I have an etiquette book by Maureen Daly (THE PERFECT
HOSTESS, 1950), which is dedicated to Bill, her husband
William McGivern. The other day I was in the children's
section of a library and saw SEVENTEENTH SUMMER
(1942), a 1965 edition that was the 41st printing of the
book. It says it had sold over 250,000 copies, which is huge
(and the number would be much higher now--it's still in
print). On the dust jacket it says,
| Although Maureen Daly is a busy and successful career
woman, she also
| has a full home life with her husband, the well-known
mystery story
| writer, William McGivern, their daughter Megan and their
young son
| Patrick. They divide their time between their country home
in
| southern Pennsylvania and visits to far places and distant
lands.
Daly was born in 1921, and I think she's still alive. William
McGivern just a bit older, born late in 1918. They met when
he went to an book signing she was doing. They did two books
together, MENTION MY NAME IN MOMBASA: THE UNSCHEDULED
ADVENTURES OF AN AMERICAN FAMILY ABROAD (1958), and THE
SEEING (1980). He died in 1984, and she completed A MATTER OF
HONOR (1984).
I've always liked McGivern's writing, especially THE BIG HEAT
(1953) and books like ROGUE COP (1954). Good solid stuff. I
didn't know he'd had such a literary marriage, though, to a
very popular author.
Bill
-- William Denton : Toronto, Canada : http://www.miskatonic.org/ : Caveat lector.
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