David J. Hart

The Man who would be Quain: Borges, the Detective Story and Ellery Queen

David J. Hart

1. Two Roads Diverged

he English literary world scarcely registered Herbert Quain’s death. TBefore 1948 his creator, Jorge Luis Borges, also could have passed un- mourned there. But thankfully the August edition of genre bastion Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, a special “All Nations” edition devoted to international detective fiction, included Anthony Boucher’s translation of “The Garden of Forking Paths.” The piece won second prize. Many are familiar with the EQMM as Borges’s first appearance in Eng- lish, but few remember now the magazine’s namesake and editor, wildly popular at the time. Both the author and lead character of his novels, El- lery Queen was actually the partnership of Frederic Dannay and his cousin Manfred Lee.1 These details alone would be enough to attract Borges,2 himself one-half of H. Bustos Domecq. As Paula Rabinowitz, one recent critic who does remember Queen, puts it, this “pseudonymous amalgam . . . must have appealed to Borges,” even though (or perhaps because) the

1 Dannay and Lee were themselves aliases of Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky, respectively—the head begins to swim. Throughout the essay, I will use Queen and singular pronouns to refer to the co-authors. 2 Eduardo Ramos-Izquierdo also makes this point in his provocative Contrapuntos analíticos a “Examen de la obra de Herbert Quain” (22).

Variaciones Borges 34 » 2012 David J. Hart 40 “Death andtheCompass”) hismostfamous volumes, in included Borges, 188). After all, “atthemovies,” asentimental Borges purportedly told 4 Adolfo Bioy Casares (theotherhalfof BustosDomecq), “we are all read - 3 Seventh Circle series, peoplethoughtof them, “because asthey must have don Isidro Parodi. Harlequin RomanceHarlequin (Holmes17), “Borges may have disparaged thispair Introduction toAmerican Literature asection shouldinclude on thegenre, Queen novels were thestuff of romance writer Madame Delly Queen atall—far from it. Borges was one of themost, ifnotthemostar- dent ally of detective America.in Latin fiction Indeed, Daniel Altamiranda considers thefirst and mostsignificant him“unquestionably promoter” ers of Madame Delly” (Rabinowitz188). volumes (3-4). the same year But in that the writing asBustosDomecqwithhisfriendBioywriting Casares, produced one of essays and lectures, reviewed authors, its most popular and co-edited the of authorsandtheformulaic pleasures romance theirpopular provided,” which, hesuggests, distinguishes hisown primerfrom more ponderous of theform theregion in (37). Hedefended detectivein fiction various addition tothefamiliar shortstories(e.g. “The Garden of Forking Paths,” also beliterary was anewtheArgentine,” ideain when Borges began The specific connection isGraham Law’s “Variations on the Theme of andSerious:Popular Borges gave aninterview toRichard which Burgin in heremarked on the Ellery Queen andJorge Luis Borges,” which hasvery different fish tofry. seems immediately and attractive. plausible What’s most interesting, long-running collectionlong-running of detective fiction called The Seventh Circle. In Queen, Ibelieve itfollows thewrong path. The relationship between Queen andBorges the case of Delly, though, a sense is that in it’s all wrong. Borges did not disparage Ellery the most provocative detective books written Spanish, in Six Problems for has received little attention. As far asIcan tell, theonly full-length essay devoted tothis prevailing prejudice againsttheform. “The ideathatadetective storycould partnership of Frédéric Petitjean Rosière dela andhissister Jeanne-Marie. but nevertheless hewas “notimmune”toQueen’s charms(Rabinowitz Rabinowitz’s recent essay on Borges ismuchrecommended, but, respect in to This story—theaesthete scholarly seduced byvulgar romance— So toacertain extent thatBorges it’snotsurprising hisslimAn in Madame Delly, needless tosay, was alsoa“pseudonymous amalgam,” the 4 whose turn-of-the-century series looked forward tothe Introduction was published, (188). 3 As in “It was . . . Iknow Ellery Queen, but. . . There were two persons who wrote “The Garden of Forking Paths,” saying thatheloves thework, while Borges, Allan Poe, Borges’s Introduction 5 good asadetective story,”Borges responds, towhich Burgin objects: “I Queen or Erle Stanley Gardner,” he continues, before remembering him- decline of thedetectivedecline genre favor in of theespionage novel andscience detective novels.” Andthenstill trying torecall Frederic Dannay’s name: S. S. Van Dine, ErleStanley Gardner, Dashiell Hammett, andEllery Queen. fiction. “Until his appearance the detective novel hadbeen abstractin- and offers, somewhat amusingly. “No, no,” Borges mutters, probably more ir- a writer of novels of violentaction, notof what you might call intellectual life. The others, notsomuch. Inthe same interview, up Burgin brings lery Queen. The otherone died, “Dashiell Ithink.” Hammett?” Zlotchew self, “Well, Ellery Queen’squite agood story.”The emphasisishisown. should be. Because, after all, IhadChesterton meandChesterton behind them died,”hefinally concludes, “andImettheother one. It - was atadin the Ellery Queen mysteries, butIdon’t remember theirnames.” “Oneof failing memory.failing Zlotchew grandiosely broaches the subjectof the detec- ritated withhimself thanZlotchew, “Dashiell Hammett . . . Hewas rather responds flatly: “No. I’ma great reader of detective novels, that’sall.” “I tive story, timeandspace,” in “which asking haslabyrinths “what isthe the eighty-five-year-old Borges was still thinking of Queen, althoughwith ter remarking on thefountainhead of intellectual detective fiction, Edgar thought of Westerns, merely asbeing (Borges, amusing” “Living” 24). Af- think it’smorethink thanadetective story, though.”Borges adds, “Well, it its most distinguished authors, one who used “the tosign himself . . . El- it seems tohim, doesn’t muchof it(“Living” think 24). it’squite “Ithink ner for mystery writers.” met one of them,”hebrags, moving elliptically from thegenre toone of knew how tomake themostof adetective story.”“Far more thanEllery purpose of all this?Isthere apurpose?” (Borges, “Interview” 234). Borges This isindicated clearlybyBurgin’s italics. Of thefour, Borges would recall Queen approvingly throughout his Indeed, almosttwenty years later, aninterview withClark Zlotchew, in Dashiell Hammett, Borges his implies in discusses four North American successors: Introduction, had signaled the 5

