American journalist, theatrical manager, and mystery writer. Futrelle's most famous detective character was professor Van Dusen, the 'Thinking Machine,' who solved impossible crimes. 'The Problem of Cell 13', a Van Dusen tale, is one of the most famous detective stories ever written. Futrelle died on the Titanic 15 April 1912. Before the ship sank, Futrelle made sure that his wife had a safe place on a lifeboat.

"As a general rule, the greatest crimes never come to light because the greatest criminals, their perpetrators, are too clever to be caught." (Van Dusen in 'The Scarlet Thread')

Jacques Futrelle was born in Pike County, Georgia, the descendant of French Huguenots. He was educated in public and private schools. Futrelle worked as a young man on a newspaper and as a theatrical manager. He then joined the staff of the Boston American, which published several of his short stories. In addition to mysteries, Futrelle wrote Westwerns and romances. In 1895 Futrelle married the writer L. May Peel. She later expanded Futrelle's THE SIMPLE CASE OF SUSAN (1908) into LIEUTENAT WHAT'S-HIS-NAME (1915). The Ellery Queen Magazine published in 1949-50 some uncollected stories.

His best-known character was Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, the 'Thinking Machine', an eccentric scientist, who was nearsighted, had a huge head, his behavior was arrogant, and he possessed superior mental powers. He has an assistant, the clever newspaper reporter Hutchinson Hatch, who brings him cases. This model of team work was copied later by many mystery writers, among them Rex Stout in his books about Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe. With Sherlock Holmes Van Dusen shared an unemotional and technical approach to problems, but without Holmes' human weaknesses, such as drug-taking, or Father Brown's moral and political concerns.

--The reporter stared into the calm, inscrutable face of The Thinking Machine, fearing first that he had not heard aright. Then he concluded that he had.
--''You mean,' he inquired eagerly, 'that the phantom may be an auto- aeroplane affair, and that it actually does fly?'
--It's not at all impossible,' commented the scientist.
(from 'The phantom motor')

Van Dusen's character appeared in a book form for the first time in the novel THE CHASE OF THE GOLDEN PLATE (1906), where the Professor had still a minor role. This was followed by a short story collection, THE THINKING MACHINE (1907). The critic and award-winning mystery writer H.R.F. Keating included it among the 100 best crime and mystery books ever published. Its lead story, 'The Problem of Cell 13', originally serialized in the American in October-November 1905, involves no murder, no crime at all but centers on the theme that 'mind is the master of all things': professor Van Dusen thinks himself out of a maximum-security prison cell by observing the habits of rodents and his jailers. In 'The Crystal Gazer' an American traveller named Varick, is allowed by an Indian seer to peer into his crystal. Varick recognizes his own room, himself in there, and a man who enters and hits him with a dagger in the back. Van Dusen solves the puzzle and proves that the fraudulent seer has used a complex system of mirrors.

Van Dusen exemplified pure thought without human feelings. In 'The Problem of a Dressing Room' Futrelle explained how the professor got his nickname. Van Dusen recounts how he can't play chess but that after a few hours of instruction he could defeat a master player. When Van Dusen proves that he wasn't joking, and beats his Russian opponent, who exclaims: "Mon Dieu! You are not a man; you are a brain - a machine - a thinking machine.'

'Nothing is impossible,' snapped the scientist. 'The human mind can do anything. It is all we have to lift us above the brute creation.' (from 'The Problem of a Dressing Room')

In 1912 Futrelle was returning with his wife to New York on the Titanic in first class. After the ship had collided with the iceberg, she was escorted by her husband to lifeboat 9, filled almost to capacity. When Mrs Futrelle hesitated, an officer forced her into the boat, and she survived the disaster. Jacques Futrelle and several of his stories, which he had written during his stay in England, went down with the ship. His last novel was MY LADY'S GARTER (1912).

