Speaker 1: Welcome to Part Time Genius, the production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango? What's that? Well? All right, so I
Speaker 1: know you know FDR accomplished a lot in his lifetime.
Speaker 1: You did know this, right, FDR was a pretty accomplished guy. Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you do this, but he actually
Speaker 1: once assembled a team of writers to help write his
Speaker 1: own mystery novels. You know this. I actually did because
Speaker 1: John Green told me this years and years ago when
Speaker 1: when we used to work at Metaphlops. But I actually
Speaker 1: don't remember any of the details. Good because I was
Speaker 1: hoping I could teach you something. I'll refresh your memory here.
Speaker 1: So Roosevelt was a big fan of detective stories, and
Speaker 1: so towards the end of his first term, he held
Speaker 1: this dinner at the White House and he and his
Speaker 1: buddies picked apart their favorite mysteries. This must have been
Speaker 1: such a fun conversation to listen in on. But so
Speaker 1: one of the guests that evening was a man named
Speaker 1: Fulton or Sler, and he was an editor of a
Speaker 1: magazine called Liberty. They published all these miss three stories.
Speaker 1: And during the dinner, he asked FDR if he'd ever
Speaker 1: considered writing a mystery, And it turned out that the
Speaker 1: President had been playing with this plot for a while,
Speaker 1: just in his head, and so here was his idea.
Speaker 1: The wealthy man named Jim Blake feels trapped in his
Speaker 1: own life. He's bored by his job, on happy in
Speaker 1: his marriage, and he thinks all people in his life
Speaker 1: are superficial yes men. And so the story is about
Speaker 1: Jim Blake's plan to escape, which is basically to run
Speaker 1: off with five million dollars and start over with a
Speaker 1: new identity. So I don't remember any of those details,
Speaker 1: but it kind of sounds like Jim Blake is just
Speaker 1: based on Roosevelt, right, Yeah, it kind of feels like
Speaker 1: that might be the case. But the one thing that
Speaker 1: Roosevelt couldn't figure out for his story was how a
Speaker 1: well known man with five million dollars could ever disappear
Speaker 1: without a trace. So he put the question to Oorsler
Speaker 1: that night at the White House, and the editor suggested
Speaker 1: they assemble this committee of mystery writers to solve the
Speaker 1: problem together. And Roosevelt loved this idea, and Orsler put
Speaker 1: togethers well known mystery writers, and you know, each of
Speaker 1: them had to work on a different chapter of the story,
Speaker 1: and that fall, the first installment was published in Liberty Magazine,
Speaker 1: and before long the full story was released as a
Speaker 1: book and then as a movie, both of which were
Speaker 1: a pretty big hit with the public. I'm curious, what's
Speaker 1: the solution to the President's mystery? Well, this is the
Speaker 1: ridiculous part of the whole thing, Like none of the
Speaker 1: writers actually managed to solve the mystery that Roosevelt had
Speaker 1: laid out. And you know, the key problem of how
Speaker 1: to disappear with five million dollars remain unaddressed in that novel,
Speaker 1: or at least it did up until nineteen sixties seven,
Speaker 1: And that's when the book was reissued with one additional chapter.
Speaker 1: And it was written by Earl Stanley Gardner. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he wrote the Harry Mason books. Yep. So it kind
Speaker 1: of sounds like this book was put together kind of
Speaker 1: like those exquisite corpse drawings where you kind of like
Speaker 1: try to draw an animal and then you base your
Speaker 1: drawing on the last squiggle someone drew. Was this book
Speaker 1: any good or just popular? Because I kind of want
Speaker 1: to track it down. Well, I was looking at some
Speaker 1: of the comments I've seen it referred to as quote
Speaker 1: one of the worst suspense novels ever written. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go out a limb here and say it's probably
Speaker 1: not worth the bother, or maybe that is why it's
Speaker 1: absolutely worth the bother, because it is that bad. But
Speaker 1: I do like the story behind the story, and you know,
Speaker 1: since it's right around Halloween, I thought it'd be fun
Speaker 1: to settle into a nice mystery episode from who were
Speaker 1: the pioneers of the genre to how did Agatha Christie
Speaker 1: crank out so many spooky stories? So let's dive in.
Speaker 1: H Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.
Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and it's always I'm joined by my
Speaker 1: good friend Man Guesh Ticketer on the other side of
Speaker 1: the soundproof glass trying to tape a magnifying glass to
Speaker 1: this side of a pumpkin. It's pumpkin carving day here, mangoes.
Speaker 1: So this is this is pretty exciting. That's our producer Lull.
Speaker 1: He's been working so hard on this. I don't really
Speaker 1: know what's going on with the magnifying glass and the pumpkin.
