Honey West

Honey West
First appearance	This Girl for Hire (1957)
Created by	G.G. Fickling
Portrayed by	Anne Francis
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	private detective

Honey West is a fictional character created by the husband and wife writing team Gloria and Forest Fickling under the pseudonym "G.G. Fickling", and appearing in eleven mystery novels by the duo.

The character is notable as being one of the first female private detectives in popular fiction. She first appeared in the 1957 book This Girl for Hire and would appear in nine novels before being retired in the mid-1960s, with two comeback novels in 1971.

The Honey West character was created by Gloria and Forrest E. "Skip" Fickling under the pseudonym "G.G. Fickling" in the late 1950s.

Forrest Fickling had been a United States Army Air Forces Air Gunner during World War II; he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve after the war, and as a member of that service was called back to active duty during the Korean War. The G.G. represented the initials of his wife, Gloria Gautraud, whom he had married in 1949. The initials were used so the sex of the author would remain vague. Though Gloria said that most of the writing was done by Forrest, he said her ideas helped make the female character more plausible and gave her a good dress sense. Gloria had been an assistant fashion editor at Look magazine and a fashion writer for Women's Wear Daily. Forrest told the Los Angeles Times, "I first thought of Marilyn Monroe, and then I thought of [fictional detective] Mike Hammer and decided to put the two together... We thought the most used name for someone you really like is Honey. And she lives in the West, so there was her name."

Honey West: Honey for Hire (forthcoming)

The character was also the basis for a short-lived ABC TV series in the 1965-66 television season starring Anne Francis and John Ericson. There were 30 episodes. The series was executive produced by Aaron Spelling.

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