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INTRODUCTION

Jacques Futrelle (1875-1912) is widely considered “the American Sherlock Holmes” for his series of stories about Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, who is better known as The Thinking Machine. Van Dusen, a master of logic, believed he could think himself out of any situation—and solve any crime—through the use of his immense intellect. Through dozens of stories, The Thinking Machine solved locked-room puzzles, kidnappings, and more murders than can be easily counted, proving again and again that brain-power is the answer to any problem.

Jacques Futrelle himself was born in Georgia. His father was a college teacher, and Jacques was brought up with an appreciation for great literature. His first jobs were in pubishing, working at the Atlanta Journal as an assistant to the business manager, then at the Boston Post, and then back to the Atlanta Journal, where he established the newspaper’s first sports column.

He married Lilly May Peel in 1895, and they moved to New York, where he worked as telegraph operator for the New York Herald. Their neighbors included such luminaries as Edith Wharton.

Following the birth of their two children, Virginia and John, the Futrelles moved to Massachusets, where Jacques worked for the Boston American, William Randolph Hurst’s new newspaper. Here he would begin writing fiction, creating not just The Thinking Machine short stories, but a number of popular novels: The Chase of the Golden Plate (whose cast includes The Thinking Machine), The Simple Case of Susan, The Diamond Master, Elusive Isabel, The High Hand, Blind Man’s Buff, and My Lady’s Garter. Two volumes of The Thinking Machine stories were collected as The Thinking Machine and The Thinking Machine on the Case. Jacques Futrelle left the newspaper business to become a full-time writer in 1906.

In January 1912, leaving their children at home with their grandparents, Jacques and May Futrelle journeyed to Europe to meet publishers, market Jacques’ stories and books, and have a vacation. Unfortunately, they decided to return home on the maiden voyage of the R.M.S. Titanic. May survived the Titanic’s sinking, but Jacques Futrelle did not, and what promised to be a spectacular writing career was tragically cut short.

May Futrelle (who herself wrote a small number of works prior to World War I, including The Secretary of Frivolous Affairs in 1911 and Lieutenant What’s His Name in 1915) died in 1967 and is buried in Scituate, Massachusets.