Origin of Evil: Editorial - What new on this site

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The EQMM 75th Anniversary Exhibition was on view from Sep 26 to Dec 23 2016 in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Butler Library, 6th Floor East. Included were some of founding editor Frederic Dannay's cor- respondence with several of the most important writers of the 20th century, as well as some of his edited manuscripts (from the Frederic Dannay papers, which are housed at the library), as well as original drawings for some of the magazine’s early covers and selections from the correspon- dence of EQMM’s second editor, Eleanor Sullivan.(full report here)
Rose Koppel Dannay's re-published 2010 memoir of her years with Fred Dannay. "It is not too much to say that Rose saved Fred's life," as she enabled him to enjoy the status of mystery elder statesman earned by more than forty years of shaping stories that broadened the reach of mystery fiction."
Perfect Crime Books, Feb 7. 2016
Joseph Goodrich has edited and annotated a selection of Dannay and Lee's letters, and it's being published by Perfect Crime Books. It's called BLOOD RELATIONS: THE SELECTED LETTERS OF ELLERY QUEEN, 1947-1950, and covers the writing of Ten Day's Wonder, Cat of Many Tails and The Origin of Evil, as well as offering a vivid picture of the complex and often tortured psychological and artistic relationship existing between Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.
Perfect Crime Books also has, aFrancis M. Nevins' Ellery Queen biography available. The work entitled 'The Art of Detection' carries the byline "The story of how two fractious cousins reshaped the modern detective novel". Mike also became one of the West 87th Street Irregulars.
This month at Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine's iPod page...

JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc has for some years now the privilege of representing the complete works of Ellery Queen. As of this year they also publish nine eBook editions of the Ellery Queen novels. These downloads are available through the usual channels listed on their own page here.

If you think you can help us, or would like something to add. Don't be shy! Pick one of the following categories (by clicking on the icons): • • • •
Q.B.I.: Covers added since April 2018: 6 better and 1 1 new covers. The latter corresponding with the red numerals in the list. Latest additions made on May 17. 2018: April 2017 - April 2018: 51 better and 106 new covers April 2016 - April 2017: 131 better and 436 new covers April 2015 - April 2016: 10 better and 185 new covers April 2014 - April 2015: 18 better and 103 new covers



`May 17. 2018 - April 18. 1999` Mystery book maven Otto Penzler has started another new initiative, Penzler Publishers. The new house will release its first six books this fall under the American Mystery Classics imprint. American Mystery Classics, Penzler said, will feature “traditional mystery stories” by some of the most popular writers from what he called the "golden age of detective fiction," which he said ran from the end of World War I through World War II. The new books will be released in both hardcover and trade paperback, but not as e-books. Penzler said his inspiration to launch the imprint by the fact that British publishers have been successfully releasing mystery reprints from this time period. And, he added, no company in the U.S. has followed suit. “We’re not doing the hardboiled guys that Vintage does,” Penzler explained. Instead, he went on, his imprint will focus on authors such as Ellery Queen and Mary Roberts Rinehart. Another motivation for creating the new company was to meet the needs of customers who have requested, both in his bookstore and in notes on his website, print copies of classics available now in only in e-book format. Relying on sales of books through his Mysterious Bookshop as well as his Mysterious Press.com e-bookstore, Penzler also found that traditional mysteries were the most in demand. The Queen book that is part of the inaugural list is The Chinese Orange Mystery. Penzler will release another six books in March 2019. By 2020, he said he hopes to be releasing 24 books annually. `(Source: Publishers Weekly)`

`May 10. 2018` Although Dannay once recalled there was talk of an EQ newspaper comic strip it is said nothing came of it. Starting September 30, 1946 the newspaper The Wilkes-Barre Record ran the first in a series of eight mystery novelettes by famous detective fiction writers. Each story was contained in six installments. Starting with A Tale of Two Women by Dashiell Hammett it also included: The Adventure of the House of Darkness by Ellery Queen, Borrowed Crime by William Irish, Cocaine by Cornell Woolrich, Death rides the train by Eric Stanley Gardner, The Mystery of The Spotted Pup by Dorothy D. Hughes, The Seventh Murder by Carroll John Daly and Intruder at Scotland Yard by Eric Ambler. Read more here ...

