- Carolyn Wells
Carolyn Wells (
June 18 ,1862 –March 26 ,1942 ) was an Americanauthor andpoet (born inRahway, New Jersey , ["CAROLYN WELLS, NOVELIST, DEAD; Noted for Myitery Stories and Nonsense Verse, Also for Children's Works BEGAN WRITING IN RAHWAY Wrote 170 Books by 1937 and 70 Were Mysteries -- Widow of Publisher's Son", "The New York Times ",March 27 ,1942 .] the daughter of William E. and Anna Wells. [cite book
title=Who's who in America
author=John William Leonard, Albert Nelson Marquis
year=1903
publisher=Marquis
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4nfOl6a6QSkC&pg=RA1-PA1580&dq=%22at+the+sign+of+the+sphinx%22%2B%22wells%22] She died at the Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City in 1942. [ [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/217102392.html?dids=217102392:217102392&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=MAR+28%2C+1942&author=By+the+Associated+Press&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Carolyn+Wells%2C+Witty+Mystery+Expert%2C+Dies&pqatl=google Washington Post obituary] ]She had been married to Hadwin Houghton, the heir of the Houghton-Mifflin publishing empire founded by Bernard Houghton.
After finishing school she worked as a
librarian for the Rahway Library Association. Her first book, "At the Sign of the Sphinx" (1896), was a collection of charades. Her next publications were "The Jingle Book" and "The Story of Betty" (1899), followed by a book of verse entitled "Idle Idyls" (1900). After 1900, Wells wrote numerous novels and collections of poetry.Wells also had an impressive collection of volumes of poetry by others. She bequethed her collection of Walt Whitman poetry, said to be one of the most important of its kind for its completeness and rarity, to the Library of Congress ("New York Times", Apr. 16, 1942).
Carolyn Wells wrote a total of more than 170 books. During the first ten years of her career, she concentrated on poetry, humor, and children's books. According to her autobiography, "The Rest of My Life" (1937), around 1910 she heard one of Anna Katherine Green's mystery novels being read aloud and was immediately captivated by the unravelling of the puzzle. From that point onward, she devoted herself to the mystery genre. Among the most famous of her mystery novels were the Fleming Stone Detective Stories which—according to Allen J. Hubin's "Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749–2000" (2003)—number 61 titles.
Today, however, she is best known for her light verse, particularly for several classic limericks, including this one:
A canner exceedingly canny
One morning remarked to his granny:
“A canner can can
Any thing that he can
But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”References
External links
*
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
