Chapter 6 ellery quinn and his magazine

Ellery Queen (Dennay and Lee, unless otherwise noted) stands for three things in my mind: a great detective writer, a learned historian of reasoning, and a brilliant editor.His wonderful novels in the golden age are so classic. The unthinkable mysteries and the rigorous reasoning that he told every detail once brought me a very high enjoyment of logical thinking. The few histories of reasoning written by Ellery Quinn are also well-known in the industry. His "101 Years of Entertainment" and "Quine's Best Selections" have the same historical status as Howard Highgrave's "For Murder for Entertainment is also of extremely high academic level.

Many fans of detective novels know that after World War II, classical puzzle-solving novels fell into decline due to incompatibility with social factors, and hardcore, police procedures, espionage, and thriller novels became popular, and this phenomenon has basically remained to this day.Most of Ellery Quinn's works are rarely reprinted nowadays, and most of them can only be found through the second-hand book market. I have been searching for several years before I can barely make up, although sometimes some publishers will produce a copy or two on a whim , but nothing more.I am envious that the works of people like Conan Doyle or Agatha can be renewed every year.

The "Ellery Quinn Mystery Magazine" (hereinafter referred to as EQMM) founded by the master is completely different. It has gone through the test of time for more than 60 years since its establishment, and it is still standing today, becoming the most influential magazine today. Detective Magazine. Ellery Quinn was only 28 years old that year, and it was only 4 years since it was published. At this time, Ellery Quinn seemed to have endless energy, and classic masterpieces were emerging in an endless stream.In fact, it is okay to keep creating like this, and continue the cooperation between cousins, but for anyone who is ambitious or has a strong love for what he does, a little success is not enough. Will look up.To make an inappropriate analogy, if Bill Gates stagnated after launching DOS, he would not be as brilliant as he is today, which is why there is today's WINXP, which is why today's non-stop annexation is beneficial. Profitable large and small technology companies keep sprinting forward.Ellery Quinn was arguably in a similarly scrappy state.

Detective novels have always been despised by orthodox literature, which is almost everyone knows, but did you know that even in the genre of "mystery literature", classical puzzle novels are generally trampled on the threshold of crime novels? underfoot.Julian Simmons said in his history of reasoning "Bloody Murder" that "mystery novels are not as good as non-mystery novels in terms of literary value", and the non-mystery novels here mean hardcore and crime novels , they do not focus on mysteries and tricks, but more on exploring social problems and thinking about human nature.It was this ambition to elevate the status of detective fiction that gave Ellery Queen the idea of ​​founding a detective magazine in an attempt to achieve his purpose.

At that time, there were many detective magazines on the market, most of which were cheap magazines, and most of them published cheap novels full of blood and violence for temporary pleasure. Facing such a situation, Ellery Quinn lamented: "As a writer, reader and Collectors of detective-crime fiction, we wish for a publication dedicated to the very best short detective-crime fiction and have cried for years for it, its lack is a pity...” In 1933, Ellery Quinn launched her first magazine: the Mystery League detective magazine.It was extremely difficult to start a business at the beginning. The entire staff of the magazine was only two cousins, not even a secretary.They have to select works, review manuscripts, typesetting and other related tasks. The entire magazine is basically arranged by Ellery Quinn, and Ellery Quinn sweated a lot for this magazine.However, only four issues were published (October 1933 to January 1934).

If Ellery Quinn learned anything from this failure, it was a valuable editorial lesson.This undoubtedly played an important factor in the success of EQMM, and it also laid a solid foundation for him to edit hundreds of short story collections."Mystic League was the early ambition and blood sweat of Ellery Quinn," Lee said. Ellery Quinn was addicted to editing for the Detective Magazine of Mysterious League. His initial promise of "collecting the world's famous writers and publishing the best detective stories" did not disappoint readers. Dorothy L. Sayers, Dashiel Hammett and other famous people have drafted articles for the magazine.Very wisely, the magazine is mainly based on detective stories, and there are very few cumbersome advertisements that are full of other modern magazines (of course, the lack of advertisements also has a certain relationship with the economic environment at that time). This tradition has been passed down to the later EQMM.Each issue of the magazine publishes a complete novella reasoning story (80,000-100,000 words). Readers may be interested to know that "Mr. Wren's Last Case" is the first novel in the first issue.

Ellery Quinn also introduced a 100-point evaluation system for detective novels, according to the overall conception, suspense, surprise of the ending, case analysis, style, characterization, background, murder method, clues and fairness. A maximum of 10 is used to measure detective fiction, and each novella is rated on this standard. In addition, Ellery Quinn also launched the column "Quinn's Taste", which, as the name suggests, is his own small world, where he reviews and analyzes detective novels, and at the same time allows him to disseminate and collect gossip news about detective novels and writers.Although this is not quite the same as the "jury box" (a column mainly publishing book reviews and newsletters) of EQMM later, it is quite similar.

