Mystery Writers of America

1983's Ice was named by Newsweek's David Lehman as one of the 20th century's ten best crime novels, putting him alongside Conan Doyle, Christie, Hammett and Chandler.

1986 saw his legendary status fully assured in the history books when he was elevated to the status of Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America organisation, happily accepting the honour despite supposedly having quit the organisation in the 50s when, as Hunter recollected, they refused to give his short story The Last Spin an Edgar Award.

Occupying at least some of Hunter's writing time during the late 1980s was his take on the entire history of mankind, from the Neanderthals to the modern day, which he titled Hello, I Must Be Going.

By 1990, he was discussing this heavily researched 800-page comic epic in interviews as being the best writing he had ever done.

And at the federal level, you had This Is Your FBI, and there was also Gangbusters.

What made Dragnet so interesting... is it was a series that won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

There was little mystery.

In fact, many of the other programs spent most of their time following the criminals around in order to illustrate a crime-doesn't-pay message in which lessons about the dangers of crime, the causes of crime, were taught.

It was highly critically acclaimed.

The Mystery Writers of America awarded Arthur and Kogan the prestigious Edgar Award for Best Radio Drama in 1953, specifically for The Mysterious Traveler.

And that wasn't a fluke.

They were an Edgar-winning machine.

So tell me a little about Promised Land and Holy City.

Holy City being the first book which you won Best Debut Author or Best Debut Book at the MWA, which is the Mystery Writers of America.

Right.

Yeah, Holy City is about, to simplify it quite a

Although he was back in the U.S. because he was a grandmaster.

The Mystery Writers of America made him a grandmaster.

So he was here last end of April for that.

But of course it wasn't at a time when the book was publishing.

See his wiki page for more on his various series, novelizations, TV novels, short stories, and films, and comics.

For his body of work, Max was bestowed with the honor of Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America.

Other awards include multiple Seamus Awards from the Private Eye Writers of America, and if that's not enough, he's a two-time electee to the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Max Allan Collins, welcome to Writers at Work.

Others received proportionate sentences.

Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. James Fox, director on the executive board of the Mystery Writers of America.

Tonight it is with a great deal of pleasure that I, speaking for the entire membership of the Mystery Writers of America in all fields, present the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the second consecutive year for the finest radio presentation in its class, Dragnet.

Dragnet.To you, Jack Webb, and your fine group of technicians responsible for the overall production of Dragnet, we present this statuette of one of the immortals in the field of mystery, Edgar Allan Poe.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Fox, and thanks also to the membership of the Mystery Writers of America.

And standing by to receive his award, also for the second consecutive year as the outstanding radio writer in his field, and for the consistent job he does on Dragnet, Jim Moser.

Here is your statuette.

It was a critical juggernaut that basically redefined the entire thriller genre.

Ward points out in the article that the novel won the 1972 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America.

Which is a huge deal.

For anyone unfamiliar, that is the absolute gold standard for thriller and mystery writing.