Mr Jacques Heath Futrelle
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.
Jacque's 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 passengergers they were possibly accomodated in cabin C-123 (ticket number 113803, £53, 2s)
After the collision with the iceberg, Jacques got his wife into lifeboat (Collapsible) D. May pleaded with him to get in the boat but he resisted, saying he would come later on in another lifeboat. May remembered the last she saw of him, he was smoking a cigarette with John J. 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.
Link, email, cite or bookmark...
Link to this page
Please link to this page using the following URL
http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/jacques-futrelle.html
Or copy the link text below
Cite this page
If you need to cite this article as a reference please copy the following and adapt as necessary for your referencing system:
(2008) Jacques Heath Futrelle Encyclopedia Titanica (ref: #127, accessed 11th October 2008 10:16:43 PM)
URL : http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-biography/jacques-futrelle.html
Share this page
Share this link on popular social bookmarking sites
Email this page
Credits
Luis Velez
Eric-Jan Noomen
George Behe, USA
Phillip Gowan, USA
Send new information..