The "Mystic League" detective magazine sold only twenty-five cents per issue at the time, and these only four issues have now attracted countless Ellery Quinn fans and collectors of detective novels to search for.And what makes me most curious is the fifth issue, which is said to have been typeset but never published. Should there be a sample or the most preliminary manuscript preserved somewhere?Of course, this is just a distant dream.And these four issues of "Mysterious Alliance" magazine, I am afraid it will be difficult to get in your lifetime, if you have "Royal Blood: Ellery Queen Detective and Writer" by Francis M. Reeves , at the end of the book, there are detailed catalogs of the four magazines, hoping to quench your thirst.

The failure of the first magazine did not dampen Ellery Quinn's confidence. Under Dennay's lobbying, in 1941, Lawrence E. Spivek of Mercury Press agreed to publish EQMM.Dennay explained that the purpose of founding the magazine was to "enhance the literary value of detective fiction", "by providing such a place of practice to encourage those among us to write better works, and to cultivate and develop more new writers. "There is only one standard for us, and that is quality!" He wants to prove to the world that not only are mystery novels no worse than crime novels, they also have literary value!In this way, Dennay's more than 40 years of editorial career kicked off.

In order to achieve the goal of "enhancing the literary value of detective novels", Dannai has invited many famous literary masters to write detective novels for EQMM. These writers include more than 40 Nobel Prize winners and Pulitzer Prize winners who have contributed to EQMM. . Dennay is a very strict and demanding editor, and he has always held a belief that non-quality articles should not be published.Managing the "Mysterious Alliance" magazine has allowed him to develop an extraordinary vision. He often puts himself in the thinking space of readers and writers, discovers unreasonable things from the perspective of readers, and proposes appropriate changes from the perspective of writers.He reviewed the manuscript seriously, and he was relentless in the places that should be changed.

