Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 26, No. 4. Whole No. 143, October 1955

A truly impressive development... Stanley Ellin’s very first story, the memorable “The Specialty of the House,” appeared in EQMM, issue of May 1948; last year Stanley Ellin’s “The Moment of Decision” won First Prize. Joseph Whitehill’s first story, “The Day of the Last Rock Fight,” was published in the June 1954 issue of EQMM; last year Joseph Whitehill’s “Stay Away from My Mother” won the Special Award of Merit. Vinnie Williams’s first story, “A Matter of the Tax Payers’ Money,” was printed in EQMM, issue of October 1949; last year Vinnie Williams’s “Dodie and the Boogerman” won a Second Prize. James Yaffe’s first story, “Department of Impossible Crimes” (written when the author was at the ripe young age of fifteen!), was offered to EQMM readers in our issue of July 1943; last year James Yaffe’s “Mom Makes a Wish” won a Second Prize.

And Donald McNutt Douglass’s first story, “The Ghost of Greenwich Village,” represented the author’s baptism in print when it appeared in EQMM’s February 1934 issue; last year Mr. Douglass won a Second Prize with “The Perfectionist” — the story we now bring to you. “The Perfectionist” is an unusual example of how much a writer can grow in a single year — for this new story by Mr. Douglass shows considerable advance over his first story. The canvas is bigger, the characterizations are more fully realized, the style is more mature. Indeed, you will find “The Perfectionist” a remarkably professional story for a relatively new writer: it is both sensuous and sensual; it is smart, suave, and even sly in its subtle sophistication. It is the story of the eternal Battle of the Sexes — a War of Nerves between a clever husband and a sensitive wife. The wife, you will be interested to learn, is The Most Beautiful Woman in New York and she is terribly afraid — afraid she has the bad taste to be... but we have told you enough!

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The zoo in central park, new York 17, N.Y., is a pleasant place. On a Spring day when the sun is shining it is utterly charming. One black bear and a black panther are restless, hating their cages; the other animals seem content — the tigers and lions and that poor creature, the tigron, are asleep or torpid. A little old lady — evidently one who believes that rules are made to be broken — is feeding the elephants dandelion greens which ferment and make an elephant happy. The seals are vigorous and sportive, and the empty monkey cages look as though they had been designed by Bemelmans. The monkeys are too delicate to stand the fickle weather and are still inside, smelling abominably and acting like monkeys. Only one thing might be hoped for — that the children play less noisily.