Dorothy Leigh Sayers (usually styled as Dorothy L. Sayers; 1893–1957) was an English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist; she was also a student of classical and modern languages. She is perhaps best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories, set between the First and Second World Wars, which feature Lord Peter Wimsey, an English aristocrat and amateur sleuth. Sayers herself considered her translation of Dante's Divine Comedy to be her best work.

Sayers was educated at home and then at the University of Oxford. This was unusual for a woman at the time, as women were not admitted as full members of the university until 1920—five years after Sayers had completed her first-class degree in medieval French. In 1916, a year after her graduation, Sayers published her first book, a collection of poems entitled Op. I, which she followed two years later with a second, a slim volume titled Catholic Tales and Christian Songs. The same year she was invited to edit and contribute to the annual editions of Oxford Poetry, which she did for the next three years. In 1923 she published Whose Body?, a murder mystery novel featuring the fictional Lord Peter Wimsey, and went on to write eleven novels and twenty-one short stories about the character. The Wimsey stories were popular, and successful enough for Sayers to leave the advertising agency where she was working.

Towards the end of the 1930s, and without explanation, Sayers stopped writing crime stories and turned instead to religious plays and essays, and to translations. Some of her plays were broadcast on the BBC, others performed at the Canterbury Festival and some in commercial theatres. During the Second World War through these plays and other works like The Wimsey Papers (1939–40) and Begin Here: A War-Time Essay (1940), Sayers "offered her countrymen a stirring argument for fighting", according to her biographer, Catherine Kenney. As early as 1929 Sayers had produced an adaptation—from medieval French—of the poem Tristan by Thomas of Britain, and in 1946 she began to produce translations of Dante, firstly the four Pietra canzoni then, from 1948, the canticas of the Divine Comedy. Her critical analyses of Dante were popular and influential among scholars and the general public, although there has been some criticism that she overstressed the comedic side of his writing to make him more popular. Sayers died in December 1957 after suffering a sudden stroke.

Poems

+ Sayers's poetry Title Year of first publication First edition publisher Notes Op. I Catholic Tales and Christian Songs Oxford Poetry, 1917 Contributor and editor with Wilfred Rowland Childe and T. W. Earp Oxford Poetry, 1918 Contributor and editor with T. W. Earp and E. F. A. Geach Oxford Poetry, 1919 Contributor and editor with T. W. Earp and Siegfried Sassoon The Quorum Contributor (two poems) Lord, I Thank Thee

Novels

+ Novels by Sayers Title Year of firstpublication First edition publisher(London, except where stated) Notes Whose Body? Boni & Liveright, New York (May 1923); Unwin (October 1923) Clouds of Witness Unwin Unnatural Death Benn Published in the US as The Dawson Pedigree Benn Strong Poison Gollancz Benn With Robert Eustace Gollancz Published in the US as Suspicious Characters Hodder and Stoughton With members of The Detection Club. A chapter each was completed by: Canon Victor Whitechurch, George and Margaret Cole, Henry Wade, Agatha Christie, John Rhode, Milward Kennedy, Sayers, Ronald Knox, Freeman Wills Crofts, Edgar Jepson, Clemence Dane and Anthony Berkeley. G. K. Chesterton contributed the prologue. Have His Carcase Gollancz Murder Must Advertise Gollancz Ask a Policeman Barker With members of The Detection Club: Anthony Berkeley, Milward Kennedy, Gladys Mitchell, John Rhode, Sayers and Helen Simpson. Gollancz Gaudy Night Gollancz Six against the Yard Selwyn and Blount With members of The Detection Club: Margery Allingham, Anthony Berkeley, Freeman Wills Crofts, Father Ronald Knox, Sayers and Russell Thorndike. Busman's Honeymoon: A Love Story With Detective Interruptions Harcourt Brace Adapted from the play Busman's Honeymoon (1936) Double Death: a Murder Story Gollancz With members of The Detection Club

Short story collections

Sayers contributed to numerous short story anthologies, but also published a number of collections of her own works.

