FUTRELLE, Jacques

(1875-1912)

   US writer and theatrical manager, on the editorial staff of the Boston American; he went down with the Titanic. The stories assembled in his Thinking Machine books about the scientific detective Augustus S.F. X. Van Dusen - The Thinking Machine (coll 1907; vt The Problem of Cell 131917) and The Thinking Machine on the Case (coll 1908) - are properly detections, though Van Dusen's methods verge on sf. The Thinking Machine (coll 1959) ed Tony Simon contains "The Problem of Cell 13" and 2 otherstories. Larger selections have been ed E.F. BLEILER as Best "Thinking Machine"Detective Stories (coll 1973) and Great Cases of the ThinkingMachine (coll 1976). The Diamond Master (1909; exp with "The Haunted Bell" as coll c1912), which is sf, revolves melodramatically around the artificial manufacture of diamonds; the added novella is a supernatural tale involving Van Dusen.

   JC