Speaker 1: He's trying really really hard, so hopefully he'll focus on
Speaker 1: this and I think what's going on is he may
Speaker 1: have missed the memo about us doing a mystery episode
Speaker 1: for Halloween this year, and this is kind of a
Speaker 1: last minute attempt to get with the program. But anyway,
Speaker 1: I'm excited about today's episode. Well, I do think it
Speaker 1: would probably work better if he hadn't already carved Darth
Speaker 1: Vader's mask into the front of it. But I do
Speaker 1: appreciate the effort that Low is putting into it, because
Speaker 1: he always put so much effort in you know, I
Speaker 1: know you suggested doing the show on mysteries, and as
Speaker 1: you might remember, I was obsessed with mysteries growing up.
Speaker 1: I do remember that. And actually you dressed up as
Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes for a few Halloween's in a row third grade,
Speaker 1: fourth grade. And I think Ruby has also gotten the bug,
Speaker 1: because she's you know, she's six now, but she dressed
Speaker 1: up as Inspector Clusseau from Pink Panther last year and
Speaker 1: this year she went his night the grade, which is
Speaker 1: basically the same costume without a mustache. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's funny because like, my mom got me this
Speaker 1: a Bridge Sherlock Holmes book in second grade, and I
Speaker 1: kind of just went on a tear, like I had
Speaker 1: already read a bunch of Hardy Boys and Cyclopedia Browns,
Speaker 1: and then I got obsessed with Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes.
Speaker 1: But what's funny is I was thinking about this yesterday.
Speaker 1: I must have been so insufferable because at the time
Speaker 1: I had always like wander around the neighborhood just looking
Speaker 1: for dumb mysteries to solve. Yeah, I think it's pretty
Speaker 1: safe that you probably were her. But what do you
Speaker 1: mean by this? Well, like, there's this kid in my
Speaker 1: neighborhood who just used to exaggerate and tell really dumb
Speaker 1: wise all the time. Like I remember him claiming he
Speaker 1: was the kid world boxing champion, Like I don't even
Speaker 1: know what that is. But you know, instead of us
Speaker 1: being like, oh, really shows the trophies or like shows
Speaker 1: your punching bag or anything to that effect, I I
Speaker 1: remember like walking up to him with like these other
Speaker 1: kids and pointing out like, oh, well, you know, if
Speaker 1: you'd really been around the world, you'd have a tan
Speaker 1: here and here and here, just like I feel like
Speaker 1: I got that from somewhere. But yeah, that's that's impresident.
Speaker 1: I can see that same quality in Ruby. That's pretty great.
Speaker 1: I am I'm glad that you you managed. Did you
Speaker 1: in fact crack the case on that one? Yeah, it
Speaker 1: turns out he didn't win the kid boxing cham got
Speaker 1: to the bottom of that one. All right, Well, let's
Speaker 1: get to the episode. Where where do you think you
Speaker 1: want to start today? So I actually really like that
Speaker 1: you started with FDR and I kind of want to
Speaker 1: go back to presidents for a minute, because one of
Speaker 1: the things I noticed this week is that like a
Speaker 1: ton of US presidents were self professed mystery buffs. Calvin
Speaker 1: Coolidge was one, Herbert Hoover, jfk, Ronald Reagan, and and
Speaker 1: the list goes on. Actually, we were looking at something
Speaker 1: the other day. I think Bill Clinton was also into
Speaker 1: mysteries too, wasn't he? Yeah he was when when when
Speaker 1: he first took off, as he reportedly tried to finish
Speaker 1: two serious books for every mystery he read. But you know,
Speaker 1: as his term went on and the pressure mounted on him,
Speaker 1: like that ratio ended up being more one to one.
Speaker 1: But it's funny because like, wow, that was great escapism
Speaker 1: for him. Then when he was in public office, he's
Speaker 1: actually still really into mysteries and he co wrote a
Speaker 1: thriller with James Patterson last year called the President is missing.
Speaker 1: Oh that's right. So if you're going to rank these,
Speaker 1: would you say Clinton was our biggest mystery fan turn
Speaker 1: President I, I mean, I guess he's near the top
Speaker 1: and uh an FDR two. But Woodrow Wilson would also
Speaker 1: make the top spot because he's actually the president who
Speaker 1: did the most to improve the genre's reputation. Wow, So
Speaker 1: why why would you say that? Well, you know, for
Speaker 1: a long time, mystery stories were kind of viewed as disposable.
Speaker 1: They were entertaining, but they really lacked substance, or that's
Speaker 1: what people thought, and most people actually relegated them to
Speaker 1: almost like children's material or children's entertainment. But Wilson helped
Speaker 1: change that perception. He was so open about his love
Speaker 1: for detective stories that publishers actually used his endorsements in
Speaker 1: office as ads when promoting their books. And Wilson was
Speaker 1: actually pretty instrumental in convincing the public that detective stories
Speaker 1: had merit. It's funny because in this book, critic wrote, quote,
Speaker 1: two men are largely responsible for the present vogue of
Speaker 1: mystery stories in America, Arthur and Doyle and Woodrow Wilson.
Speaker 1: You've got the creator of Sherlock Holmes and the president.
