Are you a big fan of mystery novels?
They can be a blast to read, making you want more as you read each page.
Dilys Winn, a writer, editor, and bookseller, was also a big fan of mystery fiction novels. So, she became one of the first people to open a store dedicated to selling mystery and detective fiction.
Dilys was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1939 and moved to the United States in 1940. She spent her childhood and public school days in New Jersey before studying at the Baldwin School in Philadelphia and Pembroke College in Rhode Island.
Throughout the late 1960s, Dilys worked as an advertising copywriter. However, she got to a point where she felt unsatisfied with her life and needed a change.
She was a huge fan of mystery books and was inspired by Sylvia Beach, the founder of the famous original Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris, France.
Dilys decided she would open her own bookstore in New York City and dedicate the entire shop to selling mystery-themed books. Within a matter of weeks, Dilys opened her store on West 87th Street in Manhattan in 1972 and named it Murder Ink.
Before long, Murder Ink had a faithful clientele of mystery lovers and was noteworthy for its range of mystery material. Murder Ink brought together mystery lovers from all walks of life. A few years later, Dilys ended up selling the store and began working on her own writing.
In 1975, she created “Murder Ink,” an anthology of essays and opinion pieces aimed at mystery fans.
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“Murder Ink” became a big hit within the mystery community, and she was gifted a Special Edgar Allan Poe Award from The Mystery Writers of America in 1978. A television movie titled “Murder Ink” about a mystery bookstore owner was based on her story and released in 1979.
After closing her first store in 1975, Dilys reopened a new location further uptown, but sadly, it closed in 2006 due to rent increases. However, her connection to the mystery community did not die there. Dilys moved to Florida in the 1990s and wrote reviews on mystery books for Kirkus Reviews up until 2013.
Dilys continued to write and publish material and eventually made her way to Asheville, North Carolina. She passed away there in 2016 at 77. Dilys’ amazing career had such a large impact on those who loved to read mystery books, and she will always be admired for her work.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
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