The very first Ellery Queen was a fictional character conjured up by cousins Fredric Dannay and Manfred Lee. The first story they wrote was entered in a writing contest. That first book and contest winner was The Roman Hat Mystery in 1929. After that book they went on to write 33 more novels and 8 collections of short stories. In 2005 a collection of radio plays that ran from 1939-1948 were collected and published in The Adventure of the Murdered Moths.
The books were made into movies as early as 1935 with a total of twelve Ellery Queen movies made for the big screen including one in 1979 made in Japan.
Not only did EQ grace the big screen but hte small screen as well. The character had four attempts at being weekly television shows. 1950-1952, 1954-1956, 1958-1959, and 1976-1975. There were also two TV movies made. One was a Hitchcock move, "Terror at Northfield" that was adapted from a Dannay and Lee short story. in 1971 an EQ movie "Don't Look Behind You" was aired.
The Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine was launched by Mercury Press in 1941. It was created to provide a market for eclectic mystery fiction that was above the common crime stories of the time. Dannay was the magazines editor-in-chief(under his pseudonym) from its beginning until his death in 1982. Because of its high editorial standards it is the longest running mystery fiction magazine.
EQMM has always accept unsolicited stories and now you can submit to them online.
Have you read an Ellery Queen book or Mystery Magazine?
