R Austin Freeman
Encyclopedia
Richard Austin Freeman (11 April 1862 London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
- 28 September 1943 Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...
) — known as R. Austin Freeman — was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator
Detective
A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...
Dr Thorndyke
Dr Thorndyke
Dr John Evelyn Thorndyke is a fictional detective in a long series of novels and short stories by R. Austin Freeman . Thorndyke was described by his author as a 'medical jurispractitioner': originally a medical doctor, he turned to the bar and became one of the first - in modern parlance - forensic...
. He claimed to have invented the inverted detective story
Inverted detective story
An inverted detective story, also known as a "howdhecatchem", is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery...
(a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective's attempt to solve the mystery) and used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
in his novels.
A large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke
Dr Thorndyke
Dr John Evelyn Thorndyke is a fictional detective in a long series of novels and short stories by R. Austin Freeman . Thorndyke was described by his author as a 'medical jurispractitioner': originally a medical doctor, he turned to the bar and became one of the first - in modern parlance - forensic...
stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine
Tropical medicine
Tropical medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with health problems that occur uniquely, are more widespread, or prove more difficult to control in tropical and subtropical regions....
, metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
and toxicology
Toxicology
Toxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...
.
Early life
Austin Freeman was the youngest of the five children of tailor Richard Freeman and Ann Maria Dunn. He first trained as an apothecaryApothecary
Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....
and then studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
at Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital
The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, United Kingdom. First opened in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites...
, qualifying in 1887. The same year he married Annie Elizabeth with whom he had two sons. He entered the Colonial Service
Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Secretary of State for the Colonies or Colonial Secretary was the British Cabinet minister in charge of managing the United Kingdom's various colonial dependencies....
and was sent to Accra
Accra
Accra is the capital and largest city of Ghana, with an urban population of 1,658,937 according to the 2000 census. Accra is also the capital of the Greater Accra Region and of the Accra Metropolitan District, with which it is coterminous...
on the Gold Coast
Gold Coast (British colony)
The Gold Coast was a British colony on the Gulf of Guinea in west Africa that became the independent nation of Ghana in 1957.-Overview:The first Europeans to arrive at the coast were the Portuguese in 1471. They encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial...
.
Career
In 1891 he returned to LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
after suffering from blackwater fever
Blackwater fever
Blackwater fever is a complication of malaria in which red blood cells burst in the bloodstream , releasing hemoglobin directly into the blood vessels and into the urine, frequently leading to kidney failure...
but was unable to find a permanent medical position, and so decided to settle down in Gravesend and earn money from writing fiction, while continuing to practice medicine. His first stories were written in collaboration with Dr John James Pitcairn (1860-1936), medical officer at Holloway Prison and published under the nom de plume "Clifford Ashdown". His first Thorndyke story, The Red Thumb Mark, was published in 1907 and shortly afterwards he pioneered the inverted detective story
Inverted detective story
An inverted detective story, also known as a "howdhecatchem", is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery...
, in which the identity of the criminal is shown from the beginning: some short stories with this feature were collected in The Singing Bone in 1912. During the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
he served as a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps
Royal Army Medical Corps
The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...
and afterwards produced a Thorndyke novel almost every year until his death in 1943.
Freeman claimed to have invented the inverted detective story
Inverted detective story
An inverted detective story, also known as a "howdhecatchem", is a murder mystery fiction structure in which the commission of the crime is shown or described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator. The story then describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery...
in his 1912 collection of short stories The Singing Bone. "Some years ago I devised, as an experiment, an inverted detective story in two parts. The first part was a minute and detailed description of a crime, setting forth the antecedents, motives, and all attendant circumstances. The reader had seen the crime committed, knew all about the criminal, and was in possession of all the facts. It would have seemed that there was nothing left to tell, but I calculated that the reader would be so occupied with the crime that he would overlook the evidence. And so it turned out. The second part, which described the investigation of the crime, had to most readers the effect of new matter."
Critical reception
"Indicative of his power is the fact that Mr. Polton Explains, in some ways his best novel, was written in part in a bomb shelter in 1939, when Freeman was 77 years old. ... For the first twenty-five years of his career, at least, he dominated the world of British detective fiction. ... Freeman was always in the forefront of the form. Today, with ChestertonG. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
, who is remembered for other reasons, he is one of the very few Edwardian detective story writers who are still read."
"Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
, whose essay 'The Simple Art of Murder
The Simple Art of Murder
"The Simple Art of Murder" refers to both a critical essay and a collection of short stories written by hard-boiled detective fiction author Raymond Chandler. The essay was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in December 1944...
' did much toward demolishing the classical detective story, had this to say in a letter to Hamish Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton
Hamish Hamilton Limited was a British book publishing house, founded in 1931 eponymously by the half-Scot half-American Jamie Hamilton . Confusingly, Jamie Hamilton was often referred to as Hamish Hamilton...