The Man Who Would Be Quain 41 David J. Hart 42 496). Queen, at the time of Borges’s review, is said to have formulated the Door Between, saying thatitconcerned “aproblem interest: of enduring Door Between, which . is“interesting . . but quite inferior to Queen’s best Queen’s, what that, shame in considering thatBorges thought theEng- dazed fragments thatsurvive hisnovels,” encrustedin Borges adds, “the cribbed from Conan Doyle. whose and pedantry [was] “urbanity an evident projection of the author ography of Van Dine, Borges publishedareview of Queen’s new novel The high-brow of topics aesthetic theoryandNietzsche andhadfancied him- (81). In his capsule biography,himself” Borges that Van explains Dine, or he fell shortof therarified Chesterton, whose popularity exceeded even however, seems tohave escaped unchastened, orifnot, only mildlyso. If Poe). Gaston Atradition Leroux andChesterton including devolves on The self anintellectual, universe “the butalas hadexamined these works with umes, Borges recommends The CanaryMurder Case particular asbeing in universe was correct.” Wright’s penname, on theotherhand, “blaze[d] left’” (“Door” 181).left’” (“Door” Borges would later thatthelocked-room claim mys- tion toEnglish 66). lishman “one of themostattractive figures”in all of literature (Introduc- straight (orfirmly reprimanded) byanadverb” (“Survey” 107). Queen, sent three of thefour greatest North American heirstoPoe. Yet one can from all themulticolored kiosks theworld.” in Ofthese best-selling vol- rather William Wright Huntington (aka S. S. Van Dine), hadwritten on the this was afall from thegrace of S. S. Van and hishero Dine Philo Vance, than theoutlaws whom they pursue”(Borges, “American” 82). Certainly, tellectual,” whereas Hammett’s novels featured detectives “noless violent tery, invented byPoe, isthefirstproblem of detective fiction (“Detective” the corpse thelocked in room ‘which noone hadentered andnoone has imagine thenarratorimagine of “ASurvey of theWorks of Herbert Quain” com- more resignation thanenthusiasm” (“Van 172). Dine” “To judge bythe novels: probably hisfinestbook, even though, Borges remarks, the central ideais problem for only thesixth time(andthe firsttimebyanAmerican since plaining thatBorgesplaining awards epithet thatisnotset laudatory “not a single Chesterton 1936. diedin Ayear later, thesame year ashiscapsule bi- In Borges’s own estimation, Gardner, Hammett, andVan repre Dine - Chinese Orange, Siamese Twin, andThe Egyptian Cross 181). ” (“Door” “among thebestof the[detective] genre” along withothersbyQueen that “weary inventor” adds“an unexpected“weary inventor” record to those [Queen] already Van Dine, themajor influence on Queen’s firstperiod, hadplummeted The DeviltoPay (“Devil”216). 7 Queen’s (Borges, “Devil” 217). concern, these years, during to“open up” theformal deductive puzzle. early thirties. Part of the explanation for this may be Dannay and Lee’s 6 are “simply splendid” andsoforth hisrevieware in “simplysplendid” of Queen’s latest work, author of thirteen “luminous” volumesauthor of thirteen (“Four” 323). “luminous” Hemoves from this a wretched novel thatis, nevertheless, free from hischaracteristic flaws— ages tooffend aninteresting, in way, almostlaudable somehow managing he is the author of one of the most forgettable.” Even here, Queen man- holds.” “Before,” Borges quips, “one could say thathewas theauthorof abysmally bothcritical in andcommercial place esteem,” was butthat“his slick-paper saleswere 1934, madein when bothChinese Orange appeared Redbook in . . . it took ayear orsobefore theinfluence of these slicks on his singular complement tosomecritical remarks—and, indeed, throughout some of thebestdetective novels ourtime,”but“now in we can addthat slick magazines andHollywood” (51). Dannay andLee were now publish- work became apparent” (219). though thedetective genre originated there, could now only claim two riously, thenovel stuff seems “the of Van were asifthesins Dine,” his, not on,the piling for instance, of extensive catalogs, characters, and plans. Cu- the endof thedecade, Borges becomes increasingly worried aboutthe taken over notbyanotherperson butbymedia: thehigh-priced women’s to correspond story-telling to a shift in technique, humanization of “the to themovies, andso, Nevins suggests, audience thisshiftin was bound ing in Cosmopolitan in ing andRedbook, translations. Anyerrors are myown. notable practitioners: the“deplorable” S. S. Van andEllery Dine Queen, newest novels of Queen, those following successes the stunning of the Nevins observes (perhaps unfairly) thateven thoughtechnically “Queen’s first Thanks tomycolleagues Andrew Reynolds andSusan Amos for theirhelpwiththe Queen connoisseur Francis Nevins thatbythistime“S. explains S. In March of 1938, Borges would again reference these novels as In fact, thefollowing year Borges judged thattheUnited States, even 6 Butthisanomaloustwelfth novel from the 7 for example, theirstories andpitching and ‘The Mad Tea-Party’

