Dorothy L. Sayers

Chris Willis (London Metropolitan University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

Born 13 Jun 1893
Died 17 Dec 1957
Activity 1913-1957

Places

Born in England
Active in England

Genres and Modes

Crime and Detective

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Dorothy Leigh Sayers (1893-1957) is best-known as the creator of Lord Peter Wimsey. Her blue-blooded sleuth romps cheerfully through 1920s and 1930s high society, solving mysteries among the upper classes of Belgravia and the artistic Bohemians of Bloomsbury. Arguably the best of the four leading “Golden Age” crime writers (Christie, Sayers, Allingham and Marsh), Sayers once stated that her goal in writing detective fiction was to elevate the mystery novel into a novel of manners. Detective fiction was not her only field, however. Sayers was also a distinguished theologian and classical scholar, whose translations of Dante are still in print today.

Born on 13 June 1893 in Oxford, Sayers was the only child of a middle-aged c…

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1490 words

Citation: Willis, Chris. "Dorothy L. Sayers". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 July 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5055, accessed 25 November 2024.]

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