Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen


Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., M.D., M.D.S. is a fictional character in a series of detective short stories and two novels by Jacques Futrelle. Some of the short stories were originally published in The Saturday Evening Post and the Boston American.

Plot

In the stories, Professor Van Dusen solves a variety of different mysteries with his friend and companion, Hutchinson Hatch, reporter of a fictional newspaper called The Daily New Yorker. The professor is known as "The Thinking Machine", solving problems by the remorseless application of logic. This nickname was given to him after his winning of a match against the fictional chess champion of the day, Tschaikowsky, in a demonstration to show the power of applying pure logic. He was able to win against the reigning champion having only been taught the game the morning of the match. Many of his titles are actually honorary degrees awarded to him serving only to amuse the universities and scientific institutions that crown him with those titles. His catchphrases include, "Two and two always equal four," "Nothing is impossible" and "All things that start must go somewhere." Futrelle died at age 37 on April 15, 1912, on the RMS Titanic. He refused to board a lifeboat, insisting that his wife board instead.

Novels

  1. The Chase of the Golden Plate

    Short stories

  2. The Problem of Dressing Room A. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Sunday Journal, 2 September 1996
  3. The Problem of the Auto Cab. Associated Sunday Newspapers e.g. Evening Star, 14 April 1907
  4. The Problem of the Broken Bracelet
  5. The Brown Coat
  6. The Case of the Life Raft
  7. The Case of the Mysterious Weapon
  8. The Case of the Scientific Murderer
  9. Convict #97
  10. The Problem of The Cross Mark
  11. The Crystal Gazer. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 23 September 1906, as 'The Problem of the Crystal Gazer'
  12. The Disappearance of Baby Blake
  13. The Deserted House. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Washington Evening Star, 7 July 1907, as 'Parable of the Deserted House'
  14. The Fatal Cipher. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. New York Tribune, 3 February 1907, as 'The Thinking Machine Looks into the Cipher Message'
  15. The Flaming Phantom
  16. The Ghost Woman
  17. The Golden Dagger
  18. The Great Auto Mystery
  19. The Green Eyed Monster. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 28 October 1906
  20. The Haunted Bell. The Saturday Evening Post, 17 November 1906
  21. The House That Was
  22. The Problem of The Hidden Million
  23. The Interrupted Wireless
  24. The Jackdaw Girl
  25. The Knotted Cord
  26. The Leak
  27. The Lost Radium. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 7 October 1906, as 'The Problem of the Lost Radium'
  28. The Man Who Was Lost
  29. The Missing Necklace. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 21 October 1906, as 'The Problem of the Missing Necklace'
  30. The Motor Boat. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 9 September 1906, as 'The Problem of the Motor Boat'
  31. The Mystery of a Studio
  32. The Mystery of Room 666
  33. The Opera Box. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 14 October 1906, as 'The Problem of the Opera Box'
  34. The Organ Grinder
  35. A Perfect Alibi. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 4 November 1906, as 'The Perfect Alibi'
  36. The Phantom Motor. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 11 October 1906, as 'The Phantom Auto'
  37. A Piece of String. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 16 September 1906
  38. Prince Otto
  39. The Private Compartment
  40. The Problem of Cell 13
  41. The Ralston Bank Burglary
  42. The Red Rose
  43. The Roswell Tiara. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 30 September 1906, as 'The
  44. The Scarlet Thread
  45. The Silver Box
  46. The Problem of The Souvenir Cards
  47. The Problem of The Stolen Rubens
  48. The Superfluous Finger. Associated Sunday Magazines e.g. Minneapolis Journal, 25 November 1906
  49. The Thinking Machine Investigates
  50. The Three Overcoats
  51. The Problem of The Vanishing Man
  52. The Yellow Diamond Pendant

    Collections

Television

The professor appeared in two episodes of the 1970s Thames Television series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. Douglas Wilmer portrayed Van Dusen in "Cell 13" and "The Superfluous Finger." The 1981 Australian Broadcasting Commission series Detective dramatised "The Brown Coat" with John Hannan as Dusen.

Radio

Between 1978 and 1999 the German radio station RIAS produced and broadcast 79 radio plays based on the character. A few of them were based on original stories by Futrelle, but most of the scripts were new creations by German author Michael Koser. The role of Hutchinson Hatch is a lot more prominent in the radio plays than it was in the original; Hatch was made into the fictional narrator in the radio version.
In 2011, the BBC Radio 4 series The Rivals featured Paul Rhys as Professor Van Dusen in Chris Harrald's adaptation of "The Problem of Cell 13", which was directed by Sasha Yevtushenko. He returned for the first episode of the second series in 2013, in Chris Harrald's adaptation of "The Problem of the Superfluous Finger", produced by Liz Webb. In the fourth episode of the fourth series in 2016, "The Mystery of the Scarlet Thread", Van Dusen was played by Tony Gardner.

Comics

In 2013, the character appeared in Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's graphic novel '; the character aids explorer Janni Nemo in 1925 when she encounters H. P. Lovecraft's Elder Gods in Antarctica. He returns in ', the final part of the series; set in 2010, he has been resurrected as a sentient A.I., becoming a literal 'thinking machine.'