The Man Who Would Be Quain 43 David J. Hart 44 324). thevirtuesof After thisatmosphere—the explaining terrifying or Devil toPay outanew development: bysingling “Hollywood comes up grotesque effects thatthereby become possible—Borges complainsthat gest,” Borges adds, thevalidation of “that suchadescription is aliterary Queen’s work asawhole; theproblem, asBorges sees it, concerns the Queen tothenightmarishness hasbecome “insensible” of notonly hisat- Queen’s universe.” “Insomerespects,” hejudges, influence of these “the with clueandcounterplot” (Nevins 51-52). Inshort, Queen was learning, erotic adventures entirely being inappropriate tothemood of thestory est novel TheHearts, Four of Borges notes thattheatmosphere isnight- en’s slick,” notices much the same. He would close his1938 review of The appropriateness of romantic plotlines, whether erotic ornot—theappro- and therepulsiveness of thecharacters themselves. he learnedtoinfuse greater life andwarmthhischaracters, into including Ellery himself; to master the presentation of a woman’s viewpoint . . . and undesirable andessentially (Borges, dismal” “Devil”217). “Imight sug- for good orill, towrite romance thelate thirties. in to “follow the love affairs andwitness theraging anger andkisses,” such tradition American in letters.” The next year, hisreview in of Queen’s- lat to develop skill withcharacter andrelationship approximating hisfinesse riod One.”But, nevertheless, theguidance “under of histwo new markets two of hisshortstoriesare even thesame league in withtheworks of Pe- in this novelin . . . [and]ispresented bytheauthor. . . asaludicrous place, nounced that mett signaled of thegenre. adecline Along these lines, Borges later pro- mentioned earlierhisfeeling thatthehardboiled novels of Dashiell Ham- mosphere, buthischaracters. Readerssuffer made an“indignity”being in marish, but that this is characteristic of Queen’s novels as a whole (“Four” media was unfortunate, for none of Queen’s novels of thisperiodandonly priateness of “adventures,” period, thedetective within general. storyin I The issue, however, isnotlimited tothisparticular novel oreven Borges himself, thepages in writing of ElHogar, anArgentine “wom- Currently [1978], thedetective genre hasgreatly the United in declined States, where ithasbecome realistic and about violence—sexual violence, as well. Inanyevent, ithasdisappeared. The intellectual origins of the de- “Everything isintellectual,” herepeats, “everything iscalm, there isnovio- As aresult, critical “guardians of taste” have treated these lowbrow works 9 It’s not that the high-brow Borges was seduced, against his better judg- chance calmed, not stimulated, with condescension, “one form of condescension of thewriting being els became more like romances: more exciting, more charming—let’s of literature, popular consisting mostlyof various kinds of romance, Frye of suchadventures, they often are privately charmed(ortitillated) bythem of thissortof adventure hisnovels. in Inthiscontext, hepreferred tobe admits that “the fact that sexadmits that “the and violence emerge whenever they get the adds (Frye 23). Though thecritics may disparage theformulaic pleasures secreto” (55-59). see Alfredo Alonso Estenoz’s very sensible essay literatura ola “HerbertQuain como lence, andnottoo muchbloodshed.” story thatFrye istalking about, though, isnotthesortthatBorges admired. solution, anovelistic one, butclearlyincorrect. Onthecontrary, Borges such tales themselves”—“as academics write detective storiestoday,” he form responsible for “safeguarding order anera in of disorder” (“Detec- face it, more readable. Butsuchcriticism, tobesure, was overwhelmed by tive” 499). the greatest detective novelist thecountry in which invented theform, a rated Queen sohigh asadetective novelist precisely because of thelack ment, by the romantic plots of Queen; that’s an undoubtedly attractive nevertheless, for atthemovies, we are all readers of Madame Delly. praise. Infact, it’sfair tosay that Borges considered Queen, following Poe, pornography. 8 For a helpful discussion of the “calming” effect of “golden age” detective fiction, Note, however, thatFrye’s subtlework argues thatromance cannot bereduced to Amounting toasortof adventureAmounting orromance, thekind of detective Northrop Frye’s England, where very calm novels are still written. (“Detective” 499) tective storyhave been forgotten. They have, however, been in maintained does meanthatsexuality andviolence are central toromance” (26). The Secular Scripture isstill instructive here. Inthecase 9 and turned critical of Queen only when his nov- 8

