Richard Lockridge and Frances Lockridge

• Born: January 10, 1896
• Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri
• Died: February 17, 1963
• Place of death: Norwalk, Connecticut

• Born: September 25, 1898
• Birthplace: St. Joseph, Missouri
• Died: June 19, 1982
• Place of death: Tryon, North Carolina

Types of Plot: Amateur sleuth; police procedural; comedy caper; cozy

Principal Series: Mr. and Mrs. North, 1940-1963; Merton Heimrich, 1947-1976; Nathan Shapiro, 1956-1980; Bernie Simmons, 1962-1974

Contribution

With the creation of their husband-and-wife team, Pam and Jerry North, Richard Lockridge and Frances Lockridge added to the small number of mystery novels featuring couples as amateur detectives. The novels featuring the Norths were immensely popular and were developed into a radio and television series, a play, and a motion picture. The Mystery Writers Association awarded the Lockridges the first Edgar Allan Poe Award for the best radio mystery program in 1946.

Both journalists, the Lockridges produced novels at a steady rate, drawing on their own experiences. Even the series about law-enforcement detectives emphasizes the characters’ personal lives and their relationships with their spouses or lovers, creating a comfortable air of stability and family strength. Although the novels feature a variety of detective figures, the Lockridge novels as a whole create a miniature world of their own, in that characters sometimes overlap series. Lockridge readers are thus provided with the pleasure of entry into a familiar world in most of the novels.

Although the Lockridges’ plotting was seldom intricate, they created a series of personable characters and picked interesting subjects as backgrounds. Simply and clearly written, their novels have been admired for the civilized tone, the gentle humor, and the glimpses they afford of American life.

Biography

Richard Orson Lockridge was born on September 25, 1898, in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son of Ralph David L. Lockridge and Mary Olive (née Notson) Lockridge. He attended Kansas City Junior College and the University of Missouri at Columbia before his education was interrupted by navy service in 1918. After the war, he held a variety of jobs, including stints at the United States Census Bureau, a wholesale grocer, a carnival, and a printing shop. He studied journalism briefly before he started his journalistic career as a reporter for the Kansas City Kansan in 1921. In New York, he became the drama critic at the New York Sun and contributed frequently to The New Yorker. He served as a public relations officer for the Navy in World War II. Returning to journalism after the war, he acquired a reputation as a fast, reliable rewrite man in his newspaper work.

Frances Lockridge, born Frances Louise Davis on January 10, 1896, in Kansas City, Missouri, also became a journalist. She attended the University of Kansas and worked for four years at the Kansas City Post as a reporter and feature writer. In New York City, she wrote for the “Hundred Neediest” section of The New York Times, continuing her role as a “sob sister.” Her long experience as a publicist for the State Charities Aid Association (1922-1942) led to an interest in the problems of child adoption and a book, How to Adopt a Child (1928).

Davis and Lockridge met and married in 1922. Their first move to New York City was not successful; they returned to Kansas, but decided to try again. Their second attempt succeeded, though they lived precariously, never having enough money. It was during these lean times that Richard wrote about some of their experiences in short humorous pieces that led to the Pam and Jerry North characters. Both avid readers of mysteries, together they created three long-running series, keeping up on other writing as well. They were elected co-presidents of the Mystery Writers Association in 1960.

Two years after Frances’s death in 1963, Richard married Hildegarde Dolson, also a writer, and continued to write prolifically. Richard Lockridge died in 1982, after a series of strokes, in Tryon, North Carolina.

Analysis

The Lockridges’ most popular characters, Pam and Jerry North, appeared in nonmystery genres before they became amateur sleuths. Richard Lockridge first wrote of the experiences of a couple similar to his wife and himself in a series of short pieces for the New York Sun. Later, the Norths resurfaced in the short domestic comedies that he wrote for The New Yorker. Their surname, their creator said, “was merely lifted from the somewhat amorphous, and frequently inept, people who played the North hands in bridge problems.” In their initial existence, the couple did not have first names, and neither had an occupation.

Mr. and Mrs. North Series

The Norths’ final passage to amateur-sleuth status came when Frances Lockridge decided to write a mystery during one summer vacation. Her husband became interested, and together they worked out a story. Because the Norths were well-established characters by then, the Lockridges kept them as the main characters and retained the humorous tone previously used in North stories. According to Frances, her own role was to contribute interesting characters and her husband’s was to kill them off. After their story conferences and the joint preparation of outlines and summaries, Richard did all the writing.

When Richard continued writing other series after the death of Frances, reviewers suggested that his style had changed, a claim that seemed to baffle and amuse him. The style of the collaborative Lockridge books, praised as quiet, understated, graceful, and easy to read, certainly is consistent, though the novels featuring characters other than the Norths seem more serious in tone. The North novels were initially admired for their infectious humor. They are a delightful blend of urbane chic (somewhat reminiscent of the tone of motion-picture screwball comedies) and an attention to social issues, a legacy of the authors’ journalistic training.

