I recently stumbled across this book at a used bookstore and bought it. I started reading Ellery Queen in the 1960s and loved the gimmick of the “Reader’s Challenge.” By the late 1970s I pretty much stopped reading Ellery Queen and found out most of the later mystery novels were ghosted. But the first dozen Ellery Queen mysteries are classics!

In these 50 short essays, Ellery Queen writes about:

• mystery writers, classic detectives, pseudonyms, book collecting, and genre history. 
• Notable Essays: Includes “Who Shall Ever Forget?” (recalling Dannay and Lee’s first encounter with Sherlock Holmes) and “High Sherloctane; or, Having Fun With Words” (discussing Rex Stout’s theory that Dr. Watson was a woman)
• recommended books and authors

In the Queen’s Parlor is a browser’s delight! Are you an Ellery Queen fan? GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Sell the $500 Watch for $1 — 1
2. The Great O-E Theory — 4
3. The Gooseberry Lay — 6
4. With the Author’s Compliments: Evolution of a Bibliomaniac, It Reveals Much about the Man, The Crown Jewels of Detectivedom — 9
5. Badge of Merit — 20
6. Something Rich and Strange — 23
7. And So in Literature — 25
8. In the Queens’ Parlor: Wonders Never Cease, Taking the Im out of Impossible — 29
9. Eco and Comics –32
10. All the Rice in Craigland — 35
11. Spinning Wheel of the Mind — 38
12. Qinquennium — 40
13. She is Not Entirely a Sphinx: The First Female Detective, The First Detective Family — 45
14. The Sex Life of a Gentleman Detective — 47
15. New Wrinkle on the old Walnut –50
16. On the Threshold of Perception — 51
17. Swatting an Imaginary Fly — 56
18. How to Pick a Pseudonym: From Names and Words to Sounds, The. Alphabetical Method, The Geographical Method, The Origin of Ellery Queen — 57
19. Thud and Blunder — 68
20. Blessed With a Passionate Curiosity — 70
21. Thinker to Levers to Trance — 72
22. The Essence of the Detective Story — 75
23. A Ghost Haunting America — 78
24. A Plea for Editors — 81
25. Desert Island Reading: Impromptu Anthology, The Golden Dozen, Large Economy Size, Seed of Democracy — 84
26. A Far Cry From Julius Africanus — 99
27. Service to Humanity — 101
28. All the Characters Have Shrunken Heads — 104
29. Joy in the Night — 106
30. Cat Out of the Bag — 107
31. Vistiting Ferretman — 109
32. Floria and Fauna: Horticultural Note, Zoological Note — 113
33. Creme du Crime — 118
34. Under Your Skin — 121
35. Report from the Bottom of the World — 122
36. Wo Shall Ever Forget? — 125
37. Never Grow Stale — 130
38. Two Box Scores, English and American — 132
39. Le Nom Juste — 135
40. Anatomy of Titles: Shock of Recognition, One Man’s Poison, Not Always the Best — 136
41. Over the Borderline — 146
42. Poe-tic License — 149
43. The. Quality of Greatness — 152
44. For Auld Lang Syne — 154
45. Detectives Are the Doctors — 158
46. More Compliments of the Author: Evolution of a Compleat Book Collector, Their Wonders to Perform, In the Realm of Conjecture — 160
47. High Serloctane; or, Having Fun With Words — 169
48. On Their Mental Toes — 171
49. How Detective Stories are Born — 174
50. Penguin Rampant — 176

L’Envoi –180

INDEX — 181