Joan Scott Wood Creighton-Borthwick

Background

Joan Creighton-Borthwick was born on the 26th of September, 1923 in Buffalo, New York, United States.

Education

Creighton attended Miss Porter's School, a boarding school in Farmington, Connecticut. After briefly pursuing her interest in theater, she attended the University of Buffalo (now the State University of New York at Buffalo), where she enrolled in a premedical program. Later after marriage and the births of her three children, she completed her Bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Buffalo.

Career

Joan Creighton taught writing and literature into her eighties: first in Buffalo, then at Indiana University in Gary, then in Bath, Maine and finally at the University of Maine, Senior College. She taught at Maine middle and high schools.

J.S. Borthwick, as the creator of 'Sarah Deane', wrote numerous novels such as “The Case of the Hook-billed Kites” that was written in 1982, where the central character, Sara Deans, who reappears in successive novels, is a Boston graduate student and a teaching fellow who comes to study birds - the "kites" of the title and meets Philip Lentz, a potential love interest who is subsequently strangled by someone using the strap on a pair of binoculars. She wrote “The Down East Murders” in 1985, “The Student Body, St. Martin's Press” in 1986, “Bodies of Water” in 1990, “Dude on Arrival” in 1992, “The Bridled Groom” in 1994, “Dolly Is Dead” in 1995, “The Garden Plot” in 1997, “My Body Lies over the Ocean” in 1999, “Coup de Grace” in 2000, “Murder in the Rough” in 2002, “Intensive Scare Unit” in 2004, and “Foiled Again” in 2007.

Joan was published in periodicals such as Armchair Detective, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Kliatt, Library Journal, New York Times Book Review, Observer, Publishers Weekly, Hook-Billed Kites, The Student Body, School Library Journal, Seventeen, Texas Monthly, Washington Post Book World, Wilson Library Bulletin.

Achievements

• Joan Creighton’s "Sarah Deane" series is world-famous and translated into many languages.

Works

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  • Foiled Again

    (Drama students are known for being mischievous and high-s...)

    2007
  • Bodies of Water

    (Could the killer be the eccentric Mallory? His stern secr...)

    1990
  • The Garden Plot

    (On a free trip to Europe courtesy of her garden club, Sar...)

    1997
  • Dude on Arrival

    (Professor Sarah Deane and her boyfriend Alex try to enter...)

    1991
  • The Case of the Hook-Billed Kites

    (Sarah Deane takes a break from graduate school-and dreary...)

    1982
  • The student body

    (he campus of Maine's Bowmouth College looks like a pictur...)

    1986
  • Intensive Scare Unit

    (Crotchety, seventy-something Julia Clancy of High Hope Fa...)

    2004
  • Dolly Is Dead

    (At least that's what Maine college professor and amateur ...)

    1995
  • The Down East Murders

    (English teacher cum amateur detective Sarah Deane, along ...)

    1985
  • Murder in the Rough

    (After weeks of relentless rain and fog, summer graces the...)

    2002
  • My Body Lies over the Ocean

    (Amateur detective Sarah Deane and her husband, Dr. Alex M...)

    1999
  • The Bridled Groom

    (After courting each other through J. S. Borthwick's five ...)

    1994
  • Coup de Grace

    (Freshly minted Ph.D. Sarah Deane is hired to teach Englis...)

    2000

Personality

Joan Creighton-Borthwick was a friend to animals, and she was beloved by humans. She said that she wanted to be remembered as a friend to animals. Dozens of cats, dogs, pigeons, pet crows, and birds could attest to her kindness. Late in life, she rode dressage on a patient and an ancient horse named Conkey Noodle.

Connections

Joan Creighton-Borthwick met James Alexander Creighton, an engineer and WW2 Naval commander, and whose family was from Maine, on a ski hill in the winter of 1947. After marriage, they settled in western New York, relocated for a decade to Northern Indiana, and eventually made their way back to Maine. They had three children, Margaret, Alec, and Mac Creighton. She had ten grandchildren Katie Creighton, Clare Creighton and Dane Skinner, Nick Smith and Julie Smith, Malcolm Creighton-Smith, Louisa Creighton-Smith, Alec Creighton, Griffin Creighton and Madison Creighton and two great-grandchildren, Ian Creighton-Skinner and Copeland Smith.

husband:

James Alexander Creighton

Son:

Mac Creighton

Son:

Alec Creighton

Daughter:

Margaret Creighton

grandchild:

Katie Creighton

grandchild:

Clare Creighton

grandchild:

Dane Skinner

grandchild:

Nick Smith

grandchild:

Julie Smith

grandchild:

Malcolm Creighton-Smith

grandchild:

Louisa Creighton-Smith

grandchild:

Alec Creighton

grandchild:

Griffin Creighton

grandchild:

Madison Creighton

great-grandchildren:

great-grandchildren Ian Creighton-Skinner

great-grandchildren:

Copeland Smith