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ANNA KATHERINE GREEN
Anna Katherine Green was perhaps the most important female
pioneer in the mystery genre. She penned tales in the Police-Procedural, Private
Investigator and Historical sub genres and was the first American mystery writer
to remain consistently on the bestseller lists. When her first book, THE
LEAVENWORTH CASE: A LAWYER'S STORY was published in 1878 it inspired debate on
the floor of the Pennsylvania Senate. "Could this book really have been
written by a woman?" She was amongst the first, if not the first mystery
writer to create newspaper clippings which when woven together with the plot
provided the reader with invaluable Clews (THE FILIGREE BALL:). Yale Law School
used her novels as examples of how circumstantial evidence could be damaging and
inconclusive. Among her fans were contemporary luminaries Wilkie Collins and
Arthur Conan Doyle. Woodrow Wilson (amongst others) never missed her newest, and
40 years later principal characters in both Christie and Carr mysteries were
still discussing her characters and plots..... the list goes on.
Born in Brooklyn in 1846, Anna Katherine Green married after college and moved
to Buffalo where she and her husband had three children. She died on April 11
1935 a month after her 50th wedding anniversary. Aside from her body of work she
also left the literary world important pieces of international copywrite
legislation which she lobbied for diligently. Her own works having been
translated into: French, Dutch, German, Danish and Swedish this was perhaps a
practical matter, but no less important.
With a background in poetry (Emerson was a pen-pal) and strong prose Green hit
the literary world with a bang with THE LEAVENWORTH CASE in 1878. That was the
first in her Ebenezer Gryce series . This series was joined in 1899 by a second
series featuring Caleb Sweetwater. Ebenezer was middle aged and shrewd upon
introduction, and through the course of the series had a bounty of rich
characters offer him assistance.
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Mr Q, who carried a calling card which bore only a question mark
upon it (do you suppose Simon Templar got the idea here?)
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Horace Bryd, a younger man with more social graces than Gryce,
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Amelia Butterworth, middle aged spinster whose physical
appearance hid her inquisitive nature and self reliance. Butterworth could be
counted on to go for clues where Gryce feared to tread.
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And Caleb Sweetwater himself, who started his rise to mystery
immortality in the Gryce series. He was the action man of Green's imagination
and our great joy. As his knowledge of the human condition was cultivated by
mentor Gryce, he simply became too big to contain in the Gryce series and earned
one of his own.
In a collection of stories, THE GOLDEN SLIPPERS AND OTHER
PROBLEMS Anna Katherine Green introduced the only principal female detective of
her long writing career. Violet Strange was a "modern" woman of the
day. She juggled her active social calendar with her work in the PI business.
Slim and witty, with a sparkle in her eyes and a coquettishness in her manner
Violet hid her self-awareness and resourcefulness well from both superiors and
the bad guys. Her utter intuitiveness and acquired skills made her a formidable
adversary.
You could count on Green's works to lean towards the "family angle"
but to always offer a fair but "stunning" conclusion. She helped
Mystery to emerge and take shape as a separate literary form, and in later times
publishers often pointed to her as an argument as to why women could enrich the
mystery genre and should be published.
Well done and thank you, Anna Katherine Green!!
For more on Anna Katherine Green go to A
Celebration of Women Writers: G Listings
To read THE LEAVENWORTH CASE; A LAWYER'S STORY go to Leavenworth
Case Introduction & Table of Contents, MacGuffin Guide to Detective
Reprinted here with permission of: Ruth
Flannery Jordan
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