, the British publisher: 'This man Austin Freeman is a wonderful performer. He has no equal in his genre, and he is also a much better writer than you might think, if you were superficially inclined, because in spite of the immense leisure of his writing, he accomplishes an even suspense which is quite unexpected ... There is even a gaslight charm about his Victorian love affairs, and those wonderful walks across London ...' Most of us agree with Chandler."
Thorndyke novels and story collections
- The Red Thumb Mark (1907)
- John Thorndyke's Cases (1909), published in the USA as Dr. Thorndyke's Cases [story collection]
- The Eye of Osiris (1911), published in the USA as The Vanishing Man
- The Mystery of 31 New Inn (1912)
- The Singing Bone (1912), published in the USA as The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke [story collection]
- A Silent Witness (1914)
- Helen Vardon's Confession (1922)
- The Cat's Eye (1923)
- Dr. Thorndyke's Casebook (1923), published in the USA as The Blue Scarab [story collection]
- The Mystery of Angelina Frood (1924)
- The Shadow of the Wolf (1925)
- The Puzzle Lock (1925) [story collection]
- The D'Arblay Mystery (1926)
- A Certain Dr. Thorndyke (1927)
- The Magic Casket (1927) [story collection]
- As A Thief in the Night (1928)
- The Famous Cases of Dr. Thorndyke (1928), published in the USA as The Dr Thorndyke Omnibus [These two volumes differ in the number and arrangement of stories].
- Mr. Pottermack's Oversight (1930)
- Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke (1931)
- When Rogues Fall Out (1932), published in the USA as Dr. Thorndyke's Discovery
- Dr. Thorndyke Intervenes (1933)
- For the Defence: Dr. Thorndyke (1934)
- The Penrose Mystery (1936)
- Felo de Se (1937), published in the USA as Death At The Inn
- The Stoneware Monkey (1938)
- Mr. Polton Explains (1940)
- Dr. Thorndyke's Crime File (1941) -- omnibus including "Meet Dr. Thorndyke" (essay), The Eye of Osiris (novel), "The Art of the Detective Story" (essay), The Mystery of Angelina Frood (novel), "5A King's Bench Walk" (essay), and Mr. Pottermack's Oversight (novel).
- The Jacob Street Mystery (1942), published in the USA as The Unconscious Witness
The short-story collections are:
- John Thorndyke's Cases (1909) (published in the United States as Dr. Thorndyke's Cases).
- The Singing Bone (1912) (published in the United States as The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke).
- Dr. Thorndyke's Casebook (1923) (published in the United States as The Blue Scarab)
- The Puzzle Lock (1925)
- The Magic Casket (1927)
These five collections contain together 38 from the below mentioned 40 stories. The two other Thorndyke stories were published in The Great Portrait Mystery and other stories (1918). This book contains 7 stories, but only two about Thorndyke. The titles of the 2 Thorndyke stories are The missing mortgagee and Percival Bland's proxy.
Two different omnibus editions of the collected Dr. Thorndyke short stories exist. The British edition is R. Austin Freeman, The Famous Cases of Dr. Thorndyke: Thirty-seven of His Criminal Investigations as set down by R. Austin Freeman (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1929 and later reprintings). The American edition is R. Austin Freeman, The Dr. Thorndyke Omnibus: 38 of His Criminal Investigations as set down by R. Austin Freeman (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1932 and later reprintings). The American edition includes one story, "The Mandarin's Pearl," printed in the first Thorndyke short-story collection, John Thorndyke's Cases, but omitted from the British omnibus. Two other stories, though also appearing in the first Dr. Thorndyke short-story collection, John Thorndyke's Cases, were omitted from the British and American editions of the omnibus collection: "The Man with the Nailed Shoes" and "A Message from the Deep Sea."
The order in the list appearing below is that of the American edition, which reprinted the five collections of stories in the following order (with two omissions noted below): The Singing Bone [UK 01-04], The Great Portrait Mystery and other stories [UK 05-06], The Singing Bone [UK 07], Dr. Thorndyke's Cases, The Magic Casket, The Puzzle Lock, and The Blue Scarab. The British edition gives the stories in a different order from that of the American edition, indicated below by a bracketed note appearing after each story title giving its place in the British edition, denoted by the abbreviation UK and a two-digit number.
The first six stories of the list are "inverted" detective stories, divided into two parts; in the first part of each story, Freeman presented an account of the commission of crime, and then, in the second part, he presented an account, as told by Thorndyke's colleague Dr. Christopher Jervis, of Dr. Thorndyke's solution of the crime. These inverted stories are generally deemed by critics and scholars of the field to be his most creative contributions to the writing of detective stories, but the remaining stories, called "direct" stories, are also well-wrought and entertaining.
