In 1942 an American digest, Coronet Magazine ran an interesting "portfolio of personalities" entitled Merchants of Murder, in which nine popular mystery writers were profiled. These were:
"A Pair of Queens"--Ellery Queen, aka Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee
"Double-Trouble-Maker"--Leslie Ford/David Frome, aka Zenith Brown
"Mr. and Mrs."--Frances and Richard Lockridge
"Keeper of the Gray Cells"--Agatha Christie
"Prolific Lawyer"--Erle Stanley Gardner
"Master of Wimsey"--Dorothy L. Sayers
"Little Sister"--Helen Reilly
I posted pics of the pages below, hope they are legible!
Fourteen years later in 1956 Coronet did another profile on crime writers, Masters of Mystery. Nine writers again were featured. Six had appeared in 1942, but three were new. Who do you think three "newbies" were? Who do you think they replaced?
Ok, I'll take a stab at it. (heh - get it? - stab)
ReplyDeleteI bet the authors dropped were Reilly, Zenith Brown, and the Lockridges.
The others are still well-known and mostly in print today, so probably were at least as famous 15 yrs after this list was compiled.
As to who was added ... hmm.. that's for someone else to suggest... maybe some of the 'hard-boiled' writers ... ?
Right on two. (The Lockridges stayed.) There was one hard-boiled American in the new ones, also two other American men. All the vanished authors were women, so the balance tipped heavily in favor of men. I'll try to post that article soon.
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