E. C. Bentley

Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875 to 1956), who published as E. C. Bentley, was an English novelist and humorist and the inventor of the clerihew, an irregular form of humorous verse on biographical topics. Born in London and educated at St Paul's School and Merton College, Oxford, he worked as a journalist on several newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph. His collection Biography for Beginners (1905) popularised the clerihew form, and his detective novel Trent's Last Case (1913), admired by Dorothy L. Sayers, can be seen as the first truly modern mystery. Twenty three years later he wrote a sequel, Trent's Own Case (1936), and a book of Trent short stories, Trent Intervenes (1938). He was president of the Detection Club from 1936 until 1949, and G. K. Chesterton, a school friend, dedicated The Man Who Was Thursday to him.