Ellery Queen
Encyclopedia
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) and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee (January 11, 1905 – April 3, 1971), to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction
.
The fictional Ellery Queen created by Dannay and Lee is a mystery writer and amateur detective who helps his father, a police inspector in New York City
, solve baffling murders.
s and short stories that covered 42 years, "Ellery Queen" served as a joint pseudonym for the cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, as well as the name of the primary detective-hero they created. During the 1930s and much of the 1940s, that detective-hero was possibly the best known American fictional detective. Movies, radio shows, and television shows were based on Dannay and Lee's works.
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."
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." 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.
novels by S. S. Van Dine
, their entry won the contest, but before it could be published, the magazine was sold and the new owner awarded the prize to another entrant. Undeterred, the cousins took their novel to publishers, and The Roman Hat Mystery was published in 1929
. According to H.R.F. Keating, "Later the cousins took a sharper view of the Philo Vance character, Manfred Lee calling him, with typical vehemence, 'the biggest prig that ever came down the pike'.
The Roman Hat Mystery established a reliable template: a geographic formula title (The Dutch Shoe Mystery
, The Egyptian Cross Mystery, etc.); an unusual crime; a complex series of clues and red herrings; multiple misdirected solutions before the final truth is revealed, and a cast of supporting characters including Ellery's father, Inspector Richard Queen, and his irascible assistant, Sergeant Velie. What became the most famous part of the early Ellery Queen books was the "Challenge to the Reader." This was a single page near the end of the book declaring that the reader had seen all the same clues Ellery had, and that only one solution was possible. According to novelist/critic Julian Symons
, "The rare distinction of the books is that this claim is accurate. There are problems in deduction that do really permit of only one answer, and there are few crime stories indeed of which this can be said."
The fictional detective Ellery Queen is the author of the books in which he appears (The Finishing Stroke, 1958) and the editor of the magazine that bears his name (The Player On The Other Side, 1963). In earlier novels he is a snobbish Harvard-educated intellectual of independent wealth who wears pince-nez
glasses and investigates crimes because he finds them stimulating. He supposedly derived these characteristics from his mother, the daughter of an aristocratic
New York family, who had married Inspector Queen, a bluff, man-in-the-street New York Irishman, and who died before the stories began. From 1938, Ellery spends some time working in Hollywood as a screenwriter (in The Four of Hearts and The Origin of Evil), and solves cases with a Hollywood setting. At this point, he has a slick facade, is part of Hollywood society and hobnobs comfortably with the wealthy and famous. Beginning with Calamity Town in 1942, Ellery becomes less of a cypher and more of a human being, often becoming emotionally affected by the people in his cases, and at one point quitting detective work altogether. Calamity Town, two sequels, and some short stories are set in the imaginary town of Wrightsville, and subsidiary characters recur from story to story; Ellery relates to the various strata of American society as an outsider. However, after his Hollywood and Wrightsville periods, he is returned to his New York City roots for the remainder of his career, and is then seen again as an ultra-logical crime solver who remains distant from his cases. In the very late novels, he often seems a near-faceless, near-characterless persona whose role is purely to solve the mystery. So striking are the differences between the different periods of the Ellery Queen character that Julian Symons
advanced the theory that there were two "Ellery Queens" - an older and younger brother.
Ellery Queen is said to be married and the father of a child in the introductions to the first few novels, but this plotline is never developed and Ellery is mainly portrayed as a bachelor. The character of "Nikki Porter," who acts as Ellery's secretary and is something of a love interest, was encountered first in the radio series. Nikki's curiosity and her attempts to encourage Ellery to work as a detective are responsible for a number of radio and film plots from the early 1940s. Her first appearance in a written story is in the final pages of There Was An Old Woman (1943), when a character with whom Ellery has had some flirtatious moments announces spontaneously that she's changing her name to Nikki Porter and going to work as Ellery's secretary. Nikki Porter appears sporadically thereafter in novels and stories, linking the character from radio and movies into the written canon. The character of Paula Paris, an agoraphobic gossip columnist, is linked romantically with Ellery in novels and short stories during the Hollywood period, but does not appear in the radio series or films, and soon vanished from the books. Ellery is not given any serious romantic interests after Nikki Porter and Paula Paris disappear from the books.
The Queen household, an apartment in New York shared by the Queens father and son, also contains a houseboy named Djuna, at least in the earliest novels and short stories. This young man, who may be of gypsy origin, appears 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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
, a Shakespearean actor who had retired from the stage due to deafness and was consulted as an amateur detective. The novels also featured Inspector Thumm (at first of the New York police, then later a private investigator) and his crime-solving daughter Patience. The Drury Lane novels are in the whodunnit style. The Tragedy of X and The Tragedy of Y are variations on the locked room mystery
format. The Tragedy of Y bears some resemblance to the Ellery Queen novel There Was an Old Woman: both are about eccentric families headed by a matriarch.
