Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Ellery Queen (gnv64)
Ellery Queen (gnv64)
Ellery Queen
For the TV series, see Ellery Queen (TV series).
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by
two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias
Frederic Dannay (October 20, 1905 – September 3, 1982[1]) and
Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee
(January 11, 1905 – April 3, 1971[2]), to write, edit, and anthologize
detective fiction.[3]
The two, particularly Dannay, were also responsible for co-founding and directing Ellery Queen's Mystery
Magazine, generally considered one of the most influential English Language crime fiction magazines of the last
sixty-five years. They were also prominent historians in the field, editing numerous collections and anthologies of
short stories such as The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes. Their 994-page anthology for The Modern Library, 101
Years' Entertainment: The Great Detective Stories, 1841-1941, was a landmark work that remained in print for many
years. Under their collective pseudonym, the cousins were given the Grand Master Award for achievements in the
field of the mystery story by the Mystery Writers of America in 1961.
The fictional Ellery Queen was the hero of over 30 novels and several short story collections written by Dannay and
Lee and published under the Ellery Queen pseudonym. Dannay and Lee also wrote four novels about a detective
named Drury Lane using the pseudonym Barnaby Ross. They allowed the Ellery Queen name to be used as a house
name for a number of novels written by other authors, most of them published in the 1960s as paperback originals
and not featuring Ellery Queen as a character.
The cousins remained circumspect about their writing methods. Novelist/critic H.R.F. Keating wrote: "How actually
did they do it? Did they sit together and hammer the stuff out word by word? Did one write the dialogue and the
other the narration? ... What eventually happened was that Fred Dannay, in principle, produced the plots, the clues
and what would have to be deduced from them as well as the outlines of the characters and Manfred Lee clothed it
all in words. But it is unlikely to have been as clear cut as that."[5]
According to critic Otto Penzler, "As an anthologist, Ellery Queen is without peer, his taste unequalled. As a
bibliographer and a collector of the detective short story, Queen is, again, a historical personage. Indeed, Ellery
Queen clearly is, after Poe, the most important American in mystery fiction."[6] British crime novelist Margery
Allingham wrote that Ellery Queen had "done far more for the detective story than any other two men put together".
Although Frederic Dannay outlived his cousin by eleven years, the Ellery Queen name ended upon the death of
Manfred Lee. The last Ellery Queen novel, A Fine and Private Place, was published in the year of Lee's death, 1971.
Ellery Queen 2
periodically in the canon, apparently ageless and family-free, in a supporting role as cook, receiver of parcels, valet,
and as occasional minor comedy relief. He is the principal character in some, not all, of the juvenile novels
ghost-written by other writers under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, Jr.
Fictional style
The Queen novels are examples of the classic "fair play", whodunit mystery, textbook examples of what became
known as the "Golden Age" of the mystery novel. Because the reader obtains clues in the same way as the
protagonist detective, the book becomes an intellectually challenging puzzle. Mystery writer John Dickson Carr
termed it "the grandest game in the world."
The early Queen novels were characterized by intricately plotted clues and solutions. In The Greek Coffin Mystery
(1932), The Siamese Twin Mystery, and others, multiple solutions to the mystery are proposed, a feature that also
showed up in later books such as Double, Double and Ten Days' Wonder. Queen's "false solution, followed by the
truth" became a hallmark of the canon. Another stylistic element in many early books (notably The Dutch Shoe
Mystery, The French Powder Mystery and Halfway House) is Ellery's method of creating a list of attributes (the
murderer is male, the murderer smokes a pipe, etc.). Then, by comparing each suspect to these attributes, he reduces
the list of suspects to a single name, often an unlikely one.[9]
By the late 1930s, when Ellery Queen — author and character — moved to Hollywood to try movie scriptwriting,
the tone of the novels began to change along with the detective's character. Romance was introduced, solutions
began to involve more psychological elements, and the "Challenge to the Reader" vanished from the books. Some of
the novels also moved from mere puzzles to more introspective themes. The three novels set in the fictional New
England town of Wrightsville, starting with Calamity Town in 1942, even showed the limitations of Ellery's methods
of detection. According to Julian Symons, "Ellery ... occasionally lost his father, as his exploits took place more
frequently in the small town of Wrightsville ... where his arrival as a house guest was likely to be the signal for the
commission of one or more murders. Very intelligently, Dannay and Lee used this change in locale to loosen the
structure of their stories. More emphasis was placed on personal relationships, and less on the details of
investigation."[7]
In the 1950s and 1960s, the authors tried some more experimental work, especially in three novels written by other
writers, all based on detailed outlines by Dannay. The Player on the Other Side, ghost-written by Theodore Sturgeon,
delves more deeply into motive than most Ellery Queen novels. And on the Eighth Day (1964), ghost-written by
Avram Davidson, was a religious allegory touching on fascism. Davidson also wrote The Fourth Side of the
Triangle.[10]
Toward the end of their careers, the cousins allowed some crime novels, mainly paperback originals, to be written by
various ghostwriters under the Ellery Queen name. These books did not feature the character Ellery Queen as the
protagonist. They included three novels featuring "the governor's troubleshooter", Mike McCall, and six featuring
private eye Tim Corrigan. The prominent science-fiction writer Jack Vance wrote three of these original paperbacks,
including the locked room mystery A Room to Die In.
