Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 125, No. 3 & 4. Whole No. 763 & 764, March/April 2005

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There is probably no famous author in history other than Ellery Queen of whom it could be debated seriously whether the contributions he or she made were greater in the sphere of writing or editing. Though Ellery Queen’s enormous importance as a detective writer inspired critic Anthony Boucher to say “Ellery Queen is the American detective story,” Frederic Dannay (one half of the two-man Queen team) is said to have wondered whether the most enduring part of the Queen legacy might ultimately prove to be the anthologies and critical studies Queen produced, and above all, this magazine. To celebrate the achievements of Ellery Queen — as we will be doing throughout this centenary year — and not give space to Queen’s various editorial roles would be unthinkable.

The earliest appearance of Editor Queen was at the helm of the 1933-34 magazine Mystery League. In the article that leads this issue, Jon L. Breen gives us a glimpse of what was inside the four now very hard to find issues that comprised the full run of that first brave magazine devoted to “quality” detective and crime fiction. The two magazines of which Queen was founding editor, Mystery League and EQMM, grew out of the longstanding scholarly and critical interests of the two men who assumed the Queen pseudonym, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. So it is not surprising that at the same time Queen was launching EQMM, he was compiling and editing perhaps the most important anthology of detective fiction ever to see print: 101 Years’ Entertainment: The Great Detective Stories 1841–1941. In the early years of EQMM, Queen drew on the extensive knowledge of detective-fiction history displayed in the drawing together of that volume to introduce the magazine’s readers to forgotten or overlooked gems of mystery fiction.

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