Raven Award

When the Mystery Writers of American established the Edgar Allan Poe Awards to honor and promote mystery writing, they realized they also needed an award to do the same for work in the genre that did not involve writing. Taking the name from one of the most well known works by their patron saint, they established the Raven Awards. The Ravens are presented annually alongside the Edgars at the awards banquet each spring.

The Ravens have always been somewhat of a miscellaneous category, allowing the MWA to honor anyone who has helped promote the mystery genre in any way. Reporters, criminalists, librarians, editors, and publishers have all been recipients over the years. In 1954, a Best Dust Jacket category was created, as the MWA realized that jacket art could and should be instrumental in drawing readers into purchasing and reading mystery novels. The plan to use the Raven Award to improve the design of jacket art was so successful that the category was dropped after the 1973 awards were presented, and the cover art of mystery novels is now an important part of the promotion and packaging done by the publishers.

In a further effort to promote the mystery genre, Ravens have often been given to various celebrities, including two United States Presidents, for Reader of the Year. Ravens have also been given to outstanding members of the MWA to reward long and excellent service to the organization. Over the years, the prestige of the Raven Award has grown, and it remains one of the best ways the MWA can honor those who toil long and hard behind the scenes to help preserve the life and vitality of the mystery genre.

And the winners are:

1953

• E. T. Guymon Jr. for his outstanding library of mystery literature

1954

• Dr. Harrison Martland, retiring medical examiner, Essex County, New Jersey
• Dr. Thomas A. Gonzales, retiring medical examiner, New York City
• Tom Lehrer for his mystery parodies

1955

• Berton Rouche for his collection of stories of medical detection Eleven Blue Men
• Softcover Book Jacket: Dell

1956

• Book Jacket: Scribners

1957

• Miss Dorothy Kilgallen Reader of the Year
• Hardcover Book Jacket: Inspector Maigret and the Burglar's Wife (Doubleday)

1958

• Harper & Bros. for general excellence
• Dell, a Scroll for their Great Mystery Series book jackets

1959

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (posthumous), Reader of the Year (Scroll accepted by Eleanor Roosevelt)
• Lawrence G. Blochman for long and distinguished service to MWA and The Third Degree
• Frederic G. Melcher on his retirement after thirty-five years with Publisher's Weekly
• Western Printing & Lithographing Co. for Dell book jackets

1960

• Ray Brennan for crime reporting
• David C. Cook for Best Detective Stories of the Year
• Phyllis McGinley, Mystery Fan of the Year
• Alfred Hitchcock for his contribution to the mystery genre
• Gail Jackson, producer of Perry Mason TV series

1961

• Ilka Chase, Reader of the Year
• Hardcover Book Jacket: A Mark of Displeasure (Scribners).
• Paperback Book Jacket: The Three Coffins (Dell)

1962

• Book Jacket: Walker & Co.; Doubleday, Harper Bros.
• The Defenders, a TV show in its first year

1963

• Hardcover Book Jacket: Doubleday
• Softcover Book Jacket: Collier Books

1964

• Hardcover Book Jacket: Harper & Row; Simon & Schuster.
• Softcover Book Jacket: Berkley Medallion Books; Popular Library

1965

• Dr. Milton Helpern for his work in forensic medicine
• Philip Wittenberg for his long years of voluntary service (Scroll)
• Hardcover Book Jacket: Doubleday; Simon & Schuster's Inner Sanctum Mysteries; Walker & Co.
• Softcover Book Jacket: Bantam Books; Dell; Popular Library

1966

• Hardcover Book Jacket: Girl on the Run (Random House); Doubleday; Simon & Schuster; Viking
• Softcover Book Jacket: Knock and Wait a While(Bantam); Dell; Popular Library

1967

• Richard Watts Jr., Reader of the Year
• Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine on its twenty-sixth anniversary and as the best showcase for mystery stories
• Hardcover Book Jacket: Let Sleeping Girls Lie (Wm. Morrow); The Crimson Madness of Little Doom (Doubleday); The Baron and the Mogul Sword (Scribners).
• Softcover Book Jacket: Some of Your Blood (Ballantine); Crowell-Collier; Bantam Books; I Am the Cat (Collier)

1968

• Joey Adams, Reader of the Year.
• Hardcover Book Jacket: Perturbing Spirit (Doubleday); The Reluctant Medium (Doubleday); Rain with Violence (A. A. Mills).
• Softcover Book Jacket: Johnny Underground (Ballantine); Malice Matrimonial (Ballantine); A Doll for the Toff (Pyramid Books)

