When long-time book and magazine editor Roger Margason chose the pseudonym “Dorien Grey” for his first novel, it set off a chain of circumstances that led to a comfortable division of labor and responsibility. Roger had charge of day-to-day existence, freeing Dorien (with the help of Roger’s fingers) to write. Both Roger and Dorien died in November after a minor surgical procedure resulted in fatal complications.
Two years into college, Roger left to join the Naval Aviation Cadet program. Washing out after a year, he spent the rest of his brief military career on an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean at the height of the Cold War. Returning to Northern Illinois University after service, he graduated with a BA in English and embarked on a series of jobs that worked him into the editing field.
While working for a Los Angeles publishing house, he was instrumental in establishing a division exclusively for the publication of gay paperbacks and magazines, of which he became editor. He moved on to edit a leading LA-based international gay men’s magazine. Then, tiring of earthquakes, brush fires, mud slides, and riots, he returned to the Midwest, where Dorien emerged, full-blown, like Venus from the sea. They were inseparable (and interchangeable) from that point on.
Roger—and Dorien, of course—moved back to Chicago in 2006, where they devoted time to writing and travel. Both Dorien’s excellent mystery series—Elliott Smith and John and Dick Hardest—will remain available to readers, as he requested. His popular blog will also remain available with the able assistance of his good friend Gary Brown.
