Hillary Baldwin Waugh (June 22, 1920 – December 8, 2008) was a pioneering

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

mystery novelist. In 1989, he was named a Grand Master by 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 Award, ...

. Pseudonyms used by Waugh included Elissa Grandower, Harry Walker and H. Baldwin Taylor.

Career

Hillary Baldwin Waugh was born on June 22, 1920 in New Haven, Connecticut. He graduated in 1942 from Yale University, majoring in art with a music minor. He was an editor of campus humor magazine '' The Yale Record''. During his senior year at Yale, Waugh enlisted in the United States Navy Air Corps and, after graduation, received his

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they ar ...

's wings. He served in the Panama Canal Zone for two years, flying various types of

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. ...

. While in military service, Waugh turned his hand to creative writing, completing and publishing his first novel ''Madam Will Not Dine Tonight'' in 1947. He quickly published two more novels, but they were not very well received. In 1949, as the result of reading a case book on true crime, Waugh decided to explore a realistic crime novel. With the cooperation of his fiancée, who was a student at Smith College, Waugh set his police procedural '' Last Seen Wearing ...'' in a fictional women's college. Published in 1952, the book was a significant success and is now considered a pioneering effort exploring relentless police work and attention to detail. After ''Last Seen Wearing...'', Waugh went on to publish more than thirty-five additional detective novels, many aptly described as "

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence ...

Personal life and death

Waugh married Diana Taylor, and the couple had three children. Waugh died in Torrington, Connecticut on December 8, 2008.

Publications

Series

Sheridan Wesley # ''Madam Will Not Dine Tonight'' (1947) # ''Hope to Die'' (1948) # ''The Odds Run Out'' (1949) Fred Fellows # ''Sleep Long, My Love'' (1959) filmed as '' Jigsaw'' (1962) # ''Road Block'' (1960) # ''That Night It Rained'' (1961) # ''Born Victim'' (1962) # ''The Late Mrs. D.'' (1962) # ''Death and Circumstance'' (1963) # ''Prisoner's Plea'' (1963) # ''The Missing Man'' (1964) # ''End of a Party'' (1965) # ''Pure Poison'' (1966) # ''The Con Game'' (1968) Homicide North # ''30 Manhattan East'' (1968) # ''The Young Prey'' (1969) # ''Finish Me Off'' (1970) Simon Kaye # ''The Glenna Powers Case'' (1980) # ''The Billy Cantrell Case'' (1981) # ''The Doria Rafe Case'' (1981) # ''The Nerissa Claire Case'' (1983) # ''The Veronica Dean Case'' (1984) # ''The Priscilla Copperwaite Case'' (1986)

Other novels

* '' Last Seen Wearing ...'' (1952) * ''A Rag and a Bone'' (1954) * ''The Case of the Missing Gardener'' (1954) * ''Rich Man, Dead Man'' (1956) * ''The Girl Who Cried Wolf'' (1958) * ''The Eighth Mrs. Bluebeard'' (1958) * ''Murder on the Terrace'' (1961) * ''The Duplicate'' (1964) * ''Girl on the Run'' (1965) * ''The Triumvirate'' (1966) * ''The Trouble with Tycoons'' (1967) * ''Run When I Say Go'' (1969) * ''The Shadow Guest'' (1971) * ''Parrish for the Defense'' (1974) * ''A Bride for Hampton House'' (1975) * ''Seaview Manor'' (1976) * ''The Summer at Raven's Roost'' (1976) * ''The Secret Room of Morgate House'' (1977) * ''Madman at My Door'' (1978) * ''Blackbourne Hall'' (1979) * ''Rivergate House'' (1980) * ''Murder on Safari'' (1987) * ''A Death in a Town'' (1988)

References

External links

Obituary
in the New York Times
AP Obituary
in the Hartford Courant
Obituary
in

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

Obituary
in The Guardian {{DEFAULTSORT:Waugh, Hillary 1920 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American novelists American male novelists American crime fiction writers Edgar Award winners Yale University alumni Writers from New Haven, Connecticut 20th-century American male writers Novelists from Connecticut United States Navy personnel of World War II