Speaker 1: That's that's pretty crazy. It's interesting though, that all the
Speaker 1: examples we've given our twentieth century presidents, like, if you
Speaker 1: think about it, were mystery books just not that popular
Speaker 1: prior to the nineteen hundreds, or presidents just not reading
Speaker 1: them yet or what what's the scoop on that? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so the genre was still finding its footing in the
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds, which is something we can come back to.
Speaker 1: But a lot of people in the nineteenth century weren't
Speaker 1: sold on popular fiction in general. It was kind of
Speaker 1: thought of as on savory or frivolous. But there was
Speaker 1: at least one president who was on board the mystery
Speaker 1: train from the very very start. It's good old Abe
Speaker 1: Lincoln and uh apparently he was a huge fan of
Speaker 1: Edgar Allan pose detective stories, and he loved the work
Speaker 1: so much he could actually quote full passages from memory.
Speaker 1: And it kind of makes you wonder what the draw
Speaker 1: was for all of these presidents. I mean, what are
Speaker 1: the odds that so many of them would be into
Speaker 1: such a niche genre, Because you know, if if we're
Speaker 1: simply talking about finding escapism, you know, why not read
Speaker 1: adventure stories or sci fi or fantasy or some of
Speaker 1: these other genres. You know, what's funny to me is
Speaker 1: like that we keep talking about it as escapism because
Speaker 1: mysteries are the one genre that you kind of have
Speaker 1: to pay attention to every single sentence, right, Like every
Speaker 1: sentence can have a clue, So you're almost like doubling
Speaker 1: down on comprehension skills. Or maybe that's a that's a
Speaker 1: good reason that people do escape in them. But you know,
Speaker 1: in Lincoln's case, it was supposedly the logic of the
Speaker 1: mystery stories that appeal to him, and in fact, one
Speaker 1: of his contemporaries put it, quote, the absolute and logical
Speaker 1: method of post tales appeal to his bent of mind.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure it's a similar story for other presidents
Speaker 1: who loved a good mystery. Like their job entails so
Speaker 1: much problem solving, so it kind of makes sense that
Speaker 1: they gravitate to this like form of entertainment where they
Speaker 1: can sort of exercise that skill set. All right, Well,
Speaker 1: since we're starting to dissect the genre a little bit,
Speaker 1: I do think it would be helpful to clarify what
Speaker 1: exactly a mystery is, because so far we've been using
Speaker 1: a bunch of terms sort of interchangeably, but there are
Speaker 1: actually some pretty key differences, you know, for instance, between
Speaker 1: mystery and a thriller. So just just to start, we
Speaker 1: should say that the kinds of stories we're talking about
Speaker 1: today all technically fall under the larger genre of suspense,
Speaker 1: so that includes mystery novels, crime novels, and thrillers. So
Speaker 1: for a mystery, the drive action of the story is
Speaker 1: the solution to a crime, like usually a murder, but
Speaker 1: sometimes a theft or a kidnapping. So the story follows
Speaker 1: some kind of detective or professional in the field as
Speaker 1: they try to determine who did the crime and why.
Speaker 1: And so you can have what's called a cozy mystery,
Speaker 1: which are your Miss Marble stories or your Father Brown mysteries,
Speaker 1: where the action is set in a sleepy small town,
Speaker 1: making the violence of the crime, you know, all that
Speaker 1: much more shocking. And in contrast to those cozy mysteries,
Speaker 1: you've got these hard boiled mysteries. And these are the
Speaker 1: ones where the hero is kind of a world weary
Speaker 1: cop or a private investigator, like the Sam Spade character
Speaker 1: and the National Hammett books or Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe character,
Speaker 1: you know, both of whom were played on screen by
Speaker 1: Humphrey Bogart. By the way, and as Chandler Wants explained,
Speaker 1: a hard wild hero is someone who can quote walk
Speaker 1: the main streets, but who is not himself mean, which
Speaker 1: all makes sense. So what about a crime novel, Like,
Speaker 1: what's the difference between that and a mystery? Well, technically,
Speaker 1: in a crime novel, there really isn't much of a
Speaker 1: mystery to solve. I mean a lot of the times
Speaker 1: the identity of the criminal is known from the very beginning,
Speaker 1: so the question is more about how the lawman hero
Speaker 1: will catch them in the end. So, for example, the
Speaker 1: movie Seven isn't really a mystery. It's a crime drama,
Speaker 1: so we know who the killer is, and the bulk
Speaker 1: of the film revolves around two detectives trying different tactics,
Speaker 1: you know, to bring him in, right, you're sort of
Speaker 1: like frustratingly watching their process and watching them figure it out.
