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Jacques Futrelle

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Nationality
  
American

Role
  
Journalist

Name
  
Jacques Futrelle


Genre
  
Detective fiction

Period
  
1905–1912

Date killed
  
April 15, 1912

Jacques Futrelle A review of Jacques Futrelle locked room and impossible

Born
  
April 9, 1875 Pike County, Georgia (
1875-04-09
)

Occupation
  
Mystery writer, journalist

Died
  
April 15, 1912, Atlantic Ocean

Books
  
The thinking machine, The Problem of Cell 13, The Chase Of The Golden Pl, The Diamond Master, Elusive Isabel

Similar People
  
Isidor Straus, Archibald Butt, Benjamin Guggenheim, John Jacob Astor IV, Francis Davis Millet

Learn English through story The Problem Of Cell 13 by Jacques Futrelle -Learn English


Jacques Heath Futrelle (April 9, 1875 – April 15, 1912) was an American journalist and mystery writer. He is best known for writing short detective stories featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, also known as "The Thinking Machine" for his application of logic to any and all situations. Futrelle died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

Contents

Jacques Futrelle httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Career

Jacques Futrelle No Escape Jacques Futrelle and the Titanic

Futrelle was born in Pike County, Georgia. He worked for the Atlanta Journal, where he began their sports section; the New York Herald; the Boston Post; and the Boston American, where, in 1905, his Thinking Machine character first appeared in a serialized version of the short story, "The Problem of Cell 13".

Futrelle left the Boston American in 1906 to focus his attention on writing novels. He had a harbor-view house built in Scituate, Massachusetts, which he called "Stepping Stones", and spent most of his time there until his death in 1912.

His last work, My Lady's Garter, was published posthumously in 1912. Futrelle's widow inscribed in the book, "To the heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate this my husband's book", under a photo of her late husband.

Personal life

In 1895, he married fellow writer Lily May Peel with whom he had two children, Virginia and Jacques "John" Jr.

Death

Returning from Europe aboard the RMS Titanic, Futrelle, a first-class passenger, refused to board a lifeboat, insisting his wife board instead, to the point of forcing her in. His wife remembered the last she saw of him: he was smoking a cigarette on deck with John Jacob Astor IV. Futrelle perished in the Atlantic, and his body was never found.

On 29 July 1912, Futrelle's mother, Linnie Futrelle, died in her Georgia home; her death was attributed to grief over her son's death.

  • Futrelle is used as the protagonist in Max Allan Collins' Disaster series novel The Titanic Murders (1999), about two murders aboard the RMS Titanic.
  • Futrelle acts as a supporting character in the Sherlock Holmes novel The Titanic Tragedy by William Seil, assisting in thwarting an attempt to blow up the Titanic.
  • Novels

  • The Chase of the Golden Plate (1906)
  • The Simple Case of Susan (1908)
  • The Diamond Master (1909 — later adapted into the film serials The Diamond Queen (1921) and The Diamond Master (1929)
  • Elusive Isabel (1909)
  • The High Hand (1911)
  • My Lady's Garter (1912)
  • Blind Man's Bluff (1914)
  • Short story collections

  • The Thinking Machine (1907),
  • The Flaming Phantom
  • The Great Auto Mystery
  • The Man Who Was Lost
  • The Mystery of a Studio
  • The Problem of Cell 13 (1918); a reprint of The Thinking Machine (1907)
  • The Ralston Bank Burglary
  • The Scarlet Thread
  • The Thinking Machine on the Case (1908), UK title The Professor on the Case
  • The Stolen Reubens
  • Stories

  • "The Problem of Cell 13" (1905)
  • "The House That Was": The Grinning God, Part II (a literary experiment with Futrelle and his wife, in the which The Thinking Machine provided a rational solution to the seemingly impossible and supernatural events of a ghost story written by May)
  • "The Phantom Motor"
  • Various other short stories (see Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen and JacquesFutrelle.com for more)
  • References

    Jacques Futrelle Wikipedia