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R. Austin Freeman

March 20, 2024

For other uses, see Austin Freeman.

Dr. Richard Austin Freeman MRCS LSA (11 April 1862 – 28 September 1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. He invented the inverted detective story (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). This invention has been described as Freeman's most notable contribution to detective fiction.[1]: 30  Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels. Many of the Dr. Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but sometimes arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology.

Richard Austin Freeman
Born(1862-04-11)11 April 1862
Soho, London, England
Died28 September 1943(1943-09-28) (aged 81)
Gravesend, Kent, England
NationalityEnglish
Other namesR. Austin Freeman
Occupation(s)Medical Doctor and fiction writer
Years active1887 – 1943
Known forHis fictional detective, Dr. John Thorndyke
Notable workMr Pottermark's Oversight

Early life edit

Austin Freeman was the youngest of the five children of tailor Richard Freeman and Ann Maria Dunn. At the age of 18 he entered the medical school of the Middlesex Hospital and qualified MRCS and LSA in 1886.[2][note 1]

After qualifying, Freeman spent a year as a house physician at the hospital. He married his childhood sweetheart Annie Elizabeth Edwards in London on 15 April 1887,[4] and the couple later had two sons. He then entered the Colonial Service in 1887 as an assistant surgeon. He served for a time in Keta, Ghana, in 1887 during which time he dealt with an epidemic of black water fever which killed forty per cent of the European population at that port.[5] He had six months of leave[note 2] from mid 1888 and returned to Accra on the Gold Coast just in time to volunteer for the post of medical officer on the planned expedition to Ashanti and Jaman.[6]

Freeman was the doctor, naturalist and surveyor[note 3] for the expedition to Ashanti and Jaman, two independent states in the Gold Coast. The expedition set out from Accra on 8 December 1888, with a band consisting of a band-master and six boys playing two side drums and five fifes,[7] three European officers (the Commissioner, Freeman and the Officer in Charge of the Constables), one Native officer, 100 Hausa constables, a gunners' party with a rocket trough, an apothecary, apothecary's assistant, a hospital orderly, and 200 bearers.[8] The expedition went first to Kumasi (or Coolmassie as it appears in older accounts), the capital of the then independent kingdom of Ashanti. Their second port of call was Bondoukou, Ivory Coast, where they arrived only to find that the king had just signed a protectorate treaty with the French.

However, the expedition was a political failure as the British spokesman blurted out in front of the chiefs that the British were willing to supply a loan of £400 which the king had requested.[note 4] However the King had requested this loan with the proviso that it be kept secret from his chiefs. He therefore denied any knowledge of it and the expedition moved on to Bontúku, the capital of Jaman. Here they were left cooling their heels while the King there finalised a treaty with the French, who had been quicker off the mark. The expedition was recalled after five months.[9] Bleiler asserts, without any supporting evidence, that "It was mostly through Freeman's intelligence and tact that the expedition was not massacred".[10][note 5] Although the mission overall was a failure, the collection of data by Freeman was a success, and his future in the colonial service seemed assured. Unfortunately, he became ill with blackwater fever and was invalided home in 1891, being discharged from the service two months before the minimum qualification period for a pension.[4]

Career edit

Thus, he returned to London in 1891, and around 1892 served as temporary Acting Surgeon in Charge of the Throat and Ear Department at Middlesex Hospital.[12] He was in general practice in London for about five years.[2] He was appointed acting Deputy Medical Officer of Holloway Prison in about 1901, and Acting Assistant Medical Officer of the Port of London in 1904.[12] A year later he suffered a complete breakdown in his health and gave up medicine for writing.[2]

His first successful stories were the Romney Pringle rogue stories[13] written in collaboration with John James Pitcairn (1860–1936), medical officer at Holloway Prison. Some were published first in Australia, under the joint pen name of Ralph J. Jay, and all of them were serialised under another pseudonym, "Clifford Ashdown" in Cassell's Magazine in 1902 and 1903.

In 1905 Freeman published his first solo novel, The Golden Pool, with the background drawn from his own time in West Africa. The protagonist is a young Englishman who steals a fetish treasure. Barzun and Taylor make the point that while this is a crime, the book was not regarded as crime fiction as "according to old notions" stealing things from Africans "is no crime".[14][note 6] Bleiler wrote that "it is a colorful, thrilling story, all the more unusual in being ethnographically accurate" and that "it used to be required reading for members of the British colonial services in Africa."[13][15]

Freeman's first Thorndyke story, The Red Thumb Mark, was published in 1907, and shortly afterwards he pioneered the inverted detective story, 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, he served as an induction physician[13] and a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and afterwards produced a Thorndyke novel almost every year until his death in 1943.[16]

Later life edit

Freeman briefly stopped writing at the outbreak of the Second World War, but then resumed writing in an air-raid shelter he had built in his garden. Freeman was plagued by Parkinson's disease in his later years.[17] This makes his achievement all the more remarkable, as in his declining years he wrote both Mr. Polton Explains, which Bleiler says "... is in some ways his best novel",[10] and The Jacob Street Mystery (1942) in which Roberts considers that Thorndyke "is at his analytical best."[1]: 32-33  He was living at 94, Windmill Street, Gravesend, Kent when he died on 28 September 1943.[note 7] His estate was valued at £6,471 5s 11d.[22] Freeman was buried in the old Gravesend and Milton Cemetery at Gravesend. The Thorndyke File [note 8] started a funding drive to erect a granite marker for Freeman's grave, and this was erected in September 1979, with the text: Richard Austin Freeman, 1862 – 1943, Physician and Author, Erected by the friends of "Dr. Thorndyke", 1979.[23][24]

Political views edit

 
The Uttermost Farthing cover, illustrated by H. Weston Taylor

Freeman held conservative political views.[25] In his 1921 book Social Decay and Regeneration Freeman put forth the view that mechanization had flooded Britain with poor-quality goods and created a "homogenized, restless, unionized working class".[25] Freeman supported the eugenics movement and argued that people with "undesirable" biological traits should be prevented from breeding through "segregation, marriage restriction, and sterilization".[26] The book also attacked the British Labour movement and criticised the British government for permitting immigrants (whom Freeman referred to as "Sub-Man") to settle in Britain. Social Decay and Regeneration referred to the Russian Revolution as "the Russian catastrophe" and argued that society needed to protected from "degenerates of the destructive or "Bolshevik type."[27] Sections of Social Decay and Regeneration were reprinted in Eugenics Review, the journal of the British Eugenics Society.[28]

Anti-Semitism edit

Freeman's views on Jewish people were complex stereotypes. They are clearly set out in his eugenicist book Social Decay and Regeneration (1921). Here Freeman states that of vulgarity "the only ancient peoples who exhibited it on an appreciable scale were the Jews and especially the Phoenician."[29] Freeman notes that a large proportion of the "Alien Unfit" crowding the East End of London, "largely natives of Eastern Europe" are Jews. However, the criticism is of the poor rather than of Jews overall as these unfit aliens were "far from being the elect of their respective races".[30] Freeman regards that, through restricting marriage with non-Jews, Jews as having practised racial segregation "for thousands of years with the greatest success and with very evident benefit to the race".[31] Not surprisingly, some of these views spill over into his fiction.

Grost states that Helen Vardon's Confession (1922) "is another bad Freeman novel suffering from offensive racial stereotypes".[32] Helen Vardon is blackmailed into marrying the fat, old, money-lender Otway, who was "distinctly Semitic in appearance", and is surrounded by Jews, to save her father from prison. Otway acts in bad faith, and is grasping, keeping only one servant despite his great wealth. The whole plot is a gratuitously offensive anti-Semitic stereotype.[citation needed] Grost also states that the use of racial stereotypes in The D'Arblay Mystery (1926) "marks it as a low point in Freeman's fiction".[32] However, the villain is not Jewish at all, and the only question of stereotypes comes up in the questions about whether the villain's (false) hooked nose is "a curved Jewish type, or a squarer Roman nose?" There are no anti-Semitic tropes in the book, no grasping money-lender etc. Grost describes Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke (1931), as degenerating into "another of Freeman's anti-Semitic diatribes". In this novel the villains are largely Jewish, and come from the community of "unfit aliens" that Freeman lambastes in Social Decay and Regeneration.[32]

Such offensive representations of Jews in fiction were typical of the time. Rubinstein and Jolles note that while the work of many of the leading detective story writers, such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Freeman, featured many gratuitously negative depictions of stereotyped Jewish characters, this ended with the rise of Hitler, and they then portrayed Jews and Jewish refugees in a sympathetic light.[33] Thus with Freeman, the later novels no longer present such gratuitously offensive racial stereotypes, but present Jews much more positively.

In When Rogues Fall Out (1932) Mr. Toke describes the Jewish cabinetmaker Levy as "A most excellent workman and a thoroughly honest man", high praise from Freeman's pen. The counsel for Dolby the burglar, "a good-looking Jew named Lyon" executes a particularly brilliant defence of his client which Thorndyke admires. In Felo de Se; or Death at the Inn (1937) the croupier is described as "a pleasant-faced Jew, calm, impassive and courteous, though obviously very much 'on the spot'". In The Stoneware Monkey (1938), Thorndyke is using a young Jewish man as his messenger. In Mr Polton Explains (1938), Polton is assisted first by the Jewish watchmaker Abraham and then by the Jewish solicitor Cohen, who comes to Polton's aid not once but twice, not only representing him without cost, but feeding him and lending him money without interest or term.

Critical assessment edit

Freeman was a significant author of detective fiction in his day. He was most famous for his creation of Dr. Thorndyke, and many of the obituaries recording his death referred to this in the headlines. Thus the Birmingham Daily Gazette announced "'Dr. Thorndyke' Creator Dead",[34] the Belfast News-Letter announced "Obituary Dr. R. A. Freeman, Creator of 'Dr. Thorndyke'",[35] and the Evening Star (Dunedin) announced "Obituary: Creator of Dr. Thorndyke".[36]

Critical comment has tended to concentrate on four aspects of Thorndyke: Freeman's quality as a writer; the close attention to logic, scientific accuracy and methods in his stories; the invention of the inverted detective story, and comparisons with Sherlock Holmes. The Times considered that the second and third of these were what singled Freeman "out from the ruck".[2]

Writing edit

In Bloody Murder, Julian Symons wrote that Freeman's "... talents as a writer were negligible. Reading a Freeman story is very much like chewing dry straw."[37] Symons then went on to criticise the way in which Thorndyke spoke. De Blacam also noted Thorndyke's "ponderous legal phraseology".[38] However, that pedantic ponderousness is the nature of Thorndyke's character. He is a barrister and used to weighing his words carefully. He never discusses his analysis until he has built the whole picture. Others do not agree with his assessment of Freeman's writing skills. Raymond Chandler, in a 13 December 1949 letter to Hamish Hamilton said: "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."[39]

Binyon also rates Freeman's writing as inferior to Doyle saying "Thorndyke might be the superior detective, Conan Doyle is undeniably the better writer."[40] The Birmingham Daily Post considered that "Mr. Austin Freeman was not, perhaps, among the finer artists of the short story, and his longer stories could limp, sometimes" but that his approach was very effective.[41]

However, de Blacam makes the point that, quite apart from the description of the investigation, each of the descriptions of the crimes in the inverted stories "was a fine piece of descriptive writing".[42] Grost agrees that "Freeman's descriptive writing is excellent" [32] Adey finds that: "Freeman's writing, though lacking Doyle's atmospheric touch, was clear and concise, with dry humor and a keen eye for deductive detail."[43] Adams agreed that Freeman had considerable powers of narrative description when he stated that "Nothing but the author's remarkable skill in character delineation and graphic narrative" could save his stories from being regarded as technical studies for a course on forensic medicine.[44]

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and Bleiler noted in 1973 that Freeman "... is one of the very few Edwardian detective story writers who are still read".[10]

The inverted story edit

Nowadays, the inverted detective story, where we first witness the crime and then watch the attempt to solve it, is commonplace. For example, this is the format of almost every episode of the television detective series Columbo starring Peter Falk. However, this approach was an innovation in November 1910 when Freeman's "Oscar Brodski" appeared in Pearson's Magazine.[45] and immediately attracted attention. The Northern Whig said that "Oscar Brodski" was "one of the most powerful detective stories we have ever read".[46] Bleiler said that this story "has always been considered one of the landmarks in the history of the detective story". [47]

In his essay The Art of the Detective Story Freeman wrote that in the inverted story: "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."[48] However, Binyon notes that Freeman is being too modest here, and that it was Freeman's art that kept the reader's attention in the second part.[47]

Reviewers approved of Freeman's inverted tales. The Scotsman said that Freeman had "... proved that a tale which tells the story of the crime first, leaving us to follow the sleuth as he tracks the criminal down, may be at least as absorbing as the old yarns which left us in the dark until the end".[49] Rodgers noted that "Great narrative skill is needed in order to keep the reader's interest" in a story where the crime if revealed at that start and that there have been imitators "Freeman alone stands as not only the originator, but as the most successful proponent of this form of detective fiction".[1]: 30-32 

Precision of logic, facts, and method edit

Freeman paid a great deal of attention to details, and carried out the experiments described in his books to ensure that they worked and would give the expected results. He also went to the trouble of visiting the places he wrote about so that the details in his descriptions were correct.[50] De Balcam says that "Freeman displays a mastery of craftsmanship" in every story, and that he always used the language of the trade concerned. Freeman is "a man who writes of things that he has seen, handled and understood, and not of things that he has met only in print, or in a hazy, inattentive observation". This is a critical aspect of Freeman - he tested the methods he used. The top floor of his house was a workshop and laboratory,[51] and his books sometimes included drawings or micrographs[note 9] illustrating the evidence.

One instance that shows that the methods and approaches described by Freeman were practicable lies in the prosecution of an apprentice from Barrow for coining. The apprentice had followed a method described in one of the Danby Croker stories by Freeman, and had produced a number of sovereigns that he had successfully passed.[52]

The Birmingham Post noted that his attention to forensic science was fuller and "certainly more systematically than any other writer of detective stories" and that the accuracy of his stories gained him "an exceptionally large proportion of readers of the more exacting and less easily satisfied type".[41]

On logic Adams stated that to read Freeman's cases intelligently "... implies a definite exercise in the use of 'Mill's Canons of Inductive Logic'" and the books offered a very practical means of testing students' understanding of the canons.[44] Herbert notes that Thorndyke's reasoning "... is distinguished by its rigorous logic".[53] Thorndyke, like his creator, was a medical man and also a barrister, and "combined his legal and medical training into a personage of willful dominance, impeccable logic, and scholarly and comprehensive inductive reasoning".[1]: 27 

Comparisons with Sherlock Holmes edit

Inevitably, commentators compared Thorndyke with Holmes. Binyon says that Thorndyke stands out from the other late Victorian and early Edwardian detectives in being a rival to Sherlock Holmes, rather than just owing their existence to his success. "Thorndyke is the most impressive and the most intellectually powerful of fictional detectives."[54] Poupard notes that "In critical comparisons with Holmes, Dr. Thorndyke is deemed the more accurate thinker and ranked superior as a scientific authority, whereas Holmes is considered the superior literary creation".[55] One immediate clue to the difference between Thorndyke and Holmes, is that Holmes calls his inductive reasoning deduction,[56] a mistake that Thorndyke would never make. Binyon notes that Holmes often makes factual errors, referring to the blue carbuncle as crystallised charcoal, when it contains no carbon, and referring to non-existent species or martial arts.[57]

Ward compares how Holmes deals with a hat as a clue in Doyle's short story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (1892) with how Thorndyke treats a similar clue in Freeman's short story The Anthropologist at Large (1909). After examining the hat, Holmes declares that:

  1. The man is intellectual – as he has a large head size.
  2. That he was once well to do, but is no longer – as the hat was an expensive style from three years ago that is now shabby.
  3. That he was a man of foresight, but has suffered moral retrogression, probably due to drink – as the hat has had a safety guard fitted to it, but the owner has failed to renew the elastic.
  4. That he is middle-aged, has grizzled hair which had recently been cut and that he used lime cream – from an examination of the lining
  5. That his wife has ceased to love him – as the hat has not been brushed for weeks (there is other evidence that he is married).
  6. That he probably does not have town-gas in his house – as there are several tallow stains, presumably from guttering candles, on the hat.

For his part, the first observation that Thorndyke makes is that hats often change owners over their lives, so one needs to interpret the evidence with caution. This immediately explodes at least the second and third of Holmes's conclusions. Thorndyke then induces that:

  1. The man is Japanese – from the shape of the head, as the hat has clearly been steamed to fit a particular head, and from a hair sample, which matches Japanese rather than European or African hair.
  2. That he works at a mother of pearl factory – due to the large amount of pearl shell dust inside the hat. At the time, this business was largely carried out by Japanese and Chinese immigrants.
  3. That he is a decent orderly man – as there is no accumulation of dust on the outside of his hat.

