Helen McCloy (1904 - 1994), pseudonym Helen Clarkson, was an American mystery writer, whose series character Dr. Basil Willing debuted in Dance of Death (1938). Willing believes, that "every criminal leaves psychic fingerprints, and he can't wear gloves to hide them." He appeared in 13 of McCloy's novels and in several of her short stories. McCloy often used the theme of doppelganger, but in the end of the story she showed a psychological or realistic explanation for the seemingly supernatural events. 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Look up mystery in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... From The Dance of Death by Hans Holbein La Danse Macabre, also called Dance of death, La Danza Macabra, or Totentanz, is a late-medieval allegory on the universality of death: no matter ones station in life, the dance of death united all. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other uses of the word Doppelgänger please see Doppelgänger (disambiguation). ...

Biography

Helen McCloy was born in New York City. Her mother was the writer Helen Worrell McCloy and father, William McCloy, was the longtime managing editor of the New York Evening Sun. She was educated at the Friend's School, run by Brooklyn's Quaker community. In 1923 she went to France and studied at the Sorbonne. After finishing her studies, she worked for Hearst's Universal News Service (1927 - 1932). Then she was an art critic for International Studio and other magazines, and free-lance contributor to London Morning Post and Parnassus. She returned to the United States in 1932. New York, NY redirects here. ... NY redirects here. ... Brooklyn (named after the Dutch city Breukelen) is one of the five boroughs of New York City. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Inscription over the entrance to the Sorbonne The front of the Sorbonne Building The name Sorbonne (La Sorbonne) is commonly used to refer to the historic University of Paris in Paris, France or one of its successor institutions (see below), but this is a recent usage, and Sorbonne has actually... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar). ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The Morning Post was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph. ... Mount Parnassus (also Mount Parnassos) is a mountain in central Greece that towers above Delphi. ...

In 1946 McCloy married Davis Dresser, who had gained fame with his Mike Shayne novels, written under the pseudonym Brett Halliday. She founded with Dressler the Torquil Publishing Company and a literary agency (Halliday and McCloy). Their marriage ended in 1961. In the 1950s and 1960s McCloy was a co-author of review column for Connecticut newspapers and in 1950 she became the first woman to serve as president of Mystery Writers of America. In 1953 she received Edgar from the same organization for her critics. McCloy helped to found in 1971 a New England chapter of the Mystery Writers of America in Boston. 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long_lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. ... 1961 (MCMLXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1961 calendar). ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... The Mystery Writers of America are an organization for mystery writers. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday. ... EDGAR, the Electronic Data-Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system, performs automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance, and forwarding of submissions by companies and others who are required by law to file forms with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC). Not all SEC filings by public companies are available... 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday. ... This article is about the region in the United States of America. ... The Mystery Writers of America are an organization for mystery writers. ... Nickname: City on the Hill, Beantown, The Hub (of the Universe)1, Athens of America, The Cradle of Revolution, Puritan City, Americas Walking City Location in Massachusetts, USA Counties Suffolk County Mayor Thomas M. Menino(D) Area    - City 232. ...

Writing career

Having read Sherlock Holmes as a young girl, McCloy retained an interest in mysteries and began to write them in the 1930s. Her first novel, Dance of Death, was published in 1938. It was followed by several other mystery publications in the 1940s. Cue for Murder (1942) was a story of murder onstage during a Broadway revival of Sardou's Fédora. The One That Got Away (1945) explored the psychology of Fascism, postulating that it is rooted in woman hatred, and rejection of a mother's tender care of children. A non-Willing mystery, Panic (1944), was set in a remote cottage in the Catskills and was notable for its use of cryptoanalysis. A portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget from the Strand Magazine, 1891 Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on January 18 1815 (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Broadway theatre[1] is the most prestigious form of professional theatre in the U.S., as well as the most well known to the general public and most lucrative for the performers, technicians and others involved in putting on the shows. ... The One That Got Away is a 1957 World War II film starring Hardy Krüger. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Psychology (from Greek: ψυχή, psukhÄ“, spirit, soul; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is an academic/ applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... Fascism is an authoritarian political ideology (generally tied to a mass movement) that considers individual and other societal interests inferior to the needs of the state, and seeks to forge a type of national unity, usually based on ethnic, religious, cultural, or racial attributes. ... Panic is the primal urge to run and hide in the face of imminent disaster. ... 1944 (MCMXLIV) was a leap year starting on Saturday. ...

In Mr. Splitfoot (1968) Dr. Willing and his wife to take shelter at a remote house in New England, where they must lodge in a haunted room. The title refers to the Devil, but Mr Splitfoot is also a symbol for the two sides of our nature, as Willing points out. The critic and mystery writer H.R.F. Keating included the work in 1987 among the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. 1968 (MCMLXVIII) was a leap year starting on Monday. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Another masterpiece is the eighth Basil Willing novel, Through a Glass, Darkly (1950), a supernatural puzzle in the tradition of John Dickson Carr. "If you want to scare yourself still in bed, it's just the thing for you," the English writer Pamela Hansford Johnson said of the book. The Four False Weapons (1948), 1961 Pan paperback edition. ... Pamela Hansford Johnson, Baroness Snow (29 May 1912–18 June 1981) was an English poet, novelist, playwright, literary and social critic. ...

In The Imposter (1977) a woman, Marina, recovers consciousness after a car crash to find herself in a psychiatric clinic. She recalls the accident clearly but she's told that all is her delusion. A man arrives, not her husband, but the get away she accepts the impostor. McCloy used in the story a cryptological double bluff. She had read about it in 1944 when she was writing Panic, but because she was unable to trace the source, she improvised her own version of it. The Imposter is the second full-length album (after the critically-acclaimed Stereotype Be) by American song writer and dc Talk member Kevin Max. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ...

Works

Series of Dr. Basil Willing

• Dance of Death (1938)
• The Man in the Moonlight (1940)
• The Deadly Truth (1941)
• Who's Calling (1942)
• Cue for Murder (1942)
• The Goblin Market (1943)
• The One That Got Away (1945)
• Through a Glass Darkly (1950)
• Alias Basil Willing (1951)
• The Long Body (1955)
• Two-Thirds of a Ghost (1956)
• Mr. Splitfoot (1968)
• Burn This (1980)
• The Pleasant Assassin and Other Cases of Dr. Basil Willing (Short Stories) (2003)

Non-series

• Do Not Disturb (1943)
• Panic (1944)
• She Walks Alone (1948)
• Better Off Dead (1951)
• Unfinished Crime (1954)
• The Slayer and the Slain (1957)
• Before I Die (1963)
• The Singing Diamonds and Other Stories (Short Stories) (1965)
• The Further Side of Fear (1967)
• A Question of Time (1971)
• A Change of Heart (1973)
• The Sleepwalker (1974)
• Minotaur Country (1975)
• The Changeling Conspiracy (1976)
• The Impostor (1977)
• The Smoking Mirror (1979)

Written as Helen Clarkson

• The Last Day (1959)

External links

• Helen McCloy - pseudonym Helen Clarkson, [1]
• American Mystery Writers of the Realist School, [2]