Ink in their blood: Five female mystery authors from the fourth estate.

• Edna Buchanan. Miami Herald journalist Buchanan received a Pulitzer Prize for her reporting in 1986 and discussed her coverage of crime in The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (1987) and Never Let Them See You Cry (1992). Her journalist-sleuth Britt Montero appears in Contents under Pressure (1992); the Edgar-nominated Miami, It's Murder (1994); Suitable for Framing (1995); Act of Betrayal (1996); Margin of Error (1997); Garden of Evil (1999); You Only Die Twice (2001); The Ice Maiden (2002); and Love Kills (2007).

• Carole Nelson Douglas. As a college senior, Douglas was a finalist in Vogue's Prix de Paris writing competition (along with future fellow mystery novelist Marcia Muller). She was a reporter and feature writer for the St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press for more than 15 years and received several awards from the Newspaper Guild of the Twin Cities and a second-place award in newswriting from the Minnesota Associated Press. Today, Douglas has a busy mystery writing life, with her Irene Adler, Midnight Louie, and Delilah Street paranormal series.

• Gillian Linscott. Linscott was a journalist for the Liverpool Daily Post, the Birmingham Post, the Guardian, and the BBC for nearly 25 years. A versatile writer, she has penned historical mysteries featuring intrepid suffragist Nell Bray (such as the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger winner Absent Friends) and standalones such as The Garden. Today, she writes a mystery series set in the Victorian era under the pen name Caro Peacock.

• Eve K. Sandstrom. Inspired to pursue journalism by reporter-sleuth Beverly Gray, Sandstrom was a reporter and columnist at the Lawton (OK) Constitution for more than 25 years. She published several mysteries with Sam and Nicky Titus as well as reporter Nell Matthews, was an Agatha and Anthony nominee for her short story "Bugged" in Malice Domestic 5, and now features chocolatier Lee McKinney in her mysteries under the pen name JoAnna Carl.

• Celestine Sibley. A distinguished journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for more than 50 years (she covered the James Earl Ray trial, among her other assignments), Sibley published her first mystery novel, The Malignant Heart, in 1957, followed by five others with journalist-sleuth Kate Mulcay: Ah, Sweet Mystery (1991); Straight as an Arrow (1992); Dire Happenings at Scratch Ankle (1993); A Plague of Kinfolks (1995); and Spider in the Sink (1997). She died in 1999 and was inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame in 2007. Edgar winner Phillip DePoy adapted her memoir, Turned Funny, into a play in 2006, and Sibley Fleming reflected on her grandmother's life in Celestine Sibley: A Granddaughter's Reminiscence (2000).

Now out: E. X. Ferrars companion (ed. Foxwell).

Just out is E. X. Ferrars: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Gina Macdonald with Elizabeth Sanders. This is volume 2 in the McFarland Companions to Mystery Fiction series that I edit (volume 1 is on John Buchan; the Scots will be pleased that both volumes feature writers of Scottish heritage).

Detection Club member and British Crime Writers Assn cofounder Ferrars published her first book, Turn Single, in 1932, and the last, A Choice of Evils, in 1995. Her sleuths include physiotherapist Virginia Freer and her estranged, often feckless husband Felix and retired professor Andrew Basnett (who often poignantly grapples with the effects of aging). Some of her books are still in print with Langtail Press and Doubleday, and Doug Greene of Crippen and Landru plans a collection of her short stories. Very helpful with the book was Peter Mactaggart, Ferrars's nephew and literary executor, who provided the cover photo, manuscript excerpts (including one from an unpublished novel), and valuable insights on Ferrars's life. Readers may like the handy table that lists Ferrars's methods of murder and the works in which they appear.

George C. Scott, left, and
Angela Thornton in E. X. Ferrars's
"We Haven't Seen Her Lately,"
  Kraft Mystery Theatre
NBC, 20 Aug 1958

One fascinating aspect was her duel in print with sci-fi writer John Wyndham over the merits of mystery fiction vs. those of sci-fi.

Another intriguing discovery was "We Haven't Seen Her Lately," the 1958 Kraft Mystery Theatre production of Ferrars's Always Say Die (see photo), in which a woman investigates her aunt's disappearance amid a slew of shady characters.

