Elizabeth Fenwick Way

American writer

Elizabeth Fenwick
E. P. Fenwick

Elizabeth Fenwick Way (April 5, 1916 – November 20, 1996),^[1] who wrote as Elizabeth Fenwick and E. P. Fenwick, was an American mystery writer, novelist, and author of books for children.^[2] Her 1963 mystery novel The Make-Believe Man was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America.^[3]

In 1948, Way became friends with writer Flannery O'Connor while they were living at Yaddo, a writers' community in Saratoga Springs, New York. According to O'Connor biographer Melissa Simpson, O'Connor "... cultivated several enduring friendships while at Yaddo, the most notable being her friendship with Elizabeth Fenwick Way ...". When O'Connor left Yaddo for New York City in 1949, Way helped her find an apartment.^[4]

Some of Way's manuscripts and papers are held by the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.^[5]

Critical reviews

Commenting in 1980 on Fenwick's crime fiction, reviewer Carol Cleveland said, "Elizabeth Fenwick's suspense novels are remarkable for the degree of horror they can extract from minimal materials."^[2]

In a 1963 review of new children's books, Jane C. Morse praised Fenwick's Cockleberry Castle, saying, ". . . in a story by a new writer in her first book for children Elizabeth Fenwick puts the climax at the right time and in the right place."^[6]

In 1968, Kirkus Reviews said of Goodbye, Aunt Elva that it depicts "... the kind of quiet victimization, in old house slippers, which Miss Fenwick manages so well: not her best, but her next best is better than most."^[7]

Bibliography

Mystery novels

As E. P. Fenwick

The Inconvenient Corpse (1943) OCLC 632487437
Murder in Haste (1944) OCLC 1743037
Two Names for Death (1945) OCLC 1675513

As Elizabeth Fenwick

Poor Harriet (1957) OCLC 1268218
A Long Way Down (1959) OCLC 8635070
A Friend of Mary Rose (1961) OCLC 9023426
A Night Run (1961) OCLC 30213298
The Silent Cousin (1962) OCLC 704510967
The Make-Believe Man (1963) OCLC 691927
Disturbance on Berry Hill (1968) OCLC 437289
Goodbye, Aunt Elva (1968) OCLC 1035368177
Impeccable People (1971) OCLC 258355
The Last of Lysandra (1973) OCLC 699143

Novels

As Elizabeth Fenwick

The Long Wing (1947) OCLC 1896933
Afterwards (1950) OCLC 560025826
Days of Plenty (1956) OCLC 1680681

Juvenile

As Elizabeth Fenwick

Cockleberry Castle (1963) OCLC 679839863
The Passenger (1967) OCLC 1296710

References

^ "Elizabeth Fenwick". Detective Book Club. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
^ ^a ^b John M. Reilly, ed. (1980). Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers. MacMillan. pp. 548–49. ISBN 0-333-30107-2.
^ "Edgars Database". Mystery Writers of America. Archived from the original on July 31, 2020. Retrieved October 31, 2019.
^ Simpson, Melissa (2005). Flannery O'Connor: A Biography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. p. 14. ISBN 0-313-32999-0.
^ "Mystery and Suspense Fiction Subject Guide: Elizabeth Fenwick". Boston University. Retrieved August 30, 2019.
^ Morse, Jane C. (November 1963). "The Quest for Quality". Elementary English. 40 (7): 687–689. JSTOR 41385537.
^ "Goodbye, Aunt Elva". Kirkus Media. September 16, 1968. Retrieved September 2, 2019.