Atomic
Renaissance:
American Women Mystery
Writers of the 1940s and 1950s
The follow-up biography project by Edgar-nominated author, Jeffrey Marks
I came across so many women mystery authors while finishing the Craig Rice biography that needed to have their stories told. This project is the result of that effort.
America
in the 1950s was a place of Eisenhower, the Korean Conflict, McCarthy, and
Sputnik. Women found themselves trapped into a mold of Donna Reed and June
Cleaver, marginalized by the hyper-masculinity of the age. Mystery fiction had
become a male bastion as well, promoting hardboiled private eye novels and spy
fiction. It would be another three decades before groups to promote equality
between the sexes in mystery fiction appeared.
Yet during that post-World War II era, seven women carved out a place in the genre. These women became the bestsellers of their time by innovation and experimentation.
are in no way similar to each other in style, theme, or subject matter. However, their writings created an Atomic Renaissance that continues to impact the mystery field today.