Carolyn Wells

Carolyn Wells (June 18, 1862 – March 26, 1942) was an American poet and novelist.

Life
Born in Rahway, New Jersey, she was the daughter of William E. and Anna Wells.

After finishing school she worked as a librarian for the Rahway Library Association. Her first book, At the Sign of the Sphinx (1896), was a collection of charades. Her next publications were The Jingle Book and The Story of Betty (1899), followed by a book of verse entitled Idle Idyls (1900). After 1900, Wells wrote numerous novels and collections of poetry.

Carolyn Wells wrote a total of more than 170 books. During the first ten years of her career, she concentrated on poetry, humor, and children's books. According to her autobiography, The Rest of My Life (1937), around 1910 she heard one of Anna Katherine Green's mystery novels being read aloud and was immediately captivated by the unravelling of the puzzle. From that point onward, she devoted herself to the mystery genre. Among the most famous of her mystery novels were the Fleming Stone Detective Stories which&mdash;according to Allen J. Hubin's Crime Fiction IV: A Comprehensive Bibliography, 1749–2000 (2003)&mdash;number 61 titles.

In addition to books, Wells also provided her talents to newspapers. Her poetry accompanies the work of some of the leading lights in illustration and cartooning, often in the form of Sunday magazine cover features that formed continuing narratives from week to week. Her first known illustrated newspaper work is a two part series titled Animal Alphabet, illustrated by William F. Marriner, which appeared in the Sunday comics section of the New York World. Many additional series ensued over the years, including the bizarre classic Adventures of Lovely Lilly (New York Herald, 1906–07). The last series she penned was Flossy Frills Helps Out (American Weekly, 1942), which appeared after her death.

She married Hadwin Houghton, the heir of the Houghton-Mifflin publishing empire founded by Bernard Houghton. Wells also had an impressive collection of volumes of poetry by others. She bequeathed her collection of Walt Whitman poetry, said to be one of the most important of its kind for its completeness and rarity, to the Library of Congress (New York Times, Apr. 16, 1942).

Today, however, she is best known for her light verse, particularly for several classic limericks, including this one: A canner exceedingly canny One morning remarked to his granny: “A canner can can Any thing that he can But a canner can’t can a can, can he?”

She died at the Flower-Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City in 1942.

Poetry

 * Idle Idyls. 1900.
 * The Nonsense Anthology. 1902.

Novels

 * The Clue (1909)
 * The Gold Bag (1911)
 * A Chain of Evidence (1912)
 * The Maxwell Mystery (1913)
 * Anybody But Anne (1914)
 * The White Alley (1915)
 * The Curved Blades (1916)
 * The Mark of Cain (1917)
 * Vicky Van (1918)
 * The Diamond Pin (1919)
 * Raspberry Jam (1920)
 * The Mystery of the Sycamore (1921)
 * The Mystery Girl (1922)
 * Feathers Left Around (1923)
 * Spooky Hollow (1923)
 * The Furthest Fury (1924)
 * Prillilgirl (1924)
 * Anything But the Truth (1925)
 * The Daughter of the House (1925)
 * The Bronze Hand (1926)
 * The Red-Haired Girl (1926)
 * All at Sea (1927)
 * Where’s Emily (1927)
 * The Crime in the Crypt (1928)
 * The Tannahill Tangle (1928)
 * The Tapestry Room Murder (1929)
 * Triple Murder (1929)
 * The Doomed Five (1930)
 * The Ghosts’ High Noon (1930)
 * Horror House (1931)
 * The Umbrella Murder (1931)
 * Fuller’s Earth (1932)
 * The Roll-Top Desk Mystery (1932)
 * The Broken O (1933)
 * The Clue of the Eyelash (1933)
 * The Master Murderer (1933)
 * Eyes in the Wall (1934)
 * The Visiting Villain (1934)
 * The Beautiful Derelict (1935)
 * For Goodness’ Sake (1935)
 * The Wooden Indian (1935)
 * The Huddle (1936)
 * In the Tiger’s Cage (1936)
 * Money Musk (1936)
 * Murder in the Bookshop (1936)
 * The Mystery of the Tarn (1937)
 * The Radio Studio Murder (1937)
 * Gilt-Edged Guilt (1938)
 * The Killer (1938)
 * The Missing Link (1938)
 * Calling All Suspects (1939)
 * Crime Tears On (1939)
 * The Importance of Being Murdered (1939)
 * Crime Incarnate (1940)
 * Devil’s Work (1940)
 * Murder on Parade (1940)
 * Murder Plus (1940)
 * The Black Night Murders (1941)
 * Murder at the Casino (1941)
 * Murder Will In (1942)
 * Who Killed Caldwell? (1942)

Non-fiction

 * Technique of the Mystery Story. 1913, 1929.
 * The Rest of My Life (autobiography). 1937.