Evening star., 1933-03-12

It has been to some extent stopped by
the spirited action Of an American
writer, Earl Derr Biggers, who has cre-
ated a good Chinaman, who Is also p
very credible and convincing Chinaman,
and made him the policeman instead Of
the criminal.
THESE are the principles with which
the Detection Club is trying, in .
very quiet way, to influence the detec-
tive type of fiction. It is in a very quiet
way. and It has no connection with
some similar associations proclaimed in
the advertisements of particular pub
fishers; these may be quite legitimate
methods Of publicity, but they are
merely methods of publicity; the club
speak OF works altogether in private
though not without some motives of
public spirit.
It is small enough to be more or less
a meeting Of friends; though it con-
tains men whose names are sufficiently
widely known: Austin Freeman, the Gre
ator of DR.. Thorndyke, who has perhaps
come nearest to occupying the empty
throne of Sherlock Holmes; E C. Bent
ley, who wrote what Is generally re-
garded IS the best modern English mys-
terry story, In England called "Trents
Last Case" but originally published in
America, think, under another title,
something like The Woman in Black;
Miss Dorothy Sayers, who sustains about
the best level, in my opinion, of lively
and intelligent writing in this style.
There are others who have gained
fame in departments different from this:
A really fine novelist like Miss Clemence
Dane or a really fine sociologist like
G. D. II. Cole. There are other popular
writer's of my own generation, like Edgar
Jepson. and many promising represent
atives Of the rising generation, like An
thony Berkeley.
do not fancy that the club would
have fitted in very well with a colossal
cosmopolitan publicity, like that Of
Edgar wallace. I say 50 not 50 much
because he was . best seller rs because
he was q mass-producer. We have all
enjoyed his ingenious plots, but there
was inevitably 1something in his type of
plotting that recalls our shyness in the
presence Of the omnipresent Chinaman
OF the League Of the Scarlet Scorpion"
He was q huge furnace and factory of
fiction, imposing by its scale, but not
suited to this particular purpose. It
would be like going with ones family
and friends ON motor tour and finding
oneself escorted by all the cars out of
the factories of Mr.. Ford. 1t would
always raise the question of whether
Mr.. Ford belonged to the club or the
club belonged to Mr.. Ford. Therefore,
in our little group, the external fame
or success is largely accidental and the
friendship is the original fact
Perhaps the most characteristic thing
that the Detection Club ever did was
to publish detective story, which was
quite good detective story, but the best
things in which could not possibly be
understood by anybody except the gang
of criminals that had produced it, 1t
was called THE Floating Admiral" and
was written somewhat uproariously in
the manner of one of those paper
games" in which each writer in turn
continues story of which he knows
neither head nor tail.
1t turned out remarkably readable,
but the joke of it will never be discov-
cred by the ordinary reader; for the
truth is that almost every chapter thus
contributed by an amateur detective Is
satire on the personal peculiarities
Of the last amateur detective. This, it
will be sternly said, is not the way to
become best seller. 1t is a matter of
taste; but to my mind there is always