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Mary Roberts Rinehart

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Author

The Resume

    (August 12, 1876-September 22, 1958)
    Born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania
    Birth name was Mary Ella Roberts
    Wrote novels, short stories and plays
    Best known for her mysteries
    Titles included ‘The Circular Staircase’ (1908), ‘The Mystery of 1122’ (1909), ‘The Case of Jennie Brice’ (1913), ‘K.” (1915), ‘The Mystery Lamp’ (1925), ‘The Door’ (1930), ‘The Double Alibi’ (1932), ‘The Haunted Lady’ (1942) and ‘The Episode of the Wandering Knife’ (1950)
    Often called ‘the American Agatha Christie’

Why she might be annoying:

    She popularized the mystery cliché ‘The butler did it’ with her novel ‘The Door,’ where the butler indeed does it.
    Her heroes and heroines have a habit of wandering off alone into dark rooms.
    Under pressure from her husband, she turned to ‘serious literary work,’ and suffered a serious bout of depression.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was born left-handed, but was forced to write with her right.
    She served as a war correspondent for the Saturday Evening Post, covering the Belgian front during World War I.
    She suffered breast cancer, underwent a radical mastectomy and went public with her story at a time when cancer was rarely discussed openly (1947).
    She created a costumed supervillain, ‘The Bat,’ who Bob Kane cited as an inspiration for ‘Batman.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 90.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 5 Votes: 40.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying