"Dear Firsts,
Your "From The Editor" column in the March, 1998 issue refers
to an
"Ellery Queen title that is not only rare, but written under
a
little-known variant pseudonym"
"I am one of the sons of Frederic Dannay who, with Manfred B.
Lee, was
Ellery Queen. I don't think there is any Queen pseudonym that
I'm
unfamiliar with, so the only book I can imagine you were
referring to is
THE GOLDEN SUMMER by Daniel Nathan. That book was written by
my father
alone and was not a Queen title. It is the fictional memoir
of his
boyhood written under his birth name, Daniel Nathan, which he
changed to
Frederic Dannay before later assuming the Queen pseudonym
(and then
briefly "Barnaby Ross"), with his first cousin, Manny Lee.
The name
Dannay was formed by taking the "Dan" from Daniel and the
"na" from
Nathan, adding a "y" for sound and appearance.
"When THE GOLDEN SUMMER was published (in 1953), the
publisher (Little,
Brown) wanted to reveal the connection to Queen, recognizing
that it
would help sales. But my father declined, preferring that the
book stand
on its own.
"Thus, if it was THE GOLDEN SUMMER that you refer to, it was
not a Queen
title. And ironically, the "little-known pseudonym," Daniel
Nathan, was
my father's real name.
"One Queenian twist remains to the mystery. Although family
and friends
(and Manny Lee) continued to call my father Dan or Danny even
after his
name change, Daniel Nathan may not have been his "real" name,
after all.
After his death, I came across a copy of his petition to
change his name
to Frederic Dannay from -- David Nathan!"
signed: Richard Dannay, New York, NY
The FIRSTS editor responds: "You are right. The book I
referred to is
THE GOLDEN SUMMER, and it was listed for sale by Janus Books
of Tucson,
AZ. It seems to me that after all that, any and al of Daniel
(David?)
Nathan's names are pseudonyms. And, of course, Little, Brown
was
correct: the Ellery Queen association is as important for
sales today as
it was in 1953.
THIS IS REED: I'm not a Queen follower, but this kind of
information is
useful. The next issue of FIRSTS is targeted at gumshoes,
with articles
on Charlie Chan, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Inspector Maigret.
Also will
feature an article on collecting Charles Willeford, and
another article
on K.C. Constantine: who he is or might be.
... Reed Andrus
Phoenix, AZ (rising)
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