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Information about Mystery Writers Of America

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.

The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday.

It presents the Edgar Award, a small bust of Edgar Allan Poe, every year.

Grand Master Award

The Grand Master Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America. It recognizes lifetime achievement and consistent quality. (The award was presented irregularly through 1978; it has been given to one writer annually since then.)

Year Winner Year Winner Year Winner
1955Agatha Christie1978Daphne du Maurier1994Lawrence Block
1958Vincent StarrettDorothy B. Hughes1995Mickey Spillane
1959Rex StoutNgaio Marsh1996Dick Francis
1961Ellery Queen1979Aaron Marc Stein1997Ruth Rendell
1962Erle Stanley Gardner1980W. R. Burnett1998Barbara Mertz
1963John Dickson Carr1981Stanley Ellin1999P.D. James
1964George Harmon Coxe1982Julian Symons2000Mary Higgins Clark
1966Georges Simenon1983Margaret Millar2001Edward D. Hoch
1967Baynard Kendrick1984John le Carré2002Robert B. Parker
1969John Creasey1985Dorothy Salisbury Davis2003Ira Levin
1970James M. Cain1986Ed McBain2004Joseph Wambaugh
1971Mignon G. Eberhart1987Michael Gilbert2005Marcia Muller
1972John D. MacDonald1988Phyllis A. Whitney2006Stuart Kaminsky
1973Judson Philips1989Hillary Waugh2007Stephen King
Alfred Hitchcock1990Helen McCloy
1974Ross Macdonald1991Tony Hillerman
1975Eric Ambler1992Elmore Leonard
1976Graham Greene1993Donald E. Westlake

See also

External link

State of New York

Flag of New York Seal
Nickname(s): The Empire State
Motto(s): Excelsior!

Official language(s) None

Capital Albany
Largest city New York City

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Clayton Rawson (1906 - 1971) was an American mystery writer, editor, and amateur magician. His four novels frequently invoke his great knowledge of stage magic and feature as their fictional detective The Great Merlini, a professional magician who runs a shop selling magic supplies.
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Anthony Boucher (born William Anthony Parker White) (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968) was an American science fiction editor and writer of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor.
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Lawrence Arthur Goldstone (1903 - 1998), better known by his pseudonym, Lawrence Treat, was an American mystery writer, a pioneer of the genre of novels that became known as police procedurals.
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Davis Dresser
Pseudonym: Brett Halliday, Asa Baker, Mathew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Anderson Wayne
Born: July 31 1904(1904--)
Chicago, Illinois
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The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. They honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film and theatre published or produced in the past year.
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Edgar Allan Poe

This daguerreotype of Poe was taken in 1848 when he was 39, a year before his death.
Born: January 19 1809(1809--)
Boston, Massachusetts U.S.
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Agatha Christie

Born: 15 September 1890(1890--)
Torquay, Devon, England
Died: 12 January 1976 (aged 87)
Cholsey, Oxfordshire, England
Occupation: Novelist
Genres: Murder mystery, Crime fiction
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Daphne du Maurier
Born: 13 May 1907

Died: 19 April 1989

Occupation: Novelist
Nationality: British
Genres: Thriller/Suspense
Debut works: The Loving Spirit (novel)
"The Apple Tree" (short story)
Influences: The Brontë sisters,
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Lawrence Block
Pseudonym: Chip Harrison, Paul Kavanagh, others
Born: May 24 1938 (1938--) (age 69)
Buffalo, New York
Occupation: novelist, short story writer
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Vincent Starrett
Born: September 26 1886(1886--)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Died: January 5 1974 (aged 89)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation: newspaperman, writer
Nationality: U.S.
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Dorothy Belle Hughes (1904-May 6, 1993) was a U.S. crime writer and critic.

Born Dorothy Belle Flanagan in Kansas City, Missouri, she studied journalism and after graduating worked in that field before becoming a mystery writer.
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Rex Stout

Rex Stout in 1975 (Jill Krementz)
Born: December 11, 1886
Noblesville, Indiana
Died: October 27, 1975
Danbury, Connecticut
Occupation: Writer
Genres: Detective fiction

Rex Stout, full name Rex Todhunter Stout
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Dame Ngaio Marsh DBE (April 23, 1895–February 18, 1982), born Edith Ngaio Marsh was an author and theatre director from New Zealand. There is some uncertainty over her birth date as her father neglected to register her birth until 1900.
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Dick Francis CBE (born October 31, 1920) is a British author and retired jockey.

He was born Richard Stanley Francis in Lawrenny, south Wales, the son of a jockey and stable manager [1]. He himself won over 350 races, becoming champion jockey in the 1953-54 season.
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Ellery Queen is both a fictional character and a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn, New York: Daniel (David) Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay (October 20, 1905–September 3, 1982) and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee
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George Bagby was the nom de plume of the American novelist Aaron Marc Stein (1906-1985) [1] , who specialized in mystery fiction. Bagby's focus was on police investigators, especially the fictional Inspector Schmidt, Chief of Homicide for the New York Police
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Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE, who also writes under the pseudonym Barbara Vine, (born February 17, 1930), is an English best-selling mystery and psychological crime writer, often called the Queen of Crime.
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Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 Malden, Massachusetts – March 11, 1970 Temecula, California) was an American lawyer and author of detective stories who also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M.
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William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 - April 25, 1982), often credited as W. R. Burnett, was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best know for the crime novel, Little Caesar
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Elizabeth Peters (a pen-name of Barbara Mertz, born 29 September 1927 in Canton, Illinois, USA) has written many books in the mystery genre, featuring strong female protagonists and many archaeological connections.
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John Dickson Carr (November 30, 1906–February 27, 1977) was a prolific American author of detective stories who also published under the pen names Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn.
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Stanley Bernard Ellin (October 6, 1916 – July 31, 1986) was an American mystery writer. Ellin was born in Brooklyn, New York. He garnered a love for reading at a young age with an interest in works by the likes of Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling, and Edgar Allan Poe.
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Phyllis Dorothy James, Baroness James of Holland Park, OBE, FRSA, FRSL (born 3 August, 1920) is an English writer of crime fiction, under the name P. D. James, and is a life peer in the British House of Lords.
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Julian Gustave Symons (1912 - 1994) was a British writer, best known for crime fiction. He also wrote social and military history, biography, studies of crime and literature, and poetry.

Life and Work

Julian Symons was born in London.
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Mary Theresa Eleanor Higgins Clark Conheeney

Pseudonym: Mary Higgins Clark
Born: November 24 1927 (1927--) (age 81)
the Bronx, New York (U.S.
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Georges Joseph Christian Simenon (French IPA: [ʒɔʀʒ sim'nɔ̃]) (February 13, 1903–September 4, 1989) was a Belgian writer who wrote in French.
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Margaret Ellis Millar (née Sturm) (February 5, 1915 - March 26, 1994) was an American-Canadian mystery and suspense writer.

Born in Kitchener, Ontario, she was educated there and in Toronto.
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Edward Dentinger Hoch (born February 22, 1930 in Rochester, New York) is a prolific American writer of detective fiction. Although he has written several novels, he is primarily known for his vast short story output which at present is over 900.
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Baynard Kendrick wrote whodunit mystery novels about Duncan Maclain, a blind private investigator who worked with his two German shepherds and his household of assistants to solve murder mysteries. The novels were the basis for two films starring Edward Arnold.
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