John Dickson Carr
1906-1977
Pseudonyms: Carr Dickson, Carter Dickson and Roger Fairbairn
 

John Dickson Carr was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. In 1925, he was accepted by Haverford College, a small Quaker establishment near Philadelphia. Here he began to learn his craft as a writer. His first published story appeared in 1926 in The Haverfordian, the college's literary monthly. He became editor of this monthly and published several more of his stories. In 1928, he travelled to France where he continued to write. In 1930, his first novel was published. In 1931, he met an English girl, Clarice Cleaves, on an ocean crossing. They married and settled in England. In the war years, he worked for the BBC. Much of his work, at this time, was propaganda. In 1947, he returned to the U.S. but moved back to England in 1951. In 1965, he again returned to the U.S. where he became the regular monthly book reviewer for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He is the creator of:
1. 'Dr. Gideon Fell, a physician and amateur sleuth.
2. 'Sir Henry Merrivale, a baronet, barrister, physician, and amateur sleuth (under the pseudonym 'Carter Dickson').

 

Titles and year of publication:  

'Dr. Gideon Fell' Novels
 1) Hag's Nook  1933
 2) The Mad Hatter Mystery  1933
 3) The Eight of Swords  1934
 4) The Blind Barber  1934
 5) Death Watch  1935
 6) The Three Coffins (UK Title: The Hollow Man [1935])  1935
 7) The Arabian Nights Murder  1936
 8) To Wake the Dead  1938
 9) The Crooked Hinge  1938
10) The Problem of the Green Capsule (UK Title: The Black Spectacles [1939])  1939
11) The Problem of the Wire Cage  1940
12) The Man Who Could Not Shudder  1940
13) The Case of the Constant Suicides  1941
14) Death Turns the Tables (UK Title: The Seat of the Scornful [1942])  1941
15) Till Death Do Us Part  1944
16) He Who Whispers  1946
17) The Sleeping Sphinx  1947
18) Below Suspicion  1950
19) The Third Bullet and Other Stories (short stories)  1954
20) The Dead Man's Knock  1958
21) In Spite of Thunder  1960
22) The Men Who Explained Miracles (short stories)  1964
23) The House at Satan's Elbow  1965
24) Panic in Box C  1966
25) Dark of the Moon  1967
26) The Door to Doom and Other Detections (short stories)  1980
'Sir Henry Merrivale' Novels (as 'Carter Dickson')
 1) The Plague Court Murders  1935
 2) The White Priory Murders  1935
 3) The Red Widow Murders  1935
 4) The Unicorn Murders  1936
 5) The Punch and Judy Murders (UK Title: The Magic Lantern Murders [1936])  1937
 6) The Peacock Feather Murders (UK Title: The Ten Teacups [1937])  1937
 7) The Judas Window (Also published as: The Crossbow Murder [1964])  1938
 8) Death in Five Boxes  1938
 9) The Reader is Warned  1939
10) Nine - and Death Makes Ten (UK Title: Murder in the Submarine Zone [1940]) (Also published as: Murder in the Atlantic [1959])  1940
11) And So to Murder  1941
12) Seeing is Believing (Also published as: Cross of Murder [1959])  1941
13) The Gilded Man (Also published as: Death and the Gilded Man [1947])  1942
14) She Died a Lady  1943
15) He Wouldn't Kill Patience  1944
16) The Curse of the Bronze Lamp (UK Title: Lord of the Sorcerers [1946])  1946
17) My Late Wives  1947
18) The Skeleton in the Clock  1949
19) A Graveyard to Let  1950
20) Nigth at the Mocking Widow  1951
21) Behind the Crimson Blind  1952
22) The Cavalier's Cup  1953
Other Novels
 1) It Walks By Night  1930
 2) The Lost Gallows  1931
 3) Castle Skull  1931
 4) The Corpse in the Waxworks (UK Title: The Waxwork Murders [1932])  1932
 5) Poison in Jest  1932
 6) The Murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey  1936
 7) The Burning Court  1937
 8) The Four False Weapons  1938
 9) The Emperor's Snuff Box  1943
10) The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  1949
11) The Bride of Newgate  1950
12) The Devil in Velvet  1951
13) The Nine Wrong Answers  1952
14) The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes  1954
15) Captain Cut Throat  1955
16) Patrick Butler for the Defence  1956
17) Fire, Burn!  1957
18) Scandal at High Chimneys  1959
19) The Witch of the Low-Tide  1961
20) The Demoniacs  1962
21) Most Secret  1964
22) Papa La-Bas  1969
23) The Ghosts' High Noon  1970
24) Deadly Hall  1971
25) The Hungry Goblin  1972
As 'Carr Dickson'
 1) The Bowstring Murders  1934
As 'Carter Dickson'
 1) The Third Bullet  1937
 2) Drop to His Death (US Title: Fatal Descent [1939]) (with John Rhode)  1939
 3) The Department of Queer Complaints  1940
 4) Fear Is the Same  1956
As 'Roger Fairbairn'
 1) Devil Kinsmere  1934

Back