Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
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Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
One of the best and longest running digest-sized crime fiction periodicals, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM) first appeared with a December 1956 issue labeled Volume 1, Number 12, thus instantly creating eleven phantom issues to frustrate collectors. It appeared monthly until expanding to a thirteen-issues-per-year schedule in the 1980s. While including all varieties of crime fiction, the magazine specialized in the kind of ironic twist-in-the-tail story suited to half-hour presentation on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television show, which antedated the magazine by a year. With Hitchcock's name and image as the main selling points, there was little emphasis on big-name writers, although many have appeared in the magazine's pages. Among the most prolific and typical AHMM contributors has been Henry Slesar, who also wrote extensively for the television series. Other no-tables have included Clark Howard, Jack Ritchie, C. B. Gilford, Donald Honig, John Lutz, Lawrence Block, Bill Pronzini, James Holding, Richard Deming, Fletcher Flora, Edward D. Hoch, Talmage Powell, Lawrence Treat, and, in recent years, Brendan DuBois, Stephen Wasylyk, Doug Allyn, and Joseph Hansen. Although Hitchcock signed a monthly editorial (which was more promotional than substantive) and posed for covers in the early years, and although the brief story introductions were implicitly attributed to him, the great film director never had any direct editorial connection with the magazine. The first editor was William Manners, successively succeeded by G. F. Goster, Ernest M. Hutter, and, when original publisher H.S.D. Publications sold the magazine to Davis Publications in 1976, Eleanor Sullivan, managing editor of AHMM's new stablemate, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. During the tenure of editor Cathleen Jordan, who took over in 1982, nonfiction features such as contests and book reviews have been developed, and more of an editorial personality has emerged. In 1992 the magazine was sold along with the other Davis fiction magazines to Bantam Doubleday Dell. In 1996, the Dell Magazines were sold to Penny Marketing.
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Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
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Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (AHMM) is a monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime and detective fiction. AHMM is named for Alfred Hitchcock, the famed director of suspense films and television.
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Contents
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History
AHMM was founded in 1956 by HSD Publications, which licensed the use of the director's name. Though there was no formal connection with the television show, stories published in the magazine were sometimes adapted by the producers of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (and later, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour). A few writers, such as Henry Slesar, wrote for both. Other contributors during the magazine’s early years included Evan Hunter/Ed McBain, Ed Lacy, Bill Pronzini, Jim Thompson, Donald E. Westlake and Charles Willeford (who briefly worked for the magazine).
In 1975 AHMM was acquired by Davis Publications, Inc., and since 1992 it has been published by Dell Magazines (which also produces its sister publication, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine). Cathleen Jordan edited the magazine from 1981 to 2002, and since then it has been edited by Linda Landrigan. After EQMM, AHMM is the second-longest-running mystery fiction magazine. In 2006, the magazine celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with the publication of the anthology Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense.
Black Orchid
In 2007, AHMM joined with The Wolfe Pack, the Rex Stout/Nero Wolfe society, to sponsor the Black Orchid Novella Contest for stories in the “classic detective” style of Stout’s Nero Wolfe.
Contents
Each issue contains original works of short crime or mystery fiction as well as a book review column (“Booked & Printed”), a puzzle, a “Mysterious Photograph” story contest, and a "Mystery Classic" reprint.
Authors
Over its history AHMM has published short fiction by noted mystery novelists such as Robert Bloch, Lawrence Block, G. K. Chesterton, Ron Goulart, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Donald E. Westlake. The magazine has also regularly featured such short story specialists as John H. Dirckx, Kenneth Gavrell, Edward D. Hoch, Jack Ritchie, and Stephen Wasylyk.
Many writers have published their first mystery story in AHMM, including Mitch Alderman, Doug Allyn, Gregory Fallis, Steve Hockensmith, Martin Limón, D. A. McGuire, and I. J. Parker.
In recent years, regular contributors have also included Rhys Bowen, Jan Burke, O'Neil De Noux, John F. Dobbyn, Joan Druett, Brendan DuBois, Loren D. Estleman, David Edgerley Gates, Toni L. P. Kelner, R. T. Lawton, Robert Lopresti,[1] Beverle Graves Myers, Jas R. Petrin, Stephen Ross, Gilbert M. Stack, Marianne Wilski Strong, Steven Torres, Elaine Viets, James Lincoln Warren,[1] Sarah Weinman, Mike Wiecek, and Angela Zeman.[1]
Awards
AHMM stories have won almost every major mystery award, including The Edgar Award for Best Short story, presented by the Mystery Writers of America; the Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Short Story; the Agatha Award for Best Short Story, presented at the Malice Domestic conference; and the Shamus Award for Best P.I. Short Story, presented by the Private-Eye Writers of America.
References
- ^ a b c Warren, James; Lopresti, Rob; Zeman, Angela (2009). "The Mystery Short Story WebLog Project". Crime Fiction. Los Angeles: Criminal Brief. http://www.criminalbrief.com/. Retrieved 2010-02-20.
External links
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Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing
The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing. © 1999
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