John Carr
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John Dickson Carr (1906 - 1977)

John Dickson Carr
Born in Uniontown, Fayette, Pennsylvania, United Statesmap
Ancestors ancestors
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Died at age 70 in Greenville, Greenville, South Carolina, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 23 Sep 2018
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Biography

Notables Project
John Carr is Notable.

Distinguished mystery author, also using name Carter Dickson. Considered to be master of the "locked room mystery".

Obituary

John Dickson Carr, author of 120 mystery novels and hundreds of short stories, died of cancer Sunday in Greenville, S.C., where he made his home. He was 70 years old.

Mr. Carr was the master or a within a genre—the locked‐room mystery, in which the murder could not possibly have taken place but somehow did, and logically. He was so prolific that he made two names interchangeably famous, his own and Carter Dickson. At one time he used a third name—Carr Dickson. “I insisted on loafing 18 hours a day at the typewriter,” Mr. Carr once said, “ever since I was old enough to know one letter from another.”

Of Mr. Carr, J. B. Priestley observed, “He has a sense of the macabre that lifts him high above average detective‐story writers.” An international readership agreed.

He created two famous detectives. John Dickson Carr's man was Dr. Gideon Fell, an Oxford don, eccentric though dignified, who had a piratical swagger. “Fell is G. K. Chesterton, of course,” Mr. Carr said. The Carter Dickson hero was Sir Henry Merrivale, a buffoon given to profanity, with a lordly sneer. “There's a lot of Winston Churchill in him,” Mr. Carr said, “and even a little of me.”

Gave Sex a Mystery Role

Mr. Carr also pioneered in mystery literature by making his women characters attractive. In “Night of the Mocking Widow,” Sir Henry turns to one Joan Bailey and says, “Listen, my wench, did anybody ever tell you you've got a figure that would make Aphrodite look like laundry bag in a thunderstorm?”

The author was born in Uniontown, Pa., Nov. 30, 1906, went to the Hill School and graduated from Haverford College in 1928. He took off for Paris to study at the Sorbonne, but somehow never got around to doing so. Instead, he wrote his first novel, “It Walks by Night,” which appeared in 1930 and set him off on career as a mystery novelist.

Mr. Carr traveled continuously between the United States, England and France most of his adult life. In 1931 he married an Englishwoman, Clarice Cleaves, and took up residence in London. During World War II, he wrote propaganda broadcasts for the British Broadcasting Corporation. In the same period, he wrote weekly radio mystery, “Appointment With Fear.” He also initiated the “Suspense” series on American radio.

With the postwar Labor Governments in Britain, Mr. Carr decided to return to the United States because, it was reported, he did not like the restrictions. He lived in Mamaroneck, N.Y., but continued to visit Europe and North Africa.

In the 1950's his work took another turn—historical mysteries. Most of these were set in England's Regency and Restoration periods. Mr. Carr's favorite among his own novels was “The Devil in Velvet,” which takes place in the England of Charles II. He researched his mystery backgrounds with great care, often visiting the scenes of the “crimes.”

The author acknowledged the masters who had influenced him. “Edgar Allan Poe invented the whole thing and put into his stories every single device that has since been used,” Mr. Carr said. “Arthur Conan Doyle owed a lot to Poe and said so.” In 1949, he wrote “The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” which disclosed that there really was a Dr. James Watson.

Mr. Carr was esteemed by his peers. He won the Mystery Writers of America “Edgar” award in 1949 and 1962. He also received the Ellery Queen prize twice for short stories. At various times he served as president of the Mystery Writers of America and its senior counterpart in England, the Detection Club.

“Men in my profession work objectively and put everything in their right places,” he said. “Morbidity has nothing to do with it any more than with solving chess or mathematics problems. Some of the finest writing is done by members of my craft.

“My only claim to distinction among writers is that I do not believe my life contains any materials for a novel. have prowled around Limehouse and the gamiest sections of Paris, but I have never yet seen (a) a really choice murder in a locked room, (b) a mysterious mastermind or (c) a really good‐looking adventuress with slant eyes.”

Mr. Carr leaves his wife, Clarice; ‘three daughters, Julia McNiven of Mamaroneck, Bonita Cron of Bay of Islands, New Zealand, and Mary Howes of Manhattan, and five grandchildren.

Sources

  • Wikipedia [[1]]




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John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr



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