page_title: Lois Duncan
section_title: Early publications
hierarchical_section_title: Lois Duncan / Career / Early publications
caption_attribution_description: Local call number: JJS0512 Title: Lois Duncan Steinmetz playing the accordion aboard the shantyboat Lazy Bones Date: ca. 1947 General Note: The Steinmetz family on a trip upriver between Ft. Myers and Clewiston on the Caloosahatchee River. Physical descrip: 1 transparency - col. - 5 x 4 in. Series Title: Joseph Janney Steinmetz Collection Repository: State Library and Archives of Florida, 500 S. Bronough St., Tallahassee, FL 32399-0250 USA. Contact: 850.245.6700. Archives@dos.myflorida.com Persistent URL: floridamemory.com/items/show/245450
context_page_description: Lois Duncan Steinmetz, known as Lois Duncan, was an American writer, novelist, poet, and journalist. She is best known for her young-adult novels, and has been credited by historians as a pioneering figure in the development of young adult fiction, particularly in the genres of horror, thriller, and suspense.
  The daughter of professional photographers Lois and Joseph Janney Steinmetz, Duncan began writing at a young age, publishing two early novels under the pen name Lois Kerry. Several of her novels, including Hotel for Dogs, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Summer of Fear, and the controversial Killing Mr. Griffin, have been adapted into films.
  In addition to her novels and children's books, Duncan published several collections of poetry and non-fiction, including Who Killed My Daughter?, which detailed the 1989 unsolved murder of Duncan's teenage daughter, Kaitlyn. She received the 1992 Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her contribution to writing for teens. After her daughter's murder, Duncan would distance herself from the thriller and horror genres, shifting her focus to picture books and novels aimed for young children.
context_section_description: After dropping out of college, Duncan continued to write and publish magazine articles; she wrote over 300 articles published in magazines such as Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, McCall's, Good Housekeeping, and Reader's Digest. She published her first novel, Love Song for Joyce, in 1958 under the pen name Lois Kerry, followed by Debutante Hill in 1959; the latter was initially rejected for a literary prize because it featured an adolescent character drinking a beer.
  In 1962, Duncan moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico with her children after divorcing her first husband, Joseph Cardozo, and supported herself writing greeting cards and fictional confessionals for pulp magazines. In 1966 she published the novel Ransom, detailing a group of students held captive on a school bus, which earned her an Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, as well as marking her shift from romance to more suspense-oriented works.
  In the early 1970s, Duncan was hired to teach journalism at the University of New Mexico. "I was hired on a fluke," Duncan recalled in a 2011 interview: Her friend, who was the chair of the journalism department, hired her as a replacement based on her experience writing for magazines, despite the fact that she did not have a degree. While teaching, Duncan enrolled in classes at the university, earning her B.A. in English in 1977.
  In 1970, she published the historical novel Peggy, chronicling the life of Peggy Shippen, followed by the 1971 children's book Hotel for Dogs, which was later adapted as a 2009 film of the same name starring Emma Roberts.
caption: Duncan in Sarasota, Florida, 1947.
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