123 million copies of Armed Services editions.

To mention a few mystery-related elements in the book:

• One of the authors listed as banned in Germany:
  G. K. Chesterton 

• "The most popular genre was contemporary fiction . . . followed by historical novels, mysteries, books of humor, and westerns" (79–80).

•  Among the earliest Armed Services editions: Earl Derr Biggers, Seven Keys to Baldpate; W. R. Burnett, Little Caesar; Daphne du Maurier, Jamaica Inn; and Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear

• Some of the last Armed Services editions published in 1947: John Dickson Carr, The Sleeping Sphinx; Manning Coles, With Intent to Deceive; Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse; Hilda Lawrence, Death of a Doll; Richard and Frances Lockridge, Think of Death; Ngaio Marsh, Final Curtain; Craig Rice, ed., Los Angeles Murders; and Kelley Roos, Ghost of a Chance.

Related:

• BookTV footage of Manning talking about the book in 2015

• Books in Action: The Armed Services Editions (ed. John Y. Cole, 1984)

• Editions for the Armed Services Inc.: A History (1948)

Richard Lockridge speaks on the Norths.

Barbara Britton and
Richard Denning as
Pam and Jerry North

To celebrate today's birthday of Richard Lockridge (1898–1982), a journalist and co-creator of the sleuthing couple Pam and Jerry North, listen to this 17-minute talk by him from the June 1954 Books and Authors Luncheon (found in the WNYC Radio archive). He is introduced at about 18.30 minutes into the program and speaks about the genesis of the Norths in the pages of the New Yorker, which involves anecdotes on life with his wife, Frances. He praises Frances's plotting ability and mentions that 3.1 million people are expected to listen to the Mr. and Mrs. North radio program that night. He also states that gas is 20 cents a gallon (remember those days?).

Also on the program: critic and Columbia University professor Jacques Barzun, talking about his book God's Country and Mine (on the United States, which he calls "the greatest hodge-podge that has ever been").

Peggy Bacon: Artist, mystery writer.

The exhibition "Six Degrees of Peggy Bacon" at the Smithsonian's Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture (on view until Nov. 4, but some materials are posted online) shows the artistic work and various connections of Bacon (1895–1987) with Diego Rivera, Alfred Stieglitz, Andrew Wyeth, and others, but also mentions that she was an Edgar nominee for The Inward Eye (1952, aka Lady Marked for Murder; adapted for Robert Montgomery Presents, 1952). Her illustration work includes The Nameless Cat (1954) by Richard and Frances Lockridge.

Happy birthday, Richard Lockridge.

Richard Denning and Barbara
Britton as Jerry and Pam North
in "Till Death Do Us Part"
Mr. and Mrs. North (1952)

Richard Lockridge, who created New York sleuthing couple Pam and Jerry North with his first wife, Frances, was born today in St. Joseph, MO, in 1898. He served in the Navy during World War I and II and as a reporter and drama critic for the New York Sun. The first North book was The Norths Meet Murder (1940), and the Norths (not to mention their famous Siamese cats Martini, Sherry, and Gin) went on to popularity in theater, radio, and television adaptations in addition to their appearances in some 25 novels and one short story. The Lockridges received an Edgar in 1946 for best radio drama and served jointly as president of the Mystery Writers of America in 1960. Richard, who produced approximately 90 books over the course of his career, died in 1982.