Harry Kemelman Books In Order

Publication Order of The Rabbi Small Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Harry Kemelman was one of the reputed American authors of the mystery and thriller genres. He was born on November 24, 1908, and died on December 15, 1996. Along with being a writer, Harry also used to work as an English professor. He is particularly famous for creating one of the most popular religious sleuths named Rabbi David Small. Author Harry was born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, in the year 1908. He completed his graduation from the Boston University and obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in the subject of English Literature. After that, he went on to receive his Master of Arts degree in the subject of English Philology from the Harvard University. During the period just before the World War II, author Harry used to teach in a number of schools of his city. When the period of the war began, he went on to receive a job offer to work as a wage administrator for the Transportation Corps of the United States Army. For this job, author Harry was stationed in Boston itself. After some time, he was asked to work in the department of the War Assets Administration.

After the end of the World War II, he had started working as a freelance writer and also as a private businessman. In the year 1963, author Harry got the opportunity to join the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, located in Boston, Massachusetts, as an assistant professor of the English subject. During the later part of the 1960s, he also worked at the Boston State College as an assistant professor. When author Harry began his writing career, he started with writing short stories for the Mystery Magazine of Ellery Queen. Those short stories frequently featured the college professor from New England named Nicky Welt. The first short story in the magazine’s collection was titled as ‘The Nine Mile Walk’, and is still considered to be a classic. After seeing initial success in his writing career, author Harry began developing the plot of the first book in The Rabbi Small series. Eventually, the series started in the year 1954 with the release of the book titled ‘Friday the Rabbi Slept Late’. This book received huge praises from one and all and went on to become a bestseller.

At that time, it was very much difficult for a religious mystery novel to get such an achievement, but author Harry had done it with much ease because of his unique style of story development and characterization. Therefore, he was awarded with the Edgar Award in the year 1965 in the category of the Best First Novel. Over the years, many other books in The Rabbi Small series were released. The books in this series are not only considered to be mysterious, but they are considered as an important part of Conservative Judaism. The first book of the series was adapted into a television series in the year 1976 starring Stuart Margolin and Art Carney in the title characters of Rabbi Small and Chief Lanigan. For the movie rights of this adaptation, author Harry received a sum of $35,000. The broadcast of the television series was done on NBC in the later part of the year 1976. A short-lived television series based on the original novel series was also developed and shown as a part of the Mystery Movie series on NBC during the month of January in 1977. This series was titled as Lanigan’s Rabbi and depicted Art Carney and Bruce Solomon in the lead roles of Chief Lanigan and Rabbi Small. Director Alvaro Brechner made a movie based on the adaptation of the short story, The Nine Mile Walk, which was selected to be shown in over a hundred International Film Festivals. The adaptation received numerous awards at the various film festivals all over the world. Author Harry died in the year 1996 in Marblehead, Massachusetts, at the age of 88.

The Rabbi Small series written by author Harry Kemelman is comprised of 12 books in total, which were published between the years 1964 and 1996. The first book in the series was titled as ‘Friday the Rabbi Slept Late’. It was published by the iBooks publishers in the year 1964. The story of the book revolves around the lead characters named David Small, Jacob Wasserman, Sarah Weinbaum, Melvin Bronstein, Stella Mastrangelo, Carl Macomber, Eban Jennings, Miriam Small, Abe Reich, Myra Schwarz, Elspeth Bleech, Meyer Goldfarb, Celia Saunders, Ben Schwarz, Stanley Doha, etc. The opening sequence in the book shows that Rabbi David Small is the newly appointed leader of the Jewish Community located in Barnard Crossing. He is shown as not getting the chance to enjoy his Sabbath with the things not getting stirred up in an unorthodox manner. On one such stirred up occasion, Rabbi Small comes to know that a young nanny has been murdered by strangling. Her dead body is discovered at around 100 yards from the parking lot of the Barnard Crossing’s Temple. All the evidences related to the brutal murder of the nanny, point towards Rabbi Small, which make his life even more difficult. His disgruntled congregation rumblings’ also add to the problems of his life. After understanding the situation with all the possibilities, Rabbi Small thinks that only a miracle can save him. So, he begins to pray for the Higher Source to send him some help.

The first book of the series was followed by a few other mystery novels, including the one titled ‘Tuesday the Rabbi Saw Red’. This book was released by the Hutchinson publishers in the year 1973. At the beginning of this book, Rabbi David Small is once again depicted as an orthodox detective. The main plot shows that he gets entangled in the murder case of a fellow teacher at the Windemere Christian College. After carrying out his own investigation, he begins to believe that things around the Windemere Christian school are not as they appear. There is definitely something hidden under the calmness, and Rabbi Small seems very much desperate to find it out in order to clear his name of the murder case of his fellow teacher. Later, a bomb blast takes place in the dean’s office in the school, after which each and every staff falls under the suspicion. The book went on to become very much successful just like all the other previous novels. This helped author Harry to receive a lot of praises and worldwide praises as a noteworthy author of the mystery genre.