Ward notes that Thorndyke's conclusions are sound, less capricious, and more practical, and allow Thorndyke to track his man down, whereas Holmes has to advertise to find his.[58]

Herbert notes that in comparison to Holmes, "Thorndyke has no eccentricities, and his reasoning, unlike that of his contemporary, is distinguished by its rigorous logic – considered purely as a detective, he is perhaps the most impressive of all fictional sleuths". [53]

Bibliography edit

Longer works by Freeman including collaborations edit

The following list is based on:

  • The entries for Freeman, and the pseudonym, Clifford Ashdown, for his collaboration with John James Pitcairn in the Jisc Library Hub Discover catalogue.[note 10]
  • The list of Freeman titles in Make Mine a Mystery by G. W. Neibuhr[61]
  • The list of Freeman and Ashdown titles in A Catalogue of Crime by Barzun and Taylor.[62][63][64]
  • The list provided in the Dictionary of Literary Biography by John McAleer.[65]
  • The list in the Crime Fiction 1749-1980: A Bibliography, by Hubin.[66][67]
Longer works written by Freeman including short story collections and non-fiction.
Ser UK Pub Thorndyke Other Author Pages First publication Other Publication Notes
1 1893 A Journey to Bontúku : In the Interior of West Africa p. [117]-146, illus., fold. Map, 25 cm. Lon: Royal Geographical Society [note 11]
2 1898 Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman xx, 559p., fs., ill., maps (1 fold.), 24 cm. Lon: Constable NY: Stokes [note 12]
3 1902 The Adventures of Romney Pringle, etc. Romney Pringle J. J. Pitcairn 198 p, 1pl., 8º Lon: Ward Lock Phil.: Train (1968) [note 13]
4 1905 The Golden Pool: A Story of a Forgotten Mine vii, 341, 8, 8 p., 8º Lon: Cassell NY: Cassell [note 14]
5 1907 The Red Thumb Mark Yes 232 p., 8º Lon: Collingwood NY: Newton (1911) [note 15]
6 1909 John Thorndyke's Cases (Dr. Thorndyke's Cases in US) Yes 246p., ill., plan, 8vo. Lon: Chatto & Windus NY: Dodd, Mead (1931) [note 16]
7 1911 The Eye of Osiris (The Vanishing Man in US) Yes viii, 304, 8 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 17]
8 1912 The Mystery of 31, New Inn Yes xii, 311 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton Phil.: Winston (1913) [note 18]
9 1912 The Singing Bone Yes 312 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Hodder and Stoughton [note 19]
10 1913 The Unwilling Adventurer 389 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Hodder and Stoughton [note 20]
11 1914 The Uttermost Farthing: A Savant's Vendetta 296 p., 8º Phil.: Winston Lon: Pearson (1920) [note 21]
12 1914 A Silent Witness Yes (6), 316 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton Phil.: Winston (1915) [note 22]
13 1916 The Exploits of Danby Croker 307 p., 8º Lon: Duckworth [note 23]
14 1918 The Great Portrait Mystery Yes 318 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton [note 24]
15 1921 Social Decay and Regeneration xx, 345 p ; 24 cm. Lon: Constable Boston & NY: Houghton Mifflin [note 25]
16 1922 Helen Vardon's Confession Yes 335 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton [note 26]
17 1923 Dr. Thorndyke's Case-Book (The Blue Scarab in the US) Yes 317 p., 8º NY: Dodd Mead, (1924) [note 27]
18 1923 The Cat's Eye Yes 304 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead (1927) [note 28]
19 1924 The Mystery of Angelina Frood Yes 320 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead (1925) [note 29]
20 1925 The Puzzle Lock Yes 320 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead (1926) [note 30]
21 1925 The Shadow of the Wolf Yes 320 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 31]
22 1926 The D'Arblay Mystery Yes 312 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 32]
23 1927 The Magic Casket Yes 309 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 33]
24 1927 A Certain Dr. Thorndyke Yes 310 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead (1927) [note 34]
25 1927 The Surprising Experiences of Mr. Shuttlebury Cobb 281 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton [note 35]
26 1928 As a Thief in the Night Yes 320 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 36]
27 1928 Flighty Phyllis 315 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton [note 37]
28 1929 The Famous Cases of Dr. Thorndyke Yes viii, 1080 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton [note 38]
29 1930 Dr. Thorndyke Investigates Yes 159 p., 8º Lon: Univ. of Lon. Press [note 39]
30 1930 Mr. Pottermack's Oversight Yes 319 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 40]
31 1931 Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke Yes 320 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 41]
32 1932 When Rogues Fall Out (Dr. Thorndyke's Discovery in US) Yes 320 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 42]
33 1933 Dr. Thorndyke Intervenes Yes 317 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton [note 43]
34 1934 For the Defence: Dr. Thorndyke Yes 319 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 44]
35 1936 The Penrose Mystery Yes 317 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 45]
36 1937 Felo De Se? (Death at the Inn in the US) Yes 315 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 46]
37 1938 The Stoneware Monkey Yes 288 p., 2pl.: ill., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead (1939) [note 47]
38 1940 Mr. Polton Explains Yes 285 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 48]
39 1941 Dr. Thorndyke's Crime File: A Selection of His Most Celebrated Cases Yes xv p., 344 p., 16 p., 312 p., 18 p., 338 p., 8º NY: Dodd, Mead [note 49]
40 1942 The Jacob Street mystery (The Unconscious Witness in the US) Yes 286 p., 8º Lon: Hodder & Stoughton NY: Dodd, Mead [note 50]
41 1969 The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle Romney Pringle J. J. Pitcairn 216 p., 8º Phil.: Train [note 51]
42 1973 The Best Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories, with an introduction by E. F. Bleiler Yes ix, 274 p., 8º NY: Dover [note 52]
43 1973 The Stoneware Monkey & The Penrose Mystery: Two Dr.Thorndyke Novels by R. Austin Freeman, with a new Introduction by E. F. Bleiler Yes viii, 440, 15, 8º NY: Dover [note 53]
44 1975 From a Surgeon's Diary Romney Pringle J. J. Pitcairn 56 p., 8º Lon: Ferret Fantasy Phil.: Train (1977) [note 54]
45 1975 The Queen's Treasure J. J. Pitcairn 238 p., 8º Phil.: Train [note 55]
46 1999 The Other Eye of Osiris Yes x, 253 p. : ill., 1 port., 8º Shelburne: Battered Box [note 56]

Detailed content of short-story collections edit

  • John Thorndyke's Cases (1909) (published in the United States as Dr. Thorndyke's Cases)
  1. The Man with the Nailed Shoes
  2. The Stranger's Latchkey
  3. The Anthropologist at Large
  4. The Blue Sequin
  5. The Moabite Cipher
  6. The Mandarin's Pearl
  7. The Aluminum Dagger
  8. A Message from the Deep Sea
  • The Singing Bone (1912) (published in the United States as The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke)
  1. The Case of Oscar Brodski (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Mechanism of Crime
    2. Part II. The Mechanism of Detection
  2. A Case of Premeditation (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Elimination of Mr. Pratt
    2. Part II. Rival Sleuth-Hounds
  3. The Echo of a Mutiny (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. Death on the Girdler
    2. Part II. "The Singing Bone"
  4. A Wastrel's Romance (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Spinster's Guest
    2. Part II. Munera Pulveris
  5. The Old Lag
    1. Part I. The Changed Immutable
    2. Part II. The Ship of the Desert
  • The Great Portrait Mystery and other Stories (1918)
  1. The Great Portrait Mystery (not a Thorndyke story)
  2. The Bronze Parrot (not a Thorndyke story)
  3. The Missing Mortgagee (an inverted Thorndyke short story)
  4. Powder Blue and Hawthorne (not a Thorndyke story)
  5. Percival Bland's Proxy (an inverted Thorndyke short story)
  6. The Attorney's Conscience (not a Thorndyke story)
  7. The Luck of Barnabas Mudge (not a Thorndyke story)
  • Dr. Thorndyke's Casebook (1923) (published in the United States as The Blue Scarab)
  1. The Case of the White Footprints
  2. The Blue Scarab
  3. The New Jersey Sphinx
  4. The Touchstone
  5. A Fisher of Men
  6. The Stolen Ingots
  7. The Funeral Pyre
  • The Puzzle Lock (1925)
  1. The Puzzle Lock
  2. The Green Check Jacket
  3. The Seal of Nebuchadnezzar
  4. Phyllis Annesley's Peril
  5. A Sower of Pestilence
  6. Rex v. Burnaby
  7. A Mystery of the Sand-hills
  8. The Apparition of Burling Court
  9. The Mysterious Visitor
  • The Magic Casket (1927)
  1. The Magic Casket
  2. The Contents of a Mare's Nest
  3. The Stalking Horse
  4. The Naturalist at Law
  5. Mr. Ponting's Alibi
  6. Pandora's Box
  7. The Trail of Behemoth
  8. The Pathologist to the Rescue
  9. Gleanings from the Wreckage
  • The Famous Cases of Dr. Thorndyke (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1929 and later reprintings) -- an omnibus of previously published stories
  1. The Case of Oscar Brodski (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Mechanism of Crime
    2. Part II. The Mechanism of Detection
  2. A Case of Premeditation (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Elimination of Mr. Pratt
    2. Part II. Rival Sleuth-Hounds
  3. The Echo of a Mutiny (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. Death on the Girdler
    2. Part II. "The Singing Bone"
  4. A Wastrel's Romance (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Spinster's Guest
    2. Part II. Munera Pulveris
  5. The Missing Mortgagee (an inverted Thorndyke short story)
  6. Percival Bland's Proxy (an inverted Thorndyke short story)
  7. The Old Lag
    1. Part I. The Changed Immutable
    2. Part II. The Ship of the Desert
  8. Stranger's Latchkey
  9. The Anthropologist at Large
  10. The Blue Sequin
  11. The Moabite Cipher
  12. The Aluminum Dagger
  13. The Magic Casket
  14. The Contents of a Mare's Nest
  15. The Stalking Horse
  16. The Naturalist at Law
  17. Mr. Ponting's Alibi
  18. Pandora's Box
  19. The Trail of Behemoth
  20. The Pathologist to the Rescue
  21. Gleanings from the Wreckage
  22. The Puzzle Lock
  23. The Green Check Jacket
  24. The Seal of Nebuchadnezzar
  25. Phyllis Annesley's Peril
  26. A Sower of Pestilence
  27. Rex v. Burnaby
  28. A Mystery of the Sand-hills
  29. The Apparition of Burling Court
  30. The Mysterious Visitor
  31. The Case of the White Footprints
  32. The Blue Scarab
  33. The New Jersey Sphinx
  34. The Touchstone
  35. A Fisher of Men
  36. The Stolen Ingots
  37. The Funeral Pyre

The American edition of this 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 Best Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories (1973), edited by E.F. Bleiler.
  1. The Case of Oscar Broski (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Mechanism of Crime
    2. Part II. The Mechanism of Detection
  2. A Case of Premeditation (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. The Elimination of Mr. Pratt
    2. Part II. Rival Sleuth-Hounds
  3. The Echo of a Mutiny (an inverted short story)
    1. Part I. Death on the Girdler
    2. Part II. "The Singing Bone"
  4. The Mandarin's Pearl
  5. The Blue Sequin
  6. The Moabite Cipher
  7. The Aluminum Dagger
  8. 31 New Inn (believed to have been written about 1905 and later expanded to novel length), which was also published in volume I of the Freeman omnibus, published by Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
  • The Dead Hand and Other Uncollected Stories, edited by Douglas G. Greene and Tony Medawar (Shelburne, Ontario: The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1999).
  1. The Dead Hand. (This story was believed to have been written in 1912 and later expanded to novel length as The Shadow of the Wolf; the short story was also published in Detection by Gaslight, 14 Victorian detective stories, an anthology by Douglas G. Greene (Dover. 1997).
  2. The Sign of the Ram
  3. The Mystery of Hoo Marsh
  4. The Mystery of the Seven Banana Skins
  5. Caveat Emptor: The Story of a Pram
  6. Victims of Circumstance
  7. The Great Tobacco "Plant"
  8. Beyond the Dreams of Avarice
  9. A Bird of Passage: A Story of the Thames
  10. The Sleuth-Hounds
  11. The Free Trip
  12. The Comedy of the Artemis
  13. The Resurrection of Matthew Jephson
  14. A Signal Success
  15. The Ebb Tide
  16. By the Black Deep
  17. A Question of Salvage
  18. Under the Clock
  19. The Costume Model
  20. Ye Olde Spotted Dogge
  21. A Suburban Autolycus
  22. A Woman's Vengeance
  23. Ruth
  24. The Great Slump
  25. The Art of the Detective Story
  26. The Cleverest Murder - In Fact or Fiction
  27. The Peasenhall Mystery
  28. Meet Dr Thorndyke

Short stories written with John James Pitcairn edit

  • "The Assyrian Rejuvenator". Australian Town & Country Journal, 13 and 20 July 1901, as by "Ralph J Jay". Reprinted Cassell's Magazine, June 1902, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle.
  • "The Foreign Office Despatch". Australian Town & Country Journal, 20 and 27 July 1901, as by "Ralph J Jay". Reprinted Cassell's Magazine, July 1902, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Chicago Heiress". Australian Town & Country Journal, 27 July and 3 August 1901, as by "Ralph J Jay". Reprinted Cassell's Magazine, August 1902, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Lizard's Scale". Australian Town & Country Journal, 10 August 1901, as by "Ralph J Jay". Reprinted Cassell's Magazine, September 1902, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Paste Diamonds". Australian Town & Country Journal, 17 August 1901, as by "Ralph J Jay". Reprinted Cassell's Magazine, October 1902, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Kailyard Novel". Australian Town & Country Journal, 24 August 1901, as by "Ralph J Jay". Reprinted Cassell's Magazine, November 1902, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Submarine Boat". Cassell's Magazine, June 1903, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Kimberley Fugitive". Cassell's Magazine, July 1903, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Silk Worms of Florence". Cassell's Magazine, August 1903, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Box of Specie". Cassell's Magazine, September 1903, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Silver Ingots". Cassell's Magazine, October 1903, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The House of Detention". Cassell's Magazine, November 1903, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle
  • "The Adventure at Heath Crest". Cassell's Magazine, December 1904, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in From a Surgeon's Diary
  • "How I Acted for an Invalid Doctor". Cassell's Magazine, January 1905, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in From a Surgeon's Diary
  • "How I Attended a Nervous Patient". Cassell's Magazine, February 1905, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in From a Surgeon's Diary
  • "How I Met a Very Ignorant Practitioner". Cassell's Magazine, March 1905, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in From a Surgeon's Diary
  • "How I Cured a Hopeless Paralytic". Cassell's Magazine, April 1905, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in From a Surgeon's Diary
  • "How I Helped to Lay a Ghost". Cassell's Magazine, May 1905, as by "Clifford Ashdown". Collected in From a Surgeon's Diary

Uncollected short stories edit

The short stories from Cassell's Family Magazine are from the index of fiction prepared for the Victorian Fiction Research Unit, Department of English, University of Queensland by Sue Thomas."[71]

  • The Mutiny on the Speedwell. Novel Magazine, May 1914 (Jack Osmond). See also A Certain Dr Thorndyke
  • The Gun Runner. Novel Magazine, June 1914 (Jack Osmond). See also A Certain Dr Thorndyke

Non-fiction edit

  • The Interior of the Gold Coast. Macmillan's Magazine, June 1899
  • In the London Docks. Living London, January 1902
  • Hospital London. Living London, June 1902. Reprinted Living London, December 1902
  • Afflicted London. Living London, September 1902. Reprinted Living London, October 1905
  • The Coastwise Lights of England. Cassell's Magazine, November 1902
  • London below Bridge. Living London, December 1902. Reprinted Living London, January 1906
  • The Royal Yacht. Cassell's Magazine, April 1903
  • A Thames Sailing Barge Match. Cassell's Magazine, September 1903
  • Small Yacht Racing. Cassell's Magazine, May 1904
  • The Sentinels of the Port of London. Cassell's Magazine, October 1905
  • Down the River. Cassell's Magazine, January 1906
  • The Tightening Grip. Straits Times, 5 November 1917
  • The Art of the Detective Story. The Nineteenth Century and After, May 1924
  • The Pendulum. Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter, 23 March 1928
  • Hot Boiled Beans. Newark Advertiser, 7 November 1928
  • An Englishman's Rights. Nottingham Evening Post, 28 February 1929
  • The Two Aspects of Liberty. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 10 April 1933
  • Democracy to Dictatorship. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 3 March 1934 (Freeman's original title was "From Democracy to Dictatorship")
  • Liberty and Property. Nottingham Evening Post, 29 November 1934
  • The Return of the Autocrat - Orders in Council. Linlithgow Gazette, 3 April 1936
  • What Has become of Democracy?. Mid-Sussex Times, 28 April 1936
  • Liberty and Intelligence. Portsmouth Evening News, 16 October 1936
  • Does Dullness Create Dictatorship?. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 17 October 1936
  • Preservation of Liberty. Portsmouth Evening News, 18 June 1937
  • Liberty and Reciprocity. Linlithgowshire Gazette, 18 June 1937
  • On Being a Good Neighbour. Kirkintilloch Herald, 23 June 1937
  • Liberty and Physique. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 29 January 1938
  • Enemies of Liberty. West London Observer, 2 December 1938
  • War is Destructive of Liberty. Sunderland Daily Echo & Shipping Gazette, 14 July 1939
  • Liberty and Peace. West London Observer, 21 July 1939
  • Individualism and War. Falkirk Herald, 18 October 1939
  • War Sacrifices for a Purpose. Grimsby Daily Telegraph, 23 November 1939
  • Hard Cases and Bad Law. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 4 April 1940
  • Liberties Surrendered for Future Freedom. Portsmouth Evening News, 12 September 1940 [Also published as Hitlerism 'On Appro.', Freeman's original title, Motherwell Times, 13 September 1940]
  • Freedom of the Citizen. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 13 September 1940
  • Good Breeding - The Importance of Eugenics. Thanet Advertiser, 25 April 1941
  • Eugenics and Liberty. Falkirk Herald, 23 April 1941; also published as ‘'Good Breeding; The Importance of Eugenics'’. Thanet Adviser, 25 April 1941
  • What of the Future?. Falkirk Herald, 29 October 1941
  • The Passing of Personal Liberty. Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail, 24 April 1942; also published as The Passing of Personal Liberty towards the Human Ant-Hill. West London Observer, 1 May 1942. (Freeman's original title was The Passing of Freedom)
  • Liberty and Equality. Falkirk Herald, 9 September 1942
  • Medical Profession: Dangers of State Service. 25 November 1942. Also published as Medical Profession and Socialization of the Medical Profession (Freeman's original title)
  • The Doppelganger. Publication unknown
  • The Economics of Liberty. Publication unknown
  • The Militant's Strategy. Publication unknown
  • Is Fingerprint Evidence Fallible?. Publication unknown
  • His Majesty's Savings. Publication unknown
  • The Renegades. Publication unknown
  • The Three Wishes. Publication unknown
  • The Unauthorised Raiders. Publication unknown

Unconfirmed stories edit

[From the records of Freeman's agent, A P Watt, Tony Medawar identified that Freeman had been paid for the following items.]

  • The Adventures of Jack Osmond Publication unknown. See also A Certain Dr Thorndyke
  • The Auchtermuchtie Burglary Publication unknown
  • The Automatic Boat Publication unknown
  • La Belle Anglaise Publication unknown
  • The Cavern Publication unknown
  • A Corpse in the Case Publication unknown. This may be a reference to "Corpse in the Case", an adaptation of Dr Thorndyke Intervenes by Mollie Hardwick, broadcast on the BBC Home Service on 9 June 1962 and starring Cyril Luckham as Thorndyke.
  • A Crusader's Misadventures Publication unknown
  • The Haarschneide Machine Publication unknown
  • Mr Pordle's Homecoming Publication unknown

Adaptations edit

Television adaptations edit

A short series featuring Dr Thorndyke was produced by the BBC in 1964, entitled Thorndyke. The title character was played by veteran British actor Peter Copley.

Based on the stories written by R Austin Freeman, the episodes, all of which except the pilot are missing from the BBC archive, were as follows:

  • The Case of Oscar Brodski (Pilot – as part of BBC series "Detective')
  • The Old Lag
  • A Case of Premeditation
  • The Mysterious Visitor
  • The Case of Phyllis Annesley
  • Percival Bland's Brother
  • The Puzzle Lock

Three stories were also adapted as part of the Thames TV series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes in 1971–3. These were:

  • A Message From The Deep Sea (from the 1st series and starring John Neville as Thorndyke)
  • The Assyrian Rejuvenator (1st series, starring Donald Sinden as Romney Pringle)
  • The Moabite Cipher (2nd series, starring Barrie Ingham as Thorndyke)

Both series are available on DVD – in the UK from Network Video and in the United States from Acornmedia.

