Dorothy L. Sayers

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Standard Name: Sayers, Dorothy L.
Birth Name: Dorothy Leigh Sayers
Pseudonym: H. P. Rallentando
DLS is best-known as a pre-second-world-war detective novelist, particularly as the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. But the financial success she enjoyed from these novels permitted her to turn to other genres and topics later in her career, including plays and radio dramas on religious themes, other Christian writings, and an important translation of Dante .
Brabazon, James. Dorothy L. Sayers. Charles Scribner’s Sons.
126
She also wrote poetry and reviews.
Black-and-white photo of Dorothy L. Sayers. Seated and looking off-camera with a slight smile, she wears large circular earrings and a dark blazer.
Bronze statue of Dorothy L. Sayers in Witham, England.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Theme or Topic Treated in Text Agatha Christie
Although AC was supposed to be writing propaganda, her opinions on her own chosen genre were too strong to be muzzled. Having begun with praise of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , John Dickson Carr ...
Textual Production Agatha Christie
Dorothy Sayers invited AC to contribute a segment to a BBC radio crime-serial entitled Behind the Screen.
Morgan, Janet. Agatha Christie: A Biography. Collins, http://Rutherford HSS.
195
Textual Production Muriel Jaeger
As a member of Somerville 's Mutual Admiration Society MJ must already have been writing, since the group existed for the purpose of mutual literary encouragement. She collaborated with Dorothy Sayers in writing, and performing...
Textual Production Muriel Jaeger
Many letters from Dorothy Sayers to MJ survive at the Marion E. Wade Center , Wheaton College , in Illinois, USA. Sayers apparently did not keep her letters from Jaeger, since none are extant.
Reynolds, Barbara. “"‘Dear Jim…’ The Reconstruction of A Friendship”. Seven: An Anglo-American Literary Review, Vol.
17
, Marion E. Wade Center of Wheaton College, pp. 47-59.
58
Textual Production P. D. James
Unnatural Causes, PDJ 's third mystery novel, is in large part a parody of classical mysteries, and particularly the works of Dorothy L. Sayers .
British Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons.
1967
Gidez, Richard. P. D. James. Twayne.
36
Textual Production Clemence Dane
CD , with eleven more members of the Detection Club (including Dorothy L. Sayers , Agatha Christie , G. K. Chesterton , Anthony Berkeley , Freeman Wills Crofts , G. D. H. and M. I. Cole
Textual Production Storm Jameson
Jameson had been approached by the Ministry of Information once the USA had entered World War II, for suggestions on how to cement Anglo-American relations.
Jameson, Storm. Journey from the North. Harper and Row.
524
The resulting volume includes work by Phyllis Bentley ,...
Textual Production E. B. C. Jones
Her contributors included Jane Barlow , Frank Betts , Elizabeth Bridges (later Daryush) , M. St Clare Byrne , Elsa L. Duff , A. P. Herbert , Aldous Huxley , E. H. W. Meyerstein ,...
Textual Production Antonia Fraser
In Oxford Blood, AF dared comparison with Gaudy Night, one of Dorothy L. Sayers 's most popular detective novels, by bringing her graduate heroine back into the university world which was a formative influence on her.
Whitaker’s Books in Print. J. Whitaker and Sons.
(1988)
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
276
Textual Production Q. D. Leavis
In her essays, reviews, introductions, and lectures, QDL also developed varied critiques of such authors as Charlotte Brontë , George Eliot , Charlotte Yonge , Marie Corelli , Edith Wharton , Naomi Mitchison , Amabel Williams-Ellis
Textual Production L. T. Meade
LTM also wrote mysteries jointly with Robert Eustace (Eustace Robert Barton ), both in the form of magazine stories and of novels published with Ward, Lock and Co. The latter include A Master of...
Textual Production Doreen Wallace
DW campaigned against the system of tithe payments during the 1930s in many newspaper and magazine articles and in speeches at public occasions. Her long-time reviewing of books for The Times came to an end...
Textual Production Jan Morris
More than a decade later, in 1978, JM followed her own portrait of Oxford by editing The Oxford Book of Oxford, a quirky anthology of often very short anecdotes and other excerpts, aimed less...
Textual Production Michelene Wandor
MW has specialized in adapting and abridging novels for radio. Between 1980 and 2004 she adapted a wide array of fiction by women writers, including works by Jane Austen , Charlotte Brontë , George Eliot
Textual Features Dorothy Whipple
DW also presents, with deliberate naivete, the ups and downs of her own career: her high points and failures of confidence. As her confidence grows, her narrative embraces funny anecdotes, moving moments, penetrating insights, and...

Timeline

By late 1931: Twelve certain members of the Detection Club...

Women writers item

By late 1931

Twelve certain members of the Detection Club (including Agatha Christie , Dorothy L. Sayers , G. K. Chesterton , Clemence Dane , G. D. H. Cole and Margaret Cole ) published a collaborative detectivenovel called...

30 July 1935: Penguin Books issued its first ten titles:...

Writing climate item

30 July 1935

Penguin Books issued its first ten titles: sixpenny paperbacks with a characteristic penguin logo.

9 December 2006-17 July 2007: The National Portrait Gallery in London mounted...

Writing climate item

9 December 2006-17 July 2007

The National Portrait Gallery in London mounted an exhibition of photographs of women writers, mostly novelists, from 1920 to 1960.

Texts

Sayers, Dorothy L. Begin Here: A War-Time Essay. Gollancz, 1940.
Sayers, Dorothy L. “Behind the Screen: Part III”. The Listener, Vol.
iv
, No. 77, pp. 28-30.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Busman’s Honeymoon. Gollancz, 1937.
Dante Alighieri,. Cantica I: Hell. Translator Sayers, Dorothy L., Penguin, 1949.
Dante Alighieri,. Cantica II: Purgatory. Translator Sayers, Dorothy L., Penguin, 1955.
Dante Alighieri,. Cantica III: Paradise. Translators Sayers, Dorothy L. and Barbara Reynolds, Penguin, 1962.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Catholic Tales and Christian Songs. B. H. Blackwell, 1918.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Further Papers on Dante. Methuen, 1957.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. Gollancz, 1935.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Gaudy Night. Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936.
Sayers, Dorothy L., editor. Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror. Gollancz, 1928.
Sayers, Dorothy L., editor. Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror. Second Series. Gollancz, 1931.
Sayers, Dorothy L., editor. Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror. Third Series. Gollancz, 1934.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Hangman’s Holiday. Gollancz, 1933.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Have His Carcase. Gollancz, 1932.
Sayers, Dorothy L. He That Should Come. Victor Gollancz, 1939.
Sayers, Dorothy L. In the Teeth of the Evidence. Gollancz, 1939.
Sayers, Dorothy L., and Wilkie Collins. “Introduction”. The Moonstone, Dent; Dutton, 1967, p. v - xi.
Sayers, Dorothy L., and Barbara Reynolds. Introductory Papers on Dante. Methuen, 1954.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Murder Must Advertise. Gollancz, 1933.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Op. I. B. H. Blackwell, 1916.
Sayers, Dorothy L. Strong Poison. Gollancz, 1930.
Sayers, Dorothy L., editor. Tales of Detection. J. M. Dent and Sons, 1936.
Sayers, Dorothy L. The Devil to Pay. Gollancz, 1939.
Dante Alighieri,. The Divine Comedy. I: Hell. Translator Sayers, Dorothy L., Penguin Books, 1957.