Eunice Mays Boyd
An Inspiration to Betsy
Eunice Mays Boyd (1902-1971)
Golden Age Award Winning Author
An Inspiration to Betsy
Eunice won an honorable mention in the 3rd Mary Roberts Rhinehart Mystery contest for her first mystery, Murder Breaks Trail. She wrote during the Golden Age of detective mystery writers whose hallmarks were intelligent, puzzle-based mysteries. The Kirkus Reviews described it as “A better than most brain workout.” Her three published books which include Doom in the Midnight Sun and Murder Wears Mukluks, and her fourth unpublished book, One Paw Was Red, are set in Alaska in the 1940s mostly during the war.
Eunice lived in Alaska for 12 years when she was married to George Lloyd Boyd. Before moving to Alaska, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1924. Her grandfather, George J. Ainsworth, a member of the university’s charter class of 1873 nicknamed “The Twelve Apostles,” later served as a Regent of the University. Eunice’s mother, Mable Ainsworth, was a published poet and her father, Edwin Mays, was a lawyer.
Eunice was born in Oregon. Pioneers who crossed the continent by covered wagon are found on both sides of her pedigree. After a pregnancy that ended in a stillbirth, she divorced her husband and moved in with her widowed mother in Berkeley. There she wrote all of her books. The forward to Murder Breaks Trail highlights how she viewed her contributions to the war effort.
She was a member of a San Francisco Bay Area mystery writers group. With eleven selected writers, including Anthony Boucher, she co-authored The Marble Forest that was made into the movie Macabre, starring Jim Backus.
She worked as a writer for UC President Robert Gordon Sproul.
Family History
Oregon Pioneers
Eunice Mays Boyd was the great-granddaughter of JC Ainsworth a pioneer and entrepreneur who tamed the Columbia River and built a formidable steamship business based in Portland, Oregon (See “Steamboating on the Columbia River“). The disappearance of the Wright steamship remains a mystery to this day (See “Wright Fate“). It’s chief engineer, John Sutton was the father of Margaret Sutton who married JC’s son, George Jennings Ainsworth. Binding the two families for another generation (See “John C Ainsworth History”). Their daughter, Mabel married Edwin Mays (See “Mays Family History“). Their children were George, Eunice, and Roderick.
A Dozen Years in Fairbanks, Alaska
Eunice lived in Alaska for 12 years when she was married to Lloyd Boyd.
She left Alaska ca. 1941 and moved in with her mother, Mabel Mays, in Berkeley where she lived until her death in 1971.
Berkeley Career
Eunice’s novels were all written in Berkeley in the house she shared with her mother, Mabel Ainsworth Mays, a nationally published poet. Eunice lived in the Elmwood district of Berkeley, within easy walking distance to the University of California where she worked for President Sproul.
More from Eunice Mays Boyd
MURDER BREAKS TRAIL
by Eunice Mays Boyd
Originally published by Farrar Rhinehart, 1943
Republishing in 2023
DOOM IN THE
MIDNIGHT SUN
by Eunice Mays Boyd
Originally published by Farrar Rhinehart, 1943
Republishing in 2023
MURDER WEARS
MUKLUKS
by Eunice Mays Boyd
Originally published by Farrar Rhinehart, 1945 and republished by Dell Publishing, 1948
Republishing in 2023
ONE PAW WAS RED
by Eunice Mays Boyd
with Elizabeth Reed Aden
written ca. 1947
Coming 2024
