Fun Facts Friday: Jacques Futrelle

Jacques Futrelle (9 April, 1875 – 15 April , 1912) was a journalist and mystery writer known for writing short detective stories featuring Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen.

Books by Jacques Futrelle*

1. Jacques Heath Futrelle was born in Pike County, GA.
2. At the age of 18, Mr. Futrelle moved to Boston to work as a journalist. He returned to Georgia after a year or so.
3. Mr. Futrelle was a journalist by trade. He worked for Atlanta Journal, the New York Herald, the Boston Post, and the Boston American.
4. The author was a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective stories featuring Sherlock Holmes.
5. In 1905, his first detective story featuring intellectual detective, Dr. Professor Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen, Ph. D., LL. D., F. R. S., M. D., M.D.S, also known as “The Thinking Machine”, was serialized in the Boston American. Dr. Van Dusen is considered to be Holmes’ greatest rivals.
6. In 1895 Jacques Futrelle married fellow writer Lilly May Peel, who went by “May”. The couple had two children: Virginia and Jacques Jr. (John).
7. Mr. and Mrs. Futrelle moved to New York so that Jacques could take a job as the telegraph editor at the Hearst paper, The New York Herald. They lived in the Gramercy Park area of the city. Their neighbors included Edith Wharton and O. Henry.
8. In 1912 the couple went on a trip to Europe. They were to return on April 14 on the RMS Titanic.
9. The last time Mrs. Futrelle saw her husband he was standing smoking a cigar next to John Jacob Astor IV, after he insisted she’d get on lifeboat No. 9 (which was launched half full).
10. The scene in the 1997 blockbuster, Titanic, recreates their departure of May getting out of the lifeboat to be with her husband, only for him to assure her he’d survive and put her back on.

Books by Jacques Futrelle*

Zohar – Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account