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Author

Julian Symons

1912-05-30 – 1994-11-19

**Julian Symons**'s work has probably been as varied as that of any living writer. He made a reputation before the Second World War as editor of Twentieth Century Verse, a 'little' magazine which published most of the young poets outside the immediate Auden circle. After that he put his foot on what he calls the treadmill of murder by publishing a comic crime story, which he now regards as so bad that he won't allow it to be reprinted. Several crime stories later, he can look back on two, *The Colour of Murder* and *The Progress of Crime*, that have received awards as the best books of their year. He still keeps a toe in what he regards as the generally shallow waters of recent poetry, but also has a quite separate reputation as a biographer (of figures as diverse as Thomas Carlyle and Horatio Bottomley) and a social and military historian (he has written a full-length study of the 1926 General Strike and the only book about the expedition to relieve Gordon at Khartoum). Despite the diversity of his interests, he has never wavered in his enthusiasm and appetite for crime stories. Hence *Bloody Murder*, a study of the genre. His latest publications are *The Players and the Game, The Plot Against Roger Rider* and *A Three Pipe Problem*.

Bibliography

Books

30 books

Ellery Queen's Eyes of Mystery cover

Ellery Queen's Eyes of Mystery

1981

Ellery Queen, Isaac Asimov, Hal Ellson, Patricia Highsmith, Julian Symons, Christianna Brand, Jacob Hay, James Powell, Jon L. Breen, Michael Harrison, Reginald Bretnor, Jeff Sweet, Mary Braund, William Brittain, Joyce Porter, Lawrence Treat

Show Business is Murder cover

Show Business is Murder

1983

Carol-Lynn Rössel Waugh, Martin H. Greenberg, Isaac Asimov, Julian Symons, George Baxt, Francis M. Nevins, Robert Bloch, Georgiana Eidukas, Gary Brandner, Tex Hill, William Bankier, Henry Slesar, Karl Detzer, Jon L. Breen, Michael Underwood, Michael Scott Cain, Ron Goulart, Edward D. Hoch, Lionel Booker, Ellery Queen

The Sport of crime cover

The Sport of crime

1989

Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh, Clark Howard, John Lutz, Jon L. Breen, Robert Barr, Anthony Boucher, Leo R. Ellis, David Ely, Joyce Harrington, Evan Hunter, John D. MacDonald, Arthur Morrison, Stuart Palmer, Ellery Queen, Jack Ritchie, Rex Stout, Julian Symons, Walter S. Tevis, P. G. Wodehouse, Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg