UPDATE: Two Impossibilities from William Brittain

Added Luminist Archives link to William Brittain's "The Impossible Footprint" (HERE) and removed a dead link.

The First Seven Dr. Thorndykes

IF you're one of those weird people (like us) who enjoy reading the first-time publications of favorite stories even more than later reprints, then this posting might prove useful. Our subject today is R. Austin Freeman's Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke, barrister-at-law of Inner Temple and Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at St. Margaret's Hospital, one of the sharpest tools in His Majesty's box of detectives—sharper, in our humble opinion, than the great Sherlock Holmes himself.

First comes Pearson's editorial announcement of Thorndyke's impending arrival:

Pearson's Magazine, November 1908.

"Sparks from Our Anvil."

Article (2 pages; 2 illos).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE and below).

Sure enough, the December issue held the first Thorndyke adventure. We have reproduced the heading for each story. You may notice that sometimes Pearson's favored the author with an illustration to go with it, but not always.

I. "The Blue Sequin."

By R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, December 1908.

Short story (12 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

II. "The Stranger's Latchkey."

By R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, January 1909.

Short story (14 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

III. "The Anthropologist At Large."

By R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, February 1909.

Novelette (12 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

IV. "The Aluminium Dagger."

By R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, March 1909.

Short story (12 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

V. "The Scarred Finger."

By R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, April 1909.

Novelette (17 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

VI. "The Moabite Cipher."

By R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, May 1909.

Novelette (15 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

VII. "The Mandarin's Pearl."

By R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943).

First appearance: Pearson's Magazine, June 1909.

Novelette (17 pages).

Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).

Resources:

- ONTOS has considered Freeman's Dr. Thorndyke on several occasions: (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), (HERE), plus a non-Thorndyke story (HERE).

- At Roy Glashan's Library you can find splendid reprints of Dr. Thorndyke short stories (HERE) and novels (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And Of Course Detective Stories"

READING HABITS in wartime seem to defy expectations. You'd think with all that carnage that the average Joe or Jane would shy away from crime fiction, but experience says otherwise:

"What Our Soldiers Read."

By Beatrice Harraden (Wikipedia HERE) with Elizabeth Robins (Wikipedia HERE).

The Cornhill Magazine, November 1916.

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE; scroll to text page 607).

Excerpts (we've added the emphasis):

  "About eighteen months ago Miss Elizabeth Robins and myself entered on our duties as Honorary Librarians to the Military Hospital, Endell Street, the only Military Hospital in England officered entirely by women.

  "We were asked to collect a number of suitable books and magazines, and by personal intercourse with the soldiers, to encourage reading amongst the men, and to do our best to help them through the long hours of illness and inaction by offering them books which would amuse and interest them.

  "We soon learnt that we had to invest in a large number of detective books, and any amount of Nat Gould’s sporting stories.

  "It was quite possible that one man in a ward would be reading, say, Nat Gould’s ‘Jockey Jack’—a great favourite—and the man in the next bed would be reading Shakespeare, or ‘The Pilgrim’s Progress,’ or Shelley, or Meredith, Conrad, or the Encyclopædia. We found, in fact, so many different kinds of minds and upbringings, that we could never have remembered without the aid of a note-book what each man wanted.

  "The following are items from two or three of our order books. The order books have been chosen at random, but the items are consecutive; and the list will give some idea of the nature of our pilgrimages from one bedside to another bedside, and from one ward to another:

