The following guest post was also written by Marissa Ball, Head of the Humanities & Social Sciences Section in the Researcher and Reference Services Division; Peter Armenti, a reference specialist in the Researcher and Reference Services Division; and Ashley Cuffia, a science reference specialist in the Science, Technology, and Business Division.
On October 24, 2019, the Library of Congress welcomed the fifth author in its yearlong National Book Festival Presents series, the inimitable fiction writer Alexander McCall Smith. As part of the programming surrounding Mr. McCall Smith’s visit, staff from four Library divisions–Researcher and Reference Services, Science, Technology and Business, Serial and Government Publications, and African and Middle Eastern–were asked to develop a display of items related to Mr. McCall Smith and his works.
Confronted with the challenge of selecting materials that would appropriately honor Mr. McCall Smith and the country he venerates through his No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels, the display’s curators quickly came to an agreement on the best approach: they would uncover treasures hidden within the Library’s collections that bring to life the world of Mr. McCall Smith’s “precious” main character, Mma Ramotswe. The world of Mma Precious Ramotswe was realized through the curation of items featuring early examples of female detectives/sleuths/crime fighters in fiction and comic books; vintage detective manuals; and books, prints, and ephemera by and about Botswana–the African country that provides the backdrop to the Ladies Detective Agency.
Below you’ll find citations and descriptions for some of the items highlighted in the display. If you have a favorite item, let us know in the comments below! And, if you want to learn about Mr. McCall Smith’s favorite items, why not take a look at his Facebook post on the display?
DETECTIVE MANUALS
Elementary Course of the Principles of Detection Containing Methods of Professional Criminals. Young, H. G. (1914). New York: National School of Detectives. https://lccn.loc.gov/14018514
Mr. McCall Smith stated that this was the closest book he has found to the fictitious detective manual, authored by Clovis Anderson, used by Mma Precious Ramotswe in the series. This textbook was created by the National School of Detectives, whose founding members originally worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency (which, incidentally, hired the first female detective in the United States, Kate Warne). It goes through the basics of sleuthing, its methodology, and the principles of being a detective in 1914. It also has some entertaining descriptions of the types of criminals that you may encounter when being a private eye.
FEMALE DETECTIVES IN FICTION
In researching early detective fiction, we discovered that American author Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was one of the most prolific authors of her generation. She is often referred to as the mother/godmother of the detective story and helped to shape many of the common tropes, devices, and/or standards that we associate with crime fiction today–serial detective stories, crime scene details, expert testimony, and the coroner’s inquest. As Nancy Dziedzic notes, Green “firmly established the convention of the recurring detective and the technique of pairing a professional detective with an amateur; and she created two detective prototypes, the elderly spinster sleuth, and the young female investigator.”[1]
Green’s The Leavenworth Case (1878) is one of the first detective stories to be published in America. While it does not feature a female detective, in That Affair Next Door (1897) and two subsequent novels Green would provide her lead character, detective Inspector Ebenezer Gryce, with an assistant sleuth, Miss Amelia Butterworth, popularly regarded as the precursor to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple character. Lost Man’s Lane (1898), used for the display, is the second in the Amelia stories. Amelia is described as a “nosy but astute spinster from an old New York family.”[2]
The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange (1915) features the first young female detective, Violet Strange. She is both a socialite and an agent for a professional detective agency. She is often seen as the inspiration for Nancy Drew. This collection of short stories takes the reader through unconventionally grim cases for a young girl. Miss Strange must sleuth out mysteries such as: uncovering thieves, investigating a suicide (or was it murder?), unexplained deaths, and finding missing wills.
The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyer’s Story. Anna Katharine Green. New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1878. https://lccn.loc.gov/73176735
Lost Man’s Lane: A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth. Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs). New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1898. https://lccn.loc.gov/07040744
The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange. Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs). New York, Putnam’s Sons, 1915. https://lccn.loc.gov/15023790
The First Female Detective?