The Man Who Would Be Quain 45 David J. Hart 46 “Ah me, orahRichard Hull!” hesighs, “Ican’t findthatplotanywhere” “and thendazzles hisreaders withaningenious solution,” thatis, despite 40). attractive, Imminently thisingenious solution, though, isitself “refut- 2. All detective novelists are would-be Poes orChestertons. Nevertheless, Way” 40). “The [usualdetective] novelist,” heexplains, topropose “tends (Borges, 184). “Hull” Regardless, Borges (jokingly) tohave claims foreseen Murders of theRue Morgue’) thenovels of Ellery Queen deviate from the gant thanthesecond, butalways unpredictable andsatisfactory.” cribbed his imaginary volume.cribbed hisimaginary effect that of the current sort, withanindecipherable murder thefirstpages, in a ed andathird isuncovered, which isthecorrect one: always less extrava- acters andirony andcivilized—and soconvincing yet solution is Hull’s he hadpromised of revealing blunder” nottocommit “the The Door Be - ard potboilerExcellent Hull’s Intentions. Previously, areview in of Queen, all, quite terrestrial. Chesterton, for hispart, thesubsti- in nothing” “loses a vulgar explanation of themystery,” sometimessupernatural flavor, in First “propos[ing] a daft explanation,” he “then hints (attheend)amost First hints a daftexplanation,” “propos[ing] he“then Borges returning obsessively tothedetective novel hisreview in of Rich- long discussion themiddle, in andasolution at theend.”ButthenBorges so utterly predictable—that Borges suspects theexistence of asecret plot. tween’s the central ideaof suchabook three orfour years earlier, suggesting in the month of April, 1841, thedate of publication of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The these luminaries. “Inthehistoryof thedetective genre (thatdates from tution, a in Borges’sin mind, thenovels of Queen constituted anadvancement over norm, orcause asmall progression of thegenre,” Borges wrote (“Half- planned “almost in the last line, thelast “almostin planned toaddanambiguous phrase—for ex- before God, would have been a thoroughly conventional “detective novel bent on doing so.bent on doing book issocompetent, Hull’s hisprose soable, hischar- beautiful solution, thatmakes thereader fall love” in (Borges, “Half-Way” A Dæft Almost one hundred years after Poe’s groundbreaking, April1938saw That work, imagined one of thefew, hehoped, thatwould justifyhim key (Borges, 181), “Door” but now his review in of Hull he seems tour deforce (Borges, “Labyrinth” 114), but Queen goes one better. Solution Excellent Intentions , the very real book now overflowing kiosks, “fictional” authorsandprotagonists,“fictional” andtheirsurnames, of course, bear 184). When Ficciones , “ASurvey including of theWorks of HerbertQuain,” 10 Twin Mysterywere bornalmostsimultaneously, one wonders how closely cw Queen’s The Siamese TwinMystery. It turnsoutthatQueen’s real-life novel, supposedly appearing print in In short, perhaps Borges suspectsthat Queen’s novel hasasecret solution chess-players, theeponymous brothers. twin IfTheand God came outacouple of years later, almostthese exact words recur attheend cial, retrospective sentence from the detective novel Borges hadpreviously would go through chapters thepertinent again, anddevise hisown so- only afew days after the Labyrinth—conjoined, Quain’s The God of for all of HerbertQuain’sfirstnovel, the failure of which laid atthedoorwas of had been by chance,’” a phrase which would indicate, or at least “raise the ample: ‘and everyone of thought themeeting the man andthewoman a strong resemblance. and indicates thisthrough hisremarks on Quain, a kind of stand-in. O. Quine, thetwentieth-century logician andphilosopherof language (42). lieved thatthechessplayers hadmetaccidentally” (Borges, “Survey” 108). lution, thecorrect thiscase—the one,” andsoin case of thesecret solu- suspicion that the solution was false.” Unnerved, perplexed “the reader solution, endorsed bythedetective, thatisfalse andasecret solution, to the two were related. BothQueen andQuain,different in albeit senses, are tion—the reader “would besharperthanthedetective” (Borges, “Hull” tive novel Excellent theLabyrinth istoHull’s IntentionsasQuain’s The Godof tive detective novel includes, anappropriately in modified form,- thecru to theirsecret plots, they were one and thesame. Given thatQuain’s fic- intents andpurposes withthelatter—actually two includes prominent is to Ellery Queen’s imagined, we might speculate proportionately: Borges’s detec imaginary - phrase nolonger specifiesamanand woman. “Everyone,” we read,“be- posed thatnovel withhisownwork, imaginary that, claiming respect in be ferreted outbythereader, thatistrue, thensotoo perhaps doesitstwin. ē n, which ispronounced identically toQuain. Almost these exact words, butnotquite, for retrospective thecrucial Earlier in hisreviewEarlier in Excellent of Hull’s Intentions, Borges hadjuxta- Cf. Ramos-Izquierdo The Siamese TwinMystery. If The Godcontains an official 10 (12, 21-23). I’mespecially intrigued byhisreference toW. V.

