Death and Letters

INTRODUCTIONElizabeth T. Daly (October 15, 1878 – September 2, 1967) was an American writer of mystery novels whose main character, Henry Gamadge, was a bookish author, bibliophile, and amateur detective. She was the daughter of New York State Supreme Court Justice Francis Daly and the niece of the celebrated playwright and producer Augustin Daly. A writer of light verse and prose for Life, Puck, and Scribner’s magazines in her earlier years, Daly published her first Gamadge novel, Unexpected Night, in 1940 at the age of 60. Between 1940 and 1951, she published a total of 16 novels featuring Gamadge. The series consists of: 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) Her career also included two years as a reader at Bryn Mawr College, 1904–06. At other times, she tutored in French and English, and she was a producer of amateur theater. She never married. She died September 2, 1967, at age88, in Roselyn, New York. —Karl Wurf Rockville, Maryland