Happy birthday, Owen Wister.

Lawyer, friend of Theodore Roosevelt and Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., staunch opponent of censorship, and grandson of actress Fanny Kemble, Pennsylvania native Owen Wister was born today in 1860.

His greatest claims to fame are his biography of TR, Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship 1880-1919 (1930), and his novel The Virginian (1902), a cornerstone of the Western genre, or, as the New York Times put it, a "stirring novel of Western life [. . . it] undoubtedly will be read very widely." The reviewer was prophetic: At the time of Wister's death in July 1938, the New York Times stated that The Virginian had sold 1.5 million copies. It was adapted as a play and several films, including a classic one with Gary Cooper in 1929.

Historian John Lukacs mourns the lack of a "true and startling biography of Wister" here.

"...the sad truth is that enlightenment is mostly a stay-at-home creature, who crosses neither ocean nor frontier."--Owen Wister, "The Evolution of a Cow-Puncher" (Harper's, 1895; rpt. in The Virginian, Oxford UP, 1998)

Quote for the Day.
"...murder is no excuse for flabby toast."
-- Nicholas Blake (aka Cecil Day Lewis), Thou Shell of Death (1936)

Happy birthday, Mildred Wirt Benson.

Mildred Wirt Benson, the staggeringly productive author of the first seven and other Nancy Drew books, several Dana Girls novels, the Penny Parker mysteries, and many other books, was born today in 1905. She died in 2002.

Benson was the first female graduate of the University of Iowa's School of Journalism, held a private pilot's license, and was a columnist for the Toledo Blade. She noted in a 1973 article for Books at Iowa that in her most industrious year, she "turned out thirteen full-length volumes under various pen names, writing the entire list of new books for one publisher." She also said, "...it seems to me that Nancy [Drew] was popular, and remains so, primarily because she personifies the dream image which exists within most teen-agers."

Many of the original Nancy Drew books with the original cover art are available from Applewood Books.

Happy birthday, Dean Koontz.

Noted thriller and horror author Dean Koontz (and his ten pseudonyms) turn 62 today. His latest works include The Good Guy and The Husband.

You can find more information about his life and work in The Dean Koontz Companion, Dean Koontz: A Critical Companion, Dean Koontz: A Writer's Biography, and this interesting 1998 article from Publishers Weekly.

Photo: Jerry Bauer

Happy birthday, John Ball.

John Ball, the creator of detective Virgil Tibbs, was born today in 1911. He died in 1988.

He won an Edgar for the first Tibbs book, In the Heat of the Night (1965), which was followed by The Cool Cottontail (1966), Johnny Get Your Gun (1969), Five Pieces of Jade (1972; Edgar nominee), The Eyes of Buddha (1976), "One for Virgil Tibbs" (EQMM, 1976), "Virgil Tibbs and the Cocktail Napkin" (1979), Then Came Violence (1980), "Virgil Tibbs and the Fallen Body" (1982), and Singapore (1986). Said Ball in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, "I am not a 'message' author, but I believe in building books on ideas. For example, the idea behind In the Heat of the Night is that in any group of men a WASP is not necessarily the best qualified person present."

Here are short excerpts from Ray Charles's "In the Heat of the Night" and Quincy Jones's "They Call Me Mister Tibbs." And here's Sidney Poitier saying the most famous line of the film version of In the Heat of the Night (1967).

Books for Servicepeople.

Many devoted mystery fans are serving in military units overseas and greatly appreciate donations of books. Two volunteer efforts that put books into their hands are Operation Paperback and Books for Soldiers.

I've been sending paperbacks via Operation Paperback for about a year now, and the thank-you notes from the recipients have been most touching.

Philip MacDonald: The Choice (1931).

As a follow-up to my blog entry on Philip MacDonald's The Rasp, I'll feature another in the Anthony Gethryn series, The Choice (aka The Polferry Riddle and The Polferry Mystery).

In The Choice, the wife of a doctor is found one stormy night with her throat cut. Now the occupants of the remote house are being bumped off one by one, and Gethryn, who has systematically eliminated possible suspects, is stumped as to the perpetrator of these crimes. When another of the house occupants is kidnapped, Gethryn and Scotland Yard embark on a wild chase, and Gethryn eventually figures out the answer.