Speaker 1: So what about thrillers, Well, maybe the biggest distinction is
Speaker 1: that ghosts, monsters, and these other supernatural elements are all
Speaker 1: fair game for a thriller, Like they aren't required features
Speaker 1: of the genre. But You're much more likely to come
Speaker 1: a cross them in a thriller than you are and
Speaker 1: say a mystery or a crime story. So just to
Speaker 1: make sure we keep it all straight, you can think
Speaker 1: of it like this, Mystery stories are the most cerebral
Speaker 1: and least violent of the suspense genres. Crime stories are
Speaker 1: the most dramatic, and thrillers are the most I guess emotional,
Speaker 1: kind of playing up the fear and dread of the characters.
Speaker 1: So each kind of story has shared elements, such as
Speaker 1: crimes and detectives, but they each have distinctions that kind
Speaker 1: of make them, you know, utilize their own unique things.
Speaker 1: So I I know Edgar Allan post spedly wrote like
Speaker 1: the first detective story, but were there suspense stories or
Speaker 1: mystery novels before that? I mean, it's impossible to say
Speaker 1: for certain, but who probably make the case for Oedipus
Speaker 1: Rex being the first mystery story you know written by
Speaker 1: Sophocles and it it deals with the title character trying
Speaker 1: to solve the mystery of his origins and so to
Speaker 1: do that, he questions witnesses, interprets clues, slowly pieces together
Speaker 1: the tragic truth about his parentage. No spoilers here, and
Speaker 1: you've managed to avoid them for the last few thousand
Speaker 1: years exactly. But it isn't the only one, Like there
Speaker 1: are examples of mysteries in early Chinese and Arabian fiction,
Speaker 1: and probably countless others that we just don't know about.
Speaker 1: But in terms of modern fiction, I think it's probably
Speaker 1: fair to say. I mean, the one that's brought up
Speaker 1: most is Edgar Allan posty one story The Murders and
Speaker 1: Rue Morgue, and this is widely believed to be the
Speaker 1: first modern story in which a character solves a mystery
Speaker 1: by analyzing the facts and following the clues. So I
Speaker 1: am curious. Did Poe consider his mystery stories to be
Speaker 1: like a new kind of fiction, because it kind of
Speaker 1: sounds like the groundwork was already laid by these earlier
Speaker 1: authors and he just kind of reinvented it for the
Speaker 1: modern age. Is that how he saw it? Or did
Speaker 1: he feel like he just like completely invented this thing
Speaker 1: from scratch? Yeah, I mean, I think he had a
Speaker 1: pretty level head about his role in all this. You know,
Speaker 1: Following the success of Rue Morgue, Popen further mystery stories,
Speaker 1: including the Mystery of Marie Roge and and that was
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty two, The Purloined Letter in eighteen forty four,
Speaker 1: and a couple of years later he wrote a letter
Speaker 1: to a friend explaining his take on the budding genre.
Speaker 1: So here's what he said about it. These tales owe
Speaker 1: most of their popularity to being something old in a
Speaker 1: new key. I do not mean to say that they're
Speaker 1: not ingenious, but people think them more ingenious than they
Speaker 1: are on account of their method and air of method,
Speaker 1: you know. But what Pope probably didn't know is that
Speaker 1: he was establishing elements that would become trademarks of the genre,
Speaker 1: just for example here, but was careful to lay out
Speaker 1: the clues throughout the story so that his readers could
Speaker 1: have a crack at solving the mystery themselves, which is
Speaker 1: part of what makes them so much fun. And that
Speaker 1: was a tactic that future writers like Agatha Christie would
Speaker 1: later use. And then another defining feature that Poe introduced
Speaker 1: was the idea of having a recurring detective, you know,
Speaker 1: appeared in multiple stories, and that of course paved the
Speaker 1: way for characters like Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marble and plenty
Speaker 1: of others. Yeah, I mean, I have to say that
Speaker 1: was much more of a definitive answer that I was expecting.
Speaker 1: It does seem like Edgar Allan Poe invented the mystery genre,
Speaker 1: is like how I was thinking about it before. I
Speaker 1: feel like maybe there's a little bit more to unravel here.
Speaker 1: But before we get into that, let's take a quick break.
Speaker 1: You're listening to Part Time Genius, and you were talking
Speaker 1: about all the twists and turns the mystery genre has
Speaker 1: taken over the years. Okay, well, so it seems like
Speaker 1: before the break you might have duped us like you
Speaker 1: made it seemed like Poe invented mystery stories. But then
Speaker 1: also maybe not. I don't know that duped to anybody,
Speaker 1: but I mean there are important caveats to the Poe explanation.
Speaker 1: So for starters, the mysteries that Poe wrote, they were
Speaker 1: all short stories, as you know. And if you want
Speaker 1: to know who wrote the first modern mystery novel, and
Speaker 1: the person you're probably looking for is Wilkie Collins, who
Speaker 1: wrote a brawling mystery called The Moonstone. Now this was
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty eight. Like post stories from a few
Speaker 1: decades prior, collins book included a ton of elements that
Speaker 1: have since come to define the mystery genre as well,
Speaker 1: what are you talking about exactly here? Well, you know,
Speaker 1: take the eccentric detective, the inept police force, some mannor
Speaker 1: house setting, and of course a reenactment of the crime
Speaker 1: to be solved. So like poets the credit for mystery
Speaker 1: shorts laying out some of the clues, and and Collins
Speaker 1: gets the nod for mystery novels. Well, even that is
Speaker 1: a little bit murky. I know you're wanting these definitive answers.
