FARJEON, JOSEPH JEFFERSON (June 4, 1883--June 6, 1955)

English novelist, playwright, and journalist, was born in London into literary circumstances. His father, Benjamin Farjeon, was a well-known novelist and he was the brother of the children's writer Eleanor Farjeon and the playwright Herbert Farjeon. Although he was a descendant of Thomas Jefferson, Farjeon was named after his maternal grandfather, the American actor Joseph Jefferson. He was educated privately and at Peterborough Lodge. From 1910 to 1920 he did editorial work for the Amalgamated Press.

Farjeon's career as a fiction writer was long and prolific. With over eighty published novels to his credit, many in the mystery and detective genre, he enjoyed what the London Times obituarist called a deserved popularity for "ingenious and entertaining plots and characterization." His early novel, Master Criminal, is a tale of identity reversal involving two brothers, one a master detective, the other a master criminal. "Mr. Farjeon displays a great deal of knowledge about story-telling," declared the New York Times reviewer, "and multiplies the interest of his plot through a terse, telling style and a rigid compression."

Farjeon was one of the first detective writers to mingle romance with crime. Although known for his keen humor and flashing wit, he was no stranger to the sinister and terrifying. The critic for the Saturday Review of Literature praised Death in the Inkwell, one of his later books, calling it an "amusing, satirical, and frequently hair-raising yarn of an author who got dangerously mixed up with his imaginary characters. Tricky."  

Principal Works: Novels--The Master Criminal, 1924; Little Things That Happen, 1925; Uninvited Guests, 1925; The Green Dragon, 1926 (rev. ed.: At the Green Dragon, 1929); No. 17: A Novel Based Upon the Play, 1926; The Crook's Shadow, 1927; The House of Disappearance, 1927; More Little Happenings, 1928; Shadows by the Sea, 1928; Mystery Underground, 1928 (in U.S.: Underground); The 5.18 Mystery, 1929; The "Z" Murders, 1929 (in the U.S.: The Person Called "Z"); The Appointed Date, 1930; Following Footsteps, 1930; The House Opposite, 1931; The Murderer's Trail, 1931; Phantom Fingers, 1931; Ben Sees It Through, 1932; Trunk Call, 1932 (in U.S.: The Trunk-Call Mystery); The House on the Marsh, 1933; The Mystery of the Creek, 1933; Old Man Mystery, 1933.

About: Farjeon, E. Portrait of a Family, 1935; Who Was Who V, 1961; Who Was Who in the Theatre 1912-1976, 1978. Periodicals--New York Times September 7, 1924; Saturday Review of Literature February 28, 1942; Times (London) June 7, 1955.