Arthur B. (Arthur Benjamin) Reeve

Born in Patchogue, New York, in 1880, Arthur Benjamin Reeve became an American mystery writer and journalist whose name is most closely linked to Professor Craig Kennedy. That character — a scientific detective often paired with reporter Walter Jameson — appeared in numerous stories and novels and became Reeve’s signature contribution to popular crime fiction.

Reeve studied law at New York Law School, but he built his career in writing rather than legal practice. His fiction was widely published in magazines as well as books, and his work reached beyond print into early screenwriting, showing how comfortably his storytelling style adapted to the new mass media of the time.

He died in 1936 in Trenton, New Jersey. Today he is remembered as an energetic pioneer of detective fiction whose stories helped bridge the gap between classic sleuth tales and later crime stories shaped by science, technology, and investigative procedure.