 Mystery: December 27, 2017 Issue [#8672] |
  Mystery
This week: History of Mystery Edited by: eyestar~*  
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 Sneaking in to chat with all you mystery folks, both readers and writers! I am happy to be here for the first time to edit this newsletter. It is a mystery to me why....as I know so little about mystery writing!  though I do enjoy reading. The question that came to me in considering what to write....was... what is the history of mystery? Where did the genre begin? So... join me in a short journey.
"Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They
read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't
buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last
page sells your next book."
MICKEY SPILLANE
"The detective isn't your main character, and neither is
your villain. The main character is the corpse. The detective's
job is to seek justice for the corpse. It's the corpse's story,
first and foremost."
ROSS MACDONALD
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One definition of Mystery is a fiction genre is that involves a mysterious death or crime that has to be solved by a detective. With that in mind, let's explore the question: "Where did the genre begin?"
As with many questions, the answer depends on who you talk to...er..or read!  Folks have been interested in crime for centuries. Apparently the writings of Cicero in Ancient Rome, read for entertainment and information, contains speeches on the major lawsuits of his time and the stories were quite popular! The roots to the first true crime genre may come from the 16th century when people became more fascinated by booklets printed out of sensationalized accounts of criminals. Since the invention of the printing press made news more available. By the 18th century folks became more keen on the solvers of crime..and dectectives became popular.
 The father of Horror, Edgar Allan Poe, an American, is the one credited with the first modern detective novel. He created the character Auguste C. Dupuis in Murder in the Rue Mogue. in 1841. However, In 1794 William Godwin wrote the Adventures of Caleb Williams, which could be a predecessor of the form. And Eliot regards the The Moonstone by Wilke Collins as the first novel of the genre. It is the first classic English one written in 1868. He also wrote The Woman in White in 1860. I liked the movie. 
In any case, Poe continued with his detective in sequel stories and introduced the "locked room" situation and was the first to focus in on the workings of the criminal mind.
Charles Dickens added mystery and suspence in Bleak House in 1853. His work and that of Collins contributed to Poe's work as the genre developed.
In 1878 , the first woman to write a dectective novel was Anna Katherine Green with The Levenworth Case in which she used the elements of detection later used in the 1920 style of crime in the English country house.
The genre continued to develop with the intellectual Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887 in A Study In Scarlet and his works continue to be popular today.
One of my favourites, Agatha Christie in 1920 wrote The Mysterious Affair at Styles setting a tone and a style of story that would influence many and detectives that would live on. Dorothy Sayers in 1923 became most popular with her "Lord Peter Whimsley" character. Both of these ladies became quite popular and with the beginning of the paper back Penguin novels in 1935, were available to more people.
At the same time in the US, the Black Masking magazine saw the rise of mystery novelists like Raymond Chandler, Eric Stanely Gardner, Mickey Spillane----or think Philip Marlowe, Perry Mason, Sam Spade, Mike Hammer, their detective characters. The stories took on edgier energy.
In the 1930-40's authors were writing mystery for young people too. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys became popular. TV even took up the cause and many crime shows have served to entertain and carry on the tradition of the solving of crime. I likely know more about mystery from tv over the years.
There it began and continues today with authors like Sue Grafton, PD James, and all have contributed to it development as a genre. So, mystery solved! I wonder where it will go in the future.
So, what are your favourite mystery authors or stories?
Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays! 
Sources:
http://www.mysterynet.com/timeline/
https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/a-brief-history-of-the-mystery-novel |
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Thanks for reading my first forray into a Mystery Newsletter!
So what mystery are you reading? What is a favourite author or book of the genre?
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