`April 22. 2018` Anniversaries/birthdays ... always a mix of emotions. On the one hand a year of set backs and even a loss of friends to look back to and on the other hand accomplishments and things to look forward to. Even considering it's the 19th birthday of this site, Ellery Queen-wise, we still have something to look forward to. Let me take you through a string of thoughts: Jeffrey Marks' biography on Ellery Queen makes good progress and could hit the shelves this year... Jeffrey also stood at the helm at Crippen & Landru publication of The Zanzibar Shirt and others Stories by James Holding (see below). An, as usual at C&L, very fine edition, features amongst others "The Norwegian Apple Mystery" the very same story also included in The Misadventures of *Ellery Queen* co-edited by Josh Pachter &‎ Dale C. Andrews. Josh informed us that perhaps thanks to the enthusiastic review in the new Spring issue of MYSTERY SCENE and the backcover ad on the new May/June issue of EQMM, the Kindle edition of Dale Andrews' and my MISADVENTURES OF ELLERY QUEEN has climbed up to #68 in its category on Amazon. Dale proudly refers to the review available at the site of Larque... Josh wonders, as a challenge to the reader, if they can make it into the Top 50 or even the Top 10? We hope so, it would make an already good year for fans of Ellery Queen even better, no small feat for an author who almost 90 years ago wrote his first story...


`April 2. 2018` More news on Sergeant Velie, albeit of the sad kind, last month his longtime friend Charles Leinenweber announced that actor Tom Reese died December 12 at a hospice facility in Studio City after a brief illness. Tom played Sergeant Velie in the excellent Ellery Queen TV-series in 1975-76. Tom was a masterful villain, but he'll always be best remembered for his good guy role, Sgt. Velie, a cigar chomping, bull-in-a-china shop cop ... (click on picture for more)

TIP: Interested readers should know most of the pictures used on the website have long descriptions with background information sometimes not included in the text on the same page. Microsoft's Internet Explorer used to have this feature activated as a standard. Firefox users wanting this can install an add-on called '`Popup ALT Attribute`'. Makes a big difference, believe us. When installed pointing at a picture results in details or additional information. The above example shows the additional information provided when you move the cursor over a picture.

March 24. 2018 The Zanzibar Shirt and others Stories. Since time began, authors have been told to write what they know. James Holding (1907-1997) took that advice to heart. After his retirement from advertising, Holding began writing full-time. One of his early ghostwriting gigs was continuing the Ellery Queen Jr novels, which had first appeared in the 1940s. Fred Dannay and Manfred Lee, hired Holding to jumpstart the series after a lengthy hiatus. At the same time, Holding decided to write a series of short stories about fictional sleuths King Danforth and Martin Leroy, two collaborative mystery writers (whose character was named Leroy King) on their own around-the-world cruise with their wives. The cases on the high seas are masterpieces of deductions and logic, following the smallest clues to their logical deductions. The stories even included the title structure “The Location Object Mystery” as used in the early Ellery Queen mysteries. Presumably the stories met with the approval of Dannay as the works appeared first in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Holding would continue to write short stories, ultimately publishing over 100 stories in the mystery field. In addition to Leroy King, he wrote about series characters Manuel Andrada, also known as The Photographer, a hired killer and Hal Johnson, the Library Detective. This collection includes all ten stories in the series along with a brief biography of Holding and the most comprehensive bibliography of Holding’s short story works. Buy from Crippen and Landru

March 18. 2018 The new anthology The Misadventures of Ellery Queen by Josh Pachter and Dale C. Andrews got a very detailed and glowing review on Brad Friedman's blog. Incidentally this blog was only recently added to our Q.E.D. section, where you will find many interesting links to pages on Ellery Queen. If you're interested in buying this excellent anthology just click the banner above. Better still if you want a signed copy you can meet Dale and Josh on Thursday, April 12 7 P.M. at the Cascades Library in Sterling. You can learn about the vibrant subgenre of literary pastiche and parody, the work of legendary mystery author Ellery Queen, and the many times other writers have imitated, poked gently fun at, and otherwise paid tribute to the Ellery Queen characters. Sergeant Thomas Velie made his entrance in the Queen-saga with the words 'What's up, Doyle?' in The Roman Hat Mystery where he is introduced to us as a tall man in plain clothes. He is addressed by Inspector Queen in a rather fatherly way as 'Thomas'. Whilst the faithful sergeant addresses Ellery as 'maestro'. Velie aka " the tall one with the sledgehammer hands and the rumbling voice.." still has (largely through the Hutton TV-series) somewhat of a cult following.
The only missing profile of an actor who took on the role of Velie was the one for Bill Zuckert. It's now online and as the page attests he had a very successful career in both radio and theater. We were also thrilled to get the help for this from his daughter Kymm Zuckert. Bill played Velie in the easily forgettable murder mystery "Ellery Queen, Don't Look Behind You" (1971) ...(click on picture for more)

`March 4.2018 Eight actors in total have played Sergeant Velie. Of those Ed Latimer and Bill Zuckert are the last two actors for whom the profile pages were missing on this site. Bill's profile page is coming soon. Ed Latimer's page is now published online.`
Very few sources on the net bring us information for this actor born in 1897. Not that Ed didn't perform regularly: he played over 300 roles on radio! In 1947 he played Sergeant Velie on The Adventures of Ellery Queen ...(click on picture for more)

