Jaqcues Heath Futrelle was an American writer, novelist and First Class Passenger who didn't survive because he couldn't get a boat for himself. He boarded ''Titanic'' in Southampton after a late party, with his wife Lily May Futrelle-Peel.
Biography[]
Mr Jacques Heath Futrelle, 37, was born 9 April 1875 in Pike County, Georgia, the son of Wiley Harmon Heath Futrelle (a descendant of the French Huguenots) and Linnie (Bevill) Futrelle He attended public schools in Pike County but was also schooled by his father (a teacher in an Atlanta College) in basic academics and French.
Futrelle began his career at the age of 18 when he took a job with the Atlanta Journal. The following year he went to work for the Boston Post but would soon after return to the Journal. Here he set up the magazine's first sports department. He married Lily May Peel on 17 July 1895 in her parent's home. They would later have two children, John and Virginia.
Jacques moved to the New York Herald. Soon after this, he began writing detective stories. In 1902, Jacques accepted the position of manager of a small repertory theater in Richmond, Virginia, where he wrote and acted in several plays. After a two year stint with the theater, he then took a job on the editorial staff of the Boston American. Around this period he began a series of stories around 'The Thinking Machine' - a detective character he created who would eventually appear in over forty stories - and had several of his stories printed in the "American". It has been suggested that his detective was an inspiration for Agatha Christie. Not being the only one in the family with a flair for writing, his wife, May, also authored several novels and magazine articles. Jacques became a well known and respected novelist by the early 20th century - his best known works being: "The Thinking Machine", "The Thinking Machine On The Case", "The Diamond Master" and "The High Hand". Around this time he bought a house in Scituate, razed it and built a 'Cape Cod' for his wife and family.
In 1912 the couple travelled in Europe for several weeks while Jacques wrote a number of magazine articles. On the night before sailing, friends had gathered in London to celebrate Mr Futrelle's 37th birthday. The party did not end until 3:00 A.M. and the Futrelle's never went to bed but packed and headed for Southampton. Mrs Futrelle was later to lament that "if my husband had got drunk that night, he might not have sailed, and he might be alive today. But he never did drink much."
Travelling as First Class passengers on the RMS Titanic to get to America, they were possibly accomodated in cabin C-123 (ticket number 113803, £53, 2s). After the collision with the iceberg, and the first rockets were launched, he must have been aware that Titanic was in distress, and tried to convince his wife May to get into a lifeboat. "Hurry up, lass, the others are waiting!" His wife refused to board still.
Around 1:28 A.M, when the Forecastle was well underwater, Jacques became more anxious and he urged her, begging: "For God's sake, May! This might be your last chance, go! Think about the children!" She was struggling with her inner conflict, wanting to stay with her husband and the will to survive. Eventually she boarded lifeboat 9. May remembered the last she saw of him, he was smoking a cigarette with John Jacob Astor. Jacque's last work, "My Lady's Garter", was published posthumously later in 1912. May inscribed in the book, "To the heroes of the Titanic, I dedicate this my husband's book" under a photo of her late husband. His body was never recovered.
Bibliography[]
Some of the books he wrote:
- The Chase of the Golden Plate (1906)
- The Simple Case of Susan (1908)
- The Thinking Machine on the Case (1908)
- The Diamond Master (1909)
- Elusive Isabel (1909)
- The High Hand (1911)
- My Lady's Garter (1912)
- Blind Man's Bluff (1914), which was published after his death.
Short story collections[]
- The Thinking Machine (1907), reprinted as The Problem of Cell 13 (1918)**The Flaming Phantom
- The Great Auto Mystery
- The Man Who Was Lost
- The Mystery of a Studio
- The Problem of Cell 13
- The Ralston Bank Burglary
- The Scarlet Thread
- The Thinking Machine on the Case (1908), UK title The Professor on the Case
- The Stolen Reubens
Stories[]
- "The Problem of Cell 13" (1905)
- "The House That Was" (a literary experiment with his wife, in the which The Thinking Machine provided a rational solution to the seemingly impossible and supernatural events of a ghost story written by May)[1]
- "The Phantom Motor"
- Various other short stories (see Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen for more)
Sources[]
- 'Titanic' ©1996 (second print, 1998) Edward P. De Groot