Futrelle, Jacques
Entry updated 25 November 2024. Tagged: Author.
(1875-1912) US author 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 collections about the scientific detective Professor 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 occasionally verge on sf. The early "impossible crime" and "impossible situation" stories are the most highly regarded, though preceded by the weaker (and entirely nonfantastic) short Thinking Machine novel The Chase of the Golden Plate (1906). The Thinking Machine (coll 1959) edited by Tony Simon contains the best-known of these tales, "The Problem of Cell 13" (30 October-5 November 1905 Boston American as "The Mystery of Cell 13"; vt in The Thinking Machine), plus two other stories. A further two collections edited by E F Bleiler [see Checklist below] add previously uncollected episodes. 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 as coll with "The Haunted Bell" [19 December 1908-January 1909 Saturday Evening Post] circa 1912), which is sf, revolves melodramatically around the Invention of the artificial manufacture of diamonds, and the inventor's plan to capitalize on this by inviting established diamond magnates to pay a huge sum to suppress this invention rather than see their market flooded with cheap but perfect diamonds; the added novella is a partly rationalized supernatural tale involving Van Dusen. A late story, "The Flying Eye" (1 November 1912 Popular Magazine), involves a paint that makes airplanes invisible (see Invisibility). [JC/DRL]
see also: Prisons.
Jacques Heath Futrelle
born Pike Country, Georgia: 9 April 1875
died at sea, following the wreck of the Titanic: 15 April 1912
works
series
Thinking Machine
- The Chase of the Golden Plate (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1906) [Thinking Machine: illus/Will Grefe: hb/]
- 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 Problem of Cell 13 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1929) [coll: vt of the above: Thinking Machine: hb/]
- The Thinking Machine on the Case (New York: D Appleton, 1908) [coll: Thinking Machine: hb/]
- The Thinking Machine (New York: Scholastic Book Services, 1959) [coll: edited by Tony Simon: three selections from the above: Thinking Machine: pb/]
- Best "Thinking Machine" Detective Stories (New York: Dover Publications, 1973) [coll: selections from the above: edited and with an introduction by E F Bleiler: Thinking Machine: pb/photographic]
- Great Cases of the Thinking Machine (New York: Dover Publications, 1976) [coll: further selections from the above: edited and with an introduction by E F Bleiler: includes "The Haunted Bell" (see below): Thinking Machine: pb/]
- 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]
- The Classic Tales of Jacques Futrelle, Volume One: The Thinking Machine (Rockville, Maryland: Wildside Press, 2004) [coll: Thinking Machine: hb/]
individual titles
- 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" (19 December 1908-January 1909 Saturday Evening Post), a new Thinking Machine story: hb/]
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