Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 21, No. 115, June 1953

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All the writers we have ever known (at least, all of them with a spark of “romance” in their creative souls) have had a compulsion to do a story based on the theme of chivalry — perhaps for no other reason than to prove, in modem terms, that chivalry is not dead. Stanley Ellin is no exception to this general rule, and his romantic spark was vital enough to ignite something in his mind that eventually became an Idea. It all started one day when he and his daughter were discussing knighthood and deeds of derring-do and that golden age when knights in shining armor rode off to battle for their ladies’ honor. It was in that man-to-woman talk that “The Betrayers” was born.

Of course, the plot went through many changes before it took final shape. But through all its transformations the protagonist — a modern knight — remained true to Mr. Ellin’s original conception: “a ghost of all the Galahads before him.” Thus one modem detective story evolved: it had begun in Mr. Ellin’s memory of an ancient castle, dating back to 800 A.D., and ended in a contemporary apartment house, dated 1952 A.D. — more than a century of transition to achieve a ’tec theme!

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