It’s funny sometimes how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
A classic example is the Mystery Writers of America Classic volume you’re reading right now. Edited by the redoubtable Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916-2014), the anthology, first published in 1958, is now more than 60 years old (but don’t worry, the stories hold up quite well).
As is the custom with these anthologies, Dorothy was kind enough to write an introduction to the volume as a whole. And what was her overall theme at that time: Is the detective story dead? A theme that mystery writers have wrestled with over and over in the intervening decades.
Well, a lot of years have come and passed since Ms. Davis’s examination of the mystery short story genre, and I’m pleased to state that the mystery story is still very much alive and well, as evidenced in the plethora of new short fiction published each year in both the digest magazines and from traditional and independent publishers and authors. And if it seems that one area of publishing may seem to be not as eager to leap into the fray with new short mysteries fiction, the other parts show no sign of disappearing any time soon. Certainly, titles come and go, but the stalwarts—Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine—are still finding plenty of excellent new work to publish each month (which, by necessity, means that someone is reading those issues, for why put out a magazine if no one is reading it?) and again, there are many smaller sources of new mystery short fiction, all aided and abetted by the internet.
But we’re here to celebrate the latest MWA Classic edition, a fine collection of crime and mystery stories by some of the best writers in the trade during the 1950s. We have greats such as Margaret Millar, Stanley Ellin, Anthony Boucher, Robert Turner, Ross Macdonald, and Ellery Queen, alongside some lesser-known but no less talented authors including Helen Kasson, John Basye Price, Wenzell Brown, and Anthony Garve.
Each story in this volume is a wonderful mystery as well, ranging from urban suspense to classic fair-play to a cunning locked-room tale, all brought together under the discerning eye of one of the great authors of the mystery field. To say anything more would spoil the enjoyment you are about to have as you turn the page and begin reading.
We hope you enjoy this volume of wide-ranging crime and mystery stories.
—John Helfers