For our 85th anniversary, EQMM contributor Elizabeth Foxwell provides an illuminating overview of some surprising contributors, from H.G. Wells to Pearl S. Buck, to EQMM over the years!
In EQMM’s long history, readers have been well accustomed to reading the work of distinguished authors with extensive publications as well as new writers in each issue. But there have been other contributors of interest—those usually not associated with mystery fiction. The following are some examples.
Frederick Hazlitt Brennan
Frederick Hazlitt Brennan (1901–62)—journalist, playwright, screenwriter, short story writer, critic—published two stories in EQMM: “Award of Honor” (May 1948 EQMM; first published in the Jan 5, 1935 issue of Collier’s) and “Wild Onions” (Fall 1941 EQMM, the debut issue; first published in the July 2, 1938 Collier’s). In “Wild Onions,” a country justice of the peace recalls the death of the meanest man in town, when several residents admitted to threatening the man, and a sheriff with “G-Man experience” (100) chose to ignore (to his ultimate chagrin) the justice’s unerring knowledge of the victim and ability to add up all the clues. In “Award of Honor,” Detective Sergeant Brady faces his last day on the job with mixed emotions until he receives a unique tribute.
Katharine Brush
Connecticut-born Katharine Brush (1902–1952) was an O Henry Award–winning short story writer, often compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald for her 1920s writings and valued for her keen observations of society and relationships. Her most successful book was Young Man of Manhattan (1930, adapted for a film with Claudette Colbert and Ginger Rogers). “Silk Hat,” which appeared in the October 1947 EQMM, was first published in the July 13, 1929, issue of Collier’s. In the story, a detective seeks to fathom the circumstances behind a suicide and makes conclusions, but he has missed a crucial factor that casts the suicide as something more.
Pearl S. Buck
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1938) and author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Good Earth (1931), Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) first published “Ransom” in the October 1938 issue of Cosmopolitan, a story that was reprinted in the June 1955 EQMM. In “Ransom,” a husband and wife face the terror of their baby daughter’s kidnapping, the agonizing decision whether to pay a ransom demand, and different views on the best course of action.
Thomas B. Costain (aka Pat Hand)
First pursuing a career as a journalist, as an editor at the Saturday Evening Post and Doubleday, and as an editor at 20th Century Fox, the Canadian-born Thomas B. Costain (1885–1965) found writing success later in life after he published his first historical novel, For My Great Folly (1942). Some of his work (for example, The Silver Chalice) was adapted for the silver screen, and his nonfiction books (for example, the Plantagenets series) received critical respect. “The Showdown,” his first EQMM story, appeared in January 1944 under the appropriate pseudonym Pat Hand, which introduced sometime Robin Hood and longtime gambler Careful Jones. In “The Showdown,” poker players on a ship are determined to unmask the professional cardsharps in the game, but Jones is one step ahead of them. Jones also appeared in “The Imponderables” (EQMM, Jul. 1944), in which he comes to the aid of a reckless Air Force officer, and “The Ace of Spades” (Jan. 1945), in which Jones’s keen observation of the habits of his rich and selfish opponents (as well as other useful skills) provide an advantage at the poker table and reinforce his determination to win the pot so he may assist refugees. A story outside this series is “The Alibi” (EQMM, Nov. 1944), in which an order for coal plays a key role in a murder case.
Cecil Lewis Troughton Smith (aka C.S. Forester)
Best known as the creator of the intrepid Captain Horatio Hornblower and as the author of The African Queen (1935), the versatile Cecil Lewis Troughton Smith (1899–1966) also wrote biographies and some mystery works (such as Payment Deferred, 1926, filmed with Charles Laughton). His EQMM contributions include “The Turn of the Tide” (Nov 1943), “Between Eight and Eight” (June 1950), “The Key to Power” (Sept 1963), “That Old Computer” (Aug 1958), “The Letters in Evidence” (June 1948), and “The Man Whose Wishes Came True” (June 1951).
In the taut “The Turn of the Tide” (first published in the May 1936 The Story-Teller), a doctor and a lawyer talk about the problem of disposing of a dead body, with one man convinced that he has devised a solution that he intends to set in motion. In the epistolary “The Letters in Evidence” (first published in The Editor Regrets, 1937), an abused wife writes to an employee of her husband, initially about a business matter, and matters soon take a more personal turn. In “Between Eight and Eight” (first published in the 13 Jun 1934 Evening Standard), a murderer on death row makes a desperate bid for freedom, but the outcome is unexpected. In “The Man Whose Wishes Came True,” the narrator discusses an individual who enjoys manipulation and has a knack for having his desires granted. However, his overweening confidence is his Achilles heel. In “That Old Computer” (first published in the July 1957 Argosy as “The Last Answer”), an engineer explains to his wife and a friend about his work to team up two computers so he can achieve more accurate analyses, but the test results are startling. In “The Key to Power” (first titled “The Bower of Roses,” 1951), Nazi killings cast a long shadow into the postwar era.
