Dorothy Gilman born June 25, 1923 (also known as Dorothy Gilman Butters) is a United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

  of mystery and spy fiction

Spy fiction

Spy fiction, literature concerning the forms of espionage, was a sub-genre derived from the novel during the nineteenth century, which then evolved into a discrete genre before the First World War , when governments established modern intelligence agencies in the early twentieth century...

. She is most well known for the Mrs. Pollifax

Emily Pollifax

Mrs. Emily Pollifax is the heroine of a series of comic spy-mystery novels by Dorothy Gilman. Mrs. Pollifax is a widow and senior citizen who decides one day to leave her comfortable apartment in New Brunswick, New Jersey and join the CIA. Through an initial misunderstanding, Mrs. Pollifax is given...

 series of spy novels, about spy and grandmother Emily Pollifax, who chooses to become a spy in her 60s, and who stars in fourteen books written over three decades.

Gilman's books tend to feature uncommon, unique characters, often travelling to exotic locales.

Biography

Dorothy Gilman was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick, New Jersey

New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA. It is the county seat and the home of Rutgers University. The city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line, southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. At the 2010 United States Census, the population of...

, to minister

Minister of religion

In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform functions such as teaching of beliefs; leading services such as weddings, baptisms or funerals; or otherwise providing spiritual guidance to the community...

 James Bruce and Essa (Starkweather) Gilman.

She married teacher Edgar A. Butters, Jr. September 15, 1945 and was divorced in 1965. The couple had two children, Christopher and Jonathan.

She attended Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1940–1945 and the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 1963–1964. Gilman is a Unitarian Universalist.

Works

• Enchanted Caravan (1949) (ASIN: B0006ary4y)

• Carnival Gypsy (1950) (ASIN: B000jkb0oq)

• Ragamuffin Alley (1951) (ASIN: B0006astpm)

• The Calico Year (1953) (ASIN: B000gabx14)

• Four Party Line (1954) (ASIN: B001k36208)

• Papa Dolphin’s Table (1955) (ASIN: B000moc1qk)

• Girl in Buckskin (1956) (ISBN 978-0449703809)

• Heartbreak Street (1958) (ASIN: B00209ktic)

• Witch’s Silver (1959) (ASIN: B0006avz6m)

• Masquerade (1961) (ASIN: B0006ax1im)

• Heart’s Design (Masquerade Republished (1963) (ASIN: B000ts8al4)

• Ten Leagues to Boston Town (1963) (ASIN: B0006ay2v2)

• The Bells of Freedom (1963) (ASIN: B001u11ad4)

• Uncertain Voyage (1967) (ISBN 978-0449216286)

• Clairvoyant Countess (1975) (ISBN 978-0449213186)

• A Nun in the Closet (1975) (ISBN 978-0449211670)

• A New Kind of Country (1978) (reissued by Fawcett in 1989) (ISBN 978-0449216279)

• The Tightrope Walker (1979) (ISBN 978-0449211779)

• The Maze in the Heart of the Castle (1983) (ISBN 978-0449703984)

• Incident at Badamya (1989) (ISBN 978-0449217214)

• Caravan (1992) (ISBN 978-0345492371)

• Thale’s Folly (1999) (ISBN 978-0449003657)

• Kaleidoscope (2002) (ISBN 978-03454482170)

The Mrs. Pollifax series

• The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1966) (ISBN 978-0449208281)

• The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax (1970) (ISBN 978-0449209127)

• The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax (1971) (ISBN 978-0449215234)

• A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax (1973) (ISBN 978-0449208649)

• Mrs. Pollifax on Safari (1977) (ISBN 978-0449215241)

• Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station (1983) (ISBN 978-0449208403)

• Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha (1985) (ISBN 978-0449209837)

• Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle (1988) (ISBN 978-0449215159)

• Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish (1990) (ISBN 978-0449147603)

• Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief (1993) (ISBN 978-0449149058)

• Mrs. Pollifax Pursued (1995) (ISBN 978-0449149560)

• Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer (1996) (ISBN 978-0449150047)

• Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist (1997) (ISBN 978-0449183366)

• Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled (2000) (ISBN 978-0449006702)

Other

• (Contributor) On Creative Writing 1964
• A New Kind of Country (nonfiction), 1978
• Contributor to Good Housekeeping, Jack and Jill, Redbook, Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Writer, and other magazines; contributor of short stories, under name Dorothy Gilman Butters, to Redbook.

Media Adaptations

Mrs. Pollifax—Spy was filmed by United Artists in 1970 as "Mrs. Pollifax--Spy," starring Rosalind Russell

Rosalind Russell

Rosalind Russell was an American actress of stage and screen, perhaps best known for her role as a fast-talking newspaper reporter in the Howard Hawks screwball comedy His Girl Friday, as well as the role of Mame Dennis in the film Auntie Mame...

.

Angela Lansbury

Angela Lansbury

Angela Brigid Lansbury CBE is an English actress and singer in theatre, television and motion pictures, whose career has spanned eight decades and earned her more performance Tony Awards than any other individual , with five wins...

starred in the made-for-TV movie The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax in 1999. She was directed by her son, Anthony Pullen Shaw.