The Central New Jersey Home News
News Article from April 3, 1966
WIN HIS PRAISE:
Retired athletic director Chet Redshaw, an avid reader for as long as he can remember and devoted to detective stories, is touting “The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax,” as one of the most interesting yarns he has ever run across.
“I couldn’t put it down until I finished it, and it kept me up most of the night,” Chet was saying yesterday as he traced the absorbing tale of an elderly woman spy whose adventures carried her through the United States, Mexico, Albania, and Red Chine, and left chaos wherever she went.
“Who is Dorothy Gilman,” Chet inquired, seeing some history of the author of the fascinating spy story that is a Crime Club selection.
His interest in the author was whetted by the number of times New Brunswick, N.J. crops up in the story and the belief that this city might have served as a background for many of the incidents recounted.
“I wonder if Dorothy Gilman could be any relation to the late Dr. J. Bruce Gilman, paster of the First Baptist Church here?”
Well, Chet, wonder no longer, the answer is yes.
In fact, Chet and Dorothy might have crossed paths many times without knowing it, the former as a teacher, the latter as a student at New Brunswick High School in the late 30s.
Started at 11
Dorothy, who became Mrs. Edgar Butters in 1845, has been writing since she was 11 when she contributed a prize-winning short story in a Home News contest as far back as 1931.
She first turned her literary efforts to juvenile books and won respect for “Enchanted Caravan,” which she brought out in 1949. Then followed “Carnival Gypsy,” “Ragamuffin Alley,” “The Calico Years,” and “Girl in Buckskin.” All earned her a brisk following among the teen-agers.
A graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, where she won the $1,100 Cresson Memorial Scholarship in 1944. Dorothy undoubtedly got much material for her later stories while working during vacations behind a Woolworth counter on George Street and filling in as a telephone operator at the local exchange prior to her marriage.
Chet hints that “Mrs. Pollifax” is definite movie material, and if properly treated the heroine could become a feminine counterpart to James Bond or some of the more recent male film spies.
I hope you enjoyed the above article and we have collected many more. Also, I finally found copies of the last 2 books. Hope to have it read and update the pages soon.
