Ellery Queen

For other uses, see Ellery Queen (disambiguation).
Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee
Manfred Lee (left) and Frederic Dannay
Born
Daniel Nathan (Dannay)
(1905-10-20)October 20, 1905
Brooklyn, New York
Emanuel Benjamin Lepofsky (Lee)
(1905-01-11)January 11, 1905
Brooklyn, New York
DiedSeptember 3, 1982(1982-09-03) (aged 76)
White Plains, New York (Dannay)
April 3, 1971(1971-04-03) (aged 66)
Roxbury, Connecticut (Lee)
Alma materNew York University (Lee)
OccupationAuthors
Years active1929–1971
Spouse
Kaye Brinker, to Lee
​
​
(m. 1942)​
Rose Koppel, to Dannay
​
​
(m. 1975)​

Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murder cases.[1][2][3] From 1929 to 1971, Dannay and Lee wrote around forty novels and short story collections in which Ellery Queen appears as a character.

Under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, they also edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime. Dannay founded, and for many years edited, the crime fiction magazine Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961 onwards, Dannay and Lee commissioned other authors to write thrillers using the pseudonym Ellery Queen, but not featuring Ellery Queen as a character; some such novels were juvenile and were credited to Ellery Queen Jr. They also wrote four novels under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross, which featured the detective Drury Lane.[3][4][5] Several movies, radio shows, and television shows have been based on their works.[6]

Dannay and Lee were cousins, who were better known by their professional names.[2][7] Frederic Dannay was the professional name of Daniel Nathan[8][2] and Manfred Bennington Lee that of Emanuel Benjamin Lepofsky.[2][8][5] Since 2013, the complete works of Ellery Queen have been represented by JABberwocky Literary Agency.[9][10]

  1. ^ Wheat, Carolyn (June 2005). "The Last Word The Real Queen(s) of Crime". Clues: A Journal of Detection. 23 (4): 87–90. doi:10.3200/CLUS.23.4.87-90.
  2. ^ a b c d "Ellery Queen". Britannica .com. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Symons, Julian (1981). Great detectives: Seven Original Investigations. Abrams. ISBN 978-0810909786.
  5. ^ a b Pennywark, Leah (1 July 2018). "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and the Postpulp: From Modern to Postmodern". The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies. 9 (2): 220–244. doi:10.5325/jmodeperistud.9.2.0220. JSTOR 10.5325/jmodeperistud.9.2.0220. S2CID 203528158. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  6. ^ Multiple sources:
  7. ^ Goodrich, Joseph (2012). Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen 1947-1950. Perfect Crime Books. ISBN 978-1-935797-38-8.
  8. ^ a b Lee, Rand B. (29 June 2016). "The Story Is the Thing". Retrieved 26 June 2023. In the 1920s, when Dad applied to New York University as Emanuel Benjamin Lepofsky..... change his name from Emanuel Lepofsky to Manfred Lee. (Eventually, Dad's father and sisters adopted "Lee" as their surnames; and Dad's cousin and future writing partner changed his name from Daniel Nathan to Frederic Dannay.)
  9. ^ Sercu, Kurt. "Copyright information". Ellery Queen, a website on deduction. Archived from the original on 10 March 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  10. ^ "Ellery Queen – JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc". awfulagent.com. Retrieved 2023-09-18.