  "One of Nat Gould’s novels; Regiments at the Front; Burns’s Poems; A book on bird life; ‘The Last Days of Pompeii’; Strand Magazine; Strand Magazine; Wide World Magazine; The Spectator; A scientific book; Review of Reviews; ‘By the Wish of a Woman’ (Marchmont); one of Rider Haggard’s; Marie Corelli; Nat Gould; Rider Haggard; Nat Gould; Nat Gould; Nat Gould; Good detective story; Something to make you laugh; Strand Magazine; Adventure story; ‘Tale of Two Cities’; ‘Gil Blas’; Browning’s Poems; Tolstoy’s ‘Resurrection’; Sexton Blake; ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’; Nat Gould; Wide World Magazine; Pearson’s Magazine; ‘Arabian Nights’; Jack London; Shakespeare; Nat Gould; ‘The Encyclopædia’; Rex Beach; Wm. Le Queux; Strand Magazine; Nat Gould; Something in the murder line; Country Life; The Story Teller Magazine; one of Oppenheim’s novels; ‘The Crown of Wild Olive’; ‘Kidnapped’; Nat Gould; Shakespeare; Nat Gould; Silas Hocking; Oppenheim; Le Queux; Nat Gould; Nat Gould; Jack London; ‘Handy Andy’; ‘Kidnapped’; ‘Treasure Island’; Book about rose growing; ‘Montezuma’s Daughter’ (Rider Haggard); ‘Prisoner of Zenda’; Macaulay’s Essays; ‘The Magnetic North’ (Elizabeth Robins); Nat Gould; Sexton Blake; Modern High Explosives; ‘Dawn’ (Rider Haggard); ‘Wild Animals’; Book on horse-breaking; ‘Radiography’; ‘Freckles’ (by Gene Stratton-Porter); ‘The Blue Lagoon’; ‘Caged Birds’; ‘The Corsican Brothers’; ‘Sherlock Holmes’; French Dictionary; Kipling; ‘Mysticism’; Nat Gould; ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’; ‘Mystery of Cloomber’ (Conan Doyle); and so on.

  "These are, of course, only a few items. I should say that on the whole, and leaving out entirely books on technical and special subjects, the authors most frequently asked for by the average soldier are: Nat Gould, Charles Garvice, Wm. Le Queux, Rider Haggard, Guy Boothby, Oppenheim, Rex Beach, Conan Doyle, Marie Corelli, Joseph and Silas Hocking, Jack London, Dickens, Mrs. Henry Wood, Kipling (whose ‘Barrack Room Ballads’ they learnt by heart), Dumas, Ian Hay, Baroness Orczy, and Hornung’s ‘Raffles.’

  "And very favourite books are those dealing with wild animals and their habits, with ferrets, rats, and birds, and all stories of adventure and travel, and of course detective stories."

As you can see, the wounded soldiers often chose detective fiction. Why that is we'll leave to the people who tell us they know how the mind works.

References and resources:

- Nat Gould gets mentioned a lot; according to Wikipedia (HERE) he was "a best selling author while alive."

- Apart from the predictable Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle mentions, here are a few others from The ONTOS Files:

  ~ Sexton Blake (ONTOS HERE and HERE)

  ~ William Le Queux (ONTOS HERE)

  ~ E. Phillips Oppenheim (ONTOS HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE)

  ~ E. W. Hornung's Raffles (ONTOS HERE and HERE)

  ~ Baroness Orczy (ONTOS HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE)

  ~ Guy Boothby (ONTOS HERE).

- We posted about this very subject nearly ten years ago; see ONTOS (HERE).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Look Out for One of Them"

"Backward Passage."

By Lee Francis (either Howard Browne or Leroy Yerxa; FictionMags HERE).

Illustrated by Bill Terry (1921-92; ISFDb HERE).

First appearance: Fantastic Adventures, September 1949.

Reprinted in Fantastic Adventures Quarterly (Reissue), Winter 1949 (FictionMags HERE).

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Novelette (39 pages).

Online at Roy Glashan's Library (HERE HTML).

(Parental note: Strong language.)

   "If I let you wander about as you wish, returning to your old haunts, you'll cause a sensation that will rock the whole nation."

Police work is hard enough when it comes to living criminals, but what's a detective to do with a dead one who won't stay dead? Not to mention that deceased doctor, or the pretty girl who threw herself into a river and never came out—until now . . .

Typo: "drowned herself in the Hudson River" ("Hudson" or "Chicago"? Probably the latter.)

Principal characters:

~ Tony Sputozza:

  ". . . a gangster who was buried five years before in Greenlawn Cemetery . . ."

~ Doc Hickory:

  "Listen here, son. Sometimes you madden me to the point of violence. You know everything."

