Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is a bi-monthly American digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction, and mystery fiction. Launched in fall 1941 by Mercury Press, EQMM is named after the pseudonymous author Ellery Queen, who wrote novels and short stories about a fictional detective also named Ellery Queen. From 1993, EQMM changed its cover title to be Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine (without the "'s"), but the table of contents still retains the full name.

Background

Ellery Queen was the pseudonym of the team of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, who had been writing under the name since 1929. EQMM was created to provide a market for mystery fiction above the common run of pulp crime magazines of the day. Dannay served as the magazine's editor-in-chief (although still under the name Ellery Queen) from its creation until his death in 1982, when managing editor Eleanor Sullivan succeeded to the post. Following her death in 1991, Janet Hutchings became editor of EQMM.

In Bloody Murder, Julian Symons offered this description of the publication:

History

Mystery League and pre-EQMM era (1933–1934)

Around four years after Ellery Queen's successful debut, The Roman Hat Mystery, Dannay and Lee decided to produce a magazine that would publish only quality mystery fiction. Their first attempt, Mystery League, a monthly magazine for mystery fiction, debuted in October 1933, with Dannay and Lee as its only employees. which helped to maintain the quality of the stories it published while leading to a higher selling price of 25¢. When America was still recovering from the Great Depression, this was too high a price for most people to purchase a magazine. The magazine ceased publication after only four issues,

Just like "Mystery League", the first issue of EQMM contained seven complete mystery stories from Dashiell Hammett, Margery Allingham, T.S. Stribling, Anthony Abbot, Cornell Woolrich, Fredrick Hazlitt Brennan, and Ellery Queen himself. Dannay admitted in his message to readers that "This first issue is frankly experimental." In sharp contrast to Mystery Leagues failure, the first issue of EQMM sold more than 90,000 copies, and keeping short stories of the genre alive and flourishing.

Frederic Dannay's editorship (1941–1982)

Frederic Dannay served as editor-in-chief for EQMM for more than 40 years. As an editor, he aimed to establish a more respectful reputation for mysteries and keep the genre strong. while he believed his efforts also served to cater to the widest possible range of tastes and attract a larger audience. One of his major efforts was to find and publish stories written by big names with elements of crime or mystery, and as a result, more than forty Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners, including William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, had works published in EQMM. Dannay also set a global orientation for EQMM, publishing works from writers all over the world, from works by English writers like Agatha Christie to the first English translation of the work of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

The first EQMM short story contest was held in 1946. William Faulkner, the future Nobel Prize winner, wrote a new story for the contest and won second prize, while the first prize went to Manly Wade Wellman. Faulkner was furious about his loss, and in a letter to his agent, he described the contest as "a manufactured mystery story contest." Some contend that the story Faulkner submitted, "An Error in Chemistry," is not among his best.

After the first few years of Dannay reprinted stories he had gathered for his own personal collection of mysteries while slowly adding previously unpublished stories by both famous and unknown authors. Black Mask ceased to exist in EQMM in the 1970s, but was reinstated in 2008 and continues to run today. An Australian reprint edition started from July 1947 and ceased publication in November 1964, and a UK reprint edition was available between February 1953 and September 1964. Spin-offs that translated the magazine into other languages like Japanese, French, Italian, German were all once available, but all ceased publication eventually. Eleanor Sullivan took his place as editor of EQMM. She was the managing editor from 1970 to 1982, hand-picked by Dannay after an interview. She had written many articles under a pen name for newspapers, magazines and books. The first EQMM Readers Award went to Clark Howard. they worked together to keep both magazines prosperous, and often passed stories to each other to find a more suitable place for them.

Janet Hutchings' editorship (1991–2025)

Janet Hutchings began her career as editor and publisher at the Doubleday Book Clubs, where she was given opportunities to read for the Mystery Guild, to which almost every mystery or crime novel waiting to be published in America would be submitted for possible inclusion. This experience greatly enhanced her passion for mysteries, and later she became Mystery Editor for Walker & Company and published a series of anthologies of stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The connection allowed her to meet Sullivan at the EQMM 50th anniversary party in 1991, and she was later interviewed as a possible successor to the magazine's editor.

Hutchings inherited Dannay's principle of the magazines, making quality the only standard while trying to maintain a great variety of the genre mysteries and a global focus. She said in an interview that her aim had always been to try to "make EQMM's umbrella as wide as that of the genre", and to publish stories from the broadest possible range of mysteries. In 2003, Hutchings established the Passport to Crime department, which would translate works from other languages on a regular basis. She explained this as the magazine scouting more actively for stories in other languages instead of just waiting for submissions from foreign writers. In the same year, EQMMs first major digital editions became available in addition to the traditional print format. the EQMM editor's blog, was launched in 2012, The official website of EQMM offered information about the magazines to both subscribers and writers. In January 2018, EQMM launched its first web-only column, "Stranger Than Fiction", on its official website. Written by Dean Jobb and scheduled to be updated monthly for free, the new column studies and presents true crime cases, a topic that EQMM used to lack.

Janet Hutchings' retired as editor of EQMM with the publication of the January/February 2025 issue, which was the 1000th issue of the publication.

Jackie Sherbow's editorship (2025–present)

Jackie Sherbow, previously the senior managing editor, inherited the editorship on Hutchings's retirement. Soon afterwards, ownership of the magazine passed to Must Read Magazines, a division of Must Read Books Publishing, an imprint of 1 Paragraph.

Characteristics

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has several distinguishing hallmarks, most of which were established during the days of Frederic Dannay's editorship and have been maintained and strengthened since then. It is believed that these characteristics have helped EQMM to survive and flourish for more than 80 years while retaining its reputation as the leading periodical in the genre.

Variety

EQMM has always striven to explore the broadest possible range of mystery, trying to present every aspect of the genre, which results in a great variety of stories, including hard-boiled stories, classic English mysteries, noirs, suspense, cozy mysteries and the work of literary writers.

The variety of the magazine is also reflected in its variety of contributing writers. As Dannay explained, the magazine proposed "to give stories by big-name writers, by lesser-known writers, and by unknown writers. But no matter what their source, they will be superior stories." While the magazine published works by great literary figures, it also started the Department of First Stories in 1949. The magazine has long enjoyed contributions from international writers. The magazine's Department of First Stories has introduced hundreds of new writers, many of whom have become regular contributors.

Global orientation

EQMM had a global orientation from the beginning. Dannay introduced many international writers, including the Argentine Jorge Luis Borges, to the English literary community. Dannay also ran a number of Worldwide Short Story Contests in the early decades of the magazine, bringing in submissions from all around the world. He published an "All Nations" special issue of EQMM in August 1948, which included stories from every continent but Antarctica. In 2003, current editor Janet Hutchings launched the Passport to Crime department for translations from foreign authors.

Publisher

  • Mercury Publications (1941–1958)
  • Davis Publications (1958–1992)
  • Dell Magazines (1992–1996) - owned by Dell Publishing
  • Dell Magazines (1996–2025) - owned by Penny Publications
  • 1 Paragraph, Inc. (2025–present) - Has also purchased Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and Asimov's Science Fiction, from Penny, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from Spilogale, Inc.

Annual awards

  • EQMM Readers Choice Awards, annual, voted upon by readers
  • Ellery Queen Award, annual, honors writing teams
  • EQMM Contest for short stories, 1946–57, 1962

Other languages

The magazine had an official Spanish version, Selecciones policiacas y de misterio, edited by the Mexican Antonio Helú.

References

  • Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine official site
  • Dell's The Mystery Place