The fictional detective Ellery Queen is the author of the books in which he appears ("The Finishing Stroke", 1958) and the editor of the magazine that bears his name ("The Player On The Other Side", 1963). As Van Dine had done earlier with Philo Vance, the creators of the Queen character gave him an extremely elaborate back story that was rarely mentioned after the first few novels. In fact, Queen goes through several transformations in his personality and his approach to investigation over the course of the series.