Rinehart, Mary (1876 - 1958)

Genre: Drama/Theatre/Film, General Fiction, Mystery, Romance Novel, Short Stories

Mary Roberts Rinehart was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA but spent many summers in her home in Bar Harbor, ME. She is credited as being the American "Agatha Christie", though she began writing mysteries 14 years prior. She is also credited with creating the "had I only known" form of mysteries and with the phrase "the butler did it" even though she never really used it in any of her books. She wrote short stories, mysteries, romances and was a correspondent from the front during WWI for the *Saturday Evening Post."

Selected Bibliography

Books by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  • The Circular Staircase (1908)
  • The Man in Lower Ten (1909)
  • When a Man Marries (1909)
  • The Window at the White Cat (1910)

Books About Mary Roberts Rinehart

  • Had She But Known: A Biography of Mary Roberts Rinehart by Charlotte MacLeod