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Ellery Queen

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Authors

The Resume

    Pseudonym used by cousins Frederic Dannay (birth name was Daniel Nathan; October 20, 1905-September 3, 1982) and Manfred B. Lee (birth name was Emmanuel Benjamin Lepofsky; January 11, 1905-April 3, 1971)
    Created the fictional mystery writer/detective Ellery Queen
    Novels included ‘The Roman Hat Mystery’ (1929), ‘The Chinese Orange Mystery’ (1934), ‘The Four of Hearts’ (1938), ‘There Was an Old Woman’ (1943), ‘Cat of Many Tails’ (1949), ‘The Scarlet Letters’ (1953), and ‘The Finishing Stroke’ (1958)
    Founded ‘Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine’ (1941)
    Edited more than 50 anthologies

Why they might be annoying:

    They originally modeled Ellery Queen (the character) on S.S. Van Dine’s Philo Vance, but Lee later called Vance ‘the biggest prig that ever came down the pike.’
    The character of Queen changed so much in different stories that detective writer and critic Julian Symons suggested that there were two Ellery Queens, an older and younger brother.
    They also wrote mysteries using the name Barnaby Ross.
    They hired ghostwriters to produce stories under the Ellery Queen name that did not feature the detective Ellery Queen. (Thus creating non-Ellery Queen Ellery Queens.)
    They also had ghostwriters create historical romance novels using the Barnaby Ross pseudonym.
    They hired yet another batch of writers to create mysteries for juveniles as Ellery Queen, Jr.
    One of the Ellery Queen, Jr., writers, James Clark Carlisle, Jr., farmed out some of his writing assignments, creating doubly ghostwritten books.

Why they might not be annoying:

    Before their authorship became public, they staged a series of debates with one cousin posing as Ellery Queen and the other as Barnaby Ross.
    Critic Otto Penzler wrote, ‘Ellery Queen clearly is, after Poe, the most important American in mystery fiction.’
    Their ghostwriters included Theodore Sturgeon, Jack Vance, and Frank Belknap Long.
    The Mystery Writers of America established an Ellery Queen Award to honor writing teams (1983).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 13 Votes: 61.54% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 8 Votes: 12.50% Annoying