Like The Rasp, The Choice features paternal head-patting of female characters, although the kidnap victim, Susan Kerr, who is described as "very small and very charming," displays a calmer sensibility than her hysterical fiance. Also like The Rasp, The Choice has sudden turns and illuminating writing by MacDonald, such as "[t]he yellow flood of light swayed back, rushed through the doorway; sent flying the darkness between the doorway and the waiting men..." The Choice is a good choice for those who enjoy 1930s puzzle mysteries.

Leo Harris, who introduced the 1994 Chivers reprint of The Choice, stated that he could not understand the reason for the title, but I think it refers to a certain decision by the doctor's wife.

Happy birthday, Anthony Berkeley.

Golden Age British mystery author and journalist Anthony Berkeley Cox, aka Anthony Berkeley and Francis Iles, was born today in 1893. He died in 1971.

Cox, a founder of the Detection Club, created sleuths Ambrose Chitterwick and Roger Sheringham, and his The Poisoned Chocolates Case (1929), Before the Fact (1931; adapted as the Hitchcock film Suspicion), and Trial and Error (1937; adapted as the film Flight from Destiny) appear on the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list. He also contributed to the Detection Club's round-robin mysteries The Floating Admiral, Ask a Policeman, and Six Against the Yard. The screen version of his novel Malice Aforethought appeared last year on PBS's Mystery! series, and Crippen & Landru has published a collection of his short stories.

For more on Cox's life and work, see Elusion Aforethought: The Life and Writing of Anthony Berkeley Cox by Malcolm J. Turnbull (Popular P, 1996).

"The question will be, not, 'Who killed the old man in the bathroom?' but 'What on earth induced X, of all people, to kill the old man in the bathroom?'"--Anthony Berkeley, preface to The Second Shot (1930), on the future of the detective story.

Cornerstone: The Rasp by Philip MacDonald.

I thought I would devote part of this summer to catching up on the books I've missed on the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list---those mysteries published between 1748 and 1952 that were deemed essential by Howard Haycraft and Frederic Dannay. To date, I've read 34 works on the list.

I've been intrigued by the work of Scottish writer Philip MacDonald (1899-1981) since I saw the 1956 film Twenty-Three Paces to Baker Street (which features Van Johnson as a blind playwright who overhears a kidnapping plot). MacDonald, grandson of writer George MacDonald, is probably best known for the Edgar-nominated The List of Adrian Messenger (1959), but two of his other works appear on the Cornerstone list: The Rasp (1924) and The Nursemaid Who Disappeared (aka Warrant for X, 1938, the basis for Twenty-Three Paces to Baker Street).

The Rasp introduces the "hawky" Anthony Ruthven Gethryn, a former WWI secret agent, who looks into the murder of a cabinet minister. The hulking secretary is arrested, as his fingerprints were found on the murder weapon (a wood-rasp, a tool used in furniture making), and the grandfather clock was obligingly stopped to provide the time of the murder. Or does it? Gethryn is suspicious of the obvious clues.

The book poses some challenges for the modern reader, in a lengthy chapter of exposition as Gethryn explains his process for uncovering the murderer, and in the portrayal of two female characters who are presented as the epitome of competence until relatively minor circumstances cause them to change into quivering blobs of gelatin, and the male characters pat them on their collective heads. However, Gethryn is more than a dilettante amateur detective; hints of nasty goings-on during the war point to a need to atone through private investigation, while phrases such as "some cold, dark beastliness brooded everywhere" show an awareness of the dirtiness of the job. MacDonald has a facility for the well-turned phrase and a healthy sense of humor, as seen in the description of the newspaper editor Hastings as "looking, as a woman once said of him, rather like a stalwart and handsome chicken."

MacDonald once said, "The ideal detective story is a sort of competition between the author and the reader." I have to admit that I guessed the perpetrator, but the character of Gethryn, the dissection of the seemingly open-and-shut case, and some sudden turns make The Rasp an enjoyable read.

Happy birthday, Eric Ambler.

Master British spy novelist Eric Ambler was born today in 1909. He died in 1998.