1969

• Hardcover Book Jacket: God Speed the Night (Scribners); Die Quickly, Dear Mother (Doubleday ); Singapore Wink (Wm. Morrow)
• Softcover Book Jacket: The Dresden Green (Ballantine); Nothing Is the Number When You Die (Ballantine); A Tangled Web (Berkley Books)

1970

• Hardcover Book Jacket: The Spanish Prisoner (E. P. Dutton); Tales of Unease (Doubleday); The Black General (Wm. Morrow)
• Softcover Book Jacket: Avon for Classic Crime Collection

1971

• Judith Crist, Reader of the Year
• Hardcover Book Jacket: Act of Violence (Dodd, Mead); If the Shroud Fits (Inner Sanctum)
• Softcover Book Jacket: Last Case (Avon Classic Crime Collection); One Man Show (Avon); Picture Miss Seeton (Popular Library)

1972

• Hardcover Book Jacket: If You Want to See Your Wife Again (G. P. Putnam's Sons); Whim to Kill (Wm. Morrow); The Stalker (Random House)
• Softcover Book Jacket: Black Man White Man (Ace); The Shadows of the House (Avon); The Lady of the Lake (Ballantine)

1973

• Hardcover Book Jacket: The Erection Set (E. P. Dutton); Tricks of the Trade (G. P. Putnam's Sons); Mrs. Knox's Profession (McKay); Dead Skip (Random House)
• Softcover Book Jacket: Fetish Murders(Ace); Death Can Be Beautiful (Dell); Rolling Gravestones (Dell)

1974

• Hardcover Book Jacket: Reprisal (Dodd, Mead) Hail to the Chief (Random House); The Cold Ones (Simon & Schuster)
• Softcover Book Jacket: The Abductor (Curtis Books); Inspector Maigret and the Madwoman (Curtis Books); Daughter of Darkness (Dell)

1975

• ABC-TV for its World Wide Mystery series
• Royal Shakespeare Company for the company's revival of the play Sherlock Holmes
• Radio Mystery Theatre (CBS) for the Hy Brown nightly mysteries.
• Hardcover Book Jacket: Tales of the Black Widowers (Doubleday); Feral (Harper & Row); They Can't Hang Me (Harper & Row); Nella Waits (Putnam)
• Softcover Book Jacket: The Hubschmann Effect (Pocket Books); The Mousetrap (Dell); Anima (Fawcett-Crest)

1976

• Eddie Lawrence; Reader of the Year
• Leo Margolies as editor of Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine

1978

• I Am My Brother's Keeper by Richard N. Hughes (WPIX) for being the best showcase for mystery stories
• Danny Arnold (ABC) as the executive producer of Barney Miller, TV police series
• Edwin Gorey for the sets he designed for Dracula on Broadway

1979

• Alberto Tedeschi (Mondadori), publisher of the most succesful Italian series of mysteries

1980

• "Muppet Murders" (The Muppet Show)

1983

• Isaac Bashevis Singer, Reader of the Year

1984

• Sylvia Porter, Reader of the Year

1985

• Eudora Welty, Reader of the Year

1986

• Suzi Oppenheimer, Reader of the Year

1988

• Angela Lansbury
• Vincent Price

1989

• The Bouchercon Annual World Mystery Convention
• Shear Madness by Marilyn Abrams and Bruce Jordan (Cranberry Productions) for longest-running off-Broadway play

1991

• Sarah Booth Conroy, Reader of the Year
• Carol Brener for her skill in selling books to the public

1992

• Harold Q. Masur for his years of service to MWA as general counsel

1993

• President Bill Clinton, Reader of the Year

1995

• Dr. Paul LeClerc. President, New York Public Library

1996

• The Library of America for their publication of the collected writings of Raymond Chandler

1997

• Marvin Lachman

1998

• Sylvia Burack, editor of The Writer

1999

• Steven Bochco

2000

• The Mercantile Library - director, Harold Augenbraum

2001

• Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen
• Tom and Enid Schanz, The Rue Morgue

Sources:
Mystery Writers of America. "Early History of the MWA." The Mystery Writers of America Web Site. <http://www.mysterywriters.org/library/mwa_history.html> (December 17, 2002)
----. "The Raven Awards." The Mystery Writers of America Web Site. <http://www.mysterywriters.org/awards/raven.html> (December 17, 2002)