Hughes, Dorothy B.

Dorothy B. Hughes (1904-1993) was a mystery author and literary critic. Born in Kansas City, she studied at Columbia University, and won an award from the Yale Series of Younger Poets for her first book, the poetry collection "Dark Certainty" (1931). After writing several unsuccessful manuscripts, she published "The So Blue Marble" in 1940. A New York-based mystery, it won praise for its hardboiled prose, which was due, in part, to Hughes's editor, who demanded she cut 25,000 words from the book. Hughes published thirteen more novels, the best known of which are "In a Lonely Place" (1947) and