FFB: The Edgar Winners

In honor of the Edgar Awards announced last night, I thought I'd highlight The Edgar Winners anthology published in 1980 and edited by Bill Pronzini. There are two dozen short stories included from writers who were awarded an "Edgar" for excellence by the Mystery Writers of America between 1948 and 1978.

As Pronzini states in his introduction, this anthology is

"The first anthology to bring together in one volume only those stories that have received the coveted Edgar as the Best Mystery Short Story of its year....These twenty-four stories include some of the finest mystery fiction to be published in the past four decades. Moreover, they represent the widest possible variety of types, themes, styles and authors--testimony to the fact that the mystery story, contrary to what certain critics would have us believe, is by no means a limited and hidebound genre."

A little history is in order, too, as the first two years of the Edgar Award for the short story were given for bodies of work; the third went to Ellery Queen's Mytery Magazine; and the next four were given to one-volume single-author collections. The current policy of honoring a single story didn't begin until 1954, and thus, Pronzini chose representative stories from the pre-1954 categories to be included here.

The stories are printed chronologically, from 1947's "The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party," by Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manford Bennington Lee), up through "The Cloud Beneath the Eave" by Barbara Owens, the winner from 1978. Other names are indeed a "Who's Who" of giants in crime fiction, short or long forms, including William Irish (a/k/a Cornell Woolrich), Lawrence G. Blochman, Philip MacDonald, Roadl Dahl, Stanley Ellin, Edward D. Hoch, Joe Gores, and Robert L. Fish. On the other hand, it's interesting to see how many of the winning stories were penned by authors who, for whatever reason, never went on to widespread name recognition, like William O'Farrell, Warner Law, and Margery Finn Brown.

The themes and styles Pronzini alluded to above range from detective stories to psychological suspense, police procedurals, character studies, morality plays, social commentaries, and "gently nostalgic glimpses of the past, even what might be termed an avant-garde literary exercise." If you're looking for a book that provides an overview of the best writing in a variety of short mystery fiction sub-genres, then this is a good place to start.

As a reminder and nod to the latest possibilities for inclusion in a future Edgar-winning anthology, here are this year's nominated stories (with a new update - the winner is Lawrence Block!):

• "Oxford Girl" – by Megan Abbott (Mississippi Noir)
• "A Paler Shade of Death" – by Laura Benedict (St. Louis Noir)
• "Autumn at the Automat" – by Lawrence Block (In Sunlight or in Shadow)
• "The Music Room" – by Stephen King (In Sunlight or in Shadow)
• "The Crawl Space" – by Joyce Carol Oates (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)

Comments

[Todd Mason]

Remarkable, isn't it, given how the MWA published no few anthologies as fundraisers over the years, the SFWA has published Nebula-winner/nominated volumes nearly from the beginning of their existence, and THE HUGO WINNERS was a consistent winner for Doubleday, that it took so long for this book to happen...and I'll have to Go Look to see if there have been successors.

[Todd Mason]

In fact, obviously, 32 anthologies before this one...

And Block won this year, as you know..

[Todd Mason]

Warner Law did a small slew of tv scripts, a number of stories for PLAYBOY, and generally probably did a lot of journalism or something else along with these to keep body and soul together.

[BV Lawson]

Todd, there are probably tons of rights issues involved, which may have been part of the problems. On the other hand, I know that MWA has published several anthologies of new crime stories by its members over the past decade or two. They skipped last year, though, and I haven't seen any calls for submissions this year yet.

[BV Lawson]

Yes, Warner Law did write some scripts (according to IMDB), but it's a shame there wasn't a large body of crime short fiction and novels. At least, I don't think he published under a pen name?

[Todd Mason]

Not as far as I know, but I haven't looked too hard yet. I enjoyed his stories as they popped up in "Hitchcock" anthologies and the like over the years.

I suspect that for some reason no one at the MWA though it would be a good idea, or good enough to do as specially designated project rather than the typical annual book. Most of the annual books, IIRC, mixed new and reprinted stories...I know I've had a few come my way, such as TALES FOR A RAINY NIGHT and the unenlightened title DOLLS ARE MURDER.

[Todd Mason]

Here's what the FictionMags Index has for Law so far:
LAW, WARNER (1919?-1979) (chron.)
* The Alarming Letters from Scottsdale, (ss) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Apr 1973
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Dec 2008
* The Chef’s Story, (ss) Playboy Mar 1972
* A Gift from the Fakir, (ss) The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Jan 1975
* The Harry Hastings Method, (ss) Playboy Apr 1971
* Just My Luck, (ss) Playboy Oct 1974
* Lincoln’s Doctor’s Son’s Dog, (ss) Playboy Mar 1970
* The Man Who Fooled the World, (nv) The Saturday Evening Post Aug 24 1968
* Payoff on Double Zero, (nv) Playboy Oct 1971
* The Terrible Events in Santa Barbara, (ss) Playboy Nov 1972
* The Thousand-Dollar Cup of Crazy German Coffee, (ss) Playboy May 1969

[BV Lawson]

Wow, thanks for researching this, Todd! Looks like it might be hard to find a lot of these stories, though, unless I can get digital archives through my local library. Worth a try, I'd say ...

[Todd Mason]

I wouldn't be surprised if the "Coffee" item for PLAYBOY isn't actually nonfiction misidentified. You're quite welcome.