Summary: In the life of E. T. Bell – mathematician, poet, science fiction pioneer, and best-selling author of books about mathematics and mathematicians – there were a dozen important years that he never divulged to any of his Caltech friends and colleagues, nor even to his wife and son – and that he never intended to divulge. As a result the facts of Bell’s life (1883-1960) were always erroneously reported until the publication in 1993 of Constance Reid’s biographical detective story, ‘The Search for E.T. Bell, also known as John Taine’, MAA Spectrum (1993; Zbl 0859.01015).