Living Canon

Edgar Awards 1970: Complete list of winners

The Edgar Awards, the Mystery Writers of America’s prestigious annual honor celebrating excellence in crime fiction, mystery, and suspense writing, crowned their winners in 1970 with a ceremony that highlighted the genre’s continued vitality during a transformative decade for American letters. Named after Edgar Allan Poe, the founding father of detective fiction, these awards have long served as the gold standard for recognizing outstanding achievements in mystery and crime storytelling—from novels and short stories to television and film scripts. The 1970 Edgar Awards ceremony represented another year of celebrating the writers who keep readers turning pages late into the night with their tales of intrigue, investigation, and suspense.

Among the standouts honored that year was Scott C. S. Stone, whose paperback original The Dragon’s Eye claimed the Edgar for Best Paperback Original. Stone’s achievement underscored a growing recognition within the mystery writing community that exceptional crime fiction wasn’t confined to hardcover releases—paperback originals had become legitimate vehicles for serious, award-worthy storytelling. This category itself reflected changing publishing dynamics and reading habits, as more readers discovered crime fiction through mass-market paperbacks.

Below, we’ve gathered the complete list of 1970 Edgar Award winners and nominees across all major categories:

Best Paperback Original