Patricia Anne Klein Ernst was born on July 1, 1927 in San Fernando, California, USA, the daughter of Gladys Gable and Roy Oliver Ernst. Her mother enrolled her in the famous Meglin Kiddies school, but she recorded only two of her songs professionally for one demo tape. She studied at California State University, Los Angeles, were she worked as secretary to the General Manager of Associated Students by the California State College.
In 21 December 1946, she married Marvin Owen Brisco and moved to Arizona, they had two sons: Michael Arvie and David Roy. By 1961, the marriage had ended in divorce. Focused on her writing career, she returned to California, where she met the writer Clayton Matthews in a local writers' group. After Clayton divorced his first wife, he and Patricia married in 3 November 1972 and lived near San Diego.
She started to write poetry, juvenile books, a play, fantasy and mystery short stories, which she signed under different names: Patricia Ernst, P.A. Brisco and Pat A. Brisco. Using the names Patty Brisco and Pat Brisco, she wrote gothic novels. When the market for gothic novels softened, at the suggestion of her husbland agent, Jay Garon, she began to write romance novels under her second married name, Patricia Matthews. In the 1970's, she become a popular writer, called "American's First Lady of Historical Romance". She and her husband also collaborated on several romance and suspense novels using the pseudonyms Laura Wylie and Laurie Wylie. She and her husband wrote five Casey Farrell mystery novels together, and she wrote three on her own, the Thumbprint Mysteries, set in the American Southwest, at the fourth-sixth- and eighth-grade reading levels, yet offer characters, situations, and concerns appropriate for adult readers. With Denise Hrivnak, she also wrote under the pseudonym Denise Matthews.
Her husband Clayton died on March 25, 2004. Patricia died on December 7, 2006 in the Brisco family home in Prescott, Arizona.
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Subjects
Large type books, Fiction, Fiction, general, Fiction in English, romance, Arizona, fiction, Farrel, casey (fictitious character), fiction, Fiction, mystery & detective, women sleuths, Fiction, romance, general, Indian women, fiction, historical, Detective and mystery stories, English language, Foreign speakers, High interest-low vocabulary books, Historical, Readers, Readers for new literates, Romance, Study and teaching, Textbooks for foreign speakers, Casey Farrel (Fictitious character), Fiction, Romance, Historical, Fiction, romance, historical, LiteracyPlaces
Arizona, Alaska, Australia, Boston (Mass.), California, California fiction, Erie Canal (N.Y.), Louisiana (USA), New Orleans (Louisiana), North Carolina, Phoenix, Phoenix (Ariz.), Prescott, Prescott (Ariz.), United StatesPeople
Ben Asher, Brill Kroger, Captain Adam Street, Captain Jebediah Hawkins, Catharine Carnahan, Charlotte, Chris, Clint Devlin, Courteney Wayne, Darrel Quick, Hannah, Hannah Verner, Jessica Manning, Kelly Cole, Lieutenant Neil Dancer, Marianna Harper, Morgan Kane, Phillip Courtwright, Rory Clendenning, Sarah Moody, Serena Foster, Silas Quint, Simon MaphisID Numbers
- OLID: OL55996A
- ISNI: 0000000114879464
- VIAF: 12312256
- Wikidata: Q972957
- Inventaire.io: wd:Q972957
Links (outside Open Library)
Alternative names
- Patricia Anne Klein Ernst Brisco Matthews
- Patricia Ernst
- P. A. Brisco
- Patty Brisco
- Pat A. Brisco
- Pat Brisco
- Patricia Matthews
- Laura Wylie
- Denise Matthews
- P.A. Brisco
September 27, 2020 | Edited by MARC Bot | add ISNI |
May 15, 2017 | Edited by MARC Bot | merge authors |
March 31, 2017 | Edited by MARC Bot | add VIAF and wikidata ID |
September 4, 2013 | Edited by CGN | Edited without comment. |
April 1, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | initial import |