Writer/journalist Jacques Futrelle was born in Pike County, GA, in
1875. After graduating from high school, he held a variety of
jobs--including theater manager--but finally secured a position in the
editorial department of the Boston "American" newspaper. While there he
wrote a series of short stories, which were eventually published. He
began a series of detective novels, "The Thinking Machine", featuring
Prof. Augustus Van Deusen, a professor at an American university who
used his intellect to solve crimes. Van Densen first appeared in the
closing chapters of an adventure serial Futrelle wrote, "The Case of
the Golden Plate", in 1906. The series was featured in several magazine
articles, and the stories were later published in two volumes of
collections.
Futurelle was one of the passengers on the SS Titanic, which sank on
April 15, 1912. He did not survive.