Shortly before his death, distinguished author-critic H. R. F. Keating, who reviewed Ferrars's Frog in the Throat favorably in the Times, kindly provided a blurb for the back cover. Sadly, Macdonald (coauthor, Scott Turow: A Critical Companion and Shaman or Sherlock? The Native American Detective; author, Robert Ludlum: A Critical Companion) died in September 2010 of leukemia—she worked on this book as she was undergoing medical treatment. Her dedication to this work was inspirational.

The lady investigates on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Anna Katharine Green,
NYPL

Early female detectives are featured this week on BBC Radio 4 Extra: Loveday Brooke in "The Redhill Sisterhood" by Catherine Louisa Pirkis, Anna Katharine Green's 1915 New York society detective Violet Strange in "The Golden Slipper," and Valeria Woodville in Wilkie Collins's "The Law and the Lady." Episodes can usually be heard online for up to week after broadcast.

Happy birthday, Cyril Hare.

Barrister and judge Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark, aka mystery author and Detection Club member Cyril Hare, was born today in Surrey in 1900. His best-known sleuth is offbeat lawyer Francis Pettigrew; FaberFinds has reissued many of the Pettigrew novels, including Tragedy at Law, Untimely Death, and When the Wind Blows. His other detective is Inspector Mallett (Tenant for Death, Death Is No Sportsman, Suicide Excepted). Clark died in 1958. His colleague Michael Gilbert edited Best Detective Stories of Cyril Hare in 1961.

Happy birthday, George R. Sims.

George R. Sims,
from My Life (1917)

"...my long acquaintance with the criminal class was not to my disadvantage."—George R. Sims, My Life 322

Playwright, poet, writer, bulldog breeder, and bon vivant George R. Sims was born today in London in 1847. In mysterydom, he is best known as the creator of female sleuth Dorcas Dene, who is featured in Dorcas Dene, Detective (1897–98). He frequently wrote about crime, and a reference in My Life, his autobiography, makes it clear that he knew Adam Worth, the master criminal who stole the Gainsborough painting The Duchess of Devonshire. He died in 1922.

Five female mystery authors who can put a smile on your face.

"... In England I find it does not make one popular to kill people."—Georgette Heyer, The Unfinished Clue 141

• Joan Hess. I prefer Hess's Claire Malloy series (with Claire's dramatic daughter who always Speaks in Initial Capitals) to her Maggody novels, but few authors understand small-town weirdness better than Hess. (Also check out Hess's books under the pseudonym Joan Hadley)

• Georgette Heyer. Most critics declare that Heyer's romances are superior to her mysteries (perhaps because the latter were written with her husband), but her mysteries have much fun and ingenuity to offer. Winners include Behold, Here's Poison; Envious Casca (dubbed by Dean James as "the house party from hell"); The Unfinished Clue; and Why Shoot a Butler?. However, I found the solution to A Blunt Instrument to be unconvincing.

• Constance and Gwenyth Little.  A headless nurse in The Black Stocking. 'Nuff said.

• Charlotte MacLeod. When Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn showed up in Chinese disguise in The Family Vault and Professor Peter Shandy covered every inch of his house in tacky Christmas decorations to revenge himself on college colleagues in Rest You Merry, I realized I was in a different universe—and a very funny one.

Ransom Center on papers of Nicholas Ray.

Ida Lupino in
On Dangerous Ground
(dir. Nicholas Ray, 1952)

In the fall 2011 issue of Ransom Edition UT-Austin's Harry Ransom Center discusses its acquisition of the papers of director Nicholas Ray, including mention of They Live by Night (1949) and In a Lonely Place (1950). It appears that the papers will be ready for access sometime this fall (more on the acquisition here).

Happy birthday, Frederick Knott.

Richard Crenna in
Wait until Dark
(1967)

Frederick Knott, playwright of the Edgar-winning Dial M for Murder (1952; two films and four TV productions; soon to be staged in Utah), the Edgar-winning Write Me a Murder (1961; Broadway production with Denholm Elliot and Kim Hunter), and Wait until Dark (1966), was born today in China in 1916. He died in 2002.

NEH's Edsitement: Not much mystery.

