S.S. Van Dine, Philo Vance Focus Of Swart-Wilcox Panel Libby Cudmore, mystery author and managing editor, Hometown Oneonta/The Freeman’s Journal/AllOTSEGO.com, speaks about the creation of Philo Vance, one of the premier sleuths of the “Golden Age” of detective fiction, by Willard Huntington Wright, who adopted the pseudonym S.S. Van Dine to write the mystery series, during a talk at the Swart-Wilcox House this afternoon. With her are Bob Brzozowski, executive director, Greater Oneonta Historical Society, who discovered that Wright likely…
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Willard Huntington Wright
ONEONTA ZONING BOARD TO DECIDE House Where Detective Novel Written May Be Razed For Parking Lot ONEONTA – The Salvation Army will ask the city Zoning & Housing Board of Appeals to allow them to demolish the home at 31 River St. following a public hearing at 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 24. The home is believed to have been where Willard Huntinton Wright, as S.S. Van Dine, wrote “The Benson Murder Case,” the first of 12 novels starring detective Philo Vance.…
DIAL ‘O’ FOR MURDER S.S. Van Dine’s Philo Vance Books Took Him From Here To Hollywood By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com ONEONTA – For a time, S.S. Van Dine was the biggest thing in detective fiction. “He got famous fast,” said Michael Sharp, a Binghamton University English professor who specializes in American Crime Fiction. “He writes his first book and he immediately becomes a best-seller.” That first novel, “The Benson Murder Case,” published in 1926, is believed to…
River Street House Where Fictional Det. ‘Philo Vance’ Was Created Is Endangered Salvation Army Plans To Raze It, But GOHS May Object To Plans By LIBBY CUDMORE • Special to www.AllOTSEGO.com ONEONTA – Hidden behind a row of overgrown trees on River Street is a literary legacy. As S.S. Van Dine, Willard Huntington Wright (1888-1939), wrote 12 novels starring dandy detective Philo Vance – and Bob Brzozowski, Greater Oneonta Historical Society executive director, believes that they were written here. “We…