What do you think?
Rate this book
Queen's Quorum: A History Of The Detective Crime Short Story As Revealed By The 125 Most Important Books Published In This Field, 1845 1967
This book is a history of the detective crime short story as revealed by the 125 most important books published on that subject since 1845.
- GenresMystery
132 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1951
About the author
Ellery Queen
1,807 books498 followersaka Barnaby Ross.
(Pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee)
"Ellery Queen" was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery.
Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen's first appearance came in 1928 when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who used his spare time to assist his police inspector father in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death.
Several of the later "Ellery Queen" books were written by other authors, including Jack Vance, Avram Davidson, and Theodore Sturgeon.
(Pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee)
"Ellery Queen" was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery.
Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen's first appearance came in 1928 when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who used his spare time to assist his police inspector father in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death.
Several of the later "Ellery Queen" books were written by other authors, including Jack Vance, Avram Davidson, and Theodore Sturgeon.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 22, 2018
In Queen's Quorum: A History of the Detective-Crime Short Story as Revealed by the 106 Most Important Books Published in This Field since 1845 (1951), Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee (under their pseudonym Ellery Queen) do just that--they give readers a run-down of the short stories they consider to be the best and/or most influential in a little over 100 years from 1845 through 1950. This is an interesting and informative reference book. It is not just a list of short stories, but Queen provides indepth historical and biographical information on the stories and their authors.
I was pleased to note how many of Queen's selections I had already read. I didn't necessarily agree with their opinions on all of those, but I agreed with enough that I would definitely welcome the chance to read the
rest of the stories listed here. Unfortunately, it seems that several of their selections may be quite difficult to find. They were scarce when the book was first published and I'm sure that they are even more difficult to track down today. But there would be no thrill of the hunt if all vintage mystery stories and books were easy to find.
The only thing I would have appreciated more would have been a Queen's Quorum on the history of the detective-crime novel. While I do appreciate a good detective short story, I do prefer those that are novel length and it would have been interesting to have Queen's list of the most important novels. ★★★ and 3/4.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
I was pleased to note how many of Queen's selections I had already read. I didn't necessarily agree with their opinions on all of those, but I agreed with enough that I would definitely welcome the chance to read the
rest of the stories listed here. Unfortunately, it seems that several of their selections may be quite difficult to find. They were scarce when the book was first published and I'm sure that they are even more difficult to track down today. But there would be no thrill of the hunt if all vintage mystery stories and books were easy to find.
The only thing I would have appreciated more would have been a Queen's Quorum on the history of the detective-crime novel. While I do appreciate a good detective short story, I do prefer those that are novel length and it would have been interesting to have Queen's list of the most important novels. ★★★ and 3/4.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
January 22, 2014
Many of these stories or books I have read over the years. Some I did not like or understand when first read. But with the hints from the cousins Ellery Queen I will try to re-read those that were not greatreads the first time around. A shame the cousins are still not with us to evaluate some of the current leading detective/mystery writers. The addition of pure sci-fi/horror/supernatural stories to the detective genre might have stumped them.
Want to Read
July 2, 2019Synopsis: the history of the detective short story as revealed through the most important works to 1969.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews