26                              Anthony J. .Mazzella

fixe million copies in combined sales. He bad his own critical
journal, The Queen Canon Bibliophile, renamed the Ellery Queen
Review (1968-71); was subject of a full-length study. Royal
Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective (1974) by Francis
 

Frederic l):inna\' (right) reading an Eller\' Queen radio script
r<) his co-author, Alanfrcd Lcc, ca. 1942.

M. Nevins, Jr., itself the recipient of an Edgar; and was described
as follows by Anthony Boucher, author of the "Criminal at Large"
column of The New York Times Book Review in the 50s and
60s: "Ellery Queen is the American Detective Stoty." Not bad for
someone who did not exist,

"Ellery Queen" was created when two Brooklyn-born cousins
decided to enter a mystery-novel contest sponsored by McClure's
magazine in 1928, The first prize was $7,500, and the rules requir¬
ed that an entry be submitted under a pseudonym. Thus, Ellery
Queen was born as both author and series detective, the cousins