Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Margery Allingham's Favorite Detective Novelists (1951)

At least these are the favorites Margery Allingham listed in correspondence with Fred Dannay, of Ellery Queen fame ("not in order of merit but just as I think of them"), as tweeted by Sarah Weinman:

John (Dickson Carr)
Erle Stanley Gardner
Nicholas Blake
Agatha Christie
Rex Stout
Mabel (MA struck out "Katherine," written first) Seeley
Simenon
H. C. Bailey

And, she added to Dannay, "you and me of course!"

Interesting choices, in that the newest writer in the group, Mabel Seeley, had published her first mystery, The Listening House (discussed below), over a dozen years previously.  A pretty orthodox list on the whole!  After a seven-year hiatus from crime fiction, Seeley has just published her sixth mystery novel, The Beckoning Door, in 1950.
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13 comments:

  1. Prashant C. TrikannadJune 3, 2015 at 11:36 PM

    This is a good list of detective novelists. I have read just two out of the ten that includes Margery Allingham and Fred Dannay.

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    1. The Passing TrampJune 4, 2015 at 12:11 AM

      Yes, it is a good list, and pretty traditional, I think!

      Delete
  2. UnknownJune 4, 2015 at 12:07 AM

    What! No Sayers?

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    1. The Passing TrampJune 4, 2015 at 12:10 AM

      Well, I think it was assumed DLS was no longer *active* at that point. Of course neither was Bailey, was he, but people probably assumed he was still in the game, so to speak.

      Delete
    2. The Passing TrampJune 4, 2015 at 12:10 AM

      But, come to think of it, there's no Ngaio Marsh!

      Delete
  3. Colonel BurnabyJune 4, 2015 at 7:49 AM

    Maybe there's more to Marsh's late joining of The Detection Club than the cost of the dinners at Cafe Royal. He says with tongue firmly planted in cheek.

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  4. dfordoomJune 4, 2015 at 10:37 AM

    Six male and only two female writers. Maybe even the Crime Queens didn't buy the idea of the genre being dominated by women.

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  5. The Passing TrampJune 4, 2015 at 10:50 AM

    Three women if you assume Allingham wasn't really joking about including herself!

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    1. dfordoomJune 5, 2015 at 7:23 AM

      And seven men if she really included Dannay/Ellery Queen.

      Delete
  6. AnonymousJune 4, 2015 at 12:03 PM

    It's certainly not a bad list to give to new GA readers looking for a place to start reading GA mysteries.

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  7. TracyKJune 4, 2015 at 8:00 PM

    An interesting list and a couple of authors there that I have not tried yet. And of course I love it that she included Rex Stout.

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  8. dfordoomJune 5, 2015 at 7:24 AM

    I was pleasantly surprised to see Erle Stanley Gardner on her list.

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