American author of detective stories born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. His father was a criminal lawyer and politician who possessed a comprehensive collection of detective stories, so John Dickson Carr read books by authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and G. K. Chesterton from an early age. He soon decided he wanted to write his own stories, and made some of his first attempts while he attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania where he spent more time writing and editing The Haverfordian than he dedicated to his studies. He also wrote for local newspapers in his spare time. It got him used to the routine of writing regularly. Several works from this period, mostly detective and horror stories, survive.