Mignon Eberhart Mystery Bibliography

Edited by Richard Aylesworth Contact me here



Introduction

Despite her prolific output and large following, I find bibliographies of Mignon Eberhart's work to be generally rather hit and miss. In an effort to remedy this situation, I have tried here to bring together various sources to create an authoritative and comprehensive list of her books and stories. The information is unfortunately not perfect yet, and I would be very grateful for any assistance in filling the gaps and settling the doubts that are shown by question marks in the tables.

References
1. Berch, Victor. informative email on Wickwire stories and serialized novels (thank you, Victor!)
2. British Library. online catalogue
3. Cypert, Rick. America's Agatha Christie
4. Cypert, Rick. unpublished bibliography of periodical publications, (thank you, Rick!)
5. Herbert, Rosemary (ed.) Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing
6. Hubin, Allen J. Crime Fiction: a Comprehensive Bibliography1
7. Library of Congress. online catalogue

Links to Other Sites About Mignon Eberhart

1. D.L. Browne's lively and colourful discussion

2. "Golden Age Detection" Yahoo! Group's Wiki

Footnote:
1. See Footnote 1 after Table 3a for a description of a long-standing error in this well-known bibliography.


Contents

CLICK ON TABLE IDENTIFIER BELOW, E.G. "Table 1a", TO LINK TO THAT TABLE.

The Books
Books are classified into three types: (i) novels, (ii) novelets published separately, (iii) collections of short stories and /or novelets. See definitions below.

Table 1a: BOOK TITLES
A listing of the books, by year of publication. Alternative published titles are given for novels, and content summaries for collections.

Table 1b: BOOK PUBLICATION INFORMATION
A listing of the books, by title. Publisher and year of publication are given.


The Collections

Table 2a: COLLECTIONS OF NOVELETS AND SHORT STORIES
A listing of collections, by country and year of publication. Titles of short stories and /or novelets appearing in each are given.

Table 2b: COLLECTED STORIES
A listing of collected short stories and novelets, by title. The collection(s) in which each appears are given.

The Stories
Stories are classified into three types: (i) novels, (ii) novelets, (iii) short stories. See definitions below.

Table 3a: SERIAL CHARACTERS, SETTING LOCATIONS, HISTORICAL PERIODS
A listing of the stories, by title. The approximate year of writing, serial character(s), setting and historical period for each story are given. This table includes uncollected stories for which at least some information on character, setting or period is available.

Table 3b: PERIODICAL PUBLICATION OF STORIES
A listing, by title, of the stories -- short stories, novelets, serialized novels -- which appeared first in periodical publication. The periodical and the date(s) of first publication are given, as well as the year of eventual book publication, if any, and title changes. This table includes uncollected stories.

Table 3c: NON-MYSTERY SHORT STORIES
Many, but not all, of Eberhart's stories contain an important component of romance, but almost every one is a murder mystery. Her few published non-mystery romantic short stories are listed here, to explain why the titles, should you run across them, do not appear in the tables of crime, mystery, suspense fiction.


Definitions

Story Types
Story type definitions are based on length

Novel -- over 70,000 words (140 pb pages)
Novelet -- 25,000-40,000 words (50-80 pages)
Short Story -- under 15,000 words (30 pages)

These definitions are not intended to be generic and authoritative, but are introduced solely for the purpose of grouping Eberhart's stories. Her story lengths cluster nicely into these three groups. The only exception is "Kate Shane" which, at 100 pages, is somewhat longer than the standard novelet. I chose to class it as a novelet, rather than a short novel, because it was not published separately in book form.


Book Types
Book type definitions are based on story types contained.

Novel -- contains one novel.
Novelet -- contains one novelet.
Collection -- contains several short stories and /or novelets, by one author.

Eberhart's stories appeared in other types of books, of course: e.g. anthology (reprinted stories from several authors), omnibus (several reprinted novels by one author), but I consider only the types above as primary Eberhart book publications.

The use of colour coding -- see below -- to render book and story titles should obviate any problems with the ambiguous use of "novel" and "novelet" to represent both types.


Special Coding

To reduce ambiguity and excess verbiage, book and story titles are colour-coded to specify the type as defined above.
Book Types     
Novel
Novelet
Collection

 Story Types
Novel
Novelet
Short Story
Alternative title (book or story)

An asterisk (*) after a book title indicates that the book is British, in the sense either that the title was used only for the British publication, e.g. Death in the Fog*, or that the particular combination of content was published, in book form, only in a British publication, e.g. Brief Return* and Five of My Best*.


Additional Keywords: Mignon Good Eberhart, Mignon G. Eberhart, M. G. Eberhart, author, fiction, novelette

Page created: 18-Aug-2006
Last updated: 01-May-2007