~ Detective Grant Warner:

  ". . . wasn't easily excited. He had graduated from the first precinct and was making a nice place for himself in the plainclothes division. Warner didn't have to worry about being classed as a story-book detective. His red hair, snub hose and sad face took care of that. He did his work quietly and received a weekly stipend for his troubles. Beyond that, he was only Grant Warner, and the chief quite often coupled his name with the name of the Lord, whom he liked to speak of in vain."

~ Randy White:

  "'I can't be sure,' Warner continued, 'but if my memory is any good, this girl drowned herself in the Chicago river four years ago'."

~ Doctor Howard Phelps:

  ". . . was the third and last person to come out of the alley."

~ James:

  "He turned, caught Warner's eyes and smiled wryly."

  

References and resources:

- "walked all the way to the Loop":

  The 1950 Census said there were just over 7,000 people living in Chicago's 1.6 square mile Loop; see Wikipedia (HERE).

- "in the Chicago river":

  "The Chicago River is a system of rivers and canals with a combined length of 156 miles (251 km) that runs through the city of Chicago, including its center (the Chicago Loop)." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "a hail of tommy-gun fire":

  That would be the legendary Thompson submachine gun, which is discussed in detail in Wikipedia (HERE).

- "placed her on the davenport":

  "It is used as a synonym for 'sofa' or 'couch' in some Great Lakes regions of the United States, especially the Upper Midwest and Buffalo, NY–Erie, PA areas." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- "when you're under ether, Bud":

  "It is a colourless, highly volatile, sweet-smelling ('ethereal odour'), extremely flammable liquid. It is commonly used as a solvent in laboratories and as a starting fluid for some engines. It was formerly used as a general anesthetic, until non-flammable drugs were developed . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Bottom line:

  ". . . it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment . . ."

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UPDATE: Link Change to "Mystery and Detective Fiction Sprang from the Startling Changes That Occurred During a Vibrant, Tumultuous and Exciting Era of History—the Victorian Period"

Added new link to Sharon J. Kobritz's thesis paper "Why Mystery and Detective Fiction Was a Natural Outgrowth of the Victorian Period" (HERE).

"I Am Harassed by a Woman. She Is Busily Engaged in Killing Me."

ISAAC ASIMOV wrote a short introduction to today's story that places it in that species of detective fiction which most of us are quite familiar with:

  "The whodunit is one of the most widely recognized forms of mystery, and for many its name has become synonymous with the entire field. It gives the reader a chance to discover the identity of the criminal, usually a murderer, before the detective does, and therein may be its special appeal. In the classic version, the crime occurs in an isolated place, such as a manor house, there is a limited number of suspects, and near the end of the story the survivors are assembled to hear the detective's solution.

  "While science fiction can only boast of a moderate number of whodunits, some of its authors, like the incomparable Jack Vance, show great facility in handling this kind of story. And from the adventures of Mr. Vance's irascible detective, Magnus Ridolph, we have selected the following gem."

"Coup de Grace" (a.k.a. "Worlds of Origin").

By Jack Vance (1916-2013).

Magnus Ridolph No. 10.

First appearance: Super-Science Fiction, February 1958.

Reprints page (ISFDb HERE).

Novelette (22 text pages).

Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE; go to text page 155, PDF page 159).

   "Police routine might solve the case through the use of analyzers and detection machines. I hope to achieve the same end through cultural analysis."

There's been a murder in The Hub ("a fashionable resort, a glamor-island among the stars—something more than a mere stopover depot and junction point"), and it's hard to imagine a more diverse collection of possible suspects who might have done it. For Magnus Ridolph the usual approaches to crime solving will not do and he must employ all of his advanced sociological knowledge plus a technique that always proves useful, the old-fashioned process of elimination . . .

Comment: Rather than ending with an action-packed denouement, the ultimate solution depends entirely on the mental acuity of an armchair detective.

Main characters:

~ Magnus Ridolph:

  "At the moment I do not care to accept employment."

~ Pan Pascoglu:

  "We've never had a killing. It's got to be cleaned up!"

~ Lester Bonfils:

  "I seem predisposed to failure and defeat. I consider myself a man of good-will—yet there is no one with more enemies. I attract them as if I were the most vicious creature alive."

