Tuesday, August 8, 2017

"So Yer Wouldn't Come Across with Two Hundred Grand, Wouldn't Yer?"

ALTHOUGH HE'S BEEN DEAD for seventy years, the name of William Moulton Marston, the Harvard University psychologist who co-developed the modern "lie detector," resurfaces now and then in association with his most famous fictional creation, this year especially after the release of a highly successful motion picture. The story that follows, which doesn't feature his celebrated character, is an interactive writer-reader experiment that proves Marston was much better at psychology than detective fiction—and, yes, there will be a test later.

"Kidnapers' Contact."
By William Moulton Marston (1893-1947).
First appearance: Liberty, January 19, 1935.
Short short story (7 pages).
Online at Archive.org (start HERE and finish HERE).

"At Last a NEW Kind of Detective Story — One in Which the Reader Is Really the Detective! Follow the Directions and Try Your Sleuthing Talent on This Baffling Tale of a Black-Bordered Envelope and an Artist's Eye."
 A gang of kidnapers that couldn't crook straight should've known that if you're going to put the bag on somebody, you should at least snatch the right somebody . . .

Resources:
- William Moulton Marston (Wikipedia HERE) is most remembered these days for creating the comic book character of Wonder Woman (HERE); People.com (HERE) has more background on Marston—and it is, as the article says, "kinky."

- It's ironic that, of his forty-two IMDb credits (HERE), all but two are posthumous.

The bottom line: "The longer I observe the way people really act, the happier I am that I never pay attention to them."
   — George Alec Effinger

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