Theodore Dreiser, NYPL

The National Endowment for the Humanities' Edsitement offers K–12 lesson plans in literature, but I wish the site had beefier mystery-related content (at minimum, including some plans on teaching Alcott's thrillers, Conan Doyle, Christie, Hammett, and Chandler, not to mention black writers Rudolph Fisher and Chester Himes. How about something on teaching Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy?). The only somewhat related plans I can find are on Hemingway's Nick Adams and two lesson plans on Poe. Although Faulkner is included, there is nothing on his mystery-related work (such as Intruder in the Dust, "A Rose for Emily," and his Gavin Stevens stories).

Harry Miner, before EQMM.

Harold E. Miner,
from the 1932
UW-Madison yearbk

The spring 2011 Wisconsin Magazine of History has an article by Michael Edmonds on "The Federal Writers Project in Wisconsin 1935–42" that details the often rocky course of the project in the state, including a brush with HUAC and the various travel, folklore, and other publications produced. It extensively quotes Harold Miner (1910–80), who worked for the project in Madison. This is Harry Miner, who served with the OSS and inspected Hitler's bunker after the latter's suicide; he also wrote "Corpus Delicti" (EQMM Nov. 1951, part of EQMM's "Department of First Stories"; deals with postwar Germany) and "Due Process" (EQMM Nov. 1954; repr. Ellery Queen's Awards, 9th ser., 1956).

Five female mystery authors who left us too soon.

• Dorothy Bowers. This Oxford graduate and Detection Club member penned four mystery novels featuring Chief Inspector Dan Pardoe (Postscript to Poison, Shadows Before, Deed without a Name,  and Fear and Miss Betony [called the best mystery of 1941 by the Times]. In 1948, Bowers died of tuberculosis at age 46.

• Sarah Caudwell. When she died of cancer in 2000 at age 60, this former barrister and Anthony winner left behind a slim but witty oeuvre for fans devoted to the legal cohorts of the gender-neutral professor Hilary Tamar (Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Shortest Way to Hades, The Sirens Sang of Murder, The Sibyl in Her Grave, "Malice Among Friends" in Malice Domestic 6). Steven Heyman of Chicago-Kent Law School related in Mystery Scene how he used Caudwell's work in his law courses. She was a member of a colorfully leftist family (her father was Evelyn Waugh cousin Claud Cockburn, and her nieces include actress Olivia Wilde and journalist Laura Flanders).

• Kate Ross. This lawyer by day, author by night published four novels and two short stories with Regency-era dandy Julian Kestrel (Cut to the Quick, A Broken Vessel, Whom the Gods Love, the Agatha-winning Devil in Music, "The Lullaby Cheat" in Crime through Time, and "The Unkindest Cut" in Past Poisons). Judges complained about Ross's legal briefs because of her skill as a writer—they were "too interesting." Ross died of cancer in 1998 at age 41.

• Rebecca Rothenberg. This Agatha and Anthony nominee for The Bulrush Murders was a musician and epidemiologist, in addition to writing her series featuring microbiologist Claire Sharples (other books in the series include The Dandelion Murders, The Shy Tulip Murders, and The Tumbleweed Murders—the latter finished by Taffy Cannon). Rothenberg died in 1998 of a brain tumor at age 50.

• Barbara Burnett Smith. This Agatha nominee for Writers of the Purple Sage and Sisters in Crime past president followed her first novel with aspiring writer Jolie Wyatt with four others: Dust Devils of the Purple Sage, Celebration in Purple Sage, Mistletoe in Purple Sage, and Skeletons in Purple Sage. She also wrote the standalone Mauve & Murder and Bead on Trouble, which featured a sleuthing jewelry designer. She died in 2005 after she was hit by a car in San Antonio; she was 57.

The deep waters of the spy network The Pond.

Gangster "Lucky" Luciano,
whom The Pond attempted
to enlist to kill Mussolini

On the site I Found It in the National Archives, Associated Press reporters Randy Herschaft and Cristian Salazar discuss their work in the archives to shed light on the activities of the US military intelligence network The Pond, rivals of Wild Bill Donovan's OSS. Go here for another piece by Herschaft and Salazar on The Pond and here for a piece on The Pond by Mark Stout on the CIA Web site.

Patricia Highsmith's pseudonym.

Carmela Ciuraru's short piece on noms de plume in the Literarian discusses Patricia Highsmith's pseudonym of Carol Morgan and Alice Sheldon's alter ego—sci-fi's James Tiptree Jr.

FaberFinds reissues Patrick Hamilton.

