Jhumpa Lahiri, on writing:

 

When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message.
I just try to write a story which is hard enough.
- Jhumpa Lahiri.

Recommended reading - The Origins of the American Detective Story (2006)

 

The Origins of the American Detective Story

by LeRoy Lad Panek.

 
Published by McFarland.
Paperback.
 
ISBN-10: 0786427760
ISBN-13: 978-0786427765
 
Description:
 

Edgar Allan Poe essentially invented the detective story in 1841 with Murders in the Rue Morgue. In the years that followed, however, detective fiction in America saw no significant progress as a literary genre. Much to the dismay of moral crusaders like Anthony Comstock, dime novels and other sensationalist publications satisfied the public's hunger for a yarn. Things changed as the century waned, and eventually the detective was reborn as a figure of American literature. In part these changes were due to a combination of social conditions, including the rise and decline of the police as an institution; the parallel development of private detectives; the birth of the crusading newspaper reporter; and the beginnings of forensic science. Influential, too, was the new role model offered by a wildly popular British import named Sherlock Holmes.

Focusing on the late 19th century and early 20th, this volume covers the formative years of American detective fiction.

Born on this day – Allen Holubar:

 

Allen Holubar

Actor

Director

Writer

August 3, 1890 – November 20, 1923

Credits:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916); A Double Fire Deception (1916); A Gentleman of Art (1915); A Soul for Sale (1918); A Wolf Among Lambs (1913); Any Youth (1916); Ashes of Remembrance (1916); Behind Life's Stage (1916); Behind the Curtain (1916); Broken Chains (1922); Conscience (1915); Courtmartialed (1915); Fear Not (1917); Heart Strings (1917); Hurricane's Gal (1922); Into the North (1913); Man-Woman-Marriage (1921); Midnight (1917); Once to Every Woman (1920); Paid in Advance (1919); Seeing Stars (1922); Sirens of the Sea (1917); Slander the Woman (1923); Stronger Than Steel (1916); The Black Pearl (1915); The Bombay Buddha (1915); The Double-Topped Trunk (1917); The Eleventh Dimension (1915); The Field of Honor (1917); The Grip of Love (1917); The Health Road (1916); The Heart of Humanity (1918); The Heart Punch (1915); The House of Fear (1915); The Human Mill (1923); The Mortgaged Wife (1918); The Old Toymaker (1917); The Phone Message (1916); The Prodigal Daughter (1916); The Prophecy (1913); The Pursuit Eternal (1915); The Reed Case (1917); The Right to Happiness (1919); The Shadow (1916); The Son of His Father (1915); The Story the Clock Told (1914); The Taint of Fear (1916); The Talk of the Town (1918); The War Waif (1917); The White Terror (1915); The Wrong Label (1915); Treason (1917); Two Social Calls (1913); Where Glory Waits (1917).

Born on this day – Dolores del Río:

 

Dolores del Río

Actress

August 3, 1904 – April 11, 1983

Born on this day – Adrienne Ames:

 

Adrienne Ames

Actress

August 3, 1907 – May 31, 1947

Credits:

24 Hours (1931); A Bedtime Story (1933); Abdul the Damned (1935); Beautiful Dreamer (1935); Black Sheep (1935); Broadway Bad (1933); City Girl (1938); Disgraced (1933); From Hell to Heaven (1933); Fugitives for a Night (1938); George White's Scandals (1934); Gigolette (1935); Girls About Town (1931); Guilty as Hell (1932); Harmony Lane (1935); Hollywood on Parade No. B-5 (1933); Hotel Imperial (1927); Husband's Holiday (1931); I Take This Woman (1940); La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935); Ladies Love Danger (1935); Panama Patrol (1939); Sally (1929); Screen Snapshots Series 19, No. 5: Art and Artists (1940); Sinners in the Sun (1932); Slander House (1938); The Avenger (1933); The Death Kiss (1932); The Road to Reno (1931); The Zero Hour (1939); Two Kinds of Women (1932); Woman Wanted (1935); Working Girls (1931); You're Telling Me! (1934).

Born on this day – Louise Platt:

 

Louise Platt

Actress

August 3, 1915 – September 6, 2003

Credits:

Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1957–1958); Captain Caution (1940); Forgotten Girls (1940); Going Hollywood: The '30s (1984); Goodyear Playhouse (1956); Guiding Light (1958-1959); I Am Not Your Negro (2016); I Met My Love Again (1938); John Wayne: Behind the Scenes (2007); Kraft Theatre (1956); Kraft Theatre / The United States Steel Hour (1957); Lamp Unto My Feet (1959); Look Up and Live (1959); Naked City (1963); New York Confidential (1959); Playwrights '56 (1955); Spawn of the North (1938); Stagecoach (1939); Star Tonight (1956); Street of Chance (1942); Tell No Tales (1939).

