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The Origins of the American Detective Story

LeRoy Lad Panek

ISBN 978-0-7864-2776-5
bibliography, index
235pp. softcover 2006

Description
Edgar Allan Poe essentially invented the detective story in 1841 with Murders in the Rue Morgue. In the years that followed, however, detective fiction in America saw no significant progress as a literary genre. Much to the dismay of moral crusaders like Anthony Comstock, dime novels and other sensationalist publications satisfied the public’s hunger for a yarn.

Things changed as the century waned, and eventually the detective was reborn as a figure of American literature. In part these changes were due to a combination of social conditions, including the rise and decline of the police as an institution; the parallel development of private detectives; the birth of the crusading newspaper reporter; and the beginnings of forensic science. Influential, too, was the new role model offered by a wildly popular British import named Sherlock Holmes.

Focusing on the late 19th century and early 20th, this volume covers the formative years of American detective fiction.

About the Author
LeRoy Lad Panek is the award-winning author of a number of books about detective fiction. He is an English professor at McDaniel College, and lives in Westminster, Maryland.

Other Book(s) by LeRoy Lad Panek Available from McFarland:

The American Police Novel

Reading Early Hammett

Early American Detective Stories



Table of Contents & Excerpts

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