The pseudonym of writers Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971) and his cousin Frederic Dannay (1905-1982), and the name of the main character of their popular mystery novel series, Ellery Queen was probably the most popular American mystery novelist of the Golden Era of detective fiction, from the 1920s to the 1940s. The cousins (particularly Dannay) also did much to preserve and promote the mystery short-story form. They produced the long-running Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, edited short story anthologies that promoted short fiction as a viable mystery vehicle, and avidly collected short-form mystery fiction. As fellow mystery writer Anthony Boucher is often quoted as saying, "Ellery Queen is the American Detective Novel."

The cousins grew up together in New York and tried their hands at various careers in adulthood. In the late 1920s, Lee and Dannay (real names Manford Lepofsky and Daniel Nathan) decided to try writing a...