6/16/1920 Isabelle Holland is born

June 16, 1920.  Isabelle Holland was born on this date in Basel, Switzerland to American parents.  She wrote mostly young adult novels on controversial subjects, and gothic mysteries.  Mel Gibson's movie The Man Without a Face was based on her novel of the same name.   She didn't get published until she passed forty, but she wrote more than fifty books. 

2/9/2002 Isabelle Holland passes away

February 9, 2002. Isabelle Holland died on this day in New York City.  She was 81.   Holland was the author of more than fifty books, many of them for children.

She wrote five novels about the Reverend Claire Aldington, an Episcopal priest.  Was A Death at St. Anselms (1984)  the first mystery about a female member of the clergy?  Certainly there were nun-sleuths first...