There are also several collections of Ellery Queen short stories. These were praised by Julian Symons as follows:
"...in some ways the short story is better suited than the novel to this kind of writing. ... This is notable especially in
the case of Ellery Queen. The best of his short stories belong to the early intensely ratiocinative period, and both The
Adventures of Ellery Queen (1934) and The New Adventures (1940) are as absolutely fair and totally puzzling as the
most passionate devotee of orthodoxy could wish. ... (E)very story in these books is composed with wonderful
skill."[7]
Ellery Queen 4
Radio
On radio, The Adventures of Ellery Queen was heard on all three networks from 1939 to 1948. During the 1970s,
syndicated radio fillers, Ellery Queen's Minute Mysteries, began with an announcer saying, "This is Ellery Queen..."
and contained a short one-minute case. The radio station encouraged callers to solve the mystery and win a sponsor's
prize. Once a winner was found, the solution was broadcast as confirmation.
A complete episode guide and history of this radio program can be found in the book The Sound of Detection: Ellery
Queen's Adventures in Radio, published by OTR Publishing in 2002.
The Adventure of the Murdered Moths (Crippen & Landru, 2005) is the first book edition of the many of the radio
scripts.
Television
Helene Hanff, best known for her book 84 Charing Cross Road, was a scripter for the television series version of
The Adventures of Ellery Queen (1950–1952), which began on the DuMont Television Network but soon moved to
ABC. Shortly after the series began, Richard Hart, who played Queen, died and was replaced in the lead role by Lee
Bowman. The series returned to DuMont in 1954 with Hugh Marlowe in the title role. George Nader played Queen
in The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen (1958–1959), but he was replaced with Lee Philips in the final episodes.
Peter Lawford starred in a television movie, Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You, in 1971. Veteran actor Harry
Morgan played Inspector Queen, but in this film he was described as Ellery's uncle (perhaps to account for the fact
that Morgan was only eight years Lawford's senior, or for Lawford's English accent). This film is loosely based on
Cat of Many Tails.
The 1975 television movie Ellery Queen (a.k.a. "Too Many Suspects" — a loose adaptation of The Fourth Side of
the Triangle) led to the 1975-1976 Ellery Queen television series starring Jim Hutton in the title role (with David
Wayne as his widowed father). The series was done as a period piece set in New York City in the late 1940s.
Sergeant Velie, Inspector Queen's assistant, was a cast regular in this series; he had appeared in the novels and the
radio series, but had not been seen regularly in any of the previous TV versions.[11] Each episode contained a
"Challenge to the Viewer" with Queen breaking the fourth wall to go over the facts of the case and invite the
audience to solve the mystery on their own, immediately before the solution was revealed.
Ellery Queen 5
Each episode of the 1975 television series featured a number of Hollywood celebrities. Eve Arden, George Burns,
Milton Berle, Guy Lombardo, Rudy Vallee, and Don Ameche were among the guests.
In 2011, the Leverage episode "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job", Timothy Hutton's character Nate Ford appears at a
costumed murder mystery party as Ellery Queen, in a homage to his late father, Jim.
