Phoebe Atwood Taylor

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Phoebe Atwood Taylor (born May 18, 1909 in Boston , Massachusetts , † January 9, 1976 there ) was an American crime writer. She also wrote under the pseudonyms Freeman Dana and Alice Tilton .

Life

Phoebe Atwood Taylor was born in Boston. Her parents were descendants of the Mayflower pilgrims and lived on Cape Cod , a peninsula in southeastern Massachusetts. Phoebe Atwood Taylor studied at Barnard College (Lucille Pulitzer Scholar) in New York . In 1930 she finished her studies with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). She then went back to Boston to devote herself entirely to writing. In 1931 she married a surgeon from Boston who also went by the surname Taylor. She lived with her husband in the Boston suburbs of Newton Highlands and Weston. They also had a summer home in the village of Wellfleet on Cape Cod.

Taylor published her first novel in the Asey Mayo series, The Cape Cod Mystery , in 1931 . This book has been sold 5000 times. She wrote thirty novels in the next 20 years. According to her, she wrote her novels after completing the housework between midnight and three in the morning. She only started writing three weeks before a novel was published. Taylor wrote the Asey Mayo series under her name and the Leonidas Witherall series under the pseudonym Alice Tilton .

Like many who lived during the Great Depression, she too was forced to earn money. In one of her letters to her publisher , she explained why she wrote other books under the pseudonym Alice Tilton and Freeman Dana. Taylor used the pseudonyms because she did not want her publisher to get the reputation of working as a purely commercial writer. This statement was printed in a new edition of one of her books.

In 1944 a 7-part radio play series with the fictional character Leonidas Witherall was created for Mutual Radio.

In 1951 Phoebe Atwood Taylor published her last novel. Her novels remained so popular, however, that her publisher, WW Norton, reissued them all in hardcover between 1960–1970.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor died of a heart attack on January 9, 1976 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Asey Mayo range

The Asey Mayo series includes 24 crime novels by the protagonist Asey Mayo . Asey (a nickname of his real first name Asa) lives on the Cape Cod peninsula. Cape Cod, in German "Cape Cod", is the starting point for numerous adventures by the "Cod Sherlock" Asey. The former sailor and racing driver solves his local murder cases on the peninsula populated with strange New Englanders with as much acerbic acumen as imagination and humor. He is often supported by his cousin Jennie Mayo, a local gossip, and her husband Syl. Through Jennie's charitable and civic engagement on Cape Cod, she is always up to date with the latest news. This is often the starting point for Asey Moyo's criminal cases.

Leonidas-Witherall series

Taylor wrote the Leonidas-Witherall series under the pseudonym Alice Tilton. The fictional character Leonidas Witherall (who looks like Shakespeare ) is a retired academic and secret writer of crime thriller dime novels . As an amateur detective, he solves tricky criminal cases in his bizarre way. The novels in this series are: Beginning with a Bash (1937), The Cut Direct (1938), Cold Steal (1939), The Left Leg (1940), The Hollow Chest (1941), File for Record (1943), Dead Ernest (1944) and The Iron Clew (1947).

Under the pseudonym Freeman Dana she published the novel Murder at the New York World's Fair in 1938 .

Taylor's novels are evidence of a great knowledge and fondness for the Cape Cod peninsula. She was not interested in portraying the tourists who visited the peninsula. Taylor wrote about the time of year the tourists left the Cape. When their Cape Cod residents were to themselves and not looking suspiciously at every tourist and other outsider. She doesn't mention the Great Depression in her novels, but she does point out the effects of that crisis in some of her characters.

Works

Asey Mayo crime novels:

  • The Cape Cod Mystery (1931), Power of His Word (1986, DuMont)
  • Death Lights a Candle (1932)
  • The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players (1933), Who Likes to Live in Joy (1991, DuMont)
  • The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern (1934), There's a Time for Anything (1988, DuMont)
  • Sandbar Sinister (1934)
  • Deathblow Hill (1935)
  • The Tinkling Symbol (1935)
  • The Crimson Patch (1936)
  • Out of Order (1936)
  • Figure Away (1937)
  • Octagon House (1937)
  • The Annulet of Gilt (1938)
  • Banbury Bog (1938)
  • Spring Harrowing (1939)
  • The Criminal COD (1940)
  • The Deadly Sunshade (1940)
  • The Perennial Boarder (1941)
  • The Six Iron Spiders (1942)
  • Three Plots for Asey Mayo {Novelets} (1942)
  • Going, Going, Gone (1943)
  • Proof of the Pudding (1943)
  • The Asey Mayo Trio {Novelets} (1946)
  • Punch with Care (1946)
  • Diplomatic Corpse (1951)

Detective novels of the Leonidas Witherall series:

  • Beginning with a Bash (1937), Schlag nach in Shakespeare (1998, DuMont)
  • A Cut Direct (1938), Like a Stab Through the Heart (1990, DuMont)
  • Cold Steal (1939), Caught Cold (1999, DuMont)
  • The Left Leg (1940), With the Left Leg (1995, DuMont)
  • The Hollow Chest (1941), The Empty Chest (1996, DuMont)
  • File for Record (1943), To the files (2001, DuMont)
  • Dead Ernest (1944), Death Serious (2002, DuMont)
  • The Iron Clew (1947), It's Obvious (2003, DuMont)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.detective-fiction.com/phoebeatwood-taylor.htm, accessed on August 5, 2009
  2. ↑ a b c d e Biography of Phoebe Atwood Taylor , accessed August 4, 2009
  3. ↑ http://themysteriousbookshop.blogspot.com/2009/07/author-of-week-phoebe-atwood-taylor.html accessed on August 3, 2009
  4. ↑ a b c d publications by Phoebe Atwood Taylor , accessed August 7, 2009
personal data
SURNAME Taylor, Phoebe Atwood
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American crime writer
DATE OF BIRTH May 18, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston , Massachusetts , USA
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1976
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts , USA