Clayton Rawson: Difference between revisions
imported>Hayford Peirce (added author's name) |
imported>Hayford Peirce (added a NYT quote and footnote) |
||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{subpages}} | {{subpages}} | ||
'''Clayton Rawson''' (August 15, 1906, Elyria, Ohio – March 1, 1971, Port Chester, New York) was an American writer of mystery stories as well as a long-time editor and a prominent amateur magician. His four novels featuring a professional magician who calls himself [[The Great Merlini]] make use of Rawson's intimate knowledge of [[stage magic]]. All four Merlini novels, written in a brief four-year period towards the end of the [[Golden Age of Mysteries]] are intricately and ingenuously plotted and feature various kinds of locked room or impossible crimes. Rawson was a friend of both [[John Dickson Carr]] and [[Ellery Queen]], two somewhat more prominent writers of that era who also wrote stories involving seeming impossibilities, sometimes occult, that, in their dénouement have rational explanations. From 1963 to 1970 Rawson was the Managing Editor of [[''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'']], the preeminent publication in the field. "...he belongs to a fondly remembered period of the past. | '''Clayton Rawson''' (August 15, 1906, Elyria, Ohio – March 1, 1971, Port Chester, New York) was an American writer of mystery stories as well as a long-time editor and a prominent amateur magician. His four novels featuring a professional magician who calls himself [[The Great Merlini]] make use of Rawson's intimate knowledge of [[stage magic]]. All four Merlini novels, written in a brief four-year period towards the end of the [[Golden Age of Mysteries]] are intricately and ingenuously plotted and feature various kinds of locked room or impossible crimes. Rawson was a friend of both [[John Dickson Carr]] and [[Ellery Queen]], two somewhat more prominent writers of that era who also wrote stories involving seeming impossibilities, sometimes occult, that, in their dénouement have rational explanations. From 1963 to 1970 Rawson was the Managing Editor of [[''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'']], the preeminent publication in the field. | ||
Upon the publication of ''Death from a Top Hat'', Rawson's first novel, in 1938, the ''New York Times'' wrote: "Murder in a locked room is old stuff but when the victim of the murderer is a student of demonology and other esoteric lore and other characters include... other illusionists, then you have something.... Don't miss this story, and watch for Mr. Rawson's next effort."<ref>Isaac Anderson, "New Mystery Stories", in the ''New York Times'' of July 17, 1938. The full review can read at [http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FB0E12FA38581A7A93C5A8178CD85F4C8385F9]</ref> An appraisal of his career in 1980 said, "...he belongs to a fondly remembered period of the past. He was not an important innovator, but rather a clever and quick-witted cultivator of the genre to which he devoted his career.<ref>Reilly, page 1246</ref> | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 16:30, 12 October 2009
Clayton Rawson (August 15, 1906, Elyria, Ohio – March 1, 1971, Port Chester, New York) was an American writer of mystery stories as well as a long-time editor and a prominent amateur magician. His four novels featuring a professional magician who calls himself The Great Merlini make use of Rawson's intimate knowledge of stage magic. All four Merlini novels, written in a brief four-year period towards the end of the Golden Age of Mysteries are intricately and ingenuously plotted and feature various kinds of locked room or impossible crimes. Rawson was a friend of both John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen, two somewhat more prominent writers of that era who also wrote stories involving seeming impossibilities, sometimes occult, that, in their dénouement have rational explanations. From 1963 to 1970 Rawson was the Managing Editor of ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'', the preeminent publication in the field.
Upon the publication of Death from a Top Hat, Rawson's first novel, in 1938, the New York Times wrote: "Murder in a locked room is old stuff but when the victim of the murderer is a student of demonology and other esoteric lore and other characters include... other illusionists, then you have something.... Don't miss this story, and watch for Mr. Rawson's next effort."[1] An appraisal of his career in 1980 said, "...he belongs to a fondly remembered period of the past. He was not an important innovator, but rather a clever and quick-witted cultivator of the genre to which he devoted his career.[2]
References
Sources
Donald A. Yates, writing in *Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, edited by John M. Reilly, St. Martins Press, New York, 1980, ISBN 0-312-82417-3