Hidden Wadsworth Camp

State Hall of the Austrian National Library.  Image:  Lauren Pressley
State Hall of the Austrian National Library. Image: Lauren Pressley

See more hidden room images at A Pretty Book.

Moving right along with my Wadsworth Camp research, I just found out that Camp’s The Abandoned Room was originally as The Secret Room Murders under the pseudonym Tory Hageman. I don’t think Amazon.com will mind if I quote them directly:

Tory Hageman was a house pseudonym used by the Grates River Printing Company for mysteries printed between 1899 and 1921. The publishing house specialized in producing books that were meant primarily to be entertaining and pioneered the technique of producing long-running, consistent series of books using a team of freelance writers to write the books, which were published under various pen names. Many of the writers later became famous under their real names.

‘The Secret Room Murders’ was originally written by acclaimed mystery author Wadsworth Camp in 1917. It was also released as ‘The Abandoned Room: A Mystery Story.’

By no means a classic, The Secret Room Murders is fairly entertaining, and the fact that Charles Wadsworth Camp wrote it under a pseudonym is definitely an interesting addition to the growing body of Camp trivia. Keep in mind that not all books by Tory Hageman were written by Wadsworth Camp. It was a name used by a publisher for several different authors, to give a series of books a sheen of continuity. This was not an unusual practice – it was also used in the Ellery Queen novels.

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