Award Winner’s Works Better Known Than Name : Mystery Writer Stanley Ellin, 69, Dies

Stanley Ellin, an award-winning mystery writer whose works were better known than his name, died Thursday of a heart attack. He was 69.

Ellin died at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, said Colby Willis, a spokeswoman for his publisher, New York’s Mysterious Press.

Ellin taught, worked in steel mills and milked cows before “The Specialty of the House,” a short story about cannibalism, was published in 1945.

Made Into TV Movie

The story, which served as the title for a 1980 collection of his work, was later made into a television movie starring Robert Morley and was broadcast in 1959 on “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.”

A past president of the Mystery Writers of America, Ellin won four Edgar Allan Poe Awards, or Edgars as they are called by the Mystery Writers of America, which presents them annually.

He also was believed to have been nominated for Edgars more times than any other mystery writer in the country.

His last Edgar was in 1981--a “Grand Master Award” for life achievement.

Ellin wrote numerous novels and short stories during his 40-year career. His last novel, “Very Old Money,” a tale of a young couple being corrupted by wealth, was published in 1985. Other works included “The Dark Fantastic,” in 1983; “Stronghold,” 1974; “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall,” 1972; “The Bind,” 1970; and “The Valentine Estate,” 1968.

Popular in Europe

His works were translated into several languages and were particularly popular in Europe.

Ellin’s book, “The Key to Nicholas Street,” published in 1952, was made into the 1961 movie “Leda,” starring Jean-Paul Belmondo. “Dreadful Summit,” published in 1948, became “The Big Night” in 1951, with John Barrymore Jr.

Another film, “Nothing but the Best,” starring Alan Bates, in 1964, was based on a story by Ellin called “The Best of Everything,” published in 1952.

And his 1967 book “The House of Cards” was made into a movie of the same name in 1968, starring Orson Welles and George Peppard.

‘Some Vivid Memories’

In his introduction to “The Complete Mystery Tales, 1948-1978,” Ellin remembered being sent, at age 3, to a boarding house to recover from what he called “some lingering ailment.”

“I have some vivid memories of that bucolic episode, but most vivid is the memory of my father, on a weekend visit, sitting by my bed filling me with bliss as he read ‘Peter Rabbit’ to me patiently, read it over and over on demand until I was letter perfect in it. He must have read other stories to me as well, but of them I have no recollection because they lacked the true magic. The true magic is what sticks in the mind.”