I’ve been reading mystery fiction for about a half-century, and I’m a little picky. I don’t think I’m cranky, exactly, but I admit to having little patience with books and stories that lack originality, whether it is in characterization, plot, motive, background, or literary style.

I started out by falling in love with Sherlock Holmes and still adore the stories. I soon moved to other big names: Christie, Sayers, Carr, Ellery Queen, Freeman, Van Dine. The big deal for me then was trying to figure it out – identify the killer, deduce the motive, unravel the murder method. The puzzles were brilliant, though I was pathetic at solving them. I never suspected the least likely person; I always condemned the obvious culprit.

I can’t read these authors today. Puzzles aren’t enough now. I need fully developed characters, a sense of style, intriguing background. That is not what those authors were attempting to provide. As time passed, I came to realize that I hated Van Dine’s detective, Philo Vance, and his clone, Ellery Queen.

Ogden Nash was right when he wrote “Philo Vance / Needs a kick in the pance.” Pedantic, rude, just out-and-out sniffy, he got on my nerves so much that I started to root for the murderer to get away with it just to prove him wrong.

The two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, who wrote under the pseudonym Ellery Queen while using the same name for their detective, modeled their creation after Vance, who was the most popular detective in America during the 1920s and ’30s. I felt the same way about him, especially when the arrogant twit persisted in treating his father, Inspector Richard Queen, with condescension. Thankfully, Queen, the amateur detective, matured in later books and became far more tolerable.

The indefatigable Dannay did far more for the field of detective fiction than co-author the Ellery Queen novels. Although published under the Queen name, he was solely responsible for writing two of the most important reference books in the history of mystery fiction (as well as the greatest anthology of all time, “101 Years’ Entertainment: The Great Detective Stories,” published by Little, Brown in 1941).

The first was “The Detective Short Story,” a comprehensive bibliography published by Little, Brown in 1942. It attempted to list every short story collection of detective fiction published to that time. It was misnamed, as he listed books about Raffles and other crooks – crime stories without detection – but it was a monumental achievement providing the publisher, date, binding type, name of the protagonist, and, frequently, additional notes crammed with information.

The second was “Queen’s Quorum,” a heavily annotated listing of the 106 (later expanded to 125) greatest collections of mystery fiction of all time. The opinionated and controversial list first appeared in a Queen anthology, “20th Century Detective Stories,” and was then published separately by Little, Brown in 1951. Collectors have debated the merits of some of the books included (such as Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog,” which finds a place, according to Dannay, because it told of a great con game) but no one before or since brought as much erudition to the subject.

His most important contribution to the mystery genre, however, was the founding of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 1941.Today, 64 years later, it remains the pre-eminent mystery magazine in the world, a position it has held since its debut.

Dannay commissioned and edited the stories, sometimes with a heavy hand. He changed titles, usually for the better, though many authors would disagree, and it was not uncommon for him to ruthlessly edit out what he perceived to be extraneous material, even by such famously unwordy authors as Dashiell Hammett and Patricia Highsmith.

The number of great mystery writers who have appeared on the pages of EQMM is so vast that one would need a magnifying glass to locate those who haven’t. The tip-off may have been when the very first issue featured stories by Hammett, Cornell Woolrich, Margery Allingham, and Queen himself. Many mystery hall of fame authors (well, if there were a mystery hall of fame) made their professional debut under the editorial eye of Dannay, but perhaps his most important discovery was the great Stanley Ellin.

While Ellin may not, unfortunately, be a household name, he is one of the two greatest short story writers of the second half of the 20th century, and I don’t know who the other one is.

Ellin had returned from serving in World War II with the desire to be a fulltime writer. His wife agreed to run their little farm on her own. Their deal was that if he didn’t sell something within a year, he’d give it up and feed the chickens.

In the 12th month, he got a letter from Dannay agreeing to publish “The Specialty of the House,” the shocking story of an odd gourmet club. It became one of the most anthologized stories of the 20th century and was later televised on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”

The candidate for the Guinness Book of World Records with regard to EQMM these days is Edward D.Hoch. Since the magazine is one of only two major publications to consistently publish mystery fiction (the other being Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine), this is a tough market to crack. I know writers who submitted stories for a decade before finally being accepted. Mr. Hoch, named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America, has had stories (sometimes more than one) in every issue since May 1973. He has more good ideas than Don Juan let loose in a harem. And, doubtless, more stamina.

You might find EQMM at your local newsstand, but, if you like mystery fiction (and if you’ve read this far, you do – or you really need to get out more), you should subscribe.

Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in Manhattan and the series editor of the annual “Best American Mystery Stories.” He can be reached atopenzler@nysun.com.