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Golden Age Authors: Ellery Queen
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In today's episode, Brook and Sarah discuss the lasting legacy of Ellery Queen and the co-writing cousins behind the name.
Discussed and mentioned
The Roman Hat Mystery (1929) Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (1941-present)
Ellery Queen's Minute Mysteries (listen on YouTube)
Ellery Queen's Mysteries Radio Show (listen on YouTube)
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For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/golden-age-author-ellery-queen/
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Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Topic
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Brooke. Hi, Sarah. Today we're going to cover another Golden Age mystery author, or in this case, maybe I should say authors.
Who was Ellery Queen?
00:00:30
Speaker
Yes, I'm so excited to learn and talk about Ellery Queen. Yes, today we'll be talking about Ellery Queen, and they are nearly as synonymous with mystery fiction as Agatha Christie herself.
00:00:44
Speaker
But some fans may not know that Ellery Queen is actually two people. It's the pen name of a co-author team comprised of first cousins, Frederick Denae and Manfred B. Lee.
00:00:58
Speaker
Interestingly, both men's real names were pseudonyms as well. Manfred Manny Lee was born Emmanuel Benjamin Lepofsky. in January 1905 in Brooklyn, New York.
00:01:10
Speaker
Just nine months later, Frederick Denae was born as Daniel Nathan, also in Brooklyn. Before the cousins took up mystery writing, Denae worked in advertising and Lee was a publicity agent.
00:01:24
Speaker
They first collaborated in 1928 by writing The Roman Hat Mystery as an entry into a detective story contest sponsored by McClure's magazine,
00:01:35
Speaker
and publisher Frederick A. Stokes Company. As part of the contest, writers had to use a pseudonym so that professional authors wouldn't have an advantage over novices.
00:01:47
Speaker
The cousins decided to use the name Ellery Queen for both their sleuth and their pen name, believing that readers often remember a hero's name, but rarely the author's. This would prove to be a very clever decision when it came to marketing.
00:02:02
Speaker
They won the contest, but before they could collect the cash prize, McClure's magazine declared bankruptcy. Luckily, the co-sponsor Frederick A. Stokes Company still offered to publish their book.
00:02:16
Speaker
With its success in 1929, the cousins decided to continue their partnership and went on to become one of the most revered names in mystery fiction. They were just 25 and 26 years old when they began writing
Ellery Queen's Writing and Legacy
00:02:30
Speaker
full-time.
00:02:31
Speaker
The pair wrote approximately 40 novels and short story collections featuring Queen. Their sleuth was admittedly patterned after S.S. Van Dyne's brilliant but arrogant detective, Philo Vance.
00:02:44
Speaker
Their stories were solidly fair play mysteries and often included a page near the end called The Challenge to the Reader, explaining that all the clues had been revealed and could the reader deduce the solution.
00:02:59
Speaker
But the Queen series was just the tip of the iceberg for this prolific team. They also edited more than 30 anthologies of crime fiction and true crime. In 1941, Danae founded and for many years edited Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which continues to this day.
00:03:18
Speaker
After 1960, Danae and Lee also commissioned other writers to produce thrillers under the name Ellery Queen, though these books did not feature Queen himself as a character.
00:03:29
Speaker
The Ellery Queen Jr. books were ghostwritten for children. Additionally, they wrote four novels under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross, featuring the detective Drury Lane.
00:03:41
Speaker
Ellery Queen received four Edgar Awards in various categories from the Mystery Writers of America including the Grand Master Award in 1961. In 1983, the Mystery Writers of America established the Ellery Queen Award to honor writing teams and outstanding contributors to the mystery publishing industry.
00:04:04
Speaker
Queen effectively ended in 1971 with the death of Manfred Lee. Though Denae lived another 11 years, the pen name was retired, except for the title of the magazine, With His Cousin's Passing.
00:04:19
Speaker
What a fascinating pair of authors, Brooke. The contribution that they have made to the mystery space and this lasting legacy of the magazine is is really incredible.
00:04:33
Speaker
I agree. it's ah In researching them, I just, and I shared with you, you know I think we could do multiple
Marketing and Interactive Storytelling
00:04:40
Speaker
episodes on this pair because of how much they did, not just in their fiction writing, but also in the anthologies and the bibliographies. It just, it goes on and on and there's a lot to say.
00:04:52
Speaker
But today we'll focus mostly on the writers and their work. So I didn't realize until um recently that they had named their sleuth Ellery Queen as well as that being their pen name. And, you know, you said that it was a ah really clever idea. And I i have to agree. you know, I think you do remember the name of of a character maybe a little more easily than you remember that their creator.
00:05:26
Speaker
Yes. Wasn't that clever? and I hadn't ever thought that through, but it's definitely true. Like I can remember the sleuth's name ah more so than the author's name. And I think it really speaks to the fact that, you know, I mentioned Denae was in advertising.
