Patrick Dennis (May 18, 1921 – November 6, 1976) was an
American author.
Born Edward Everett Tanner III in Evanston, Illinois, Dennis attended Evanston High School, where he began using his pseudonym. In 1942, he joined the American Field Service, working as an ambulance driver in North Africa and Saudi Arabia.
His most famous work, Auntie Mame (1955), a fiction novel inspired by his eccentric aunt, spent 112 weeks on the bestseller list, selling as many as 5,000 copies a week. Before going out of print, it had sold more than 2,000,000 copies in five different languages. The manuscript was turned down by eleven publishers before being accepted by Vanguard. The novel recalls his supposed adventures growing up as the orphaned ward of his father's madcap sister, although in reality Dennis was raised by both parents. Dennis wrote a sequel, Around the World With Auntie Mame, in 1958.
In 1956, with Auntie Mame, The Loving Couple His (and Her) Story, and Guestward, Ho!, Dennis became the only writer ever to have three books on the New York Times bestseller list at the same time.