In the early 1930s, before Dannay and Lee's identity as the authors had been made public, "Ellery Queen" and "Barnaby Ross" staged a series of public debates in which one cousin impersonated Queen and the other impersonated Ross, both of them wearing masks to preserve their anonymity. According to H.R.F. Keating, "People said Ross must be the wit and critic Alexander Woolcott and Queen S.S. Van Dine..., creator of the super-snob detective Philo Vance, on whom 'Ellery Queen' was indeed modeled."
The cousins also allowed the "Barnaby Ross" name to be used as a house name for the publication of a series of historical novels by Don Tracy. (See Ellery Queen (house name)
.) From the 1940s, republications of the Drury Lane books were mostly under the Ellery Queen name.
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.
, best known for her book 84 Charing Cross Road
, was a scripter for the television series version of The Adventures of Ellery Queen
(1950–52), 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 (1958–59), 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 (aka "Too Many Suspects" - a loose adaptation of The Fourth Side of the Triangle) led to the 1975-76 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. 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.
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 an homage to his late father, Jim.
).
† 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.
were collected into volumes.
Note that other short story collections exist, such as More Adventures of Ellery Queen (1940), which reprints stories from two previous collections.
.
and many more
The Mystery Writers of America established the Ellery Queen Award in 1983 "to honor writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry."
Ellery Queen was featured on a postage stamp issued by Nicaragua
as part of a series of "Famous Fictional Detectives" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Interpol in 1973 and a similar series of famous fictional detectives from San Marino
in 1979.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
and a pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
used by two American cousins from Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay (October 20, 1905 – September 3, 1982) and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee (January 11, 1905 – April 3, 1971), to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
.
The fictional Ellery Queen created by Dannay and Lee is a mystery writer and amateur detective who helps his father, a police inspector in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, solve baffling murders.
Career of Dannay and Lee
In a successful series of novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s and short stories that covered 42 years, "Ellery Queen" served as a joint pseudonym for the cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, as well as the name of the primary detective-hero they created. During the 1930s and much of the 1940s, that detective-hero was possibly the best known American fictional detective. Movies, radio shows, and television shows were based on Dannay and Lee's works.
The two, particularly Dannay, were also responsible for co-founding and directing Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
, generally considered one of the most influential English Language crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
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
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
. 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
Mystery Writers of America
Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
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
Drury Lane (fictional detective)
Drury Lane is a fictional detective created by Ellery Queen in the 1930s under the byline of Barnaby Ross. He is a retired Shakespearian actor who lives in a lavish castle on the Hudson River. His backstory involves leaving the theatre because he lost his sense of hearing, and the novels...
using the pseudonym Barnaby Ross. They allowed the Ellery Queen name
Ellery Queen (house name)
Ellery Queen was the pen name for two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective character named Ellery Queen. At various points in their history, the cousins allowed the name of Ellery Queen to be used as a house 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."
According to critic Otto Penzler
Otto Penzler
Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.-Biography:...
, "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." British crime novelist Margery Allingham
Margery Allingham
Margery Louise Allingham was an English crime writer, best remembered for her detective stories featuring gentleman sleuth Albert Campion.- Childhood and schooling :...
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 the fictional character
Ellery Queen was created in 1928 when Dannay and Lee entered a writing contest sponsored by McClure's Magazine for the best first mystery novel. They decided to use as their collective pseudonym the same name that they had given their detective. Inspired by the formula and style of the Philo VancePhilo Vance
Philo Vance featured in 12 crime novels written by S. S. Van Dine , published in the 1920s and 1930s. During that time, Vance was immensely popular in books, movies, and on the radio. He was portrayed as a stylish, even foppish dandy, a New York bon vivant possessing a highly intellectual bent...
novels by S. S. Van Dine
S. S. Van Dine
S. S. Van Dine was the pseudonym of Willard Huntington Wright , a U.S art critic and author. He created the once immensely popular fictional detective Philo Vance, who first appeared in books in the 1920s, then in movies and on the radio.-Early life and career:Willard Huntington Wright was born...
, their entry won the contest, but before it could be published, the magazine was sold and the new owner awarded the prize to another entrant. Undeterred, the cousins took their novel to publishers, and The Roman Hat Mystery was published in 1929
1929 in literature
The year 1929 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Candide by Voltaire is declared obscene by the United States Customs and seized in 1930....
. According to H.R.F. Keating, "Later the cousins took a sharper view of the Philo Vance character, Manfred Lee calling him, with typical vehemence, 'the biggest prig that ever came down the pike'.
