Jacques Futrelle

Infobox Writer
name = Jacques Futrelle


imagesize = 200px
caption =
pseudonym =
birthdate = birth date|1875|4|9
birthplace = Pike County, Georgia
deathdate = death date and age|1912|4|15|1875|4|9
deathplace = Atlantic Ocean, aboard the RMS "Titanic"
occupation = Mystery writer, journalist
nationality = American
period =
1905 - 1912
genre = Detective fiction
subject =
movement =
influences =
influenced =


website = http://www.futrelle.com/

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 the "Thinking Machine", Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen.

Career

Futrelle, who was born in Pike County, Georgia, 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 Problem of Cell 13". In 1895, he married fellow writer Lily May Peel, with whom he had two children, Virginia and Jacques "John" Jr.

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

Returning from Europe aboard the RMS "Titanic", Futrelle, a first-cabin passenger, refused to board a lifeboat insisting his wife board instead, according to his wife, with the belief that her boarding would give him a better chance of surviving; he perished in the Atlantic. On 29 July, 1912 his 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 "The Titanic Murders", a novel about two murders aboard the "Titanic", by Max Allan Collins.

elected works

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" and "The Diamond Master")
*"Elusive Isabel" (1909)
*"The High Hand" (1911)
*"My Lady's Garter" (1912)
*"Blind Man's Bluff" (1914)

hort story collections

*"The Thinking Machine" (1907), reprinted as "The Problem of Cell 13" (1918)
**The Flaming Phantom
**The Great Auto Mystery
**The Man Who Was Lost
**The Mystery of a Studio
**The Problem of Cell 13
**The Ralston Bank Burglary
**The Scarlet Thread
*"The Thinking Machine on the Case" (1908), UK title "The Professor on the Case"

tories

*"The Problem of Cell 13" (1905)
*"The House That Was" (a literary experiment with 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 for more)

References

*"Futrelle Refused to Enter Lifeboat". "The New York Times". 19 April, 1912: 6.
*"Futrelle's Mother is Dead". "The New York Times". 30 July, 1912: 1.
*"Jacques Futrelle". "Contemporary Authors". 2000. Gale Group Databases. 1 August, 2003 <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com>.
*"Says Ismay Ruled in Titanic's Boats." "The New York Times". 26 June, 1915: 6.

External links

* [http://www.futrelle.com/ Jacques Futrelle Official Homepage]
* [http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/bio/p/1st/futrelle_j.shtml Entry at "Encyclopedia Titanica"]
*gutenberg author|id=Jacques_Futrelle|name=Jacques Futrelle

Further reading

* [http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/wilkes.html Donald E. Wilkes, Jr.] , [http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/his21_titanic.html Georgians on the Titanic] & [http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/his23_futrelle.html On the Titanic: Jacques Futrelle] & [http://www.law.uga.edu/academics/profiles/dwilkes_more/his24_survived.html May Futrelle Survived Titanic] (1994).

Persondata
NAME=Futrelle, Jacques
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Mystery writer
DATE OF BIRTH=April 9, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH=Pike County, Georgia
DATE OF DEATH=April 15, 1912
PLACE OF DEATH=Atlantic Ocean, aboard the RMS Titanic