Speaker 1: We got, we got a drill in a little bit O.
Speaker 1: For the last hundred years or so, Wilkie Collins was
Speaker 1: the go to answer. But about a decade ago that
Speaker 1: was a pretty big discovery made by a professor at
Speaker 1: Portland State University, a guy named Paul Collins, no relation
Speaker 1: to Wilkie. But it turns out that another writer's detective
Speaker 1: novel had actually made it to market before The Moonstone.
Speaker 1: Charles Felix debuted his story The notting Hill Miss Three
Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty two, a full six years before Wilkie's novel.
Speaker 1: The story initially ran as these eight installments in a
Speaker 1: weekly magazine. Then it was published in book form a
Speaker 1: few years later, where it was met with actually pretty
Speaker 1: rave reviews. So, according to Professor Collins quote, the whole
Speaker 1: idea of a detective novel was basically new to book critics,
Speaker 1: and in fact, they almost didn't even know how to
Speaker 1: react to it or explain it to their readers. One
Speaker 1: of the reviews that came out said this is best
Speaker 1: understood like a game of solitaire, or like a puzzle
Speaker 1: that you've been handed to figure out. Collins was also
Speaker 1: quoted saying the genre really didn't exist at that point,
Speaker 1: so they had to explain to readers that the whole
Speaker 1: idea behind this is that you've been handed a puzzle
Speaker 1: that's pretty interesting. But you know, if Felix's mystery was
Speaker 1: such a game changer, then how come no one seems
Speaker 1: to remember it, or like even the author for that matter.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a good question. And the answer is,
Speaker 1: Professor Collins found out, is that Charles Felix didn't actually exist.
Speaker 1: And of course the another mystery, another twist for you here,
Speaker 1: and that was a pen name coined by the author,
Speaker 1: Charles Warren Adams. And this is something Collins discovered while
Speaker 1: he was searching through the archives of the book's defunct publisher,
Speaker 1: now The strange thing though, was that after searching through
Speaker 1: hundreds and hundreds of documents, Collins couldn't find a single
Speaker 1: word of correspondence between the author and the publisher, Like
Speaker 1: you think there would have been a submission letter or
Speaker 1: some kind of discussion of payment, but there was nothing
Speaker 1: to be found. So then the mystery became, why was
Speaker 1: there no correspondence between the publisher and the author? And
Speaker 1: I'm guessing the answer was he was the publisher. Yeah, man, mango,
Speaker 1: you've still got it. You're getting You're getting the hang
Speaker 1: of this. Charles Warren Adams was the author and the publisher.
Speaker 1: So Adams published his own mystery under the name Felix,
Speaker 1: and you know, and then when the company went under
Speaker 1: in the eighteen seventies, the first mystery novel and the
Speaker 1: man who wrote it fell off the map. Now that
Speaker 1: was until Collins finally cracked the case. That's pretty incredible
Speaker 1: and and not sell Wilkie Collins or Charles Felix Shure.
Speaker 1: But I do kind of want to go to bat
Speaker 1: for our old friend Edgar Allan Pope, Like he may
Speaker 1: not have written the world's first detective novel, but he
Speaker 1: did directly inspire the creation of one of the genre's
Speaker 1: most enduring characters, and that would be Sherlock Holmes. And
Speaker 1: uh Sherlock's creator was not really that shy about crediting
Speaker 1: the inspiration either. Conan Doyle once wrote, quote, each of
Speaker 1: post detective stories is a route from which a whole
Speaker 1: literature has developed. Where was the detective story until Pope
Speaker 1: breathed the breath of life into it? Let's say it's
Speaker 1: pretty nice tribute. It is. But but you know, if
Speaker 1: you compare pose character with Sherlock, the similarities are pretty striking.
Speaker 1: They're both armchair detectives, not professionals. They're both brought in
Speaker 1: as consultants on cases that have the local police stumped.