The Roman Hat Mystery established a reliable template: a geographic formula title (The Dutch Shoe Mystery
The Dutch Shoe Mystery
The Dutch Shoe Mystery is a novel that was written in 1931 by Ellery Queen. It is the third of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
, The Egyptian Cross Mystery, etc.); an unusual crime; a complex series of clues and red herrings; multiple misdirected solutions before the final truth is revealed, and a cast of supporting characters including Ellery's father, Inspector Richard Queen, and his irascible assistant, Sergeant Velie. What became the most famous part of the early Ellery Queen books was the "Challenge to the Reader." This was a single page near the end of the book declaring that the reader had seen all the same clues Ellery had, and that only one solution was possible. According to novelist/critic Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
, "The rare distinction of the books is that this claim is accurate. There are problems in deduction that do really permit of only one answer, and there are few crime stories indeed of which this can be said."
The fictional detective Ellery Queen is the author of the books in which he appears (The Finishing Stroke, 1958) and the editor of the magazine that bears his name (The Player On The Other Side, 1963). In earlier novels he is a snobbish Harvard-educated intellectual of independent wealth who wears pince-nez
Pince-nez
Pince-nez are a style of spectacles, popular in the 19th century, which are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, to pinch, and nez, nose....
glasses and investigates crimes because he finds them stimulating. He supposedly derived these characteristics from his mother, the daughter of an aristocratic
Aristocracy (class)
The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...
New York family, who had married Inspector Queen, a bluff, man-in-the-street New York Irishman, and who died before the stories began. From 1938, Ellery spends some time working in Hollywood as a screenwriter (in The Four of Hearts and The Origin of Evil), and solves cases with a Hollywood setting. At this point, he has a slick facade, is part of Hollywood society and hobnobs comfortably with the wealthy and famous. Beginning with Calamity Town in 1942, Ellery becomes less of a cypher and more of a human being, often becoming emotionally affected by the people in his cases, and at one point quitting detective work altogether. Calamity Town, two sequels, and some short stories are set in the imaginary town of Wrightsville, and subsidiary characters recur from story to story; Ellery relates to the various strata of American society as an outsider. However, after his Hollywood and Wrightsville periods, he is returned to his New York City roots for the remainder of his career, and is then seen again as an ultra-logical crime solver who remains distant from his cases. In the very late novels, he often seems a near-faceless, near-characterless persona whose role is purely to solve the mystery. So striking are the differences between the different periods of the Ellery Queen character that Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
advanced the theory that there were two "Ellery Queens" - an older and younger brother.
Ellery Queen is said to be married and the father of a child in the introductions to the first few novels, but this plotline is never developed and Ellery is mainly portrayed as a bachelor. The character of "Nikki Porter," who acts as Ellery's secretary and is something of a love interest, was encountered first in the radio series. Nikki's curiosity and her attempts to encourage Ellery to work as a detective are responsible for a number of radio and film plots from the early 1940s. Her first appearance in a written story is in the final pages of There Was An Old Woman (1943), when a character with whom Ellery has had some flirtatious moments announces spontaneously that she's changing her name to Nikki Porter and going to work as Ellery's secretary. Nikki Porter appears sporadically thereafter in novels and stories, linking the character from radio and movies into the written canon. The character of Paula Paris, an agoraphobic gossip columnist, is linked romantically with Ellery in novels and short stories during the Hollywood period, but does not appear in the radio series or films, and soon vanished from the books. Ellery is not given any serious romantic interests after Nikki Porter and Paula Paris disappear from the books.
The Queen household, an apartment in New York shared by the Queens father and son, also contains a houseboy named Djuna, at least in the earliest novels and short stories. This young man, who may be of gypsy origin, appears 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", whodunitWhodunit
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
mystery, textbook examples of what became known as the "Golden Age
Golden Age of Detective Fiction
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels produced by various authors, all following similar patterns and style.-Origins:Mademoiselle de Scudéri, by E.T.A...
" 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
John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr was an American author of detective stories, who also published under the pen names Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn....
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
1932 in literature
The year 1932 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. V. Knox replaces Sir Owen Seaman as editor of Punch magazine.*Samuel Beckett's first novel, Dream of Fair to Middling Women, is rejected by several publishers....
), 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.
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
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
town of Wrightsville, starting with Calamity Town in 1942, even showed the limitations of Ellery's methods of detection. According to Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
, "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."
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
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
, delves more deeply into motive than most Ellery Queen novels. And on the Eighth Day (1964
1964 in literature
The year 1964 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Jean-Paul Sartre becomes head of the Organization to Defend Iranian Political Prisoners....
), ghost-written by Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson
Avram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
, was a religious allegory touching on fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. Davidson also wrote The Fourth Side of the Triangle.
