Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 1, Fall 1941

Editor Ellery Queen Explains WHY — WHO — HOW — WHEN

WHY

As writers, readers, and collectors of detective-crime stories, we have for many years shouted the need for — and deplored the lack of — a quality publication devoted exclusively to the printing of the best in detective-crime short-story literature.

To this end we have for a long time been building an exhaustive and unique library. So we have at our fingertips a store of the very choicest detective-crime short stories, culled from every conceivable source — books, slick-paper magazines, and “pulp” magazines.

Mr. Lawrence E. Spivak, publisher of The American Mercury, believes as we do that mystery enthusiasts are eagerly awaiting a publication devoted to all types of detective-crime stories in which consistently good writing would be as important as original ideas, excitement, and craftsmanship.

And so, Ellery Queen is editing and Lawrence E. Spivak is publishing this volume, which is planned as the first of a periodic anthology of detective-crime short stories, in which the sole editorial criterion will be quality.

WHO

A “big name” does not always guarantee a good story — the big-name writers themselves are the first to admit this.

On the other hand, some of the finest stories have been and are now being written by lesser-known writers or, in many cases, writers not known to the general public at all.

We propose to give you stories by big-name writers, by lesser-known writers, and by unknown writers. But no matter what their source, they will be superior stories.

Some will be bought from manuscript. Others will be reprinted from published books, old and new, selected from the Ellery Queen library of short detective fiction, which is the largest in America. Still others will be reprinted from magazines, old, recent, and new, “slicks” and “pulps,” making our volume in effect a readers’ digest in anthological form of detective-crime stories.

In this first volume, you will find a wide variety of detective-story types, each one rating a high editorial mark for excellence and quality and readability in the measured opinion of an Editor who has made a life study of this form of entertainment-fiction, each one a genuine adventure-in-reading.

For example: two realistic stories of the hard-boiled school — “Too Many Have Lived,” by Dashiell Hammett; and “Dime a Dance,” by Cornell Woolrich — exciting, fast, two-fisted, modern, and superb examples of this kind of purely American writing.

An excellent story of the modern English school — “The Question Mark,” by Margery Allingham — suave, expert, and completely charming.

The straightforward modern American school — “About the Perfect Crime of Mr. Digberry,” by Anthony Abbot; “Treasure Hunt,” by Ellery Queen; and “The Cablegram,” by T. S. Stribling (much better-known as the Pulitzer Prize winner!) — in which the detectives rely more on their brains than on their brawn, and ingenuity of story is the main thing.

And, for sheerest contrast, Frederick Hazlitt Brennan’s hillbilly yam, “Wild Onions,” which fuses elements rarely amalgamated in a mystery story — humor, native dialect, and murder; the whole making a hilarious tale and a unique item in any enthusiast’s collection.

HOW

We are publishing a book rather than a magazine, but since it is to be distributed through a magazine outlet at a magazine price, and since the name rolls easily off the tongue, we have for the present decided to call it Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. It uses not pulp paper nor slick paper, but book paper, which takes printer’s ink better, makes for greater legibility, and has a more lasting quality of permanence. Its cover has a modern book-jacket illustration. Unlike a novel, however, it is not bulky: it is compact and in the convenient pocket size.

It is deliberately designed so that he may read who runs as well as he who likes to curl up in bed; and it has the important further consideration of visual attractiveness, so that you will want to preserve your copies of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in the library of your home as you preserve your books.

WHEN

This first issue is frankly experimental. Our belief that a large public exists which impatiently awaits such publication can only be confirmed by that public.

For the present therefore we plan to publish Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine quarterly: Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer. Our ultimate purpose is to publish a new volume each month. That, however, depends upon the reception accorded this and future volumes. The more whole-hearted and widespread your response, the more quickly regular monthly publication will be scheduled.

Ellery Queen