00:05:43
Speaker
Lee was a publicity agent. They kind of had a beat on what would work for being commercial right from the very beginning. And this was just a contest after all, this was kind of like a whim, a fun thing that they did, but, um, very smart. And then the way that they were, uh, marketing and commercializing their work throughout their career just continued.
00:06:06
Speaker
Well, and it and it obviously worked, right? So the the contest, even though they didn't um get the money, there their book was or their story was published. And it must have resonated because they ended up continuing to write and and using that pen name.
00:06:22
Speaker
um I love also the way that they structured their stories with that ah challenge to the reader. I do too. And um this week I read the Roman Hat Mystery and some of the earlier books had this foreword and they're written by a mysterious figure named J.J. McSee who assures the public that Ellery is based on a real person though his name has been changed.
00:06:48
Speaker
So, and then, then you, couple that with this challenge to the reader that continued, I think, throughout all their work. And so they were kind of playing with the idea of, is Ellery Queen a real person?
00:07:02
Speaker
and you know, they're the author, they're the sleuth. It just makes it um pretty intriguing. Yeah, absolutely. And I listened to a few of their radio productions.
00:07:14
Speaker
They were structured similarly. There was, you know, up I guess a pause for commercials or whatever. And um leading up to it, they said, okay, audience, can you can you figure it out? And then um the next scene was the detective revealing ah the solution.
00:07:34
Speaker
Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. You know, multiple movies, radio shows, and and TV adaptations have been based on their work. um And it seems that they really saw their intellectual property as just that, and they weren't afraid to market it.
00:07:50
Speaker
um And they were very active on the radio. They would have a syndicated radio filler spots that called Ellery Queen's
Collaboration and Personalities of the Authors
00:08:00
Speaker
Minute Mysteries to promote the series. And it would encourage listeners, like you said, to solve the mysteries. And sometimes there would be prizes involved. i love and am inspired by their willingness to really sell their work.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like they really um understood how much fun they were having creating for their listeners. And they didn't, um, they didn't shy away from, um making it available in, in various, uh, medias. And I love that.
00:08:39
Speaker
So Brooke, did you find anything about how they wrote? I know we've had episodes where we've talked about coauthors and the various ways that, uh, two people might collaborate with I did. um It's reported that Danae did most of the plotting and Lee most of the actual writing, but there were then projects in like busy seasons where the pattern would switch.
00:09:10
Speaker
um So I think probably what we know is ah not the whole story and their process was likely quite nuanced. You know, Sarah, you and i have now written two books together or in the process of. And it is a very nuanced process, isn't it? And I imagine it would be interesting to be doing this with someone you are also related to, you have an outside relationship with.
00:09:39
Speaker
It's said that they would write alone in their separate New York homes and sometimes for up to 12 hours a day when they were on deadline, and then consolidate their work in a small office near Fifth Avenue that they called their hideout.
00:09:53
Speaker
And even their wives didn't know its exact location. oh my goodness. I love that. Their little writing getaway that was a secret. Yeah, wouldn't it be fun to have a little hideout to go and write in?
00:10:12
Speaker
But I don't think it was always ah easy. According to Danae, he said, we fight like hell, more competitors than collaborators, but it produces a sharper edge.
00:10:24
Speaker
So um it would be really interesting to be a fly on the wall and watch that process, wouldn't it, Sarah? Totally. And as you point out, they were not only writing partners, but they were cousins and, you know, probably more like brothers um in terms of the relationship that they had.
00:10:47
Speaker
I think so. I mean, they were born nine months apart, you know, in the same city. They were probably raised like brothers. It kind of feels that way to me. um And they had very different personalities, it sounds like.
00:10:59
Speaker
Danae was very outgoing. He was the one that would go to, you know, book signings and like the the literary... ah organization meetings um while Lee was much more introverted and didn't go out in the public very much. So then you, so you have those two different personality styles. That was probably also um something to
Modern Adaptations and Legacy
00:11:20
Speaker
try to work through.
00:11:21
Speaker
Brooke, we talked a little bit about radio plays and you mentioned that there had been some other adaptations. Has there been anything that has been released recently Not that i found. I think like the latest television adaptations were from the 1980s.
00:11:41
Speaker
um But I find that interesting because you know the the magazine is still going strong. We actually are a recurring guest, Manon Wogan, also known as Mystery Manon, had a short story published in Ellery Queen last January.
00:11:59
Speaker
um So it's it's kind of surprising to me, but nothing... really recent. Yeah, that is that is interesting. Um, maybe that's an opportunity for some television production company to come up with. And, you know, I think you could, um certainly build some of that enthusiasm and, um,
00:12:22
Speaker
community that they seemed to build with their audiences with their, you know, audience challenge. um You know, I think you could probably do something really fun, if you are willing to, to experiment a little bit.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great point, especially right now where we're seeing, you know, it was just recently released that there's going to be a Myrtle show and that ah sort of gameplay and mystery. um I think you're right, Sarah. This is a great time for some streaming service to revitalize the Ellery Queen character and um and bring it to a new audience.