Radio adaptation edit

Starting in 2011 the BBC aired radio adaptations of some of the Thorndyke short stories, Thorndyke: Forensic Investigator on BBC Radio 4 Extra.[144]

Series 1 edit

November 2011 read by Jim Norton

  1. A Mysterious Visitor
  2. The Puzzle Lock
  3. A Mystery of the Sand Hills
  4. Pathologist to the Rescue
  5. The Secret of the Urn
  6. Pandora's Box

Series 2 edit

March 2013 read by William Gaminara

  1. The Stolen Ingots
  2. Rex v Burnaby
  3. The Stalking Horse

In popular culture edit

Literature edit

  • In Donna Andrews's Owl's Well That Ends Well, a near-mint first-edition copy of The Uttermost Farthing provides the motive for the murder.

Biographies and studies edit

  • R. Austin Freeman: The Anthropologist at Large, Oliver Mayo, Hawthornedene, South Australia: Investigator Press, (1980).[145] This biography, in addition to reviewing Freeman's fiction gives special attention to the African and sociological works.[146] It was reprinted in Volume 11 of the Freeman Edition by Battered Silicon Dispatch Box in 1998.[147]
  • In Search of Doctor Thorndyke, Norman Donaldson (Bowling Green, Ohio, 1971). A second expanded edition was published in 1998 as Volume 10 of the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box edition of Freeman.[148][149]
  • The Thorndyke File was started by Philip T. Asdell of Maryland in Spring 1976, and published articles of scholarship on Freeman twice a year. John McAleer took over in 1980 and the journal ran on until 1988. Half of the subscribers were medical doctors.[150]
  • John Thorndyke's Journal was published in England from 1991 to 1998 by David Ian Chapman of Aldershot, Hampshire.[150]
  • Collecting R. Austin Freeman, David Ian Chapman (Highfield Press, Aldershot, 2022) Revised Second Edition.
  • R. Austin Freeman and The Adventures of Romney Pringle: An Investigation, David Ian Chapman (Highfield Press, Aldershot, 2023).

Notes edit

  1. ^ While some sources state that Freeman trained as an apothecary before studying medicine, this is not correct. Between 1815 and 1999 the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries provided primary medical qualifications, with the title "Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries" LSA, and such Licentiates were eligible for registration as doctors.[3]
  2. ^ It seems odd that someone who had just entered the service the previous year could get so much leave, but he may have been ill, and had recovery leave.
  3. ^ Freeman was charged with taking astronomical readings to establish the position of the towns they visited as well as geographical features.
  4. ^ The king was new to his throne, and needed to be formally crowned before he could access the treasury, but needed money for the formal coronation. He asked the British for a loan to get around this problem.
  5. ^ Freeman's account shows that some of his colleagues were at best intemperate in their dealings with local leaders. Freeman worked with the local authorities to de-escalate things, and this helped to resolve the problems that the Hausa constables were creating with their looting.[11]
  6. ^ Freeman himself makes the same point in the sixth Danby Croker Story "The Emperor's Keepsake" when Croker compares his uncle, a former Army officer to the burglar Milkey. His uncle called his things "loot," and Milkey called his "swag," but both were acquired in the same way and the difference was only in the name.
  7. ^ This address was registered as Thorndykes Nursing Home on 22 August 1986,[18] and was rated as "Good" by the Care Quality Commission on 2 November 2015.[19] It no longer operates as a nursing home and was sold for £1,175,000 on 17 Feb 2017.[20] It has since been converted into a block of 16 self contained studio apartments, to be available for rent from 1 August 2020.[21]
  8. ^ This was a journal devoted to the works of Freeman that was founded in 1976 by Philip Asdell and continued in 1981 by John McAleer.
  9. ^ Micrographs are photographs or digital images taken through a microscope or similar device.
  10. ^ The Jisc catalogue, collates 165 national, university, and research libraries in the UK and Ireland.[59][60]
  11. ^ This account of Freeman's travels in the interior of West Africa was published by the Royal Geographical Society in Supplementary Papers Volume 3.[68] Trinity College, Dublin dates this as 1893, but the national archives in the UK date this as 1891.[69] Presumably, the original report from Freeman was dated 1891 and the report was published by the RGS in 1893. The journey is also covered by Travels and life in Ashanti and Jaman.
  12. ^ Tells the story of Freeman journey as doctor, naturalist and surveyor for an expedition to Ashanti and Jaman over five months in 1888 and 1889. While the mission was a political failure, one useful product of the whole expedition were Freemans notes on flora, fauna, soils, geology, costumes, customs, and institutions of both Ashanti and Jaman. The book also has a chapter discussing Malaria. The book was in the Cass library of African studies: Travels and narratives no. 17.[9] The Graphic, in a review of more than half a page, noted that Freeman's concluding chapters about the future of the region were pessimistic.[70]
  13. ^ Written with John James Pitcairn. The Oxford Companion to Crime etc. describes Romney Pringle thus: poses as a literary agent who earns a living by swindling crooks out of their ill- gotten gains. The stories appeared in volume 34 of Cassell's Magazine from June to November 1902 on pages: 54-62, 185-194, 271-279, 380-389, 503-512, and 590-598.[71] June began with The Adventures of Romney Pringle: The Assyrian rejuvenator,[72] and November ended the series The Adventures of Romney Pringle: The Kailyard Novel.[73] However, by the end of October the review desks already had the printed volume of stories from Ward Lock.[74] The book has a strong under-current of tongue-in-cheek humour.[75]
  14. ^ This was Freeman's first solo foray into book-length fiction. The story is set in West Africa, which Freeman knew well. Richard Engelfield was the supercargo of a trading brig, who, inspired by finding the log-book of an early Portuguese trader, went up-country in the disguise of a Fulah merchant and found a fabled Golden Pool and its treasures. Caught and condemned to blinding, he escapes and finally makes his way to the coast after many adventures. The Manchester Courier called it a spirited and interesting story, but said it was slightly overburdened by detail.[76] The Scotsman said it is told in that persuasive matter-of-fact manner which . . . is best for a yarn of this sort.[77]
  15. ^ This was Freeman's first book-length crime mystery. It also introduced Thorndyke. However, Thorndyke had first been conceived in 1905 for an then unpublished story called Thirty-one New Inn.[78][79] Howard Haycraft says that In respect to puzzle-and-solution this remarkable volume remains one of the undisputed milestones of the genre.[80] Even so, Freeman had to publish it at his own expense with Collingwood Brothers, a jobbing printer. Serialised in the US in 1911.[81] The story resolved in part around a Thumb o'Graphs, a book for collecting the thumb prints of friends. This was a real product, having been introduced by the stationer and publisher Dow and Lester in 1904. The book had only one page of writing, instructing the users how to use the attached ink pad to take a clear impression of thumbs for the book.[82] Freeman thought that this was a dangerous product and wrote the story partly to demonstrate this.[83]: 83 
  16. ^ Published as Dr Thorndyke's Cases in the US. A collection of eight short stories featuring four people falsely accused of murder, one of which is a locked-room mystery, a kidnapping, a secret message, a faked suicide, and an effort to drive someone insane. The stories first appeared as a series of short stories in Pearson's Magazine starting with the Christmas double number of the magazine in December 1908.[84][85]
  17. ^ Published as The Vanishing Man in the US. The well-known archaeologist Bellingham, disappears from the home of his relative. Thorndyke investigates and rescues a young man falsely accused of the crime. Grost call this book Freeman's masterpiece and said that it appears to be paradigmatic of the Golden Age Detective Novel.[32] The Portadown News called it one of the most thoroughly satisfying detective romances that has appeared for years.[86] The Scotsman said . . . it says much for the author's power of construction that our interest never flags, and curiosity remains unabated to the very end.[87]
  18. ^ A story of suspected poisoning and conflicting wills. Thorndyke had first been conceived in 1905 for unpublished short story called Thirty-one New Inn. That story was later reworked to novella length (over 30,000 words) by Freeman and appeared in the January 1911 issue of Adventure (New York).[47] It was then reworked to book length as The Mystery of 31 New Inn. The novella was one of the eight stories in The Best Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories by R. Austin Freeman (1973). Freeman expanded the Novella by working on it page-to-page.[88]
  19. ^ A collection of five short stories which established the inverted detective story. Has a preface by Freeman which sets out why he takes this approach. Each story is presented in two parts. The first part describes the commission of the crime as a third-person narration, the second presents the work of John Thorndyke to uncover the crime, narrated by Christopher Jervis. Initially published as stories in Pearson's magazine starting with the 1910 Christmas number.[45] Re-published in the US by Dodd, Mead in 1923, under the title The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke. Re-issued in the US as Popular Library 122 paperback in 1947.[1]: 34-35  The first story in the collection was The Case of Oscar Brodski and Bieler says that this has always been considered one of the landmarks in the history of the detective story. The Northern Whig said that Oscar Brodski was one of the most powerful detective stories we have ever read.[46]
  20. ^ The only historical romance written by Freeman. A young man from Gravesend is accused of the murder of a magistrate's son in 1791 and has to flee. Donaldson said that he could find no corroboration of the statement in a local obituary that Freeman regards this as his best book, but that it could be true.[89] The Manchester Courier called it an encyclopedia of adventure, a history of the incarnation of the spirit adventure.[90] The Northern Whig said that even if Freeman supplies us with nothing startling new he reheats the old material very brightly and as convincingly as possible.[91]
  21. ^ A man seeks revenge for the murder of his young wife by a burglar, by setting traps for burglars and adding their shrunken heads and skeletons to his anatomical museum. First published in the UK as a serial story in Pearson's Magazine, beginning in April 1913, with the title A hunter of Criminals. Bleiler states that initially no English publisher would reprint it as it was too gruesome.[79] It was first published as a book in the US as The Uttermost Farthing: A Savant's Vendetta, Philadelphia: John C. Winston Company (1914). It was only published in the UK in 1920, and then not by Hodder & Stoughton, but in a cheap pocket edition by Pearson as A Savant's Vendetta. The Buckingham Advertiser called it gruesome but said it was written in powerful fashion and grips.[92] The Belfast Telegraph recommended it to those who like real nerve-testing stories.[93] Initially narrated by Dr. Wharton, Humphrey Challoner's physician, who presents Challoner's account of his murders. The Sheffield Independent said: This is an interesting story, with an attractive dash of grisliness. . . It is published as a cheap pocket edition, it is just the thing for the holidays.[94]
  22. ^ Walking late at night, Dr. Jervis discovers a body on a path. He goes to get a constable, but when he returns the body is gone, and he faces scepticism.[95] Republished by Dood, Meads in 1929. Issued as a paperback as Pocket Book No. 184 in 1942.[1]: 33  Jervis takes a leading role in this story. The Boston Globe said that it was a detective romance quite out of the ordinary and one that holds the reader's enchained attention through every one of its 400 pages.[96]
  23. ^ The full title was The exploits of Danby Croker: Being Extracts from a Somewhat Disreputable Autobiography. A series of twelve sequential stories, with a preface and epilogue, that were first published in The Red Magazine from 1 July to 15 December 1911. As the magazine was a fortnightly, and this represented 12 episodes. These seem to have been published in two series of six stories as The Red Magazine was advertising on 5 October 1911 that the first series of the stories were so popular and that they had so many requests for more, that they had arranged with Freeman to write a further series.[97] Danby Croker, is like Romney Pringle, what Bleiler calls one of the mildly humorous, semi-picaresque characters, persons who live astride the boundary of the law. Danby, a good-hearted young artist, with a poorly developed moral sense, is making his way in the world when a burglar impersonates him and creates a world of trouble for him. This is one of the books that Donaldson describes as being marred by frivolity,[89] and that Bleiler describes as having a lightness of touch that makes them distinctive, although Bleiler acknowledges that some readers find their flippancy distasteful.[79]
  24. ^ Seven stories, of which only two, both inverted detective stories, feature Thorndyke. The other are respectively: a treasure hunt, the tale of a put-upon curate whose character changes when he acquires an Ashanti charm, a porcelain robbery, a complicated probate, and the finding of a treasure and its consequences. The Sketch says that they were as clever and as entertaining as any he has done.[98]
  25. ^ Freeman was interested in eugenics and Bleiler says that this book created a stir when it was first published. It has an introduction by Havelock Ellis and Dean Inge reviewed it over ten pages. Freeman's stories embody many of the ideas expressed in the book, but Bleiler notes that these ideals seem less palatable when expounded seriously, and that Reading it today is not always pleasant. [79]Abrams says that the book outlined mixed perceptions of a Jewish/Black sexual threat.[99]
  26. ^ This book was never published in the United States. Grost calls this another bad Freeman novel suffering from offensive racial stereotypes.[32] The book is an example of the anti-Semitic trope in which a beautiful and gifted gentile maiden, Helen Vardon, is blackmailed through the threat of prison for her father, into marrying the fat, and much older, Jewish moneylender Otway. However Otway acts in bad faith and Helen's father dies while arguing with him. Helen separates from Otway as a condition for supporting his story about the death of her father. Helen moves to a commune of women artists run by Polton's sister. Helen is suspected to encouraging Otway to suicide, when he apparently takes his own life. Thorndyke resolves things. The Shepparton Advertiser said that the story moves slowly and is, at times, rather stilted but that there are some interesting passages dealing with pottery and metal work.[100] Barzun and Taylor note that Thorndyke plays a relatively minor part and that, surprisingly, Thorndyke's evidence contains a minor mistake or two.[101]
  27. ^ US title: The Blue Scarab. A collection of seven short stories, including: four persons falsely accused of murder, one kidnapping, one hidden loot, one robbery, and one person being driven to suicide. Serialised in Pearson's Magazine from March 1923. The stories cover, a false accusation of murder, a treasure hunt, a safe deposit fraud, a missing will, a tale of hidden loot, stolen ingots, and a faked suicide.[102]
  28. ^ Thorndkye's Counsel Anstey is on the spot when a man is murdered at Rowan Lodge, and saves a young woman from one of the robbers. From there on, it gets more complicated. It was serialised in the Westminster Gazette with the first episode on Saturday 7 April 1923.[103] Grost says that the novel seems pretty uninspired with an easily guessed mystery plot . . . some damsel-in-distress thriller elements and a labored hidden treasure story.[32] The News (Adelaide) calls it a A good Book for the Holidays[104]
  29. ^ A young woman is subject to spousal abuse, separates from her husband, but is unable to escape him as he repeatedly tracks here done. Against this background this is a light-hearted handling of Dickens’s unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood which debunks the fallacious belief that quicklime corrodes dead bodies.[88] The Philadelphia Inquirer calls it a story that will keep the reader chained to it until it is finished.[105] Grost says that the first half of the book sets forth a well-constructed mystery plot about an abused woman but the second half is full of red herrings and the writing and plotting become arch, making it less than a genuine detective story.[32]
  30. ^ A collection of nine short stories featuring Thorndyke. The feature a story where Thorndyke succeeds in opening a vault secured with a puzzle-lock, a missing authority on prehistoric flints, an apparent suicide, a young woman wrongly accused of murder, a bio-terrorist, a wife wrongly accused of trying to poison her husband, the murder of a blackmailer, an effort to drive someone insane, and a fraudulent probate case. The Philadelphia Inquirer calls them nine capital stories and that the base of a complete novel can be seen in every one of the stories.[106]
  31. ^ The Wolf referred to is the Wolf Rock, which lies between Land's End and the Isles of Scilly. A man goes missing after going sailing with a friend. His wife appeals to Thorndyke, and he solves the mystery. This is an inverted detective story. The Hull Daily Mail notes that The reader knows what has happened from the first, but the interest is sure to be sustained, while the methods of Dr Thorndyke . . . are revealed.[107] This was an expansion of a novella The Dead Hand that was published in Pearson's Magazine in October and November 1912.[108] McAleer notes that unlike 31 New Inn where Freeman expanded the novella to novel length by adding page to page, this was expanded by dropping a large swatch of new material in the middle of the story.[88]
  32. ^ Dr Grey is looking for a place to paint a landscape when he comes across Marion D'Arblay searching for her missing father. Grost says that the use of racial stereotypes marks it as a low point in Freeman's fiction However, it is not as Grost calls it, an anti-Semitic diatribe,[32] as the villain is not Jewish at all, and the only question of stereotypes comes up in the questions about whether the villain's (false) hooked nose is a curved Jewish type or, or a squarer Roman nose? There are no anti-Semitic tropes in the book, no grasping money-lender etc. It was serialised in The Westminster Gazette starting on Friday 19 March 1926.[109] The Albany Advertiser says that it is a very interesting yarn, with the interest well-sustained throughout. . .[110] McAleer says in this, as in The Shadow of the Wolf, Thorndyke's powers of deduction operate at their finest.[88] Polton plays a large role in this novel, and the Albany Dispatch says that one is often left wondering which is the cleverer, Dr. Thorndyke or Polton.[111]
  33. ^ A collection of nine short stories including a tale of hidden loot, a faked death, a young woman falsely accused of murder, a faked suicide, a faked alibi, three cases with men falsely accused of murder, and a murder where the murder made it look as he were the victim. The stories first appeared in Pearson's Magazine, starting in October 1926.[112]
  34. ^ Osmond is fleeing an arrest warrant when he arrives in West Africa. He has various adventures, with Freeman skilfully using his knowledge of the region. He is eventually cleared by Thorndyke. Several parts of this story seem to have appeared as short stories in various venues including: The Mutiny on the Speedwell, (October 1914), People's Magazine, pages 815-828; The Gun Runner. (June 1914), Novel Magazine; and possibly A Question of Salvage, (September 1916) in Cassell’s Magazine, pages 33-38.[113] The Evening Star (Dunedin) says that the story is splendidly constructed, and the solving of the mystery keeps the reader interested to the very end.[114]
  35. ^ A young solicitor's clerk is sent on a mission to a market town, and comes across an old mystery. He has to face off a senior police officer, the Russian secret police, and a gang of burglars. This is one of the books that Donaldson describes as being marred by frivolity.[89] The Southern Argus says It's a capital book, full of excitement and merriment. . .[115]
  36. ^ Narrated by the solicitor Mayfield. Dr Jervis is now in the employ of the Home Office. A wife who spends all her time campaigning for votes for women is accused of poisoning her husband. Thorndyke resolves the question.[116] The Deseret News says that the book belongs to the highest type of mystery story. The plot is logical, interesting, and ingenious. The writing is thoroughly competent.[117]
  37. ^ A young woman is tempted to impersonate her male cousin and engages in a lot of cross-dressing as her life gets complicated. The Maryborough Chronicle said that the story never drags; it is wholesome and very refreshing.[118] The Newcastle Sun calls it an original, and highly amusing story.[119] The Northern Whig says that The narrative . . . makes very amusing reading.[120] This is one of the stories which Donaldson describes as being marred by frivolity.[89]
  38. ^ An omnibus of short stories that had already appeared in published collections. Included some of the short stories published in John Thorndyke's Cases, and all of the stories collected in The Singing Bone, Dr. Thorndyke's Casebook, The Puzzle Lock and The Magic Casket. Both the UK and US editions were missing The Man with the Nailed Shoes (a rather long story of over 19,000 words) and A Message from the Deep Sea. The UK edition was also missing The Mandarin's Pearl. All of the missing stories were from the first collection, John Thorndyke's Cases. Thus the UK edition had 37 stories, and the US edition, entitled The Dr. Thorndyke Omnibus, had 38. The Waikato Independent said The book is a remarkably clever one. Much of the matter is of engrossing interest, appealing to one's reason and affording much thoughtful speculation.[121]
  39. ^ Five Thorndyke stories drawn from previous collections. Two with people falsely accused of murder, one with a safe deposit robbery, one with a hidden haul of loot, and one with a missing will. Issues as part of the Treasuries of Modern Prose by the University of London Press. The West Australian suggests that, as the stories have been selected from other collections of Thorndyke stories, they are as good as anything of the kind that has appeared in recent fiction dealing with mystery and crime.[122]
  40. ^ An inverted detective story, or rather a story in six sections, two of which are full inverted detective stories, three of which describe the activities of the main character who reacts badly to being blackmailed, and one describes Thorndyke's investigation. McAleer notes that this story is by some considered Freeman's masterpiece.[88] Re-issued as a Collier (No. AS416Y) paperback in the US in 1962.[1]: 35  Listed as being amongst best of the Thorndyke series by the Dunedin Evening Star.[123]
  41. ^ A story of a lost heir, and a conspiracy. Grost describes Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke (1931), as degenerating into another of Freeman's anti-Semitic diatribes.[32] In this novel the villains are largely Jewish, and come from the community of unfit aliens that Freeman lambastes in Social Decay and Regeneration.[30]
  42. ^ US title: Dr Thorndyke's Discovery. As well as the 1932 hardback publication by Dodd, it was published as Avon Paperback (no. 10) in the US in 1941 (with the US title).Roberts says: Those who prefer their mystery fiction to feature numerous seemingly-unrelated threads will revel in this classic Thorndyke story. The Aberdeen Press and Journal says Freeman . . . has very few rivals in the true detective story, but we must confess that it a considerable time since we read any tale of his that struck us so much . . .[124]
  43. ^ Narrated in the third person, and then by Dr. Jervis. When Dobson arrives at Fenchurch Street Station to claim the loot from a robbery that has been left at the luggage room, he instead finds a head in his bag. This the start of a complicated puzzle with two different mysteries.[125] The Dunedin Evening Star counts this book as being among the best of the Thorndyke series.[123] The Poverty Bay Herald says . . . it is Thorndyke, and at his best.[126]
  44. ^ Narrated in the third person. Jervis appears, but does not narrate. A foolish young man is mistaken for his never-do-well cousin and accused of murdering himself. Thorndyke unravels it. This is the only Thorndyke novel in which Polton does not play a part.[127] The Northern Star said that this book would enhance Freeman's reputation for mystery stories.[128] The Australasian says that Freeman has never written a better one.[129]
  45. ^ Centers around the disappearance of a keen collector, where one clue is a fragment of neolithic pottery. The novel led to the excavation of Julliberrie's Grave, an unchambered long barrow in Kent, which plays a key role in the story.[130] The Scotsman said that the book was one of the great lawyer's most notable triumphs.[131]
  46. ^ Called Death at the Inn in the US. The first half is narrated by a bank Clerk called Morrison, the second by Jervis. Concerns the solution to two murders, and the recovery of a fortune. Grost says that this book contains a genuine puzzle plot.[32] The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) calls it a well constructed and ingenious double murder disguised as double suicide.[132]
  47. ^ A policeman is killed during a jewel robbery at a house in the country. A potter appears to be dying from arsenic poisoning, and then disappears. Thorndyke puts the pieces together. The first part is narrated by Dr. James Oldfield and the second part by Dr. Jervis. Issued as a paperback No. 11 in Popular Library's early Mysteries of Proven Merit series.[1]: 33-34  Breiler calls it a fine performance both as a mystery novel and a satire on modern art.[133] McAleer says that the book is notable for humor, a rarity in Freeman’s work.[88] However, the rarity of humour in Freeman's work is contested as Adey states that Freeman's writing . . . was clear and concise, with dry humor and a keen eye for deductive detail.[43]
  48. ^ Published as a paperback as Popular Library 70 in 1946.[1]: 34  The first part is narrated by Polton, the second by Jervis. Features a murder plot that goes wrong. The first part is essentially a biography of Polton and the second the investigation of a crime where Polton's special knowledge comes into play. Roberts says that the novel is sure to delight all those interested in horology.[1]: 34  Ghost that he cannot recommend this book. It is well meant, and seriously crafted, but it lacks the imagination of Freeman's best work.[32] However Bleiler says that this story . . . is in some ways his best novel,[10] and the Press in New Zealand called it one of Mr Freeman’s happiest and neatest stories.[134]
  49. ^ An omnibus of nearly 1,000 pages edited by Percival Mason Stone. Includes the three previously published novels: The Eye of Osiris; The Mystery of Angelina Frood; and Mr. Pottermack's Oversight interspersed with essays. Two of the essays Meet Dr. Thorndyke and The Art of the Detective Story are by Freeman, while the third 5A King's Bench Walk, is by the volume editor, P. M. Stone.
  50. ^ Called The Unconscious Witness in the US. Also published as Avon Paperback 122 in 1947.[1]: 32-33  This was the last novel written by Freeman, when he was nearly 80. Thomas Pedley is painting a landscape in the countryside when he sees two men being followed by a woman. He notices them because of the woman’s suspicious behaviour. She returns with only one of the men from a place where there is no other exit. When he learns that there has been a murder, he realizes that he and his canvas may have vital evidence.[135] Roberts says that Thorndyke: . . . is at his analytical best in this adventure.[1]: 32-33 
  51. ^ A set of six stories that first appeared in volume 36 of Cassell's Family Magazine from (June to November 1903) on pages: 73-80, 190-197, 295-303, 390-397, 508-516, and 623-631.[71] Not published in collected form until 1969. The Kilkenny Moderator calls A box of specie, the September 1903 instalment a quaint story, quaintly told.[136]
  52. ^ A collection of eight stories, three from the Singing Bone and four from John Thorndyke's Cases, and the novella Thirty-one New Inn which Freeman expanded into full length novel The Mystery of 31 New Inn. This collection has an introduction by E. F. Bleiler, and was published as a Dover Paperback (no 20388-3) in 1973. Bleiler says that the collection included much of Freeman's best work, but not all of it, and that A half-dozen novels and another half dozen short stories could well have been included.[137]
  53. ^ This was a reissue of these two novels in a single volume paperback by Dover (No. 22963-7). This was a companion volume to The Best Dr. Thorndyke Detective Stories and also featured an introduction by Bleiler. Bleiler states that The Stoneware Monkey (1938) and the succeeding novel mark an Indian summer in Freeman's work. when Freeman was 75 years old. He also credits The Penrose Mystery as being the only novel that sponsored an archaeological dig. [79]The Dunedin Evening Star includes both titles as being amongst the best of the Thorndyke series.[123]
  54. ^ Written with John James Pitcairn under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown. The six stories in this collection were first published in Cassell's Family Magazine volume 39 (December 1904 to May 1905) on pages: 139-146, 253-261, 321-329, 442-450, 563-571, and 683-690.[138][71] Tell the adventures of a young doctor acting as locum temens, in place of established doctors who have gone on leave. Donaldson said the stories intermingled medicine and detection.[139] Re-issued in Volume VI of the Freeman Edition by Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.[140]
  55. ^ Written with John James Pitcairn. The manuscript of this novel lay forgotten among the papers of John James Pitcairn.[141] For some reason, it had not sold.[83]: 113  It features two men, recently returned from West Africa, competing to find a treasure and to win the heart of the same girl. The novel was issued after thorough editing.[141]
  56. ^ This is the original manuscript of The Eye of Osiris that was rejected by the publisher because of a love interest.[142][143]