`February 17. 2018` The Misadventures of Ellery Queen edited by Josh Pachter &‎ Dale C. Andrews features stories classic pastiches, parodies and homages. This volume assembles 16 stories by a wide variety of authors, all written (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) as homages to, and parodies and pastiches of, the character -- and writing team -- known as "Ellery Queen". INTRODUCTION: Elementary Questions, by Josh Pachter and Dale C. Andrews INTRODUCTION: Sorely Missed Adventures, by Richard Dannay INTRODUCTION: The Sincerest Form of Flattery, by Rand Lee THE MYSTERY OF THE RED BALLOONS, by Thomas Narcejac, translated by the RK Jones DYING MESSAGE, by Leyne Requel THE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN CLUE, by Jon L. Breen OPEN LETTER TO SURVIVORS, by Francis M. Nevins THE REINDEER CLUE, by Edward D. Hoch THE BOOK CASE, by Dale C. Andrews and Kurt Sercu TEN MONTHS' BLUNDER, by J.N. Williamson THE ENGLISH VILLAGE MYSTERY, by Arthur Porges ELROY QUINN’S LAST CASE, by Dennis M. Dubin THE NORWEGIAN APPLE MYSTERY, by James Holding THE MAN WHO READ ELLERY QUEEN, by William Brittain E.Q. GRIFFEN EARNS HIS NAME, by Josh Pachter THE LAST CHECK, by Patricia McGerr THE DEATH OF THE MALLORY QUEEN, by Lawrence Block THE RANSOM OF EQMM #1, by Arthur Vidro THE TEN-CENT MURDER, by Joseph Goodrich You can also order your copy by clicking the banner below...


A challenge to the reader: if you think you could add additional information (even corrections) please do so... You can reach us by clicking on "Uncle Sam". We've always appreciate corrections and additional information, however small the detail may be.

`February 4. 2018` Only in one movie series did Doc Prouty make it to the screen. Charles Lane was the actor who took on the role. Charles had both a long life and career. He was born in the 'magnificent' year of 1905. The same year when Manfred B. Lee and Frederick Dannay were born. Charles passed away in 2007 at 102 years.
The three first Ellery Queen movies (1940-1941) produced by Larry Darmour for Columbia featured Doc Prouty played by Charles. After which the Doc Prouty part was left out of the movies. Charles did another Ellery Queen stint this time as the coroner in A Close Call for Ellery Queen (1942)... (click on picture for more)

`January 15. 2018` Another year and "Ellery Queen wise" no stopping when it comes to things to look forward to. Not only will 2018 hopefully bring us Jeffrey Marks' Ellery Queen book, we will also see the anthology of Ellery Queen pastiches an parodies edited by Josh Pachter and Dale Andrews, "The Misadventures of Ellery Queen." The collection, containing stories never collected together before, is scheduled to be published by Wildside Press on March 8... Watch this space for more news.
We also bring you a biography of an excellent actor who played Richard Queen: Herb Butterfield emoted opposite Lawrence Dobkin on ABC’s Ellery Queen in the 1947-48 season, playing Inspector Queen to Larry’s sleuth. Herb quickly replaced Bill Smith and thus became the last actor in the role of Inspector Queen in the popular radio series... (click on picture for more)

`December 18. 2017` Actor Harry Morgan (1915-2011) we'll remember for all the right reasons. He had earlier television runs in Pete and Gladys and as Officer Joe Gannon in Dragnet, but first and foremost we'll think of him as tough-talking, commanding, fun-loving, but also serious Army Officer, Col. Sherman T. Potter on the beloved MASH* series. Morgan, however, was also cast as Inspector Queen in an Ellery Queen TV pilot... No claim to fame there. Not Morgan's fault who was well suited as the long suffering Inspector Queen. In *Ellery Queen* Don't Look Behind You (1971) Morgan was rewritten as uncle to Peter Lawford’s Ellery. This resolved the problem presented by the fact that Lawford had a British accent and was, in fact, only 12 years younger than Morgan. NBC had high hopes for the pilot, intending it as a contender for its planned wheel series NBC Mystery Movie. But things just didn’t work out. Richard Levinson and William Link were charged with developing the series, and were so unhappy with the changes made to their script for the pilot that they refused to have their name on the project, instead ascribing authorship to “Ted Leighton.” Predictably, the pilot didn't score with the public and the series was never to be … . But, of course, Levinson and Link did not give up -- they went on to create the 1975 NBC series *Ellery Queen*. ...(click on picture for more)

`December 2. 2017` Last May we brought you a profile page for Howard Culver. In April-May 1948 Howard became the last actor to play Ellery Queen in the US radio series. Jokingly he later his told his daughters he 'killed" Ellery Queen. When making this page we got help from Patti & Kathi Culver, they were so generous enough to provide some additional pictures of their father. Now once again they did just that, with the "new" clickable picture (R) and a new picture showing Howard in front of an AFRS mike. ...(click on picture for more)