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| The Detective Story Club | |
|---|---|
| Name | The Detective Story Club |
| Formation | 20th century |
| Type | Literary society |
| Headquarters | Unknown |
| Purpose | Promotion of detective fiction and mystery writing |
The Detective Story Club was a literary society devoted to the appreciation, creation, and dissemination of detective fiction and mystery narratives. Founded amid the popularity of pulp magazines, penny dreadfuls, and serialized fiction, the Club intersected with movements in popular culture associated with crime literature, periodicals, and amateur detective societies. It served as a nexus connecting authors, editors, publishers, critics, and bibliophiles interested in the traditions exemplified by a wide range of writers and publications.
The Club emerged during the era dominated by publications such as The Strand Magazine, Argosy (magazine), Black Mask (magazine), Detective Story Magazine, and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, influenced by predecessors like Penny Dreadfuls, Chambers's Journal, All-Story Weekly, and The Boston Globe literary pages. Its formation drew on public tastes shaped by figures including Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, G. K. Chesterton, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Wilkie Collins, as well as by theatrical adaptations associated with Harper's Bazaar, The Saturday Evening Post, Punch (magazine), and The New York Times Book Review. Early conveners referenced trends visible in events like the World's Columbian Exposition, the Great Exhibition, and the proliferation of clubs modeled on The Baker Street Irregulars and The Detection Club. The Club's chronology intersected with publishing houses such as Collins Crime Club, Doubleday, Penguin Books, HarperCollins, and Random House.
Membership drew authors, editors, critics, illustrators, and publishers from circles around William Faulkner, H. P. Lovecraft, John Dickson Carr, Margery Allingham, Georges Simenon, P. D. James, Ngaio Marsh, and Ellery Queen. Administrators sometimes held offices similar to those in societies like The Roxburghe Club, The Authors' Club, The Royal Society of Literature, and The International Association of Crime Writers. Members were often associated with institutions such as Oxford University, Cambridge University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Yale University, and The British Museum reading rooms. Patronage and sponsorship occasionally involved entities including BBC Radio, NBC, CBS, The Times (London), The Guardian, and The Observer. Organizing structures echoed committees used by The Crime Writers' Association, Mystery Writers of America, and The Detection Club (distinct from the Club itself in nomenclature), coordinating events, fund-raising, and jurying of prizes like the Edgar Award, Dagger Awards, Anthony Award, and Macavity Awards.
The Club produced newsletters, anthologies, and proceedings inspired by magazines such as Nottinghamshire Guardian, Scribner's Magazine, Harper's Weekly, and The Atlantic Monthly. It sponsored readings, panels, and dramatic adaptations paralleling broadcasts like The Shadow, Suspense (radio) and series including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Perry Mason (radio series), You Bet Your Life, and The Lone Ranger in format. Activities included bibliographic projects referencing catalogues like The British Library Catalogue, exhibitions reminiscent of shows at The Victoria and Albert Museum, and prize ceremonies invoking traditions from the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award. The Club curated anthologies alongside editors linked to Otis Adelbert Kline, Maxwell Grant, August Derleth, Frederic Dannay, and Manfred B. Lee, and collaborated with presses such as Bantam Books, Grosset & Dunlap, and Simon & Schuster.
Contributors and members intersected with luminaries and professionals across literature and related arts including Arthur Conan Doyle contemporaries, followers like Agatha Christie, hardboiled peers Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, puzzle-story practitioners such as Ellery Queen and S. S. Van Dine, and mystery poets and dramatists connected to G. K. Chesterton, Josephine Tey, Ruth Rendell, Henning Mankell, Patricia Highsmith, Ross Macdonald, John Grisham, Stieg Larsson, Danielle Steel, Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, Sue Grafton, Tana French, Val McDermid, Donna Leon, P. D. James, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, John Dickson Carr, Georges Simenon, Ellery Queen, Wilkie Collins, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, William Faulkner, V. S. Pritchett, Anthony Berkeley Cox, John Buchan, Dorothy L. Sayers, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Ethel Lina White, Frederic Dannay, Manfred B. Lee, August Derleth, Erle Stanley Gardner, Lillian de la Torre, Sax Rohmer, M. R. James, R. Austin Freeman, Arthur Morrison, Baroness Orczy, Anne Perry, Colin Dexter, Laurie R. King, Rita Mae Brown, P. C. Wren, C. S. Forester, Georgette Heyer, A. A. Milne, E. Phillips Oppenheim, and Ed McBain.
The Club influenced cross-media adaptations and scholarship tied to institutions like The British Library, Library of Congress, Museum of London, New York Public Library, Smithsonian Institution, and academic programs at University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Columbia University, New York University, and University of Chicago. Its legacy is visible in modern awards and organizations including Mystery Writers of America, The Crime Writers' Association, International Thriller Writers, and archives held by Bodleian Libraries, Cambridge University Library, Harvard Library, Yale University Library, and The Morgan Library & Museum. Scholarly and popular influence extended into curricula, film festivals like Edinburgh International Film Festival and Berlinale, television festivals including Cannes Film Festival and SXSW, and cultural memory manifested through exhibitions at Tate Modern and National Portrait Gallery (London). Collecting and bibliophilic pursuits promoted by the Club shaped auction markets involving houses such as Sotheby's, Christie's, Bonhams, and specialist dealers linked to Bauman Rare Books and Peter Harrington (bookshop).
Category:Literary societies