It Ain't Necessarily So
It Ain’t Necessarily So by Warren Bull
It Ain’t Necessarily So by Warren Bull
So sang Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess. I should have remembered the song when I reviewed The Red House by A.A. Milne written in 1922. I described The Red House as “the only mystery novel” he wrote. Susan Oleksiw corrected me. Thank you, Susan. She pointed out that in 1933 he wrote Four Days Wonder, another light-hearted mystery.
My mistake was that the book was described as the only mystery novel A. A. Milne wrote on Wikipedia, in one place in Goodreads and on a description of a copy of The Red House for sale by a seller on ABE books. Checking references for this blog I found the same misinformation is given on Amazon UK. I can cite four references and they are all wrong.
It is surprisingly difficult to find definitive information about authors. After I blogged about the Uncle Albert mysteries, a reader sent me a question which I could not find and answer for anywhere.
A while back I read an article reviewing the work of Fletcher Flora, which listed his novels. In my personal library I had, as best I can remember, thirteen of the twelve novels listed. Note: I am away from my home and I will not return for more than a month from now so I cannot check on this right now. I may have the numbers wrong but I know I had one novel Flora wrote that was not included in the well-researched and well-written review article.
Maybe things will be different in the future now that mysteries are covered in university courses, but for now: Writer Beware.
I admit I am puzzled that it is so difficult to get accurate information about writers. Does anyone have an idea about why it is so hard?
It Ain’t Necessarily So by Warren Bull
So sang Sportin’ Life in Porgy and Bess. I should have remembered the song when I reviewed The Red House by A.A. Milne written in 1922. I described The Red House as “the only mystery novel” he wrote. Susan Oleksiw corrected me. Thank you, Susan. She pointed out that in 1933 he wrote Four Days Wonder, another light-hearted mystery.
My mistake was that the book was described as the only mystery novel A. A. Milne wrote on Wikipedia, in one place in Goodreads and on a description of a copy of The Red House for sale by a seller on ABE books. Checking references for this blog I found the same misinformation is given on Amazon UK. I can cite four references and they are all wrong.
It is surprisingly difficult to find definitive information about authors. After I blogged about the Uncle Albert mysteries, a reader sent me a question which I could not find and answer for anywhere.
A while back I read an article reviewing the work of Fletcher Flora, which listed his novels. In my personal library I had, as best I can remember, thirteen of the twelve novels listed. Note: I am away from my home and I will not return for more than a month from now so I cannot check on this right now. I may have the numbers wrong but I know I had one novel Flora wrote that was not included in the well-researched and well-written review article.
Maybe things will be different in the future now that mysteries are covered in university courses, but for now: Writer Beware.
I admit I am puzzled that it is so difficult to get accurate information about writers. Does anyone have an idea about why it is so hard?
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