VERY FEW MYSTERY STORIES have been reprinted as often, or as deservedly, as “The Problem of Cell 13,” the masterpiece by Jacques Futrelle (1875–1912) that introduced one of the great detectives of American literature, Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, better known by the sobriquet given to him by admirers: The Thinking Machine.
Futrelle’s reputation stands on this single story although he wrote forty-four other stories about the irascible little scientist, as well as many other stories and novels about different detectives. “The Problem of Cell 13” is the first story to be published about The Thinking Machine, but Futrelle’s wife, May, also a writer, stated that he wrote The Chase of the Golden Plate, a short novel about the detective, a year earlier. It was published in 1906, whereas the short story made its first appearance in the pages of the Boston American on October 30, 1905. It was there that Van Dusen issued his challenge, declaring that he could escape from any prison merely by using his exceptional brain. This intriguing situation turned out to be a temporary frustration for readers because the story was published as a serial in six parts. It took the form of a contest with one hundred dollars in prize money offered to the reader who came up with the best solution to the apparently insoluble predicament. The contest began on a Monday and concluded on Sunday, presumably so judges could read and grade the submissions, though it is not entirely impossible that skipping an installment on Saturday was an encouragement to buy the more expensive Sunday edition. The fifty-dollar first prize was won by a gentleman named P. C. Hosmer, who was never again heard from in the world of mystery fiction.
“The Problem of Cell 13” was first collected in book form in The Thinking Machine (New York, Dodd, Mead, 1907).