The Lockridges fall into the category of detective-fiction writers who consider it their job to play fair with the reader in producing interesting puzzles to solve. Among his rules, Richard Lockridge said, were that butlers and detectives are never the criminals, that there is only one murderer, and that the detective must disclose all the clues. It is this last requirement that occasions the frequent meals and dry martinis in the North series. Pam and Jerry, often with their police-officer friend Bill Weigand and his wife, Dorian, discuss cases over meals at elegant restaurants or at home. A whimsical fascination with the activities of cats adds to the comic charm of the novels. Pam’s thought processes are sometimes relayed in her conversations with the assorted cats that appear throughout the series. These monologues, like the scenes of socializing, serve a dual purpose, adding a warm, sometimes comic touch of characterization and deftly passing on information to the reader.

Another unwavering source of amusement for the reader is the ire the Norths arouse in Inspector O’Malley, Bill Weigand’s superior. “Those Norths!” he sputters whenever he discovers that they are in the thick of the latest homicide. A running gag is the obligatory suspicion that falls on the Norths themselves: Why do they so often find the bodies? the inspector wonders. Though on an intensive diet of the North books this comic touch becomes rather wearying, it is nevertheless true that, as with characters in a situation comedy or any other kind of series, these predictable touches are part of the appeal.

Though Richard Lockridge found the casting of Gracie Allen as Pam North in the film featuring the Norths a “triumph of miscasting,” there is a distinct aura of the daffy charm of George Burns and Gracie Allen about Pam and Jerry North. Like Gracie Allen, Pam is much given to elliptical dialogue that bewilders everyone unaccustomed to her thought processes; Jerry, like George Burns, is the straight man who can practically foretell the confusion that Pam is about to spread. Jerry’s publishing career, which presumably supports their elegant lifestyle, comes in handy as a source of cases. In Murder Within Murder (1946), for example, one of his freelance researchers is murdered; in The Long Skeleton (1958), one of Jerry’s authors becomes centrally involved in the murder, and Murder Has Its Points (1961) similarly revolves around one of Jerry’s authors. Pam is the one who solves the mystery, however, because of her intuitive intelligence, a quality described by Richard Lockridge as a “superior mental alacrity.” She is so often caught up in a dangerous situation in the final scenes of a novel that the predictability moved Howard Haycraft, by 1946, to complain: “Someday I’d like to read a North story in which Mrs. North does not wander alone and unprotected into the murderer’s parlor in the last chapter.”

Murder Is Suggested and Twice Retired

Though Pam is also sometimes described as scatterbrained, and though the structure of the North novels themselves leaves an impression of flighty formula fiction, the Lockridges’ novels as a whole tackle interesting political and social issues. Hildegarde Dolson, Richard Lockridge’s second wife, noted that a reviewer had once said that her husband did more good for liberal causes than polemics do, to which Richard responded that his social theories intentionally spilled out in the novels. Murder Is Suggested (1959) gives an interesting account of the view of hypnosis at that period; the sobering responsibilities of medical practice are taken up in Murder by the Book (1963). In Twice Retired (1970), a Bernie Simmons mystery, there is a touching portrayal of the evil effects of fascism on families: The egocentric behavior of a general in the armed forces, recklessly deploying forces for his own glory, brings about tragedy for his nephew.

Fiction from Experience

The Lockridges were skillful in incorporating their own experiences into their novels; thus, the early novels in particular have been praised for their mirroring of specific elements of American life. The atmosphere of prewar Greenwich Village, for example, is rendered faithfully in The Norths Meet Murder (1940). Death on the Aisle (1942) is set in a theater, a milieu with which Richard Lockridge was familiar from his years as a drama critic. The Merton Heimrich novels are often set in suburban Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties, in all of which the Lockridges lived for a while. The Lockridges’ experience with a friend who bred Angus cattle is reflected in Death and the Gentle Bull (1954), a novel featuring Captain Heimrich. Frances Lockridge’s experiences as a publicist with a private committee for the placement and adoption of children underlies A Pinch of Poison (1941) and Quest for the Bogeyman (1964), both of which have an adoption theme.

The Lockridges’ own life also accounts for another characteristic of their novels: In marked contrast to the American tradition of the lone detective, the Lockridge detectives, as Chris Filstrup and Jane Filstrup observe, have stable relationships. In addition to the compatible marriage of Pam and Jerry North, there are Bill Weigand and his wife, Dorian; Merton Heimrich and his wife, Susan; and Bernie Simmons and his girlfriend, Nora Curran.

