Elizabeth Fenwick Way (April 5, 1916 – November 20, 1996),[1] who wrote as Elizabeth Fenwick and E. P. Fenwick, was an American mystery writer, novelist, and author of books for children.[2] Her 1963 mystery novel The Make-Believe Man was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America.[3]
In 1948, Way became friends with writer Flannery O'Connor while they were living at Yaddo, a writers' community in Saratoga Springs, New York. According to O'Connor biographer Melissa Simpson, O'Connor "...cultivated several enduring friendships while at Yaddo, the most notable being her friendship with Elizabeth Fenwick Way...". When O'Connor left Yaddo for New York City in 1949, Way helped her find an apartment.[4]
Some of Way's manuscripts and papers are held by the Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University.[5]
Critical reviews
Commenting in 1980 on Fenwick's crime fiction, reviewer Carol Cleveland said, "Elizabeth Fenwick's suspense novels are remarkable for the degree of horror they can extract from minimal materials."[2]
In a 1963 review of new children's books, Jane C. Morse praised Fenwick's Cockleberry Castle, saying, ". . . in a story by a new writer in her first book for children Elizabeth Fenwick puts the climax at the right time and in the right place."[6]
In 1968, Kirkus Reviews said of Goodbye, Aunt Elva that it depicts "...the kind of quiet victimization, in old house slippers, which Miss Fenwick manages so well: not her best, but her next best is better than most."[7]
