Early Female Eyes
“If it’s that delicate,… maybe you need a lady detective.”
— Philip Marlowe in The Little Sister (1949)
No business for a lady, indeed…
Before the parade of bimbo eyes from the pulp era and before the nineteen eighties tsunami of more realistic female eyes swamped us, there were the lady detectives.
A century before Muller, Grafton, Paretsky, Cody et al rocked the world, Catherine Louisia Pirkis’ Miss Loveday Brooke, arguably the first female private detective (and almost certainly the first created by a woman) made her debut.
And she was soon followed by several others of note. In fact, the late nineteenth centuryand early twentieth century saw the appearance of an overwhelming number of female literary detectives, from policewomen and crime-solving nurses to, yes, private detectives.
Here are some of the major players from long ago…
- Miss Loveday Brooke
Created by C.L. Pirkis
Debut: 1883
Arguably the first female private detective (and almost certainly the first created by a woman). - Miss Violet Strange
Created by Anna Katherine Green
Debut: 1895
Nancy Drew’s grandmother? Often considered the first “girl detective.” - Dorcas Dene
Created by George M. Sims
Debut: 1897 - Dora Myrl
Created by M. McDonnell Bodkin
Debut: 1900, 1900, Dora Myrl, The Lady Detective)
A honest-to-goodness private detective, she rode bicycles, carried a gun and… flashed her ankles. And then she got married… - Miss Madelyn Mack
Created by Hugh C. Weir
Debut: 1914 - Madame Storey
Created by Hulbert Footner
Debut: 1923
ALSO OF INTEREST
- The Lady Is a Detective
Olivia Rutigliano traces a Victorian literary trend: detective novels—but with women (Lapham’s Quarterly, December 2018)
Respectfully compiled by Kevin Burton Smith.
