Rinehart Mary Roberts
Mary Roberts Rinehart (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958) was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie.[1] She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it", although she did not actually use the phrase herself, and also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing. She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, which has been a part of the city of Pittsburgh since 1907. Her father was a frustrated inventor, and throughout her childhood, the family often had financial problems. She was left-handed at a time when that was considered inappropriate, and she was trained to use her right hand instead. She attended public schools and graduated at the age of sixteen, then enrolled at the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses at Homeopathic Hospital, where she graduated in 1896. She described the experience as "all the tragedy of the world under one roof." After graduation she married Stanley Marshall Rinehart, a physician whom she met there. They had three sons and one daughter: Stanley Jr., Frederick, Alan, and Elizabeth Glory. During the stock market crash of 1903 the couple lost their savings, and this spurred Rinehart's efforts at writing as a way to earn income. She was 27 that year, and she produced 45 short stories. In 1907 she wrote The Circular Staircase, the novel that launched her to national fame. According to her obituary in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that book alone sold a million and a quarter copies. Her regular contributions to the Saturday Evening Post were immensely popular and helped the magazine mold American middle-class taste and manners. Rinehart’s commercial success sometimes conflicted with her domestic roles of wife and mother. Yet she often pursued adventure, including a job as the first woman war correspondent at the Belgian front during World War I. In the early 1920s the family moved to Washington, DC when Dr. Rinehart was appointed to a post in the Veterans Administration. He died in 1932, but she continued to live there until 1935, when she moved to New York City. There she helped her sons found the publishing house Farrar & Rinehart, serving as its director. She also maintained a vacation home in Bar Harbor, Maine, where she was involved in a real-life drama in 1947. Her Filipino chef, who had worked for her for 25 years, fired a gun at her and then attempted to slash her with knives, until other servants rescued her. The chef committed suicide in his cell the next day. Rinehart suffered from breast cancer, which led to a radical mastectomy; she eventually went public with her story, at a time when such matters were not openly discussed. The interview "I Had Cancer" was published in a 1947 issue of the Ladies' Home Journal and in it Rinehart encouraged women to have breast examinations. "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."[1] She died at age 82 in her Park Avenue home in New York City.[2] Rinehart wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies, such as The Bat (1926), The Bat Whispers (1930), and The Bat (1959). While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Rinehart, in The Circular Staircase (1908), is credited with inventing the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing. The Circular Staircase is a novel in which "a middle-aged spinster is persuaded by her niece and nephew to rent a country house for the summer. The house they choose belonged to a bank defaulter who had hidden stolen securities in the walls. The gentle, peace-loving trio is plunged into a series of crimes solved with the help of the aunt. This novel is credited with being the first in the "Had-I-But-Known" school."[3] The Had-I-But-Known mystery novel is one where the principal character (frequently female) does less than sensible things in connection with a crime which have the effect of prolonging the action of the novel. Ogden Nash parodied the school in his poem Don't Guess Let Me Tell You: "Sometimes the Had I But Known then what I know now I could have saved at least three lives by revealing to the Inspector the conversation I heard through that fortuitous hole in the floor." The phrase "The butler did it", which has become a cliché, came from Rinehart's novel The Door, in which the butler actually did do it, although that exact phrase does not actually appear in the work. [1] Tim Kelly adapted Rinehart's play into a musical "The Butler Did It, Singing." This play includes five lead female roles and five lead male roles. Sources
Bab: a Sub-Deb
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: Literature & Fiction
In Chapter III called HER DAIRY the main character receives a diary from home. It is New Year's Eve with clear and cold weather. Her New Year dinner consists of roast chicken, mashed turnips, sweet potatoes and minse pie. The main character wants to record her daily events, daily thoughts and ambitions and daily life in the diary because she cannot talk to anyone else. Most of her friends either exist for the mere pleasures of the day or a bound up in resitations. Girls from Far West talk during the New Year dinner about buying a phonograph for dancing as their music teacher is sick with measles. Another example is Miss Everett who used to tell everyone that her cousin had written a play but in fact her appearance shows that no cousin of hers could write a play. The character thoughts about New Year Resolution and wants to help someone every day. Today she helped Mademoiselle with putting on her rubers. On January 2 the main character writes her French theme starting with such words "Les hommes songent moins a leur Ante qu a leur corps." Mademoiselle considers that this is not a theme for a young girl. So she writes a new one about pears. And of course, she thinks a lot about love trying to share her thoughts with the diary. She complains that presumably love has passed by her. She has had some offers of devotion but they were not what she was looking for because they most were either too young or not attractive...
