S. S. Van Dine - Study of Detective Fiction

Study of Detective Fiction

In addition to his success as a fiction writer, Wright's lengthy introduction and notes to the anthology The World's Great Detective Stories (1928) are important in the history of the critical study of detective fiction. Although dated by the passage of time, this essay is still a core around which many others have been constructed. He also wrote an article "Twenty rules for writing detective stories" in 1928 for The American Magazine. It has been reprinted a number of times, and compares to Knox's (Ten) Commandments, by Ronald Knox.

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