JULIAN SYMONS, A BIBLIOGRAPHY

Winchester and New Castle, Delaware: St. Paul's Bibliographies and Oak Knoll Press, 1996. cloth. Symons, Julian. 8vo. cloth. 340 pages. First edition. Preface by H.R.F. Keating. The sixth volume of the Winchester Bibliographies of Twentieth Century Writers series. This is the first and only bibliography of Julian Symons to include a personal memoir and commentaries by Symons himself. According to Keating, a frequent motif of Symons's fiction is his use of the mask, whether as a disguise or a metaphor for the elegantly exposed hypocrisies of everyday life. As a literary critic, social historian, biographer, essayist, editor and poet, Symons was one of the most distinguished authors and expositors of the postwar British crime novel. His mystery writing career began with the publication of THE IMMATERIAL MURDER CASE (1945) and was later known for such works as THE COLOUR OF MURDER (1957), THE MAN WHO LOST HIS WIFE (1970) and DEATH'S DARKEST FACE (1990). He succeeded Dame Agatha Christie as President of the Detection Club (1976 to 1985) and was awarded the 1990 Cartier Diamond Dagger from the British Crime Writers Association for lifetime achievement in the world of crime fiction. A standard reference, JULIAN SYMONS, A BIBLIOGRAPHY will not only illuminate the richness of Symons's lesser-known early works, as well as chronicling his well-known masterworks, but its autobiographical personal memoir will also add insight to Symons's life beyond the page.