Although the career of Poirot will no more engage his historian, a spokesman for the author said that Dame Agatha, who will be 85 Sept. 15, intends to continue writing. In her long writing career, one that parallels the literary existence of her detective, she has published 85 full‐length novels and colrections of short stories, which have sold 350 million copies in hard cover and paperback all over the globe. This figure does not include the pirated editions behind the Iron Curtain, of which no count can be made.

In addition, under the pseudonym of Mary Westmacott she has written a halfdozen romances. What is perhaps more significant is that her first title, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” is still in print.

At least 17 of her stories have been made into plays, including the famous “The Mouse Trap,” which opened in London in 1952 and is still running, setting all kinds of records for longevity in the theater.

Twelve of her tales have become motion pictures, many of which have centered on Jane Marple, Dame Agatha's other famous detective.

In the person of the lateMargaret Rutherford, Miss Marple developed her own devoted following.

The most recent of Dame Agatha's movies, “Murder on the Orient Express” opened last year, with excellent boxoffice returns. And Christie properties have been used for television mystery dramas and for radio shows.

Her hold on her audience is remarkable in a way because the kind of fiction she writes is, well, not exactly contemporary. Her characters come from the quiet and exceedingly comfortable middle class: doctors, lawyers, top military men, members of the clergy. The houses in her fiction are spacious, teas are frequent and abundant, servants abound. True, the comforts have been cut back es the real England in which her mysteries are set has been altered over the years. But the polite, leisure‐class settings have been retained.

“I could never manage miners talking in pubs,” she once confided to an interviewer, “because I don't know what miners talk about in pubs.”