by Catherine Kenney
Not a biography--as I'd thought--but something just as good. It's a scholarly review of her major works, concentrated on what they did for detective fiction in particular and fiction writing in general, then. And for her later, non-fiction works, it explained why they're so awesome. I can't speak to personal knowledge of the later works, but I think I can trust the author's honest opinion on the matter.
The only one I knew about was her translation of The Inferno. But it appears that at about the time when World War II started, she'd brought the Wimsey/Vane saga to an appropriate close and she shifted her writing efforts to nonfiction--the Dante translation, plays including a rather lengthy series dramatizing the life of Christ, and essays, including her notable The Mind of the Maker. This one compares the work of the Creator to the work of man and concludes that the highest and most fulfilling work a man can do is to imitate God--by doing creation.
The most surprising thing Ms. Kenney does is to point out the myriad ways in which Sayer's fiction is rooted in the solidity of her Christian faith. I'd never noticed it--it was just part of the scenery. But there it was, and when she points it out, you marvel at how she snuck the little gems of philosophy into her light, enjoyable froth.
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