by Thomas F. Schwartz With very few exceptions, most mysteries on the shelves at Camp Rapidan reflect what is often called “the golden age” of mystery writers who published in the decades of the 1920s through 1930s. Writers such as Agatha Christie and G.K. Chesterton already were well established in both Britain and America. Mary … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers: Part XII
By Thomas F. Schwartz The movie Forrest Gump features Tom Hanks uttering the famous line: “Life is like a box of chocolates…You never know what you’re gonna get.” If the screen writer were mystery author Anthony Berkeley, it might be The Poisoned Chocolates Case. The French philosopher Voltaire posited, “The perfect is the enemy of … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers Part XI: Life is a Box of Chocolates
By Thomas F. Schwartz We all have guilty pleasures in life. At the top of the list for Lou and Herbert Hoover was reading mysteries. As this blog series has shown, the Hoovers had no set preference for a specific mystery writer or genre. They read widely, absorbing everything that was available. John T. McIntyre, … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers Part X
By Thomas F. Schwartz Frederick G. Eberhard and Mignon G. Eberhart are not related but have a common connection. Both wrote mysteries that featured doctors and nurses as the main characters. Little is known about Frederick G. Eberhard, other than he was a physician in real life and used his knowledge of science and human … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers Part IX: Doctors and Nurses
"The Cask of Death and Other Crimes" is shown on a bookshelf in the research room at the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.Illustrations featured in "The Cask of Death and Other Crimes."Illustrations featured in "The Cask of Death and Other Crimes."Illustrations featured in "The Cask of Death and Other Crimes."Illustrations featured in "The Cask of Death … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers: Part VIII
By Thomas F. Schwartz Two English mystery writers whose works were on the shelves at Camp Rapidan were Robin Forsythe and Freeman Wills Crofts. Both were born in 1879, Forsythe in Punjab, British India now Pakistan and Crofts in Dublin, Ireland. Both were popular during the “Golden Age” of detective fiction, roughly the two decades of 1920 … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers: Part VII
By Thomas F. Schwartz Two titles on the shelves at Camp Rapidan were authors considered the best writers of the mystery genre: Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, often claimed to be the best mystery novel written by Christie, and The Omnibus of Crime, edited by Dorothy L. Sayers, offer interesting … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers: Part VI
By Thomas F. Schwartz Carolyn Wells was born on June 18, 1862, in Rahway, New Jersey. She worked as a librarian after completing her education, accounting for her interest in books and writing. Her marriage to Hadwin Houghton, heir to the publishing house Houghton-Mifflin, provided an additional tie to the book world. Author of 170 books, … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers: Part V, Carolyn Wells Houghton
By Thomas F. Schwartz Lawrence Saunders (a pseudonym for the married couple John Burton Davis and Clare Ogden Davis, not the Lawrence Saunders of The Anderson Tapes) and Harry Stephen Keeler are relatively unknown today but were rather well-known mystery writers in their day. The Columnist Murder (1931) was dedicated to Walter Winchell, the infamous gossip … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers: Part IV
A group sits inside the President's cabin at Camp Rapidan. Lou Henry Hoover is seen on the left knitting. By Thomas F. Schwartz Many of the leading mystery writers of the era were English and tended to place murder settings in country manors. Class status, a pronounced feature of British society up to and beyond World … Continue reading Mystery Writers Read by the Hoovers: Part III
