Dolores Hitchens

{{Short description|American writer (1907–1973)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} {{infobox writer | name = Dolores Hitchens | birth_name = Julia Clara Catherine Maria Dolores Robins | birth_date = {{birth date|1907|12|25}} | birth_place = San Antonio, Texas, U.S.<ref>"California, Death Index, 1940-1997," database, ''Ancestry.com'' (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 12 April 2015); Dolores M. Hitchens, 25 December 1907 in Texas – 1 August 1973 in Orange County.</ref> | death_date = {{death date and age|1973|08|01|1907|12|25}} | death_place = Orange County, California, U.S. | occupation = Writer | notableworks = ''Fool's Gold'' (1958)<br />''The Watcher'' (1959) | years_active = 1938–1973 | pseudonym = {{ubl | D. B. Olsen | Dolan Birkley | Noel Burke}} | spouse = {{ubl | {{marriage|Beverley S. Olsen|1934|1940}} | Hubert A. Hitchens }} | children = 2 | education = UCLA }} '''Julia Clara Catherine Maria Dolores Robins Norton Birk Olsen Hitchens'''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Women Crime Writers: Forty books, four pen names, and one enigmatic author | Library of America |url=https://loa.org/news-and-views/634-_women-crime-writers_-forty-books-four-pen-names-and-one-enigmatic-author |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401180010/https://loa.org/news-and-views/634-_women-crime-writers_-forty-books-four-pen-names-and-one-enigmatic-author |archive-date=April 1, 2018 |website=loa.org}}</ref> (December 25, 1907 – August 1, 1973)<ref name=Obit/> better known as '''Dolores Hitchens''', was an American mystery novelist who wrote prolifically from 1938 until her death in 1973. She also wrote as '''D. B. Olsen''', a version of her first married name,<ref name=Fingerprint/> and under the pseudonyms '''Dolan Birkley''' and '''Noel Burke'''.<ref name="Fingerprint">[http://www.mysteryfile.com/ZiffDavis/Fingerprint.html "Ziff-Davis Fingerprint Mysteries", or "A Complete Set of Fingerprints"]. Bill Pronzini, Victor Berch & Steve Lewis. March 8 (2006?). ''MYSTERY*FILE: The Crime Fiction Research Journal'' (mysteryfile.com). Copyright 2003–2006. With March 11 footnote to section D. B. Olsen.[http://www.mysteryfile.com/ZiffDavis/Fingerprint.html#Olsen] Retrieved 2014-04-08.</ref>

Hitchens collaborated on five railroad mysteries—"police procedurals about a squad of railroad cops"—with her second husband, Bert Hitchens, a railroad detective.<ref name=Fingerprint/> She also branched out into other genres including Western fiction. Many of her mystery novels centered on a character named Rachel Murdock.

Hitchens wrote ''Fool's Gold'', the 1958 novel adapted by Jean-Luc Godard for his film ''Bande à part'' (1964). Her novel ''The Watcher'' was adapted for an episode of the TV series ''Thriller'' which aired November 1, 1960.

==Biography== Hitchens was born in Texas on December 25, 1907. She was the daughter of W.H. Robbins and Myrtle Statham, who married in Caldwell County, Texas in 1901.<ref>"Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973," database, ''FamilySearch'' (http://www.familysearch.org: accessed 4 April 2014); Caldwell County, 15 November 1901, W.H. Robbins and Myrtle Statham.</ref> In 1910, Dolores (as Julia C. Robbins) and her apparently widowed mother were living with Dolores's paternal grandfather in San Antonio.<ref>1910 U.S. census, Bexar County, Texas, population schedule, San Antonio, enumeration district (ED) 0017, sheet 11B, p. 264B, dwelling 206, family 228, Myrtle Robbins, age 27, and Julia C. Robbins, age 2, in the household of J.G. Statham; digital images, ''Ancestry.com'', citing NARA microfilm publication T624, roll 1531.</ref>

Sometime over the next decade, Dolores's mother married a second time, to an unknown Norton, but she was divorced by the time mother and daughter showed up in the 1920 census for Kern County, California.<ref>1920 U.S. census, Kern County, California, population schedule, McKittrick, enumeration district (ED) 108, sheet 4A, p. 91 (stamped), dwelling 95, family 96, Julia Norton, 12, in household of Myrtle Norton, 36, divorced; digital images, ''Ancestry.com'', citing NARA microfilm publication T625, roll 100.</ref>

