Patrick Dennis

Edward Everett Tanner III (18 May 1921 – 6 November 1976), known by the pseudonym Patrick Dennis, was an American author. His novel Auntie Mame: An irreverent escapade (1955) was one of the bestselling American books of the 20th century. In chronological vignettes, the narrator — also named Patrick — recalls his adventures growing up under the wing of his madcap aunt, Mame Dennis. Tanner wrote a sequel, titled Around the World with Auntie Mame, in 1958. He based the character of Mame Dennis on his father's sister, Marion Tanner. Tanner also wrote several novels under the pseudonym Virginia Rowans. "I write in the first person, but it is all fictional. The public assumes that what seems fictional is fact; so the way for me to be inventive is to seem factual but be fictional." All of Tanner's novels employ to some degree the traditional comic devices of masks, subterfuge and deception.