I was so excited to read this afternoon that Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction before Stonewall (McFarland, 2016) has been nominated for an Edgar in the category Best Critical/Biographical Work.
Congratulations to Curt Evans who has been long overdue for recognition for his critical writing on the history of detective fiction, its developments and the lives of many under-appreciated and forgotten crime writers. Curt created the concept for Murder in the Closet and recruited over twenty writers from both international academia and the blogosphere. I was one of those contributors and delivered four essays, three of which made it to the final book. The final product is what I consider to be a landmark anthology of critical essays covering the treatment of LGBTQ themes in Golden Age detective fiction as well as discussing the lives of many gay and lesbian mystery writers like Hugh Wheeler & Richard Webb, Beverley Nichols, Patricia Highsmith, Nancy Spain and George Baxt.
I'm so proud to be part of this book and that Murder in the Closet has been recognized by the Mystery Writers of America. A more detailed post about the book, its contents, and its origin appears on our esteemed editor's blog The Passing Tramp.
Congratulations, John. As I wrote to Curtis, this is very well deserved.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brian. I was so surprised and delighted by this news that I went around telling as many people as I could who I thought would be excited as me. Most people never heard of the Edgar. But they understood the excitement of being nominated for an award.
DeleteI'm very happy for Curt who more than anyone has long deserved recognition by the crime fiction community for his contributions to the history of the genre. As they say at the awards shows it's a real honor to be recognized this way. And what a coup for vintage crime fiction devotees & scholars!
People are so weird, everyone else I know is talking about the Oscars. ;)
DeleteIt was a nice recognition, especially among such a big group of books. Like everything else this category has its strong years and weak years, and this was a strong year, with weighty prestige bios of Daphne du Maurier and Chester Himes (one of Shirley Jackson won last year) and two big ACD and Sherlock Holmes studies. So it was nice to get noticed in this group.
On my blog I'll be posting a link to a longer piece I did on the book over at The Rap Sheet, where I talk about all the contributors there. My thanks to everyone again.
Ha! I only remembered about the Oscar nominations announcement when I turned on the TV and the ABC news people told me. Nothing surprising there at all. This was a huge surprise!
DeleteJohn: Sounds like a good book. You must be proud of being a contributor.
ReplyDeleteCongrats! What a thrill and an honor. I do hope Murder in the Closet wins.
ReplyDeleteBlimey John, I hadn't heard this, what fantastic news! Really well-deserved and long-overdue recognition for Curt. And also, Yay for us, the contributors...
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that you hadn't written a post on your own blog. Such a wonderful gift for all involved.
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