Thankfully, much of his work has been reissued in trade paperback by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard, including Background to Danger, Cause for Alarm, A Coffin for Dimitrios, Epitaph for a Spy, Journey into Fear, Judgment on Deltchev, The Light of Day, The Schirmer Inheritance, and State of Siege. His screen work includes the 1960 TV series Checkmate and screenplays for The Cruel Sea (1952), A Night to Remember (1958), and several of his own books.

Photo: Orson Welles (on the right) in the film version of Journey into Fear (1943).

The Unsinkable Mrs. Pollifax.

Dorothy Gilman, creator of intrepid elderly spy Mrs. Emily Pollifax, turns 84 today. Gilman began her career as a children's author, publishing The Enchanted Caravan in 1949. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, in which the widow from New Brunswick, NJ, chucks her garden club and volunteer work to join the CIA, appeared in 1966. The most recent book in the series is Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled (2000).

There have been two adaptations for the screen: Mrs. Pollifax, Spy, with Rosalind Russell (1971), and The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, with Angela Lansbury (1999).

Another classic and hilarious work by Gilman is A Nun in the Closet, in which nuns discover a man on the lam and various other skullduggery in a house they have inherited.

Happy birthday, Lawrence Block.

MWA Grand Master Lawrence Block, the creator of smart-aleck burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, detective Matt Scudder, hit man Keller, and spy Evan Tanner, turns 69 today. Among his latest releases is Lucky at Cards from Hard Case Crime with a con artist and card shark who becomes enmeshed in murder.

My World War I story, "No Man's Land," appeared in Blood on Their Hands, the MWA anthology edited by Block. I still sorely miss his column on fiction writing in Writer's Digest, which he penned for some 17 years and often featured the entertaining Arnold, his perpetually dim fictional student. Few of his longtime readers forget how he encouraged us to go hang around in bars to pick up authentic dialogue. Block's sage writing advice can be found in his books Spider, Spin Me a Web; Writing the Novel from Plot to Print; and Telling Lies for Fun and Profit.

Evelyn and All the Waughs.

I'm fascinated by literary families. Is there something in the familial soup that leads its members to turn to writing careers?

Look at the Longfords (mother and biographer Elizabeth; sisters and novelists Antonia Fraser and Rachel Billington; brother and nonfiction writer Thomas Pakenham). Or the staggeringly talented Cockburns (father Claud; brothers Alexander, Andrew, and Patrick; late and sorely missed half-sister and mystery author Sarah Caudwell; nieces and broadcast journalists Laura and Stephanie Flanders). I try not to hold it against the Cockburns that their ancestor torched the White House during the War of 1812.

Now there's Fathers and Sons, a new book about the Cockburns' cousins Arthur, Evelyn, Alec, Auberon, and other assorted Waughs and their impact on "the family business"---ie, the literary world. It's written by Alexander, Auberon's son and Evelyn's grandson. The book traces the Waugh line from the Victorian doctor Alexander Waugh (nicknamed "The Brute" with good reason); to Arthur, a mainstay of the publishing firm Chapman and Hall; to Arthur's novelist sons Alec and Evelyn; to journalist Auberon and beyond. It goes a long way toward explaining Evelyn's waspish personality, including debilitating bouts of depression, that stemmed from his thorny relationship with his father. It also features Alec's generous acknowledgment of Evelyn as the superior writer and an entertaining bit about Auberon's probable culpability in the burning down of his prep school.

A cautionary note: many escapades with men, women, and--er, other creatures--are covered, so this book is not for the faint-hearted.

Ethics in Book Reviewing.

With the discussion of the decline of newspaper book reviews; a book by Gail Pool, Faint Praise: The Plight of Book Reviewing in America, coming out at the end of the month; and as someone who writes occasional reviews herself, I watched the Book Expo panel on ethics in book reviewing with keen interest, not the least for its lineup of panelists: perpetual enfant terrible Christopher Hitchens, Francine Prose, NYTBR's Sam Tanenhaus, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Carlin Romano, the LA Times's David Ulin, and, my personal favorite, John Leonard of the Nation, who used to do socko reviews for CBS Sunday Morning. The panelists dealt with the large, knotty problems of reviewing: should one review friends' books, should papers print responses to reviews, do negative reviews serve a purpose (with Leonard especially eloquent on the topic of reviews as "performance art"), and so forth.

I believe Book TV will rebroadcast the program on June 16th, or you can catch the footage here.

One of the best reviewers in the business, in my opinion, is Edgar winner Jon L. Breen of EQMM and Mystery Scene. Jon can tell you in 50 beautifully composed words whether a book is worth your time or not. I aspire to his standard.

Happy birthday, M. C. Beaton.

Happy 71st birthday to Scottish mystery writer M. C. Beaton, creator of constable Hamish Macbeth, who is based in eccentric Scottish village Lochdubh, and the cantankerous sleuth Agatha Raisin. Beaton's alter ego is prolific romance author Marion Chesney, who also pens an Edwardian mystery series for St. Martin's that includes Snobbery with Violence.

Hamish did take a turn on the TV screen, but I prefer the audiobooks narrated by Davina Porter, as they well capture the lively oddities of small-town life. Coming next for Agatha Raisin in August is Love, Lies, and Liquor, in which guests at a seaside hotel keep turning into corpses.

Happy birthday, Sara Paretsky.

Sara Paretsky, creator of groundbreaking private investigator V. I. Warshawski, turns 60 today.

I've already posted here regarding the winter 2007 Clues issue on Paretsky and her February Library of Congress lecture on the occasion of V.I.'s 25th anniversary. A new collection of nonfiction essays, Writing in an Age of Silence, has been published by Verso; more here about that.

Happy birthday, E. W. Hornung.

E. W. Hornung, creator of gentleman thief Raffles and the brother-in-law of Arthur Conan Doyle, was born on June 7, 1866. He died in 1921. Conan Doyle called him "a Dr. Johnson without the learning but with a finer wit" (Memories and Adventures 252). Hornung punned that "[...t]hough he might be more humble, there is no police like Holmes" (ibid.).

After Hornung's death, Barry Perowne continued the Raffles series, and Graham Greene wrote a play, The Return of A. J. Raffles, that starred Denholm Elliott. On film, both Ronald Colman (1930) and David Niven (1939) played the amateur cracksman, but the photo above shows Anthony Valentine in a 1975 British production now on DVD. There are also new Raffles radio programs available from Jim French Productions.

I was always terribly fond of Bunny Manders, Raffles's loyal if sometimes hapless sidekick.

Happy birthday, Julie Campbell Tatham.

Julie Campbell Tatham, creator of girl sleuths Trixie Belden and Ginny Gordon, and writer of several of the Cherry Ames and Vicki Barr mysteries, would have been 99 today (she died in 1999).

Trixie and Ginny made their debuts in 1948, in The Secret of the Mansion and Ginny Gordon and the Mystery of the Disappearing Candlesticks, respectively.

Tatham attended one of the early Malice Domestic conventions, where her panel was standing room only, and many fans had the opportunity to tell her how much pleasure her books had given them. She was a delightful and modest lady.

BTW, a future issue of CLUES: A Journal of Detection will focus on the girl sleuth. Read the Call for Papers here.

Happy birthday, G. K. Chesterton.

Renaissance man G. K. Chesterton---poet, critic, newspaper columnist, playwright, theologian, Detection Club member, and creator of that gentle but wise sleuth Father Brown---was born today in 1874. He died in 1936.

The 26th annual Chesterton Conference, scheduled for June 14-16 at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, will celebrate the 100th anniversary of The Man Who Was Thursday. Go here for the Mercury Theater radio production of The Man Who Was Thursday. Read Chesterton's comments about the novel here.

The Chesterton University decal comes from the American Chesterton Society. You can get it and a number of other Chesterton products here.

"The first essential value of the detective story lies in this, that it is the earliest and only form of popular literature in which is expressed some sense of the poetry of modern life."--G. K. Chesterton, "A Defence of Detective Stories," The Defendant (1901)

Happy birthday, Dashiell Hammett and Tony Hillerman.

Two major mystery birthdays to celebrate today: Dashiell Hammett would have turned 113 (he died in 1961), and gentlemanly Oklahoman Tony Hillerman turns 82.