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
Jack Vance
John Holbrook Vance is an American mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. Most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance. Vance has published 11 mysteries as John Holbrook Vance and 3 as Ellery Queen...
wrote three of these original paperbacks, including the locked room mystery
Locked room mystery
The locked room mystery is a sub-genre of detective fiction in which a crime—almost always murder—is committed under apparently impossible circumstances. The crime in question typically involves a crime scene that no intruder could have entered or left, e.g., a locked room...
A Room to Die In.
There are also several collections of Ellery Queen short stories. These were praised by Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
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."
Novels as Barnaby Ross
Beginning in 1932, the cousins wrote four novels using the pseudonym "Barnaby Ross" about Drury LaneDrury Lane (fictional detective)
Drury Lane is a fictional detective created by Ellery Queen in the 1930s under the byline of Barnaby Ross. He is a retired Shakespearian actor who lives in a lavish castle on the Hudson River. His backstory involves leaving the theatre because he lost his sense of hearing, and the novels...
, a Shakespearean actor who had retired from the stage due to deafness and was consulted as an amateur detective. The novels also featured Inspector Thumm (at first of the New York police, then later a private investigator) and his crime-solving daughter Patience. The Drury Lane novels are in the whodunnit style. The Tragedy of X and The Tragedy of Y are variations on the locked room mystery
Locked room mystery
The locked room mystery is a sub-genre of detective fiction in which a crime—almost always murder—is committed under apparently impossible circumstances. The crime in question typically involves a crime scene that no intruder could have entered or left, e.g., a locked room...
format. The Tragedy of Y bears some resemblance to the Ellery Queen novel There Was an Old Woman: both are about eccentric families headed by a matriarch.
In the early 1930s, before Dannay and Lee's identity as the authors had been made public, "Ellery Queen" and "Barnaby Ross" staged a series of public debates in which one cousin impersonated Queen and the other impersonated Ross, both of them wearing masks to preserve their anonymity. According to H.R.F. Keating, "People said Ross must be the wit and critic Alexander Woolcott and Queen S.S. Van Dine..., creator of the super-snob detective Philo Vance, on whom 'Ellery Queen' was indeed modeled."
The cousins also allowed the "Barnaby Ross" name to be used as a house name for the publication of a series of historical novels by Don Tracy. (See Ellery Queen (house name)
Ellery Queen (house name)
Ellery Queen was the pen name for two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective character named Ellery Queen. At various points in their history, the cousins allowed the name of Ellery Queen to be used as a house name;...
.) From the 1940s, republications of the Drury Lane books were mostly under the Ellery Queen name.
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.
Television
Helene HanffHelene Hanff
Helene Hanff was an American writer. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she is best known as the author of the book 84, Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a stage play, , and film of the same name.- Career :...
, best known for her book 84 Charing Cross Road
84 Charing Cross Road
84, Charing Cross Road is a 1970 book by Helene Hanff, later made into a stage play, television play and film, about the twenty-year correspondence between her and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co, antiquarian booksellers located at the eponymous address in London, England.Hanff, in search of...
, was a scripter for the television series version of The Adventures of Ellery Queen
The Adventures of Ellery Queen
The Adventures of Ellery Queen is the title of a radio series and four separate television series made from the 1950s through the 1970s. They were based on the fictional character and pseudonymous writer Ellery Queen.-Radio:...
(1950–52), which began on the DuMont Television Network
DuMont Television Network
The DuMont Television Network, also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont, Du Mont, or Dumont was one of the world's pioneer commercial television networks, rivalling NBC for the distinction of being first overall. It began operation in the United States in 1946. It was owned by DuMont...
but soon moved to ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
. Shortly after the series began, Richard Hart
Richard Hart (actor)
Richard Comstock Hart was an American actor. Hart appeared in film and on TV, but his chief love was the stage....
, who played Queen, died and was replaced in the lead role by Lee Bowman
Lee Bowman
Lee Bowman was an American film and television actor.Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Bowman graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1936 and began his film career playing a bit part in Swing High, Swing Low .His many film appearances include A Man to Remember , Love Affair , Third...
. The series returned to DuMont in 1954 with Hugh Marlowe
Hugh Marlowe
Hugh Marlowe was an American film, television, stage and radio actor.Marlowe was born Hugh Herbert Hipple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and began his stage career in the 1930s at the Pasadena Playhouse in California. Marlowe was usually a secondary lead or supporting actor in the films he...
in the title role. George Nader
George Nader
George Nader was an American film and television actor of Lebanese descent. He appeared in a variety of films from 1950 through 1974, including Phone Call from a Stranger , Congo Crossing , and The Female Animal...
played Queen in The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen (1958–59), but he was replaced with Lee Philips in the final episodes.
