The Supernatural Writings of Stuart Palmer

Announcing a new literary excavation project: ghost stories, articles, and an occult investigator mini-series! (A version of this article also posted at Dark Tales Sleuth.) Stuart Palmer (1905-1968) was a prolific writer, active in the crime fiction community from the 1930s into the 1960s. He was a well-regarded practitioner of the detective story, even serving as President of the Mystery Writers of America in 1954. He also dabbled in science fiction and Sherlock Holmes pastiches, and worked as a Hollywood screenwriter. Palmer’s story “A Sleeper Bewitched” on the cover of Ghost Stories, October 1928. His best-known work features spinster schoolteacher Hildegard Withers, who solves murders with the reluctant help of Inspector Oscar Piper of the NYPD. The character was popular enough to spawn an RKO Pictures film series: six films from 1932 to 1937. Palmer also collaborated with author Craig Rice on a crossover series featuring Miss Withers with Rice’s lawyer sleuth character, John…