Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work

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The Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work, established in 1977, is a literary award presented as part of the Edgar Awards for a nonfiction critical or biographical hardcover, paperback, or electronic book.

Contents

To be eligible, biographical books should be "biographies of mystery writers or other notable practitioners of the genre, not to criminals." [1] Criminal biographies are eligible for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime. [1]

The Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work winners are listed below.

Recipients

2000s

2000s Best Critical/Biographical Work winners [2]
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
2008 Jon Lellenberg , Daniel Stashower, and Charles FoleyArthur Conan Doyle: A Life in LettersWinner [3]
2009Dr. Harry Lee Poe Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to his Tell-Tale StoriesWinner [4]

2010s

2010s Best Critical/Biographical Work winners [2]
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
2010 Otto Penzler The Lineup: The World's Greatest Crime Writers Tell the Inside Story of Their Greatest DetectivesWinner
2011 Yunte Huang Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American HistoryWinner
Rafael Alvarez The Wire: Truth Be ToldShortlist
John Curran Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks: 50 Years of Mysteries in the MakingShortlist
Stephen Doyle and David A. CrowderSherlock Holmes for DummiesShortlist
David Morrell and Hank Wagner (editors)Thrillers: 100 Must ReadsShortlist
2012 Michael Dirda On Conan Doyle; or, The Whole Art of Storytelling Winner [5] [6]
Dan Burstein , Arne de Keijzer, and John-Henri Holmberg The Tattooed Girl: The Enigma of Stieg Larsson and the Secrets Behind the Most Compelling Thrillers of our TimeShortlist [6]
John Curran Agatha Christie: Murder in the MakingShortlist [6]
Philippa Gates Detecting Women: Gender and the Hollywood Detective FilmShortlist [6]
Walter Raubicheck and Walter SrebnickScripting Hitchcock: Psycho, The Birds and MarnieShortlist [6]
2013James O'Brien The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics Winner [7]
John Paul Athanasourelis Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective TransformedShortlist
John Connolly (editor)Books To Die For: The World’s Greatest Mystery Writers on the World’s Greatest Mystery NovelsShortlist
Otto Penzler (editor)In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American HeroShortlist
2014 Erik Dussere America Is Elsewhere: The Noir Tradition in the Age of Consumer Culture Winner [8] [9]
Bill Alder Maigret, Simenon and France: Social Dimensions of the Novels and StoriesShortlist [9]
Justin Gifford Pimping Fictions: African American Crime Literature and the Untold Story of Black Pulp PublishingShortlist [9]
Andrew Lycett Ian FlemingShortlist [9]
Melissa Schaub Middlebrow Feminism in Classic British Detective FictionShortlist [9]
2015 J. W. Ocker Poe-Land: The Hallowed Haunts of Edgar Allan Poe Winner [10] [11]
Charles BrownsonThe Figure of the Detective: A Literary History and AnalysisShortlist [10]
Jim Mancall James Ellroy: A Companion to the Mystery FictionShortlist [10]
Robert Miklitsch Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: Classic Film NoirShortlist [10]
Francis M. Nevins Judges & Justice & Lawyers & Law: Exploring the Legal Dimensions of Fiction and FilmShortlist [10]
2016 Martin Edwards The Golden Age of Murder Winner [12] [13]
Frederick Forsyth The Outsider: My Life in IntrigueShortlist
Suzanne Marrs and Tom NolanMeanwhile There Are Letters: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and Ross MacdonaldShortlist
Matthew Parker Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming’s JamaicaShortlist
Nathan WardThe Lost Detective: Becoming Dashiell HammettShortlist
2017 Ruth Franklin Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted LifeWinner [14]
Peter Ackroyd Alfred Hitchcock: A Brief LifeShortlist
Mitzi M. Brunsdale Encyclopedia of Nordic Crime: Works and Authors of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden Since 1967Shortlist
David J. Skal Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker, the Man Who Wrote DraculaShortlist
2018 Lawrence P. Jackson Chester B. Himes: A BiographyWinner [15]
Mattias Bostrom From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women who Created an Icon Shortlist
Tatiana de Rosnay Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du MaurierShortlist
Curtis Evans Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before StonewallShortlist
Michael Sims Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of HolmesShortlist
2019 Leslie S. Klinger Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920sWinner [16]
Laird R. Blackwell The Metaphysical Mysteries of G.K. Chesterton: A Critical Study of the Father Brown Stories and Other Detective FictionShortlist
Alice Bolin Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American ObsessionShortlist
Yasuhiro Takeuchi Mark X: Who Killed Huck Finn’s Father?Shortlist
Laura ThompsonAgatha Christie: A Mysterious LifeShortlist

