Howard Haycraft

Howard Haycraft's Murder for Pleasure (1941) is a history of the first hundred-odd years of detective fiction. He begins with Edgar Allan Poe, ably dispenses with Wilkie Collins and Arthur Conan Doyle and their league of imitators (and in some cases, innovators), before landing upon Agatha Christie as the leader of the “Golden Age,” which Haycraft identifies as happening between 1918 and 1930 (since post-1930 qualifies as “the Moderns.”) He largely gets the posterity prediction correct, as well as who the best or most influential mystery writers are—the only curious omission was Metta Fuller Victor for her pioneering novel The Dead Letter, but readers and critics were only dimly aware she wrote under the pseudonym of Seeley Regester (that connection emerged in later decades.) Pleasure, as one would hope, is a key component of Murder for Pleasure. Haycraft wishes nothing more than the reader to take pleasure in crime fiction, and in his writing. So there are lists (“A Detective Story Bookshelf”) that offer a window into which books Haycraft believes stand out as the best of detective fiction, and also a catalog of which of these novels are utterly forgotten. Anthologies, too, are noted, and it’s a surprise how few existed in 1941—not even twenty, by his count. - from "Mystery's First Great Historian" by Sarah Weinman

A revised edition of the work of the same title edited by Vincent Starrett in 1928. Contents: [Purloined Letter]( / by Edgar Allan Poe -- [The red-headed league]( / by Arthur Conan Doyle -- The problem of cell 13 / by Jacques Futrelle -- The case of Oscar Brodski / by R. Austin Freeman -- The blue cross / by G.K. Chesterton -- The age of miracles / by Melville Davisson Post -- The little mystery / by E.C. Bentley -- The third-floor flat / by Agatha Christie -- The yellow slugs / by H.C. Bailey -- The bone of contention / by Dorothy L. Sayers -- The adventure of the African traveler / by Ellery Queen -- Instead of evidence / by Rex Stout -- The house in Goblin Wood / by Carter Dickson -- The dancing detective / by Cornell Woolrich.

Collection of essays and poems by various writers, dealing with the "private life of Sherlock Holmes," edited by Edgar W. Smith. Includes maps, illustrations, coats of arms, genealogical tables, portrait. Contents: To a very literary lady / Vincent Starrett -- Sherlock Holmes and the Pygmies / Heywood Broun -- The profile emerges / Howard Haycraft -- To an undiscerning critic / Arthur Conan Doyle -- Ex libris Sherlock Holmes / Howard Collins -- Was Sherlock Holmes a drug addict? / George F. McCleary -- Triolet on the immortality of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson / "Buttons" -- Clinical notes by a resident patient / Christopher Morley -- Was the later Holmes an imposter? / Anthony Boucher -- Sherlock Holmes in the news / Charles Honce -- The dental Holmes / Charles Goodman -- The other friendship : a speculation / P.M. Stone -- The coat of arms of Sherlock Holmes / Belden Wigglesworth -- The true and proper coat of arms / W.S. Hall -- Genealogical notes on Holmes / Rufus S. Tucker -- The case of the missing patriarchs / Logan Clendening -- Monody on the death of Sherlock Holmes / E.E. Kellett -- A belated eulogy / Reginald Fitz -- Dr Watson / Stephen Vincent Benét -- That was no lady / Julian Wolff -- The mystery of the second wound / James Keddie, Sr. -- Ballade of Watson in the morning / Belden Wigglesworth -- Dr Watson's Christian name / Dorothy L. Sayers -- Sonnet : Mary Morstan to J.H. Watson / Helene Yuhasova -- Thoughts on seeing "The hound of the Baskervilles" at the cinema / "Evoe" -- Sonnet on Baker Street / Christopher Morley -- The long road to Maiwand / Edgar W. Smith -- The singular adventures of Martha Hudson / Vincent Starrett -- Annie Oakley in Baker Street / Robert Keith Leavitt -- The significance of the second stain / Felix Morley -- Ballade of Baker Street / Carolyn Wells -- A scandal in identity / Edgar W. Smith -- The secret message of the dancing men / Fletcher Pratt -- Three identifications / H.W. Bell -- 221B / Vincent Starrett -- The Constitution and buy-laws of the B.S.I. / Elmer Davis -- The Baker Street irregulars / Alexander Woollcott -- An unrecorded incident / Anon -- Anthem : the road to Baker Street / Harvey Officer.

The true story of Sherlock Holmes -- [Study in Scarlet]( The original Sherlock Holmes / Dr. H.E. Jones -- [Sign of Four]( [Adventure of the Speckled Band]( [Silver Blaze]( [Red-Headed League]( [Scandal in Bohemia]( [Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual]( [Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle]( Hound of the Baskervilles

Aptly titled, a true treasure of works by the masters of the 20s, 30s and 40s. Two novels, three novellas and six shorts by such as Christie, Gardner, Allingham, Rinehart and Wallace.

Table of Contents NOVEL THE MALTESE FALCON By Dashiell Hammett ii STORY THE LEARNED ADVENTURE OF THE DRAGON'S HEAD by Dorothy L. Sayers i6i NOVELETTE THE CASE OF THE CRYING SWALLOW by Erie Stanley Gardner 181 STORY THE WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION by Agatha Christie 227 STORY THE ADVENTURE OF THE PRESIDENT'S HALF DISME by Ellery Queen 245 NOVELETTE THE CASE OF THE LATE PIG by Margery Allingham 265 STORY NO MOTIVE by Daphne du Maurier 351 NOVELETTE DIE LIKE A DOG by Rex Stout 385 STORY THE DANCING DETECTIVE by William Irish {Cornell Woolrich) 429 NOVEL THE FRANCHISE AFFAIR by Josephine Tey 451

Readable accounts of the lives of the major and minor British authors of the 19th century.