Films
• The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935) Donald Cook as Ellery Queen, Guy Usher as Inspector Queen (based on The
Spanish Cape Mystery)
• The Mandarin Mystery (1936) Eddie Quillan as Ellery Queen, Wade Boteler as Inspector Queen (loosely based on
The Chinese Orange Mystery); Available for download as being in the public domain [12]
• Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940) Ralph Bellamy as Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter,
Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen (very loosely based on The Door Between[13])
• Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery (1941) Ralph Bellamy as Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter,
Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen
• Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime (1941) Ralph Bellamy as Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter,
Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen (loosely based on The Devil To Pay[13])
• Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring (1941) Ralph Bellamy as Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter,
Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen (loosely based on The Dutch Shoe Mystery[13])
• A Close Call for Ellery Queen (1942) William Gargan as Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter,
Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen
• A Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen (1942) William Gargan as Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter,
Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen
• Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen (1942) Ralph Bellamy as Ellery Queen, Margaret Lindsay as Nikki Porter,
Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen
• La Décade prodigieuse (1971) (English title, Ten Days' Wonder) directed by Claude Chabrol and starring
Anthony Perkins, Orson Welles. There is no character named Ellery Queen but Michel Piccoli plays "Paul Regis,"
the investigator. (Based on Ten Days' Wonder)
• Haitatsu sarenai santsu no tegami (1979) (English title, The three undelivered letters) a Japanese movie directed
by Yoshitaro Nomura (based on Calamity Town but apparently not containing Ellery Queen or any detective
character)
Bibliography
Novels
• The Roman Hat Mystery — 1929
• The French Powder Mystery — 1930
• The Dutch Shoe Mystery — 1931
• The Greek Coffin Mystery — 1932
• The Egyptian Cross Mystery — 1932
• The American Gun Mystery — 1933
• The Siamese Twin Mystery — 1933
• The Chinese Orange Mystery — 1934
• The Spanish Cape Mystery — 1935
• The Lamp of God — 1935†
• Halfway House — 1936
• The Door Between — 1937
• The Devil to Pay — 1938
• The Four of Hearts — 1938
• The Dragon's Teeth aka.The Virgin Heiresses — 1939
• Calamity Town — 1942
• The Quick and the Dead — 1943
• There Was an Old Woman — 1943
• The Murderer is a Fox — 1945
• Ten Days' Wonder — 1948
• Cat of Many Tails — 1949
• Double, Double — 1950
• The Origin of Evil — 1951
• The King is Dead — 1952
• The Scarlet Letters — 1953
• The Glass Village — 1954 (neither Ellery Queen nor Inspector Queen in book)
• Inspector Queen's Own Case — 1956 (Inspector Queen only)
• The Finishing Stroke — 1958
• The Player on The Other Side — 1963 (ghost-written with Theodore Sturgeon)
• …and on the Eighth Day… — 1964 (ghost-written with Avram Davidson) (Grand Prix de Littérature Policière
winner)
• The Fourth Side of The Triangle — 1965 (ghost-written with Avram Davidson)
• A Study in Terror — 1966 (Movie tie-in or novelization of a movie of the same name about Sherlock Holmes and
Jack the Ripper, with Ellery Queen added as a character in the framing story. The Sherlock Holmes part was
written by Paul W. Fairman with Dannay/Lee input.)
• Face to Face — 1967
Ellery Queen 7
• The House of Brass — 1968 (ghost-written with Avram Davidson) (A sequel to Inspector Queen's Own Case
with a minimal appearance by Ellery.)
• Cop Out — 1969 (neither Ellery Queen nor Inspector Queen appear)
• The Last Woman in His Life — 1970
• A Fine and Private Place — 1971
† The Lamp of God is a long short story or a short novella, originally published in Detective Story magazine in 1935,
first collected in The New Adventures of Ellery Queen (see below) and published separately (alone) as #23 in the
Dell Ten-Cent Editions (64 pages) in 1951.
True Crime
Two collections of true crime stories (based on material gathered by anonymous researchers) written by Lee alone
that had been originally published in The American Weekly were collected into volumes.
• Ellery Queen's International Case Book (1964)
• The Woman in the Case (1967)
As Barnaby Ross
• The Tragedy Of X — 1932
• The Tragedy Of Y — 1932
• The Tragedy Of Z — 1933
• Drury Lane's Last Case — 1933
Omnibus volumes
• The Ellery Queen Omnibus — 1934
• The Ellery Queen Omnibus — 1936
• Ellery Queen's Big Book — 1938
• Ellery Queen's Adventure Omnibus — 1941
• Ellery Queen's Mystery Parade — 1944
• The Case Book of Ellery Queen — 1949
• The Wrightsville Murders — 1956
• The Hollywood Murders — 1957
• The New York Murders — 1958
Ellery Queen 8
Novels attributed to Ellery Queen/Barnaby Ross/Ellery Queen Jr. but written by other
authors
See Ellery Queen (house name).
