Rice, Craig

Pseudonym of the American crime writer Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig who was born in Chicago. Her parents – her father was an artist and her mother a wealthy heiress – were often travelling, and she spent most of her time with her grandparents and her aunt in Wisconsin and Washington. Although she seldom spent long periods of time with them, her relationship with her parents was good. They divorced in 1918, and the following year she was formally adopted by her aunt. She did not see her brother Christopher until she was twenty-five years old, and she never met her half-brother Alexander – according to her own information, that is. Considering that she was very popular – she was the first crime writer to feature on the cover of Time magazine – very little is known about her private life, partly because she was prone to provide false information to interviewers and when writing about her own work, but also because of her bohemian lifestyle: she often moved houses, she married several times and she was a drinker.