~ Dr. Scanton:

  "Beside the cage stood a thin young man, either inspecting or teasing the paleolithics. He turned hastily when Pascoglu and Magnus Ridolph stepped into the cottage."

  . . . and a starship-load of suspects:

  1. Lester Bonfils (the victim), with

     a. Abu

     b. Toko

     c. Homup

  2. Viamestris Diasporus

  3. Thorn 199

  4. Fodor Impliega

  5. Fodor Banzoso

  6. Scriagl

  7. Hercules Starguard

  8. Fiamella of Thousand Candles

  9. Clan Kestrel, 14th Ward, 6th Family, 3rd Son

  10. (No name).

  

Resources:

- The ISFDb has complete information about the Magnus Ridolph series (HERE). Kevyn Winkless at Castalia House has an article about Ridolph (HERE) that explains Jack Vance's approach to these stories.

- Our last encounter with Magnus Ridolph was "The Kokod Warriors" (HERE), where you'll also find a list linked to all our previous postings about the "irascible" galactic trouble-shooter. At the time "Coup de Grace" was hard to come by, as we noted in the posting, but fortunately for us anglophones Isaac Asimov and his editors chose to include it in their 1979 anthology, linked above.

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Dead. Murdered. Stabbed in the Back."

NORBERT DAVIS can justifiably be grouped with the "hard-boiled screwball" school of detective fiction writers such as Craig Rice, who were more concerned with pushing the story along and the devil take the inconsistencies, inserting at times their own peculiar brand of logic into the narrative—which is no knock against them, however, because they could produce truly entertaining stories on a regular basis. Since the majority of Norbert Davis's output conformed to that pattern, we were mildly surprised by the following story, in which a crime gets solved according to . . .

"The Lethal Logic."

By Norbert Davis (1909-49).

First appearance: Detective Fiction Weekly, April 29, 1939.

Reprinted in Dark Lessons (1985).

Short story (11 pages).

Online at Roy Glashan's Library (HTML HERE).

   "It won't take me more than a couple of hours. It's a stupidly simple problem."

"A couple of hours," he says—but he does it, when the solution of a murder of a 

student in a law school university's library proves susceptible of straightforward 

logical thinking. From what we've been reading, we're not sure whether Wittgen-

stein would approve or be disappointed . . .

Principal characters:

~ Langdon:

  ". . . missed being murdered by just those three steps."

~ Carlson:

  "My God! You don't mean to tell me that any modern police officer follows that antiquated bit of flubdub. Cherchez la femme! Faugh! It makes me sick!"

~ Vaster:

  "Carlson, watching him as he talked, thought he could see the small, dull brain behind the slope of Vaster's skull, see it actually groping around in the mist, blindly and stubbornly trying to find and follow Carlson's logical path."

~ Dieckmann:

  ". . . had a mind as sharp as a razor. He was sitting on the top of the steps, absently smoking a pipe."

~ Janice Lee:

  ". . . came around the corridor at the end of the last stack. She was a small girl with smooth, blue-black hair. Her face was very white and smooth, and her soft, small lips framed a whispered answer to Carlson's greeting."

~ Reeve:

  ". . . was slumped down in the chair. He bent forward slowly from the waist until his face bumped against the book he had on his lap."

~ Dean Michels:

  "'What—' Michels began, and then his big, loose face seemed to stretch grotesquely. 'Dead! You said—'"

~ Lieutenant Harms:

  "I got to arrest somebody—quick."

~ Dogan:

  ". . . looked like the movie version of a gangster's bodyguard except for the fact that he was cross-eyed and wore thick glasses."  

Resources:

- This is our first full-on encounter with the fiction of Norbert Davis, who, sad to say, committed suicide. For all the details about our author, see Wikipedia (HERE), Black Mask (HERE), The New Thrilling Detective (HERE), The GAD Wiki (HERE), and the ISFDb (HERE).

- Davis had a tenuous connection with the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, who had an affinity for detective stories. See Josef Hoffmann's Mystery*File article (HERE) and the extensive Wikipedia article about Wittgenstein (HERE).

- Roy Glashan has a fine developing collection of Davis's novels, novelettes, and short stories (HERE) in both HTML and EPUB formats.

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~