There remains some debate over what story featured the first female detective. Bredesen’s compilation presents the two top contenders, produced seemingly simultaneously–The Female Detective, by Andrew Forrester, Jr. (pseudonym of James Redding Ware) and Revelations of a Lady Detective, by W.S. Hayward. They were both published in London in 1864. Forrester’s novel introduces the fictional sleuth Miss Gladden while Hayward’s protagonist is Mrs. Paschal. Both stories feature detective tropes now seen as commonplace–disguises, sneaking into crime scenes, secret passageways, and more.
The First Female Detectives: The Female Detective (1864) and Revelations of a Lady Detective (1864). ed. by Dagni Bredesen. Ann Arbor, Michigan, Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 2010. https://lccn.loc.gov/2010009859
Judy Bolton Mystery Books
While the seemingly more popular (and still going strong) Nancy Drew was first published/realized in 1930, the Judy Bolton books were the first adolescent female amateur sleuth series to be penned by a single author, Margaret Sutton (who also happened to be a female). The Judy Bolton series ended in 1967. Judy was seen as a more wholesome and “morally upright” detective and therefore a stronger role model for young women.
The Vanishing Shadow. Margaret Sutton. New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1932. https://lccn.loc.gov/32013345
The Yellow Phantom. Margaret Sutton. New York, Grosset & Dunlap, 1933. https://lccn.loc.gov/33024536
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
In The Secret of the Old Clock we are introduced to title character Nancy Drew, a 16-year-old amateur sleuth. The popularity of the series remains today with frequent new titles added to the series, feature films, and even a new spin-off television series. The series was penned under the name Carolyn Keene, a pseudonym for a number of ghostwriters. This 1959 edition (attributed to Harriet Adams) is a rewrite of the original 1930 edition (attributed to Mildred Wirt Benson).
The Secret of the Old Clock. Carolyn Keene [pseud.] New York, Grosset & Dunlap, c1959. https://lccn.loc.gov/59002536
![Frontispiece and title page of Carolyn Keene's [pseud.] The Secret of the Old Clock. (New York, Grosset & Dunlap, c1959).](http://blogs.loc.gov/catbird/files/2019/10/Secret-of-the-Old-Clock.jpg)
“They are detective stories in that they contain a detective….” The author of The Solange Stories, F. Tennyson Jesse, allows us a great deal of insight on the rules of detective fiction, as she sees it. The forward for this book details how she constructs her own detective stories and develops their characters. Jesse was an English novelist and dramatist, and also the grand-niece of poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The Solange Stories is a set of murder tales about a Frenchwoman detective, Solange Fontaine, whose psychic powers allow her to sense the “presence of evil,” a unique and quite useful ability for a sleuth!
The Solange Stories. F. Tennyson Jesse. London, W. Heinemann, 1931. https://lccn.loc.gov/31014778
Sleuth or Meddler?
In The Girl at Central, character Molly Morganthau, a young telephone switch operator for the Telephone Exchange, helps to solve a murder. She was the first blue-collar worker “female detective”–seen by some as not an investigator, but a meddler. She overhears conversations, is passed along information, and shares her gathered evidence with “legitimate” investigators and law enforcement.
The Girl at Central. Geraldine Bonner. New York, D. Appleton and Company, 1915. https://lccn.loc.gov/15008708
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency
This is the first novel in the series that would become The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, published by Alexander McCall Smith. The series features beloved character Mma Precious Ramotswe and follows her as she solves mysteries throughout Botswana. As of October 2019, there are twenty titles in the series, with To The Land of Long Lost Friends being the newest novel.
