Theodora Du Bois

Born on September 14, 1890, Theodora McCormick Du Bois was an American writer whose career stretched across an unusually wide range of popular fiction. She published mysteries, children's literature, historical romances, fantasy, and science fiction, building a reputation as a dependable and imaginative storyteller.

Her novels include The Devil's Spoon and later historical work such as Staten Island Patroons, showing how comfortably she could shift from the fantastic to the deeply researched past. That range is one of the most striking things about her career: she was not limited to one shelf or one type of reader.

Du Bois died on February 1, 1986. Though she is not as widely remembered as some of her contemporaries, her body of work still stands out for its breadth and for the lively curiosity she brought to very different kinds of stories.