References edit

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  2. ^ a b c d "Obituary: Mr Austin Freeman, Author of Detective Stories". The Times (Friday 1 October 1943): 7. 1 October 1943. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
  3. ^ Kemp, Sandra; Mitchell, Charlotte; Trotter, David (1997). "Freeman Richard Austin (1862-1943)". Edwardian Fiction: An Oxford Companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-19-811760-5. Retrieved 26 June 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
  4. ^ a b McAleer, John (1994). "R Austin Freeman (11 April 1862-28 September 1943)". In Benstock, Bernard; Staley, Thomas F. (eds.). Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 70: British Mystery Writers, 1860–1919. Detroit: Gale Research. p. 147. ISBN 9780810317482. Retrieved 2 July 2020 – via The Internet Archive.
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  8. ^ Freeman, Richard Austin (1898). "I: The Beginning of the Journey". Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman. New York: F. A. Stokes. pp. 14–15. hdl:2027/uva.x004101128.
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  114. ^ "Books and Bookmen: A literary Corner: A Certain Dr. Thorndyke". Evening Star (Dunedin) (Saturday 11 February 1928): 14. 11 February 1928. Retrieved 3 July 2020 – via The National Library of New Zealand.
  115. ^ "Books Worth Getting". The Southern Argus (Thursday 23 June 1927): 6. 23 June 1927. Retrieved 3 July 2020 – via The National Library of Australia.
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  117. ^ "As a Thief in the Night". Deseret News (Saturday 24 November 1928): 33. 24 November 1928. Retrieved 2 July 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
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  119. ^ "From the Presses: Flighty Phyllis". The Newcastle Sun. No. 3262. New South Wales, Australia. 21 May 1928. p. 6 – via The National Library of Australia.
  120. ^ "Short Notices". Northern Whig (Saturday 25 February 1928): 11. 25 February 1928. Retrieved 29 June 2020 – via The British Newspaper Archive.
  121. ^ "Reviews: Dr Thorndyke". Waikato Independent (Thursday 3 April 1930): 3. 3 April 1930. Retrieved 3 July 2020 – via The National Library of New Zealand.
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  133. ^ Bleiler, E. F. (1973). "Introduction to the Dover Edition". The Stoneware Monkey and The Penrose Mystery: Two Dr. Thorndyke Novels by R. Austin Freeman. New York: Dover Publications, Inc. pp. vii.
  134. ^ "Mixed Sensations: A Question of Time" (Saturday 13 July 1940). 13 July 1940: 5. Retrieved 29 June 2020 – via The National Library of New Zealand. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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  144. ^ "Thorndyke: Forensic Investigator" 13 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine BBC Radio 4 Extra Programmes bbc.co.uk
  145. ^ Mayo, Oliver (1980). R. Austin Freeman: 'The Anthropologist at Large'. Hawthornedene, South Australia: Investigator Press. ISBN 9780858640382.
  146. ^ "The R. Austin Freeman Omnibus Edition: Volume 11". The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
  147. ^ Mayo, Oliver (1998). Freeman Omnibus. Vol. 11. Shelburne, Ontario: The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. ISBN 1-55246-170-X.
  148. ^ "In Search of Dr . Thorndyke". The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  149. ^ In Search of Dr . Thorndyke. Vol. R. Austin Freeman Edition: Volume 10 (2nd ed.). Shelburne, Ontario: The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. 1998. ISBN 1-55246-082-7.
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March 20, 2024
austin, freeman, other, uses, austin, freeman, richard, austin, freeman, mrcs, april, 1862, september, 1943, british, writer, detective, stories, mostly, featuring, medico, legal, forensic, investigator, thorndyke, invented, inverted, detective, story, crime, . For other uses see Austin Freeman Dr Richard Austin Freeman MRCS LSA 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 was a British writer of detective stories mostly featuring the medico legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke He invented the inverted detective story 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 This invention has been described as Freeman s most notable contribution to detective fiction 1 30 Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels Many of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine but sometimes arcane points of scientific knowledge from areas such as tropical medicine metallurgy and toxicology Richard Austin FreemanBorn 1862 04 11 11 April 1862Soho London EnglandDied28 September 1943 1943 09 28 aged 81 Gravesend Kent EnglandNationalityEnglishOther namesR Austin FreemanOccupation s Medical Doctor and fiction writerYears active1887 1943Known forHis fictional detective Dr John ThorndykeNotable workMr Pottermark s Oversight Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Later life 4 Political views 5 Anti Semitism 6 Critical assessment 6 1 Writing 6 2 The inverted story 6 3 Precision of logic facts and method 6 4 Comparisons with Sherlock Holmes 7 Bibliography 7 1 Longer works by Freeman including collaborations 7 2 Detailed content of short story collections 7 3 Short stories written with John James Pitcairn 7 3 1 Uncollected short stories 7 4 Non fiction 7 5 Unconfirmed stories 8 Adaptations 8 1 Television adaptations 8 2 Radio adaptation 8 2 1 Series 1 8 2 2 Series 2 9 In popular culture 9 1 Literature 10 Biographies and studies 11 Notes 12 References 13 External linksEarly life editAustin Freeman was the youngest of the five children of tailor Richard Freeman and Ann Maria Dunn At the age of 18 he entered the medical school of the Middlesex Hospital and qualified MRCS and LSA in 1886 2 note 1 After qualifying Freeman spent a year as a house physician at the hospital He married his childhood sweetheart Annie Elizabeth Edwards in London on 15 April 1887 4 and the couple later had two sons He then entered the Colonial Service in 1887 as an assistant surgeon He served for a time in Keta Ghana in 1887 during which time he dealt with an epidemic of black water fever which killed forty per cent of the European population at that port 5 He had six months of leave note 2 from mid 1888 and returned to Accra on the Gold Coast just in time to volunteer for the post of medical officer on the planned expedition to Ashanti and Jaman 6 Freeman was the doctor naturalist and surveyor note 3 for the expedition to Ashanti and Jaman two independent states in the Gold Coast The expedition set out from Accra on 8 December 1888 with a band consisting of a band master and six boys playing two side drums and five fifes 7 three European officers the Commissioner Freeman and the Officer in Charge of the Constables one Native officer 100 Hausa constables a gunners party with a rocket trough an apothecary apothecary s assistant a hospital orderly and 200 bearers 8 The expedition went first to Kumasi or Coolmassie as it appears in older accounts the capital of the then independent kingdom of Ashanti Their second port of call was Bondoukou Ivory Coast where they arrived only to find that the king had just signed a protectorate treaty with the French However the expedition was a political failure as the British spokesman blurted out in front of the chiefs that the British were willing to supply a loan of 400 which the king had requested note 4 However the King had requested this loan with the proviso that it be kept secret from his chiefs He therefore denied any knowledge of it and the expedition moved on to Bontuku the capital of Jaman Here they were left cooling their heels while the King there finalised a treaty with the French who had been quicker off the mark The expedition was recalled after five months 9 Bleiler asserts without any supporting evidence that It was mostly through Freeman s intelligence and tact that the expedition was not massacred 10 note 5 Although the mission overall was a failure the collection of data by Freeman was a success and his future in the colonial service seemed assured Unfortunately he became ill with blackwater fever and was invalided home in 1891 being discharged from the service two months before the minimum qualification period for a pension 4 Career editThus he returned to London in 1891 and around 1892 served as temporary Acting Surgeon in Charge of the Throat and Ear Department at Middlesex Hospital 12 He was in general practice in London for about five years 2 He was appointed acting Deputy Medical Officer of Holloway Prison in about 1901 and Acting Assistant Medical Officer of the Port of London in 1904 12 A year later he suffered a complete breakdown in his health and gave up medicine for writing 2 His first successful stories were the Romney Pringle rogue stories 13 written in collaboration with John James Pitcairn 1860 1936 medical officer at Holloway Prison Some were published first in Australia under the joint pen name of Ralph J Jay and all of them were serialised under another pseudonym Clifford Ashdown in Cassell s Magazine in 1902 and 1903 In 1905 Freeman published his first solo novel The Golden Pool with the background drawn from his own time in West Africa The protagonist is a young Englishman who steals a fetish treasure Barzun and Taylor make the point that while this is a crime the book was not regarded as crime fiction as according to old notions stealing things from Africans is no crime 14 note 6 Bleiler wrote that it is a colorful thrilling story all the more unusual in being ethnographically accurate and that it used to be required reading for members of the British colonial services in Africa 13 15 Freeman s first Thorndyke story The Red Thumb Mark was published in 1907 and shortly afterwards he pioneered the inverted detective story 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 he served as an induction physician 13 and a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and afterwards produced a Thorndyke novel almost every year until his death in 1943 16 Later life editFreeman briefly stopped writing at the outbreak of the Second World War but then resumed writing in an air raid shelter he had built in his garden Freeman was plagued by Parkinson s disease in his later years 17 This makes his achievement all the more remarkable as in his declining years he wrote both Mr Polton Explains which Bleiler says is in some ways his best novel 10 and The Jacob Street Mystery 1942 in which Roberts considers that Thorndyke is at his analytical best 1 32 33 He was living at 94 Windmill Street Gravesend Kent when he died on 28 September 1943 note 7 His estate was valued at 6 471 5s 11d 22 Freeman was buried in the old Gravesend and Milton Cemetery at Gravesend The Thorndyke File note 8 started a funding drive to erect a granite marker for Freeman s grave and this was erected in September 1979 with the text Richard Austin Freeman 1862 1943 Physician and Author Erected by the friends of Dr Thorndyke 1979 23 24 Political views edit nbsp The Uttermost Farthing cover illustrated by H Weston TaylorFreeman held conservative political views 25 In his 1921 book Social Decay and Regeneration Freeman put forth the view that mechanization had flooded Britain with poor quality goods and created a homogenized restless unionized working class 25 Freeman supported the eugenics movement and argued that people with undesirable biological traits should be prevented from breeding through segregation marriage restriction and sterilization 26 The book also attacked the British Labour movement and criticised the British government for permitting immigrants whom Freeman referred to as Sub Man to settle in Britain Social Decay and Regeneration referred to the Russian Revolution as the Russian catastrophe and argued that society needed to protected from degenerates of the destructive or Bolshevik type 27 Sections of Social Decay and Regeneration were reprinted in Eugenics Review the journal of the British Eugenics Society 28 Anti Semitism editFreeman s views on Jewish people were complex stereotypes They are clearly set out in his eugenicist book Social Decay and Regeneration 1921 Here Freeman states that of vulgarity the only ancient peoples who exhibited it on an appreciable scale were the Jews and especially the Phoenician 29 Freeman notes that a large proportion of the Alien Unfit crowding the East End of London largely natives of Eastern Europe are Jews However the criticism is of the poor rather than of Jews overall as these unfit aliens were far from being the elect of their respective races 30 Freeman regards that through restricting marriage with non Jews Jews as having practised racial segregation for thousands of years with the greatest success and with very evident benefit to the race 31 Not surprisingly some of these views spill over into his fiction Grost states that Helen Vardon s Confession 1922 is another bad Freeman novel suffering from offensive racial stereotypes 32 Helen Vardon is blackmailed into marrying the fat old money lender Otway who was distinctly Semitic in appearance and is surrounded by Jews to save her father from prison Otway acts in bad faith and is grasping keeping only one servant despite his great wealth The whole plot is a gratuitously offensive anti Semitic stereotype citation needed Grost also states that the use of racial stereotypes in The D Arblay Mystery 1926 marks it as a low point in Freeman s fiction 32 However the villain is not Jewish at all and the only question of stereotypes comes up in the questions about whether the villain s false hooked nose is a curved Jewish type or a squarer Roman nose There are no anti Semitic tropes in the book no grasping money lender etc Grost describes Pontifex Son and Thorndyke 1931 as degenerating into another of Freeman s anti Semitic diatribes In this novel the villains are largely Jewish and come from the community of unfit aliens that Freeman lambastes in Social Decay and Regeneration 32 Such offensive representations of Jews in fiction were typical of the time Rubinstein and Jolles note that while the work of many of the leading detective story writers such as Agatha Christie Dorothy L Sayers and Freeman featured many gratuitously negative depictions of stereotyped Jewish characters this ended with the rise of Hitler and they then portrayed Jews and Jewish refugees in a sympathetic light 33 Thus with Freeman the later novels no longer present such gratuitously offensive racial stereotypes but present Jews much more positively In When Rogues Fall Out 1932 Mr Toke describes the Jewish cabinetmaker Levy as A most excellent workman and a thoroughly honest man high praise from Freeman s pen The counsel for Dolby the burglar a good looking Jew named Lyon executes a particularly brilliant defence of his client which Thorndyke admires In Felo de Se or Death at the Inn 1937 the croupier is described as a pleasant faced Jew calm impassive and courteous though obviously very much on the spot In The Stoneware Monkey 1938 Thorndyke is using a young Jewish man as his messenger In Mr Polton Explains 1938 Polton is assisted first by the Jewish watchmaker Abraham and then by the Jewish solicitor Cohen who comes to Polton s aid not once but twice not only representing him without cost but feeding him and lending him money without interest or term Critical assessment editFreeman was a significant author of detective fiction in his day He was most famous for his creation of Dr Thorndyke and many of the obituaries recording his death referred to this in the headlines Thus the Birmingham Daily Gazette announced Dr Thorndyke Creator Dead 34 the Belfast News Letter announced Obituary Dr R A Freeman Creator of Dr Thorndyke 35 and the Evening Star Dunedin announced Obituary Creator of Dr Thorndyke 36 Critical comment has tended to concentrate on four aspects of Thorndyke Freeman s quality as a writer the close attention to logic scientific accuracy and methods in his stories the invention of the inverted detective story and comparisons with Sherlock Holmes The Times considered that the second and third of these were what singled Freeman out from the ruck 2 Writing edit In Bloody Murder Julian Symons wrote that Freeman s talents as a writer were negligible Reading a Freeman story is very much like chewing dry straw 37 Symons then went on to criticise the way in which Thorndyke spoke De Blacam also noted Thorndyke s ponderous legal phraseology 38 However that pedantic ponderousness is the nature of Thorndyke s character He is a barrister and used to weighing his words carefully He never discusses his analysis until he has built the whole picture Others do not agree with his assessment of Freeman s writing skills Raymond Chandler in a 13 December 1949 letter to Hamish Hamilton said 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 39 Binyon also rates Freeman s writing as inferior to Doyle saying Thorndyke might be the superior detective Conan Doyle is undeniably the better writer 40 The Birmingham Daily Post considered that Mr Austin Freeman was not perhaps among the finer artists of the short story and his longer stories could limp sometimes but that his approach was very effective 41 However de Blacam makes the point that quite apart from the description of the investigation each of the descriptions of the crimes in the inverted stories was a fine piece of descriptive writing 42 Grost agrees that Freeman s descriptive writing is excellent 32 Adey finds that Freeman s writing though lacking Doyle s atmospheric touch was clear and concise with dry humor and a keen eye for deductive detail 43 Adams agreed that Freeman had considerable powers of narrative description when he stated that Nothing but the author s remarkable skill in character delineation and graphic narrative could save his stories from being regarded as technical studies for a course on forensic medicine 44 The proof of the pudding is in the eating and Bleiler noted in 1973 that Freeman is one of the very few Edwardian detective story writers who are still read 10 The inverted story edit Nowadays the inverted detective story where we first witness the crime and then watch the attempt to solve it is commonplace For example this is the format of almost every episode of the television detective series Columbo starring Peter Falk However this approach was an innovation in November 1910 when Freeman s Oscar Brodski appeared in Pearson s Magazine 45 and immediately attracted attention The Northern Whig said that Oscar Brodski was one of the most powerful detective stories we have ever read 46 Bleiler said that this story has always been considered one of the landmarks in the history of the detective story 47 In his essay The Art of the Detective Story Freeman wrote that in the inverted story 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 48 However Binyon notes that Freeman is being too modest here and that it was Freeman s art that kept the reader s attention in the second part 47 Reviewers approved of Freeman s inverted tales The Scotsman said that Freeman had proved that a tale which tells the story of the crime first leaving us to follow the sleuth as he tracks the criminal down may be at least as absorbing as the old yarns which left us in the dark until the end 49 Rodgers noted that Great narrative skill is needed in order to keep the reader s interest in a story where the crime if revealed at that start and that there have been imitators Freeman alone stands as not only the originator but as the most successful proponent of this form of detective fiction 1 30 32 Precision of logic facts and method edit Freeman paid a great deal of attention to details and carried out the experiments described in his books to ensure that they worked and would give the expected results He also went to the trouble of visiting the places he wrote about so that the details in his descriptions were correct 50 De Balcam says that Freeman displays a mastery of craftsmanship in every story and that he always used the language of the trade concerned Freeman is a man who writes of things that he has seen handled and understood and not of things that he has met only in print or in a hazy inattentive observation This is a critical aspect of Freeman he tested the methods he used The top floor of his house was a workshop and laboratory 51 and his books sometimes included drawings or micrographs note 9 illustrating the evidence One instance that shows that the methods and approaches described by Freeman were practicable lies in the prosecution of an apprentice from Barrow for coining The apprentice had followed a method described in one of the Danby Croker stories by Freeman and had produced a number of sovereigns that he had successfully passed 52 The Birmingham Post noted that his attention to forensic science was fuller and certainly more systematically than any other writer of detective stories and that the accuracy of his stories gained him an exceptionally large proportion of readers of the more exacting and less easily satisfied type 41 On logic Adams stated that to read Freeman s cases intelligently implies a definite exercise in the use of Mill s Canons of Inductive Logic and the books offered a very practical means of testing students understanding of the canons 44 Herbert notes that Thorndyke s reasoning is distinguished by its rigorous logic 53 Thorndyke like his creator was a medical man and also a barrister and combined his legal and medical training into a personage of willful dominance impeccable logic and scholarly and comprehensive inductive reasoning 1 27 Comparisons with Sherlock Holmes edit Inevitably commentators compared Thorndyke with Holmes Binyon says that Thorndyke stands out from the other late Victorian and early Edwardian detectives in being a rival to Sherlock Holmes rather than just owing their existence to his success Thorndyke is the most impressive and the most intellectually powerful of fictional detectives 54 Poupard notes that In critical comparisons with Holmes Dr Thorndyke is deemed the more accurate thinker and ranked superior as a scientific authority whereas Holmes is considered the superior literary creation 55 One immediate clue to the difference between Thorndyke and Holmes is that Holmes calls his inductive reasoning deduction 56 a mistake that Thorndyke would never make Binyon notes that Holmes often makes factual errors referring to the blue carbuncle as crystallised charcoal when it contains no carbon and referring to non existent species or martial arts 57 Ward compares how Holmes deals with a hat as a clue in Doyle s short story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle 1892 with how Thorndyke treats a similar clue in Freeman s short story The Anthropologist at Large 1909 After examining the hat Holmes declares that The man is intellectual as he has a large head size That he was once well to do but is no longer as the hat was an expensive style from three years ago that is now shabby That he was a man of foresight but has suffered moral retrogression probably due to drink as the hat has had a safety guard fitted to it but the owner has failed to renew the elastic That he is middle aged has grizzled hair which had recently been cut and that he used lime cream from an examination of the lining That his wife has ceased to love him as the hat has not been brushed for weeks there is other evidence that he is married That he probably does not have town gas in his house as there are several tallow stains presumably from guttering candles on the hat For his part the first observation that Thorndyke makes is that hats often change owners over their lives so one needs to interpret the evidence with caution This immediately explodes at least the second and third of Holmes s conclusions Thorndyke then induces that The man is Japanese from the shape of the head as the hat has clearly been steamed to fit a particular head and from a hair sample which matches Japanese rather than European or African hair That he works at a mother of pearl factory due to the large amount of pearl shell dust inside the hat At the time this business was largely carried out by Japanese and Chinese immigrants That he is a decent orderly man as there is no accumulation of dust on the outside of his hat Ward notes that Thorndyke s conclusions are sound less capricious and more practical and allow Thorndyke to track his man down whereas Holmes has to advertise to find his 58 Herbert notes that in comparison to Holmes Thorndyke has no eccentricities and his reasoning unlike that of his contemporary is distinguished by its rigorous logic considered purely as a detective he is perhaps the most impressive of all fictional sleuths 53 Bibliography editLonger works by Freeman including collaborations edit The following list is based on The entries for Freeman and the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown for his collaboration with John James Pitcairn in the Jisc Library Hub Discover catalogue note 10 The list of Freeman titles in Make Mine a Mystery by G W Neibuhr 61 The list of Freeman and Ashdown titles in A Catalogue of Crime by Barzun and Taylor 62 63 64 The list provided in the Dictionary of Literary Biography by John McAleer 65 The list in the Crime Fiction 1749 1980 A Bibliography by Hubin 66 67 Longer works written by Freeman including short story collections and non fiction Ser UK Pub Thorndyke Other Author Pages First publication Other Publication Notes1 1893 A Journey to Bontuku In the Interior of West Africa p 117 146 illus fold Map 25 cm Lon Royal Geographical Society note 11 2 1898 Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman xx 559p fs ill maps 1 fold 24 cm Lon Constable NY Stokes note 12 3 1902 The Adventures of Romney Pringle etc Romney Pringle J J Pitcairn 198 p 1pl 8º Lon Ward Lock Phil Train 1968 note 13 4 1905 The Golden Pool A Story of a Forgotten Mine vii 341 8 8 p 8º Lon Cassell NY Cassell note 14 5 1907 The Red Thumb Mark Yes 232 p 8º Lon Collingwood NY Newton 1911 note 15 6 1909 John Thorndyke s Cases Dr Thorndyke s Cases in US Yes 246p ill plan 8vo Lon Chatto amp Windus NY Dodd Mead 1931 note 16 7 1911 The Eye of Osiris The Vanishing Man in US Yes viii 304 8 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 17 8 1912 The Mystery of 31 New Inn Yes xii 311 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton Phil Winston 1913 note 18 9 1912 The Singing Bone Yes 312 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Hodder and Stoughton note 19 10 1913 The Unwilling Adventurer 389 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Hodder and Stoughton note 20 11 1914 The Uttermost Farthing A Savant s Vendetta 296 p 8º Phil Winston Lon Pearson 1920 note 21 12 1914 A Silent Witness Yes 6 316 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton Phil Winston 1915 note 22 13 1916 The Exploits of Danby Croker 307 p 8º Lon Duckworth note 23 14 1918 The Great Portrait Mystery Yes 318 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton note 24 15 1921 Social Decay and Regeneration xx 345 p 24 cm Lon Constable Boston amp NY Houghton Mifflin note 25 16 1922 Helen Vardon s Confession Yes 335 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton note 26 17 1923 Dr Thorndyke s Case Book The Blue Scarab in the US Yes 317 p 8º NY Dodd Mead 1924 note 27 18 1923 The Cat s Eye Yes 304 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead 1927 note 28 19 1924 The Mystery of Angelina Frood Yes 320 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead 1925 note 29 20 1925 The Puzzle Lock Yes 320 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead 1926 note 30 21 1925 The Shadow of the Wolf Yes 320 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 31 22 1926 The D Arblay Mystery Yes 312 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 32 23 1927 The Magic Casket Yes 309 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 33 24 1927 A Certain Dr Thorndyke Yes 310 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead 1927 note 34 25 1927 The Surprising Experiences of Mr Shuttlebury Cobb 281 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton note 35 26 1928 As a Thief in the Night Yes 320 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 36 27 1928 Flighty Phyllis 315 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton note 37 28 1929 The Famous Cases of Dr Thorndyke Yes viii 1080 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton note 38 29 1930 Dr Thorndyke Investigates Yes 159 p 8º Lon Univ of Lon Press note 39 30 1930 Mr Pottermack s Oversight Yes 319 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 40 31 1931 Pontifex Son and Thorndyke Yes 320 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 41 32 1932 When Rogues Fall Out Dr Thorndyke s Discovery in US Yes 320 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 42 33 1933 Dr Thorndyke Intervenes Yes 317 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton note 43 34 1934 For the Defence Dr Thorndyke Yes 319 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 44 35 1936 The Penrose Mystery Yes 317 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 45 36 1937 Felo De Se Death at the Inn in the US Yes 315 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 46 37 1938 The Stoneware Monkey Yes 288 p 2pl ill 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead 1939 note 47 38 1940 Mr Polton Explains Yes 285 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 48 39 1941 Dr Thorndyke s Crime File A Selection of His Most Celebrated Cases Yes xv p 344 p 16 p 312 p 18 p 338 p 8º NY Dodd Mead note 49 40 1942 The Jacob Street mystery The Unconscious Witness in the US Yes 286 p 8º Lon Hodder amp Stoughton NY Dodd Mead note 50 41 1969 The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle Romney Pringle J J Pitcairn 216 p 8º Phil Train note 51 42 1973 The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories with an introduction by E F Bleiler Yes ix 274 p 8º NY Dover note 52 43 1973 The Stoneware Monkey amp The Penrose Mystery Two Dr Thorndyke Novels by R Austin Freeman with a new Introduction by E F Bleiler Yes viii 440 15 8º NY Dover note 53 44 1975 From a Surgeon s Diary Romney Pringle J J Pitcairn 56 p 8º Lon Ferret Fantasy Phil Train 1977 note 54 45 1975 The Queen s Treasure J J Pitcairn 238 p 8º Phil Train note 55 46 1999 The Other Eye of Osiris Yes x 253 p ill 1 port 8º Shelburne Battered Box note 56 Detailed content of short story collections edit John Thorndyke s Cases 1909 published in the United States as Dr Thorndyke s Cases The Man with the Nailed Shoes The Stranger s Latchkey The Anthropologist at Large The Blue Sequin The Moabite Cipher The Mandarin s Pearl The Aluminum Dagger A Message from the Deep SeaThe Singing Bone 1912 published in the United States as The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke The Case of Oscar Brodski an inverted short story Part I The Mechanism of Crime Part II The Mechanism of Detection A Case of Premeditation an inverted short story Part I The Elimination of Mr Pratt Part II Rival Sleuth Hounds The Echo of a Mutiny an inverted short story Part I Death on the Girdler Part II The Singing Bone A Wastrel s Romance an inverted short story Part I The Spinster s Guest Part II Munera Pulveris The Old Lag Part I The Changed Immutable Part II The Ship of the DesertThe Great Portrait Mystery and other Stories 1918 The Great Portrait Mystery not a Thorndyke story The Bronze Parrot not a Thorndyke story The Missing Mortgagee an inverted Thorndyke short story Powder Blue and Hawthorne not a Thorndyke story Percival Bland s Proxy an inverted Thorndyke short story The Attorney s Conscience not a Thorndyke story The Luck of Barnabas Mudge not a Thorndyke story Dr Thorndyke s Casebook 1923 published in the United States as The Blue Scarab The Case of the White Footprints The Blue Scarab The New Jersey Sphinx The Touchstone A Fisher of Men The Stolen Ingots The Funeral PyreThe Puzzle Lock 1925 The Puzzle Lock The Green Check Jacket The Seal of Nebuchadnezzar Phyllis Annesley s Peril A Sower of Pestilence Rex v Burnaby A Mystery of the Sand hills The Apparition of Burling Court The Mysterious VisitorThe Magic Casket 1927 The Magic Casket The Contents of a Mare s Nest The Stalking Horse The Naturalist at Law Mr Ponting s Alibi Pandora s Box The Trail of Behemoth The Pathologist to the Rescue Gleanings from the WreckageThe Famous Cases of Dr Thorndyke London Hodder amp Stoughton 1929 and later reprintings an omnibus of previously published storiesThe Case of Oscar Brodski an inverted short story Part I The Mechanism of Crime Part II The Mechanism of Detection A Case of Premeditation an inverted short story Part I The Elimination of Mr Pratt Part II Rival Sleuth Hounds The Echo of a Mutiny an inverted short story Part I Death on the Girdler Part II The Singing Bone A Wastrel s Romance an inverted short story Part I The Spinster s Guest Part II Munera Pulveris The Missing Mortgagee an inverted Thorndyke short story Percival Bland s Proxy an inverted Thorndyke short story The Old Lag Part I The Changed Immutable Part II The Ship of the Desert Stranger s Latchkey The Anthropologist at Large The Blue Sequin The Moabite Cipher The Aluminum Dagger The Magic Casket The Contents of a Mare s Nest The Stalking Horse The Naturalist at Law Mr Ponting s Alibi Pandora s Box The Trail of Behemoth The Pathologist to the Rescue Gleanings from the Wreckage The Puzzle Lock The Green Check Jacket The Seal of Nebuchadnezzar Phyllis Annesley s Peril A Sower of Pestilence Rex v Burnaby A Mystery of the Sand hills The Apparition of Burling Court The Mysterious Visitor The Case of the White Footprints The Blue Scarab The New Jersey Sphinx The Touchstone A Fisher of Men The Stolen Ingots The Funeral PyreThe American edition of this 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 Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories 1973 edited by E F Bleiler The Case of Oscar Broski an inverted short story Part I The Mechanism of Crime Part II The Mechanism of Detection A Case of Premeditation an inverted short story Part I The Elimination of Mr Pratt Part II Rival Sleuth Hounds The Echo of a Mutiny an inverted short story Part I Death on the Girdler Part II The Singing Bone The Mandarin s Pearl The Blue Sequin The Moabite Cipher The Aluminum Dagger 31 New Inn believed to have been written about 1905 and later expanded to novel length which was also published in volume I of the Freeman omnibus published by Battered Silicon Dispatch BoxThe 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 This story was believed to have been written in 1912 and later expanded to novel length as The Shadow of the Wolf the short story was also published in Detection by Gaslight 14 Victorian detective stories an anthology by Douglas G Greene Dover 1997 The Sign of the Ram The Mystery of Hoo Marsh The Mystery of the Seven Banana Skins Caveat Emptor The Story of a Pram Victims of Circumstance The Great Tobacco Plant Beyond the Dreams of Avarice A Bird of Passage A Story of the Thames The Sleuth Hounds The Free Trip The Comedy of the Artemis The Resurrection of Matthew Jephson A Signal Success The Ebb Tide By the Black Deep A Question of Salvage Under the Clock The Costume Model Ye Olde Spotted Dogge A Suburban Autolycus A Woman s Vengeance Ruth The Great Slump The Art of the Detective Story The Cleverest Murder In Fact or Fiction The Peasenhall Mystery Meet Dr ThorndykeShort stories written with John James Pitcairn edit The Assyrian Rejuvenator Australian Town amp Country Journal 13 and 20 July 1901 as by Ralph J Jay Reprinted Cassell s Magazine June 1902 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Foreign Office Despatch Australian Town amp Country Journal 20 and 27 July 1901 as by Ralph J Jay Reprinted Cassell s Magazine July 1902 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Chicago Heiress Australian Town amp Country Journal 27 July and 3 August 1901 as by Ralph J Jay Reprinted Cassell s Magazine August 1902 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Lizard s Scale Australian Town amp Country Journal 10 August 1901 as by Ralph J Jay Reprinted Cassell s Magazine September 1902 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Paste Diamonds Australian Town amp Country Journal 17 August 1901 as by Ralph J Jay Reprinted Cassell s Magazine October 1902 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Kailyard Novel Australian Town amp Country Journal 24 August 1901 as by Ralph J Jay Reprinted Cassell s Magazine November 1902 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Submarine Boat Cassell s Magazine June 1903 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle The Kimberley Fugitive Cassell s Magazine July 1903 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle The Silk Worms of Florence Cassell s Magazine August 1903 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle The Box of Specie Cassell s Magazine September 1903 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle The Silver Ingots Cassell s Magazine October 1903 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle The House of Detention Cassell s Magazine November 1903 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in The Further Adventures of Romney Pringle The Adventure at Heath Crest Cassell s Magazine December 1904 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in From a Surgeon s Diary How I Acted for an Invalid Doctor Cassell s Magazine January 1905 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in From a Surgeon s Diary How I Attended a Nervous Patient Cassell s Magazine February 1905 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in From a Surgeon s Diary How I Met a Very Ignorant Practitioner Cassell s Magazine March 1905 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in From a Surgeon s Diary How I Cured a Hopeless Paralytic Cassell s Magazine April 1905 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in From a Surgeon s Diary How I Helped to Lay a Ghost Cassell s Magazine May 1905 as by Clifford Ashdown Collected in From a Surgeon s DiaryUncollected short stories edit The short stories from Cassell s Family Magazine are from the index of fiction prepared for the Victorian Fiction Research Unit Department of English University of Queensland by Sue Thomas 71 The Mutiny on the Speedwell Novel Magazine May 1914 Jack Osmond See also A Certain Dr Thorndyke The Gun Runner Novel Magazine June 1914 Jack Osmond See also A Certain Dr ThorndykeNon fiction edit The Interior of the Gold Coast Macmillan s Magazine June 1899 In the London Docks Living London January 1902 Hospital London Living London June 1902 Reprinted Living London December 1902 Afflicted London Living London September 1902 Reprinted Living London October 1905 The Coastwise Lights of England Cassell s Magazine November 1902 London below Bridge Living London December 1902 Reprinted Living London January 1906 The Royal Yacht Cassell s Magazine April 1903 A Thames Sailing Barge Match Cassell s Magazine September 1903 Small Yacht Racing Cassell s Magazine May 1904 The Sentinels of the Port of London Cassell s Magazine October 1905 Down the River Cassell s Magazine January 1906 The Tightening Grip Straits Times 5 November 1917 The Art of the Detective Story The Nineteenth Century and After May 1924 The Pendulum Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter 23 March 1928 Hot Boiled Beans Newark Advertiser 7 November 1928 An Englishman s Rights Nottingham Evening Post 28 February 1929 The Two Aspects of Liberty Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 10 April 1933 Democracy to Dictatorship Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 3 March 1934 Freeman s original title was From Democracy to Dictatorship Liberty and Property Nottingham Evening Post 29 November 1934 The Return of the Autocrat Orders in Council Linlithgow Gazette 3 April 1936 What Has become of Democracy Mid Sussex Times 28 April 1936 Liberty and Intelligence Portsmouth Evening News 16 October 1936 Does Dullness Create Dictatorship Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 17 October 1936 Preservation of Liberty Portsmouth Evening News 18 June 1937 Liberty and Reciprocity Linlithgowshire Gazette 18 June 1937 On Being a Good Neighbour