Every year since 1946, the oldest mystery organization in the United States, the Mystery Writers of America (MWA) presents the Edgar Award. Edgar Allan Poe, if you remember your English literature, is the father of the detective story with his series of three stories, involving detective C. Auguste Dupin. An image of Poe in statue form is the actual Edgar Award, but was not presented for the first two years. Rather, in its first year, Edgar winners received a special edition of Poe’s works, and in its second year, the prize came in the form of a limited edition of Howard Haycraft’s book. mystery story art. The archives, early writings, and books from MWA’s extensive collection can be found at the Lilly Library in Bloomington, Indiana. There are now eleven regional chapters of MWA.
Although the MWA awards about eighteen statuettes each year, I focused on the categories of books that we, as fans of fictional mystery, are most likely to be familiar with. These categories include Best Novel (first introduced in 1954), Best First Novel by an American Author (introduced in MWA’s first year in 1946), and Best Original Paperback (first introduced in 1970).
Anthony Boucher, born William Parker White, was a co-founder of the MWA. He won three Edgar Awards for his work as a mystery critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. He died in 1968 and his fans formed their first Bouchercon in Santa Monica, California in 1970. This assembly of fans created their own Anthony Awards beginning in 1986.
The man who won the most Edgars in all three categories is Dick Francis. He won three times for Package (1970), whip hand (1981) and Fail (nineteen ninety six). Seven other authors, including James Lee Burke, William DeAndrea, Steve Hamilton, John Hart, Gregory McDonald, T. Jefferson Parker and Ross Thomas, have won the Edgar twice.
The biggest winner of the Anthony Award has won five times. Laura Lippman won by butcher hill (1999), in big trouble (2000) and no good deeds (2007) all part of the Tess Monaghan mystery series. She also won for two independents, every secret thing (2004) and what the dead know (2008). The finalist is Michael Connelly with four Anthony Awards. won by The poet (1997), Blood test (1999), City of Bones (2003) and The brass verdict (2009). Sue Grafton and William Kent Krueger have each won three Anthony Awards.
For those who prefer a lighter, cozier approach to mysteries, there’s the Agatha Award, which began its mystery writing awards in 1988. The big winner in the Best Novel category is Louise Penny, who won four Agathas in a row (2007 – 2010) along with two Anthony Awards. Carolyn Hart, Margaret Maron and Nancy Pickard have each won an Agatha three times. Hart and Maron have won two Anthony Awards.
Looking through all the award-winning names, I was surprised how many of them I haven’t read. I was hoping to find out how many winners were stand-alone books and how many winning books were part of a mystery series. It seems that the answer to that question will have to wait a little longer.