In light of tomorrow's Memorial Day, we should remember that Hammett served in both World War I (as an ambulance driver, until he contracted tuberculosis) and World War II and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery; and Hillerman earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, and the Purple Heart during his army service in World War II. Hillerman talks about his time in the army and his career as journalist and mystery author in his fine memoir Seldom Disappointed.

Go here for a Webcast of a Library of Congress lecture by Richard Layman, a trustee of the Hammett estate and author of Shadow Man, on the 75th anniversary of The Maltese Falcon; and here is a Webcast from the 2002 National Book Festival with Hillerman.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Edward Bulwer Lytton (1st Baron Lytton) was born today in 1803. He died in 1873. Friend of Dickens and Collins (Dickens and Collins first met when they appeared in a Bulwer Lytton play), he had a fruitful literary career, but is now mostly known for the contest that celebrates bad writing (go here to see the 2006 winners [?] in the detective fiction category).

However, according to Lucy Sussex's article coming up in the fall issue of CLUES, Bulwer Lytton made several significant contributions to the mystery field, including Pelham (1828) and Night and Morning (1841).

Happy birthday, Francine Mathews.

Thriller author and former CIA analyst Francine Mathews, who also moonlights as Stephanie Barron, turns 44 today. Visitors to the Spy Museum in Washington, DC, can see her in a film about modern-day espionage.

To hear Francine and I chat about her World War II novel The Alibi Club; her Jane Austen mysteries as Barron; and a forthcoming, non-Austen novel called A Flaw in the Blood, go here.

Happy birthday, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and the bull-like Professor Challenger, was born today in 1859. He died in 1930.

For all things Sherlockian, go here. Valancourt Books has recently reprinted Conan Doyle's Round the Red Lamp, his collection of medical short stories.

And things are beginning to look up for Undershaw, Conan Doyle's home during the writing of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

Happy birthday, Margery Allingham.

Margery Allingham, the creator of mysterious sleuth Albert Campion, was born today in 1904. She died in 1966.

You can read appreciations of her work in Margery Allingham: 100 Years of a Great Mystery Writer and the fall 2004 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection, which was a theme issue on the occasion of her centenary (including an article on Allingham as book reviewer). Felony & Mayhem Press is reprinting the Campion works, and information on the Campion TV series starring Peter Davison may be found here.

I'm a particular fan of The Oaken Heart (1941), which is Allingham's penetrating account of the effect of World War II on her village, including the residents' caring for war refugees.

Stay tuned for the summer issue of Clues, which will include an article on Allingham's short stories.

Happy birthday, Jim Lehrer and Paul Erdman.

Jim Lehrer, anchorman of PBS' The News Hour with Jim Lehrer and mystery author, turns 73 today. He'll have a new novel out in October, Eureka.

Paul Erdman, Edgar winner for The Billion-Dollar Sure Thing and former inmate of a Swiss jail, would have been 75 today (he died last month).

Lloyd Alexander, R.I.P.

Today's Washington Post brought sad news about Lloyd Alexander, 83, who died yesterday from cancer. Alexander's books about Taran, an assistant pigkeeper who yearns for adventure, are must reads for children and young adults who like fantasy novels and the quest theme. He won the Newbery Medal for The High King, the fifth in the series.

The dead side of the mike.

With a tip of the hat to Simon Brett, I regret to announce that I'm signing off of my radio show It's a Mystery. The last program will be May 21st with Roberta Isleib plus "The Bruce-Partington Plans" with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson as Holmes and Watson.

It's a Mystery was my attempt to apply my past experience as a WMUC newscaster to capture the varied voices of mysterydom (often ones that found it difficult to garner media attention), bring back gems of mystery radio theater, and play themes from mystery-related films and TV programs. For more than two years, I've interviewed many authors, including Julie Smith, Robert B. Parker, and Foyle's War creator Anthony Horowitz. Alas, with various publishing commitments and a posse of friends who are prodding me to finish my novel, I just can't keep up with the workload that a quality program demands.

The audio archive for It's a Mystery will remain online for the foreseeable future, and there are a few interviews that will be posted after they are edited. The number of hits on the archived interviews from around the world has been heartening.

