Edgar Awards 1955: Complete list of winners

The Mystery Writers of America marked 1955 with a landmark recognition of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, which claimed the Edgar Award for Best Novel. This noir masterpiece represented a high point for the prestigious Edgar Awards, the mystery and crime writing world’s most coveted honor. Named after Edgar Allan Poe himself, the Edgar Awards have long served as the definitive measure of excellence in detective fiction, and Chandler’s win that year underscored just how far the American mystery novel had evolved—from pulpy entertainments to genuinely literary achievements.

Chandler’s victory felt particularly resonant given the landscape of 1950s publishing. The Long Goodbye showcased his Philip Marlowe detective at his most reflective and humanized, grappling with questions of loyalty and corruption that went well beyond simple whodunit mechanics. The novel’s contemplative approach to the hard-boiled tradition demonstrated that crime writing could offer psychological depth and moral complexity alongside its plot mechanics, a message the Edgar judges clearly embraced.

Below, you’ll find the complete list of 1955 Edgar Award winners, celebrating a year when mystery fiction proved it could stand alongside any literary form.

Best Novel

• The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler