Anna Katharine Rohlfs

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Cover of The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow , a 1917 crime novel by Anne Katharine Greene

Anna Katharine Rohlfs (born November 11, 1846 in Brooklyn as Anne Catharine Green  , † April 11, 1935 in Buffalo ) was an American writer of Victorian crime novels. She published her stories under the name Anna Katharine Green and is considered the "mother of detective stories" and the most important representative of the genre between Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . Her work is very extensive - in addition to almost 40 novels, she also wrote short stories and poems.

The works of Green still read today include The Leavenworth Case and The Filigree Jewelery . Her debut The Leavenworth Case was a sales success in the United States and abroad, received positive reviews from both Wilkie Collins and Émile Gaboriau , and was required reading for students at Yale Law School for a while .

Life

Anna Katharine Green was the fourth child of New York attorney James Wilson Green and his wife Katherine Anne Whitney Green. The mother died in 1849 giving birth to her fifth child, who also did not survive the birth. James Green married a second time after the family moved to Buffalo, New York. Anna Katharina Green's stepmother advocated a basic education for her stepdaughter and also encouraged her in her attempts at writing. In 1863 Anna Katharine was sent to Ripley College in Poultney, Vermont. The private college, now known as Green Mountain College , was then one of the few university institutions open to women. Martha Halley Dubiose attributes the parents' decision to let a young woman study, which was unusual at the time, due to the influence of the progressive preacher Henry Ward Beecher , who was a vehement advocate of women's rights and whose congregation included the family for a time. Anna Katharine became chairwoman of the Washington Irving Association at Ripley College , met Ralph Waldo Emerson, and set herself the goal of becoming a poet. In 1866 she graduated with a bachelor's degree and then returned to her family, who again lived in Brooklyn Heights , a borough of New York City.

After her attempts to write poetry met with little encouragement from Ralph Waldo Emerson, she began working on a novel from 1868. At first she feared that she would not find support from her father in this. Her father, however, was very impressed by her novel The Leavenworth Case - probably also because Anne Katharine demonstrated extensive legal knowledge and knowledge of the processes of a court case with the novel. He helped her get in touch with the publisher George Putnam. The Leavenworth case was a huge success both in the United States and abroad. In Great Britain, Wilkie Collins was very positive about the work, in France she found support from Émile Gaboriau .

On November 25, 1884, Green married the actor and later furniture designer Charles Rohlfs in Buffalo . She was introduced to him by the pastor of her parish. Green's father initially had reservations about marrying the eight-year-old actor. Under his influence, he largely gave up acting to study furniture design. Charles Rohlfs was part of the ensemble in the first successful stage version of The Leavenworth Case . The couple had a daughter and two sons: Rosamunde, Roland and Sterling Rohlfs, who both became test pilots.

Rohlfs died at the age of 88 on April 11, 1935 in Buffalo and found her final resting place there in the Forest Lawn Cemetery .

classification

The success of her first work The Leavenworth case could not tie in with any of her other novels, but Green was able to support her family through her writing due to her literary successes. She published her last novel in 1923, at which time her writing and storytelling style was already old-fashioned and outdated. Nevertheless, her work is considered to be style-forming. With The Leavenworth Case , Green introduced Inspector Gryce as the first police officer to become a serial hero. He is the main character in a total of eleven novels and two collections of short stories and solves his cases through a careful investigative approach. According to Martha Halley Dubiose, Green set a benchmark for crime literature with the care with which Green described police work .

Around 20 years after the publication of her first work, Green created another character, the old-boy amateur detective Miss Amelia Butterworth, who became a type of crime novel. Amelia Butterworth first appeared in That Affair Next Door (published 1897), where she helped Inspector Gryce solve a case. With the introduction of two main characters - in this case Inspector Gryce and the amateur detective Butterworth - Green found an acceptable solution to one of the fundamental problems of early crime novels: police officers were typically lower social classes and in the 19th century it was neither in the United States States still in Great Britain realistically conceivable that a member of this class would associate on the same level with members of one of the upper social classes. At the same time, the reading public was primarily interested in crime stories that took place in the upper milieu. With the introduction of the wealthy and well-mannered Butterworth, Green solved this problem. She found, among other things, an imitator by Dorothy Sayers , who puts the amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey at the side of her character, Inspector Parker from Scotland Yard .

