{{Infobox character | name = Uncle Abner | series = | image = | caption = Melville Davisson Post's ''Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries'' collection (1918) | first = "The Angel of the Lord" | last = | creator = Melville Davisson Post | portrayer = | alias = | gender = Male | occupation = | family = Martin (nephew) | nationality = American }} '''Uncle Abner''' is a fictional character and the protagonist of a series of mystery stories by mystery author Melville Davisson Post. The Abner stories, which first began appearing in 1911, are considered benchmarks of the locked room mystery. Set in the 1840s, they are among the earliest examples of the historical mystery sub-genre.

==Overview== Uncle Abner is Post's best-known literary creation, the character, one of six detectives created by Post,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/whodunitwhoswhoi0000unse/page/3|title=Whodunit? : a who's who in crime & mystery writing|last=Rosemary.|first=Herbert|date=2003-01-01|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0195157613|page=[https://archive.org/details/whodunitwhoswhoi0000unse/page/3 3]|oclc=252700230}}</ref> having appeared in 22 stories that were serialized in American magazines (primarily ''The Saturday Evening Post'') between 1911 and 1928. The first tale, "The Angel of the Lord", is perhaps the very first work in the historical mystery genre.{{Citation needed|date=January 2025|reason=dubious}} Uncle Abner solved the mysteries that confronted him in a backwoods West Virginia community, immediately prior to the American Civil War and before the infant nation had any proper police system. He had two great attributes for his self-imposed task: a profound knowledge of and love for the Bible, and a keen observation of human actions. One example of Uncle Abner's keen deductive skills is his showing a deaf man had not written a document, because a word in it was phonetically misspelled.<ref name="Bottum">{{cite web |title=America's Greatest Mystery Writer |url=http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2007/05/americas-greatest-mystery-writ |first=Joseph |last=Bottum |author-link=Joseph Bottum (author) |date=May 1, 2007 |access-date=November 13, 2013 |publisher=First Things |website=FirstThings.com |archive-date=November 13, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113091600/http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2007/05/americas-greatest-mystery-writ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="WVE 813">{{cite web|last1=Moore|first1=Charles F.|title=Uncle Abner|url=http://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/813|website=e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia|access-date=5 January 2016|date=5 December 2010}}</ref>

Physically, Abner is described as having a large, powerful build, with craggy features, and a "grizzled" beard. His clothing is described as "plain and somber". Throughout the stories he is accompanied by his young nephew Martin, who narrates the adventures, and aided by Justice of the Peace, Squire Randolph.

==Reception== Ellery Queen would later call the stories "an out-of-this-world target for future detective-story writers."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine/1376668/melville-davisson-post/|title=Melville Davisson Post|first=J.|last=Bottum|date=July 31, 2000|work=Washington Examiner|url-access=subscription|access-date=March 13, 2026|archive-date=November 20, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241120035435/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/magazine/1376668/melville-davisson-post/|url-status=live}}</ref> Queen also opined that Uncle Abner was the greatest fictional detective of all time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wallechinsky |first1=David |title=The Book of Lists |date=1977 |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |isbn=0-553-11150-7 |page=230}}</ref> In his 1924 book of literary criticism ''Cargoes for Crusoes'', Grant Overton called the publication of Post's "The Doomdorf Mystery" a "major literary event", and in ''Murder for Pleasure'' (1941), Howard Haycraft called Uncle Abner "the greatest American contribution" to the list of fictional detectives after Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste Dupin.<ref name="Bottum"/><ref name="WVE 813"/> After Post's death, more stories about Abner were written (at the request of the Melville Davisson Post estate) by the retired American research chemist, John F. Suter (1914–1996).

==Appearances== #''The Angel of the Lord'' #''The Wrong Hand'' #''The House of the Dead Man'' #''The Tenth Commandment'' #''The Devil's Tools'' #''A Twilight Adventure'' #''The Hidden Law'' #''The Riddle'' #''An Act of God'' #''Naboth's Vineyard'' #''The Doomdorf Mystery'' #''The Treasure Hunter'' #''The Age of Miracles'' #''The Adopted Daughter'' #''The Straw Man'' #''The Edge of the Shadow'' #''The Mystery of Chance'' #''The Concealed Path'' #''The Devil's Track'' #''The God of the Hills'' #''The Dark Night'' #''The Mystery at Hillhouse''

==Adaptations== In 1942, ''The Age of Miracles'' was adapted for the radio anthology series ''Murder Clinic''. A. Winfield Hoeny played Abner.<ref>{{cite web |title=MURDER CLINIC: Radio's Golden Age of Detection|url=https://mysteryfile.com/M_Clinic.html |access-date=November 2, 2023|work=mysteryfile.com}}</ref> In 1945, ''Signature'', a stage adaptation by Elizabeth McFadden of an Abner short story, ''Naboth's Vineyard'', lasted only two performances. Abner was played by Judson Laire.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Lachman, Marvin|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/903807427|title=The villainous stage : crime plays on Broadway and in the West End|date=2014|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-9534-4|oclc=903807427|archive-date=2021-10-18|access-date=2024-11-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211018000613/https://www.worldcat.org/title/villainous-stage-crime-plays-on-broadway-and-in-the-west-end/oclc/903807427|url-status=live}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Uncle_Abner:_Master_of_Mysteries ''Uncle Abner: Master of Mysteries''] on wikisource * [https://librivox.org/selected-uncle-abner-mysteries-by-melville-davisson-post/ ''Selected Uncle Abner Mysteries''] on LibriVox

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abner, Uncle}} Category:Characters in mystery novel series of the 20th century Category:Fictional characters from the 19th century Category:Clerical mysteries Category:Fictional amateur detectives Category:Literary characters introduced in 1911 Category:Fictional American detectives Category:Fictional characters from West Virginia Category:Fictional Christians