Born on this day – P. D. James:

 

P. D. James

Writer

August 3, 1920 – November 27, 2014

Credits:

Books:

 A Certain Justice (1997); A Mind to Murder (1963); A New Omnibus of Crime (2009); A Taste for Death (1986); An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1972); Bad Behavior (1995); Cover Her Face (1962); Crime Writers: A Decade of Crime (2013); Criminal Elements (1988); Death Comes to Pemberley (2011); Death in Holy Orders (2001); Death of an Expert Witness (1977); Devices and Desires (1989); Felonious Assaults (1989); Future Crimes (2021); Girl Who Loved Graveyards (1996); Great Law and Order Stories (1990); Innocent Blood (1980); More Murder Most Cozy (1993); More Murders for the Fireside (1994); Murder in Triplicate (1980); Murders for the Fireside (1992); Nursing Stories (1979); Original Sin (1994); Shroud for a Nightingale (1971); Sightlines (2001); Sleep No More (2017); Sleuths of the Century (2000); Suspicious Characters (1987); Tales of Obsession (1994); Talking about Detective Fiction (2009); Taste for Death / Devices and Desires / Original Sin (2008); The Black Tower (1975); The Children of Men (1992); The Detection Collection (2005); The Lighthouse (2005); The Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories (1985); The Man Who... (1992); The Maul and the Pear Tree (1971); The Mistletoe Murder (2016); The Murder Room (2003); he New Mystery (1993); The Oxford Book of Detective Stories (2000); The Part-Time Job (2020); The Penguin Book of Modern Fantasy by Women (1995); The Picador Book of Crime Writing (1993); The Private Patient (2008); The Skull Beneath the Skin (1982); The Verdict of Us All (2006); The Victim (2019); The Vintage Book of Classic Crime (1997); The Web She Weaves (1983); Time to Be in Earnest (1999); Unnatural Causes (1967).

Movies and television:

60 Minutes / Segment: Murder She Writes (1992); A Better Read (1980); A Certain Justice (1998); A Mind to Murder (1995); A Ripe Old Age (2002); A Taste for Death (1988); A Very British Murder with Lucy Worsley (2013); An Unsuitable Job for a Woman (1982–1999); Ànima (2009); Apostrophes (1989–1990); Bestseller (2001); Book Four (1982); Bookmark (1988–1992); Breakfast (2005); Call My Bluff (1998); CBS News Nightwatch (1990); Children of Men (2006); Close-Up (1995); Cover Her Face (1985); Crime Writers (1978); Dalgliesh (2021–2023); Daphne Du Maurier - A Loving Spirit (1997); Death Comes to Pemberley (2013); Death in Holy Orders (2003); Death of an Expert Witness (1983); Desert Island Discs: Archive 1981-1985 (1985); Devices and Desires (1991); Did You See..? (1980–1987); Dinner with Portillo (2005); Elementary My Dear Viewer (2007); Forty Years at the I.C.A. (1987); Good Afternoon! (1983); ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards (2008); Late Night with David Letterman (1990); Late Review (2003–2007); Les Carnets de route de François Busnel (2014); Los Siete Locos (1987); Mark Lawson Talks to... (2006); My Life in Books (2011); Omnibus (1994); Original Sin (1997); P.D. James by Michael Taylor (2002); Pebble Mill at One (1983); Presumption: The Life of Jane Austen (1995); Pride & Prejudice: From Page to Screen (1995); Prisoners of Conscience (1991); Prisoners of Gravity (1993–1994); Profiling (2008); Question Time (1994–2004); Rankin on the Staircase (2005); Read All About It (1979); Reader, I Married Him (2006); Ruby (1998); Samtaler i natten (1995); Shroud for a Nightingale (1984); Speaking Volumes (1990–1991); Stevensons Travels Part 1 (1994); Sunday AM (2006); Sunday Best (2001–2007); Talking Books (2010); The Big Questions (2009); The Black Tower (1985); The Book Programme (1975 / 1976); The Book Show (2008–2011); The Fens (1991); The Heaven and Earth Show (2005); The Media Show (1990); The Murder Room (2005); The South Bank Show (2004–2010); The Violent Highway (2009); The Write Stuff (1988); This Week (2005); Timeshift (2014); Travels with Pevsner (1998); Unnatural Causes (1993); Upon Reflection (1990); Wogan (1987); Writers and Places (1983); Writing with PD James (1998).