The Heirs of Anthony Boucher Marvin Lachman

The Armchair Detective (1 6 –1 )
and “frivolous” attempts to talk of eccentric author Harry Stephen Keeler. He praised
efforts to make the mystery “academically respectable and relevant.” He thought detective
novels were now “preempting the mainstream novel as the mirror of modern
society” and told of how moved he was by scenes of violence in the novels of Ed
McBain. Nevins replied that there was a surprising amount of social relevance in
Keeler, and I pointed out that there was no shortage of descriptions of violence in the
various media, but people turned to detective novels for escape.
I applied mock scholarship to Erle Stanley Gardner’s creation in my 1971 article
“The Secret Life of Perry Mason.” I “proved” that Lieutenant Tragg was really Mason’s
brother and that Mason and Della Street had a love affair. R. Gordon Kelly wrote
to punch holes in my theories, missing the point of my perhaps feeble attempt at
humor.
Fred Dueren wanted more about Golden Age authors, while Frank Eck and Jon
Jackson thought there was too much on early writers. In 1974, Regina Cohen felt
Mickey Spillane had been underrated, and James Sandoe, a leading expert on hardboiled
writers, responded by welcoming a debate on Spillane, whom he called a
“dreadful fellow” and said about the Mike Hammer novels, “I don’t have stomach
enough to reread them to speak for the prosecution.”
The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey is often considered one of the ten greatest
detective novels, so it was with surprise that TAD readers read in 1977 an attack
on that book by Guy M. Townsend, a historian who said, “Tey makes a mockery of
scholarly research by ignoring and distorting evidence.” Many wrote objecting to
Townsend’s thesis, pointing out he was not distinguishing between historical writing
and fiction, and that Tey was writing for mystery readers, not scholars. Strongest in
criticizing Townsend was Myrna J. Smith, who he implied was a hysterical female,
leading her to reply that he was “snobbish and arrogant.”
Despite its considerable scholarship and disagreements, TAD was not all seriousness.
Jon L. Breen, Veronica Kennedy, Robert Aucott, and R. W. Hays provided quizzes.
There were poems from Aucott and Ola Strøm. Ed Lauterbach told Sherlockian
jokes. Other articles of mock scholarship, in addition to mine, included Thomas D.
Waugh’s “The Missing Years of Nero Wolfe” and Eileen Snyder’s “Was Watson Jack
the Ripper?” Beginning with Vol. 18 No. 1 (Winter 1985), Louis Phillips began a humor
column “Dial N for Nonsense.”
Though Francis M. Nevins was serious in writing about Harry Stephen Keeler, the
wackiness of Keeler’s plots (he wrote 700-page mysteries) lent themselves to readers’
chuckling at such Nevins articles as “The Worst Legal Mystery in the World,”
“The Wild and Wooly World of Harry Stephen Keeler,” and “Hick Dick from the
Sticks: Harry Stephen Keeler’s Quiribus Brown.” Nevins, calling himself “Hellgate
Newlander,” a deliberate variation on Newgate Callendar, the pseudonym of the New
York Times reviewer, wrote humorous reviews, especially of the books of Michael
Avallone.
Bill Pronzini contributed funny articles on Phoenix, a publisher known for its
poor mysteries, and on his choice as “the worst mystery novel of all time,” Decoy, by
the pseudonymous “Michael Morgan.” William F. Deeck wrote of James Corbett, another
unconsciously funny mystery writer who somehow published over forty books
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