Myrtle married a third time in 1922, to Oscar ({{aka}} Arthur) Carl Birk.<ref>"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," digital images, ''FamilySearch''; 5 August 1922, Orange County. Oscar Carl Birk, age 36, born Kansas, single, Oil Worker; father, William Birk, born [illegible]; mother, Mary House or Hanse, born Mo. Myrtle Robbins Norton, age 36, born in Texas, divorced; maiden name, Myrtle Statham; father, John Statham, born in Florida; mother, Annie Starr, born in Miss.</ref> The Birk family was living in Long Beach by 1930 and Dolores apparently assumed her stepfather's surname.<ref>1930 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Long Beach, enumeration district (ED) 1131, sheet 9A, p. 29 (stamped), dwelling 218, family 280, J. Delores Birk, 22, in the household of Arthur and Myrtle Birk; digital images, ''Ancestry.com'', citing NARA microfilm publication T626, roll 130.</ref>

Hitchens married, in about 1934, Beverley S. Olsen, a radio operator on a merchant vessel, and their 1940 household included the widowed Myrtle Birk.<ref>1940 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, population schedule, Long Beach, enumeration district (ED) 59-137, sheet 11B, p. 1014B, visited no. 316, Myrtle Birk, Mother-in-law, in the household of Beverley S. and Dolores B. Olsen; digital images, ''Ancestry.com'', citing NARA microfilm publication T627, roll 370. In this census, Dolores was identified as a writer who worked from home.</ref>

It is not known whether Dolores divorced Olsen or was widowed, but she apparently married Hubert A. Hitchens, a Railroad Police, by the early 1940s, as they had a child together in 1942.<ref>"California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, ''Ancestry.com''; father's name Hitchens, mother's name Birk. No further information is provided here as it is not known whether this child is still living.</ref>

Dolores died in Orange County, California on August 1, 1973,<ref name=Obit>''Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nev.)'', 8 August 1973, p. 31, col. 3, digital images, ''Ancestry.com''</ref> and Hubert died in Riverside County in 1979.<ref>"California, Death Index, 1940-1997," database, ''Ancestry.com''; Hubert Allen Hitchens, born on 21 June 1897 in Virginia and died on 3 April 1979 in Riverside County.</ref>

==Publications==

===As Dolores Hitchens===

;Jim Sader mysteries # ''Sleep with Strangers'' (Doubleday: {{efn|name=CC|}}The Crime Club, 1955); U.K. edition, London: Macdonald, 1956 # ''Sleep with Slander'' (Doubleday CC, 1960); UK: London: T.V. Boardman & Co., 1961, American Bloodhound Mystery no. 345 : <small>Simon & Schuster issued trade paperback editions in 1989 (''Sleep with Strangers'', {{ISBN|0-671-65286-9}}; ''Sleep with Slander'', {{ISBN|0-671-65285-0}}).</small>

;By Dolores and Bert Hitchens * ''F.O.B. Murder'' (Doubleday {{efn|name=CC}}CC, 1955); UK: 1957, American Bloodhound no. 154 * ''One-Way Ticket'' (Doubleday CC, 1956); UK: 1958, American Bloodhound no. 193 * ''End of Line'' (Doubleday CC, 1957); UK: 1958, American Bloodhound. no. 216 * ''The Man Who Followed Women'' (Doubleday CC, 1959); UK: 1960, American Bloodhound no. 332 * ''The Grudge'' (Doubleday, 1963); UK: 1964, American Bloodhound. no. 466