About Jacques Futrelle: World Authors 1900-1950, vol. 2, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories, ed. by Tony Hillerman and Rosemary Herbert (1996); Crime & Mystery: the 100 Best Books by H.R.F. Keating (1987); Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, ed. by John M. Reilly (1985)

Selected works:

• THE CHASE OF THE GOLDEN PLATE, 1906
• THE THINKING MACHINE, 1907
• THE SIMPLE CASE OF SUSAN, 1908 - Susannan pula (suom. Impi Sotavalta)
• THE THINKING MACHINE ON THE CASE, 1909
• ELUSIVE ISABEL, 1909
• THE DIAMOND MASTER, 1909
• THE HIGH HAND, 19011
• MY LADY'S GARTER, 1912
• BLIND MAN'S BLUFF, 1914 - Sokkosilla. Seikkailuromaani Pariisista (suom. A.J. Salonen)
• LIEUTENANT WHAT'S-HIS-NAME, 1915 (ed. by L. May Futrelle)
• BEST THINKING MACHINE DETECTIVE STORIES, 1973
• GREAT CASES OF THE THINKING MACHINE, 1976

For further reading about Titanic:

• The Loss of the Titanic by L. Beesley (1912)
• Titanic & Other Ships by C. Lightoller 1935)
• A Night To Remember by Walter Lord (1955)
• The Story of the Titanic As Told By Its Survivors by J. Wincour (ed. 1970)
• The Truth about the Titanic by A.Gracie (1973)
• Titanic by M. McCaughan (1982)
• The Night Lives On by Walter Lord (1986)
• The Titanic, the Full Story of the Tragedy by M. Davie (1986)
• Titanic, Triumph and Tragedy by John P. Eaton and Charles A. Haas (1986)
• RMS Titanic by D. Hutchings (1987)
• The Titanic - Southampton's Memorials by B. Ticehurst (1988)
• Her Name Titanic by C. Pellegrino (1988)
• Hands Off the Titanic by M. Harding O'Hara (1989)
• Shadow of the Titanic by R.C. Denney and E. Hart (1994)
• The Titanic Disaster by Dave Bryceson (1997)
• The Titanic Disaster by Dave Bryceson (1997)
• Titanic: Destination Disaster by John P. Eaton and Charles A. Haas (1997)
• Every Man for Himself by Beryl Bainbridge (1997)
• The Titanic: The Extraordinary Story of the 'Unsinkable' Ship by Geoff Tibballs (1997)
• Titanic Voices by Donald Hyslop, Alastair Forsyth and Sheila Jemima (1997)

Literary coincidences: Morgan Robertson's novel The Wreck of the Titan, which appeared in 1898, told a story where a ship was sunk by ice. American poet Celia Thaxter described in her work from 1874 a collision between a ship and an iceberg. The journalist William Thomas Stead, who was a first class passenger on the Titanic, had written in 1886 a fictional article for the Pall Mall Gazette, in which a ship collided with another ship. Great loss of life resulted because there were not enough lifeboats. In 1892 Stead wrote an article for the Reviews of Reviews, depicting a journey from England to the United States on White Star liner Majestic. During the voyage the liner rescues survivors from a ship that was sunk after collision with ice. - Stead himself died on the Titanic. - Films: Saved from the Titanic (1912); Titanic, dir. by Herbert Selpin (1943); Titanic, dir. by Jean Negulesco; A Night to Remember, dir. by Roy Baker, screenplay Eric Ambler, based on Walter Lord's book with the same title (1958); The Unsinkable Molly Brown, dir. by Charles Walters (1964); SOS Titanic, dir. by Billy Hale (1979, television series); Raise the Titanic!, dir. by Jerry Jameson (1980); Titanica (1991, document film); Titanic (1996, four-hour TV mini-series), Titanic, dir. by James Cameron (1997) - Suomeksi on käännetty Walter Lordin Titanicin kohtalonyö. Beesley Lawrencen teos Titanic ilmestyi suomeksi 1913 vuosi onnettomuuden jälkeen. Erik Fosnes Hansenin teos "Salme ved reisens slutt" on käännetty suomeksi nimellä Viimeiseen soittoon. Onnettomuutta sivuavat myös Aino Kallaksen Seitsemän: Titanic-novelleja, Matti Wuoren Titanicin kansituolit ja Jaan Kaplinskin Titanic.