Works (selection)

stories

Anthologies
  • The old stone house and other stories . Books for Libraries, New York 1970 (reprint of New York 1890 edition)
  • A difficult problem. The staircase at the heart'S delight and other stories . Putnam, New York 1901.
  • The amethyst box . Putnam, New York 1905.
    • German translation: The amethyst vial. The stolen ruby . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1914.
  • Masterpieces of mystery . Dodd Mead, New York 1913.
  • The golden slipper, and other problems for Violet Strange . Kessinger Publ., Whitefish, Mont. 2005, ISBN 1-4191-6425-2 (reprint of the New York 1915 edition)
  • To the minute. Scarlet and Black. Two tales of life's perplexities . New York 1916.
  • A difficult problem, the staircase at the heart's delight, and other stories . Garrett Press, New York, 1969.
  • Room Number 3. And other detective stories . Dodd Mead, New York 1919.
Individual stories
  • The blue wash mystery . In: Ellery Queen (Ed.): Ellery Queen's minimysteries. 70 short-short stories of crime, mystery, and detection . World Publ., New York 1969.
  • The ruby ​​and the caldron . In: Classic scary stories . Lowell House, Los Angeles 1999.
  • Missing: Page 13 . In: A century of great suspense stories . Berkeley Prime Crime, New York 2001.
  • The Hermit on Sixth Avenue . In: The Hermit and Other Tales . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1921.

Poems

  • The defense of the pride, and other poems . Putnam, New York 1882.

Novels

The Ebenezer Gryce range
  • The Leavenworth Case . Penguin Books, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-14-310612-8 (reprint of New York 1878 edition).
  • A strange disappearance . New York 1880.
    • German translation: Finally found. Detective novel . Aufwärts-Verlag, Berlin 1937 (former title: A mysterious kidnapping ).
  • Hand and ring . Putnam, New York 1883.
    • German translation: hand and ring . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1896.
  • Behind closed doors . Putnam, New York 1888.
    • German translation: Behind closed doors . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1909.
  • A matter of millions . Routledge, London 1891.
    • German translation: By millions . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1922.
  • The Doctor, His Wife, and the Clock . Putnam, New York 1895.
  • That Affair Next Door . Putnam, New York 1897.
  • Lost Man's Lane. A second episode in the life of Amelia Butterworth . Putnam, New York 1898.
  • The circular study . Garland, New York 1976, ISBN 0-8240-2372-2 (reprint of the New York 1900 edition).
  • One of my sons . Putnam, New York 1901.
    • German translation: One of my sons . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1901.
  • Initials only . Dodd Mead, New York 1911.
  • The mystery of the hasty arrow . Dodd Mead, New York 1917.
The Caleb Sweetwater cycle
  • Agatha Webb . Kessinger Publ., Whitefish, Mon. 2004, ISBN 1-4191-0519-1 (reprint of the New York 1899 edition).
  • The Woman in the Alcove . Bobbs-Merrill, New York 1906.
  • The House of the Whispering Pines . Putnam, New York 1910.
Individual works
  • Forsaken Inn . Grosset & Dunlap, New York 1890.
    • German translation: The abandoned inn . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1920.
  • Marked "Personal" . Putnam, New York 1893.
  • The filigree ball. Being a full and true account of the solution of the mystery concerning the Jeffrey Moore affair . Arno Books, New York 1976, ISBN 0-405-07860-9 (EA Indianapolis 1903)
  • The House in the Mist . Bobbs-Merrill, New York 1905.
  • The step on the stair . Dodd Mead, New York 1923.
  • The sword of Damocles. A story of New York Life . Putnam, New York 1881.
  • XYZ A detective story . Putnam, New York 1883.
  • 7 to 12. A detective story . New York 1887.
    • German Translation: Between 7 and 12 o'clock . Lutz Verlag, Stuttgart 1908.
  • Cynthia Wakeham's money . Putnam, New York 1892.
  • Miss Hurd. To enigma . Putnam, New York 1894.
  • Dctor Izard . Putnam, New York 1895.
  • The millionaire baby . Bobbs-Merrill, New York 1905.
  • The chief legatee . Cupples & Leon, New York 1906.
  • The mayor's wife . Bobbs-Merrill, New York 1907.
  • Three thousand dollars . Badger, New York 1910.
  • Dark hollow . Dodd Mead, New York 1914.
  • The step on the chair . Dodd Mead, New York 1923.
  • A woman of mystery . Collier, London 1909.

