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Web Site Showcases
American Detective Fiction

Posting all Detective Fiction
Prior to Conan Doyle

Fully Searchable

The mission of the Westminster Detective Library to catalog and make available online all the short fiction dealing with detectives and detection published in the United States before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “A Scandal in Bohemia” (1891).

This site grew out of research for the anthology Early American Detective Stories (McFarland 2008) that I edited with my mentor and colleague LeRoy Lad Panek (1943-2021), winner of two Edgar awards for his contributions to the scholarly field of detective criticism. We uncovered a treasure-trove of forgotten and previously unavailable detective stories, many more than could be included in a single anthology. And so this on-going project was born.

The site includes a working bibliography; full-text copy of entries are added as they are prepared. A few stories that were published in Britain but which appear to have been previously published in America have also been included and are indicated by an asterisk in the bibliography. I welcome comments and solicit both additional bibliographical entries and texts.

Mary M. Bendel-Simso, editor

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A Detective's Story

"A Detective's Story" (The Fort Wayne [IN] Sentinel, August 8, 1880; The Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, August 14, 1880; Fayetteville [TN] Observer, August 26, 1880; Snyder County Tribune [Middleburg, PA], August 26, 1880; The Huntington [IN] Democrat, August 26, 1880; The Opelika [AL] Observer, September 2, 1880; St. Tammany [LA] Farmer, September 4, 1880; Derry [Ireland] Journal, September 8, 1880; Indiana Weekly [PA] Messenger, September 15, 1880; Kansas Weekly Herald [Hiawatha, KS], September 17, 1880; The Boston Weekly Globe, September 22, 1880; Butler [PA] Citizen, September 22, 1880; The McHenry [IL] Plaindealer, September 22, 1880; Wyandotte Gazette, [Kansas City, KS], September 24, 1880; Jamestown [ND] Weekly Alert, September 28, 1880; The Princeton [MN] Union, September 30, 1880; The Oskaloosa [KS] Independent, October 9, 1880; Racine [WI] Daily Argus, October 11, 1880; The Miami Republican [Paola, KS], October 15, 1880; Jackson County Banner [Brownstown, IN], November 4, 1880; Bridport [England] News, November 5, 1880; Richland Beacon [Rayville, LA], November 6, 1880; The Highland Weekly News [Hillsboro, OH], November 11, 1880; The Blue Ridge Blade [Morganton, NC], November 13, 1880; Exeter [England] Flying Post, November 17, 1880; The Fort Wayne [IN] Sentinel, December 1, 1880; Northampton [England] Mercury, December 4, 1880; The Fort Wayne [IN] Weekly Sentinel, December 8, 1880; Evening Star [Otago, New Zealand], December 16, 1880; Ashburton Guardian [Canterbury, New Zealand], December 17, 1880; The News [Newport, PA], December 25, 1880; … Read More

Miscellany

The Detective of the Present -- Finn and Jourdan

Time was when a detective was a man who detected things. A detective is still that in some European countries; and he still detects things—in novels. There's Buckett in “Bleak House” who detects Lady Dedlook, and there's that detective in Collin’s story of the “Moon Stone,” quite a detector. New York used to have Old Hayes, who could detect a thing or two; Paris has had Vidocq, and Bow street has had Forster.* But the race has died out entirely in America, and is dying out in England.

Commissioner Jourdan, of Brooklyn, has been making an effort to raise up a detective or two and has actually produced Corr and Bill. Corr and Bill were raised to the Vidocquian task of tracing a mystic murder. Finnan is a hatter; and Finnan has been in States Prison. That ought to be enough for any detective such as Corr to concluded that Finnan did the deed. Edgar A. Poe could not reason out a conclusion clearer than that. So Corr went to where Finnan was making hats.

Is Finnan here? Yes—want to see him?

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