A Poor Wise Man

Mary Roberts Rinehart was an American writer often called the American Agatha Christie. Rinehart published her first mystery novel The Circular Staircase in 1908 which introduced the had I but known narrative style. Rinehart is also considered the source of the butler did it plot device in her novel The Door (1930) although the exact phrase does not appear in her work. She also worked to tell the stories and experiences of front line soldiers during World War I one of the first women to travel to the Belgian front lines. In 1911 after the publication of five successful books and two plays the Rineharts moved to the Pittsburgh suburb of Glen Osborne where they purchased a large home at the corner of Orchard and Linden Streets called Cassella. Before they moved into the house however Mrs. Rinehart had to have the house completely rebuilt because it had fallen into disrepair. The venture was mine and I had put every dollar I possessed into the purchase. All week long I wrote wildly to meet the payroll and contractor costs. she wrote in her autobiography. In 1925 the Rineharts sold the house to the Marks family; the house was demolished in 1969. Today a Mary Roberts Rinehart Nature Park sits in the borough of Glen Osborne at 1414 Beaver Street Sewickley Pennsylvania.