Stanley Ellin

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Stanley Ellin , maiden name Stanley Bernard Ellin (born October 6, 1916 in Brooklyn , New York , USA ; † July 31, 1986 in Brooklyn, New York, USA) was one of the most important authors of crime fiction in American post-war history.

Live and act

Stanley Ellin was born in Brooklyn, New York. In childhood he was introduced to reading by his father. Ellin was particularly interested in the works of authors such as Mark Twain , Rudyard Kipling , Robert Louis Stevenson , Guy de Maupassant and Edgar Allan Poe . Ellin made a study at Brooklyn College , which he graduated in 1936 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA). He earned his living with various jobs, such as milker, newspaper seller and as a steel worker. In 1937 he married Jean Michael, with whom he had a daughter. Stanley Ellin was a soldier from 1944 to 1945. After the Second World War he worked as a teacher before, at the insistence of his wife, devoted himself entirely to writing from 1946.

Although his work as a novelist was positively received by the critics, Stanley Ellin was best known for his short stories. In May 1948, Ellin published the crime short story The Specialty of the House in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine . The story of a New York restaurant with a special treat for gourmets became an instant hit. The short story was later filmed for the television series " Alfred Hitchcock Presents ", as were many other Ellin stories. Often his short stories deal with ethical problems. In the years to come, Ellin's fame as a writer grew.

In 1954 Ellin was awarded the Edgar Allan Poe Award (also known as the Edgar Award ) for the best detective short story, The House Party , from the " Mystery Writers of America " . The House Party is a suburban story with an element of fantasy. He also received the Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1956 for the best detective short story The Blessington Method . This short story is a note on the social rights of the elderly. In 1959 Ellin received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the best detective novel of the year The Eight Circle . This was an attempt to write a long, serious novel about a modern private investigator. The title was derived from Dante's Inferno , in which a circle of the dark-colored stone is divided into ten individual pockets of punishment. Ellin's exploration of macho self-hatred and violence is reflected in the novel, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall (1972). The award of the “ Grand prix de littérature policière (International category) ” in 1974 for the French translation of his daring novel Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, proves its international reputation . In 1987, HRF Keating selected this novel for its list of one of the hundred best detective novels.

The Grand Master Award is the highest honor and the most prestigious award from the Mystery Writers of America . Stanley Ellin was awarded this prize in 1981. This award recognized not only his special achievements as a crime fiction writer, but also the high literary quality of his stories.

Ellin was a longtime member and past president of the Mystery Writers of America. His works were out of print for a long time until “Foul Play Press” printed two of his novels in 1996. Ellin's novels and short stories have been translated into 20 languages. His books and stories have been filmed for film and television by directors such as Joseph Losey , Claude Chabrol and Alfred Hitchcock .

On July 31, 1986, Stanley Ellin died of a heart attack in Brooklyn, New York.

Novels and short stories

In the second half of the 20th century, Stanley Ellin was a successful writer of detective novels and innovative detective short stories. In 1948, Ellin debuted as a novelist with Dreadful Summit (also known as The Big Night ). This novel was about the father-son relationship. A 16 year old boy is given a rifle. Now he can take revenge on his father for the beatings and humiliations he received. The Key to Nicholas Street appeared in 1952 and The Eighth Circle in 1958 . In this novel, Murray-Kirk runs his private detective agency and is only interested in financial business. He doesn't care about justice or crusades against justice. But then he helps a young police officer who has been accused of bribery because he knows something about police corruption in New York City.

The Luxembourg Run (1977) was a story of the identity changes of David Shaw, a young American man in Europe. In the novel Stronghold (1975) Ellin explored his own religious background and portrayed a family of nonviolent Quakers who had mercy on four murderers. Ellin's hero John Milano first appeared in Star Light, Star Bright (1979), in which Milano tries to prevent the murder of a famous mystical guru who has received threatening letters. The second book on John Milano, The Dark Fantastic (1983), was rejected in New York by Random House due to its inadequate political correctness in dealing with racial issues and their attitudes towards them. For most readers it was clear that the author did not share the racist fictional character's attitude.

Although Ellin constructed his novels according to traditional thriller principles, it is the diversity of the books, the care in their writing, the strength of the characters in the novel and the serious study of evil that constitute the moral responsibilities of the individual. Between 1960 and 1984, 12 detective novels were published.

In his first two edited volumes of short stories, Ellin got a good mix of stories. The Specialty of the House and other stories were first published as Mystery Stories in 1956 . The Blessington Method and Other Strange Stories appeared in 1964. Two other anthologies of short stories appeared in 1967 under the title The Specialty of the House and 1975 Kindly Dig Your Grave . In 1979 Ellin published his complete detective stories from 1948–1978.

In addition to his novels and short stories, which have won the Edgar Award , the following of his works have also been nominated for this award. In the short stories category: 1960 The Day of the Bullet, 1964 The Crime of Ezechiele Coen, 1969 The Last Bottle in the World and 1984 Graffiti. The Valentine Estate was nominated in the detective novel category in 1969. Ellin's last short story was 'Unacceptable Procedures' (1985), in this story the moral of economic development is questioned.