Speaker 1: They even both rely on on assuming sidekicks to help
Speaker 1: with their cases. There's an unnamed narrator in in the
Speaker 1: Pope book, and and uh Dr Watson for homes. But
Speaker 1: you know, all of that said, there's at least one
Speaker 1: famous detective trope for which Conan Doyle deserved soul credit,
Speaker 1: and that is the magnifying glass. So apparently Shlock Holmes
Speaker 1: is the first fictional character to ever use a magnifying
Speaker 1: glass to help solve a mystery. I don't know. Lull's
Speaker 1: shaking his head and he's mouthing Darth Vader. I think
Speaker 1: he's putting in a different vote on this one. So
Speaker 1: I wouldn't trust Litle on this one. But I do
Speaker 1: want to mention though, that even though Post Detective was
Speaker 1: a clear model for Conan Doyle's there was actually a
Speaker 1: real life inspiration for Sherlock Holmes. So before settling on
Speaker 1: a career in writing, Conan Doyle had studied medicine at
Speaker 1: the University of Edinburgh and one of the professors he
Speaker 1: clerked for at a local hospital was a man named
Speaker 1: Dr Joseph Bell. And he was this renowned doctor. I
Speaker 1: guess he had this ability to diagnose patients based on
Speaker 1: like these super minute details. The signs of wear and
Speaker 1: their clothing, or the way they walked, or the accent
Speaker 1: they spoke with, or even the kind of tattoos they had,
Speaker 1: played into the explanation for why they had some sort
Speaker 1: of afflict. And as Bell explained, quote, all careful teachers
Speaker 1: have first to show the student how to recognize accurately
Speaker 1: the case. In fact, the student must be taught to observe.
Speaker 1: I mean it seems like basically he took that approach
Speaker 1: to medicine and just applied it to a crime scene. Right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you know, historians weren't even the first ones to
Speaker 1: make this connection. Apparently Robert Louis Stevenson, who you know
Speaker 1: is also a famous author, also studied under Dr Bell
Speaker 1: at the University of Edinburgh, and uh Stevenson was so
Speaker 1: struck by the similarity between Bell and the fictional detective
Speaker 1: that he actually wrote Conan Doyle a letter asking can
Speaker 1: this be my old friend Joe Bell, which, of course
Speaker 1: it was. Well, now that we've covered some of the
Speaker 1: undisputed kings of the mystery genre, what do you say
Speaker 1: we give the Queen her do and talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the one and only Agatha Christie. I love
Speaker 1: that idea, But first we should take a quick break. Okay, Well,
Speaker 1: so before we get into how prolific a writer Agatha
Speaker 1: Christie was, I do have to tell you one of
Speaker 1: my all time favorite facts about her, which is that
Speaker 1: she and her first husband were among the very first
Speaker 1: British people to ever go surfing. Play is that for?
Speaker 1: You're just making that up? Is that real? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: she was actually an avid body boarder in her home country,
Speaker 1: So when she and what's up? I said, nope, that's
Speaker 1: it's not true. So when she and her husband went
Speaker 1: on vacation to Hawaii and this is back in she
Speaker 1: was eager to try out the hot news sport. And
Speaker 1: at that point there was only one brit known to
Speaker 1: have taken up surfing before her, and that was Prince Edward.
Speaker 1: Which is funny because you know, surfing did start out
Speaker 1: as the sport of kings. So do we have any
Speaker 1: idea what Christie thought of the experience, Like, did she
Speaker 1: have fun? Yeah, it seems like she did so. In
Speaker 1: her autobiography, she later wrote, quote, I learned to become
Speaker 1: expert at surfing, or at any rate expert from the
Speaker 1: European point of view. The moment of complete triumph was
Speaker 1: the day I kept my balance and came right into shore,
Speaker 1: standing upright on my board, which is impressive. That is
Speaker 1: pretty impressive. Although if you ask me, I feel like
Speaker 1: Christie's real claim to fame is the staggering volume of
Speaker 1: quality work she produced in her lifetime. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you've heard much about this. All told, she wrote
Speaker 1: sixties six mystery novels and fifteen short story collections, as
Speaker 1: well as six romance novels under the name Mary West Maycott. Now,
Speaker 1: her most famous novel is probably And Then There Were None,
Speaker 1: which is typically considered to be the best selling mystery
Speaker 1: novel of all times. There's an estimated one hundred million
Speaker 1: copies sold. Now, as for Christie herself, the Guinness Book
Speaker 1: of World Records recognizes her as the best selling novelist
Speaker 1: of all time, with an estimated four billion books sold
Speaker 1: to date. And as if all of that isn't enough,
Speaker 1: Christie is also the third most widely translated author in
Speaker 1: the world, just behind William Shakespeare and the Bible or
Speaker 1: whoever wrote the Bible. So that's right. Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: the thing that stuns me is how she actually cranked
Speaker 1: out that many books. It's pretty crazy. Yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: good question. But but before we try to answer that,
Speaker 1: I do want to give a little bit of background
Speaker 1: on how Christie got into writing in the first place. Now,
Speaker 1: is the daughter of a wealthy family in late nineteenth
Speaker 1: century England. One of Christie's earliest acts was actually one
Speaker 1: of defiance, so against her mother's wishes, she actually taught
Speaker 1: herself to read and write. That that's crazy. So she's
Speaker 1: like the best selling novelist of all time. But she
Speaker 1: didn't actually have like a formal education. Yeah, not until
Speaker 1: she was fifteen or sixteen, when she finally convinced her
Speaker 1: mother to let her attend finishing school in Paris. But
Speaker 1: her literary talent actually manifested well before that. This was
Speaker 1: in her early teens. Actually, at the age of eleven,
Speaker 1: Christie made her print debut with a poem published in
Speaker 1: a local London newspaper. By her late teens, she had
Speaker 1: multiple poems public in the Poetry Review, and she had
Speaker 1: a few short stories under her belt too by that
Speaker 1: point where those mysteries actually they weren't. I mean, Christie
Speaker 1: never thought about writing a detective story until one day
Speaker 1: when her older sister, Margaret, basically dared her to try
Speaker 1: one out. So, according to Margaret, mystery stories required complicated
Speaker 1: plots and weaving all the pieces together would be just
Speaker 1: too much for her little sister to handle. It feels
Speaker 1: like such an older sibling like a thing to say,
Speaker 1: But but she accepted that challenge. It seems like yes
Speaker 1: she did, and just looking around, Christie found a wealth
Speaker 1: of inspiration. I mean, they were lonely widows, small town doctors,
Speaker 1: military gentleman, plus all the local feuds and family rivalries
Speaker 1: that an avid people watcher would ever need to write
Speaker 1: these stories. And so all of these casual observations of
Speaker 1: village drama kind of sparked these ideas for new characters,
Speaker 1: new plots, and so Christie doggedly recorded these in her
Speaker 1: hundred plus notebooks. Then later on Christie would piece together,
Speaker 1: you know, all of the these things into various plot ideas.