Peter Lawford
Peter Lawford
Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English-American actor.He was a member of the "Rat Pack", and brother-in-law to US President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...
starred in a television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
, Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You, in 1971. Veteran actor Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan is an American actor. Morgan is well-known for his roles as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H , Pete Porter on both Pete and Gladys and December Bride , Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet , and Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey...
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 (aka "Too Many Suspects" - a loose adaptation of The Fourth Side of the Triangle) led to the 1975-76 Ellery Queen television series
Ellery Queen (TV series)
Ellery Queen is an American television detective mystery series that ran for one season from 1975 to 1976 on NBC. It starred Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, and David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen...
starring Jim Hutton
Jim Hutton
Dana James Hutton , usually credited as Jim Hutton, was an American actor in film and television probably best remembered for his role as Ellery Queen in the 1970s TV series of the same name.-Early life and career:...
in the title role (with David Wayne
David Wayne
David Wayne was an American actor with a career spanning nearly 50 years.-Early life and career:...
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. Each episode contained a "Challenge to the Viewer" with Queen breaking the fourth wall
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...
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.
Each episode of the 1975 television series featured a number of Hollywood celebrities. Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...
, George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
, Milton Berle
Milton Berle
Milton Berlinger , better known as Milton Berle, was an American comedian and actor. As the manic host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater , in 1948 he was the first major star of U.S. television and as such became known as Uncle Miltie and Mr...
, Guy Lombardo
Guy Lombardo
Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo was a Canadian-American bandleader and violinist.Forming "The Royal Canadians" in 1924 with his brothers Carmen, Lebert, and Victor and other musicians from his hometown, Lombardo led the group to international success, billing themselves as creating "The Sweetest...
, Rudy Vallee
Rudy Vallée
Rudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, and Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
were among the guests.
In 2011, the Leverage
Leverage (TV series)
Leverage is an American television drama series on TNT that premiered in December 2008. The series is produced by director/executive producer Dean Devlin's production company Electric Television...
episode "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job", Timothy Hutton
Timothy Hutton
Timothy Tarquin Hutton is an American actor. He is the youngest actor to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, which he won at the age of 20 for his performance as Conrad Jarrett in Ordinary People . He currently stars as Nathan "Nate" Ford on the TNT series Leverage.-Early life:Timothy...
's character Nate Ford appears at a costumed murder mystery party as Ellery Queen, in an homage to his late father, Jim.
Films
- The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935) Donald CookDonald Cook (actor)Donald Cook was an American stage and film actor.Born in Portland, Oregon, he originally studied farming but later started business with a lumber company. He joined the Kansas Community Players and through this received an offer of stage work...
as Ellery Queen, Guy Usher as Inspector Queen (based on The Spanish Cape Mystery) - The Mandarin Mystery (1936) Eddie QuillanEddie QuillanEdward "Eddie" Quillan was an American film actor whose career began as a child on the vaudeville stages and silent film and continued through the age of television in the 1980s.-Vaudeville and silent films:...
as Ellery Queen, Wade Boteler as Inspector Queen (loosely based on The Chinese Orange Mystery); Available for download as being in the public domain - Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940) Ralph BellamyRalph BellamyRalph Bellamy was an American actor whose career spanned sixty-two years.-Early life:He was born Ralph Rexford Bellamy in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Lilla Louise , a native of Canada, and Charles Rexford Bellamy. He ran away from home when he was fifteen and managed to get into a road show...
as Ellery Queen, Margaret LindsayMargaret LindsayMargaret Lindsay was an American film actress. Her time as a Warner Bros. contract player during the 1930s was particularly productive...
as Nikki Porter, Charley Grapewin as Inspector Queen (very loosely based on The Door Between) - 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)
- 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)
- A Close Call for Ellery Queen (1942) William GarganWilliam GarganWilliam Gargan, born William Dennis Gargan July 17, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, USA and died February 17, 1979 aged 73 on a flight between New York and San Diego.He was an American motion picture, television and radio actor...
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 ChabrolClaude ChabrolClaude Chabrol was a French film director, a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s...
and starring Anthony PerkinsAnthony PerkinsAnthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
, Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
. 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 NomuraYoshitaro NomuraYoshitarō Nomura was a prolific Japanese film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His first accredited film was released in 1953; his last in 1985...
(based on Calamity TownCalamity TownCalamity Town is a novel that was published in 1942 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in the fictitious town of Wrightsville, USA.-Plot summary:...
but apparently not containing Ellery Queen or any detective character)
Comic books and graphic novels
- Ellery Queen stories appeared in issues of Crackajack Funnies beginning in 1940, a four issue series by Superior Comics in 1949, two issues of a short-lived series by Ziff-Davis in 1952, and three comics published by Dell in 1962. Mike W. BarrMike W. BarrMike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels.-Biography:Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 , for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man...
used Ellery as a guest star in an issue of his Maze AgencyMaze AgencyThe Maze Agency is an American mystery comic book series created by Mike W. Barr and first published in 1988. It revolves around a pair of detectives and their adventures solving puzzling murders...
