Thomas Elmer Huff was a best-selling American author of 23 gothic

Gothic fiction

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...

 and romance novels as T. E. Huff and Tom E. Huff and under the female pen names Edwina Marlow, Beatrice Parker, Katherine St. Clair, and Jennifer Wilde.

Careers

Thomas Elmer Huff was born on January 8, 1938 in Tarrant County, Texas

Tarrant County, Texas

Tarrant County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, it had a population of 1,809,034. Its county seat is Fort Worth. Tarrant County is the sixteenth most populous county in the United States and the third most populous in Texas. The county is named in honor...

, USA

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He graduated from Poly High School and from Texas Wesleyn College in 1960. He spent several years as English teacher at R.L. Paschal High School before becoming a novelist.

He wrote gothic

Gothic fiction

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...

 novels for nine years under the pseudonyms Edwina Marlow, Beatrice Parker, T. E. Huff, and Katherine St. Clair. In 1976, Huff adopted the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 Jennifer Wilde when he began writing historical

Historical romance

Historical romance is a subgenre of two literary genres, the romance novel and the historical novel.-Definition:Historical romance is set before World War II...

 romance novels. His first release, Love's Tender Fury, had 41 printings in its first five years, and his second historical romance, Dare to Love, spent 11 weeks on the New York Times paperback bestseller list. His historical romances were noted for being written in first-person

First-person narrative

First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...

, from the heroine's perspective. Many of his books also featured multiple male protagonists, and "the man who first captures the heroine's heart isn't always the one who ends up with it."

Huff earned a Career Achievement Award in 1987-1988 from Romantic Times.

Huff died suddenly of a massive heart failure on 16 January 1990 in Fort Worth, Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

, where he was buried.

Single novels

• The Master of Phoenix Hall (1968)
• Falconridge (1969)
• When Emmalyn Remembers (1970)
• The Lady of Lyon House (1970)
• Danger At Dahlkari (1975)
• Midnight At Mallyncourt (1975)

Single novels

• Come to Castlemoor (1970)
• Betrayal At Blackcrest (1971)
• Stranger By the Lake (1971)
• Wherever Lynn Goes (1975)
• Jamintha (1975)

Single novels

• Nine Bucks Row (1973) aka Susannah, Beware
• Meet a Dark Stranger (1974) aka Whisper in the Darkness

Marietta Danver Trilogy

1. Love's Tender Fury (1976)
2. Love Me, Marietta (1981)
3. When Love Commands (1984)

Single novels

• Dare to Love (1978)
• Once More, Miranda (1983)
• Angel in Scarlet (1986)
• The Slipper (1987)
• They Call Her Dana (1989)