A modern publisher, Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box is an independent, Canadian literary publisher, founded in 1993 by George A. Vanderburgh. Based in Shelburne, Ontario, and in Sauk City, Wisconsin, the company is headed by George Vanderburgh....
, has issued a 10-volume edition of the complete works of R. Austin Freeman, including all the Thorndyke novels and short stories. It is available upon order.
- The Case of Oscar Brodski [UK 01]
- A Case of Premeditation [UK 02]
- The Echo of a Mutiny [UK 03]
- A Wastrel's Romance [UK 04]
- The Missing Mortgagee [UK 05]
- Percival Bland's Proxy [UK 06]
- The Old Lag [UK 07]
- The Stranger's Latchkey [UK 08]
- The Anthropologist at Large [UK 09]
- The Blue Sequin [UK 10]
- The Moabite Cipher [UK 11]
- The Mandarin's Pearl [omitted from British edition]
- The Aluminium Dagger [UK 12]
- The Magic Casket [UK 13]
- The Case of the White Footprints [UK 31]
- The Blue Scarab [UK 32]
- The New Jersey Sphinx [UK 33]
- The Touchstone [UK 34]
- A Fisher of Men [UK 35]
- The Stolen Ingots [UK 36]
- The Funeral Pyre [UK 37]
- The Puzzle Lock [UK 22]
- The Green Check Jacket [UK 23]
- The Seal of Nebuchadnezzar [UK 24]
- Phyllis Annesley's Peril [UK 25]
- A Sower of Pestilence [UK 26]
- Rex v. Burnaby [UK 27]
- A Mystery of the Sand-hills [UK 28]
- The Apparition of Burling Court [UK 29]
- The Mysterious Visitor [UK 30]
- The Contents of a Mare's Nest [UK 14]
- The Stalking Horse [UK 15]
- The Naturalist at Law [UK 16]
- Mr. Ponting's Alibi [UK 17]
- Pandora's Box [UK 18]
- The Trail of Behemoth [UK 19]
- The Pathologist to the Rescue [UK 20]
- Gleanings from the Wreckage [UK 21]
- The Man with the Nailed Shoes [omitted from both omnibus editions]
- A Message from the Deep Sea [omitted from both omnibus editions]
There also exist two other Thorndyke stories, which were uncollected during his lifetime. 31, New Inn (circa 1905) is a short story, later completely rewritten as a full-length novel, The Mystery of 31 New Inn. Other people suggest 1911 as year of publication. The other short story is The Dead Hand (1912) that was later developed into the novel The Shadow of the Wolf.
31, New Inn was published in The Best Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories (1973), edited by E.F. Bleiler, and in volume I of the Freeman omnibus, published by Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box is an independent, Canadian literary publisher, founded in 1993 by George A. Vanderburgh. Based in Shelburne, Ontario, and in Sauk City, Wisconsin, the company is headed by George Vanderburgh....
. The Dead Hand was published in The Dead Hand and Other Uncollected Stories, edited by Douglas G. Greene and Tony Medawar (Shelburne, Ontario: The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1999). The Dead Hand is also published in Detection by Gaslight, 14 Victorian detective stories, an anthology by Douglas Greene (Dover. 1997).
Other novels and collections
- The Adventures of Romney Pringle, with John Pitcairn, as Clifford Ashdown (1902)
- The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle, with John Pitcairn, as Clifford Ashdown (1903 in Cassell's Magazine; first book publication, 1970)
- From a Surgeon's Diary, with John Pitcairn, as Clifford Ashdown (1904-5 in Cassell's Magazine; first book publication, 1977)
- The Golden Pool: A Story of a Forgotten Mine (1905)
- The Unwilling Adventurer (1913)
- The Uttermost Farthing (1914 in the USA, only; first British publication, 1920, as "A Savant's Vendetta")
- The Exploits of Danby Croker (1916)
- The Great Portrait Mystery (1918)
- The Surprising Experiences of Mr Shuttlebury Cobb (1927)
- Flighty Phyllis (1928)
- The Queen's Treasure, with John Pitcairn, as Clifford Ashdown (written around 1905/6, but not published until 1975)
Radio adaptation
In 2011 the BBC aired a radio adaptation of some of the Thorndyke short stories, Thorndyke: Forensic Investigator, read by Jim NortonJim Norton (actor)
Jim Norton is an Irish character actor.-Performances:Jim Norton has been acting for over forty years in theatre, television, and movies, and frequently plays clergymen, most notably Bishop Brennan in the sitcom Father Ted, as well as in The Sweeney , Peak Practice , Sunset Heights , A Love Divided...
, on BBC Radio 4 Extra.http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0178gsv