The Golden Slipper and Other Problems for Violet Strange

The Golden Slipper, and Other Problems for Violet Strange is a collection of detective stories written by Anna Katharine Green, first published in 1915. The book features Violet Strange, a young, high-society woman who secretly works as a detective, solving intricate mysteries that often involve New Yorks elite.

The book consists of nine short stories, each presenting a different mystery that Violet must unravel. The cases range from theft and blackmail to murder, often involving social intrigue and unexpected twists.

Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was a pioneering American mystery writer, often called the "mother of the detective novel." Her works influenced later authors like Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. She was known for her legal accuracy (her father was a lawyer) and psychological depth in crime fiction.

About the Author

Anna Katharine Green (November 11, 1846 - April 11, 1935) was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. Green has been called "the mother of the detective novel".

Green was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 11, 1846. She had an early ambition to write romantic verse and corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson. When her poetry failed to gain recognition, she produced her first and best known novel, The Leavenworth Case (1878), praised by Wilkie Collins, and the hit of the year. She became a bestselling author, eventually publishing 37 books over 40 years.

On November 25, 1884, Green married the actor and stove designer, and later noted furniture maker, Charles Rohlfs (1853 - 1936). Rohlfs toured in a dramatization of Greens The Leavenworth Case. After his theater career faltered, he became a furniture maker in 1897, and Green collaborated with him on some of his designs. Together they had one daughter and two sons: Rosamund Rohlfs, Roland Rohlfs, and Sterling Rohlfs. Her daughter Rosamund married Robert Twitty Palmer.

Green died on April 11, 1935, in Buffalo, New York, at the age of 88. Her husband died the following year.

In 2002, Buffalo Literary Walking Tours began an annual series of weekend walking tours highlighting authors with local connections. Green is included along with Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Herman Melville, Taylor Caldwell, and others.

Greens short story "The Intangible Clue" featuring Violet Strange was adapted by Chris Harrald for the second series of BBC Radio 4s drama series The Rivals and starred Jeany Spark as Violet Strange. (wikipedia.org)