S. Weir Mitchell
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) is considered a pioneer in neurology, but his rest cure caused the nervous breakdown of Charlotte Perkins Gilman (which was the basis of her famous work “The Yellow Wall-Paper,” 1892). He wrote poetry, short stories, and novels, as well as published a biography of George Washington. The December 1948 EQMM reprinted his “A Dilemma” (originally published in the July 1902 issue of the Century Magazine), in which an heir to his uncle’s estate encounters a major problem in trying to access the dead man’s valuable gem collection.
Ogden Nash
Famous for humorous verse such as “Philo Vance/Needs a Kick in the Pance,” Ogden Nash (1902–71) published two stories in EQMM: “The Three Ds” (Feb 1957 EQMM, originally appearing as “Victoria,” Apr 1948 Harper’s Bazaar) and “Kill or Be Killed” (Dec 1957 EQMM, originally published as “The Other Mind Reader,” Oct 25, 1947, Collier’s). “The Three Ds” features a sorority that requires prospective members to perform daring, unique, and dangerous feats. The bold Victoria, the latest candidate, embarks on a unique feat involving a visit to the graveyard but encounters an unanticipated outcome. In the tightly written “Kill or Be Killed,” a complacent lawyer believes that he is master in his profession and his household, thus thinking he can triumph in a new situation, but there is a surprise in store.
Laurence van Cott Niven (aka Larry Niven)
Celebrated for his many science fiction works such as Ringworld (1970), Larry Niven (1938–) published “The Deadlier Weapon” in the June 1966 EQMM. In the story, Niven provides an edgy battle of wills between a driver and a hitchhiker, each with their own agenda.
Channing Pollock
Channing Pollock (1880–1946) may be best known as a magician, playwright, critic, essayist, poet, lyricist, and screenwriter, but his foray into crime fiction occurred with “The Poor Little Man,” which first appeared in the November 21, 1931, Collier’s and was reprinted as “Hold-Up” in the September 1947 EQMM. In the story, confidences among travelers in a train compartment have serious consequences when robbers attack the train. Pollock is skillful in portraying the different economic levels of the passengers and what appears to be a great betrayal, but there is a satisfying twist.
Lincoln Steffens
Lincoln Steffens (1866–1936) built a substantial reputation as a muckraking journalist and editor of McClure’s, particularly with his The Shame of the Cities (1904) and his autobiography (1931) discussing urban political corruption at the local level. In the September 1942 EQMM, Frederic Dannay inaugurated “Curiosities in Detection” (C.I.D.), which sought to present “discoveries in the field of detection, mystery, and crime literature” (97). The first was Steffens’s “The Compliments of the Chief,” a reprint from the July 1900 Ainsley’s Magazine, which depicts a New York City police chief—clearly the lord of all he surveys—charged with finding a banker’s stolen watch. In the story, Dannay saw “tiny seeds of that school of detection literature best exemplified… by the work of Dashiell Hammett and other exponents of so-called ‘modern’ realism” (97). Indeed, there are elements of an early police procedural in following the movements of two police detectives on the case, as well as echoes of Steffens’s work to show the dangers of the privileged.
John van Druten
John van Druten (1901–1957) achieved notable stage successes as a playwright (e.g., Bell, Book, and Candle; I Am a Camera; I Remember Mama; Leave Her to Heaven; Old Acquaintance). “The Cat’s Eye,” originally published in the March 1945 Atlantic Monthly, appeared in the Sept 1946 EQMM. In it, a man tries to put together pieces of a mystery involving his father, mother, and their lodger that occurred when he was a child.
H.G. Wells
Author of sci-fi classics such as The Invisible Man (1897), The Shape of Things to Come (1933), The Time Machine (1895), and The War of the Worlds (1898), H.G. Wells (1866–1946) also wrote “The Hammerpond Park Burglar,” which first appeared in the July 5, 1894, Pall Mall Budget and was reprinted in the January 1943 EQMM. In Wells’s humorous tale, the prospect of a bride honeymooning in the village of Hammerpond with plentiful jewelry proves irresistible to a would-be thief. However, the man, who has decided to pose as an artist, has no clue as to how to appear convincing in the role, nor does he have a coherent plan for housebreaking. Some sudden turns place the hapless thief in a singular position.
Vivian Marie Ahlsweh Williams (aka Vinnie Williams)
During the course of her long life, Oconee [GA] Enterprise publisher Vinnie Williams (1920–2020) earned a BA in sociology from Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University), worked as a journalist for more than 70 years (including coverage of a case of corruption and malfeasance), and wrote four novels (such as Walk, Egypt, 1960). However, at the time of her first EQMM story, “A Matter of the Tax Payers’ Money,” when she was 29, she told Frederic Dannay that she “never had a story published before” and charmed Dannay with her lively turns of phrase (Oct 1949 EQMM, p. 111). For the story, Williams drew on her social welfare experience to create the shrewd welfare worker Minnie Boyd, who applies her “pecky bits of knowledge” (112) to investigate a report of an elderly client involved in questionable activities and uncovers larger skullduggery. In “Dodie and the Boogerman” (June 1955), two children in the Georgia hill country discover a gun dropped by a fearsome figure dubbed the Boogerman, the first step in unraveling a mystery involving former neighbors. In “The Catch Dog” (Jan 1957), a red dog lends a paw after he witnesses ongoing cruelty against neighbors who have suffered personal losses and are in danger of losing their cattle and property.
SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN 