Encyclopedia Brown Author Donald Sobol Dead at 87

Posted on July 17, 2012

Author Donald Sobol, who wrote the popular Encyclopedia Brown books, has died at the age of 87. The New York Times reports that Sobol's son, John Sobol, confirmed that his father died on Wednesday in Miami, Florida from gastric lymphoma.

Sobol was a veteran of World War II. After the war he went to work as a reporter for the New York Sun. He began to write nonfiction and eventually started writing a syndicated fiction column called Two-Minute Mysteries. He hit it big when he created Leroy "Encyclopedia" Brown, a young man who lived in Idaville, Florida and charged 25 cents to solve a case. The first book was published in 1963, and ran for 27 installments. Each book contained 10 stories which the ten year old detective solves using his wits and clever deductive reasoning. Readers were urged to solve the mystery themselves, or they could flip to the back of the book to see the answer.

Sobol wrote 80 books, and won an Edgar Award for the bestselling series.