Dorothy B. Hughes

Dorothy B. Hughes was a mystery and thriller author from Kansas Missouri. She was interested in writing from the age of six and immediately she could put down words on paper, she knew that writing was all she wanted to do. After graduating high school, she went to the University of Missouri from where she got her degree in journalism in 1924. She then attended Columbia University and the University of New Mexico for her post-graduate studies. For a time Dorothy worked as a journalist in New Mexico, New York, and Missouri before she revived her interest in writing fiction. Her first work was a collection of poems titled “Dark Certainty” published in 1931 that was the winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets. In 1932 she got married to Levi Allan Hughes and moved to Santa Fe as her husband was from a family that had live in the city for centuries. She wrote her first fiction novel “The So Blue Marble” in 1940 and the tough-minded characters and crisp prose garnered her much critical acclaim. It did not take long before Hollywood became aware of her success as three of her most successful thrillers; “The Fallen Sparrow,” “Ride the Pink Horse” and “In A Lonely Place” were made into movies.