Vera Caspary, the celebrated author of Laura, tells her own story in this captivating autobiography. With a career that spanned from the 1920s through 1970s, one that produced over twenty novels, in addition to her many credits for film and theater, Caspary centered her life around a passion for writing. From her early experiences at an advertisement agency-where she developed a correspondence school and invented its "famed" instructor-to the struggles of being gray-listed in the McCarthy Era, Caspary constantly found a way to turn her creative needs into viable work. Caspary recalls the rest of a full life, too, including her flirtation with communism, travels across Europe, and a marriage. Caspary's skillful writing makes her incredible depictions of people, and the times in which they lived, jump off the page."

The Secrets of Grown-Ups

Biographies & Memoirs

CASPARY, Vera

Community & Culture

McGraw=Hill

This is Laura's book, although when the story opens, she has been viciously murdered. Most of it is told by three men -- the three men who knew her best: gossip columnist Waldo Lydecker -- Laura was the only person he had ever loved; Shelby Carpenter, Laura's fiance, who knew more about her death than anyone suspected; and Detective Mark McPherson, whose duty was to reconstruct the life of the victim -- but not to the point where he fell in love with her. Here is the secret of Laura's death ... and her life.

Laura

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

Avon/Books

Wedding in Paris

Literature & Fiction

Dramas & Plays

Samuel French Ltd.

The story of the life and murder of Laura is narrated by three very different men--gossip columnist Waldo Lydecker, her fiancT Shelby Carpenter, and Detective Mark McPherson, whose job is to reconstruct the life of the enigmatic murder victim to find her killer, in a new edition of the classic mystery. Reprint.

Laura (Hollywood Mystery Series)

UNKNO

Laura (The best mysteries of all time)

Literary

ImPress

This is Laura's book, although when the story opens, she has been viciously murdered. Most of it is told by three men -- the three men who knew her best: gossip columnist Waldo Lydecker -- Laura was the only person he had ever loved; Shelby Carpenter, Laura's fiance, who knew more about her death than anyone suspected; and Detective Mark McPherson, whose duty was to reconstruct the life of the victim -- but not to the point where he fell in love with her. Here is the secret of Laura's death ... and her life.

Amereon Ltd

Review Vera Caspary is an expert at suspense and suspicion―NEW YORK TIMESA sleek, saturnine thriller―INDEPENDENTNoir in a nutshell―NEW YORKERSee just how slick Miss Caspary's technique of soft-shoe terror can be - how frightening she can make the chatter at an innocent dinner party, the lure of a lady's deshabille, the glimpse of a black pearl in a dresser drawer―NEW YORK TIMESA superb mystery ... a brilliant book―NEW STATESMANSuperior style . . . and an explicit knowledge of the world in which her characters move and breathe―NEW YORK TIMES Product Description A beautiful woman - with no memory - and the people who claim to know her may not have her best interests at heart...'Vera Caspary is an expert at suspense and suspicion' New York TimesKate and Allan Royce are driving home from a party in Westport, Connecticut one night when they see a girl in a beautiful but muddied dress wandering in the road and stop to pick her up. She is suffering from amnesia, so they name her Elizabeth X and take her into their home while the police try to establish her identity.They are left in peace, until first a couple claim her as their daughter and then a psychiatrist arrives to say that she has escaped from his clinic. What does seem certain is that she is the child of wealthy parents.But who really is Elizabeth X, and what has happened to her? About the Author Vera Caspary (1899-1987)Vera Caspary, the acclaimed American writer of novels, plays, short stories and screenplays, was born in Chicago in 1899. Her writing talent shone from a young age and, following the death of her father, her work became the primary source of income for Caspary and her mother. A young woman when the Great Depression hit America, Caspary soon developed a keen interest in Socialist causes, and joined the Communist Party under a pseudonym. Although she soon left the party after becoming disillusioned, Caspary's leftist leanings would later come back to haunt her when she was greylisted from Hollywood in the 1950s for Communist sympathies. Caspary spent this period of self-described 'purgatory' alternately in Europe and America with her husband, Igee Goldsmith, in order to find work. After Igee's death in 1964, Caspary returned permanently to New York, where she wrote a further eight titles. Vera Caspary died in 1987 and is survived by a literary legacy of strong independent female characters.

The Secret of Elizabeth (Murder Room)

Thrillers & Suspense

The Murder Room

Vera Caspary, the celebrated author of Laura, tells her own story in this captivating autobiography. With a career that spanned from the 1920s through 1970s, one that produced over twenty novels, in addition to her many credits for film and theater, Caspary centered her life around a passion for writing. From her early experiences at an advertisement agency-where she developed a correspondence school and invented its "famed" instructor-to the struggles of being gray-listed in the McCarthy Era, Caspary constantly found a way to turn her creative needs into viable work. Caspary recalls the rest of a full life, too, including her flirtation with communism, travels across Europe, and a marriage. Caspary's skillful writing makes her incredible depictions of people, and the times in which they lived, jump off the page."

The Secrets of Grown-Ups: An Autobiography

Arts & Literature

Open Road Integrated Media LLC

Vera Caspary, the famed author of Laura, gives us another gripping crime drama, told through shifting points of view. John Ansell, young and idealistic editor of Truth and Crime magazine, wants to breathe new life into the stale and formulaic publication. Instead of rehashing a story that's already been proven popular elsewhere, he finds a fresh one: the murder of Warren G. Wilson, famed figurehead of a correspondence course. The murder itself isn't too remarkable-just a bullet in the back-but the victim is another case, as it becomes apparent that despite having a household name, nothing is known about him. Perhaps even more peculiar is how Ansell's boss absolutely refuses to run the story and, soon thereafter, Ansell is poisoned. Caspary masterfully allows the truth to slowly untangle in this incredibly woven mystery, finally available as an ebook."

Stranger Than Truth

Open Road Distribution

Laura Hunt was the ideal modern woman: beautiful, elegant, highly ambitious, and utterly mysterious. No man could resist her charmsnot even the hardboiled NYPD detective sent to find out who turned her into a faceless corpse. As this tough cop probes the mystery of Laura’s death, he becomes obsessed with her strange power. Soon he realizes he’s been seduced by a dead womanor has he? Laura won lasting renown as an Academy Award-nominated 1944 film, the greatest noir romance of all time. Vera Caspary’s equally haunting novel is remarkable for its stylish, hardboiled writing, its electrifying plot twists, and its darkly complex charactersincluding a woman who stands as the ultimate femme fatale. Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. Enjoy the series: Bedelia; Bunny Lake Is Missing; By Cecile; The G-String Murders; The Girls in 3-B; Laura; The Man Who Loved His Wife; Mother Finds a Body; Now, Voyager; Return to Lesbos; Skyscraper; Stranger on Lesbos; Stella Dallas; Women's Barracks.

Laura (Femmes Fatales)

United States

The Feminist Press at CUNY

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