Happy Birthday Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers (13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) insisted that her middle initial always be included in her full name. That’s the way she referred to herself and so shall we. Essayist, playwright, poet, mystery novelist, and Christian apologist, she was what we’d refer to today as a workaholic. She wrote morn, noon, and night.

Probably her most famous creation was Lord Peter Wimsey, aristocratic amateur sleuth. Lord Peter was the second son so the duties of the estate fell to his elder brother the Duke, leaving Lord Peter time to indulge in whatever activity took his fancy. His fancy was solving murders. From London to countryside he solved crimes, sometimes putting himself at risk (damaging his hearing in The Nine Tailors). For a time Dorothy L. Sayers worked as a copywriter for an advertising agency and so the action of Murder Must Advertise took place in an agency with Lord Peter playing Death Bredon, junior copywriter. Not all the stories or characters were based on Sayers’ experiences, but it is said authors do best to write about what they know. (According to Wikipedia, Sayers is credited with coining the phrase “It pays to advertise.”)

In addition to two sets of short stories, there were eleven Lord Peter novels, as well as a twelfth unfinished at Sayers’ death, completed by novelist Jill Paton Walsh (who then went on to write three more on her own). Sayers also wrote short stories about another detective Montague Egg, a wine salesman. There was a fair amount of criticism about Lord Peter and Sayers’ writing, but there will always be people who can’t stand taking something as plebian as detective stories seriously. My opinion (and it is my blog after all) is that they were highly entertaining and well written. Loved the whole series.

Her non-fiction, especially her translations and writing about Christian apologetics, was taken much more seriously. Writers who admired her work and became her friends included C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. Creed or Chaos? has been compared to Lewis’ Mere Christianity and she and Chesterton founded the “Detection Club,” a group for British mystery writers (he of the Father Brown stories fame).

The work she was most proud of was her translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Her ability to translate the work from Italian to English and keep Dante’s line length and rhyming scheme (terza rima), while making the work poetic was widely praised. She was able to complete Hell (1949) and Purgatory (1955) but died before finishing Paradise. Barbara Reynolds, Italian scholar and Sayers’ goddaughter, completed the translation and it was published in 1962. (Barbara Reynolds also edited several books about Dorothy L. Sayers and was the president of the Dorothy L. Sayers Society.)

Whether you want a good mystery (the Lord Peter Wimsey novels and short stories), a play (The Man Who Would be King), an essay (Are Women Human?), or poetry (Divine Comedy along with volumes of the Dante papers) Dorothy L. Sayers will have something that will delight and intrigue you and make you think. Try her out!