;Standalone books * ''Stairway to an Empty Room'' (Doubleday {{efn|name=CC}}CC, 1951)  * ''Nets to Catch the Wind'' (Doubleday CC, 1952) — also ''Widows Won't Wait'' (NY: Dell Publishing, 1954) * ''Terror Lurks in Darkness'' (Doubleday CC, 1953)  * ''Beat Back the Tide'' (Doubleday CC, 1954); UK: Macdonald, 1955 — abridged as ''The Fatal Flirt'' (NY: Joseph W. Ferman, Bestseller mystery no. 184) * ''Fool's Gold'' (Doubleday CC, 1958); UK: 1958, American Bloodhound no. 234 * ''The Watcher'' (Doubleday, 1959); UK: 1959, American Bloodhound. no. 279 * ''Footsteps in the Night'' (Doubleday CC, 1961); UK: 1961, American Bloodhound no. 366 * ''The Abductor'' (Simon & Schuster, 1962); UK: 1962, American Bloodhound no. 385 * ''The Bank with the Bamboo Door'' (Simon & Schuster, 1965); UK: 1965, American Bloodhound no. 504 * ''The Man Who Cried All the Way Home'' (Simon & Schuster, 1966); UK: London: Robert Hale, 1967 * ''Postscript to Nightmare'' (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1967) {{ISBN|0-399-10647-2}}; UK title, ''Cabin of Fear'' (Michael Joseph, 1968) * ''A Collection of Strangers'' (Putnam, 1969) {{ISBN|2-7201-0046-3}}; UK title, ''Collection of Strangers'' (Macdonald, 1970) * ''The Baxter Letters'' (Putnam, 1971) {{ISBN|0-399-10073-3}}; UK: Hale, 1973 * ''In a House Unknown'' (Doubleday CC, 1973) {{ISBN|0-385-03265-X}}; UK: Hale, 1974

;Plays * ''A Cookie for Henry: one-act play for six women'' (NY: Samuel French, 1941), as Dolores Birk Hitchens

===As D. B. Olsen=== ;Rachel Murdock mysteries #''Cat Saw Murder'' (Doubleday, 1939) #''Alarm of Black Cat'' (Doubleday, 1942) #''Catspaw for Murder'' (Doubleday, 1943); aka ''Cat's Claw'' #''The Cat Wears a Noose'' (Doubleday, 1944) #''Cats Don't Smile'' (Doubleday, 1945) #''Cats Don't Need Coffins'' (Doubleday, 1946) #''Cats Have Tall Shadows'' (Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, 1948) #''The Cat Wears a Mask'' (Doubleday, 1949) #''Death Wears Cat's Eyes'' (Doubleday, 1950) #''Cat and Capricorn'' (Doubleday, 1951) #''The Cat Walk'' (Doubleday, 1953) #''Death Walks on Cat Feet'' (Doubleday, 1956)

;Prof. A. Pennyfeather mysteries #''Shroud for the Bride'' (Doubleday, 1945); aka ''Bring the Bride a Shroud'' #''Gallows for the Groom'' (Doubleday, 1947) #''Devious Design'' (Doubleday, 1948) #''Something About Midnight'' (Doubleday, 1950) #''Love Me in Death'' (Doubleday, 1951) #''Enrollment Cancelled'' (Doubleday, 1952); aka ''Dead Babes in the Wood''

;Lt. Stephen Mayhew mysteries # ''The Clue in the Clay'' (New York: Phoenix Press, 1938) – her first book published under any name; also NY: Bartholomew House, 1946, A Bart House Mystery no. 35, ASIN B000HU0N64 #''Death Cuts a Silhouette'' (Doubleday, 1939) #''The Ticking Heart'' (Doubleday, 1940)

===As Dolan Birkley=== *''Blue Geranium'' (Bartholomew House, 1944) *''The Unloved'' (Doubleday, 1965)

===As Noel Burke=== *''Shivering Bough'' (E. P. Dutton, 1942)

== Notes == {{notelist |notes= {{efn|name=CC |1= "Published for The Crime Club by Doubleday." }} }}

==References== {{reflist}}

== External links == * [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/dolores-hitchens Hitchens bibliographical data] at Fantastic Fiction * [http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/d-b-olsen D. B. Olsen] at Fantastic Fiction * {{Librivox author|id=18643}} * {{LCAuth|n50036585|Dolores Hitchens|40|}} * {{LCAuth|no89013131|D. B. Olsen|12|}} (1938–1962) * {{LCAuth|no89013134|Dolan Birkley|1|}} (1965) * {{LCAuth|no89013133|Noel Burke|0|}} (cites 1944 publication)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hitchens, Dolores}} Category:American mystery writers Category:Writers from San Antonio Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction Category:20th-century American novelists Category:1907 births Category:1973 deaths Category:American women mystery writers Category:20th-century American women novelists Category:Novelists from Texas Category:20th-century pseudonymous writers Category:20th-century pseudonymous women writers