Queen, fact, in derives from anOld English word The Siamese

The Man Who Would Be Quain 47 David J. Hart 48 “Albert.” “Albert,” Paula “Albert,” Rabinowitz writes,“Albert.” “Albert, Victoria theimperial “invent a completely“invent apocryphal author orliterary school andthenwrite 11 War I, murders anEnglish whom Sinologist hehasnever order metin The Queen duo, contrast, in began withanyexceptional detail. Once, for Taken withthis idea, thewriter complains thatDannay re andLee- “lamely Ellery Queen MysteryMagazine, thegenre flagship edited byDannay. Queen’s husband.” (184). Could thisbe an homage, shewonders, to“the writers who compose theirnovels byworking backwards from thecrime. writer translation Anthony Boucher’s of “The Garden of Forking Paths,” whether these origins were ever really left behind. although in later iterationsalthough in Borges changed it, for reasons unknown, to author/editor/detective—Ellery Queen—who firstbrought thiswriter- ship originally conceived solved of theproblem thecrime,” butone thetwins wonders byclearing Dannay predictably mentions themotifof thelabyrinth, before remark- the one thattheirdetective ultimately discovers. Awartime exposé Life in fondness for mock scholarship” (Queen 101). “Hewill,” Dannay explains, from-the-pampas’ prose toEnglish?” the Englishman’s name. last Originally, this“secret name” was “Corbie,” to signal theexact site of thenew Britishartillery park, atown sharing this tale, spyDr. theChinese Yu Tsun, working for World theGermansin that have been like, tohave tointroduce aheretofore unknown Borges?!— instance, ing on “anotherpersistenting quirk” of Borges’s writing, his“inordinate itself adetective storyof sorts, theAugust wasin included edition of the magazine distinguished Dannay and Lee from the common of genre run Along these lines, outisthattheQueen partner- topoint thefirstthing In hisEQMM Five years later, Borges appeared English for in the first time. Mystery Incidentally,in thisedition thefirststory of EQMM isaboutSiamese twins. while afreak visiting show, Lee andDannay fell towondering what would tery which resulted, they considered thelegal andpractical angles,- includ ing howing toelectrocute one Siamese theother. withoutdamaging - (Bain happen ifaSiamese committed twin amurder. InThe Siamese TwinMys- bridge 75) introduction of the Argentine newcomer—what must Siamese Twinas having a different solution from 11 In “A Survey” 12 Along these lines, consider thecritical preference for “Pierre Menard, Author of gentine, fresh from theplains, tolegitimate hiswork. A mere five years Quain’s detective novel theLabyrinth, The Godof conjunction itsruinous cal—if areal detective novel hadthisplot, itwould beagood read. cance” of Borges’s essay issimplythathealludes tothepublication of a weak sense of “significance.” Anyhistorical novel, instance,for would ref- earlier, Queen hadbeen thebest-selling mystery writerwhen atapoint erence factual events ascauses for fictional ones. AndifDannay just wants Menard andBorges,” four for andBorges.” “HerbertQuain Searching JSTOR withthe of course, isthatthiswork references Ellery Queen, so, effect, in Dannay is one of every fourin English fiction titlespublished was amystery- (Bain of Quain’snovel? Because thesecret plotideaisagood one for abook? In of his imaginary figureof hisimaginary ormovement.” Nevertheless, Dannay isquick to ambiguous remarks, Dannay references “ASurvey of theWorks of Her - always withoutfactual significance.” Immediately following these rather a long anddelightfully learneddissertation on theesoteric importance same terms yielded three hundred andsixty-four versus thirty-five, respectively. about the interpretative and market expectations underlying thisvery unattractiveness. selling around 3,000 volumes a piece, Queen was averaging 300,000 per see how andrespected popular we are.” Inthiscase, the“factual signifi- simply preening, atthisintellectual Argentine “look withthe good taste, Bibliography (on July3, 2012)yielded thefollowing results: hitsfor “Pierre ninety-nine that case, thesignificance of The Godwouldn’t befactual buthypotheti - to advertise Ellery Queen’s popularity, why theentire include explanation real book asthecause book’s of failure. animaginary Butthat’safairly to Queen’s book, anditsdualplot, one official, theother secret. “Now you reproduces theentire “remarkable” passage from thatpiece describing intuitive choice, itseems. At leastithasn’t been tothecritics. the note, fantasy and satire “the he weaves arehis critical into opinions not know what toexpect!” Dannay concludes mysteriously (Queen 102). bridge 71). Whereas mostof these works, theiroriginal in editions, were bert Quain,” calling it“onebert Quain,” of [Borges’s] mostbrilliant essays,” andthen ” in termsQuixote” in of sheer numbers. Aquick search of theMLA International There are several tonote things here: first, why would anyone describe But regardless—here’s thereal needed point—Queen noupstart Ar- Alonso Estenoz withthisobservation begins andsuggests that“ASurvey” is, part, in as one of Borges’s mostbrilliant essays? That’s notthemost 12 Oneanswer,

