Who would have thought that two cousins from Brooklyn, Daniel Nathan, alias Frederick Dannay, and Manford Lepoksy, alias Manfred Lee, would create America's most famous fictional detective?
Dannay produced the plots, clues, and the outline of the characters. Lee would take these ideas and write the novels. Their books covered 42 years, but that is only part of the phenomenon. Not only was Ellery Queen in the movies, radio and television, but he also established the longest running and most successful crime fiction magazine. In addition to all of this, the cousins were historians in the field of mystery writing. They published a 994 page anthology of great detective stories written from 1841 to 1941.
Their first novel, The Roman Hat Mystery, was published in 1929. The structure of the stories was established and adhered to throughout all of the novels. Ellery was supported by his father, Inspector Richard Queen, and assisted by Sergeant Velie. At the end of each story, there was a single page advising the readers that they were exposed to the same clues as Ellery and, in effect, challenging them to come up with the solution. A love interest for Queen was established with his secretary Nikki Porter and later with Paula Paris, a gossip columnist. After these two ladies disappeared from the books, he did not have any serious romantic interests.
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (EQMM) was created in 1941, with Dannay as the editor. It has been the major influence in the mystery genre as it published myriads of stories, thus providing a vehicle for new writers. Although both cousins are now dead, Dannay in 1982 and Lee in 1971, Ellery Queen survives in his magazine and in his novels.
