"Whodunit?"
By Vincent Starrett (1886-1974; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the IMDb HERE; A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection HERE; and Studies in Starrett HERE).
First appearance: The Rotarian, October 1943.
Article (2 pages).
Online at Google Books (HERE).
"Everything is there, you see, except the red herring; and we can put those in for ourselves."
AVID SHERLOCKIAN (or, if you prefer, Holmesian) Vincent Starrett offers detective fiction readers of the mid-1940s a charmingly written survey of contemporary books by authors not named Conan Doyle. The old reliables are here, but there could be someone you might never have heard of.
Prose moments:
"Yet a majority of Shakespeare's plays hinge on crime: Hamlet may almost be called the first long detective story, and Macbeth is even more suggestive of Scotland Yard than of Scotland."
". . . they are the first detective stories in the world to be written in a completely American style."
"The imitation article is seldom the equal of the thing it apes."
"Although it is possible that he writes his mystery tales with his left hand . . ."
"Mrs. Christie's extraordinary ingenuity in contriving situations that baffle the reader is a talent that borders on genius."
References:
- "a certain Mrs. Paschal":
"The Victorian era (1837–1901) witnessed the appearance of an overwhelming number of female literary detectives. The rush began in the 1860s with the publication of Revelations of a Female Detective, which featured the debut of Mrs. Paschal, a detective of 'vigorous and subtle' brain who works for an all-women branch of the police department." (Olivia Rutigliano, "The Lady Is a Detective," Lapham's Quarterly HERE).
- Starrett mentions Alexander Woollcott, whose association with real life crime we once documented (HERE).
- "the murder of Isadore Fink, the Bronx laundryman, in 1933":
Ben Hecht wrote about the case (HERE).
- "the disappearance and dismemberment of Dr. Parkman":
"The Parkman murder has been called the O. J. Simpson trial of the nineteenth century. It had everything a good murder story needs: a rich, well-known victim; a well-respected suspect; gruesome evidence; and a possible underdog hero." ("The Murder of Dr. Parkman," American Experience HERE).
- Starrett seems willing to cut Eden Phillpots some slack for his writing, but others weren't so kind:
"Yet Phillpotts' novels tend to be slow-moving and talky, with characters speaking in highly formal, stylized speech that fell out of fashion over time. By the late-1930s, Phillpotts' mysteries were becoming lengthier and slower; and while he still had his admirers, the influential critic Anthony Boucher was openly contemptuous of the grand old man in the 1940s, writing of his novel Flower of the Gods, for example, 'infinite talk and no action. A doctor's prescription should be required for this powerful soporific'." (Curtis Evans, The Passing Tramp HERE).
- "To Meet Miss Madeleine Smith":
"Madeleine Hamilton Smith (1835–1928) was a 19th-century Glasgow socialite who was the accused in a sensational murder trial in Scotland in 1857." (Wikipedia HERE).
- "Marie F. Rodell":
"Rodell wrote Mystery Fiction: Theory and Technique; in his column of November 7, 1943, Chicago Tribune book columnist Vincent Starrett called this 'one of the most entertaining textbooks ever written.' She was the editor of the Regional Murder Series. She also wrote and published books under the pen name Marion Randolph." (Wikipedia HERE).
Resources:
- We did a superficial survey of Vincent Starrett's works (HERE).
- Other Starrett encounters:
~ "The Mid-Watch Tragedy" (HERE)
~ "Dupin and Another" (HERE)
~ and "The Adventure of the Cat and the Fiddle - A Sherlockian Sonnet" and "Man in Hiding" (HERE).
Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.
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