The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Alexander McCall Smith. New York, Anchor Books, 2002. https://lccn.loc.gov/2005047587
Additional titles featured in the display about female detectives in fiction:
Nancy Drew and Her Sister Sleuths: Essays on the Fiction of Girl Detectives. ed. by Michael G. Cornelius and Melanie E. Gregg. Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Co., c2008. https://lccn.loc.gov/2008030002
The Lady Investigates: Women Detectives and Spies in Fiction. Patricia Craig and Mary Cadogan. New York, St. Martin’s Press, c1981. https://lccn.loc.gov/81016582
Busybodies, Meddlers, and Snoops: The Female Hero in Contemporary Women’s Mysteries. Kimberly J. Dilley. Westport, Conn., Greenwood Press, 1998. https://lccn.loc.gov/97045670
Mystery Women: An Encyclopedia of Leading Women Characters in Mystery Fiction. Colleen Barnett. Scottsdale, AZ, Poisoned Pen Press, c2002. https://lccn.loc.gov/2001086357
FEMALE DETECTIVES AND CRIME FIGHTERS IN COMICS
Blonde Phantom. Volume 2, no. 1 (August-September 1947)
Published during the Golden Age of Comics by Marvel Comics. Louise Grant Mason, a fictional masked crime fighter known as Blonde Phantom, is trained in martial arts and works as a secretary to private detective (and her future husband) Mark Mason. https://lccn.loc.gov/sf94093205
Moon Girl (title varies). Volume 1, no. 8 (Summer 1949)
Also published during the Golden Age of Comics by EC Comics, the fictional crime-fighter superhero known as Moon Girl (aka Clare Lune or Princess of the Moon) is never without her namesake moonstone, said to make her invincible and “superior to any man.” https://lccn.loc.gov/sf96090720
Brenda Starr. no. 1 (October/December 1963)
Created by Dale Messick, the adventurous and glamorous fictional crime-solving news reporter Brenda Starr first appeared in the Chicago Tribune newspaper on June 30, 1940. The comic book issue on display was the first to be published by Dell Publishing in 1963. https://lccn.loc.gov/sf94094960
Marvel Premiere Featuring Iron Fist. Volume 1, no. 21 (March 1975)
Published by Marvel Comics, this comic book issue features the first appearance of Mercedes “Misty” Knight, a black female detective with a bionic right arm. A former NYPD police officer, she starts a private investigation agency with a friend, Colleen Wing. https://lccn.loc.gov/sf95098418
1st Issue Special. Volume 1, no. 4 (July 1975)
Published by DC Comics, the comic book issue on display features the first appearance of the Lady Cop, aka Liza Warner, a fictional police officer. https://lccn.loc.gov/sf95093225
Dakota North. Volume 1, no. 1 (June 1986)
Published by Marvel Comics, this comic book issue features the first appearance of the female investigator, Dakota North. The eponymous title was short-lived, with a run of only 5 issues. https://lccn.loc.gov/sf95093022
52. no. 48 (April 2007)
Published by DC Comics, this comic book issue introduces readers to Renee Maria Montoya, now operating as the new Question. Montoya was a former female detective from the Gotham City Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit. https://lccn.loc.gov/2010207104
Stumptown. no. 4 (August 2010)
Dex Parios is a bisexual female private investigator based in Portland, Oregon, in this modern-day series. This comic book issue is the fourth and final issue in the Stumptown series created by Greg Rucka and features art by Matthew Southworth. https://lccn.loc.gov/2014218436
BOTSWANA THROUGH ITS FLORA AND FAUNA
The Flowering Plants of South Africa. Phillips, E. P., & B., P. E. I. (1921). London: Reeve. https://lccn.loc.gov/22009385
The Namaqualand Daisy is a common daisy found in southern Africa. It grows about a foot tall with course leaves. In summer it is topped with a large daisy flower ranging in color from yellow, orange, pink or white with a brown center. This flower is an intricate part of the Botswana landscape and is described in several of the books of the series.
Portraits of the Game & Wild Animals of Southern Africa. Harris, W. C., & Howard, F. (1969). Cape Town: Sable Publishers. https://lccn.loc.gov/77486950
The Camelopard, or what we know today as the Giraffe, is an old English name deriving from ancient Greek meaning “camel” and “leopard.” This is referring to its camel-like shape and leopard-like spotting. A giraffe male can reach a height of 18 ft. from head to hoof and can be 20 ft. long from nose to tail. It is the tallest animal that lives on land on the planet. The giraffe is mentioned several times throughout the series and graces both the covers of some of the books and part of the title of one of the books.
Rounding out the display, the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division presented a number of other items related to Botswana culture and industry. You can review its display captions to learn about the many wonderful items shared by the division with Mr. McCall Smith and the public.
NOTES
[1] “Green, Anna Katharine (1846-1935), An Introduction to.” Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, edited by Nancy G. Dziedzic, vol. 63, Gale, 1996. Literature Criticism Online.
[2] ibid.