THE THINKING MACHINE ...
New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1907. pp. [1-6] 1-342, four inserted plates with illustrations by the Kinneys, original black cloth, front panel stamped in red, white and gray, spine panel stamped in red. First edition. Futrelle's best and most popular collection of detective stories featuring one of the great scientific detectives, professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, who solves his cases with applied logic. Collects seven stories including the famous "The Problem of Cell 13," Van Dusen's first case. The stories "are properly deductions, though Van Dusen's methods verge on SF." - Clute and Nicholls (eds), The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1993), p. 456. Clareson, Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s 319 (noting that these stories "should not be regarded as science fiction or fantasy"). A Haycraft-Queen cornerstone. Queen's Quorum 38. Barzun and Taylor, A Catalogue of Crime 2529. Queen, The Detective Short Story, p. 45. Hubin, p. 310. Some mild edge rubs, a nearly fine to fine copy. (25253). Item #25253
Price: $1,000.00