This is a huge selection of detective short stories and one short novel featuring
The Thinking Machine, published between 1905 -1912.
This is what
The Thinking Machine looked like, as written by the author
Jacques Futrelle:
“And this was 'The Thinking Machine'-Professor
Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph. D., F. R. S., M. D., LL. D., et cetera, et cetera-logician, analyst, worker of miracles in the exact sciences, intellectual wizard of his time; this the master mind, exalted by the cumulative genius of generations gone before, which had isolated itself on a pinnacle of achievement through sheer force of applied reason.”
And another one from the author:
“It was a singular head and face--a
head out of all proportion to body, domelike, enormous, with a wilderness of straw-yellow hair. [Unfortunately, the picture I uploaded for this book lacks the yellow hair!] The
face was small, wizened, petulant even; the
watery blue eyes, narrow almost to the disappearing point, squinted everlastingly through thick spectacles; the
mouth drooped at the corners. The small, white hands which twisted and turned the object-glass into focus were possessed of extraordinarily long, slender fingers.”
--I love this description!
Here's a quote from another source:
"These works, almost of
Chestertonian ingenuity, also introduce the most uncompromisingly omniscient detective in fiction. Whether beating the world chess champion after only a few lessons or escaping from a prison death cell to win a bet, Professor Van Dusen finds all problems absurdly easy to solve."
Sounds like fun.
Let me know if there are any problems in the formatting, as I think this is the largest book I've assembled. I can fix them quickly.
I hope you enjoy it.
Don
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