Thank you, loyal listeners, for your support. I hope to continue some features of It's a Mystery through my blog The Bunburyist, such as the occasional mystery radio production.

Happy belated birthday, Leslie Charteris.

Leslie Charteris, the creator of "The Saint," that "Robin Hood of modern crime," was born on May 12, 1907, making this year his 100th birthday. He died in 1993.

The Saint, aka Simon Templar, was played on radio by Brian Aherne, Vincent Price, and George Sanders's brother Tom Conway but probably most memorably by a pre-James Bond Roger Moore on television in the 1960s.

For a fun retrospective of the Saint logo, go here.

Guests for Malice Domestic XX.

Well, I was waiting for Malice Domestic Ltd. to update its Web site, but as the emails are starting to roll in from various and sundry well wishers, I'll now list the guests for Malice Domestic XX in 2008:

Guest of Honor: Charlaine Harris
Toastmaster: Daniel Stashower
International Guest of Honor: Lindsey Davis
Lifetime Achievement Award: Peter Lovesey
Poirot Award: Janet Hutchings (EQMM); Linda Landrigan (AHMM)
Fan Guests of Honor: Elizabeth Foxwell; Ron and Jean McMillen

For those who might not know, Ron and Jean ran for eons the Mystery Bookshop in Bethesda, Maryland, and were founding directors of Malice (like me).

It's a mighty distinguished crowd, and I'm honored to be a part of it.

Spring 07 Clues published.

The spring 2007 Clues: A Journal of Detection has been published and is a special theme issue devoted to Margaret Millar (Edgar winner, Beast in View; author, How Like an Angel, Beyond This Point Are Monsters, etc.; wife of Ross Macdonald). The issue is guest edited by Dean James.

The issue includes the following articles:

• The Literary Lives of Margaret Millar and Ross Macdonald - Tom Nolan

• Where the Monsters Are: Margaret Millar and the "Mexican Problem" - Ana Patricia Rodriguez

• From Detective Fiction to Detective Literature: Psychology in the Novels of Dorothy L. Sayers and Margaret Millar - Kelly C. Connelly

• Review Essay: Margaret Millar in Print - Dean James

• The Last Word: Margaret Millar's Final Novels - Robert Barnard

• The "Same Old Same Old": Gender and Race in Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott Series - Caren J. Town

• Book Review: Laurence Roth's Inspecting Jews: American Jewish Detective Stories (rev. Shelley Godsland)

Happy birthday, Orson Welles.

Writer, actor, director, producer, and all-around genius Orson Welles was born today in 1915. He died in 1985.

Monday's "It's a Mystery" will air two Wellesian radio performances: as Lamont Cranston, aka "The Shadow," from 1937, and as con artist Harry Lime from 1952. "It's a Mystery" airs at 11 AM ET and is Webcast here.

The Spring Mystery Scene

The latest Mystery Scene, which has an interview with Ian Rankin, also includes my article on Rosemary and Thyme, which features Pam Ferris (below at left) and Felicity Kendal as sleuthing gardeners. The TV series is now showing on PBS.

Go here to hear an excerpt from the wonderful theme (based on "Scarborough Fair," composed by Christopher Gunning, and performed by classical guitarist John Williams).

Happy birthday, James Grady.

DC-area resident James Grady, probably best known for his thriller Six Days of the Condor that was adapted into the 1975 film Three Days of the Condor starring Robert Redford, turns 58 today. His latest novel is Mad Dogs, which will be out in paperback in June, and he has a story in the anthology DC Noir.

If you ever get the chance, read the Washington Post interview with Grady by Sarah Booth Conroy from September 14, 1984. I kept it for years because it was so inspirational about writing.

Happy birthday, Ngaio Marsh.

Golden Age icon Dame Edith Ngaio Marsh, the pride of New Zealand and the creator of well-born inspector, later superintendent, Roderick Alleyn, was born today in 1895 (although some sources list her birthdate as 1899) and died in 1982. Some of her many novels include Death in a White Tie, Clutch of Constables, and Tied Up in Tinsel.

