Carolyn Wells


Carolyn Wells was an American mystery author and poet.

Life and career

Born in Rahway, New Jersey, she was the daughter of William Edmund and Anna Potter Wells.
After finishing school, she worked as a librarian for the Rahway Library Association. Her first book, At the Sign of the Sphinx, was a collection of literary charades. Her next publications were The Jingle Book and The Story of Betty, followed by a book of verse entitled Idle Idyls. After 1900, Wells wrote numerous novels and collections of poetry.
Carolyn Wells wrote a total of 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, she heard That Affair Next Door, one of Anna Katharine Green's mystery novels, being read aloud and was immediately captivated by the unraveling 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 —number 61 titles. Wells's The Clue is on the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list of essential mysteries. She was also the first to conduct a annual series devoted to the best short crime fiction of the previous year in the U.S., beginning with The Best American Mystery Stories of the Year .
In addition to books, Wells also wrote for newspapers. Her poetry accompanies the work of some of the leading lights in illustration and cartooning, often in the form of Sunday magazine cover features that formed continuing narratives from week to week. Her first known illustrated newspaper work is a two part series titled Animal Alphabet, illustrated by William F. Marriner, which appeared in the Sunday comics section of the New York World. Many additional series ensued over the years, including the bizarre classic Adventures of Lovely Lilly. The last series she penned was Flossy Frills Helps Out, which appeared after her death.
In 1918 then aged 55, she married Hadwin Houghton. Although it sounds both plausible and romantic, he was not a direct descendent of H.O. Houghton, a founder of the Houghton-Mifflin publishing empire. However, Houghton was a distant cousin and his father, Moses Barnard Houghton was a senior member of the firm. Houghton was a very successful employee of Valentine & Company, a varnish and paint company now known as Valspar. He died in 1919 and her mother died two weeks after.
Wells died at the Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City in 1942. She is buried in the
Rahway Cemetery in Rahway, NJ with her husband, parents, and two siblings.
Wells possessed an impressive collection of volumes of poetry by others. She bequeathed 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.
In 2024, the first-ever biography of Wells, Rebecca Rego Barry's The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells, was published.

Adult fiction

Before 1900At the Sign of Sphinx The Jingle Book The Story of Betty
;Fleming Stone mysteries
  1. The Clue
  2. The Gold Bag. First published Lippincott's Magazine, February 1910.
  3. A Chain of Evidence
  4. The Maxwell Mystery
  5. Anybody But Anne
  6. The White Alley
  7. The Curved Blades
  8. The Mark of Cain
  9. Vicky Van
  10. The Diamond Pin
  11. Raspberry Jam
  12. The Mystery of the Sycamore
  13. The Mystery Girl
  14. Feathers Left Around
  15. Spooky Hollow
  16. The Furthest Fury
  17. Prillilgirl
  18. Anything But the Truth
  19. The Daughter of the House
  20. The Bronze Hand
  21. The Red-Haired Girl
  22. The Vanity Case
  23. All at Sea
  24. Where's Emily
  25. The Crime in the Crypt
  26. The Tannahill Tangle
  27. The Tapestry Room Murder
  28. Triple Murder
  29. The Doomed Five
  30. The Ghosts' High Noon
  31. Horror House
  32. The Umbrella Murder
  33. Fuller's Earth
  34. The Roll-Top Desk Mystery
  35. The Broken O
  36. The Clue of the Eyelash
  37. The Master Murderer
  38. Eyes in the Wall
  39. The Visiting Villain
  40. The Beautiful Derelict
  41. For Goodness' Sake
  42. The Wooden Indian
  43. The Huddle
  44. In the Tiger's Cage
  45. Money Musk
  46. Murder in the Bookshop
  47. The Mystery of the Tarn
  48. The Radio Studio Murder
  49. Gilt Edged Guilt
  50. The Killer
  51. The Missing Link
  52. Calling All Suspects
  53. Crime Tears On
  54. The Importance of Being Murdered
  55. Crime Incarnate
  56. Devil's Work
  57. Murder On Parade
  58. Murder Plus
  59. The Black Night Murders
  60. Murder at the Casino
  61. Murder Will In
  62. Who Killed Caldwell?
;Alan Ford
  1. The Bride of a Moment
  2. Faulkner Folly
;Pennington Wise
  1. The Room with the Tassels
  2. The Man Who Fell Through the Earth
  3. In the Onyx Lobby
  4. The Come-Back
  5. The Luminous Face
  6. The Vanishing of Betty Varian
  7. The Affair at Flower Acres
  8. Wheels Within Wheels
;Kenneth Carlisle
  1. Sleeping Dogs
  2. The Doorstep Murders
  3. The Skeleton at the Feast
;Other mysteriesThe Adventure of the Clothes-Line More Lives Than One The Fourteenth Key The Moss Mystery Face Cards The Deep-Lake Mystery
;Other novelsAbeniki Caldwell: A Burlesque Historical Novel The Emily Emmins Papers The Lover's Baedeker and Guide to Arcady Ptomaine Street: A Tale of Warble Petticoat
;Story collectionsThe Eternal Feminine
  • ''The Omnibus Fleming Stone''

Children's fiction

;Patty Fairfield
  1. Patty Fairfield
  2. Patty at Home
  3. Patty in the City
  4. Patty Summer Days
  5. Patty in Paris
  6. Patty Friends
  7. Patty Pleasure Trip
  8. Patty Success
  9. Patty Motor Car
  10. Patty Butterfly Days
  11. Patty Social Season
  12. Patty Suitors
  13. Patty Romance
  14. Patty Fortune
  15. Patty Blossom
  16. Patty-Bride
  17. Patty and Azalea
;Marjorie Maynard
  1. Marjorie Vacation
  2. Marjorie Busy Days
  3. Marjorie New Friend
  4. Marjorie in Command
  5. Marjorie Maytime
  6. Marjorie at Seacote
;Dorrance Family
  1. The Dorrance Domain
  2. Dorrance Doings
;Two Little Women
  1. Two Little Women
  2. Two Little Women and Treasure House
  3. Two Little Women on a Holiday
;Other novelsFolly in Fairyland In the Reign of Queen Dick Dick and Dolly Dick and Dolly Adventures The Story of Betty
;CollectionsMother Goose's Menagerie, illustrated by Peter Newell – at HathiTrust Digital Library Children of Our Town by E. Mars and M. H. Squire with verses by Wells – at Library of Congress

Nonfiction prose

The Technique of the Mystery Story On Finishing Collector
  • ''The Rest of My Life''

Verse

At the Sign of the Sphinx Rubaiyat of a Motor Car, illustrated by Frederick StrothmannThe Re-Echo club Diversions of the Re-Echo Club Ballade of Baker Street A Whimsey Anthology
  • ''How to Tell a Wild Animal''

Anthologies (as editor)

A Parody Anthology A Satire Anthology A Whimsey Anthology A Vers de Société Anthology A Nonsense Anthology Such Nonsense!: An Anthology The Book of Humorous Verse