Betty Cavanna

Betty Cavanna (June 24, 1909 – August 13, 2001) was the author of popular teen romance novels, mysteries, and children's books for 45 years. Her first job was on a Camden newspaper at age 12. The choice of the right dress and the right boyfriend were often the key to happiness. Cavanna's heroines generally had a special interest or ambition, and tended to be not typically "pretty". Her early romance novels presented a protagonist facing a personal problem, but her later novels matured to focus on a social or moral problem.

Cavanna wrote the Connie Blair books, a career and mystery series, as "Betsy Allen". A friend of Cavanna's wrote the final book in the series in 1958, The Mystery of the Ruby Queens. In the 1960s, Cavanna wrote a series of books about the lives of boys in foreign countries. Her husband, George Harrison, took the photographs used in the books. Cavanna's books have been translated into several foreign languages. Her manuscripts and correspondence are preserved in the de Grummond Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Books

As Betty Cavanna

As Elizabeth Headley 1946, A Date for Diane 1947, Take a Call, Topsy! (reprinted under name Betty Cavanna as Ballet Fever in 1978) 1949, She's My Girl! (reprinted under name Betty Cavanna as You Can't Take Twenty Dogs on a Date in 1979) 1951, Catchpenny Street (reprinted under name Betty Cavanna in 1975) 1955, Diane's New Love 1957, Tourjours Diane

As Betsy Allen 1948, The Clue in Blue 1948, The Riddle in Red 1948. Puzzle in Purple 1948, The Secret of Black Cat Gulch 1949, The Green Island Mystery 1950, The Ghost Wore White 1951, The Yellow Warning 1953, The Gray Menace 1954, The Brown Satchel Mystery 1955, Peril in Pink 1956, The Silver Secret 1958, The Mystery of the Ruby Queens