Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958) was a prolific American writer who dealt mostly in the mystery genre. She is considered to have created the Had I but know... school of mystery writing and also coined the term - "The Butler did it." She also wrote comedies, nurse fiction and what is also considered "mainstream" fiction (which were often reprinted as romance novels - even though romance may not have a key feature in them). Rinehart does not appear to have had a happy married life and in her romance/mainstream fiction novels the husbands are always portrayed in a negative light but she was a very loving mother and motherhood is always shown as one of the crowning achievements that a woman can accomplish.

On the Web

• A page detailing her more important novels
• Wikipedia Entry for Rinehart

Books

Fiction

• The Window at the White Cat (1910)
• Where There's a Will (1912)
• The Cave on Thundercloud (1912)
• Mind Over Motor (1912)
• The Case of Jennie Brice (1913)
• The After House (1914)
• K (1915)
• The Amazing Interlude (1918)
• Dangerous Days (1919)
• Salvage (1919)
• A Poor Wise Man (1920)
• The Truce of God (1920)
• The Breaking Point (1922)
• The Red Lamp (1925)
• The Mystery Lamp (1925)
• Two Flights Up (1928)
• This Strange Adventure (1929)
• The Door (1930)
• The Double Alibi (1932)
• The Bat (1932) (with Avery Hopwood)
• The Album (1933)
• The State Vs Elinor Norton (1933)
• The Wall (1938)
• The Great Mistake (1940)
• The Yellow Room (1945)
• The Confession (1946)
• Sight Unseen (1946)
• The Swimming Pool (1952)
• The Wandering Knife (1952)
• The Frightened Wife (1953)
• The Street of Seven Stars (1966)

Non-Fiction

• My Story (1931)

Series/Related Titles

Hilda Adams

• Miss Pinkerton (1932)
• Haunted Lady (1942)
• Episode of the Wandering Knife (1950)

Letitia (Tish) Carberry

• The Amazing Adventures of Letitia Carberry (1911)
• Tish (1916)
• More Tish (1921)
• The Book of Tish (1926)
• Tish Plays the Game (1926)
• Tish Marches On (1937)

Miss Cornelia Van Gorder

• 1. The Man in Lower Ten (1906)
• 2. The Circular Staircase (1908)

Awards/Honors

The Rinehart career was crowned with a Mystery Writers of America Special Award a year after she published her last novel ... and by the award, as early as 1923, of an honorary Doctorate in Literature from George Washington University.