The Man Who Would Be Quain 49 David J. Hart 50 14 13 The God, what isit?Iwant tobegoff thisquestion for- amomentandin Twin Mystery. God. The backwardness of AprilMarch, though, isof aspecialtype: thecon - going Borges one better, mirroring, his own in introduction of Borges’s work, Borges’s description of Quain’s work, which in henotes disapprovingly thesea motifandthen calling itacrutch, andthentheappreciative remarks on AnEssay , Dannay would be Queen works following Siamese Twin. Borges’s narrator describesQuain’s orientation respect in to“golden age” values isambiguous. detected themystery. cidentally, why “ASurvey” hethinks issobrilliant, Borges alone having enough, aboutreal authorsandreal books. Dannay, I’msaying, implies applies muchmore toQueen’s earlierwork. Siameseinto this Twindoesnotfitneatly stead consider the rest of the books attributed to the fictional Quain. It joked that“even Bible-selling circles, in [this]would beconsidered amore fact, would be implicitly confirming these suspicions, which explains,in- telling [the] history.” tent of thestoryisn’t regressive, thenarrator insists, “only themannerof third (andonly part)isdated 1936”as“even more heterodox” than The turns outthatthey bearmore thanapassing resemblance totheEllery the detective Ellery Queen, and a secret solution on the order of Quain’s than modestsuccess” (70). Dannay’s reference toBorges, ifmere advertis- that Quain isastand-in forthat Quain Queen, theLabyrinthfor The The Godof Siamese inordinate fondness for mock scholarship, concerning afictional author, ing, would seem superfluous. tobelaughably reveals theesoteric plotof The God. the theme—both “the powerthe theme—both“the andemptiness of reason theface in of death” (41)—its tradition. Itisnotasrichly plotted asprevious Queen novels, andifNevins isright about representative of “golden age” detective fiction and its conventions, this but I think next work, ‘regressive, “the ramified novel’ titledAprilMarch .whose novel. That’s staggering; John Bainbridge, theauthorof theLife but sometimes the critical opinions presentedbut sometimesthecritical opinions thisguise in are factual be suspecting theexistencebe suspecting of asecret Queen’s plotin novel. Dannay, in If Instead, why notunderstand thisway: hisremarks in Borges hasan Infact, withhis reference toBorges’s themeof thelabyrinth, which borders on To anextent, Iagree withAlonso Estenoz thatBorges considers Queen a The Siamese TwinMysterycontains anofficial solution, endorsed by 13 AndsoBorges, theRichard ashedidin Hull review, would 14 article, Americana. Some, theepigraph explains, have attributed thearticle to And soQueen’s book, a different in albeit way, turnsouttobeas“regres- 15 (Queen, Orange” “Chinese 176). (I, for one, can findnotrace of that Matsoyuma Tahuki, noted Japanese “the authorityon theOccident” gests thatthese are good descriptions of theartof detection. This play- Carlyle that “history isthedistillation Queen’sCarlyle of rumor.” that“history epigram sug- Chinese Orange Mystery, theArgentine version appearing, like AprilMarch, Queen and Borges enjoy games). similar Regardless, the excerpt alludes Queen connoisseur Francis Nevins for speaks many—notfor Borges, who Quain’s novel, the storytelling isn’t regressive, but rather the world of the of thisbook; Quain’sforward prefers instead toallude tothatbackward-running world ed tobeanexcerpt from ananonymous article appearing Esoterica in of thegreatest detective novels of thecentury” (43). Yet, despite acertain our detective findsthat every article is on backwards.of hisclothing appeal, itfalls shortbecause theremainder of thestorymeandersamong able itemorbackside-front. eitherinside-out After discovering thecorpse, sive” asQuain’s. lical commentaries.” “None of which,” he adds, any relevance “has to the story itself. Ellery Queen enters ahotel waitingroom tofind every mov- wound precedes theblow (Appearance andReality, 1897, page 215)”(Borges, “Survey” ful, somewhat self-important flash and its arrangementof erudition to two observations, historian oneis a by Schlegel that “the claiming recalls (orlooks forward to)Quain’sprologue, which, on one reading, trivia: “philately, sex, culture, Chinese blackmail, andmissing Hebrew bib - the craftsmanship andbizarrerie of theearlychapters, thiswould beone rates thenovel asone of Queen’s best, but for many—withthefollow- ing: “Iftheentire storyof themanwho was backwards even approached in 1936.in This, too, was aheterodox work, abackward one, althoughunlike noted authority, heactually ifindeed existed—it seems, perhaps, that ment thatis, one oranotherof in themanysenses of theword, backward.” murder case except thatbyamazing coincidence each involves someele- prophet looking backwards,” andthenaneven “more subtle”one by posited byBradley, which in deathprecedes birth, thescar precedes thewound, andthe After With mind, thisin consider theepigraph of Chinese Orange , purport- “Someone once noted thatthere thepages of isanechoof Dunnein thedoctrines Siamese Twin, Ellery Queen next publishedawork entitledThe 15

