American author and scholar
Corinne Holt Sawyer (born March 4, 1924) is an American scholar who was the author of a popular mystery series and other works. She has also written under the name of Corinne Holt and Corinne Holt Rickert. Dr. Sawyer retired in 1988 as professor of English at Clemson University, where she still holds the position of Professor "Emerita". Her first novel was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel in 1988, beginning the popular Benbow/Wingate series of mystery novels renown for their depiction of older female investigations. As an educator, she was instrumental in creating the Sawyer-Snelsire-Robinson Workshop to assist minority students in enrolling at Clemson.
Early history and education.
Corinne Holt was born in Chisholm, Minnesota. Her marriage to Robert T. Rickert ended in divorce, later marrying Hugh A. Sawyer, Jr. (died 1969). She attended the University of Minnesota, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1945 and a Master of Arts in 1947. While at Minnesota, she adapted material for both the stage and for radio. Sawyer earned her Ph.D. in English from the Shakespeare Institute at Birmingham University, England, in 1954. Her graduate work was under the direction of professor Allardyce Nichol. She was among the first doctoral graduates at the institute, which was formed in 1951.
Career.
Graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1947, Sawyer moved to England for her doctoral studies. While in residence there, she taught at the University of Maryland Overseas, leading college-level classes in speech and in English to United States Air Force (USAF) personnel in Scotland and England. Returning to the United States in 1959, she ran an experimental program providing television lectures in history, general science, political science, literature, and mathematics, designed to reach large freshman classes at East Carolina University. This drew upon her Masters thesis of 1948 entitled "A Series of Psychology Lectures Dramatized for Radio Presentation". Sawyer also worked for many years in radio and television, writing and appearing in talk shows. In this capacity, she narrated travel features, hosted fashion shows, and co-hosted a late night variety and talk show which included her own popular household tips program at WNCT-TV in Greenville, North Carolina. In 1966, she moved to South Carolina, where she taught English and popular culture at Clemson University, attaining the rank of full professor before retiring in 1988. She was instrumental in creating the "Clemson Career Workshop", known as the "Sawyer-Snelsire-Robinson Workshop", a successful summer program to introduce minority students to the rigors of college work.
Early works.
Sawyer's early works were related to sixteenth century English literature and history. These include works related to her studies of Elizabethan literature at the Shakespeare Institute.
The Benbow/Wingate Mystery Series.
Sawyer is the author of the Angela Benbow and Caledonia Wingate mystery series, which follow a tradition of elderly women as amateur detectives. Angela and Caledonia are septuagenarians living in the upscale retirement community of Camden-sur-Mer, a posh complex for senior citizens near San Diego. Mystery and mayhem follow the formidable Caledonia and the tiny caustic Angela all over Southern California. Cited by Elizabeth Lindsay in her "Great Women Mystery Writers," the first of the Benbow/Wingate novels was nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 1988.
In "The Older Woman in Recent Fiction", Zoe Brennan compares Sawyer's mystery works to those of Gladys Mitchell and her creation Mrs. Bradley and Patricia Wentworth with Miss Maud Silver Colleen Barnett's compendium "Mystery Women: An Encyclopedia of Leading Women Characters in Mystery Fiction, 1860–1979," discusses the Benbow/Wingate mystery series:
Many of these will be republished by British publishing company Duckworth Books in 2024.
Zoe Brennan describes Sawyer's work as follows:
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;[Sawyer] demonstrates many of the narrative strategies employed by [Patricia] Wentworth and [Gladys] Mitchell, engaging, even more explicitly, with discourses of senescence. Her overt challenges to ageist attitudes are facilitated by her choice of genre and the fact that popular fiction is relatively elastic in it absorption of ideological trends. [John] Cawelti, in "Adventure, Mystery, and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture," persuasively argues this dynamic...The reader realizes that the resources of a modern police force undercut the omnipotence of the amateur, or as [Sally] Munt puts it: "Forensic science has put paid to intuitive leaps of deduction––genetic finger-printing is far more reliable." This allows for the depiction of more human detectives than are found in earlier texts with authors providing insights into their cares and concerns.
Sawyer's earliest influence was Mary Roberts Rinehart. Rinehart is also considered the source of "the butler did it" plot device in her novel "The Door" (1930), although the exact phrase does not appear in her work.
The M∗A∗S∗H studies.
Sawyer wrote a number of popular culture articles focused on the television series M*A*S*H which aired from 1972 to 1983. The articles draw from the geographical diversity of the characters in the series, the Kilroy was Here meme from Season 4 (Episode 6--The Bus, airing 17 October 1975), and the cross-dressing of Corporal Maxwell Klinger. These include:
Carlsbad by the Sea.
Sawyer is a long-time resident of the retirement home Carlsbad by the Sea (CBTS) upon which she based the fictional Camden-sur-Mer. CBTS is on historic U.S. Route 101 in Carlsbad, California, and dates to 29 May 1930 when the Carlsbad Mineral Springs Hotel opened, a site noted in the Historical Marker Database. The hotel served such notables as Greta Garbo, Victor McLaglan and the Barrymore family, and their rooms were in great demand by the military during World War II. In 1957, the hotel was acquired by Lutheran Services of San Diego and converted into an upscale retirement home. Sawyer's parents were among the residents starting in the late 1960s. The ageing structure was demolished in 1996 and was rebuilt as a replica of the original hotel.
When the new CBTS opened in 1997, Sawyer and her sister Madeline Campillo were among the first of the residents. She served as president of the Residents Association Board of Directors from 2008–2012. Sawyer is the resident bridge expert and was awarded Platinum Status for her volunteer activities. Each year, she has conducted a trivia contest which challenges the minds of residents and staff alike. To quote Colleen Barnett in her "Mystery Women":
 ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;[Sawyer's] plots were occasionally overwhelmed by trivia, but presented a charming view of active elderly women.
Further reading.
Additional material on the web concerning Sawyer can be found below.
References.
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Sources.
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