Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine is a well-known, successful collection of crime stories written by mystery writers over the years. The Mercury Press first published the magazine in 1941.

Ellery Queen was the pseudonym of two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee. Dannay served as editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1941 until his death in 1982. Ellery Queen was the authors name and the fictional name of the detective starring in the original series of novels that had a run of 42 years.

The cousins created the character of Ellery Queen in 1928 for a short story contest, and Queen was first seen in the novel The Roman Hat Mystery published in 1929. Along with an interesting cast of characters, the cousins established a successful blueprint that ensured the success of the series. Each story contained an unusual crime, a complex series of clues, and a supporting cast that included his father, Inspector Richard Queen among others.

A Challenge to the Reader was included toward the end of each book. Announcing to the reader they now had all the clues the detective did, and there was only one possible solution, they were challenged to solve the case. The challenge became very popular with readers and brought forth a devoted fan base including mystery writer John Dickson Carr.

Fredric Dannay’s desire was to raise the standard of mystery writers as well as to provide a forum for new writers. In order to accomplish those tasks, Dannay invited well-known and respected crime and mystery writers to submit stories. Over 40 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners responded and wrote for EQMM.

The magazine encouraged new and unknown mystery writers. More than 700 aspiring writers were first published in the Department of First Stories. To this day, the magazine continues to offer innovative stories and edgy writers in the crime and mystery genre.

Since 1941, numerous awards were presented to writers for stories first published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Most of the awards were for individual short stories.

The EQMM website’s Author and Story Index is available for download in PDF. The index includes the author, the name of the stories published, the issue, and the page number.

Among the notable authors published in EQMM over the years are Rudyard Kipling, Alice Walker, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Edward D. Hoch, Nancy Pickard, Lawrence Block, Dashiell Hammett, Sue Grafton, Carol Joyce Oates, and many others.

If you are interested in ordering the EQMM, reading a highlight of each month’s magazine, reading excerpts from their book reviews, or chatting with other EQMM lovers, you can check out The Mystery Place.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine subscription is available at Amazon.com