I'm rather partial to Artists in Crime, because of the debut of that marvelous character, painter and later Alleyn love interest Agatha Troy.

Happy birthday, Henry James.

Master of ambiguity Henry James was born today in 1843. He died in 1916.

In mysterydom, he is probably best known for the creepy The Turn of the Screw (1898), adapted into the film The Innocents starring Deborah Kerr and featuring a screenplay by Truman Capote and John Mortimer, and also adapted as a Benjamin Britten opera. The debate continues today as to whether the ghosts in the story are a figment of the governess's imagination or whether they really exist. Another James ghost story is The Sense of the Past (published posthumously, 1917), the basis of Berkeley Square, which starred Leslie Howard.

Happy birthday, Liza Cody.

Liza Cody, creator of investigator Anna Lee (seen played by Imogen Stubbs at left in 1993) and wrestler Eva Wylie, turns 63 today.

Crippen and Landru has published a collection of Cody's short stories, Lucky Dip and Other Stories. She earned a Silver Dagger for Bucket Nut (1992) and the John Creasey Award for Dupe (1980).

Happy birthday, Jack Webb.

Sgt. Joe Friday, also the creator of Emergency! and Adam-12, would have turned 87 today. In Webb's honor, today's "It's a Mystery" featured a radio production of Dragnet, two Dragnet parodies, and Webb's rendition of "Try a Little Tenderness." To listen to Bob Hope and Webb's 1953 parody of Dragnet, go here.

Happy birthday, Edgar Wallace.

Publishing phenomenon Edgar Wallace, who did much to foster the popularity of the thriller, was born today in 1875. He died in 1932, when he had gone to Hollywood for the filming of King Kong (on which he has a writing credit).

Some of his better known works include The Four Just Men (1906; made into a 1959 TV series with Jack Hawkins and Richard Conte, about an international cadre of vigilantes), The Ringer (a highly popular play starring Gerald du Maurier, also known as The Gaunt Stranger), The Crimson Circle (1922), and The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder (1925). Wallace was famous for his staggering output (he could finish a novel in one weekend, but sometimes character and plot details would alter from the early part of the book to the end) and equally impressive sales figures. One of his secretaries was the future mystery writer Nigel Morland.

On the April 9th broadcast of "It's a Mystery," I plan to air "Criminal at Large," an episode of the Molle Mystery Theater, based on Wallace's The Case of the Frightened Lady that features a strangler. For more on Wallace, read his People: A Short Autobiography (1926), or Margaret Lane's Edgar Wallace: The Biography of a Phenomenon (1939; Lane was once married to Bryan Edgar Wallace, the author's son).

Happy birthday, Lucille Fletcher.

Suspense writer Lucille Fletcher, the first wife of Hitchcockian composer Bernard Herrmann, would have turned 95 today. She died in 2000.

Her biggest hit? "Sorry, Wrong Number" (radio play, 1943; screenplay, 1948), in which a bedridden woman overhears the plotting of a murder over the telephone. To listen to the 1943 Suspense version starring Agnes Moorehead, go here.

"The Day the Running Stopped."

David Janssen, TV's Dr. Richard Kimball in The Fugitive, would have turned 76 today (he died in 1980). His other television mystery appearances include crusty private investigator Harry Orwell, aka "Harry O"; private detective Richard Diamond; and Jim O'Hara, U.S. Treasury agent.

I recently rewatched "The Judgment," the final two-part episode of The Fugitive, in which Kimball confronts the one-armed man who killed his wife---the highest rated TV episode until the resolution of the "Who shot J.R.?" scenario of Dallas came along. As usual, I revelled in the quality of the writing and the vulnerability in Janssen's fine performance. I also was reminded of the Get Smart spoof, "Don't Look Back," featuring falsely accused agent Maxwell Smart pitted against "the one-handed man"---evidence of how The Fugitive, based on the Marilyn Sheppard case with unmistakable overtones of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, had captivated the imagination of a nation.

Happy Birthday, William Shatner.

TV's Captain Kirk, who also costarred, pre-Star Trek, in an episode of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." with Leonard Nimoy, turns 76 today.

If you simply cannot start your day without listening to Shatner's immortal versions of "Mr. Tambourine Man," and "Rocket Man," go here and here.

