Elizabeth T. Daly (October 15, 1878 – September 2, 1967) was an American writer of

mystery novels Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as specul ...

whose main character, Henry Gamadge, was a bookish author,

bibliophile Bibliophilia or bibliophilism is the love of books. A bibliophile or bookworm is an individual who loves and frequently reads and/or collects books. Profile The classic bibliophile is one who loves to read, admire and collect books, often ama ...

, and amateur detective. A writer of light verse and prose for ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy trans ...

'', '' Puck'', and ''

Scribner's Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...

'' magazines in her earlier years, Daly published her first Gamadge novel, ''Unexpected Night'', at age 60. Between 1940 and 1951, she published 16 novels featuring Gamadge. Her career included two years as a reader at

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

, 1904–06. At other times, she tutored in French and English, and she was a producer of amateur theater.

Personal life

Born Elizabeth T. Daly in 1878 in New York City, she was the daughter of Joseph F. Daly, a

New York Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in the New York State Unified Court System. (Its Appellate Division is also the highest intermediate appellate court.) It is vested with unlimited civ ...

justice, and Emma Barker Daly. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1901 and from Columbia University with an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. ...

in 1902. Daly was an honorary member of 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, ...

. She died in

Roslyn, New York Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census. History Ro ...

, in 1967 at age 88.

Critical reception

Charles Shibuk, in ''St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers'', said that Daly was

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...

's favorite American mystery writer. Daly successfully used many of the literary conventions employed by Christie and other writers of the

Golden Age of Detective Fiction The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s. The Golden Age proper is, in practice, usually taken to refer to a type of fiction which was pre ...

, he said, and "was always both civilized and literate". The Mystery Writers of America, referring to her as "the grande dame of women mystery writers", awarded her a "Special

Edgar Edgar is a commonly used English given name, from an Anglo-Saxon name ''Eadgar'' (composed of '' ead'' "rich, prosperous" and ''gar'' "spear"). Like most Anglo-Saxon names, it fell out of use by the later medieval period; it was, however, rev ...

" in 1961.

Bibliography

Henry Gamadge novels

* ''Unexpected Night'' (1940) * ''Deadly Nightshade'' (1940) * ''Murders in Volume 2'' (1941) * ''The House Without the Door'' (1942) * ''Evidence of Things Seen'' (1943) * ''Nothing Can Rescue Me'' (1943) * ''Arrow Pointing Nowhere'' (1944) (Also published as ''Murder Listens In'') * ''The Book of the Dead'' (1944) * ''Any Shape or Form'' (1945) * ''Somewhere in the House'' (1946) * ''The Wrong Way Down'' (1946) * ''Night Walk'' (1947) * ''The Book of the Lion'' (1948) * ''And Dangerous to Know'' (1949) * ''The Book of Crime'' (1951) * ''Death and Letters'' (1953) * ''An Elizabeth Daly Mystery Omnibus: Three Henry Gamadge Novels (includes Murders in Volume 2, Evidence of Things Seen, and The Book of the Dead)'' (1960)

Other

*''The Street Has Changed'' (1941)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Daly, Elizabeth 1878 births 1967 deaths 20th-century American women writers American crime fiction writers