Lee Thayer
Lee Thayer, born Emma Redington Lee on April 5, 1874, in Troy, Pennsylvania, was a notable American mystery writer renowned for her prolific contributions to the genre during the twentieth century. Growing up in a large family, she received education in art at Cooper Art School and Pratt Institute Art School before embarking on a career as an interior decorator, where she gained recognition for her artistic skills. Thayer's writing journey began with her first book, an illustrated guide for children, followed by her first murder mystery, "The Mystery of the Thirteenth Floor," published in 1919, which introduced the detective duo Peter Clancy and his valet Wiggar. Thayer's novels were characterized by their lack of explicit violence or sexual content, appealing to a post-World War I audience looking for engaging stories. Over her extensive career, she wrote one or two mysteries each year, leading to a diverse body of work that continued until her last novel was published in 1966. Later in life, she traveled widely, drawing inspiration from her experiences for her writing. Thayer's final years were spent reflecting on her life in her memoirs, which she intended solely for personal use. She passed away on November 18, 1973, at the age of ninety-nine in Coronado, California.
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Lee Thayer
Writer
- Born: April 5, 1874
- Birthplace: Troy, Pennsylvania
- Died: November 18, 1973
- Place of death: Coronado, California
Biography
Lee Thayer was one of the most prolific American mystery writers of the twentieth century. She was born Emma Redington Lee on April 5, 1874, in Troy, Pennsylvania. Her father, Edgar James Lee, a native of Alabama with family roots in Connecticut, had been a Confederate officer during the Civil War and suffered financial reverses after the war ended. Her Georgia-born mother, Jane Eliza Pomeroy Lee, was descended from a prominent Connecticut family. Before Thayer was born, the family settled in Troy, where her father worked as a grocer. By 1880, the family had grown to include seven children. The family later relocated to New York City, where Thayer attended Cooper Art School and Pratt Institute Art School.
After completing her education, Thayer joined an interior decorating firm, where she worked as an interior decorator with a special interest in painting wall friezes. In 1893, she was selected to decorate a ceiling at the Woman’s Building at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1896, she joined Decorative Designers, a New York City design company. There, her work included creating stamp-case designs for cloth book covers. She later designed artwork for paper dust jacket covers when those became popular.
In 1909, she married Henry W. Thayer. Seven years later, she wrote her first book, When Mother Lets Us Draw, an illustrated drawing guide for children. During a holiday visit with her sister on Long Island a few years later, Thayer began writing her first murder mystery, The Mystery of the Thirteenth Floor, on a yellow notepad; the book’s title derived from her Decorative Designers’ office, which was located on the thirteenth floor.
Her mystery novel was published in 1919; its detective hero, Peter Clancy, and his valet, Wiggar, would become fixtures of Thayer’s novels for decades to come. Thayer believed the era after World War I was a time when the country was tired of war stories and the public would welcome her mystery novels, which contained neither sex nor brutality. The Mystery of the Thirteenth Floor was acquired by eight hundred overseas army libraries. She continued to publish more murder mysteries at the rate of one or two a year.
In 1932, Thayer filed for divorce from her husband, charging him with desertion. She told the court she would not ask for financial support because she could support herself through her writing; the couple had no children. She became a world traveler, visiting Europe, the West Indies, Mexico, and Japan, and claimed that her travels helped her develop the settings for her novels. She eventually relocated to California and became active in the California Writers Club and the Berkeley Women’s City Club.
She published her last novel, Dusty Death: Peter Clancy and Wigger Solve a Unique Case, in 1966, when she was in her nineties. She was not entirely satisfied with this novel and decided it was time to retire from writing for publication. By then, she had been writing novels for almost fifty years.
Thayer spent her final years writing her memoirs, “Myself, When Young,” which recounted how a young Southern girl became a Northern career woman at the age of seventeen. Her memoirs were not intended for publication. On November 18, 1973, she died at the age of ninety-nine in Coronado, California.