author
Clarice Detzer
1895–1982
A Midwestern writer whose work reached readers through both books and magazines, she is best remembered today for the spirited Girl Scout adventure story Dot... dot... dash... dot—"Fire!". Her life also connected her to journalism, community life, and a circle of writers in Michigan and beyond.
1 Audiobook
Dot ... dot ... dash ... dot—"Fire!"
by Clarice Detzer
About the author
Born in Comanche, Iowa, on December 11, 1895, Clarice Nissley Detzer was an American writer associated with Michigan as well as the Midwest more broadly. Records from the Library of Michigan list her as Clarice Nissley Detzer, and note that she later lived in Leland, Michigan.
Her surviving work suggests a writer comfortable with popular storytelling and magazine culture. Project Gutenberg lists Dot... dot... dash... dot—"Fire!", a brisk juvenile adventure centered on a Girl Scout who uses signaling skills during an emergency. Other period references also place her name alongside magazine fiction, showing that she wrote for a general readership rather than only for one narrow audience.
Clarice Detzer was married to writer Karl Detzer, and later local accounts from Leelanau County remember the couple as owners of the Leelanau Enterprise for a time after World War II. She died in 1982, leaving behind the picture of a practical, versatile early-20th-century American author whose work moved between literature, journalism, and everyday community life.