Love Stories
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: Literature & Fiction
A 1919 book by Mary Roberts Rinehart, an American writer, whose literary heritage consists of eight plays, hundreds of short stories, poems, detectives, for which she is most famous today: Rinehart is often called the American Agatha Christie. “The Love Stories" revolves around hospital life (five of seven), and includes “Twenty Two,” “Jane,” “In the Pavilion,” “God’s Fool,” “The Miracle,” “Are We Downhearted? No!,” and “The Game.”
The Truce of God
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: General
Now the day of the birth of our Lord dawned that year grey and dreary, and a Saturday. But, despite the weather, in the town at the foot of the hill there was rejoicing, as befitted so great a festival. The day before a fat steer had been driven to the public square and there dressed and trussed for the roasting. The light of morning falling on his carcass revealed around it great heaps of fruits and vegetables.
By Mary Roberts Rinehart, an American writer, whose literary heritage consists of eight plays, hundreds of short stories, poems, detectives, for which she is most famous today: Rinehart is often called the American Agatha Christie.
Kings, Queens and Pawns
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: Children's Bookses
Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
Tenting To-night
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: Literature & Fiction
Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876-1958) was a prolific author often called the American Agatha Christie. "Dorothy B. Hughes, crime critic and novelist, says she 'has been and continues to be' the most important American woman mystery writer. " She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, which has been a part of the city of Pittsburgh since 1907. She attended public schools and graduated at the age of sixteen, then enrolling at the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses at Homeopathic Hospital, where she graduated in 1896. During the stock market crash of 1903 Rinehart and her husband lost their savings, and this spurred her efforts at writing as a way to earn income. In 1907 she wrote The Circular Staircase, the novel that launched her to national fame. She wrote hundreds of short stories, poems, travelogues and special articles. Many of her books and plays were adapted for movies. While many of her books were best-sellers, critics were most appreciative of her murder mysteries. Her other works include The After House (1914), Kings, Queens and Pawns (1915), K (1915), Tish (1916) and Love Stories (1920).
Why I Believe in Scouting for Girls
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: Classics
Rinehart is often called the American Agatha Christie. She is considered the source of the phrase "The butler did it," and also considered to have invented the "Had-I-But-Known" school of mystery writing.
Long Live the King!
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: General
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org
through glacier park seeing america first with howard eaton
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: United States
1928. With illustrations. Rinehart, American writer of mystery novels known for their humor and ingenuity, writes about her three-hundred mile trip across the Rocky Mountains on horseback with Howard Eaton. It is about fishing, and cool nights around a campfire, and long days on the trail. It is about a party of all sorts, from everywhere, of men and women, old and young, experienced folk and novices, who had yielded to a desire to belong to the sportsmen of the road. And it is by way of being advice also. A classic, readers continue to discover and enjoy this wonderfully descriptive narrative. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.
When a Man Marries
- Author: Rinehart Mary Roberts
- Genre: Classics
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT THE minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were Jimmy's troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an unsuspecting elderly woman ? 'And it was only putting off discovery anyhow. Sooner or later, she would learn of the divorce, and Just at that instant my eyes fell on Mr. HarbisonTom Harbison, as Anne called him. He was looking on with an amused, half-puzzled smile, while people were rushing around hiding the roulette wheel and things of which Miss Caruthers might disapprove, and Betty Mercer was on her knees winding up a toy bear that Max had brought her. What would he think ? It was evident that he thought badly of us alreadythat he was contemptuously amused, and RUSHING AROUND HIDING THE ROULETTE WHEEL AND THINGS then to have to ask him to lend himself to the deception ! With a gasp I hurled myself after Jimmy, only to hear a strange voice in the hall and to know that I was too late. I was in for it, whatever was coming. It was Aunt Selina who was comingalong the hall, followed by Jim, who was mopping his face and trying not to notice the paralyzed silence in the library. Aunt Selina met me in the doorway. To my frantic eyes she seemed to tower above us by at least a foot, and beside her Jimmy was a red, perspiring cherub. "Here she is," Jimmy said, from behind a temporary eclipse of black cloak and traveling bag. He was on top of the situation now, and he was mendaciously cheerful. He had not said, "Here is my ! wife." That would have been a lie. No, Jimmy 'merely said, "Here she is." If Aunt Selina chose to think me Bella, was it not her responsibility? And if I chose to accept the situation, was it not mine? Dallas Brown came forward gravely as Aunt Selinafolded over and kissed me, and surreptitio...