About This Book
Rodrigues Ottolengui was the leading dental editor of the early 20th century, an orthodontist, a successful novelist, and a respected entomologist. Neither Angle-trained nor a specialist, Ottolengui's heritage was both in dentistry and journalism, and he was to fulfill both these callings admirably. He was born in Charleston, SC, on March 15, 1861, 4 weeks before the outbreak of the Civil War and in the first state to secede. His father was a newspaperman and playwright, and his mother was an author. Ottolengui practiced the dental profession for over 50 years. Early in his career he began to read detective stories; because, as he said, "these stories help to increase the analytical quality of the mind." Then he started writing stories in this genre and ultimately wrote 6 novels. Ottolengui's first novel, THE ARTIST IN CRIME, was translated into French, German, and Polish. In PHOENIX OF CRIME, he described how a dead person could be identified by his teeth. Five years later, a corpse floating in the river near Yonkers, NY, was identified by the sheriff of that county who had read the book and had a dentist chart her teeth. Thus was born the science of forensic dentistry.
