A very interesting read, Curt, but I feel this post should’ve started with the lines, "ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to rumble?"

The Passing Tramp: Faulkner vs. Wellman: The Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine 1946 Showdown

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2021-05-26 05:30:03

A very interesting read, Curt, but I feel this post should’ve started with the lines, "ladies and gentlemen, are you ready to rumble?" Anyway, I've read (and reviewed) Wellman's Find My Killer, which has a plot that combines a hardboiled narrative with a scientific plotting. There's also a locked room mystery, but it's a routine one that's off-handedly explained.

Utterly fascinating Cut - I'm a huge fan of Faulkner and it's great to read more about the feud. I think I have the collection in which the stories for the prize were collected so I'll have to try and dig it out. I don't know much about Wellman beyond some of his SF / Weird stories. Terrific post as always - I keep finding it very hard to post on blogger sites and while I am sure you manage quite well without those of us without Gmail / blogger accounts, I just wanted to reiterate how much I enjoy the blog. Is there a way to maybe lower the security settings perhaps to make it easier to comment on your posts? All the best, Sergio

Those damn literary types. Win one award (or three in Faulkner's case) and they think they deserve them all. This made for great reading. Wellman's one and only detective novel is misrepresented on the hardcover DJ which I own. It says "Winner Ellery Queen Prize Contest" making it seem like the novel itself won the award. Only when you turn to the author bio do you learn that it was a short story for which Wellman won his award. The blurb mentions the story is about David Return, a "full blooded American Indian" and according to the EQMM judges "the first truly American detective to appear in print." That novelty is sure to have put an edge on Wellman's trumping the Pulitzer and Nobel winners.

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