#9 in February 1990, published by Innovation Comics, in a story titled "The English Channeler Mystery: A Problem in Deduction."
- Queen (the character) is highlighted in volume 11 of the Case ClosedCase ClosedCase Closed, known as in Japan, is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. The series is serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday since February 2, 1994, and has been collected in 73 tankōbon volumes as of September 2011...
manga's edition of "Gosho Aoyoma's Mystery Library, a section of the graphic novels (usually the last page) where the author introduces a different detective (or occasionally, a villain) from mystery literature, television, or other media. The character Harley Hartwell also mentioned that he prefers Ellery Queen to Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
in volume 12.
Board games and jigsaw puzzles
The name of Ellery Queen was attached to a number of games, including 1956's (Ellery Queen's Great Mystery Game) Trapped, 1971's The Case of the Elusive Assassin by Ellery Queen, a jigsaw puzzle in 1973 called "Ellery Queen: The Case of His Headless Highness" and a board game in 1986 called "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Game". There is also a VCR-based game from the early 1980s called "Ellery Queen's Operation: Murder" (loosely based on The Dutch Shoe MysteryThe Dutch Shoe Mystery
The Dutch Shoe Mystery is a novel that was written in 1931 by Ellery Queen. It is the third of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
).
Novels
- The Roman Hat MysteryThe Roman Hat MysteryThe Roman Hat Mystery is a novel that was written in 1929 by Ellery Queen. It is the first of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:The novel deals with the poisoning of a disreputable lawyer named Monte Field in the Roman Theater in New York City during a performance of a play called "Gunplay!"...
- 1929 - The French Powder MysteryThe French Powder MysteryThe French Powder Mystery is a novel that was written in 1930 by Ellery Queen. It is the second of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
- 1930 - The Dutch Shoe MysteryThe Dutch Shoe MysteryThe Dutch Shoe Mystery is a novel that was written in 1931 by Ellery Queen. It is the third of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
- 1931 - The Greek Coffin MysteryThe Greek Coffin MysteryThe Greek Coffin Mystery is a novel that was written in 1932 by Ellery Queen. It is the fourth of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
- 1932 - The Egyptian Cross MysteryThe Egyptian Cross MysteryThe Egyptian Cross Mystery is a novel that was written in 1932 by Ellery Queen. It is the fifth of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
- 1932 - The American Gun MysteryThe American Gun MysteryThe American Gun Mystery is a novel that was written in 1933 by Ellery Queen. It is the sixth of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
- 1933 - The Siamese Twin MysteryThe Siamese Twin MysteryThe Siamese Twin Mystery is an English language American novel written in 1933 by Ellery Queen. It is the seventh of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:...
- 1933 - The Chinese Orange MysteryThe Chinese Orange MysteryThe Chinese Orange Mystery is a novel that was written in 1934 by Ellery Queen. It is the eighth of the Ellery Queen mysteries.In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, this novel was voted as the eighth best locked room mystery of all time....
- 1934 - The Spanish Cape MysteryThe Spanish Cape MysteryThe Spanish Cape Mystery is a novel that was written in by Ellery Queen as the ninth book of the Ellery Queen mysteries. The same month of 1935 hardcover publication by Frederick A...
- 1935 - The Lamp of GodThe Lamp of GodThe Lamp of God is a novella that was written in 1935 by Ellery Queen. It was originally published in Detective Story Magazine in 1935 and first published in book form as part of The New Adventures of Ellery Queen in 1940...
- 1935† - Halfway HouseHalfway House (novel)Halfway House is a novel that was written in 1936 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in New Jersey, USA.-Plot summary:Joe Wilson was a poor, itinerant salesman with a pretty young wife in Philadelphia. Joseph Kent Gimball was a wealthy, socially prominent New Yorker with an...
- 1936 - The Door BetweenThe Door BetweenThe Door Between is a novel that was published in 1937 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in New York City, United States.-Plot summary:...
- 1937 - The Devil to PayThe Devil to Pay (1938 novel)The Devil To Pay is a novel that was published in 1938 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in Los Angeles, United States.-Plot summary:...
- 1938 - The Four of HeartsThe Four of HeartsThe Four of Hearts is a novel that was published in 1938 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in Los Angeles, United States.-Plot summary:...
- 1938 - The Dragon's TeethThe Dragon's TeethThe Dragon's Teeth, also published as The Virgin Heiresses, is a novel that was published in 1939 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in New York City, United States.-Plot summary:...
aka.The Virgin Heiresses - 1939 - Calamity TownCalamity TownCalamity Town is a novel that was published in 1942 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in the fictitious town of Wrightsville, USA.-Plot summary:...