George Sanders in
Hangover Square (1945)

FaberFinds has reissued Patrick Hamilton's Twopence Coloured (1928), an indictment of the world of the theater. In mysterydom Hamilton (1904–62) is best known for his plays Rope (1929; filmed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1948) and Gaslight (1939, aka Angel Street; films 1940, 1944, 1947, and several TV adaptations), as well as the novel Hangover Square (1941; filmed by John Brahm, 1945). The TV series The Charmer, with Nigel Havers as con artist Ralph Gorse, was based on Hamilton's Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953).

Otto Penzler on zombies.

Richard Marsh's
early zombie novel
A Spoiler of Men (1905)

Otto Penzler expounds on zombies ("They don't dress well") and his upcoming zombie collection on BBC Radio 4's August 14 Americana program.

The Nero Wolfe book that wasn't.

Cover of
At Wolfe's Door:
The Nero Wolfe Novels
of Rex Stout
by J. K. Van Dover

The Wolfe Pack took a July jaunt to the Rex Stout Papers at Boston College and returned with scans of some interesting items such as a fan letter from P. G. Wodehouse and Stiff Upper Lipstick, the Nero Wolfe book that never existed yet had a summary and cover art—because some at Viking did not understand that it was a joke.

Lucy Sussex on 19C female writers and detectives.

Among the most popular posts on this blog are those dealing with early female detectives and women mystery writers. Lucy Sussex's Women Writers and Detectives in Nineteenth-Century Crime Fiction: The Mothers of the Mystery Genre (2010; foreword by Val McDermid) is a solid discussion of women's major contributions to the emerging genre. Sussex has done much to shed new light on often neglected female writers in the genre (most notably Irish-born Mary Helena Fortune), and she published an article in Clues 26.1 (2007) on Edward Bulwer Lytton's contributions to the mystery field that garnered praise from the Hon. Henry Lytton Cobbold (Bulwer Lytton's great-grandson). Both Fortune's and Bulwer Lytton's roles are well reflected in the book.

Sussex traces the cross-currents among the gothic, the Newgate novel, newspaper crime accounts, and the sensation genre that were integral to the establishment of detective fiction. Writers covered include Catherine Crowe, Ellen Davitt, Anna Katharine Green, Ann Radcliffe, Harriet Prescott Spofford, and Fanny Trollope. There is some impressive literary sleuthing on Metta Fuller Victor (author of The Dead Letter, 1866) that significantly expands on my article in the Fall 2003 Mystery Scene ("Metta Fuller Victor: A Sensational Life"). Intriguing parallels are drawn between the work of Ellen Wood (East Lynne, etc.) and Agatha Christie as well as the surprising but plausible assertion that Mary Elizabeth Braddon created the first clerical sleuth ("George Caulfield's Journey," 1879). Readers also will like the timeline in the back of the book that traces true-crime milestones alongside ones in fiction (such as the first Newgate Calendar in 1728, the 1833 birth of Pinkerton agent Kate Warne, and the 1859 publication of Spofford's "In a Cellar"). All in all, this is an excellent resource for those who would like to learn more about women's contributions to the emerging mystery genre in the nineteenth century.

On the trail of Sherlock Holmes in Switzerland.

Illustration from
"The Final Problem"
McClure's Magazine 2 (1894)

On Fine Books and Collections Catherine Batac Walder traces the presence of Sherlock Holmes in Switzerland, including his fateful encounter with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls, and cites (quite rightly) Teller of Tales' Daniel Stashower.

William Cole's "Waiting for Rusty" (1939) on Selected Shorts.

The radio program Selected Shorts features William Cole's Black Mask story "Waiting for Rusty" (1939; repr. Hard-Boiled, ed. Bill Pronzini and Jack Adrian, New York: Oxford UP, 1995), read by Ted Marcoux.

TV legend William Link on From the Bookshelf.

Jim Hutton in
Ellery Queen

Gary Shapiro's From the Bookshelf offers an encore presentation of an interview with William Link, who, with Richard Levinson, created Columbo, Ellery Queen, and Mannix, and was involved with numerous other series.

Great Lives: Graham Greene.

The most recent episode of the BBC radio program Great Lives focuses on Graham Greene, including audio clips of Greene commenting on his preoccupation with "the hunted man" and his writing schedule, as well as some discussion of mental illness within Greene's family.

And check out the program for the Graham Greene Festival in September/October that seems to have a lot on Brighton Rock.

