Lilian Jackson Braun

See also: Braun

Lilian Jackson Braun , born in 1916, is an American writer .

It is the author of 27 novels putting in scene Jim Qwilleran, journalist and repented alcoholic who meets successively two Siamese cats with which one, Kao K' O Kung known as Koko (the male), will appear equipped with additional pairs of vibrisses perhaps related to faculties of not-conventional knowledge: Koko has indeed as a practice to push howls when a person of the knowledge of her “Master is assassinated” and, moreover, it does not cease making fall from the racks of the library a book whose title is supposed to switch Qwilleran in the resolution of the “enigma” in progress.

The action of the first three novels, written in the Years 1960, proceeds in a not named metropolis of the United States (probably Chicago), indicated later under the term the Country of in-Low .

Lilian Jackson Braun stopped its series then took again it in 1986 with the Cat which saw red , novel from which the series was to meet a success ever contradicted.

From fifth novel ( the Cat which played Brahms ), the action of these new novels was going to be transposed, in the majority of the novels, in an imaginary place, the Comté of Moose, located “at 600km in the north of everywhere” and that one can, according to some indices, to locate around the peninsula of Sault co. Marie, in the northern part of the State of Michigan, between the Higher Lac and the Lake Michigan.

Jim Qwilleran, after having inherited a fabulous fortune bequeathed by a friend of his late mother, settles with the two cats with Pickax City, capital of the county, initially in the dependences of an old house of Master, then in a monumental barn with apples, of octagonal form. He chooses to entrust the management of his fortune to the Klingenschoen Foundation and prefers to devote to the drafting of his twice-weekly chronicle in the Something of the county of Moose and to his human relations in his new harbor of life. The resolution of the “enigmas” being makes of it only the pretext with a description of a certain American provincial life, undoubtedly “idealized”.

List novels

1966 : the Cat which read with back ( The Cat Who Could Read Backwards )
1967: the Cat which ate wool ( The Cat Who Ate Danish Modern )
1968: the Cat which liked the secondhand trade ( The Cat Who Turned one and Off )
1986: the Cat which saw red ( The Cat Who Saw Red )
1987: the Cat which played Brahms ( The Cat Who Played Brahms )
1987: the Cat which played post-office employee ( The Cat Who Played Post Office )
1988: the Cat which knew Shakespeare ( The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare )
1988: the Cat which sniffait adhesive ( The Cat Who Sniffed Glue )
1989: the Cat which inspected the basement ( The Cat Who Went Underground )
1990: the Cat which spoke with the phantoms ( The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts )
1990: the Cat which lived high ( The Cat Who Lived High )
1991: the Cat which knew a cardinal ( The Cat Who Knew has Cardinal )
1992: the Cat which moved mountains ( The Cat Who Moved has Mountain )
1991: the Cat which was not there ( The Cat Who Wasn' T There )
1993: the Cat which went to the wall cupboard ( The Cat Who Went into the Closet )
1994: the Cat which played dominos ( The Cat Who Came to Breakfast )
1995: the Cat which gave a whistle ( The Cat Who Blew the Whistle )
1996: the Cat which said cheese ( The Cat Who Said Cheese )
1997: the Cat which smelled a track ( The Cat Who Tailed has Thief )
1998: the Cat which spoke with the birds ( The Cat Who Sang for the Birds )
1998: the Cat which looked at the stars ( The Cat Who Saw Stars )
1999: the Cat which stole a bank ( The Cat Who Robbed has Bank )
2001: the Cat which smelled the muddle ( The Cat Who Smelled has Rat )
2002: the Cat which went up the river ( The Cat Who Went up the Creek )
2003: the Cat which broke the hut ( The Cat Who Brought Down the House )
2004: the Cat which spoke turkey ( The Cat Who Talked Turkey )
2004: the Cat which threw banana skins ( The Cat Who Went Bananas )
2006: the Cat which made the bomb ( The Cat Who Dropped has Bombshell )

Apart from the series, let us mention a collection of 14 news, of which 5 had been initially published in L Ellery Queen' S Magazine , between June 1962 and March 1968, and who are of commun run with the series only “cat-like”:

1988 : the Cat which told stories (collection of 14 news) ( The Cat Whod Had 14 Tales )

There exists also a collection of tales and stories of the county of Moose, told by “Qwill”, whose publication in French is imminent:

September 2003: Short and Tall Bruise: Moose County Legends Collected by James Mackintosh Qwilleran

One also announces, for September 2004 (in the United States), another work of Lilian Jackson Braun, entitled Private Life off the Cat Who… .

Works inspired by the series

The series gave the idea to an American writer, Robert Kaplow, to write a parody entitled The Cat Who Killed Lilian Jackson Braun (not translated into French), in which James Qafka and its cats Ying-Tong and Poon-Tang inquires into the murder of Lilan Jackson Braun. Certain experts of the universe of Lilian Jackson Braun do not seem to appreciate in addition to measurement the character a little “iconoclast” of the novel, while others, more measured perhaps, qualify it simply “wild satire”. This novel which exceeds besides the usual universe of the novelist, with a certain number of allusions to various authors of detective novels, without account of the fugitive appearances, in “guest stars”, of “mediatized” American personalities.

Sharon A. Feaster also wrote a The Cat Who… Companion , kind of digest of the universe of Jim Qwilleran, cats, county of Moose.

Robert J., Jr. Headrick wrote a The Cat Who… Quiz Book .

Lastly, Julie Murphy, Sally Abney Stempinkski and Sally Abney Stempinski joined to write a The Cat Who…: Cookbook

External bonds

“Ronald Frobnitz and Family - Year unofficial guide to Lilian Jackson Braun' S Cat Who… series”, site entirely devoted to the work of Lilian Jackson Braun, in particular including a study pushed on the localization of the county of Moose…

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