The Man Who Would Be Quain 51 David J. Hart 52 108-109). Are we toread the former asareference thatoccurs his byQuain within Gimball. The titlerefers tohischangeover place, thedoorway between the diose preference, toBradley’s Appearance and Reality. “Somuchfor- Her comedy also focuses on the theme of the double-life. This time, not only corpse who hadpossessed, atone andthesame time, twoidenti- distinct whereas theotherhewas in aPark Avenue financier named Joseph Kent [Quain’s] imagination,” but “in The Secret but“in [Quain’s] imagination,” Mirror isgiventhat imagination his usual “challenge to thereader.” As a rule, thenarra at a certain in point - looked atsofar,” Borges’s narrator says, formal complexity “the hobbles freer reign” (Borges, “Survey” 110). Like tive Queen would proclaim that thereader possessed all thenecessary data, the halfway house, where “everything isputoff, orfrustrated.” tion” (111). Thus theentire narrative of Quain’snovel takes place within rooming house helives in, transformed- andmagnified byhisimagina becomesthing slightly sothatthedramatist menacing,” Wilfred Quarles two acts isparallel,” thenarrator explains, thesecond in every “though - rica Thrale, appear thesecond in different bearing names. “The plotof the the protagonist, but all the characters of the first act, save the socialite Ul- room for afleshiernarrative—an up” “opening of the formal deductive rigorous formal requirements of thegenre would berelaxed soastomake ther.” Nevins alsoaddsthatthisbook traditionally hasbeen thought to two lives, where, asNevins says, was bothof hisidentitiesandnei- “he ties: one life, in he was alower-middle-class salesmanknown as Joe Wilson, the themeof thedoublelife. Halfway House, appearing 1936, in features a the narrator? mark the beginning of anewQueen’s periodin mark thebeginning writing, which one in the more learnedreferences for good measure (“Survey” 109). makes reference of Donne tothedoctrines before turning, withgran- plausible orimprobableplausible ‘country estate’” of thefirst act,“the Jewish-Irish puzzle (52). prologue or asan observation about Quain’s work from anoutside source by included becomes John William Quigley, acommission agent Liverpool, in im- “the bert Quain’serudition” snaps Borges’s narrator, who on afew thenpiles One piece of furniture was missing from Queen’s own Halfway House, Herbert Quain wasHerbert Quain busyrelaxing, aswell. “Intheworks we have Following the backwardness of Chinese Orange , Ellery Queen turned to Halfway House, Quain’s two act 16 cast itoff hiscareer. in atthispoint explicit, thematic nature of theauthor/reader relationship detective in in fiction general device, Queen’s soprominent in previous novels, was jettisoned for what- vents aNew Kind of Detective StoryAnthology” (Challenge convention of thefamous fiction detectives—you know, like the one held changed. Itis, Queen himself admits, anelementary challenge—the read- would thefirst section, “in which,” thesubtitle reads, “Mr. Ellery Queen In- ever reason—too formal, rigid, artificial. essentially thesame, toproduce anovel one (Queen, Challenge els, thedetective isvisiting hislibrary, in when they fall outover thetopic er correcting a story only slightly marred. Whether it would make an an- of anthologies. McC. challenges hisfriend, who thatthey claims are all opinion an“extinct species”(111).opinion What passed now for readership, he of hisworks,” heoffered hisown challenge tothereader—in Quain’s objects thatit’ssimplytheArabian Nights pattern, butMcC. doesn’t think on hisown idea: “‘Say,’ hemumbled. ‘Say! Howa about this?Imagine as accessible tothereader astothedetective, for thesolution. deducing This anthology, thefirst of dozens, would beentitledChallenge totheReader, as argued, was adegenerate sortof creativity, andsosince few were capable according tohim(Challenge his greatest case, give all thefacts, theclues, theaction—everything but annually bythefamous magicians. The pry-and-peer kings get together Borges’s released HerbertQuain Statements, “perhapsthemostoriginal attractive about the genre (54-55). it’s significant And so I think that Queen is willing to and “golden age” novels particular. in Critics, herightly out, points typically findthis the idea in aratherthe ideain different direction, fact “anentirely in different” one tremendous battle of wits!” the solution . . . each great detective would bechallengingtheotherstoa that issuchabadthing, for each “here detective would tell thestoryof though Queen, somewhat smugly, pooh-poohs the possibility, McC. hits thology “new under thesun,”asdetective hopes, isdubious. When in London,in orNew York, totest skill!” one another’s (Challenge in whichin thereader mustrecognize thegreat detectives withtheirnames J. J. McC., Queen’s fictional friend who oftenintroduces theearlynov - McC.’s game, essentially, isone between story-tellers, butQueen takes Alonso Estenoz references Queen’s accustomed “challenge” as an example of the 7). “Challenge tothereader,” hesays, agame 16 Nevertheless, Queen’s first genre v). 6). Queen 3-4). Al-

The Man Who Would Be Quain 53 David J. Hart 54 Statements constitutes hisown challenge tothereader, thetwo blending Channeling AsimovChanneling now, Bloom prophesies: Ilive “if long enough, Ifully Quain offeredQuain aseries of stories, each of which “prefigures, orpromises, In thewake of hisnearfatal ChristmasEve accident andthedeathof his I turn?”Not toEllery Queen—that, else, ifnothing iscertain. ButBorges write theirway outof apaper bag, Iam confronted dailybyatidalwave won’t commit thatblunder. ButIwill say this: theworks of HerbertQuain er, todiscover hissecret, frustrated plots. expect individual computers themselves todeclare theirpossession of of books, proofs, manuscripts, andletters thatvary from notoconsider - of Resentment’s canonizings of all those pastandpresent, who cannot or, remembering, hisgenre think fiction worthy of “serious” at- scholarly of Ellery Queen’s Siamese Twin, ifthere of isone? Inthespirit Borges, I of authentic invention, readers—or “writers manqués”—would have to of artificial intelligence.”of artificial “In all this proliferation,” he asks,“where shall able literary value” (Bloom xi). “Overpopulation literature,” in headds and those of Queen, following theSiamese Twin, seem too tobeig similar - a good plot, which isthenintentionally frustrated bytheauthor.”Mak- soon computers theworld’s will enhance aNoah’s flood of productivity.” survive through parasitism. For these poor devils, “whose name islegion,” tion of The GardenForking Paths of , hisfirstbook of original shortstories. felt otherwise. that of others. “What shall Ireread?” heasks, “quite apart from theSchool rogue Harold pupil which Bloom in helaments hisown and popularity tention. I recall one particularly nasty (if entertaining) remark by Frye’s reader, challenges HerbertQuain hisown readers tooutstrip himaswrit- in aScroogeanin moment, gone beyond “has Malthusian dimensions, and invented the superior plot, surpassing the original. In this way, Quain’s the correction,ing thereader, byvanity,” will believe “blinded thathehas much for Borges thesummerof 1940, in still ayear away from thepublica- nored. Hardly anycritics (oranyreaders, period)remember Ellery Queen, kinds considered byEllery hisanthology. Queen in Whereas McC.’scom - personality andgenius, and tobombard mewiththeepics andromances petition isone between storytellers andQueen’s between authorand Which takes usback tothequestion: what isthesecret, frustrated plot The yet “pleasant arduous convolutions” (“Survey” 108)of Queen did “to read pages“to thatdon’t allude atall toreality.” Cosmogonies, works of “until very“until recently, themostimpersonal andleastannoying of all thede- “precisely because he is not an ‘ingenious robot’” (“New Adventures” 231). 1939, seemed decadence tohim, andquite terrible since Queen hadbeen And so the “humanization” of Ellery Queen, which Borges dates from Holmes, prince of duffers anddullards . . . isdegenerative,” Borges agrees such trivia, the“frivolous problems” of Ellery Queen. lines of deus lines light ingenious robot’ ‘the from to the inept adventures Dupin of Sherlock father, war andfacing bothopenandconcealed, Borges read mysteries. Or theology ormetaphysics, grammatical debates—and, of course, among rather he read Ellery Queen’s New Adventures, which he faithfully reviewed tificial intelligencetificial was notmere comfort, more butsomething along the tectives” (“New Adventures” 232). Even decline, in Queen’s romance of ar- that “Sherlock isworth less thanAuguste,” thatthisisso butexplains in in morning seemsmorning more like anightmare.” “Itisonly possible,” heconfesses, Sur . process CitingShaw’s quip that“the of those who pass withde- ex machina. The review concludes: “IwriteJuly, in 1940; each West Texas A& MUniversity David J. Hart

