Dorothy B. Hughes (1904–1993) was a mystery author and literary critic. Born in Kansas City, she studied at Columbia University and won an award from the Yale Series of Younger Poets for her first book, the poetry collection Dark Certainty (1931). After writing several unsuccessful manuscripts, she published The So Blue Marble in 1940. A New York–based mystery, it won praise for its hardboiled prose, which was due, in part, to Hughes’s editor, who demanded she cut 25,000 words from the book.
Hughes published thirteen more novels, the best known of which are In a Lonely Place (1947) and Ride the Pink Horse (1946). Both were made into successful films. In the early fifties, Hughes largely stopped writing fiction, preferring to focus on criticism, for which she would go on to win an Edgar Award. In 1978, the Mystery Writers of America presented Hughes with the Grand Master Award for literary achievement.
Books in order of publication:
Dark Certainty – (1931)
Pueblo on the Mesa: The First Fifty Years of the University of New Mexico (1939)
The So Blue Marble (1940) – her first novel
The Cross-Eyed Bear (1940) – later published as The Cross-Eyed Bear Murders
The Bamboo Blonde (1941) – sequel to The So Blue Marble
The Fallen Sparrow (1942) – filmed in 1943
The Blackbirder (1943)
The Delicate Ape (1944)
Johnnie (1944)
Dread Journey (1945)
Ride the Pink Horse (1946)
The Scarlet Imperial (1946)
In a Lonely Place (1947) – filmed in 1950
The Big Barbecue (1949)
The Candy Kid (1950)
The Davidian Report (1952)
The Expendable Man (1963)
Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason (1978)
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