Carolyn Wells Explained

Carolyn Wells
Birth Date:18 June 1862
Birth Place:Rahway, New Jersey, U.S.
Death Place:New York City, U.S.
Occupation:Author
Spouse:Hadwin Houghton

Carolyn Wells (June 18, 1862 — March 26, 1942) was an American mystery author.

Life and career

Born in Rahway, New Jersey, she was the daughter of William Edmund and Anna Potter Wells (nee Woodruff).

After finishing school, she worked as a librarian for the Rahway Library Association. Her first book, At the Sign of the Sphinx (1896), was a collection of. Her next publications were The Jingle Book and The Story of Betty (1899), followed by a book of verse entitled Idle Idyls (1900). After 1900, Wells wrote numerous novels and collections of poetry.

Carolyn Wells wrote a total 170 books. During the first ten years of her career, she concentrated on poetry, humor, and children's books. According to her autobiography, The Rest of My Life (1937), she heard That Affair Next Door (1897), one of Anna Katharine Green's mystery novels, being read aloud and was immediately captivated by the unraveling of the puzzle. From that point onward, she devoted herself to the mystery genre. Among the most famous of her mystery novels were the Fleming Stone Detective Stories which—according to Allen J. Hubin's Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749–2000 (2003)—number 61 titles. Wells's The Clue (1909) is on the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list of essential mysteries. She was also the first to conduct a (brief, in this case) annual series devoted to the best short crime fiction of the previous year in the U.S., beginning with The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year (1931) (though others had begun a similar British series in 1929).

In addition to books, Wells also wrote for newspapers. Her poetry accompanies the work of some of the leading lights in illustration and cartooning, often in the form of Sunday magazine cover features that formed continuing narratives from week to week. Her first known illustrated newspaper work is a two part series titled Animal Alphabet, illustrated by William F. Marriner, which appeared in the Sunday comics section of the New York World. Many additional series ensued over the years, including the bizarre classic Adventures of Lovely Lilly (New York Herald, 1906–07). The last series she penned was Flossy Frills Helps Out (American Weekly, 1942), which appeared after her death.

In 1918 then aged 55, she married Hadwin Houghton (1855-1919). Although it sounds both plausible and romantic, he was not a direct descendent of H.O. Houghton, a founder of the Houghton-Mifflin publishing empire. However, Houghton was a distant cousin and his father, Moses Barnard Houghton[1] was a senior member of the firm.[2] Houghton was a very successful employee of Valentine & Company, a varnish and paint company now known as Valspar. He died in 1919 and her mother died two weeks after.

Wells died at the Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City in 1942. She is buried in the Rahway Cemetery in Rahway, NJ with her husband, parents, and two siblings.

Wells possessed an impressive collection of volumes of poetry by others. She bequeathed her collection of Walt Whitman poetry, said to be one of the most important of its kind for its completeness and rarity, to the Library of Congress.

In 2024, the first-ever biography of Wells, Rebecca Rego Barry's The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells, was published.

Adult fiction

Before 1900

Fleming Stone mysteries
Alan Ford
Pennington Wise
Kenneth Carlisle
Other mysteries
Other novels
Story collections

Children's fiction

Patty Fairfield[4]
  1. Patty Fairfield (1901)
  2. Patty at Home (1904)
  3. Patty in the City (1905)
  4. Patty Summer Days (1906)
  5. Patty in Paris (1907)
  6. Patty Friends (1908)
  7. Patty Pleasure Trip (1909)
  8. Patty Success (1910)
  9. Patty Motor Car (1911)
  10. Patty Butterfly Days (1912)
  11. Patty Social Season (1913)
  12. Patty Suitors (1914)
  13. Patty Romance (1915)
  14. Patty Fortune (1916)
  15. Patty Blossom (1917)
  16. Patty-Bride (1918)
  17. Patty and Azalea (1919)
  18. How to Tell a Wild Animal
Marjorie Maynard
  1. Marjorie Vacation (1907)
  2. Marjorie Busy Days (1908)
  3. Marjorie New Friend (1909)
  4. Marjorie in Command (1910)
  5. Marjorie Maytime (1911)
  6. Marjorie at Seacote (1912)
Dorrance Family
  1. The Dorrance Domain (1905)
  2. Dorrance Doings (1906)
Two Little Women
  1. Two Little Women (1915)
  2. Two Little Women and Treasure House (1916)
  3. Two Little Women on a Holiday (1917)
Other novels
Collections

Nonfiction prose

Verse

Anthologies (as editor)

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle . Brooklyn Newstand . 1 March 2024 . Page 7 . Apr 3, 1918.
  2. Web site: Chicago Tribune . Newspapers.com . 1 March 2024 . Page 5 . Apr 3, 1918.
  3. Reprinted in the 2019 Baker Street Almanac, pages 286-293 http://greenbag.org/almanacs/BS/texts/BSA2019.pdf.
  4. Web site: The Patty Fairfield series. Redeeming Qualities. 4 September 2007 . 27 January 2014.

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