Sue Grafton facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sue Grafton
Grafton in 2009
Born	Sue Taylor Grafton (1940-04-24)April 24, 1940 Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.
Died	December 28, 2017(2017-12-28) (aged 77) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Louisville
Occupation	Novelist
Spouse(s)	Steven F. Humphrey
Parent(s)	C. W. Grafton (father)
Writing career
Period	1964–2017 (first published novel: 1967)
Genre	Mystery
Notable works	Kinsey Millhone Alphabet series
Signature

Sue Taylor Grafton (born April 24, 1940 – died December 28, 2017) was an American writer who wrote exciting detective novels. She is most famous for her "alphabet series" of books, like "A" Is for Alibi. These books feature a cool private investigator named Kinsey Millhone. Kinsey solves mysteries in a made-up city called Santa Teresa, California. Sue Grafton's father, C. W. Grafton, was also a detective novelist. She said that another author, Ross Macdonald, greatly influenced her crime stories. Before she became super successful with her alphabet series, Sue Grafton wrote scripts for TV movies.

Sue Grafton's Early Life

Sue Grafton was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Her parents were C. W. Grafton and Vivian Harnsberger. Both of her parents had grown up with Presbyterian missionary parents.

Her father was a lawyer who also loved writing mystery novels at night. Her mother used to be a high school chemistry teacher. When Sue was three, her father joined the Army during World War II. He came back when she was five. After that, her home life became difficult. Sue Grafton once said that from age five, she mostly had to take care of herself.

Sue and her older sister Ann grew up in Louisville. Sue went to Atherton High School. She later went to the University of Louisville and Western Kentucky State Teachers College (now Western Kentucky University). She graduated from the University of Louisville in 1961. She earned a bachelor's degree in English Literature and also studied humanities and fine arts.

After college, Grafton worked different jobs. She was a hospital admissions clerk, a cashier, and a medical secretary. She worked in Santa Monica and Santa Barbara, California.

Sue's mother passed away in 1960 after an operation. Her father died in 1982, just a few months before her first alphabet book, "A" Is for Alibi, was published.

Sue Grafton's Writing Career

Sue Grafton's father loved detective stories and wrote them in the evenings. He taught Sue a lot about writing and editing. He encouraged her to become a writer. Inspired by him, Sue started writing when she was 18. She finished her first novel four years later. She kept writing and completed six more novels. However, only two of these seven books were published: Keziah Dane and The Lolly-Madonna War. Later, Grafton destroyed the papers for her five early, unpublished novels.

When her novels weren't very successful, Grafton started writing screenplays. For the next 15 years, she wrote scripts for TV movies. Some of these included Mark, I Love You and Nurse. She also sold the movie rights for The Lolly-Madonna War and helped write the movie script. Her script for Walking Through the Fire won a Christopher Award in 1979. With her husband, Steven Humphrey, she also adapted Agatha Christie novels like A Caribbean Mystery for TV. She also helped write A Killer in the Family.

Writing screenplays taught her how to build a story, write conversations, and create action scenes. After this, Grafton felt ready to write fiction again. During a difficult time in her life, she started imagining ways to get back at her ex-husband. These thoughts were so strong that she decided to write them down. This led to her famous alphabet series.

The Alphabet Mystery Series

Sue Grafton

Grafton was very interested in mystery series where the book titles were related. For example, John D. MacDonald's books all had a color in their title. While reading a picture book called The Gashlycrumb Tinies, which had an alphabet list of ways children could die, Grafton got an idea. She decided to write a series of novels where the titles would follow the alphabet. She immediately wrote down all the crime-related words she knew.

This idea became her famous "alphabet novels." These books feature a smart private investigator named Kinsey Millhone. The series takes place in Santa Teresa, which is a made-up version of Santa Barbara, California. Grafton followed the lead of Ross Macdonald, who also created a fictional city. Grafton described Kinsey Millhone as her "alter ego." This means Kinsey was like the person Sue might have been if she hadn't married young and had children.

The series began with "A" Is for Alibi, published in 1982. Then came "B" Is for Burglar, followed by "C" Is for Corpse. Each book title combined a letter with a word, except for X. After "G" Is for Gumshoe was published, Grafton was able to quit her screenwriting job. She could then focus completely on writing her novels. After "A" is for Alibi, a new book in the series was released almost every year. People often wondered what the next book's title would be. Grafton had planned for the series to end with "Z" Is for Zero. However, she passed away before she could write it. Her daughter said that Grafton never wanted anyone else to write books using her name. So, for her family, the alphabet series now ends at Y.

Grafton's novels have been published in 28 countries and in 26 different languages. She refused to sell the rights for her books to be made into movies or TV shows. She said that writing screenplays had "cured" her desire to work with Hollywood. (However, TV movies in Japan were made from "B" is for Burglar and "D" is for Deadbeat.) Grafton even told her children that her ghost would haunt them if they sold the movie rights after she died! Many of her books were on The New York Times Best Seller list for a very long time.

Sue Grafton's Writing Style

Sue Grafton's writing style is like "hardboiled" detective fiction. This means it's often direct, cool, and a bit witty. The novels are written as if Kinsey is writing reports about her investigations. She signs off at the end of each book. Because the story is told from Kinsey's point of view, readers can see things through her eyes. She often describes interesting buildings and places, which makes the stories feel more real. Kinsey also often runs along the Santa Barbara shoreline. These descriptions are so well-written that they show Grafton was a very skilled writer, not just a mystery writer.

Awards and Recognition

Sue Grafton won many awards for her amazing mystery novels. Here are some of them:

Sue Grafton's Personal Life

Sue Grafton first got married in 1959 when she was 18. She had a son and a daughter with her first husband, James L. Flood. They divorced by the time she graduated from college in 1961. Her second marriage was in 1962 to Al Schmidt. This marriage ended with a long divorce and arguments over who would take care of their daughter.

She married her third husband, Steven F. Humphrey, in 1978. They split their time between Santa Barbara, California, and Louisville, Kentucky. Steven taught at universities in both cities. In 2000, the couple bought and later fixed up a large property in Louisville called Lincliff.

Sue Grafton passed away at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara on December 28, 2017. She had been battling appendix cancer for two years.

In 2019, an award was created in Sue Grafton's memory. It is given by G.P. Putnam's Sons and managed by the Mystery Writers of America.

Sue Grafton's Books

Here are some of the books Sue Grafton wrote:

• Keziah Dane (1967)
• The Lolly-Madonna War (1969)

The Alphabet Mystery Series Books

Other Writings

• "Teaching a Child" (2013) – This was an essay in a book called Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting.
• Kinsey and Me (2013) – This book is a collection of nine short stories about Kinsey Millhone. It also has 12 other short stories about Grafton's own mother. The Kinsey Millhone stories had mostly appeared in magazines before. The other stories were new and featured a character named Kit Blue, who Grafton said was a younger version of herself.
• The Lying Game (2003) – A short Kinsey Millhone story that first appeared in a special catalog. It was also given out as a small book at a conference in 2011. This story is also included in Kinsey and Me.
• If You Want Something Done Right . . . (Published 2020) – This was an unpublished story found after Sue Grafton's death. It was first published in a book called Deadly Anniversaries.

Images for kids

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  Sue Grafton's signature

See also

In Spanish: Sue Grafton para niños