Nell Martin

Nell Columbia Boyer Martin (1890–1961) was an American actress, author, and press agent from Illinois who worked across multiple fields before establishing herself as a writer. She also published under the name Columbia Boyer and her full name Nell Columbia Boyer Martin. Before turning to writing, Martin held a wide variety of jobs, including strawberry picker, newspaper reporter, taxi-cab driver, lawyer's assistant, laundry worker, singer, actress, and press agent — a range of occupations that led her to describe herself as a "Jill of all trades."

Her acting career brought her to Broadway, where she appeared in 1920 in the play The Charm School. That stage work was part of a broader performance background that preceded her transition into writing and other professional pursuits.

As a fiction writer, Martin produced eight novels and more than 200 short stories, specializing in light-hearted mysteries. Her novels include The Constant Simp (1927), described as a parody of the novel The Constant Nymph; The Mosaic Earring (1927); Lord Byron of Broadway (1928); The Other Side of the Fence (1929); and Lovers Should Marry (1933). Her 1928 novel Lord Byron of Broadway was adapted into a film of the same title by MGM, released in 1930. Martin dedicated Lovers Should Marry to the mystery writer Dashiell Hammett. She also contributed a series of short stories featuring a character named Maisie to Top Notch Magazine between 1927 and 1928; Hammett suggested these stories may have later inspired the Maisie film and radio series starring Ann Sothern, though the original film has also been credited to Wilson Collison's novel Dark Dame, with Collison listed as the original creator on many of the Maisie films.

Martin was at one time the romantic partner of Dashiell Hammett, who dedicated his 1931 novel The Glass Key to her. She later married Ashley Weed Dickinson, a journalist and author.