+ Sayers's short story collections Title Year of firstpublication First edition publisher(All London) Notes Lord Peter Views the Body Gollancz All stories feature Lord Peter Wimsey Includes: The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers, The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question, The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will, The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag, The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker, The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention, The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran, The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste, The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head, The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach, The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face and The Adventure of the Cave of Ali Baba Hangman's Holiday Gollancz Includes: Featuring Lord Peter Wimsey: "The Image in the Mirror", The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey, The Queen's Square, The Necklace of Pearls Featuring Montague Egg: The Poisoned Dow '08, Sleuths on the Scent, Murder in the Morning, One Too Many, Murder at Pentecost, Maher-Shalal-Hashbaz Featuring neither: The Man Who Knew How and The Fountain Plays In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Mysteries Gollancz Includes: Featuring Lord Peter Wimsey: In the Teeth of the Evidence, Absolutely Elsewhere Featuring Montague Egg: A Shot at Goal, Dirt Cheap, Bitter Almonds, False Weight, The Professor's Manuscript Featuring neither: The Milk-Bottles, Dilemma, An Arrow o'er the House, Scrawns, Nebuchadnezzar, The Inspiration of Mr. Budd, Blood Sacrifice, Suspicion, The Leopard Lady and the Cyprian Cat Gollancz Talboys Harper Includes: - All featuring Lord Peter Wimsey: Striding Folly, The Haunted Policeman, and Talboys Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories Harper Includes: The Abominable History of the Man with Copper Fingers, The Entertaining Episode of the Article in Question, The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will, The Fantastic Horror of the Cat in the Bag, The Unprincipled Affair of the Practical Joker, The Undignified Melodrama of the Bone of Contention, The Vindictive Story of the Footsteps That Ran, The Bibulous Business of a Matter of Taste, The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head, The Piscatorial Farce of the Stolen Stomach, The Unsolved Puzzle of the Man with No Face, The Adventure of the Cave of Ali Baba (all from Lord Peter Views the Body), The Image in the Mirror, The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey, The Queen's Square, The Necklace of Pearls (all from Hangman's Holiday), In the Teeth of the Evidence, Absolutely Elsewhere (both from In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Mysteries), Striding Folly and The Haunted Policeman (both from Talboys). Also includes "Sayers, Lord Peter and God" by Carolyn Heilbrun and "Greedy Night, A Parody" by E. C. Bentley. Striding Folly New English Library Includes: All featuring Lord Peter Wimsey: Striding Folly, The Haunted Policeman and Talboys Gollancz Two collaborative detective serials written by members of the Detection Club which were broadcast weekly by their authors on the BBC National Programme in 1930 and 1931 with the scripts then being published in The Listener a week after broadcast. Crime on the Coast and No Flowers by Request Gollancz Two collaborative detective serials written by members of the Detection Club; originally published in Daily Sketch (1953) The Complete Stories Perennial Includes all short stories from Lord Peter Views the Body, Hangman's Holiday, In the Teeth of the Evidence and Other Mysteries, Talboys and Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories

Editor

+ Works of which Sayers was the editor Title Year of firstpublication First edition publisher(All London) Notes Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror Gollancz Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: Second Series Gollancz Great Short Stories of Detection, Mystery and Horror: Third Series Gollancz Tales of Detection J.M. Dent As part of the Everyman's Library series

Translation

+ Translations by Sayers Title Year of firstpublication First edition publisher(London, unless otherwise stated) Notes Tristan in Brittany, Being Fragments of the Romance of Tristan, Written in the Twelfth Century by Thomas the Anglo-Norman Benn Translation of the Old French poem Tristan by Thomas of Britain Translation of four (translates from the Italian as: "stone songs") by Dante Alighieri Translation of cantica 1 of Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri Translation of cantica 2 of Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri Translation of The Song of Roland Translation of cantica 3 of Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, with Barbara Reynolds completing the last third

Scripts and plays

+ Scripts and plays by Sayers Title Location of first performanceLondon, unless otherwise stated Date of first performance Notes See note Screenplay; with Basil Mason; adapted from Sayers's unpublished short story of the same title Busman's Honeymoon: A Detective Comedy in Three Acts Comedy Theatre With Muriel St. Clare Byrne Canterbury Festival Four scenes He That Should Come: A Nativity Play in One Act See note Radio play, first broadcast on the BBC Canterbury Festival Four Scenes Love All Torch Theatre See note Radio play; first broadcast on the BBC. Adapted from the story of the same title by Alexander Pushkin See note Twelve-episode radio series; first broadcast on the BBC between December 1941 and October 1942 Where Do We Go from Here? See note With members of the Detection Club. Radio play, first broadcast for the Mystery Playhouse series on the BBC Playhouse Theatre, Colchester

Miscellany Sayers wrote numerous essays, poems and stories which appeared in several publications, including Time and Tide, The Times Literary Supplement, Atlantic Monthly, Punch, The Spectator and the Westminster Gazette; in the last of these she was the author of a poem under the pseudonym H.P. Rallentando. She also wrote several book reviews for The Sunday Times.

+ Other works by Sayers Title Year Publisher Notes Papers Relating to the Family of Wimsey Privately printed As Matthew Wimsey; co-written with others Privately printed Published in serial form in The Spectator Harper Compiled by C.W. Scott-Giles Taking Detective Stories Seriously: The Collected Crime Reviews of Dorothy L. Sayers Tippermuir BooksCompiled by Martin Edwards

Non fiction