Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
monthly digest size
Digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches, but can also be 5⅜ x 8⅜ inches and 5½ x 7½ inches. These sizes have evolved from the printing press operation end...
fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
, particularly detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
. Launched in 1941 by Mercury Press
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
, EQMM is named after the author Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen
Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay and Manford Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee , to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.The fictional Ellery Queen created by...
, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective named Ellery Queen.
Background
Ellery Queen was the pseudonymPseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
of the team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, who had been writing under the name since 1929. EQMM was created to provide a market for mystery fiction above the common run of pulp crime magazines of the day. Dannay served as the magazine's editor-in-chief (although still under the name Ellery Queen) from its creation until his death in 1982, when managing editor Eleanor Sullivan succeeded to the post. Following her death in 1991, Janet Hutchings became editor of EQMM.
In Bloody Murder, Julian Symons
Julian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
offered this description of the publication:
Reputation
Because of its high editorial standards, EQMM was one of a relative handful of fiction magazines to survive the decline in short-fiction publications from the 1950s to the 1970s. It is now the longest-running mystery fiction magazine in existence. Throughout its history it has actively encouraged new writers, and today, when most major publications will only accept submissions through literary agents, EQMM still accepts submissions over the transom (that is, unsolicited submissions through the mail). Unsolicited online submissions are now also accepted through an online submission manager as long as they follow the writers' guidelines. The magazine's "Department of First Stories" has introduced hundreds of new writers, many of whom became regular contributors.Authors
EQMM regularly publishes short fiction from established mystery novelists such as Jeffery DeaverJeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is an American mystery/crime writer. He has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University and originally started working as a journalist. He later practiced law before embarking on a successful career as a best-selling...
, Michael Gilbert
Michael Gilbert
Michael Francis Gilbert, CBE was a British writer of both fictional mysteries and thrillers who wrote as Michael Gilbert.-Life and work:...
, Peter Lovesey
Peter Lovesey
Peter Lovesey is a British writer of historical and contemporary crime novels and short stories. His best-known series characters are Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian-era police detective based in London, and Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath...
, John Lutz
John Lutz
John Lutz is an American writer who mainly writes mystery novels. He has received an Edgar Award and the Shamus Award twice, and his novel Single White Female was the basis for the 1992 film starring Bridget Fonda...
, Ruth Rendell
Ruth Rendell
Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, , who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, is an English crime writer, author of psychological thrillers and murder mysteries....
, and Janwillem van de Wetering
Janwillem van de Wetering
Janwillem Lincoln van de Wetering was the author of a number of works in English and Dutch. He was particularly noted for his detective fiction, his most popular creations being Grijpstra and de Gier, a pair of Amsterdam police officers who figure in a lengthy series of novels and short stories...
. It has also published both new and classic stories from authors not generally considered mystery writers, including such diverse names as A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
, Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
, W. Somerset Maugham
W. Somerset Maugham
William Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.-Childhood and education:...
, P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
, Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...
, Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon
Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
and Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Diller is an American actress and comedian. She created a stage persona of a wild-haired, eccentrically dressed housewife who makes jokes about a husband named "Fang" while pretending to smoke from a long cigarette holder...
.
Sections
EQMM regularly publishes two nonfiction sections: The Jury Box contains book reviews by Jon L. Breen and Blog Bytes contains reviews and updates of crime and mystery short fiction blogs by Bill Crider.Artists
Cover artists included George SalterGeorge Salter
George Salter , born Georg Salter, was an originally German, and from 1940 onwards US-American designer and set designer. He revolutionized cover design for books. He claimed world wide fame for his design for Alfred Döblins Berlin Alexanderplatz.- Life :Georg Salter was born in Bremen, the child...
, Nicholas Solovioff
Nicholas Solovioff
Nicholas Solovioff was an American artist.Solovioff was a prolific illustrator, having done covers for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Horizon, Readers Digest and the Smithsonian Institution. He also illustrated articles in Fortune and illustrated some of...
and Norman Saunders
Norman Saunders
Norman Blaine Saunders was a prolific commercial artist who produced paintings for pulp magazines, paperbacks, men's adventure magazines, comic books and trading cards...
. In 2007-2008, EQMM republished covers from the golden age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
of mystery fiction, circa 1940s.
Awards
EQMM sponsors the annual Readers Choice AwardReaders Choice Award
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine honors authors each year as voted upon by readers, hence the name, Readers Choice Award. Recipients include many of the most popular authors of thrillers and mysteries.-Presentation:...
, voted upon by readers. EQMM co-sponsors an annual award with the Mystery Writers of America.
Series
EQMM has always depended heavily on series characters and stories, such as the "Black WidowersBlack Widowers
The Black Widowers is a fictional men-only dining club created by Isaac Asimov for a series of sixty-six mystery stories which he started writing in 1971...
" tales of Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, the "Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey
Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...
" stories of John Mortimer
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
, or the "Ganelon" stories of James Powell
James Powell (author)
James Powell is an author of mystery and humorous short stories. Many of his 130 stories have been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He has been nominated twice for the Crime Writers of Canada Award for the Best Short Story and, in 1989, won the Ellery Queen Readers' Award for the story...
. Foremost among series authors was the late Edward D. Hoch
Edward D. Hoch
Edward Dentinger Hoch was an American writer of detective fiction. Although he wrote several novels, he was primarily known for his vast output of over 950 short stories.-Biography:...
, who created at least a dozen independent series for EQMM since his first story appeared in 1962. Since the May 1973 issue he has had at least one original story in every issue of EQMM, a string that reached an unparalleled 34 years in May 2007; in that same period he also had about 50 stories in EQMMs sister publication, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine is a monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.-History:...
.
Editors
- 1941-1981, Frederic Dannay
- 1982-1991, Eleanor Sullivan
- 1991-present, Janet Hutchings
Publisher
Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine is published by Dell MagazinesDell Magazines
Dell Magazines was a company founded by George T. Delacorte Jr. in 1921 as part of his Dell Publishing Co. Dell is today known for its many puzzle magazines, as well as fiction magazines such as Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Asimov's Science Fiction, and...
, Penny Publications
Penny Publications
Penny Publications is a US magazine publisher, formed in 1996 as the joinder of Dell Magazines, founded 1921 by George T. Delacorte, Jr., which had been acquired by Crosstown Publications and Penny Press, founded 1973, which as Penny Publications, LLC was under the same ownership as Crosstown...
, New York. Peter Kanter is the publisher. The magazine shares offices with other Dell magazines, including Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
Annual awards
- EQMM Readers Choice AwardReaders Choice AwardEllery Queen Mystery Magazine honors authors each year as voted upon by readers, hence the name, Readers Choice Award. Recipients include many of the most popular authors of thrillers and mysteries.-Presentation:...
s, annual, voted upon by readers - Ellery Queen Award, annual, honors writing teams
- EQMM Contest for short stories, 1946-57, 1962
In popular fiction
Stephen KingStephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
's short story "Secret Window, Secret Garden
Secret Window, Secret Garden
Secret Window, Secret Garden is one of four novellas published in the Stephen King book Four Past Midnight in 1990. It is similar to King's earlier novel The Dark Half...
" is about a baffling controversy of a mystery regarding publication of a mystery tale in a popular mystery publication that forms the center of the plot. That publication is Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.