Kirkintilloch Herald 23 June 1937 Liberty and Physique Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 29 January 1938 Enemies of Liberty West London Observer 2 December 1938 War is Destructive of Liberty Sunderland Daily Echo amp Shipping Gazette 14 July 1939 Liberty and Peace West London Observer 21 July 1939 Individualism and War Falkirk Herald 18 October 1939 War Sacrifices for a Purpose Grimsby Daily Telegraph 23 November 1939 Hard Cases and Bad Law Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 4 April 1940 Liberties Surrendered for Future Freedom Portsmouth Evening News 12 September 1940 Also published as Hitlerism On Appro Freeman s original title Motherwell Times 13 September 1940 Freedom of the Citizen Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 13 September 1940 Good Breeding The Importance of Eugenics Thanet Advertiser 25 April 1941 Eugenics and Liberty Falkirk Herald 23 April 1941 also published as Good Breeding The Importance of Eugenics Thanet Adviser 25 April 1941 What of the Future Falkirk Herald 29 October 1941 The Passing of Personal Liberty Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail 24 April 1942 also published as The Passing of Personal Liberty towards the Human Ant Hill West London Observer 1 May 1942 Freeman s original title was The Passing of Freedom Liberty and Equality Falkirk Herald 9 September 1942 Medical Profession Dangers of State Service 25 November 1942 Also published as Medical Profession and Socialization of the Medical Profession Freeman s original title The Doppelganger Publication unknown The Economics of Liberty Publication unknown The Militant s Strategy Publication unknown Is Fingerprint Evidence Fallible Publication unknown His Majesty s Savings Publication unknown The Renegades Publication unknown The Three Wishes Publication unknown The Unauthorised Raiders Publication unknownUnconfirmed stories edit From the records of Freeman s agent A P Watt Tony Medawar identified that Freeman had been paid for the following items The Adventures of Jack Osmond Publication unknown See also A Certain Dr Thorndyke The Auchtermuchtie Burglary Publication unknown The Automatic Boat Publication unknown La Belle Anglaise Publication unknown The Cavern Publication unknown A Corpse in the Case Publication unknown This may be a reference to Corpse in the Case an adaptation of Dr Thorndyke Intervenes by Mollie Hardwick broadcast on the BBC Home Service on 9 June 1962 and starring Cyril Luckham as Thorndyke A Crusader s Misadventures Publication unknown The Haarschneide Machine Publication unknown Mr Pordle s Homecoming Publication unknownAdaptations editTelevision adaptations edit A short series featuring Dr Thorndyke was produced by the BBC in 1964 entitled Thorndyke The title character was played by veteran British actor Peter Copley Based on the stories written by R Austin Freeman the episodes all of which except the pilot are missing from the BBC archive were as follows The Case of Oscar Brodski Pilot as part of BBC series Detective The Old Lag A Case of Premeditation The Mysterious Visitor The Case of Phyllis Annesley Percival Bland s Brother The Puzzle LockThree stories were also adapted as part of the Thames TV series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes in 1971 3 These were A Message From The Deep Sea from the 1st series and starring John Neville as Thorndyke The Assyrian Rejuvenator 1st series starring Donald Sinden as Romney Pringle The Moabite Cipher 2nd series starring Barrie Ingham as Thorndyke Both series are available on DVD in the UK from Network Video and in the United States from Acornmedia Radio adaptation edit Starting in 2011 the BBC aired radio adaptations of some of the Thorndyke short stories Thorndyke Forensic Investigator on BBC Radio 4 Extra 144 Series 1 edit November 2011 read by Jim Norton A Mysterious Visitor The Puzzle Lock A Mystery of the Sand Hills Pathologist to the Rescue The Secret of the Urn Pandora s BoxSeries 2 edit March 2013 read by William Gaminara The Stolen Ingots Rex v Burnaby The Stalking HorseIn popular culture editLiterature edit In Donna Andrews s Owl s Well That Ends Well a near mint first edition copy of The Uttermost Farthing provides the motive for the murder Biographies and studies editR Austin Freeman The Anthropologist at Large Oliver Mayo Hawthornedene South Australia Investigator Press 1980 145 This biography in addition to reviewing Freeman s fiction gives special attention to the African and sociological works 146 It was reprinted in Volume 11 of the Freeman Edition by Battered Silicon Dispatch Box in 1998 147 In Search of Doctor Thorndyke Norman Donaldson Bowling Green Ohio 1971 A second expanded edition was published in 1998 as Volume 10 of the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box edition of Freeman 148 149 The Thorndyke File was started by Philip T Asdell of Maryland in Spring 1976 and published articles of scholarship on Freeman twice a year John McAleer took over in 1980 and the journal ran on until 1988 Half of the subscribers were medical doctors 150 John Thorndyke s Journal was published in England from 1991 to 1998 by David Ian Chapman of Aldershot Hampshire 150 Collecting R Austin Freeman David Ian Chapman Highfield Press Aldershot 2022 Revised Second Edition R Austin Freeman and The Adventures of Romney Pringle An Investigation David Ian Chapman Highfield Press Aldershot 2023 Notes edit While some sources state that Freeman trained as an apothecary before studying medicine this is not correct Between 1815 and 1999 the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries provided primary medical qualifications with the title Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries LSA and such Licentiates were eligible for registration as doctors 3 It seems odd that someone who had just entered the service the previous year could get so much leave but he may have been ill and had recovery leave Freeman was charged with taking astronomical readings to establish the position of the towns they visited as well as geographical features The king was new to his throne and needed to be formally crowned before he could access the treasury but needed money for the formal coronation He asked the British for a loan to get around this problem Freeman s account shows that some of his colleagues were at best intemperate in their dealings with local leaders Freeman worked with the local authorities to de escalate things and this helped to resolve the problems that the Hausa constables were creating with their looting 11 Freeman himself makes the same point in the sixth Danby Croker Story The Emperor s Keepsake when Croker compares his uncle a former Army officer to the burglar Milkey His uncle called his things loot and Milkey called his swag but both were acquired in the same way and the difference was only in the name This address was registered as Thorndykes Nursing Home on 22 August 1986 18 and was rated as Good by the Care Quality Commission on 2 November 2015 19 It no longer operates as a nursing home and was sold for 1 175 000 on 17 Feb 2017 20 It has since been converted into a block of 16 self contained studio apartments to be available for rent from 1 August 2020 21 This was a journal devoted to the works of Freeman that was founded in 1976 by Philip Asdell and continued in 1981 by John McAleer Micrographs are photographs or digital images taken through a microscope or similar device The Jisc catalogue collates 165 national university and research libraries in the UK and Ireland 59 60 This account of Freeman s travels in the interior of West Africa was published by the Royal Geographical Society in Supplementary Papers Volume 3 68 Trinity College Dublin dates this as 1893 but the national archives in the UK date this as 1891 69 Presumably the original report from Freeman was dated 1891 and the report was published by the RGS in 1893 The journey is also covered by Travels and life in Ashanti and Jaman Tells the story of Freeman journey as doctor naturalist and surveyor for an expedition to Ashanti and Jaman over five months in 1888 and 1889 While the mission was a political failure one useful product of the whole expedition were Freemans notes on flora fauna soils geology costumes customs and institutions of both Ashanti and Jaman The book also has a chapter discussing Malaria The book was in the Cass library of African studies Travels and narratives no 17 9 The Graphic in a review of more than half a page noted that Freeman s concluding chapters about the future of the region were pessimistic 70 Written with John James Pitcairn The Oxford Companion to Crime etc describes Romney Pringle thus poses as a literary agent who earns a living by swindling crooks out of their ill gotten gains The stories appeared in volume 34 of Cassell s Magazine from June to November 1902 on pages 54 62 185 194 271 279 380 389 503 512 and 590 598 71 June began with The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Assyrian rejuvenator 72 and November ended the series The Adventures of Romney Pringle The Kailyard Novel 73 However by the end of October the review desks already had the printed volume of stories from Ward Lock 74 The book has a strong under current of tongue in cheek humour 75 This was Freeman s first solo foray into book length fiction The story is set in West Africa which Freeman knew well Richard Engelfield was the supercargo of a trading brig who inspired by finding the log book of an early Portuguese trader went up country in the disguise of a Fulah merchant and found a fabled Golden Pool and its treasures Caught and condemned to blinding he escapes and finally makes his way to the coast after many adventures The Manchester Courier called it a spirited and interesting story but said it was slightly overburdened by detail 76 The Scotsman said it is told in that persuasive matter of fact manner which is best for a yarn of this sort 77 This was Freeman s first book length crime mystery It also introduced Thorndyke However Thorndyke had first been conceived in 1905 for an then unpublished story called Thirty one New Inn 78 79 Howard Haycraft says that In respect to puzzle and solution this remarkable volume remains one of the undisputed milestones of the genre 80 Even so Freeman had to publish it at his own expense with Collingwood Brothers a jobbing printer Serialised in the US in 1911 81 The story resolved in part around a Thumb o Graphs a book for collecting the thumb prints of friends This was a real product having been introduced by the stationer and publisher Dow and Lester in 1904 The book had only one page of writing instructing the users how to use the attached ink pad to take a clear impression of thumbs for the book 82 Freeman thought that this was a dangerous product and wrote the story partly to demonstrate this 83 83 Published as Dr Thorndyke s Cases in the US A collection of eight short stories featuring four people falsely accused of murder one of which is a locked room mystery a kidnapping a secret message a faked suicide and an effort to drive someone insane The stories first appeared as a series of short stories in Pearson s Magazine starting with the Christmas double number of the magazine in December 1908 84 85 Published as The Vanishing Man in the US The well known archaeologist Bellingham disappears from the home of his relative Thorndyke investigates and rescues a young man falsely accused of the crime Grost call this book Freeman s masterpiece and said that it appears to be paradigmatic of the Golden Age Detective Novel 32 The Portadown News called it one of the most thoroughly satisfying detective romances that has appeared for years 86 The Scotsman said it says much for the author s power of construction that our interest never flags and curiosity remains unabated to the very end 87 A story of suspected poisoning and conflicting wills Thorndyke had first been conceived in 1905 for unpublished short story called Thirty one New Inn That story was later reworked to novella length over 30 000 words by Freeman and appeared in the January 1911 issue of Adventure New York 47 It was then reworked to book length as The Mystery of 31 New Inn The novella was one of the eight stories in The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories by R Austin Freeman 1973 Freeman expanded the Novella by working on it page to page 88 A collection of five short stories which established the inverted detective story Has a preface by Freeman which sets out why he takes this approach Each story is presented in two parts The first part describes the commission of the crime as a third person narration the second presents the work of John Thorndyke to uncover the crime narrated by Christopher Jervis Initially published as stories in Pearson s magazine starting with the 1910 Christmas number 45 Re published in the US by Dodd Mead in 1923 under the title The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke Re issued in the US as Popular Library 122 paperback in 1947 1 34 35 The first story in the collection was The Case of Oscar Brodski and Bieler says that this has always been considered one of the landmarks in the history of the detective story The Northern Whig said that Oscar Brodski was one of the most powerful detective stories we have ever read 46 The only historical romance written by Freeman A young man from Gravesend is accused of the murder of a magistrate s son in 1791 and has to flee Donaldson said that he could find no corroboration of the statement in a local obituary that Freeman regards this as his best book but that it could be true 89 The Manchester Courier called it an encyclopedia of adventure a history of the incarnation of the spirit adventure 90 The Northern Whig said that even if Freeman supplies us with nothing startling new he reheats the old material very brightly and as convincingly as possible 91 A man seeks revenge for the murder of his young wife by a burglar by setting traps for burglars and adding their shrunken heads and skeletons to his anatomical museum First published in the UK as a serial story in Pearson s Magazine beginning in April 1913 with the title A hunter of Criminals Bleiler states that initially no English publisher would reprint it as it was too gruesome 79 It was first published as a book in the US as The Uttermost Farthing A Savant s Vendetta Philadelphia John C Winston Company 1914 It was only published in the UK in 1920 and then not by Hodder amp Stoughton but in a cheap pocket edition by Pearson as A Savant s Vendetta The Buckingham Advertiser called it gruesome but said it was written in powerful fashion and grips 92 The Belfast Telegraph recommended it to those who like real nerve testing stories 93 Initially narrated by Dr Wharton Humphrey Challoner s physician who presents Challoner s account of his murders The Sheffield Independent said This is an interesting story with an attractive dash of grisliness It is published as a cheap pocket edition it is just the thing for the holidays 94 Walking late at night Dr Jervis discovers a body on a path He goes to get a constable but when he returns the body is gone and he faces scepticism 95 Republished by Dood Meads in 1929 Issued as a paperback as Pocket Book No 184 in 1942 1 33 Jervis takes a leading role in this story The Boston Globe said that it was a detective romance quite out of the ordinary and one that holds the reader s enchained attention through every one of its 400 pages 96 The full title was The exploits of Danby Croker Being Extracts from a Somewhat Disreputable Autobiography A series of twelve sequential stories with a preface and epilogue that were first published in The Red Magazine from 1 July to 15 December 1911 As the magazine was a fortnightly and this represented 12 episodes These seem to have been published in two series of six stories as The Red Magazine was advertising on 5 October 1911 that the first series of the stories were so popular and that they had so many requests for more that they had arranged with Freeman to write a further series 97 Danby Croker is like Romney Pringle what Bleiler calls one of the mildly humorous semi picaresque characters persons who live astride the boundary of the law Danby a good hearted young artist with a poorly developed moral sense is making his way in the world when a burglar impersonates him and creates a world of trouble for him This is one of the books that Donaldson describes as being marred by frivolity 89 and that Bleiler describes as having a lightness of touch that makes them distinctive although Bleiler acknowledges that some readers find their flippancy distasteful 79 Seven stories of which only two both inverted detective stories feature Thorndyke The other are respectively a treasure hunt the tale of a put upon curate whose character changes when he acquires an Ashanti charm a porcelain robbery a complicated probate and the finding of a treasure and its consequences The Sketch says that they were as clever and as entertaining as any he has done 98 Freeman was interested in eugenics and Bleiler says that this book created a stir when it was first published It has an introduction by Havelock Ellis and Dean Inge reviewed it over ten pages Freeman s stories embody many of the ideas expressed in the book but Bleiler notes that these ideals seem less palatable when expounded seriously and thatReading it today is not always pleasant 79 Abrams says that the book outlined mixed perceptions of a Jewish Black sexual threat 99 This book was never published in the United States Grost calls this another bad Freeman novel suffering from offensive racial stereotypes 32 The book is an example of the anti Semitic trope in which a beautiful and gifted gentile maiden Helen Vardon is blackmailed through the threat of prison for her father into marrying the fat and much older Jewish moneylender Otway However Otway acts in bad faith and Helen s father dies while arguing with him Helen separates from Otway as a condition for supporting his story about the death of her father Helen moves to a commune of women artists run by Polton s sister Helen is suspected to encouraging Otway to suicide when he apparently takes his own life Thorndyke resolves things The Shepparton Advertiser said that the story moves slowly and is at times rather stilted but that there are some interesting passages dealing with pottery and metal work 100 Barzun and Taylor note that Thorndyke plays a relatively minor part and that surprisingly Thorndyke s evidence contains a minor mistake or two 101 US title The Blue Scarab A collection of seven short stories including four persons falsely accused of murder one kidnapping one hidden loot one robbery and one person being driven to suicide Serialised in Pearson s Magazine from March 1923 The stories cover a false accusation of murder a treasure hunt a safe deposit fraud a missing will a tale of hidden loot stolen ingots and a faked suicide 102 Thorndkye s Counsel Anstey is on the spot when a man is murdered at Rowan Lodge and saves a young woman from one of the robbers From there on it gets more complicated It was serialised in the Westminster Gazette with the first episode on Saturday 7 April 1923 103 Grost says that the novel seems pretty uninspired with an easily guessed mystery plot some damsel in distress thriller elements and a labored hidden treasure story 32 The News Adelaide calls it a A good Book for the Holidays 104 A young woman is subject to spousal abuse separates from her husband but is unable to escape him as he repeatedly tracks here done Against this background this is a light hearted handling of Dickens s unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood which debunks the fallacious belief that quicklime corrodes dead bodies 88 The Philadelphia Inquirer calls it a story that will keep the reader chained to it until it is finished 105 Grost says that the first half of the book sets forth a well constructed mystery plot about an abused woman but the second half is full of red herrings and the writing and plotting become arch making it less than a genuine detective story 32 A collection of nine short stories featuring Thorndyke The feature a story where Thorndyke succeeds