Ellery Queen's Challenge to the Reader. An Anthology - Inscribed -
Ellery Queen, H. C. Bailey
1938 - Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York - One of 50 De Luxe editions.
The ‘Challenge’ - In each of these 25 short stories the name of the detective is changed; the reader must recognise the great detectives by their methods, mannerisms, and other “internal” evidence. The correct names of the detectives are revealed at the end of each story.
One of the rare fifty de luxe signed gift editions, with rather fabulous association, being the one presented to ‘H. C. Bailey’, British Golden Age author, whose detective ‘Reggie Fortune’ features in one of the stories contained within, of course we will not tell you which one...
This signature of ‘Ellery Queen’, the creation of authors Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, is most likely to be Dannay’s.
Containing the first book appearances of Dashiell Hammett’s A Man Called Spade, about the now legendary detective Sam Spade, and T. S. Stribling’s Bullets, about detective Professor Poggioli. It is possible that a number of the fifty de luxe copies were given to the living authors as thanks for allowing their short stories to be adjusted in this anthology. This copy obviously being one example, but unfortunately it is a rare gem, and we have only been able to discover records of two other copies, one presented to Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) who created the blind detective ‘Max Carrados’, and the other presented to Baroness Orczy (1865-1947) whose ‘Man in the Corner’ also features in the anthology, hence our theory, but more detection is required...
Q is for Queen. Ellery Queen is a fictional detective regarded by many as the definitive American detective-hero, rivaling Nero Wolfe as the successor to Sherlock Holmes.
Ellery Queen, and later Barnaby Ross, was the pseudonym shared by the writing team composed of cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. Together, the pair wrote four Drury Lane mystery novels, starring a Shakespearean actor and detective, as well as the Ellery Queen mystery series. The pseudonym pair was all the rage in the 1920s and ‘30s, with one of the cousins, usually Dannay, donning a mask and appearing in public as Ellery Queen. The cousins carried on a fictional dialogue as Ross and Queen in print and ended the intrigue in 1932 when Ross was revealed to be Ellery Queen. Several years later, when the writers behind the pseudonyms were unmasked, the public was so enamoured of them that their work continued to enjoy great popularity for decades to come.
‘After Poe, I think it’s true that Ellery Queen was the most significant and important writer of mystery fiction in America.’ – Otto Penzler.
Provenance: H. C. Bailey. Later of collector and bibliographer Adrian Homer Goldstone with his bookplate, and later still from the James C. Seacrest Collection.
Octavo (book size 21.1 x 15 cm) pp. [2] vii [1] 502 [1 (Acknowledgements)] [1]. In the publisher's de luxe binding of half orange pebbled morocco over matching cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge tinted brick red to match, cream coloured endpapers, re-backed in matching leather, with original spine re-laid. Condition: Fine in near fine binding, re-backed in matching leather, with original spine re-laid. Ref: 109333 Price: HK$ 25,000
One of the rare fifty de luxe signed gift editions, with rather fabulous association, being the one presented to ‘H. C. Bailey’, British Golden Age author, whose detective ‘Reggie Fortune’ features in one of the stories contained within, of course we will not tell you which one...
This signature of ‘Ellery Queen’, the creation of authors Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, is most likely to be Dannay’s.
Containing the first book appearances of Dashiell Hammett’s A Man Called Spade, about the now legendary detective Sam Spade, and T. S. Stribling’s Bullets, about detective Professor Poggioli. It is possible that a number of the fifty de luxe copies were given to the living authors as thanks for allowing their short stories to be adjusted in this anthology. This copy obviously being one example, but unfortunately it is a rare gem, and we have only been able to discover records of two other copies, one presented to Ernest Bramah (1868-1942) who created the blind detective ‘Max Carrados’, and the other presented to Baroness Orczy (1865-1947) whose ‘Man in the Corner’ also features in the anthology, hence our theory, but more detection is required...
Q is for Queen. Ellery Queen is a fictional detective regarded by many as the definitive American detective-hero, rivaling Nero Wolfe as the successor to Sherlock Holmes.
Ellery Queen, and later Barnaby Ross, was the pseudonym shared by the writing team composed of cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. Together, the pair wrote four Drury Lane mystery novels, starring a Shakespearean actor and detective, as well as the Ellery Queen mystery series. The pseudonym pair was all the rage in the 1920s and ‘30s, with one of the cousins, usually Dannay, donning a mask and appearing in public as Ellery Queen. The cousins carried on a fictional dialogue as Ross and Queen in print and ended the intrigue in 1932 when Ross was revealed to be Ellery Queen. Several years later, when the writers behind the pseudonyms were unmasked, the public was so enamoured of them that their work continued to enjoy great popularity for decades to come.
‘After Poe, I think it’s true that Ellery Queen was the most significant and important writer of mystery fiction in America.’ – Otto Penzler.
Provenance: H. C. Bailey. Later of collector and bibliographer Adrian Homer Goldstone with his bookplate, and later still from the James C. Seacrest Collection.
Octavo (book size 21.1 x 15 cm) pp. [2] vii [1] 502 [1 (Acknowledgements)] [1]. In the publisher's de luxe binding of half orange pebbled morocco over matching cloth, spine lettered in gilt, top edge tinted brick red to match, cream coloured endpapers, re-backed in matching leather, with original spine re-laid. Condition: Fine in near fine binding, re-backed in matching leather, with original spine re-laid. Ref: 109333 Price: HK$ 25,000