Helen MacInnes

Helen MacInnes (1969)

Helen MacInnes , actually Helen Clark MacInnes , (born October 7, 1907 in Glasgow , Scotland , † September 20, 1985 in New York ) was an American writer of Scottish descent, who was known for her tight, realistic spy thriller .

Life

MacInnes was the only child of construction worker Donald MacInnes and his wife Jessica Sutherland (née McDiarmid). In 1912 she went to Helensburgh ( Dunbartonshire ) with her family , where she also attended the Hermitage Primary School . When she enrolled at the University of Glasgow at the age of 18 in 1925 , her family also returned to Glasgow. MacInnes had previously attended Glasgow High School for Girls in her hometown .

MacInnes studied German and French in Glasgow and was able to successfully complete this course in 1928 with the title Master of Arts . Immediately afterwards she got a job as a “special cataloger” (catalog department) for the Ferguson Collection at the University Library of Glasgow. Between 1929 and 1930 MacInnes worked for the Dunbartonshire regional school board. In the spring of 1930 she went to London to study at University College , where she trained as a librarian, which she successfully completed with a diploma in autumn 1931.

MacInnes returned to Glasgow and on September 22, 1932 married her fellow student, the classical philologist Gilbert Highet . The ceremony took place in the Memorial Chapel of the University of Glasgow. MacInnes went to Oxford with her husband when he accepted an appointment at St. John's College . Their son Keith was born in the summer of 1933.

In addition to her duties as a wife and mother, MacInnes was also very involved in the university theater group and played in several plays, most of which were staged by the Oxford University Dramatic Society and the Experimental Theater Club . The couple went on several extensive trips, mostly financed by their work as translators. In 1937 her husband Gilbert went to New York as a lecturer at Columbia University for a year . When after a year this contract was converted into a permanent position as a professor for Latin and Greek , MacInnes came to the United States with her son . In 1951 she was granted US citizenship .

In 1939 MacInnes was able to debut successfully with her first novel ("Above Suspicion"). The publisher Godfrey Collins ( HarperCollins ) soon called her the Queen of spy writers . When her husband died in 1978, she withdrew from the public eye and lived alternately in New York or at her country house on Long Island . She published regularly and “Intermezzo in Prague”, her last novel, came out the day before her death. In early September 1985, she suffered a stroke and died in a Manhattan hospital on September 20, 1985 , 18 days before her 78th birthday.

Honors

• 1966 Columba Prize for Literature , awarded by Iona College , New Rochelle , New York.
• 1973 Wallace Award , given by the American-Scottish Foundation (with her husband)

Works

Novels

• Above Suspicion . 11th ed. Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York 1969, ISBN 0-15-102707-2 .
• Assignment in Brittany . 4th ed. Collins Fontana, London 1969.
• The Unconquerable . Fontana Books, Glasgow 1985, ISBN 0-00-617065-X (formerly While Still We Live ).
• Rebellion of the Damned. Novel ("Horizon"). 4th edition Heyne, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-453-00778-6 .
• Friends and Lovers . Little Brown, Boston, Mass. 1947.
• Rest and Be Thankful . Seven Houses Books, London 1976, ISBN 0-7278-0120-1 .
• Neither Five nor Three . 7th ed. Collins, Glasgow 1976, ISBN 0-006-11971-9 .
• Love in washington. Roman ("I and My True Love"). Heyne, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-453-01407-3 .
• Pray for a brave heart ... Roman ("Pray for a Brave Heart"). Heyne, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-453-01275-5 .
• The drug plot. Adventure novel ("North of Rome"). Heyne, Munich 1975, ISBN 3-453-82019-3 .
• Decision on Delphi. Roman ("Decision at Delphi"). 4th edition Heyne, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-453-01126-0 .
• Order in Venice. Roman ("The Venetian Affair"). Verlag Kaiser, Klagenfurt 1992, ISBN 3-7043-2109-5 .
• The reflection. Roman ("The Double Image"). Droemer Knaur, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-426-00258-2 .
• In Salzburg only everyone dies ("The Salzburg Connection"). Droemer Knaur, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-426-00304-X (former title Treffpunkt Salzburg ).
• Embassy from Malaga. Roman ("Message from Málaga"). 6th edition Heyne, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-453-00693-3 .
• The hunter's trap. Roman ("Snare of the Hunter"). Ullstein, Frankfurt / M. 1993, ISBN 3-548-23041-5 .
• Agent war. Roman ("Agent in Place"). Verlag Kaiser, Klagenfurt 1991, ISBN 3-7042-2086-8 .
• Meeting point Vienna. Roman ("Prelude to Terror"). Verlag Naumann & Göbel, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-625-20185-2 .
• The hidden target . Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York 1980, ISBN 0-15-140198-5 .
• Cloak of Darkness . Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York 1982, ISBN 0-15-118171-3 .
• Intermezzo in Prague. Political thriller ("Ride a Pale Horse"). Bastei-Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1987, ISBN 3-404-13083-9 .

Plays

• Home is the Hunter. A comedy in two acts . Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York 1976.

Film adaptations

• Jack Conway (Director): Assignment in Brittany . 1943 (based on the novel of the same name).
• Lee H. Katzin (Director): Top Secret . 1972 (based on the novel In Salzburg only everyone dies ).
• Jerry Thorpe (Director): The Venetian Affair . 1967 (based on the novel of the same name).
• Richard Thorpe (Director): Dangerous Honeymoon . 1943 (based on the novel Above Suspicion ).

literature

• Virginia Russell: McInnes, Helen Clark (1907-1985). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Volume 35: Macan-Macpherson. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861385-7 , pp. 478-479, ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• Bernard Benstock, Thomas F. Staley (Eds.): British mystery and thriller writers . Gale Research, Detroit, Mich. 1989, ISBN 0-8103-1748-6 .
• Helen Clark MacInnes. In: Encyclopædia Britannica Online, accessed April 9, 2009 . 

Web links

• Literature by and about Helen MacInnes in the catalog of the German National Library