Wed 9 Mar 2011
As a followup the recent post that listed the Top Ten favorite mystery writers in 1941, it has belatedly occurred to me that there was a later similar poll taken, some 30 years later, one that already appears on this blog.
Repeating, if I may, the introduction of that previous post:
Back in the early 1970s, the country of Nicaragua asked Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine (EQMM) “to set up a poll to establish the dozen greatest detectives of all time†in anticipation of that nation’s issuing a commemorative set of twelve postage stamps to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Interpol. This book [Masterpieces of Mystery: The Supersleuths, edited by Ellery Queen] is a result — or, perhaps, a by-product of that request.
“EQMM conducted three polls of mystery critics and editors, professional mystery writers, and mystery readers. It was from the last group that an unexpected (to Ellery Queen) result came:
“Only one fictional detective was voted for unanimously by mystery critics, mystery editors, and mystery writers — not surprisingly, Sherlock Holmes. But, surprisingly, the vote for Sherlock Holmes by mystery readers was not unanimous: no less than 64 readers out of 1,090 failed to rank Holmes as one of the 12 best and greatest. Surprising, indeed. (Surprising? Incredible!)â€
Here are the poll results, in order of popularity:
2-Hercule Poirot
3-Ellery Queen
4-Nero Wolfe
5-Perry Mason
6-Charlie Chan
7-Inspector Maigret
8-C. Auguste Dupin
9-Sam Spade
10-Father Brown
11-Lord Peter Wimsey
12-Philip Marlowe
13-Dr. Gideon Fell
14-Lew Archer
15-Albert Campion
16-George Gideon
17-Miss Jane Marple
18-Philo Vance
19-The Saint (Simon Templar)
20-Roderick Alleyn
21-Luis Mendoza
22-Sir Henry Merrivale
23-Mike Hammer
24-James Bond
25-Sergeant Cuff
26-Inspector Roger West
By my count and estimation, there are at least four who would not a make a dent in such a list if one were to be made today, and maybe even more than that.
March 9th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
There were a few on that list I couldn’t account for even then, but that’s the nature of lists. And readers like any audience are notoriously fickle. Conduct the survey with the wrong group and you are likley to get Nancy Drew as the greatest sleuth of all time.
Ideally you’d use a control group consisting of editors, writers, publishers, critics, and readers to come up with some sort of consensus — but even then you’d probably end up with someone’s favorite cat sleuth that no one will remember in ten years on the list .
And are you talking favorites, best, most popular, best selling, or trying for some sort of objective statement regarding historical and critical importance.
Still, I do think it is notable how many names on that 1970’s list correspond to the 1941 list, and how many might still make a list today. And it’s interesting too to note how many of those names were chosen for their historical and critical import and not their sales in the time period when the survey was taken.
Incidentally I was one of the readers voting, and Sherlock Holmes headed my list.
March 9th, 2011 at 5:39 pm
I messed up in the heading for this post. I used the word “favorite” detectives, but EQ’s wording in (perhaps) the actual question asked was “greatest” detectives, and I’ve changed the header accordingly.
Which means very little, I suppose, as every pollee, I’m sure, interpreted the question differently. All of your suggested criteria in your third paragraph came into play, David, there’s no way around it.
And whatever the results mean, there’s where the fun comes in. It’s an impressive list, though, with only a few surprises, and maybe not some of those, given the year when the poll was taken, such as Luis Mendoza. His books were very popular at the time.
I remember the poll, when readers were allowed to take part, but whether I mailed my ballot in or not, I simply can’t remember.
March 9th, 2011 at 6:01 pm
I think when readers are asked to name greatest or favorite there would be little distinction. Usually the greatest are also the favorites and vice versa. Don’t you think?
The presence of Luis Mendoza certainly says something about who was selling and being read in the 1970s. Who reads Dell Shannon anymore? There are several of the Mendoza books at a local used bookstore here in Chicago and they have been on the shelf for years.
John Creasey’s characters appear twice, I see. Another bestseller along the lines of a Grisham or Patterson these days.
I’m curious if writers whose characters appeared frequently in EQMM in the late 1960s might have been selected. Did Creasey and Shannon contribute frequently to EQMM?
And is that Sergeant Cuff the Wilkie Collins one? I doubt it. Didn’t some clever mystery writer create a policeman and name his after the intrepid Cuff of THE MOONSTONE? Who was it? I can’t remember that writer.
Maybe it is Collins’ Cuff after all. If we are talking the “greatest” detectives he’d certainly be in my list should I ever agonize over one. It would take me a long time to compose one having read the enormous amount I’ve now read.
March 9th, 2011 at 6:33 pm
John
One of the famous critics wrote as Sgt. Cuff (Will Cuppy wasn’t it?) is what you are likely thinking of? Cuff made it on the list strictly for historical import as did Dupin.
Creasey did regularly appear in EQMM, but I think that was after this, and never with Roger West — only with Gideon — and re Gideon as Marric he virtually reinvented the British police procedural. Even John D. MacDonald praised the Gideon books. They, at least, were considerably better than Grisham and Patterson.
Though none of them sold as well as John Grisham even though John Ford filmed the first one.
I can’t recall of Dell Shannon appeared all that often (or at all) in EQMM, but she was very popular at the time though never with me. I think I may have voted for 87th Precinct and Ed McBain instead.
As for who appeared in EQMM, just about anyone who was anyone eventually got reprinted there if they wrote a short story or novella that could possibly be considered in the genre so it would have been hard to find a list of writers who hadn’t appeared there at least once, though at the time they probably would have drawn the line at Mickey Spillane.
March 9th, 2011 at 9:20 pm
Lupin’s opinion of Sherlock Holmes was the same as mine has always been. But hate him as I do, I still realize his importance to the genre.
I graduated high school in 1972. Up until that time I read the softboiled school. Then I read Hammett’s THE BIG KNOCKOVER and left the Chrisites, Queens, et al behind. New authors were coming out more like Hammett and Ross MacDonald than Doyle and Christie. Names (that may have existed for awhile but started to get noticed by me) such as Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Robert B. Parker, Gregory Mcdonald, Lawrence Block, Michael Z. Lewin,etc.
This list hints at the change about to happen in my own reading taste.
March 10th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Dell Shannon (Elizabeth Linington) was certainly popular at the time but it’s hard to understand how the bland Mendoza made anyone’s favorite lists. As I remember him he was not very interesting.
But maybe that’s just how I remember him.