2020s

2020s Best Critical/Biographical Work winners and shortlists [2]
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
2020 John Billheimer Hitchcock and the CensorsWinner [17] [18]
Ursula Buchan Beyond the Thirty-Nine Steps: A Life of John BuchanShortlist
John Curran The Hooded Gunman: An Illustrated History of Collins Crime ClubShortlist
Anne McKendry Medieval Crime Fiction: A Critical OverviewShortlist
Mo Moulton The Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and her Oxford Circle Remade the World for WomenShortlist
2021 Christina Lane Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind HitchcockWinner [19] [20]
Martin Edwards Howdunit: A Masterclass in Crime Writing by Members of the Detection ClubShortlist [20]
Erin E. MacDonald Ian Rankin: A Companion to the Mystery & FictionShortlist [20]
Elizabeth Mannion and Brian CliffGuilt Rules All: Irish Mystery, Detective, and Crime FictionShortlist [20]
Jacqueline Winspear This Time Next Year We’ll be LaughingShortlist [20]
2022Edward White The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock: An Anatomy of the Master of Suspense Winner [21]
Mark Aldridge Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the WorldShortlist
Richard Greene The Unquiet Englishman: A Life of Graham Greene Shortlist
James McGrath Morris Tony Hillerman: A LifeShortlist
John Tresch The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American ScienceShortlist
2023 Martin Edwards The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their CreatorsWinner [22]
Mary Anna Evans and J. C. Bernthal (editors)The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha ChristieShortlist
David Geherin The Crime World of Michael Connelly: A Study of His Works and Their AdaptationsShortlist
Andrew Neiderman The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews StoryShortlist
Lucy Worsley Agatha Christie: An Elusive WomanShortlist
2024Steven PowellLove Me Fierce in Danger: The Life of James EllroyWinner [23] [24]
David Bordwell Perplexing Plots: Popular Storytelling and the Poetics of MurderShortlist [24]
Max Allan Collins and James L. TraylorSpillane: King of Pulp FictionShortlist [24]
Mark Dawidziak A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan PoeShortlist [24]
Robert Morgan Fallen Angel: The Life of Edgar Allan PoeShortlist [24]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Edgar Award Category Information". Mystery Writers of America . Archived from the original on 2022-12-14. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  2. 1 2 3 "Edgar Awards". Stop, You're Killing Me. Archived from the original on June 30, 2023. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
  3. ↑ "Awards: The Edgars; Arthur C. Clarke Prize". Shelf Awareness . May 2, 2008. Archived from the original on 2022-09-20. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  4. ↑ "Awards: Edgars; Arthur C. Clarke". Shelf Awareness . May 1, 2009. Archived from the original on 2023-06-03. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  5. ↑ "2012 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2012-11-03.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Cogdill, Oline. "2012 Edgar Award Winners". Mystery Scene Magazine . Archived from the original on 2022-07-12. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
  7. ↑ "2013 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2013-11-02.
  8. ↑ "2014 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2014-11-10.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "The 2014 Edgar Award Nominations and Winners". Heights Libraries. Archived from the original on 2022-12-10. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 "2015 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2015-11-08.
  11. ↑ "Awards: Edgar Winners; Ridenhour Book". Shelf Awareness . May 1, 2015. Archived from the original on 2022-09-21. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
  12. ↑ "2016 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2016-11-05.
  13. ↑ "Awards: Edgar Winners". Shelf Awareness . May 2, 2016. Archived from the original on 2022-09-15. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
  14. ↑ "2017 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2017-11-07.
  15. ↑ "2018 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2018-11-10.
  16. ↑ "2019 Nominees and Winners". Edgar Awards. Archived from the original on 2019-08-18.
  17. ↑ "Edgar Award Nominees". www.theedgars.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-07. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  18. ↑ "Edgar Allan Poe Awards 2020 winners announced". Books+Publishing. 2020-05-05. Archived from the original on 2020-05-06. Retrieved 2020-05-05.
  19. ↑ "2021 Edgar Allan Poe Award Winners". Mystery Writers of America. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 "Congratulations to the Winners of the 2021 Edgar Awards". CrimeReads. 2021-04-29. Archived from the original on 2021-06-21. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  21. ↑ "2022 Edgar Allan Poe Award Winners". Mystery Writers of America. Archived from the original on 2024-05-06. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
  22. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2023-04-28). "Edgar Award Winners Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews . Archived from the original on 2023-04-30. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  23. ↑ Schaub, Michael (2024-05-02). "Winners of the 2024 Edgar Awards Are Revealed". Kirkus Reviews . Archived from the original on 2024-05-02. Retrieved 2024-05-06.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 "2024 Edgar Winners" (PDF). Edgar Awards. May 4, 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on May 2, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
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