Terrifying summer night

Author: Sanetoshi Akai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-09-01
Features: In 1954, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, hailed as the "Father of Japanese Mystery Fiction," donated one million yen to the Mystery Writers of Japan Club as a fund to celebrate his sixtieth birthday and launched the Akutagawa Prize. The first and second prize winners' funds were used to publish Ryūichi Ikegami's Dictionary of Mystery Fiction and Hayakawa Sei's Hayakawa Pocket Mystery. From the third edition onwards, the prize began accepting new, full-length novels from the public and awarded the prize money to the most outstanding works. Through the collective efforts of these winners and staff, the Akutagawa Prize gradually gained recognition and established its authority in the mystery fiction world.