Donald Barr Chidsey (May 14, 1902 – March 17, 1981) was an American writer, biographer, historian, novelist and writer of adventure fiction.
Biography
Donald Barr Chidsey was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on May 14, 1902. He worked at the Elizabeth Daily Journal, and traveled widely in his youth. He lived in Lyme, Connecticut for many years.
In 1935 he married Shirley Chidsey (born Elinor Shirley Stewart) and went with her to Tahiti, where she sailed in his boat and helped to manage a coconutplantation. While they made friends with a number of writers, including F. Scott Fitzgerald. Shirley separated from him in February 1940. She went to join the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (CIA’s forerunner), in 1943 she worked in the Belgian Congo to keep the unique uranium mine in Katanga provinceShinkolobwe out of the hands of the Axis powers. The uranium was later used in the creation of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.[1][2]
Donald Barr Chidsey died on March 17, 1981, in Lawrence Memorial Hospital at New London, Connecticut.[4]
Writings
Chidsey wrote more than fifty books. Chidsey began his writing career as a contributor to the pulp magazines, especially Argosy and Adventure.[5] Chidsey wrote crime fiction for Black Mask and Dime Detective magazines.[6] Chidsey wrote several historical novels, in the "swashbuckler" style of Rafael Sabatini.[6] These included This Bright Sword (1957) about the return of Richard I to England.[6][7]Captain Bashful (1955) and Reluctant Cavalier (1960), are set in Elizabethan era England.[7]His Majesty's Highwayman (1958) is about a young man forced to join a gang of highwaymen in eighteenth-century England.[7]Stronghold (1948) is set against the backdrop of the War of 1812.[7]
Alden Whitman called him "an old hand at light writing."[8] According to Kirkus Reviews, Chidsey "is known for his popular American histories, and has a nose for a good story."[9] He lived in Lyme, Connecticut for many years.
^"Donald Barr Chidsey, Biographer And Historian of the Revolution", New York Times, March 26, 1981
^Robinson, Frank M., and Davidson, Lawrence. Pulp Culture : The Art of Fiction Magazines. Portland, Or., Collectors Press 2001. ISBN9781888054125 (p. 38)
^ abcdMcGarry, Daniel D. McGarry, White, Sarah Harriman, Historical Fiction Guide: Annotated Chronological, Geographical, and Topical List of Five Thousand Selected Historical Novels. Scarecrow Press, New York, 1963 (pp. 59, 104, 179, 354)
^"End Papers" (review of The California Gold Rush), New York Times, October 24, 1968
