(1875-1912) US writer and theatrical manager, on the editorial staff of the Boston American; he was one of four authors of sf (the others are John Jacob Astor, F D Millet and W T Stead) known to have gone down with the Titanic. The stories assembled in his Thinking Machine books about the scientific detective Augustus S F X Van Dusen – The Thinking Machine [for subtitle see Checklist] (coll 1907; vt The Problem of Cell 13 1929) and The Thinking Machine on the Case (coll 1908) – are properly detections, though Van Dusen's methods verge on sf. The Thinking Machine (coll 1959) edited by Tony Simon contains "The Problem of Cell 13" and two other stories. The most complete recent assembling of the tales is Jacques Futrelle's "The Thinking Machine" [for subtitle see Checklist] (coll 2003) edited by Harlan Ellison. The Diamond Master (1909; exp with "The Haunted Bell" [19 December 1908-January 1909 Saturday Evening Post] as coll circa 1912), which is sf, revolves melodramatically around the Invention of the artificial manufacture of diamonds, and the inventor's plan to capitalize on it; the added novella is a partly rationalized supernatural tale involving Van Dusen. A late tale, "The Flying Eye" (1 November 1912 Popular Magazine), involves a paint that makes airplanes invisible (> Invisibility). [JC]
Jacques Heath Futrelle
born Pike Country, Georgia: 9 April 1875
died at sea, following the wreck of the Titanic: 15 April 1912
works
- The Thinking Machine: Being a True and Complete Statement of Several Intricate Mysteries Which Came under the Observation of Professor Augustus Van Dusen, Ph D, Ll D, F RS, M D, etc (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1907) [coll: Thinking Machine: hb/]
- The Thinking Machine on the Case (New York: D Appleton, 1908) [coll: Thinking Machine: hb/]
- The Diamond Master (Indianapolis, Indiana: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1909) [hb/]
- The Diamond Master (New York: A L Burt, 1912) [exp as collection with "The Haunted Bell", a new Thinking Machine story: hb/]
- Jacques Futrelle's "The Thinking Machine": The Enigmatic Problems of Prof August S F X Van Dusen, Ph D, LL D, F R S, M D, M D S (New York: The Modern Library, 2003) [coll: edited by Harlan Ellison: Thinking Machine: pb/Rymn Massand]
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