RARA-AVIS: Detection by gaslight

DOUGLAS GREENE (dgreene@odu.edu)
Tue, 3 Feb 1998 09:43:15 EST
> The Washington Post had a notice about a new collection--Detection by
> Gaslight--from Dover for 2 bucks. It's early crime/detective stories
> apparently--not hard-boiled but precursors perhaps to the P.I. The
> collection appears to be edited by Rara-Avis' own Doug Greene, so
> perhaps he could tell us how the collection came about, what's in it,
> etc.

What an opening; Doug Levin is a nice guy to give me the opportunity
for BSP. I hadn't mentioend the collection because it's not
noir, and the PI tales (Holmes and others) are not really connected
with Daly, Hammett, Chandler, et al. But since you ask . . . the
book contains 14 Victorian and Edwardian detective stories--Holmes
and competitors. Besides the Holmes and Chesterton stories, I chose
tales that are very little known, mostly uncollected since their
original appearances. I included 3 professional woman
detectives--Catherine Pirkis's Loveday Brookes, George Sims's Dorcas
Dene, and Elizabeth Meade's Florence Cusack. I also have a story
featuring an occult detective, who investigates haunted houses, an
uncollected Thinking Macheine by Jacques Futrelle, and an uncollected Dr. Thorndyke by F.
Austin Freeman, a clerical sleuth who preceeds Chesterton's Father Brown, a rare detective story by Kipling--and
other tales.

How Dover can make money charging only 2 bucks for the book, I don't
know.

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