Jess Gregg

The first of three novels published during author/playwright Jess Gregg's lifetime, this story concerns Elizabeth Deveny, a ghost writer who is tasked with writing the memoir of a baroness. The publisher wants the story to focus on the mysterious death of hte baroness's love, but she is reluctant to talk about it. In her quest to discover the truth about the dead man, Elizabeth ends up communicating -- and eventually falling in love with -- his ghost. This is clearly a romance novel, but the prose is heads-and-shoulders above the usual tripe from this genre. Having never read ANYTHING in this genre before (other than thumbing through copies of current Harlequins in drug stores), it's hard to know whether this quality of writing was typical of romances at the time. (The Other Elizabeth was published in 1952.) In any case, there is no question that Gregg's writing talent is spectacular -- and, as he later proved with his next two novels, very diverse, as this was his only published romance.… (meer)