Morning all, think I'm stumped this time, although I read a lot of Ellery Queen, and loved the tv show, nothing is coming to mind :(.

Annette

I also read the books and enjoyed the show, but I can't for the life of me remember who wrote the books. Ellery Queen was the detective, but that is all I know. Could it be an anagram?

Cynthia

I think the most special thing about Ellery Queen is that it rhymes with celery green. More than that I cannot say, but I'll try to come up with something.

ThinMan

lol. I thought this was going to be too easy!!! I too, loved the TV show - actually had a crush on Jim Hutton (hated the way he died in the Green Berets) 8(.

I don't think I have a good clue yet, even though I've been thinking about it all week. K, I did come up with one, but it is a real gimmee. I think I will go run some errands and let you all stew. It might rain here and I have to get downtown before it does!!

Nancy.

OK, this may help(?): While others have done it, Ellery Queen is the most famous name attached to this 'difference' or peculiarity......

Nancy.

Taking a cue from TM, he's a vegetarian crunching on celery while solving crimes? heehee. Hmmm, but how to work that in with pseudonym????

No idea. Heading outside. I have a bad feeling that our AC has crashed just when the hot and humid days are returning. :(

Just came back from a tour of five local gardens, each one interesting in its own way. Very hot and humid here. Glasses fogged up each time we left the air conditioned car.

If I remember right Ellery Queen was not only a mystery writer solving cases but also the author's pseudonym. As a kid I thought he was a real person. That's when I learned the difference between fiction and nonfiction.

I read everything I could get my hands on with mysteries and science fiction being my favorites.

1st clue: Ah, there is a duality in play; the game is afoot.

It is stinky hot here - no weeding got done, even this am!!

Nancy.

Okay...duality...I'll go with Bobbie and say the main character (Queen) is also the author's pseudonym. I find that terribly confusing. Queen writes about Queen writing mysteries...sort of like looking in one of those mirrors that reflects another mirror and back and forth infinitely.

My head is starting to hurt.

Cynthia

Mmmmmmm....duality.....two....sounds like there's a two in the answer but what two...Hmmmmmm time for tea or maybe something stronger, Cyn the mirror thing is making me dizzy :).

Annette

Only Agatha did it with mirrors!!! lol.

Nancy - who just made a wine spritzer.

Tea for two? Is that a clue? Who is the real Ellery Queen?

TM

Holy Cow - I stumped you?? Maybe the question was too out there? In the day, Ellery Queen was the most famous, most popular of all mystery franchises - and that is part of the answer. There was no real Ellery Queen, nor one writer who assumed the name. OK, are you ready? Here we go:

Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay (October 20, 1905 - September 3, 1982) and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee (January 11, 1905 - April 3, 1971), to write, edit, and anthologize detective fiction.

The fictional Ellery Queen created by Dannay and Lee is a mystery writer and amateur detective who helps his father, a police inspector in New York City, solve baffling murders.
In a successful series of novels and short stories that covered 42 years, "Ellery Queen" served as a joint pseudonym for the cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, as well as the name of the primary detective-hero they created. During the 1930s and much of the 1940s, that detective-hero was possibly the best known American fictional detective. Movies, radio shows, and television shows were based on Dannay and Lee's works.

The two, particularly Dannay, were also responsible for co-founding and directing Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, generally considered one of the most influential English Language crime fiction magazines of the last sixty-five years. They were also prominent historians in the field, editing numerous collections and anthologies of short stories such as The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes. Their 994-page anthology for The Modern Library, 101 Years' Entertainment: The Great Detective Stories, 1841-1941, was a landmark work that remained in print for many years. Under their collective pseudonym, the cousins were given the Grand Master Award for achievements in the field of the mystery story by the Mystery Writers of America in 1961.

But wait, there's more: The fictional Ellery Queen was the hero of over 30 novels and several short story collections written by Dannay and Lee and published under the Ellery Queen pseudonym. Dannay and Lee also wrote four novels about a detective named Drury Lane using the pseudonym Barnaby Ross. They allowed the Ellery Queen name to be used as a house name for a number of novels written by other authors, most of them published in the 1960s as paperback originals and not featuring Ellery Queen as a character.

So while Ellery Queen is a true pseudonym, it was unique in most of it's aspects - two writers, then later others who used the name. I could find no other examples of this, and Wikipedia only listed a couple of other obscure examples who did not write in English, so to us unknown. Wow, I thought the 'duality' would give it away!!

Sorry I didn't come back last night - we had a severe weather burst, which knocked local power to 4,400 people out for several hours. In Ottawa, about 45 minutes from here, Cheap Trick were on-stage at Bluesfest when the lightening started. They were ushered off-stage just as a 90-km. gust of wind lifted the stage and folded it back.

Thanks for playing - I should have come up with better clues!! Nancy.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scary Weather

More than one author, the more I racked my brain the more I couldn't come up with anything, 5 stars for Nancy ;).

Annette

Fun. You are so good at this! I think You should do Saturday AND Sunday! ;)

Cynthia

That was a great question, Nancy. I didn't even realize that Ellery Queen was the author and the main character - never read them. And the fact that there actually were two authors - well, I think you have a dual duality there. Pretty cool.

TM