in opening a vault secured with a puzzle lock a missing authority on prehistoric flints an apparent suicide a young woman wrongly accused of murder a bio terrorist a wife wrongly accused of trying to poison her husband the murder of a blackmailer an effort to drive someone insane and a fraudulent probate case The Philadelphia Inquirer calls them nine capital stories and that the base of a complete novel can be seen in every one of the stories 106 The Wolf referred to is the Wolf Rock which lies between Land s End and the Isles of Scilly A man goes missing after going sailing with a friend His wife appeals to Thorndyke and he solves the mystery This is an inverted detective story The Hull Daily Mail notes that The reader knows what has happened from the first but the interest is sure to be sustained while the methods of Dr Thorndyke are revealed 107 This was an expansion of a novella The Dead Hand that was published in Pearson s Magazine in October and November 1912 108 McAleer notes that unlike 31 New Inn where Freeman expanded the novella to novel length by adding page to page this was expanded by dropping a large swatch of new material in the middle of the story 88 Dr Grey is looking for a place to paint a landscape when he comes across Marion D Arblay searching for her missing father Grost says that the use of racial stereotypes marks it as a low point in Freeman s fiction However it is not as Grost calls it an anti Semitic diatribe 32 as the villain is not Jewish at all and the only question of stereotypes comes up in the questions about whether the villain s false hooked nose is a curved Jewish type or or a squarer Roman nose There are no anti Semitic tropes in the book no grasping money lender etc It was serialised in The Westminster Gazette starting on Friday 19 March 1926 109 The Albany Advertiser says that it is a very interesting yarn with the interest well sustained throughout 110 McAleer says in this as in The Shadow of the Wolf Thorndyke s powers of deduction operate at their finest 88 Polton plays a large role in this novel and the Albany Dispatch says that one is often left wondering which is the cleverer Dr Thorndyke or Polton 111 A collection of nine short stories including a tale of hidden loot a faked death a young woman falsely accused of murder a faked suicide a faked alibi three cases with men falsely accused of murder and a murder where the murder made it look as he were the victim The stories first appeared in Pearson s Magazine starting in October 1926 112 Osmond is fleeing an arrest warrant when he arrives in West Africa He has various adventures with Freeman skilfully using his knowledge of the region He is eventually cleared by Thorndyke Several parts of this story seem to have appeared as short stories in various venues including The Mutiny on the Speedwell October 1914 People s Magazine pages 815 828 The Gun Runner June 1914 Novel Magazine and possibly A Question of Salvage September 1916 in Cassell s Magazine pages 33 38 113 The Evening Star Dunedin says that the story is splendidly constructed and the solving of the mystery keeps the reader interested to the very end 114 A young solicitor s clerk is sent on a mission to a market town and comes across an old mystery He has to face off a senior police officer the Russian secret police and a gang of burglars This is one of the books that Donaldson describes as being marred by frivolity 89 The Southern Argus says It s a capital book full of excitement and merriment 115 Narrated by the solicitor Mayfield Dr Jervis is now in the employ of the Home Office A wife who spends all her time campaigning for votes for women is accused of poisoning her husband Thorndyke resolves the question 116 The Deseret News says that the book belongs to the highest type of mystery story The plot is logical interesting and ingenious The writing is thoroughly competent 117 A young woman is tempted to impersonate her male cousin and engages in a lot of cross dressing as her life gets complicated The Maryborough Chronicle said that the story never drags it is wholesome and very refreshing 118 The Newcastle Sun calls it an original and highly amusing story 119 The Northern Whig says that The narrative makes very amusing reading 120 This is one of the stories which Donaldson describes as being marred by frivolity 89 An omnibus of short stories that had already appeared in published collections Included some of the short stories published in John Thorndyke s Cases and all of the stories collected in The Singing Bone Dr Thorndyke s Casebook The Puzzle Lock and The Magic Casket Both the UK and US editions were missing The Man with the Nailed Shoes a rather long story of over 19 000 words and A Message from the Deep Sea The UK edition was also missing The Mandarin s Pearl All of the missing stories were from the first collection John Thorndyke s Cases Thus the UK edition had 37 stories and the US edition entitled The Dr Thorndyke Omnibus had 38 The Waikato Independent said The book is a remarkably clever one Much of the matter is of engrossing interest appealing to one s reason and affording much thoughtful speculation 121 Five Thorndyke stories drawn from previous collections Two with people falsely accused of murder one with a safe deposit robbery one with a hidden haul of loot and one with a missing will Issues as part of the Treasuries of Modern Prose by the University of London Press The West Australian suggests that as the stories have been selected from other collections of Thorndyke stories they are as good as anything of the kind that has appeared in recent fiction dealing with mystery and crime 122 An inverted detective story or rather a story in six sections two of which are full inverted detective stories three of which describe the activities of the main character who reacts badly to being blackmailed and one describes Thorndyke s investigation McAleer notes that this story is by some considered Freeman s masterpiece 88 Re issued as a Collier No AS416Y paperback in the US in 1962 1 35 Listed as being amongst best of the Thorndyke series by the Dunedin Evening Star 123 A story of a lost heir and a conspiracy Grost describes Pontifex Son and Thorndyke 1931 as degenerating into another of Freeman s anti Semitic diatribes 32 In this novel the villains are largely Jewish and come from the community of unfit aliens that Freeman lambastes in Social Decay and Regeneration 30 US title Dr Thorndyke s Discovery As well as the 1932 hardback publication by Dodd it was published as Avon Paperback no 10 in the US in 1941 with the US title Roberts says Those who prefer their mystery fiction to feature numerous seemingly unrelated threads will revel in this classic Thorndyke story The Aberdeen Press and Journal says Freeman has very few rivals in the true detective story but we must confess that it a considerable time since we read any tale of his that struck us so much 124 Narrated in the third person and then by Dr Jervis When Dobson arrives at Fenchurch Street Station to claim the loot from a robbery that has been left at the luggage room he instead finds a head in his bag This the start of a complicated puzzle with two different mysteries 125 The Dunedin Evening Star counts this book as being among the best of the Thorndyke series 123 The Poverty Bay Herald says it is Thorndyke and at his best 126 Narrated in the third person Jervis appears but does not narrate A foolish young man is mistaken for his never do well cousin and accused of murdering himself Thorndyke unravels it This is the only Thorndyke novel in which Polton does not play a part 127 The Northern Star said that this book would enhance Freeman s reputation for mystery stories 128 The Australasian says that Freeman has never written a better one 129 Centers around the disappearance of a keen collector where one clue is a fragment of neolithic pottery The novel led to the excavation of Julliberrie s Grave an unchambered long barrow in Kent which plays a key role in the story 130 The Scotsman said that the book was one of the great lawyer s most notable triumphs 131 Called Death at the Inn in the US The first half is narrated by a bank Clerk called Morrison the second by Jervis Concerns the solution to two murders and the recovery of a fortune Grost says that this book contains a genuine puzzle plot 32 The Daily Telegraph Sydney calls it a well constructed and ingenious double murder disguised as double suicide 132 A policeman is killed during a jewel robbery at a house in the country A potter appears to be dying from arsenic poisoning and then disappears Thorndyke puts the pieces together The first part is narrated by Dr James Oldfield and the second part by Dr Jervis Issued as a paperback No 11 in Popular Library s early Mysteries of Proven Merit series 1 33 34 Breiler calls it a fine performance both as a mystery novel and a satire on modern art 133 McAleer says that the book is notable for humor a rarity in Freeman s work 88 However the rarity of humour in Freeman s work is contested as Adey states that Freeman s writing was clear and concise with dry humor and a keen eye for deductive detail 43 Published as a paperback as Popular Library 70 in 1946 1 34 The first part is narrated by Polton the second by Jervis Features a murder plot that goes wrong The first part is essentially a biography of Polton and the second the investigation of a crime where Polton s special knowledge comes into play Roberts says that the novel is sure to delight all those interested in horology 1 34 Ghost that he cannot recommend this book It is well meant and seriously crafted but it lacks the imagination of Freeman s best work 32 However Bleiler says that this story is in some ways his best novel 10 and the Press in New Zealand called it one of Mr Freeman s happiest and neatest stories 134 An omnibus of nearly 1 000 pages edited by Percival Mason Stone Includes the three previously published novels The Eye of Osiris The Mystery of Angelina Frood and Mr Pottermack s Oversight interspersed with essays Two of the essays Meet Dr Thorndyke and The Art of the Detective Story are by Freeman while the third 5A King s Bench Walk is by the volume editor P M Stone Called The Unconscious Witness in the US Also published as Avon Paperback 122 in 1947 1 32 33 This was the last novel written by Freeman when he was nearly 80 Thomas Pedley is painting a landscape in the countryside when he sees two men being followed by a woman He notices them because of the woman s suspicious behaviour She returns with only one of the men from a place where there is no other exit When he learns that there has been a murder he realizes that he and his canvas may have vital evidence 135 Roberts says that Thorndyke is at his analytical best in this adventure 1 32 33 A set of six stories that first appeared in volume 36 of Cassell s Family Magazine from June to November 1903 on pages 73 80 190 197 295 303 390 397 508 516 and 623 631 71 Not published in collected form until 1969 The Kilkenny Moderator calls A box of specie the September 1903 instalment a quaint story quaintly told 136 A collection of eight stories three from the Singing Bone and four from John Thorndyke s Cases and the novella Thirty one New Inn which Freeman expanded into full length novel The Mystery of 31 New Inn This collection has an introduction by E F Bleiler and was published as a Dover Paperback no 20388 3 in 1973 Bleiler says that the collection included much of Freeman s best work but not all of it and that A half dozen novels and another half dozen short stories could well have been included 137 This was a reissue of these two novels in a single volume paperback by Dover No 22963 7 This was a companion volume to The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories and also featured an introduction by Bleiler Bleiler states that The Stoneware Monkey 1938 and the succeeding novel mark an Indian summer in Freeman s work when Freeman was 75 years old He also credits The Penrose Mystery as being the only novel that sponsored an archaeological dig 79 The Dunedin Evening Star includes both titles as being amongst the best of the Thorndyke series 123 Written with John James Pitcairn under the pseudonym Clifford Ashdown The six stories in this collection were first published in Cassell s Family Magazine volume 39 December 1904 to May 1905 on pages 139 146 253 261 321 329 442 450 563 571 and 683 690 138 71 Tell the adventures of a young doctor acting as locum temens in place of established doctors who have gone on leave Donaldson said the stories intermingled medicine and detection 139 Re issued in Volume VI of the Freeman Edition by Battered Silicon Dispatch Box 140 Written with John James Pitcairn The manuscript of this novel lay forgotten among the papers of John James Pitcairn 141 For some reason it had not sold 83 113 It features two men recently returned from West Africa competing to find a treasure and to win the heart of the same girl The novel was issued after thorough editing 141 This is the original manuscript of The Eye of Osiris that was rejected by the publisher because of a love interest 142 143 References edit a b c d e f g h i j k l Roberts Daniel G 1 March 1952 The Paperback Dr John Thorndyke Paperback Quarterly Journal of Mass Market Paperback History 5 1 a b c d Obituary Mr Austin Freeman Author of Detective Stories The Times Friday 1 October 1943 7 1 October 1943 Retrieved 2 July 2020 Kemp Sandra Mitchell Charlotte Trotter David 1997 Freeman Richard Austin 1862 1943 Edwardian Fiction An Oxford Companion Oxford Oxford University Press p 141 ISBN 978 0 19 811760 5 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The Internet Archive a b McAleer John 1994 R Austin Freeman 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 In Benstock Bernard Staley Thomas F eds Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 70 British Mystery Writers 1860 1919 Detroit Gale Research p 147 ISBN 9780810317482 Retrieved 2 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Freeman Richard Austin 1898 XVII A Chapter on Malaria Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman New York F A Stokes p 502 hdl 2027 uva x004101128 Freeman Richard Austin 1898 I The Beginning of the Journey Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman New York F A Stokes p 1 hdl 2027 uva x004101128 Freeman Richard Austin 1898 I The Beginning of the Journey Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman New York F A Stokes p 5 hdl 2027 uva x004101128 Freeman Richard Austin 1898 I The Beginning of the Journey Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman New York F A Stokes pp 14 15 hdl 2027 uva x004101128 a b Globe Wednesday 06 July 1898 Globe Wednesday 6 July 1898 6 6 July 1898 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive a b c d Bleiler E F 1973 Introduction to the Dover Edition The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories by R Austin Freeman New York Dover Publications Inc pp v Freeman Richard Austin 1898 X Discords Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman New York F A Stokes p 314 hdl 2027 uva x004101128 a b A amp C Black Ltd 1967 Freeman Richard Austin Who Was Who A Companion to Who s Who Containing the Biographies of Those Who Died During the Period 1941 1950 Vol IV 1941 1950 3rd ed London Adam and Charles Black p 411 ISBN 9780713601718 Retrieved 2 July 2020 via The Internet Archive a b c Bleiler E F 1973 Introduction to the Dover Edition The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories by R Austin Freeman New York Dover Publications Inc pp vi ISBN 0 486 20388 3 Barzun Jacques Taylor Wendell Hertig 1989 Novels of Detection Crime Mystery and Espoionage Freeman R ichard Austin 1862 1943 Association Item The Golden Pool A Catalogue of Crime New York Harper amp Row p 215 ISBN 9780060157968 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Freeman Richard Austin 1916 The exploits of Danby Croker Being Extracts from a Somewhat Disreputable Autobiography London Duckworth amp Co Retrieved 5 July 2020 Greene Hugh ed 1971 The rivals of Sherlock Holmes early detective stories London Penguin pp 21 22 ISBN 9780140033113 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Marcum David 2019 About the Author The Complete Dr Thorndyke Volume 1 The Red Thumb Mark the Eye of Osiris and the Mystery of 31 New Inn by R Austin Freeman Andrews UK Limited p 765 ISBN 978 1 78705 392 2 Thorndykes Nursing Home Carehomes Centre Retrieved 29 June 2020 Archived 94 Windmill Street Care Quality Commission 2 November 2015 Retrieved 29 June 2020 Sold Prices for 94 Windmill Street Gravesend DA12 1LH Net House Prices Retrieved 29 June 2020 94 Windmill Street Studios 94 Windmill Street Studios Retrieved 29 June 2020 Wills and Probate 1858 1996 Search for Surname Freeman and Year of Death 1944 Find a Will Service Retrieved 29 June 2020 McAleer John 1994 R Austin Freeman 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 In Benstock Bernard Staley Thomas F eds Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 70 British Mystery Writers 1860 1919 Detroit Gale Research p 153 ISBN 9780810317482 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive Richard Austin Freeman Find a Grave Retrieved 29 June 2020 a b McLaren Angus 2012 Reproduction by Design Sex Robots Trees and Test Tube Babies in Interwar Britain University of Chicago Press pp 64 5 ISBN 978 0 226 56069 4 McLaren Angus 2012 Reproduction by Design Sex Robots Trees and Test Tube Babies in Interwar Britain University of Chicago Press p 71 ISBN 978 0 226 56069 4 Freeman Richard Austin 1921 Reactions of Mechanism on Man Individually Social Decay and Regeneration Boston Houghton Mifflin pp 245 6 hdl 2027 msu 31293006947612 Stone Dan 2002 Breeding Superman Nietzsche Race and Eugenics in Edwardian and Interwar Britain Liverpool University Press pp 113 14 162 ISBN 0 85323 987 8 Freeman Richard Austin 1921 Reactions of Mechanism on Man Individually Social Decay and Regeneration Boston Houghton Mifflin p 188 hdl 2027 msu 31293006947612 a b Freeman Richard Austin 1921 The Unfit Social Decay and Regeneration Boston Houghton Mifflin pp 265 6 hdl 2027 msu 31293006947612 Freeman Richard Austin 1921 The Voluntary Segregation of the Fit Social Decay and Regeneration Boston Houghton Mifflin p 318 hdl 2027 msu 31293006947612 a b c d e f g h i j k l Grost Micheal E R Austin Freeman A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection Archived from the original on 2 February 2006 Retrieved 28 June 2020 Rubinstein W Jolles Micheal A eds 2011 The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo Jewish History London Palgrave Macmillan UK p 1184 ISBN 978 0 230 30466 6 Dr Thorndyke Creator Dead Birmingham Daily Gazette Friday 1 October 1943 3 1 October 1943 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Obituary Dr R A Freeman Creator of Dr Thorndyke Belfast News Letter Friday 1 October 1943 1 1 October 1943 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Obituary Creator of Dr Thorndyke Evening Star Dunedin Saturday 2 October 1943 4 2 October 1943 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The National Library of New Zealand Symonds Julian 1985 Bloody Murder From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel a History 2nd ed London Viking p 81 ISBN 978 0 670 80096 4 Retrieved 6 July 2020 de Blacam Aodh 1 June 1945 The Detective as Philosopher The Irish Monthly 73 864 262 JSTOR 20515398 Chandler Raymond 1997 Gardiner Dorothy Walker Kathrine Sorley eds Raymond Chandler Speaking University of California Press pp 59 60 ISBN 978 0 520 20835 3 Binyon T J 1990 Murder will out The Detective in Fiction Oxford Oxford University Press p 19 ISBN 0 19 282730 8 Retrieved 29 June 2020 via The Internet Archive a b Crime and Science Birmingham Daily Post Friday 1 October 1943 2 1 October 1943 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive de Blacam Aodh 1 June 1945 The Detective as Philosopher The Irish Monthly 73 864 265 JSTOR 20515398 a b Adey Robert C S 1999 Short Story The British Crime Short Story In Herbert Rosemary Rosemary Aird Catherine Reilly John M eds The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing Oxford Oxford University Press p 412 ISBN 978 0 19 507239 