Awards

Works

Detective novels and short stories

  • 1948 The Big Night (UK: Dreadful Summit ; German command of evil . Desch, Munich 1961)
  • 1952 The Key to Nicholas Street (German: The lady next door . A. Müller, Rüschlikon-Zurich 1958)
  • 1958 The Eighth Circle (Eng. In the eighth circle of hell . Desch, Munich 1961)
  • 1960 The Winter after This Summer
  • 1962 The Panama Portrait
  • 1967 House of Cards (Ger. The house of cards . Krüger, Stuttgart / Hamburg 1969)
  • 1968 The Valentine Estate (Ger. The millions of Mr. Valentine . Krüger, Stuttgart 1970)
  • 1970 The Bind (UK: The Man from Nowhere ; Ger. In der Klemme . Goverts-Krüger-Stahlberg, Frankfurt / M. 1973)
  • 1972 Mirror, Mirror on the Wall
  • 1974 Stronghold (Ger. The end justifies the means . Scherz, Bern et al. 1977)
  • 1977 The Luxembourg Run (German king in the 9th house . Goldmann, Munich 1979)
  • 1979 Star Light, Star Bright (German Jack the Ripper and van Gogh . Goldmann, Munich 1980)
  • 1983 The Dark Fantastic (Ger. Die Zeitbombe . Benziger, Zurich et al. 1986)
  • 1984 Very Old Money (Ger. Der Geldadel . Heyne, Munich 1987)

Short stories (selection)

  • 1948 The Specialty of the House (Eng. The Specialty of the House . People and World, Berlin 1981)
  • 1956 The Blessington Method
  • 1964 The Crime of Ezechiele Coen
  • 1974 The Other Side of the Wall

Collections

  • 1956 Mystery Stories (Ger. Gentle horror . Henry Goverts, Stuttgart 1961, translation: Arno Schmidt )
  • 1964 The Blessington Method and Other Strange Tales (Eng. The method of blessings and other strange stories . Henry Goverts, Stuttgart 1966)
  • 1974 Kindly Dig Your Grave and Other Wicked Stories (German acid test with a dead person , Scherz, Bern et al. 1978)
  • 1976 The eight-hour man . Scherz, Bern et al. 1976 (stories by Stanley Ellin from Mystery Stories )

Film adaptations (selection)

  • 1951 - The Big Night - Director: Joseph Losey , based on the novel: Dreadful Summit
  • 1959 - Steps without a trace ( À double tour ) - Director: Claude Chabrol , based on the novel: The Key to Nicholas Street
  • 1964 - One goes over corpses again ( Nothing But the Best ) - Director: Clive Donner , short story
  • 1968 - Every House of Cards breaks ( House of Cards ) - Director: John Guillermin , based on the novel of the same name
  • 1979 - Sunburn - Director: Richard C. Sarafian , based on the novel: The Blind
  • 1981 - The July Group
  • 1997 - Dark Prayer - A Prayer in the Dark - Director: Jerry Ciccoritti , based on the novel: Stronghold

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Charles LP Silet: Stanley Ellin - Profile of the Award-winning Short Story Mystery Author ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved August 10, 2009. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mysterynet.com
  2. ^ Official site of the Mystery Writers of America [1]. Retrieved August 9, 2009
  3. ↑ http://www.krimi-couch.de/krimis/stanley-ellin.html accessed on August 11, 2009
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 10, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.iblist.com
  5. ↑ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eighth-Circle-Stanley-Ellin/dp/0914378678 Retrieved August 11, 2009
  6. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on August 10, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mysterynet.com
  7. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated August 31, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 10, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.mysterynet.com
  8. ↑ also under the titles The Lady Next Door , The Beautiful Lady Next Door and Revenge of Innocence
  9. ↑ also under the titles Im Kreis der Hölle , Der Stitch ins Wespennetz and Das dicke Ding
  10. ↑ also under the title Spiel, Satz und Mord
  11. ↑ also under the title The man from nowhere
  12. ↑ Short story in: Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, No. 54, May 1948
  13. ↑ also under the headings specialties of the house and after kind of house
  14. ↑ Short story in: Ellery Queen's Awards. Eleventh Series: The Winners of the Eleventh Annual Detective Short-Story Contest . Simon & Schuster, New York 1956
  15. ↑ Short story in: Ellery Queen's Double Dozen: 24 Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine . Pupular Library, New York 1964
  16. ↑ Short story in: Ellery Queen's Crookbook: 25 Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine . Random House, New York 1974
  17. ↑ Also under the titles The method of blessing , The blessing method and The day of the ball: crime stories
  18. ↑ Short story in: Ellery Queen's Crookbook: 25 Stories from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine . Random House, New York 1974
  19. ↑ also under the title The Old Lady's Tricks
personal data
SURNAME Ellin, Stanley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ellin, Stanley Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American crime writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH New York , USA
DATE OF DEATH July 31, 1986
Place of death New York , USA