Product of the Day: Sign of the Twisted Candles T-shirt.

A T-shirt with the cover of the Nancy Drew novel The Sign of the Twisted Candles (1933), from Out of Print Clothing.

Online Victorian fiction database.

"They sat facing each other in a
graceful yellow cockleshell."
Illustration from
Thomas Hardy's sensation novel
Desperate Remedies (1889 ed.)

Spearheaded by Troy J. Bassett at IUPU–Fort Wayne, At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901, features information on more than 7,000 works of Victorian authors that can be searched by author and title; helpful categories such as genre also are provided. "Detective Fiction" includes the expected Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon and The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, but the crossover categories "Ghost Stories," "Gothic Novel," "Newgate Novel," and "Sensation Novel" also may be of interest. The Arthur Conan Doyle works included are only The White Company (1891) and The Refugees: A Tale of Two Continents (1893). There are fascinating statistics as well such as Braddon as the top serialized author and four women authors born in 1834. (Hat tip to PhiloBiblos)

Ian Fleming, James Bond, and the CIA.

Ian Fleming, NYPL

In this interesting C-Span program from June, Christopher Moran looks at the relationship between Ian Fleming and the CIA, mentioning that CIA Director Allen Dulles was a James Bond fan and befriended Fleming.

BBC Radio 4 Extra: Alexander McCall Smith, more Edgar Wallace.

DVD of 1969–71
Thames series The Mind of
Mr. J. G. Reeder

This week on BBC Radio 4 Extra, Precious Ramotswe's assistant Mma Makutsi takes on a case in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series set in Botswana. It also continues airing the work of Edgar Wallace with The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder (1925)—stories of a detective well versed in the criminal mind that, in the words of the late H. R. F. Keating, "still amuse, intrigue and notably entertain" (Crime & Mystery 32). Episodes usually may be heard for up to a week after broadcast.

Vol. 2, new biography of M. P. Shiel.

"He fell into the abyss below."
Illustration by A. Pearce
for M. P. Shiel's
"The Eagle's Crag,"
Strand magazine 8, 1894

In English Literature in Transition 54.3 (2011) Ailise Bulfin reviews M. P. Shiel: The Middle Years, 1897–1923 (2010), the second volume of the biography of supernatural/mystery/horror writer M. P. Shiel (1865–1947) by former UT-Austin library director Harold Billings. She states that "Billings's multivolume biography is of great importance to anyone with an interest in Shiel since it is the first extensive attempt to document the author's life" and that "[u]nder Mr. Billings's hand a far more rounded picture of the man emerges... (388, 390). Billings's M. P. Shiel: The Early Years is still available, and Arkham House has reissued the Haycraft-Queen Shiel work Prince Zaleski (1895). A U-Delaware library exhibition discusses Prince Zaleski and Shiel's background.

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.

Great Charlie Chan Detective Mystery Game.

Element of Milton Bradley's
Great Charlie Chan
Detective Mystery Game

Beinecke Library's Room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities at Yale features the Great Charlie Chan Detective Mystery Game (1937).

Happy birthday, Bartholomew Gill.

Star-Ledger columnist Mark McGarrity, aka mystery author Bartholomew Gill, was born today in Holyoke, MA, in 1943. He was nominated for an Edgar for Death of a Joyce Scholar (1989), part of his 16-book series featuring Irish police superintendent Peter McGarr. He died in 2002 after a fall.

A not so cool change: Popsicle v. Good Humor.

Good Humor truck in DC,  1942.
Library of Congress,
Prints & Photographs Div.

The National Archives' Prologue details the nasty court battles between the Popsicle and Good Humor corporations.

BBC Radio 4 Extra: Edgar Wallace.

Edgar Wallace's White Face (1930; film 1932), in which Scotland Yard attempts to find the murderer of a con man, is featured this week on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Episodes can usually be heard up to a week after broadcast.

Happy birthday, Erle Stanley Gardner.

A birthday toast to Perry Mason and Bertha Cool creator Erle Stanley Gardner, born today in Malden, MA, in 1889. Watch Gardner stump the panel on What's My Line?.

Writers, are you enmeshed in writer's block? Be inspired by Gardner's plot wheel featuring elements such as "false confessions."

Fri Forgotten Bks: George Barr McCutcheon, Anderson Crow, Detective (1920).