6 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The Internet Archive a b Adams John 1 April 1913 Mr R Austin Freeman 259 London 7 a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help a b Christmas Numbers Pearson s Westminster Gazette Saturday 26 November 1910 17 26 November 1910 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive a b Short Notices The Singing Bone Northern Whig Saturday 16 March 1912 12 16 March 1912 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive a b c Bleiler E F 1973 Introduction to the Dover Edition The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories by R Austin Freeman New York Dover Publications Inc pp viii ISBN 0 486 20388 3 Freeman Richard Austin 1947 The Art of the Detective Story The Art of the Mystery Story New York Grosset amp Dunlap p 15 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Super Sleuth Exposed Daily Herald Thursday 20 November 1930 6 20 November 1930 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Donaldson Norman 1986 R ichard Austin Freeman 1862 1943 Norman Donaldson from A Freeman Postscript in The Mystery amp Detection Annual 1972 pp 86 92 In Poupard Denis Lazzari Marie Ligotti Thomas eds Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Vol 21 Detroit Gale Research Company p 42 ISBN 0 8103 2403 2 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Starrett Vincent 10 October 1943 Books Alive Chicago Tribune Sunday 10 October 1943 134 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via Newspapers com Barrow Boy s Coining Experience Trial at the Assizes Soulby s Ulverston Advertiser and General Intelligencer Thursday 1 February 1912 16 1 February 1912 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive a b Binyon T J 1999 Sleuth In Herbert Rosemary Rosemary Aird Catherine Reilly John M eds The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing Oxford Oxford University Press p 419 ISBN 978 0 19 507239 6 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The Internet Archive Binyon T J 1990 Murder will out The Detective in Fiction Oxford Oxford University Press p 15 ISBN 0 19 282730 8 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Poupard Denis 1986 R ichard Austin Freeman 1862 1943 Introduction In Poupard Denis Lazzari Marie Ligotti Thomas eds Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Vol 21 Detroit Gale Research Company p 42 ISBN 0 8103 2403 2 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Rocha Mona Rocha James 2011 15 A Feminist Scandal in Holmes s Generalisations In Steiff Josef ed Sherlock Holmes and Philosophy The Footprints of a Gigantic Mind Vol 61 of Popular culture and philosophy Chicago and La Salle Illinois Open Court p 147 ISBN 978 0 8126 9731 5 Binyon T J 1990 Murder will out The Detective in Fiction Oxford Oxford University Press p 18 ISBN 0 19 282730 8 Retrieved 7 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Ward Alfred C 1924 Aspects of the modern short story English and American London University of London Press pp 222 225 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive About Library Hub Discover Library Hub Discover Retrieved 18 June 2020 Libraries on Discover Contributing libraries list Library Hub Discover 15 June 2020 Retrieved 18 June 2020 Niebuhr Gary Warren 2003 4 Amateur Detectives R Austin Freeman Dr John Thorndyke Make Mine a Mystery A Reader s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction Bloomsbury Academic pp 70 74 ISBN 9781563087844 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Barzun Jacques Taylor Wendell Hertig 1989 Novels of Detection Crime Mystery and Espoionage Freeman R ichard Austin 1862 1943 A Catalogue of Crime Revised and enlarged ed New York Harper amp Row pp 214 218 ISBN 9780060157968 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Barzun Jacques Taylor Wendell Hertig 1989 Short Stories Collections Anthologies Magazines Pastiches and Plays Ashdown Clifford pseud of R Austin Freeman and Dr John James Pitcairn 1860 1936 A Catalogue of Crime New York Harper amp Row pp 575 576 ISBN 0 06 015796 8 Retrieved 4 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Barzun Jacques Taylor Wendell Hertig 1989 Short Stories Collections Anthologies Magazines Pastiches and Plays Freeman R Austin A Catalogue of Crime New York Harper amp Row pp 618 619 ISBN 9780060157968 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive McAleer John 1994 R Austin Freeman 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 In Benstock Bernard Staley Thomas F eds Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 70 British Mystery Writers 1860 1919 Detroit Gale Research pp 143 153 ISBN 9780810317482 Retrieved 2 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Hubin Allen J 1984 Ashdown Clifford Crime Fiction 1749 1980 A Bibliography New York Garland Publishing Inc p 15 ISBN 9780824092191 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Hubin Allen J 1984 Freeman R ichard Austin 1862 1943 Crime Fiction 1749 1980 A Bibliography New York Garland Publishing Inc p 153 ISBN 9780824092191 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Royal Geographical Society Great Britain Freeman Dr R Austin 1893 A journey to Bontuku in the interior of West Africa Supplementary Papers Vol 3 London J Murray p 119 Freeman Richard Austin 1891 A Journey to Bontuku London Royal Geographical Society pp 40p 9p 19p 3ph map Retrieved 27 June 2020 Travels in Ashanti The Graphic Saturday 20 August 1898 22 20 August 1898 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive a b c d Thomas Sue 1987 Author Index Cassell s Family Magazine Indexes to Fiction Victorian Fiction Research Guides 12 Victorian Fiction Research Unit Department of English University of Queensland ISBN 9780867762334 Retrieved 3 July 2020 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a website ignored help Reviews Messrs Cassell s Publications Todmorden Advertiser and Hebden Bridge Newsletter Friday 6 June 1902 7 6 June 1902 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Magazines for November Cassell s Leamington Spa Courier Friday 7 November 1902 2 7 November 1902 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Books Received To day Westminster Gazette Tuesday 28 October 1902 11 28 October 1902 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Salwak Dale 1999 Con Artist In Herbert Rosemary Aird Catherine Reilly John M eds The Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing Oxford Oxford University Press p 83 ISBN 978 0 19 507239 6 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The Internet Archive New Novels Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser Friday 31 March 1905 3 31 March 1905 via The British Newspaper Archive Fiction The Scotsman Thursday 23 March 1905 2 23 March 1905 via The British Newspaper Archive McAleer John 1994 R Austin Freeman 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 In Benstock Bernard Staley Thomas F eds Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 70 British Mystery Writers 1860 1919 Detroit Gale Research p 150 ISBN 9780810317482 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive a b c d e Bleiler E F 1973 Introduction to the Dover Edition The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories by R Austin Freeman New York Dover Publications Inc pp vii Haycraft Howard 1941 Murder for pleasure the life and times of the detective story London Peter Davies p 68 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive The Red Thumb Mark Messenger Inquirer Wednesday 26 April 1911 4 26 April 1911 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via Newspapers com Thumb o Graphs Morning Post Tuesday 29 November 1904 5 29 November 1904 Retrieved 28 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive a b Donaldson Norman 1998 In Search of Dr Thorndyke 2nd rev ed Shelburne Ontario The Battered Silicone Dispatch Box ISBN 1 55246 082 7 Magazines Pearson s Magazine Aberdeen Press and Journal Wednesday 2 December 1908 3 2 December 1908 Retrieved 26 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Freeman Richard Austin 1 December 1908 John Thorndyke s Cases 1 The Blue Sequin Pearson s Magazine 26 3258 602 613 hdl 2027 iau 31858045768482 Books and Magazines The Eye of Osiris Portadown News Saturday 2 December 1911 6 2 December 1911 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive New Fiction The Scotsman Thursday 23 November 1911 3 23 November 1911 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive a b c d e f McAleer John 1994 R Austin Freeman 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 In Benstock Bernard Staley Thomas F eds Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 70 British Mystery Writers 1860 1919 Detroit Gale Research p 152 ISBN 9780810317482 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive a b c d Donaldson Norman 1986 R ichard Austin Freeman 1862 1943 Norman Donaldson from in Search of Dr Thorndyke 1971 In Poupard Denis Lazzari Marie Ligotti Thomas eds Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Vol 21 Detroit Gale Research Company p 56 ISBN 0 8103 2403 2 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The Internet Archive The Unwilling Adventurer Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser Friday 3 October 1913 3 3 October 1913 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Literature Short Notices Northern Whig Saturday 4 October 1913 10 4 October 1913 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Pearson s Magazine Buckingham Advertiser and Free Press Saturday 5 April 1913 2 5 April 1913 Retrieved 28 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Literary Notices Pearson s Magazine Belfast Telegraph Monday 14 April 1913 6 14 April 1913 Retrieved 28 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive A Crime Story Sheffield Independent Monday 24 May 1920 2 24 May 1920 Retrieved 28 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Niebuhr Gary Warren 2003 4 Amateur Detectives R Austin Freeman Dr John Thorndyke Make Mine a Mystery A Reader s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction Bloomsbury Academic p 71 ISBN 9781563087844 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive A Silent Witness The Boston Globe Saturday 5 June 1915 4 5 June 2015 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via Newspapers com The Exploits of Danby Croker Red Magazine October Leeds Mercury Thursday 5 October 1911 9 5 October 1911 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Adcock A St John 8 January 1919 The Critic on the Hearth The Sketch Wednesday 8 January 1919 22 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Abrams Nathan 2008 Jews amp Sex Five Leaves Publications p 106 ISBN 978 1 905512 34 8 Book Reviews Shepparton Advertiser Wednesday 21 July 1937 7 21 July 1937 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia Barzun Jacques Taylor Wendell Hertig 1989 Novels of Detection Crime Mystery and Espoionage Freeman R ichard Austin 1862 1943 Helen Vardon A Catalogue of Crime New York Harper amp Row p 216 ISBN 9780060157968 Retrieved 5 July 2020 via The Internet Archive New Magazines The Australian Friday 23 February 1923 3 23 February 1923 Retrieved 2 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia Freeman Richard Austin 7 April 1923 The Cat s Eye Westminster Gazette Saturday 7 April 1923 9 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Half Hours with Books The News Adelaide Saturday 24 November 1923 5 24 November 1923 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia The Mystery Makers A Quintette of English and American Stories The Philadelphia Inquirer Saturday 14 November 1925 15 14 November 1925 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via Newspapers com Isaminger James C 26 May 1926 Puzzle Lock and the Mote House Mystery The Philadelphia Inquirer Saturday 26 May 1926 14 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via Newspapers com Our Literary Pot pourri The Shadow of the Wolf Hull Daily Mail Friday 30 October 1925 3 30 October 1925 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Greene Douglas G 2012 R Austin Freeman 1862 1943 Detection by Gaslight Courier Corporation p 152 ISBN 978 0 486 11412 5 Freeman Richard Austin 19 March 1926 The D Arblay Mystery Westminster Gazette Friday 19 March 1926 9 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Book Reviews The D Arblay Mystery The Albany Advertiser Thursday 3 August 1933 3 3 August 1933 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia New Publications The D Arblay Mystery The Albany Dispatch Monday 1 November 1926 1 1 November 1926 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia The Editor s Table Market Harborough Advertiser and Midland Mail Friday 15 October 1926 6 15 October 1926 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive McAleer John 1994 R Austin Freeman 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 In Benstock Bernard Staley Thomas F eds Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 70 British Mystery Writers 1860 1919 Detroit Gale Research p 144 ISBN 9780810317482 Retrieved 2 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Books and Bookmen A literary Corner A Certain Dr Thorndyke Evening Star Dunedin Saturday 11 February 1928 14 11 February 1928 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of New Zealand Books Worth Getting The Southern Argus Thursday 23 June 1927 6 23 June 1927 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia Niebuhr Gary Warren 2003 4 Amateur Detectives R Austin Freeman Dr John Thorndyke Make Mine a Mystery A Reader s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction Bloomsbury Academic p 72 ISBN 9781563087844 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive As a Thief in the Night Deseret News Saturday 24 November 1928 33 24 November 1928 Retrieved 2 July 2020 via Newspapers com New Books Maryborough Chronicle Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser Saturday 28 April 1928 14 28 April 1928 Retrieved 29 June 2020 via The National Library of Australia From the Presses Flighty Phyllis The Newcastle Sun No 3262 New South Wales Australia 21 May 1928 p 6 via The National Library of Australia Short Notices Northern Whig Saturday 25 February 1928 11 25 February 1928 Retrieved 29 June 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Reviews Dr Thorndyke Waikato Independent Thursday 3 April 1930 3 3 April 1930 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of New Zealand Life and Letters Mainly about Books The West Australian Saturday 11 July 1931 4 11 July 1931 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia a b c Obituary Creator of Dr Thorndyke Evening Star Dunedin Saturday 2 October 1943 4 2 October 1943 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of New Zealand Dr Thorndyke Again Aberdeen Press and Journal Tuesday 8 November 1932 2 8 November 1932 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Niebuhr Gary Warren 2003 4 Amateur Detectives R Austin Freeman Dr John Thorndyke Make Mine a Mystery A Reader s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction Bloomsbury Academic p 73 ISBN 9781563087844 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive Detective Fiction Poverty Bay Herald Saturday 9 December 1933 9 9 December 1933 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of New Zealand McAleer John 1994 R Austin Freeman 11 April 1862 28 September 1943 In Benstock Bernard Staley Thomas F eds Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol 70 British Mystery Writers 1860 1919 Detroit Gale Research p 151 ISBN 9780810317482 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive For the Defence Dr Thorndyke The Northern Star Thursday 22 November 1934 12 22 November 1934 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia New Novels The Australasian Saturday 5 January 1935 5 5 January 1935 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia Jessup Ronald 1 April 1937 Excavations at Julliberrie s Grave Chilham Kent The Antiquaries Journal 17 2 122 137 doi 10 1017 S000358150003849X S2CID 162499444 Retrieved 1 July 2020 New Novels The Penrose Mystery The Scotsman Monday 18 May 1936 15 18 May 1936 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Mystery of the Week The Daily Telegraph Sydney Saturday 30 October 1937 8 30 October 1937 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The National Library of Australia Bleiler E F 1973 Introduction to the Dover Edition The Stoneware Monkey and The Penrose Mystery Two Dr Thorndyke Novels by R Austin Freeman New York Dover Publications Inc pp vii Mixed Sensations A Question of Time Saturday 13 July 1940 13 July 1940 5 Retrieved 29 June 2020 via The National Library of New Zealand a href Template Cite journal html title Template Cite journal cite journal a Cite journal requires journal help Niebuhr Gary Warren 2003 4 Amateur Detectives R Austin Freeman Dr John Thorndyke Make Mine a Mystery A Reader s Guide to Mystery and Detective Fiction Bloomsbury Academic p 74 ISBN 9781563087844 Retrieved 27 June 2020 via The Internet Archive Cassell s Family Magazine Kilkenny Moderator Wednesday 2 September 1903 4 2 September 1903 Retrieved 3 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Bleiler E F 1973 Introduction to the Dover Edition The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Stories by R Austin Freeman New York Dover Publications Inc pp ix ISBN 0 486 20388 3 Reviews Pearson s Magazine Stamford Mercury Friday 2 December 1904 8 2 December 1904 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The British Newspaper Archive Donaldson Norman 1986 R ichard Austin Freeman 1862 1943 Norman Donaldson from in Search of Dr Thorndyke 1971 In Poupard Denis Lazzari Marie Ligotti Thomas eds Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Vol 21 Detroit Gale Research Company p 54 ISBN 0 8103 2403 2 Retrieved 1 July 2020 via The Internet Archive Freeman Richard Austin Pitcairn John James 1998 From a Surgeon s Diary Freeman Omnibus Vol VIII Toft to Zwecker Shelburne Ontario The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box ISBN 1 55246 094 0 a b The R Austin Freeman Omnibus Edition The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box Retrieved 31 July 2020 The Other Eye of Osiris The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box Retrieved 29 June 2020 Freeman Richard Austin Brody Howard 1999 The Other Eye of Osiris Shelburne Ontario The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box ISBN 1 55246 184 X Thorndyke Forensic Investigator Archived 13 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine BBC Radio 4 Extra Programmes bbc co uk Mayo Oliver 1980 R Austin Freeman The Anthropologist at Large Hawthornedene South Australia Investigator Press ISBN 9780858640382 The R Austin Freeman Omnibus Edition Volume 11 The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box Retrieved 29 June 2020 Mayo Oliver 1998 Freeman Omnibus Vol 11 Shelburne Ontario The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box ISBN 1 55246 170 X In Search of Dr Thorndyke The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box Retrieved 26 June 2020 In Search of Dr Thorndyke Vol R Austin Freeman Edition Volume 10 2nd ed Shelburne Ontario The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box 1998 ISBN 1 55246 082 7 a b Lachman Marvin 2019 The Thorndyke File 1976 1988 and John Thorndyke s Journal 1991 1998 The Heirs of Anthony Boucher A History of Mystery Fandom Sourcebooks pp 110 111 ISBN 978 1 4926 9932 3 External links edit nbsp Wikisource has original works by or about R Austin Freeman nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to R Austin Freeman Works by R Austin Freeman at Project Gutenberg Works by Richard Austin Freeman at Faded Page Canada Works by or about R Austin Freeman at Internet Archive Works by R Austin Freeman at LibriVox public domain audiobooks nbsp Works by R Austin Freeman at Project Gutenberg Australia 94 Windmill Street Gravesend on Google Street View Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title R Austin Freeman amp oldid 1194603176, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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