Edgar Awards 1975: Complete list of winners

The Edgar Awards have long served as the mystery community’s most prestigious honor, celebrating the best in crime fiction, and the 1975 ceremony proved why these accolades matter so deeply to the genre. Named after Edgar Allan Poe himself, the Edgar Awards recognize excellence across multiple categories each year, from novels and short stories to screenplays and true crime writing. The 1975 Edgar Awards represented a particularly vibrant moment for mystery publishing, a time when the genre was experiencing genuine innovation even as it honored its most enduring traditions.

One standout winner that year was Roy Winsor, whose The Corpse That Walked took home the Best Paperback Original award. This recognition highlighted an important shift in how the Edgar Awards valued the paperback original format—a space where crime writers were experimenting boldly with plot and character, often without the constraints of hardcover literary expectations. Winsor’s win underscored that genuinely compelling mysteries could come from anywhere in the publishing landscape, a democratizing principle that continues to define the awards today.

Below you’ll find the full list of 1975 Edgar Award winners and finalists:

Best Paperback Original

• The Corpse That Walked by Roy Winsor