Anna Katherine Green, known as the “Mother of the Detective Novel,” was an American poet and novelist. She successfully exploited several of the genre’s plot techniques, such as expert witnesses, medical investigation, and dead corpses found in unexpected locations, to build captivating stories with characters like detective Ebenezer Gryce and spinster Amelia Butterworth. Her knowledge of criminal law, which she learned from her lawyer father, added realism to the novels, and her stories laid the groundwork for the formulae that would come to define the discipline of detective fiction. She was a progressive woman for her day, succeeding in a male-dominated field, yet she opposed women’s suffrage and disapproved of many of her feminist contemporaries. Despite having personal obligations and raising a family, she managed to publish more than three dozen books over the course of four decades. She contributed to the popularity of detective fiction in America by writing well-crafted narratives based on a thorough understanding of criminal law. Ebenezer Gryce, her fictitious detective, influenced the character of Sherlock Holmes established later by Arthur Conan Doyle in various ways. Her skillful delineation of the logical procedure through possibility discovery, deduction, and reasoning drew readers from all around the world.
Childhood and Adolescence
She was born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 11, 1846, to lawyer James Wilson Green and his wife, Catharine Ann Whitney. She was the couple’s second daughter and fourth child. Anna’s mother died when she was three years old. His father’s job as an attorney in New York, where he was involved in numerous criminal cases, had a significant impact on her. She learnt enough about officers on the metropolitan police force during her early years to portray them as relatively typical, save for their expertise in managing investigations. She graduated from Poultney, Vermont’s Ripley Female College in 1866 and returned to New York to live with her extended family.
Career of Anna Katharine Green
She wanted to compose romantic poems when she was younger, but when her poetry didn’t catch on, she moved on to another genre and wrote her best-known work. ‘The Leavenworth Case,’ her first detective novel, was a murder mystery narrative that gained critical and commercial acclaim. Following its success, she went on to write ‘A Strange Disappearance,’ another detective fiction (1880). Later, she released two non-detective works, ‘Defense of the Bride and Other Poems’ (1882) and ‘Hand and Ring’ (1883), but they did not enjoy the same acclaim as her detective books, and she returned to the detective fiction genre permanently.
Her popular ‘Amelia Butterworth Series,’ which included the legendary investigator Ebenezer Gryce, whom she invented in her debut novel, was another of her acclaimed works. ‘That Affair Next Door’ (1897), ‘Lost Man’s Lane’ (1898), and ‘The Circular Study’ (1899) were the three works in the series (1900). ‘The Mill Mystery’ (1886), ‘7 to 12: A Detective Story’ (1887), ‘Behind Closed Doors’ (1888), ‘A Matter of Millions’ (1891), ‘Doctor Izard’ (1895), ‘Agatha Webb’ (1899), ‘One of my Sons’ (1901), ‘The Chief Legatee’ (1906), ‘The House of the Whispering Pines’ (1910), ‘Dark Hollow’ (1914), (1923).
‘The Sword of Damocles: A Story of New York Life’ (1881), ‘The Defence of the Bride, and other Poems’ (1882), ‘Hand and Ring’ (1883), ‘Risifi’s Daughter’ (1887), ‘Forsaken Inn’ (1890), ‘To the Minute; Scarlet and Black: Two Tales of Life’s Perplexities’ (1891), ‘To the Minute; Scarlet and Black: Two Tales (1916). ‘The Old Stone House and other stories’ was released in 1891, and it included stories like ‘The Old Stone House,’ ‘A Memorable Night,’ ‘The Black Cross,’ ‘A Mysterious Case,’ and ‘Shall He Wed Her.’
‘Room Number 3, and Other Detective Stories,’ a compilation of her short stories, was released in 1905. ‘Room Number 3’, ‘The Ruby And The Caldron,’ ‘The Amethyst Box,’ ‘The House in the Mist,’ and ‘The Thief’ were among the stories included.
Major Projects of Anna Katharine Green
Her debut detective fiction, ‘The Leavenworth Case,’ published in 1878, is largely considered to be the first American detective novel. It was the first such novel ever written by a woman, and, according to some historians, the first bona fide American bestseller. It was a murder mystery that introduced the fictitious detective Ebenezer Gryce to the literary world. It was so well-liked for its legal insight that Yale University law students used it as an illustration of the dangers of relying on circumstantial evidence.
Personal History and Legacy
She married Charles Rohlfs, an actor and stove designer who eventually became an internationally renowned furniture designer, on November 25, 1884. The marriage had three children: Rosamund, a daughter, and Sterling and Roland, two sons. The family moved to Buffalo in the late 1880s. Throughout her illustrious career, she kept a secure income and led a Victorian life marked by strong ideals and morality. She died on April 11, 1935, at the age of 88, at her residence in Buffalo, New York.
Estimated Net Worth
Anna is one of the wealthiest poets and one of the most well-known. Anna Katharine Green’s net worth is estimated to be $1.5 million, according to Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider.