In 1926 Charles Scribner's Sons published The Benson Murder Case by “S S. Van Dine,” the first book in what would become one of the most successful series in the history of American detective fiction. The volume introduced the art connoisseur and amateur sleuth Philo Vance, whose adventures were to be the subject of a dozen novels and numerous motion pictures. The initial popularity of the Van Dine series is not difficult to decipher, for The Benson Murder Case tapped many of the impulses of the 1920s: the status seeker, who had recently attended the high society comedies of Cecil B. De Mille, sought instruction from the aristocratic habits of Philo Vance; as a game, the book rivaled the mildly intellectual challenge of crossword puzzles and Mah-Jongg; the volume fascinated people of the “ballyhoo years” with its rough similarity to the murder of the famous bridge player Joseph Elwell. Also contributing to the novel's fame was the mystery of “S. S. Van Dine,” whose hidden identity allowed for considerable speculation that the author might be John Galsworthy, Vance Thompson, George Jean Nathan, H. L. Mencken, Pola Negri, or Carl Van Doren. Scribner's finally ended the suspense by admitting that Van Dine was in reality Willard Huntington Wright, who earlier in the century had distinguished himself as a critic of art and literature, only to fall from prominence after 1918 because of ill health and a mental breakdown.