Speaker 1: And this was a task she often enjoyed while snacking
Speaker 1: on apples and relaxing in her huge Victorian bathtub. That's
Speaker 1: how I prepped for all of our episodes. By the
Speaker 1: less we have that in common. I know, I I
Speaker 1: wish I could write like that. It's it's amazing. So
Speaker 1: she dreamed up all these plots in her bathtub. Well,
Speaker 1: the ones early in her career are probably the safest
Speaker 1: bet for that, And as time went on, bathtubs got
Speaker 1: smaller and smaller, until Christy finally ditched the tub for
Speaker 1: a writing desk. As she once lamented, nowadays, they don't
Speaker 1: build baths like that. I'd rather given up the practice.
Speaker 1: It feels like a shame. It feels like between all
Speaker 1: her family money and profit from her book, she could
Speaker 1: have like afforded to get herself a bigger bathtub if
Speaker 1: she wanted. But what do we know about her actual
Speaker 1: writing process, Like, after she had all these notes assembled
Speaker 1: and the plot mapped out, how fast was she at
Speaker 1: actually writing the books are? According to Christie's grandson Matthew Pritchard,
Speaker 1: she would spend about three months on a book at
Speaker 1: the peak of her career, and that covered everything from
Speaker 1: the first draft to the fine will edit that would
Speaker 1: be sent off to the publisher. And as impressive a
Speaker 1: turnaround as that is, it's even more impressive when you
Speaker 1: consider that Christie typically worked on at least two books
Speaker 1: at a time. And it may sound crazy, but that's
Speaker 1: the kind of pace she had to maintain in order
Speaker 1: to meet these deadlines. So for many years of her career,
Speaker 1: Christie stuck to a schedule of two books per year,
Speaker 1: including one that was always timed for the holiday season,
Speaker 1: what the marketers called the Christie for Christmas book. And
Speaker 1: you know the reason I bring up all of this
Speaker 1: is because it perfectly teas up probably my favorite Agatha
Speaker 1: Christie quote, the time that she credited her tremendous output
Speaker 1: for being and I quote a sausage machine, a perfect
Speaker 1: sausage machine. I like that quote. It feels like you
Speaker 1: should have saved that for the fact off, Yeah, probably
Speaker 1: should have. Well, So I don't want to make it
Speaker 1: seem like all of this came super easy for Christie.
Speaker 1: I mean, she was an incredibly disciplined writer, and it
Speaker 1: clearly took a toll on her. In fact, there was
Speaker 1: one time when a reporter asked about her writing process
Speaker 1: and her response was, quote, there is no agony like it.
Speaker 1: You sit in a room biting pencils, looking at a typewriter,
Speaker 1: walking about, or casting yourself down on a sofa, feeling
Speaker 1: like you want to cry your head off. Oh man,
Speaker 1: So even a perfect sausage machine like breaks down every
Speaker 1: once in a while. Yeah, it kind of seems like it. Well.
Speaker 1: I do like the way you described her books as
Speaker 1: clockwork mysteries, because the thing that always struck me about
Speaker 1: our stories is how neatly everything fits together, Like the
Speaker 1: solution to our mysteries is always straightforward and and based
Speaker 1: on these simple observations that anyone can make. So it's
Speaker 1: not like you need a fancy higher education to figure
Speaker 1: it out, which I'm sure is a huge part of
Speaker 1: the appeal. I I feel like you might look at
Speaker 1: it and think, like, Christie fooled you the first time.
