H. F. Heard

The English social historian and author of science and mystery fiction Henry Fitzgerald Heard (1889–1971) was born in London, studied at Cambridge University, then turned to writing essays and books on historical, scientific, religious, mystical, cultural, and social subjects, signing them Gerald Heard, the name under which all his non-fiction appeared. He moved to the United States in 1937, accompanied by his friend Aldous Huxley, and soon afterwards founded a college to teach meditation and other spiritual practices. Heard wrote three detective novels featuring the character Mr Mycroft: A Taste for Honey (1941), Reply Paid (1942), and The Notched Hairpin (1949). Among Heard’s other science fiction and mystery novels, perhaps his best-known work is the short story “The President of the U. S. A., Detective,” which won the first prize in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’s contest in 1947.