- 1942 - The Quick and the DeadThe Quick and the DeadThe Quick and the Dead is a 1995 western film directed by Sam Raimi and starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. The story focuses on "The Lady" , a gunfighter who rides into the 1878 Wild West town of Redemption, controlled by the ruthless John Herod...
- 1943 - There Was an Old WomanThere Was an Old Woman (novel)There Was an Old Woman is a novel that was published in 1943 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in New York City, USA.-Plot summary:Mrs...
- 1943 - The Murderer is a FoxThe Murderer is a FoxThe Murderer is a Fox is a novel that was published in 1945 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in the imaginary town of Wrightsville, USA.-Plot summary:...
- 1945 - Ten Days' WonderTen Days' WonderTen Days' Wonder is a novel that was published in 1948 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in the imaginary town of Wrightsville, USA.-Plot summary:...
- 1948 - Cat of Many TailsCat of Many TailsCat of Many Tails is a novel that was published in 1949 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel set in New York City, USA.-Plot summary:A strangler is killing Manhattanites, seemingly at random. The only common thread is the unusual silk cords that are used for the killings; blue for men and pink...
- 1949 - Double, DoubleDouble, Double (Ellery Queen novel)Double, Double is a novel that was published in 1949 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel set in the imaginary New England town of Wrightsville, USA.-Plot summary:...
- 1950 - The Origin of EvilThe Origin of EvilThe Origin of Evil is a novel that was published in 1951 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel set in Los Angeles, USA.-Plot summary:The beautiful young Laurel Hill asks Ellery Queen to investigate a series of unusual anonymous gifts that have been received by her father, Leander Hill, half of...
- 1951 - The King is DeadThe King is Dead (novel)The King is Dead is a novel that was published in 1951 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel set primarily on an imaginary island whose location is not known, but also in the imaginary town of Wrightsville, USA.-Plot summary:...
- 1952 - The Scarlet LettersThe Scarlet LettersThe Scarlet Letters is an English language novel published in 1953 by American author Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel set primarily in New York City, USA.-Plot summary:...
- 1953 - The Glass VillageThe Glass VillageThe Glass Village is a novel that was published in 1954 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel set in the imaginary New England town of Shinn Corners, United States.-Plot summary:...
- 1954 (neither Ellery Queen nor Inspector Queen in book) - Inspector Queen's Own Case - 1956 (Inspector Queen only)
- The Finishing StrokeThe Finishing StrokeThe Finishing Stroke is a novel that was published in 1958 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel set primarily in the past, immediately after the publication of Ellery Queen's first novel, The Roman Hat Mystery.-Plot summary:...
- 1958 - The Player on The Other Side - 1963 (ghost-written with Theodore SturgeonTheodore SturgeonTheodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
) - …and on the Eighth Day… - 1964 (ghost-written with Avram DavidsonAvram DavidsonAvram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
) (Grand Prix de Littérature PolicièreGrand Prix de Littérature PolicièreThe Grand Prix de Littérature Policière is a French literary prize founded in 1948 by author and literary critic Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe. It is the most prestigious award for crime and detective fiction in France...
winner) - The Fourth Side of The Triangle - 1965 (ghost-written with Avram DavidsonAvram DavidsonAvram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
) - A Study in Terror - 1966 (Movie tie-in or novelization of a movieA Study in TerrorA Study in Terror is a 1965 British thriller film directed by James Hill and starring John Neville as Sherlock Holmes and Donald Houston as Dr. Watson...
of the same name about Sherlock HolmesSherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
and Jack the RipperJack the Ripper"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
, with Ellery Queen added as a character in the framing story. The Sherlock Holmes part was written by Paul W. FairmanPaul W. FairmanPaul Warren Fairman was an editor and writer in a variety of genres under his own name and under pseudonyms. His detective story "Late Rain" was published in the February, 1947 issue of Mammoth Detective. He published his story "No Teeth For the Tiger" in the February, 1950 issue of Amazing Stories...
with Dannay/Lee input.) - Face to Face - 1967
- The House of Brass - 1968 (ghost-written with Avram DavidsonAvram DavidsonAvram Davidson was an American writer of fantasy fiction, science fiction, and crime fiction, as well as the author of many stories that do not fit into a genre niche...
) (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
Dell Publishing
Dell Publishing, an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte, Jr.During the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, Dell was one of the largest publishers of magazines, including pulp magazines. Their line of humor magazines included 1000 Jokes, launched in...
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 WeeklyThe American Weekly
The American Weekly was a United States magazine published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896, until 1966.A Sunday newspaper supplement which published many sensationalist stories, it was initially named The American Magazine but soon changed to The American Weekly. The name was...
were collected into volumes.