Speaker 1: But there's this promise that if you're extra observant the
Speaker 1: next time around, you might crack the case before Miss
Speaker 1: Marble or or erkal Pro or whoever. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 1: if not, it's still fun to be fooled, I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's after all, why we read Miss Trees
Speaker 1: in the first place. Absolutely, But there is still one
Speaker 1: last mystery we need to get to the bottom of.
Speaker 1: Who's taking home today's fact off trophy. All right, let's
Speaker 1: kick it off. Yeah, there's this great story about Sir
Speaker 1: Arthur Conan Doyle, and I don't know if it's true,
Speaker 1: but apparently he was a total prankster. He supposedly once
Speaker 1: sent a telegram to twelve of his friends that said
Speaker 1: flee at once the secret is discovered, and within a
Speaker 1: day they'd all fled the country, which is something I'm
Speaker 1: sure they'd all laughed about, you know, for years to
Speaker 1: cub Yeah, those who can get back into the country.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna start off with an act that Christie
Speaker 1: fact It turns out one of her most famous characters,
Speaker 1: the Belgian detective Ericiell poiro was the first and so
Speaker 1: far only fictional character to receive an obituary in The
Speaker 1: New York Times, And the funny part is that Poirot's
Speaker 1: creator was far less broken up about his passing in
Speaker 1: The New York Times. Was the detective metas fate in
Speaker 1: a book called Curtains Poirot's Last Case, which was released
Speaker 1: in the US and nineteen five. But Christie had actually
Speaker 1: written the manuscript for Pero's Last Case way back in
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, largely because she'd grown so bored and
Speaker 1: tired of the character that she was already dreaming of
Speaker 1: killing him off. You know, I know Conan Doyle, you know,
Speaker 1: tried to kill off Sherlock at one point for the
Speaker 1: same reason. But I actually didn't know that Christie hated
Speaker 1: Paros so much. What what what did she dislike about him? Well,
Speaker 1: she called him quote detestable, bombastic, tiresome, egocentric, little creep.
Speaker 1: So it sounds like she pretty much disliked everything about
Speaker 1: sounds like it, alright. The next fact is one of
Speaker 1: the great unsolved mysteries that Conan Doyle left behind for us,
Speaker 1: and that's the true location of Sherlock's famous London apartment
Speaker 1: at b Baker Street. Now you might assume the address
Speaker 1: is the location, but that is sadly not the case.
Speaker 1: Back when mysteries were written, Bake Street addresses didn't go
Speaker 1: as high as two twenty one, and con Into a
Speaker 1: flat out refused to reveal his inspiration for the apartment.
Speaker 1: So for going on a hundred years now, scholars have
Speaker 1: been trying to track it down for themselves. You've got
Speaker 1: these dedicated fans who have scrutinized every number mentioned in
Speaker 1: the Holmes books for clues, and some of even mapped
Speaker 1: out all the backyards on Baker Street, hoping that one
Speaker 1: of them will match up these details, you know, that
Speaker 1: were mentioned in the stories. No locus of yet, but
Speaker 1: you can be sure that someone will keep trying. So
Speaker 1: here's a fun one. I found out about one of
Speaker 1: my favorite TV detectives, and that's Inspector Gadget. So accordin
Speaker 1: to i g N, Inspector Gadget was originally meant to
Speaker 1: have a big, bushy mustache, and he actually does have
Speaker 1: one in the pilot episode. But after someone at MGM
Speaker 1: viewed that first episode, the studio called the producers and
Speaker 1: complained that Gadget looked too much like Inspector Clusseau from
Speaker 1: the Pink Panther movies. So in order to avoid a lawsuit,
Speaker 1: Inspector Gadget shaved off mustache. All right, so weirdly actually
Speaker 1: looked up some Inspector Gadget trivia too, And one of
Speaker 1: the things I've always wondered is how did he become
Speaker 1: this halfman, half machine hybrid that we all know and love.
Speaker 1: And it's a mystery that was never addressed in the
Speaker 1: original show. But according to an official Inspector Gadget trading card,
Speaker 1: from which, as you know, I always keep in my
Speaker 1: wallet at all times, Inspector Gadget was an average police
Speaker 1: inspector named John Brown until one fateful day when he
Speaker 1: slipped on a banana peal well right down a flight
Speaker 1: of stairs. The next day, he woke up from an
Speaker 1: operation only to find that now he had and I quote,
Speaker 1: more than thirteen hundred crime fighting gadgets attached to his body,
Speaker 1: which is kind of a dark origin story. It is
Speaker 1: I can't wait for like Todd Phillips to direct that,
Speaker 1: But it also solves the mystery I've always wondered about
Speaker 1: and today is Halloween, so I think you win the
Speaker 1: trophy this week. Congratulations, you out gadgeted me, all right
Speaker 1: after all these years. So all right, well that's gonna
Speaker 1: do it for today's Part Time Genius from Gabe Lowell,
Speaker 1: Mango and me. Thanks so much for listening, have a
Speaker 1: happy Halloween, and we'll be back soon with another episode.
Speaker 1: Part Time Genius is a production of I Heart Radio.
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