American novel and mystery author
Zelda Popkin (née Feinberg; 5 July 1898 – 25 May 1983) was an American writer of novels and mystery stories. She created Mary Carner, one of the first professional female private detectives in fiction. Carner was a store detective who appeared in five novels.
Life
Zelda Popkin was married to Louis Popkin, and together they ran a small public relations firm until his death. They had two children, Roy and Richard.
Work
Popkin's most successful book was The Journey Home, published in 1945, which sold nearly a million copies.[citation needed] Small Victory, published in 1947, was one of the first American novels with a Holocaust theme, and Quiet Street (1951) was the first American novel about the creation of the state of Israel.[citation needed]
She also wrote an autobiography, Open Every Door (1956), chronicling her childhood, life with her husband Louis Popkins, and life after his death.[citation needed] Herman Had Two Daughters (1968), a novel about two young Jewish women growing up in a small Pennsylvania town, is also largely autobiographical.[citation needed]