These touches of personal and social realities, however, contribute only to the variety of milieus in the Lockridge novels. Although these novels do provide realistic glimpses of American life, in other respects they follow the murder-mystery convention of a closed circle of people. A distinguishing Lockridge extension of this convention is the overlapping in the series. Captain Bill Weigand, the family friend in the North series, appears in the Nathan Shapiro series as the main character’s superior. Even fictional settings reappear: For example, the imaginary Dyckman University (based on Columbia University, where Richard Lockridge taught briefly) appears in Murder Is Suggested, a North mystery, and is the home institution of Professor Emeritus Walter Brinkley in Twice Retired, a Bernie Simmons novel. This familiarity of recurring characters and settings extends the family atmosphere of the North series to the other novels as well.

As a reporter, Richard Lockridge had covered crime stories and many important trials, while Frances had specialized in human-interest articles. Nevertheless, though New York City appears frequently as a locale, and law enforcement officials—Heimrich, Shapiro, Weigand, Simmons—outnumber the amateur sleuths as principal characters in the Lockridge novels, there is little of the grim, the sordid, or the violent. Far from depicting the harsh realities of big-city life or exploring the complexities of police politics, the Lockridges created their own version of the cozy English village murder mystery. Indeed, asked to which writers he was often compared, Richard Lockridge said, “They identify me as a writer of the old-fashioned mystery, which I am. Which I prefer to the bang-bang school, the private eye who is slugged, knocked unconscious, and is up without a bruise the next day.”

The Lockridge novels—charming, humorous, interesting for their treatment of a variety of social issues—are in the tradition of well-crafted novels of entertainment. The Norths’ long fictional lives—more than forty books, a radio series that lasted thirteen years, a television series that ran for two years, a Broadway play with 162 performances, and a film—are a testament to the ability of their creators to intrigue and amuse. The Lockridges are rightly admired for their ability to sketch comically endearing characters. For the Lockridge fan there is great comfort in the sheer quantity of the Lockridge output. With a combined total of more than eighty titles to their credit, the Lockridges have produced for readers the pleasure of many engrossing reads.

Principal Series Characters:

• Pam North , a slim, attractive woman, charms and bewilders her listeners with her elliptical conversations. She is very fond of cats, often talking to them. Intelligent and curious, Pam often takes the lead in walking inadvertently into dangerous situations that lead to the murderer.
• Gerald “Jerry” North , a publisher, is devoted to his wife. Accustomed to her style, he understands her and acts the role of a straight man. Like his wife, he favors dry martinis and good companionship at elegant meals. Jerry and Pam are both compassionate, a quality that motivates them to become involved in detection.
• Bill Weigand , an officer in the homicide squad, and his assistant,
• Detective Sergeant Aloysius Clarence Mullins , work closely with the Norths on cases. Weigand is a likable character, a kind and effective professional.
• Merton Heimrich , of the New York State Police, rises steadily in rank in the series devoted to his adventures, from lieutenant to captain to inspector. He also meets and marries Susan Faye, a widow with a ten-year-old son, Michael. Heimrich’s gradual success in his professional and personal life has little effect on his kind nature and rather gloomy outlook.
• Nathan Shapiro , a lieutenant in the homicide squad, is a self-doubting but competent investigator. He normally works with Captain Weigand, but in one novel he is teamed with Merton Heimrich. Unlike the other North principals, he prefers sweet sherry to a dry martini. Some readers have compared him to the television detective Columbo.
• Bernard Simmons is a tall, red-haired assistant district attorney of New York City. When not working on cases, he is working on a relationship with his girlfriend, Nora Curran, hoping that she will marry him.
• Walter Brinkley , a white-haired, pudgy professor of English, retired from Dykeman University, is a recurring Lockridge character, though he does not have his own series.

Bibliography

Banks, R. Jeff. “Mr. and Mrs. North.” The Armchair Detective 9 (June, 1976): 182-183. Appreciation of the husband-and-wife detective team.

Fraser, C. Gerald. “Richard Lockridge, Writer of North Mysteries.” The New York Times, June 21, 1982, p. D9. Obituary of Richard Lockridge describes his pairing with Frances Lockridge to write the North books and the success of the series.

Lockridge, Richard. Interview by Chris Filstrup and Jane Filstrup. The Armchair Detective 11 (October, 1978): 382-393. Interview with Lockridge about his life, work, and collaboration with his late wife.

Muller, Marcia, and Bill Pronzini, eds. Detective Duos. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. A collection celebrating tandems in the detective world, including Mr. and Mrs. North. Provides a way to compare and contrast the various pairings.

Penzler, Otto, ed. The Great Detectives. Boston: Little, Brown, 1978. Penzler, the editor of The Armchair Detective and proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, compiled these essays paying tribute to fictional detectives and their creators. Provides context for understanding the Lockridges’ work.

Shumway, David R. Modern Love: Romance, Intimacy, and the Marriage Crisis. New York: New York University Press, 2003. Study of the representation of marriage in literature; helpful in interpreting the representation of Mr. and Mrs. North in the Lockridges’ fiction.