'Dreams: nourishment for the soul'

 

“People need dreams, there's as much nourishment in 'em as food.” – Dorothy Gilman

Born in New Jersey on June 25, 1923 Gilman began writing her "Mrs. Polifax" mystery/thrillers at a time when women in mystery were represented by Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, and spies by characters like "James Bond."  Instead, her heroine was a woman in her late 60s who might be the only spy in literature to simultaneously be a member of the CIA     and a local garden club.

Gilman started her writing career at age 9 and won a story-writing contest (against much older contestants) at age 11.   She wrote children’s stories for more than a decade (using the name Dorothy Gilman Butters) and then created Mrs. Pollifax, a retired grandmother who becomes a CIA agent.

Most of her books feature strong women having adventures around the world, reflective of her own international travel background.  But they also feature small town life and puttering in the garden, something she enjoyed doing – cultivating vegetables and herbs and again using that skill and knowledge in her writing.

Named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, she died in 2012 after authoring dozens of books and myriad short stories and pieces for magazines and newspapers.  Her advice to writers was always be on schedule in everything you do.   “If something anticipated arrives too late it finds us numb, wrung out from waiting, and we feel - nothing at all. The best things arrive on time.”