Thomas B. Dewey
Thomas B. Dewey was an American author born on March 6, 1915, in Elkhart, Indiana, who gained recognition for his contributions to the mystery and detective fiction genre. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Kansas State Teachers College and later obtained a Ph.D. from UCLA in 1973. Dewey’s writing career began in the 1940s, with his debut novel, "Hue and Cry," introducing readers to a unique private investigator named Singer Battts. Over his prolific career, he published approximately forty novels, creating several memorable series characters, most notably a Chicago private investigator known simply as "Mac."
Dewey's writing is characterized by the hard-boiled style, echoing the works of famous authors like Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, with a focus on themes of justice and moral complexity. His novels often provide readers with enough clues to solve the mysteries alongside the protagonists, adhering to traditional detective fiction conventions. Although he has not received the same level of recognition as some of his contemporaries, Dewey's work represents an important part of the crime fiction landscape, particularly for its Chicago setting and engaging character development. He passed away in 1981, leaving behind a legacy that continues to invite exploration by mystery literature enthusiasts.
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Thomas B. Dewey
Writer
- Born: March 6, 1915
- Birthplace: Elkhart, Indiana
- Died: April 22, 1981
Biography
Thomas Blanchard Dewey was born in Elkhart, Indiana, on March 6, 1915, the son of Henry Evert and Elizabeth Blanchard Dewey. He received a B.S. from Kansas State Teachers College, Emporia, in 1936, did graduate study at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, from 1937 to 1938, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1973. He performed clerical work for Harding Market Company, Chicago, from 1936 to 1937. He was an editor for Storycraft, Inc., a correspondence school in Hollywood, California, from 1938 to 1942. Dewey worked as an administrative and editorial assistant in the Department of State in Washington, D.C., during the war, from 1942 to 1945. He worked in advertising in Los Angeles from 1945 to 1952, and as a self-employed writer from 1952 to 1971. He taught as an assistant professor of English at Arizona State University, Tempe, from 1971 to 1977. Dewey was married twice. He married Maxine Morley Sorensen in 1951, with whom he had two children, Thomas B. and Deborah. His second marriage was to Doris L. Smith in 1972. Thomas Dewey died in 1981.
Thomas Dewey, who was also known as Thomas B. Dewey, Thomas Blanchard Dewey, Tom Brandt, and Cord Wainer, was a prolific author of mystery and detective fiction, publishing some forty novels a career spanning the years 1944 to 1970. Dewey created several series characters, among them a district attorney, an avenging policeman, and a Los Angeles private eye, and most often a Chicago PI simply called “Mac.” Dewey’s first novel, Hue and Cry, appeared in 1944 and introduced an eccentric private eye, named Singer Battts, who is a hotel proprietor in a small town in Ohio and also a Shakespeare scholar. Dewey used him in three more novels in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Peter Schofield, a Los Angeles private investigator, first appeared in And Where She Stops (1957). Schofield is distinctive because he is married and because he is more humorous than is usual for Dewey’s characters. The Los Angeles PI appeared in eight more novels, with the last, Nude in Nevada, appearing in 1965.
Although Dewey also wrote non-series books throughout his career, his best-known mysteries are of the hard-boiled variety with his Chicago PI Mac. Mac is in the tradition of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe, and Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer. Like his predecessors, Mac is a loner, champions the innocent and vulnerable, and is a bit of a romantic in the “white knight” style of the traditional PI. Dewey’s Mac series are set primarily in Chicago, unlike the usual L.A. or New York setting for so many of his contemporaries, and although the novels are firmly hard in their tone, Dewey does provide his readers with sufficient clues to solve the mystery in the classic format. Thomas Dewey is an underappreciated crime writer whose novels have not been reissued and whose reputation remains overshadowed by the likes of Hammett, Chandler and company.