The Man Who Would Be Quain 55 David J. Hart 56 —. “ —. —. “Ellery Queen, The Door Between.” Selected Non-Fictions . Ed. EliotWein- “ —. —. “The Detective Story.”Selected Non-Fictions . Ed. EliotWeinberger. New —. “The of Living Literature; Labyrinth SomeMajor Work; Nazis; Detec- —. “The of theDetective Labyrinths StoryandChesterton.” Selected —. “Jorge Luis Borges: AnInterview.” Conversations. Ed. Richard Burgin. AnIntroduction toEnglish—. Literature. Lexington: UPof Kentucky, 1974. AnIntroduction toAmerican Literature—. . Lexington: UPof Kentucky, 1971. Works Cited Altamiranda, Daniel. “Jorge Luis Borges.” LatinAmerican MysteryWrit- Alonso Estenoz, Alfredo. literatura ola “HerbertQuain como secreto.” Borges, J.L. “Commentaries.” The AlephandOtherStories, 1933-1969. Trans. Bloom, Harold. Foreword. Criticism. Anatomyof ByNorthrop Frye. 1957. Bainbridge, John. “Ellery Queen: Crime Made himFamous and hisAu- The Hearts Four, of deEllery Queen.” Textos Cautivos: Ensayosyreseñas The DeviltoPay, deEllery Queen.” Textos Cautivos: Ensayosyreseñas en 112-14. 15 Variaciones Borges 23(2007): 51-67. York: Penguin Books, 1999. 491-499. Jackson: UPof Mississippi, 1998. 221-39. en ElHogar. Ed. EnriqueSacerio-Garí andEmirRodríguez Monegal. ers: AnA-to-ZGuide. Ed. Darrell Lockhart. Westport, CT: Greenwood Non-Fictions. Ed. EliotWeinberger. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. Norman Thomas diGiovanni. New York: Dutton, 1978. 263-83. El Hogar. Ed. EnriqueSacerio-Garí andEmirRodríguez Monegal. Press, 2004. 37. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores, 1990. 216-17. Barcelona: Tusquets Editores, 1990. 323-24. tions. Ed. Richard Burgin. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1998. 14-41. tive Stories; Ethics, Violence, andtheProblem of Time . . .”Conversa - thors Rich.” Life berger. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. 181. th ed. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2000. vii-xi. 22Nov. 1943: 70-76. —. “Prize Winner from Argentina: Jorge Luis Borges.” EQMM 101. Aug. —. “The Orange Chinese Mystery.” The Bizarre Murders . Philadelphia: J.P. —. “ASurvey of theWorks Ed. of HerbertQuain.” Andrew Hurley. Col —. “S. S. Van Selected Dine.” Non-Fictions . Ed. EliotWeinberger. New York: —. “Richard Hull, Excellent Intentions .” Selected Non-Fictions. Ed. Eliot —. “ —. Queen, Ellery. Challenge totheReader. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Com- Holmes, Diana. “Decadent Love: Rachilde andthePopular Romance.” Rabinowitz, Paula. “‘The Abysmal Problem of Time’: Borges’s Dubbing Ramos-Izquierdo, Eduardo. Contrapuntos analíticos a“Examendela obra de Law, Graham. “Variations on theTheme of Popular andSerious: Borges Nevins, Francis. Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, AuthorandDetective. Bowling Frye, Northrop. The Secular Scripture: theStructure Romance AStudyof of . The New Adventures Ellery Queen of , Victor Gollancz.” Jorges Luis Borges 1948. 101-02. Weinberger. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. 184. Journal of the Society of Dix-NeuviémistesJournal theSociety of of 1(2003): 16-28. Luis Borges. Ed. Stefan Herbrechter andIvan Callus. Lewisburg: Buck- Herbert Quain.”Paris: Rilma 2, 2006. Garden.” Cy-Borges: Memories thePosthuman of intheWork Jorge of Green: BowlingGreen University Popular Press, 1974. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1976. en Sur University) 18(1984): 83-103. Lippincott Company, n.d. 175-327. and Ellery Queen.” JournaltheFaculty Humanities of of (Shinshu Penguin Books, 1999. 172-173. lected Fictions. New York: Penguin Books, 1998. 107-11. nell UP, 2009. 178-97. pany, 1938. (1931-1980). BuenosAires: Emecé Editores, 1999. 231-32. -

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