Plays

  • Risifi's daughter. A drama . Putnam, New York 1887.

Film adaptations

  • George Lessey (Director): Graft . 1915.
  • George Lessey (Director): A strange disappearance . 1915 (based on the novel of the same name).
  • Lawrence Marston (Director): The Millionaire Baby . 1915 (based on the novel of the same name).
  • William Bertram (Director): Who is Number One? 1917.
  • Kenneth S. Webb (Director): His Wife's Husband . 1922 (based on the novel The mayor's wife ).
  • Charles Giblyn (Director): The Leavenworth Case . 1923 (based on the novel of the same name).
    • Remake : Lewis D. Collins (Director): The Leavenworth Case . 1936.

literature

  • Armin Arnold, Josef Schmidt (Ed.): Reclams Kriminalromanführer . Reclam, Stuttgart 1978, ISBN 3-15-010278-2 , p. 179.
  • Jacques Baudou: and Jean-Jacques Schléret: Le vrai visage du “Masque”. Roman policier, espionnage, aventure, western . Éditions Futuropolis, Paris, pp. 46-48.
  • Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery - The Lives and Works of Notable Women Crime Novelists . Thomas Dunne Books, New York 2011, ISBN 9780312276553 .
  • Larry Landrum: American mystery and detective novels. A reference guide . Greenwood PRess, Westport, CT 1999, ISBN 0-313-21387-9 .
  • Patricia D. Maida: Mother of detective fiction. The life and works of Anna Katharine Green . University Press, Bowling Green, NY 1989, ISBN 0-87972-445-5 .
  • Claude Mesplède (Ed.): Dictionnaire des littératures policières, Vol. 1 (Collection "Temps Noir"). Editions Joseph K., Nantes 2007, ISBN 978-2-910686-44-4 , pp. 884-885.
  • Alma Murch: The development of the detective novel . Greenwood Press, New York 1968 (reprinted from London 1958 edition).
  • John M. Reilly: 20th century mystery and crime writers . 2nd ed. St. Martin's Press, New York 1985, ISBN 0-312-82418-1 , pp. 42-44.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 6.
  2. ↑ a b c Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 7.
  3. ↑ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 8. Dubiose writes: More than any of its predecessors, The Leavenworth Case set the standard for professional police work in detective fiction.
  4. ↑ Martha Hailey Dubose: Women of Mystery , p. 9.
  5. ↑ Contents: The old stone house. - A memorable night. - The black cross. - A mysterious case. - Shall we wed her?
  6. ↑ Contents: Midnight in Beauchamp Row. - Room No.3. - The ruby ​​and the caldron. - The little steel coils. - The staircase at heart's delight. - The amethyst box. - The gray lady. - The thief. - The house in the mist.
  7. ↑ Contents: The golden slipper. - The second bullet. - The intangible clue. - The grotto specter. - The dreaming lady. - The house of the clocks. - The doctor, his wife, and the clock. - Missing: Page 13. - Violet's own.
  8. ↑ Contents: A difficult problem. - The gray madam. - The bronze hand. - Midnight on Beauchamp Row. - The staircase at the heart's delight. - The hermit of ... street.
  9. ↑ Content: Room No. 3. - Midnight on Beauchamp Row. - The ruby ​​and the caldron. - The little steel coils. - The stair case at the heart's delight. - The amethyst box. - The thief. - The house in the mist.
personal data
SURNAME Rohlfs, Anna Katharine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Green, Anne Catharine (maiden name); Green, Anna Katharine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer of Victorian crime novels
DATE OF BIRTH November 11, 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1935
Place of death Buffalo