"... I am proud to say that I have been arrested by Marshal Crow more times than I have fingers and toes. And, I am further proud to add, that on not a single occasion did Marshall Crow hesitate to admit that he was mistaken."
—George Barr McCutcheon, Anderson Crow, Detective 128

Illustration of George Barr
McCutcheon by James
Montgomery Flagg, 1912
New York Tribune, 9 Mar 1913

Anderson Crow—"town marshal, superintendent of streets, chief of the fire department, post- commander of the G[rand]. A[rmy of the]. R[epublic]., truant officer, dogcatcher, member of the American Horse-thief Detective Association, member of the Universal Detective Bureau" (57) of Tinkletown, New York —suspects "a German plot" behind several outbreaks of skullduggery in his small town. These include a rash of marriage proposals, arson, thefts, con men, and the activities of a mysterious veiled lady that the hapless Crow resolves entirely by accident.

Given the time period when these comic stories were written, World War I looms large. Humor is the priority here rather than any serious attempt to present a mystery or an investigation, and some of the attitudes regarding women may be disconcerting to the modern reader. Those who like village mysteries may enjoy these tales.

Bestselling author, playwright, and book collector George Barr McCutcheon (1866–1928) is probably best known for Brewster's Millions (1902; filmed several times, including one movie with Richard Pryor, 1985) and Truxton King (1909). His brother, John T. McCutcheon, was a well-known cartoonist and illustrated Anderson Crow, Detective. Crow also appears in The Daughter of Anderson Crow (1907).

Christie's Seven Dials Mystery adaptation.

Cheryl Campbell in
The Seven Dials Mystery

BFI Screenonline looks at the 1981 TV version of Agatha Christie's The Seven Dials Mystery, which features John Gielgud and Cheryl Campbell, and sees the influence of U.S. author Mary Roberts Rinehart in the adaptation.

Happy birthday, Donald Westlake.

Westlake in Germany, 2008

Donald Westlake—Edgar winner for God Save the Mark (1967) and "Too Many Crooks" (1989), Oscar nominee for the screenplay to The Grifters, MWA Grand Master, and recipient of PWA's Eye Award for lifetime achievement—was born today in Brooklyn in 1933. University of Chicago Press and Hard Case Crime have reissued some of his Richard Stark novels; a graphic novel of The Hunter is available from IDW Publishing. He died in 2008.

BBC Radio 4 Extra: Mary Elizabeth Braddon.

Illustration from Braddon's
"The Cold Embrace."
Frank Leslie's Popular
Monthly, 3 (1877)

Mary Elizabeth Braddon's ghost story "The Cold Embrace" is featured this week on BBC Radio 4 Extra, which stars Jonathan Firth (Who can resist this description of the main character: "He was young, handsome, studious, enthusiastic, metaphysical, reckless, unbelieving, heartless"). Episodes can usually be heard for up to a week after broadcast. Those looking for a print copy of "The Cold Embrace" can find it here.

Product of the Day: The Big Sleep blank book.

From Bas Bleu: The Big Sleep blank book. (Big Sleep mug at Art Meets Matter)

Critical Studies in Television pays tribute to Falk.

Peter Falk, left, with John Cassavetes
Dick Cavett Show, 1970

The Web site of Critical Studies in Television features various Columbo clips with Peter Falk, including the rumpled lieutenant as a wine expert and a quick scene with Falk and his close friend, John Cassavetes.

John D. MacDonald pens a rejection letter.

In this undated letter on Letters of Note, Travis McGee creator John D. MacDonald turns the tables on editors regarding rejection letters.

Our sacred honor.

Richard Stockton, NYPL

It's important to remember during the U.S. birthday party that the signers of the Declaration of Independence often paid a heavy price for signing the document. New Jersey signer Richard Stockton, the father-in-law of fellow signer and physician Benjamin Rush, was captured and imprisoned in nasty conditions by the British, who also burned his home and destroyed his library, which was considered one of the finest in the colonies. The intercession of Congress and George Washington was required to obtain his release in 1777, but the damage to his health had been done. He died an invalid in 1781.

Writers on stamps.

Flavorwire looks at writers on stamps, which include Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe, but misses Luxembourg's homage to native son Hugo Gernsback (sci-fi writer, editor, and publisher; and inspiration for the Hugo Award). (Hat tip to the Fine Books blog)