When Francis M. Reeves was writing Ellery Queen's biographical book "Royal Blood", he often came into contact with Dennay. Over time, under his encouragement, he spent two years. Yue wrote a story and sent it to Danai triumphantly.Little did he know that when we met again a few weeks later, Dannai, like a surgeon, smashed his reasoning point by point point by point and accurately, which made him feel ashamed.Then, under Danai's advice and guidance, he spent several months burying himself in re-establishing the framework, tricks and ideas of the story, and finally sent the revised draft with trepidation, and this time he got Danai's permission to publish . The author of the unknown detective, Bill Pronskin, had a similar experience. He recalled: "I usually don't like others to change my work without my consent, but Denney is an exception. The changes he made I never disagreed." Dannai doesn't care if the other party is a famous writer or a nobody, if he thinks something needs to be changed, then that place must be worth changing. Of course, my statement may be wrong, and he is certainly not a domineering and reckless vicious person. editors, but usually those changes are very prescient or necessary.Edward Hawke, the king of short stories, has worked with him for many years, and Dennay has also made suggestions to his works many times, which he readily accepts. Dannay's editing ability is well-known in the industry, so he has won the trust of old and new writers. Even if some writers and Dannai have different opinions at times, they all agree to the changes in the end.Famed author Clark Howard said of the time Dan edited his work but forgot why, "I trusted him even though he forgot why." Dennay edited hundreds of collections of short stories under the name of Ellery Queen, and greatly promoted the status of detective fiction in the same literature.Until now, he is still considered the most famous Anthologist (short story editor) in the industry. At one time, he personally edited more short story collections than all other editors combined.These proud achievements, together with the EQMM led by Dan over the years, are all neatly arranged on the bookshelf of the magazine, to remind the new generation of editors to keep publishing non-quality works and to pay 100% for detective novels enthusiasm. Dannay also discovered and republished many good detective novels in cheap magazines, and has been encouraging more people to participate in the creation of detective novels. He set up a "first column", from the first appearance of this column to the popularity of major detectives. The writers of the Fiction Awards have emerged in large numbers over the years and have become veritable cradles of detective writers. Has EQMM raised the status of detective fiction under Dannai?The answer is almost yes.In the twenty-first century, detective crime novels are ubiquitous. We take it for granted that this is the inevitable result of the development of a literary genre. People, today is likely to be a completely different situation.Under his promotion, not only well-known writers contributed their manuscripts one after another, but also attracted countless new force writers, and cultivated batch after batch of talented writers. In 2004, the biggest event of EQMM was ushered in. Horror writer Stephen King's work "Secret Window" (Secret Window) was put on the screen, and EQMM also made its debut in the film world with its light.The footage of it being flipped through in the hands of actor Johnny Dipper caused a great sensation in the inner circle, and several special reports on "Secret Window" were reported, which can be regarded as very lively. Many consider Dennay to have played a far-reaching role in EQMM's long journey from its launch to its status as the most influential magazine, as a conscientious and sharp-sighted editor who oversaw the challenge of each issue. Draft and review, this work lasted for 41 years until his death.Therefore, when mentioning EQMM, people first think of Dannai, so what role does Li play? First of all, we should understand that Li's editing skills are definitely not inferior to Dan Nai's. A large part of the reason for this situation is due to the personal characteristics and preferences of the two cousins. Dannai is more sociable and likes to make friends, while Li is more quiet and not good at banquets.Lee's son recalled his father saying, "My father's explanation of hell is to leave the house and go to New York to meet with a publisher, or attend a banquet for the MWA Writers Association." Dannai is also a crazy Sherlock Holmes fan, and he never tires of attending the BSI's annual evening party, and taking the opportunity to chat with major writers to promote EQMM.Since 1943, one of the traditions of BSI is that members and guests will receive an EQMM as a souvenir.Dannai also participated in MWA (American Detective Writers Association) and became the chairman, sparing no effort on the size of the association.Lee only attended the first and last BSI Gala in 1946 at the request of Dennay, and MWA only attended it symbolically.Lee was almost entirely uninterested in socializing. Therefore, it is almost a matter of course that Dan Nai became the editor of EQMM, and Li Ze retired as a behind-the-scenes figure, only participating in the editorial work from time to time.As mentioned earlier, Li's editing ability is definitely not inferior to Dan's, and he is equally meticulous in his work.His son-in-law once showed him a detective story and asked him what he thought. As a result, Li mercilessly picked out the unreasonable parts of the story and said: "You asked for my professional opinion, so I take it as a professional opinion." editor to comment on this article."\ Then also give sincere suggestions. The cousins ​​were originally equals after their real names were revealed, however, long before EQMM started, Howard Highgraf in his book Murder for Fun suggested that Dana was part of the partnership The more important part, coupled with the existence of EQMM later, Dannai's reputation inevitably overshadowed Li.As Dan's fame grows, Lee begins to feel uncomfortable with the situation.Cousins’ communications are often full of mutual doubts and quarrels, and sometimes the words are very intense and full of insults. If outsiders look at them at first glance, they can’t help but suspect that it is a miracle that they can still maintain a cooperative relationship.Despite the discord on the surface, the love and friendship between the cousins ​​is also fully revealed between the lines, especially when there are problems in the health or family of each other, they will comfort and encourage each other with sincerity.As Cousins ​​said, bickering with each other is an important part of partnership. Lee had stated that he would only take over editing EQMM in the event of Dannai's sudden death or exile, neither of which ultimately occurred, of course. I have been subscribing to EQMM for many years, and to describe it in a very old-fashioned way, "Among the detective fiction magazines I have read, I can't find any better than EQMM." There are several things I like most about EQMM. First, it is light in size, 32 carats, the size of a paperback book, and it feels like reading a novel in your hand.This not only makes it easier for readers to carry, but also makes it easier to collect. Even when placed on the bookshelf, it is more neat and beautiful than those 16-format trend magazines. Secondly, the cover design of EQMM is very "detective". Its colors are bright, and the characters full of Noir atmosphere are extremely vivid and quite attractive. Most of the stories are equipped with illustrations.There are very few advertisements in the magazine, and even if there are, most of them are on the inside and end pages, and they will never suddenly appear midway to hinder reading.Who hasn't read those magazines that have several pages of advertisements every time you turn the page?That's pretty annoying, at least for me personally. Each issue of EQMM has 144 pages. In terms of content, it inherits its consistent tradition. It mainly focuses on short stories of detective novels, accounting for 90% of the space, which is very "value for money".The rest are devoted to Jon L. Breen's newsletter column "The Jury Box", several poems on detective novels, an occasional critical article or a cartoon or two, etc. And more than a dozen detective stories are written by famous writers such as Edward Hawke, Clark Howard, Jeffrey Deaver, Peter LaFosey, Bill Pronskin, etc. Among them, there are more that I have never heard of. Therefore, reading EQMM is also one of the ways to find new writers to understand and explore.The types of stories are complex and diverse, there are few pure puzzle novels, and most of them are suspense crime novels. Except for the smooth front and back covers of the magazine, the rest of the magazine is rough paper, which is easy to tear, and the printed illustrations have also become rough. This is the only fly in the ointment.If EQMM can take the advantages of today's trend magazines and change the entire magazine to be made of smooth paper with beautiful color pictures, then my love for it will definitely be even higher.But this is just another daydream of mine. No matter in terms of design or content, EQMM has kept pace with the times under the leadership of three editors, and can bring readers wonderful detective stories in each issue. Dannai's lofty goals and ideals will also be passed down from generation to generation. Continue to work hard to improve the overall status of detective novels.In order to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ellery Quinn, EQMM will publish some review articles every month this year, discussing Ellery Quinn's contribution to detective fiction from various angles, interested friends may wish to pay attention.I would like to sincerely congratulate EQMM for getting better and better and providing us with more and better detective stories. 1. Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Official Website. http://themysteryplace.com/eqmm/ 2. Grost, Michael E.: A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection. http://members.aol.com/MG4273/classics.htm 3. Nevins, Francis M.: Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective. Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1974. 4. Sercu, Kurt: Ellery Queen, a website on deduction. http://neptune.spaceports.com/~queen/ 5.Queen, Ellery: Tragedy of Errors. VA: Crippen & Landru, 1999