Donald Barr Chidsey Explained

Donald Barr Chidsey
Birth Date:May 14, 1902
Birth Place:Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States
Death Place:New London, Connecticut, United States
Nationality:American
Spouse:Shirley Chidsey, OSS agent
Genre:Adventure fiction, historical fiction

Donald Barr Chidsey (May 14, 1902 – March 17, 1981) was an American writer, biographer, historian, novelist and writer of adventure fiction.

Biography

Donald Barr Chidsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on May 14, 1902. He worked at the Elizabeth Daily Journal, and traveled widely in his youth. He lived in Lyme, Connecticut for many years.

In 1935 he married Shirley Chidsey (born Elinor Shirley Stewart) and went with her to Tahiti, where she sailed in his boat and helped to manage a coconut plantation. While they made friends with a number of writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald. Shirley separated from him in February 1940. She went to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (CIA’s forerunner), in 1943 she worked in the Belgian Congo to keep the unique uranium mine in Katanga province Shinkolobwe out of the hands of the Axis powers. The uranium was later used in the creation of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[1] [2]

Along with artist W. Langdon Kihn, Chidsey was a Democratic candidate for the Connecticut House of Representatives from the town of Lyme, in the November 2, 1948 election.[3]

Donald Barr Chidsey died on March 17, 1981, in Lawrence Memorial Hospital at New London, Connecticut.[4]

Writings

Chidsey wrote more than fifty books. Chidsey began his writing career as a contributor to the pulp magazines, especially Argosy and Adventure.[5] Chidsey wrote crime fiction for Black Mask and Dime Detective magazines.[6] Chidsey wrote several historical novels, in the "swashbuckler" style of Rafael Sabatini. These included This Bright Sword (1957) about the return of Richard I to England.[7] Captain Bashful (1955) and Reluctant Cavalier (1960), are set in Elizabethan era England. His Majesty's Highwayman (1958) is about a young man forced to join a gang of highwaymen in eighteenth-century England. Stronghold (1948) is set against the backdrop of the War of 1812.

Alden Whitman called him "an old hand at light writing."[8] According to Kirkus Reviews, Chidsey "is known for his popular American histories, and has a nose for a good story."[9] He lived in Lyme, Connecticut for many years.

Works

Biographies

Histories

Novels

Notes and References

  1. Book: Susan Williams . Susan Williams (historian) . Spies in the Congo: The Race for the Ore that Built the Atomic Bomb . Public Affairs . New York . 2016 . 9781610396547.
  2. News: The Female Spy Who Kept Uranium Out of the Nazis' Hands. The Daily Beast. August 13, 2016. Williams. Susan.
  3. Connecticut Register and Manual, 1950, page 556
  4. "Donald Barr Chidsey, Biographer And Historian of the Revolution", New York Times, March 26, 1981
  5. [Frank M. Robinson|Robinson, Frank M.]
  6. [Lee Server|Server, Lee]
  7. McGarry, Daniel D. McGarry, White, Sarah Harriman, Historical Fiction Guide: Annotated Chronological, Geographical, and Topical List of Five Thousand Selected Historical Novels. Scarecrow Press, New York, 1963 (pp. 59, 104, 179, 354)
  8. "End Papers" (review of The California Gold Rush), New York Times, October 24, 1968
  9. Web site: THE GREAT CONSPIRACY. Donald Barr Chidsey. Kirkus Reviews.

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