Critical works
• The Detective Short Story: A Bibliography — 1942
• Queen's Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story As Revealed by the 100 Most Important Books
Published in this Field Since 1845 — 1951
• In the Queen's Parlor, and Other Leaves from the Editor's Notebook — 1957
Magazines
• Mystery League — 1933
• Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine — 1941 onwards
References
• Wheat, Carolyn (2005-06). "The Real Queen(s) of Crime" [20]. CLUES: A Journal of Detection 23 (4): 86–90.
[1] "Find a Grave" (http:/ / www. findagrave. com/ cgi-bin/ fg. cgi?page=gr& GRid=6823242). .
[2] "Find a Grave" (http:/ / www. findagrave. com/ cgi-bin/ fg. cgi?page=gr& GRid=6816634). .
[3] Sercu, Kurt (2006-03-15). "Ellery Queen, a Website on Deduction" (http:/ / neptune. spaceports. com/ ~queen/ ). Dell Magazines. .
[4] "Herbert, ''Who's Who in Crime'', p.161" (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=UjgE_CRiIW4C& pg=PA161& dq="ellery+ queen"& lr=&
as_brr=3& ie=ISO-8859-1& output=html). Books.google.com. . Retrieved 2012-02-21.
[5] Keating, H.R.F., The Bedside Companion to Crime. New York: Mysterious Press, 1989. ISBN 0-89296-416-2
[6] Penzler, Otto, et al. Detectionary. Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 1977. ISBN 0-87951-041-2
[7] Bloody Murder, Julian Symons, first published Faber and Faber 1972, with revisions in Penguin 1974, ISBN 0-14-003794-2
[8] Julian Symons, The Great Detectives, Harry N. Abrams, 1981
[9] Andrews, Dale (2011-11-08). "If It's Tuesday This Must Be Belgium" (http:/ / www. sleuthsayers. org/ 2011/ 11/
if-its-tuesday-this-must-be-belgium-or. html). Washington, DC: SleuthSayers. .
[10] Crime Fiction, 1749-1980: A Comprehensive Bibliography by Allen J. Hubin, Garland, 1984, ISBN 0-8240-9219-8
[11] The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, 1946–present, Brooks and Marsh, 1979, ISBN 0-345-28248-5
[12] http:/ / www. archive. org/ details/ TheMandarinMystery
[13] "Ellery Queen, a website on detection" (http:/ / neptune. spaceports. com/ ~queen/ Other Media_6. html). Neptune.spaceports.com.
1937-10-02. . Retrieved 2012-02-21.
[14] "A page on Ellery Queen comics, accessed September 29 2007" (http:/ / meltingpot. fortunecity. com/ kirkland/ 266/ eq/ eqcb. htm).
Meltingpot.fortunecity.com. . Retrieved 2012-02-21.
[15] "Ellery Queen website, accessed September 29 2007" (http:/ / neptune. spaceports. com/ ~queen/ Other Media_10. html).
Neptune.spaceports.com. 1996-09-18. . Retrieved 2012-02-21.
[16] "An Ellery Queen website, accessed September 29 2007" (http:/ / neptune. spaceports. com/ ~queen/ Other Media_11. html).
Neptune.spaceports.com. . Retrieved 2012-02-21.
[17] Mystery Writers of America website, accessed September 29 2007 (http:/ / mysterywriters. org/ pages/ awards/ queen. htm)
Ellery Queen 10
[18] "Philatelic web page accessed September 29 2007" (http:/ / www. trussel. com/ detfic/ nicarag. htm). Trussel.com. 1972-11-13. . Retrieved
2012-02-21.
[19] "Philatelic Web site accessed September 29 2007" (http:/ / www. trussel. com/ detfic/ sanmarin. htm#Queen). Trussel.com. 1979-07-12. .
Retrieved 2012-02-21.
[20] http:/ / www. hycyber. com/ MYST/ wheat_carolyn. html
External links
• Sercu, Kurt (2006-03-15). "Ellery Queen, a Website on Deduction" (http://neptune.spaceports.com/~queen/).
• Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine web site with magazine excerpts (http://www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/)
• Ellery Queen radio shows in the public domain (http://www.archive.org/details/ElleryQueen)
Article Sources and Contributors 11
License
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/