Ellery Queen's Challenge to the Reader. An Anthology - Inscribed - Ellery Queen, H. C. Bailey 1938 - Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York - First Edition 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 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...

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.   Condition: Fine in very good binding, wear to corners and spine ends, slight toning to spine.   Ref: 109333   Price: HK$ 18,000