Lilian Braun

American mystery novelist Lilian Jackson Braun was born in 1913 and has been professionally writing since 1966. Her light hearted “The Cat Who…” series of novels are based on James Qwilleran and his Siamese cats that have a natural way with detecting. She wrote her first poem at age 2 and began contributing sports poetry to the Detroit News as a teenager. She worked as an advertising copywriter for department stores in Detroit and was the Detroit Free Press’ editor for 30 years.

Her cat novels came to be following the loss of her Siamese cat who fell to its death in 1966. She wrote 3 novels with critical acclaim then took an 18 year hiatus. In 1986 Berkley Publishing Group reintroduced Braun by releasing “The Cat Who Saw Red.” Then she produced four more novels within two years along with the reprint of the three original books from the 1960’s. This made her books best sellers yet again. G. P. Putnam’s Sons has now published 17 more Cat Who novels with much success. She even says the success of her books is due to their light heartedness and that so many American households have cats. Her classic mysteries have a large following.

Like so many people of her generation, she has not embraced technology as she still uses a typewriter. Braun and her husband, Earl Bettinger, reside in North Carolina with their two cats. Her dedications in each book is to her husband and is in her classic way with “Earl Bettinger the husband who…”