Elizabeth T. Daly (October 15, 1878 – September 2, 1967) was an American writer of
mystery novels
Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...
whose main character, Henry Gamadge, was a bookish author,
bibliophile
Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books.
Profile
The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...
, and amateur detective.
A writer of light verse and prose for ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
'', ''
Puck'', and ''
Scribner's
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...
'' magazines in her earlier years, Daly published her first Gamadge novel, ''Unexpected Night'', at age 60.
Between 1940 and 1951, she published 16 novels featuring Gamadge.
Her career included two years as a
reader
A reader is a person who reads. It may also refer to:
Computing and technology
* Adobe Reader (now Adobe Acrobat), a PDF reader
* Bible Reader for Palm, a discontinued PDA application
* A card reader, for extracting data from various forms of ...
at
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...
, 1904–06. At other times, she tutored in French and English, and she was a producer of amateur theater.
Personal life
Born Elizabeth T. Daly in 1878 in New York City, she was the daughter of Joseph F. Daly, a
New York Supreme Court justice, and Emma Barker Daly.
She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
in 1901 and from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
with an
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in 1902. Daly was an honorary member of the
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is an organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City.
The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday.
It presents the Edgar Awa ...
.
She died in
Roslyn, New York
Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census.
History
Ros ...
, in 1967 at age 88.
Critical reception
Charles Shibuk, in ''St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers'', said that Daly was
Agatha Christie's favorite American mystery writer. Daly successfully used many of the literary conventions employed by Christie and other writers of the
Golden Age of Detective Fiction
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Golden Age proper is, in practice, usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was pre ...
, he said, and "was always both civilized and literate".
The Mystery Writers of America, referring to her as "the grande dame of women mystery writers", awarded her a "Special
Edgar" in 1961.
Bibliography
Henry Gamadge novels
* ''Unexpected Night'' (1940)
* ''Deadly Nightshade'' (1940)
* ''Murders in Volume 2'' (1941)
* ''The House Without the Door'' (1942)
* ''Evidence of Things Seen'' (1943)
* ''Nothing Can Rescue Me'' (1943)
* ''Arrow Pointing Nowhere'' (1944) (Also published as ''Murder Listens In'')
* ''The Book of the Dead'' (1944)
* ''Any Shape or Form'' (1945)
* ''Somewhere in the House'' (1946)
* ''The Wrong Way Down'' (1946)
* ''Night Walk'' (1947)
* ''The Book of the Lion'' (1948)
* ''And Dangerous to Know'' (1949)
* ''The Book of Crime'' (1951)
* ''Death and Letters'' (1953)
* ''An Elizabeth Daly Mystery Omnibus: Three Henry Gamadge Novels (includes Murders in Volume 2, Evidence of Things Seen, and The Book of the Dead)'' (1960)
Other
*''The Street Has Changed'' (1941)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Elizabeth
1878 births
1967 deaths
20th-century American women writers
American crime fiction writers