V.I. Warshawski at 25

A February 27th presentation by Sara Paretsky at the Library of Congress, reflecting on 25 years of her P.I. character V.I. Warshawski, is now online here.

This event was cosponsored by Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and presented in conjunction with the winter 2007 issue on Paretsky of Clues: A Journal of Detection.

John Y. Cole, director of the LOC's Center for the Book, introduces Paretsky, and I provide some remarks at the end.

There's a man who leads a life of danger...

Happy 79th birthday to Emmy winner Patrick McGoohan, the original "Danger Man," frequent star on "Columbo," and guaranteed to scare the heck out of you as Joss Merlyn in Daphne du Maurier's "Jamaica Inn" (1985).

Happy birthday, Rebecca Rothenberg.

Rebecca Rothenberg, talented musician, epidemiologist, and Agatha and Anthony nominee for The Bulrush Murders, would have been 59 today (she died in 1998 of a brain tumor), and her class and grace are sorely missed.

Rothenberg's mystery series, which includes The Dandelion Murders and The Shy Tulip Murders, features microbiologist Claire Sharples. Her friend Taffy Cannon completed the manuscript for her last novel, The Tumbleweed Murders (2001).

Happy birthday, Carl Hiaasen.

The Miami Herald's Carl Hiaasen, who won a Newbery for Hoot and was an Agatha winner and Edgar nominee for Flush, turns 54 today.

He also shares his birthday with Beat icon Jack Kerouac, who would have turned 85 today.

Happy birthday, Elizabeth Linington.

Elizabeth Linington, aka Dell Shannon, Lesley Egan, and Anne Blaisdell, was born today in 1921. She died in 1988. She was an Edgar nominee for Case Pending (1960) and Knave of Hearts (1962). Her characters include Lt. Luis Mendoza, Sgt. Ivor Maddox, Jesse Falkenstein, and Vic Varallo.

Happy birthday, William Campbell Gault.

Versatile mystery writer William Campbell Gault, whose work spanned the pulp magazines, adult novels (he won an Edgar for Don't Cry for Me and a Shamus for The Cana Diversion), and children's novels, was born today in 1910. He died in 1995. Ross Macdonald dedicated The Blue Hammer to him.

And also of note: the late Mickey Spillane would have turned 89 today.

March is Women's History Month.

In the United States, this month is devoted to the many contributions of women to history. At left are legendary U.S. suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony.

For those looking for an account of the struggle by U.S. women for the vote, read Jailed for Freedom by Doris Stevens. Other resources about women's history may be found at the National Women's History Project and the National Women's History Museum; I also like this terrific resource on the history of women in law enforcement.

Those who'd like a dash of women's history in their mystery reading might enjoy the following:

• Ellis Peters's The Virgin in the Ice and Sharan Newman's Death Comes as Epiphany show the lives of medieval women in religious orders.

• Glynis Tryon series by Miriam Grace Monfredo, starting with The Seneca Falls Inheritance, which features several suffrage leaders.

• Nell Bray series by Gillian Linscott, which features a disciple of British suffragists Emmaline and Christabel Pankhurst; the first novel in the series is Sister Beneath the Sheet. One of the best novels in the series is Hanging On the Wire, which deals with recuperating soldiers during World War I. Another mystery with a suffragist main character is Clare Langley-Hawthorne's Consequences of Sin.
  

• Anne Perry's series with Crimean War nurse Hester Latterly; a novel of particular interest is Slaves of Obsession, where Hester serves in the American Civil War.

• My chapter in Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium (ed. Elizabeth Peters and Kristen Whitbread) covers the women's history aspects in Peters's popular series featuring intrepid Victorian archaeologist Amelia Peabody Emerson (partially based on real-life Egyptologist and bestselling author Amelia B. Edwards).

• Mysteries that involve American women writers include Houses of Stone (under Peters's Barbara Michaels pseudonym); and Joanne Dobson's Quieter than Sleep (involving Emily Dickinson), The Northbury Papers (based on successful writer E. D. E. N. Southworth), and Cold and Pure and Very Dead (based on Peyton Place's Grace Metalious).