- Ellery Queen's International Case Book (1964)
- The Woman in the Case (1967)
Short story collections
- The Adventures of Ellery Queen - 1934
- The New Adventures of Ellery Queen - 1940 (Contains The Lamp of God -- see "Novels" above)
- The Case Book of Ellery Queen - 1945
- Calendar Of Crime - 1952
- QBI - Queen's Bureau of Investigation - 1955
- Queens Full - 1966
- QED - Queen's Experiments In Detection - 1968
- The Best Of Ellery Queen - 1985 (one previously uncollected)
- The Tragedy Of Errors - Crippen & Landru, 1999 (a previously unpublished synopsis written by Dannay, which was to be a Queen novel, plus all the previously uncollected short stories)
- The Adventure of the Murdered Moths and Other Radio Mysteries - Crippen & Landru, 2005
Note that other short story collections exist, such as More Adventures of Ellery Queen (1940), which reprints stories from two previous collections.
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
- The XYZ Murders - 1961
- The Bizarre Murders - 1962
Novels attributed to Ellery Queen/Barnaby Ross/Ellery Queen Jr. but written by other authors
See Ellery Queen (house name)Ellery Queen (house name)
Ellery Queen was the pen name for two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective character named Ellery Queen. At various points in their history, the cousins allowed the name of Ellery Queen to be used as a 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
Anthologies and collections
- Challenge to the Reader - 1938
- 101 Years' Entertainment, The Great Detective Stories, 1841-1941 - 1941
- Sporting Blood: The Great Sports Detective Stories - 1942
- The Female of the Species: Great Women Detectives and Criminals - 1943
- The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes - 1944
- The Best Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine - 1944
- Dashiell Hammett: The Adventures of Sam Spade and Other Stories - 1944
- Rogues' Gallery: The Great Criminals of Modern Fiction - 1945
- To The Queen's Taste: The First Supplement to 101 Years' Entertainment, Consisting of the Best Stories Published in the First Five Years of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine - 1946
- The Queen's Awards, 1946 - 1946
- Dashiell Hammett: The Continental Op - 1945
- Dashiell Hammett: The Return of the Continental Op - 1945
- Dashiell Hammett: Hammett Homicides - 1946
- Murder By Experts - 1947
- The Queen's Awards, 1947 - 1947
- Dashiell Hammett: Dead Yellow Women - 1947
- Stuart Palmer: The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers - 1947
- John Dickson Carr: Dr. Fell, Detective, and Other Stories - 1947
- Roy Vickers: The Department of Dead Ends - 1947
- Margery Allingham: The Case Book of Mr. Campion - 1947
- 20th Century Detective Stories - 1948
- The Queen's Awards, 1948 - 1948
- Dashiell Hammett: Nightmare Town - 1948
- O. Henry: Cops and Robbers - 1947
- The Queen's Awards, 1949 - 1949
- The Literature of Crime: Stories by World-Famous Authors - 1950
- The Queen's Awards, Fifth Series - 1950
- Dashiell Hammett: The Creeping Siamese - 1950
- Stuart Palmer: The Monkey Murder and Other Stories - 1950
and many more
Books about Ellery Queen
- Nevins, Francis M. Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective. Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1974. ISBN 0-87972-066-2 (cloth), 0-87972-067-0 (paperback).
- Nevins, Francis M. and Grams, Jr., Martin. The Sound of Detection: Ellery Queen's Adventures in Radio. OTR Publishing, 2002. ISBN 0-970-33102-9.
Awards and honors
The writing team of Ellery Queen received the following "Edgar" awards from the Mystery Writers of America:- 1946—Best Radio Drama (tied with Mr. and Mrs. North)
- 1950—Special Edgar Award for ten years' service through Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
- 1961—Grand Master Edgar Award
- 1962—Best Short Story ("Ellery Queen 1962 Anthology")
- 1964—Best Novel (The Player on the Other Side)
- 1969—Special Edgar Award on the 40th anniversary of the publication of The Roman Hat MysteryThe Roman Hat MysteryThe Roman Hat Mystery is a novel that was written in 1929 by Ellery Queen. It is the first of the Ellery Queen mysteries.-Plot summary:The novel deals with the poisoning of a disreputable lawyer named Monte Field in the Roman Theater in New York City during a performance of a play called "Gunplay!"...
The Mystery Writers of America established the Ellery Queen Award in 1983 "to honor writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry."
Ellery Queen was featured on a postage stamp issued by Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
as part of a series of "Famous Fictional Detectives" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Interpol in 1973 and a similar series of famous fictional detectives from San Marino
San Marino
San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino , is a state situated on the Italian Peninsula on the eastern side of the Apennine Mountains. It is an enclave surrounded by Italy. Its size is just over with an estimated population of over 30,000. Its capital is the City of San Marino...
in 1979.