00:12:59
Speaker
The setup is really fun. You know, Ellery Queen, the character, is the son of a police officer. ah detective. And so um they have a fun relationship. I like the relationship between the father and son. But Ellery, ah you know, is this very highly deductive character, and he's able to come in and and assist his dad in solving cases. So I could really see that translating well for the screen.
00:13:28
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds perfect. One thing that surprises me when we're talking about Ellery Queen as the character and the ah author is that the story I read was...
00:13:40
Speaker
in limited third person and from the point of view of Queen. But I think I would have liked it to be first person, given the fact that we're supposed to be hearing this from Ellery Queen.
00:13:54
Speaker
um So he's referring to himself in the third person, which feels kind of off. But I wasn't quite sure whether that was the sign of the times. I mean, was the Golden Age...
00:14:06
Speaker
trend to write in the third person. I can't really, i can't put my finger on that. Brooke, that's a really great question and maybe something that um we could look into and see if there's a future episode idea in there.
00:14:21
Speaker
Exactly. Well, some of the greatest minds in mystery really revered Ellery Queen as well. And
Barnaby Ross and Creative Expansion
00:14:30
Speaker
Otto Penzler is a mystery fiction critic and owner of the Mysterious Bookshop, and he worked for Frederick Dene at the magazine for years.
00:14:39
Speaker
And, um you know, he mentions in a quote that Ellery Queen, ah Frederick Dene is an anthologist, a bibliographer, and a collector of mystery.
00:14:50
Speaker
um And he says that, Ellery Queen is, after Poe, the most important American in mystery fiction. And I just think that that is such a compliment.
00:15:06
Speaker
And then I love this quote by British crime novelist Marjorie Allingham. She said that Danae and Lee had done far more for the detective story than any other two men put together.
00:15:20
Speaker
Oh, what a great comment. Yeah. Did you find anything about whether they had any connections with members of the detection club?
00:15:34
Speaker
I did not. You know, they were, again, active with the Mystery Writers of America and attended those meetings. Yeah. Just following on from the comment from Marjorie Ellingham, Martin Edwards in his book, The Golden Age of Murder, ah refers to Ellery Queen as a towering figure among American Golden Age writers. ah So, you know, I think um certainly respected for the contribution that that Ellery Queen made to to writing mystery fiction.
00:16:13
Speaker
One thing, Brooke, that I saw about um Ellery Queen and in particular the pseudonym, the other pseudonym that they wrote under Barnaby Ross, um apparently when they publicized those books, ah they wore masks.
00:16:29
Speaker
um So that they you couldn't see who they who they were. and According to Martin Edwards, rumor mongers claimed that Queen was really Van Dyne, while Ross was said to be the critic and raconteur Alexander Wolcott, who later became Anthony Berkeley's Bette Noire.
00:16:48
Speaker
That is so fun. It doesn't surprise me very much either because they did keep the um identity of Ellery Queen a secret for a time as well. And i I think it was only lasted a couple of years because sometime in the early 1930s, they revealed – they revealed ah you know, who who Ellery Queen was.
00:17:09
Speaker
But it's fun to me that the audience guessed SS Van Dyne because they really did pattern some of their characters after um after that author's work.
00:17:23
Speaker
That is really interesting. and Speaking of Drury Lane, um the Barnaby Ross character, I thought the ah concept was really different and um interesting.
00:17:35
Speaker
ah Drury Lane is a retired Shakespearean actor who builds a castle and names it Hamlet. And he essentially he essentially stays within the walls of his castle and solves these mysteries that ah that people bring to him.
00:17:52
Speaker
He's that deductive detective. Oh, that sounds fun. You know, we spoke earlier about maybe some of the conflicts
Conclusion and Future Exploration
00:18:00
Speaker
in their ah relationship. And apparently, Danae was not thrilled with the ghostwritten books.
00:18:11
Speaker
And the idea of kind of contracting those out ah was purely financial. And it was something that Lee really wanted and needed at that point in his life.
00:18:22
Speaker
um But apparently, Frederick Dene never even read any of the Ellery Queen Jr. books because he was really not in favor of ah of the projects at all.
00:18:36
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. So there must have been some some conflict there. Yeah. And I think that's, you know, that's natural. If you're going to be working on, ah you know, 40 plus books together and being related, um you know, there's bound to be some personality conflicts.
00:18:57
Speaker
But um boy, oh boy, you cannot dismiss what they contributed as a collaborative ah pair to the mystery fiction space.
00:19:07
Speaker
I agree, Brooke. And, you know, you said at the beginning that um there may be more to say about them. And I'm sure there is because they have contributed a lot. And it has been so interesting to just learn a little bit more about that over the last couple of weeks.
00:19:28
Speaker
It has, Sarah. And I look forward to maybe diving into this pair some more later. But for today, thank you for joining us, listeners, on Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke.
00:19:40
Speaker
And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers. If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app.
00:19:56
Speaker
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