Map of Dorothy L. Sayers' Britain.

New from Herb Lester Associates is Dorothy L. Sayers' Britain, a map of locations in the works of Sayers. The writer is Eric Sandberg (City University of Hong Kong), author of Dorothy L. Sayers: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction (which I edited; take 20% off the book this month with coupon code HOLIDAY25). 

Other maps:
• Ian Fleming's London 
• Maigret's Paris

Still more on Simenon, Maigret, etc.

As I noted in blog posts in 2019 and 2022, Christopher Osterberg of the Budapest Times has been reading his way through the Georges Simenon oeuvre. Here are links to his reviews since July 2022:

• The New Investigations of Inspector Maigret

• The Widow Couderc

• The World of Bond and Maigret (a 1964 dialogue between Ian Fleming and Simenon; link to booklet)

Map of Maigret's Paris.

Georges Simenon.

Coming up for release in September from Herb Lester Associates is Maigret's Paris, a map of locations from the Chief Inspector Maigret oeuvre of Georges Simenon. 

Other maps of potential interest: 

• The Raymond Chandler Map of Los Angeles
• Agatha Christie's England
• John le Carré's London
• The World of Patricia Highsmith

Georges Simenon, photographer.

Georges Simenon, 1966.
Anefo, Dutch National Archives

Running through 27 August 2023 at Liège's Grand Curtius Museum, the exhibition "Simenon: Images of a World in Crisis" features photographs taken by Georges Simenon on his extensive travels in the 1930s. See a press kit for the exhibition (in French).

Even more on Simenon, Maigret, etc.

As I noted in 2019, a writer in the Budapest Times (now identified as Christopher Osterberg) has been working his way methodically through the large oeuvre of Georges Simenon and publishing reviews of these works. The latest entries:

• Betty 
• The Blue Room
  
• Death Threats and Other Stories 
• The Hand
  
• The Little Man from Archangel
• The Mahé Circle
  
• The People Opposite
• The Strangers in the House
  
• The Venice Train
• When I Was Old (featuring Simenon's thoughts on aging, justice, and other topics. Note that the Penguin edition was translated by mystery writer Helen Eustis)

Want to check out Osterberg's Simenon reviews published in 2020 and later? Go here. The reviews from earlier dates are no longer available on the Budapest Times website, but I've updated the links in my original post with archived links.

The popularity of Inspector Maigret.

Georges Simenon,
10 May 1965.
Anefo, Dutch Nat Archives

On The Conversation, Véronique Duché (A. R. Chisholm Professor of French at the University of Melbourne) explains why Inspector Maigret is her favorite detective: "Sucking on his pipe, Maigret observes from a distance, inhaling the soul of people and places. Then he slowly closes in."

Simenon and Maigret by way of Budapest.

Georges Simenon,
10 May 1965.
Anefo, Dutch Nat Archives

It is interesting to see Georges Simenon's popularity across cultures (such as the recent exhibition in China on his work). In a fun series in the Budapest Times, an anonymous writer is reading through the 75 works in Simenon's Maigret oeuvre as well as providing commentary on locations in the TV series with Michael Gambon (which was filmed in Budapest) and outlets for buying Simenon works in Budapest.

Entries to date:

• On A Maigret Christmas and Other Stories
  
• On Maigret Defends Himself
• On Maigret Enjoys Himself
• On Maigret and the Dead Girl
• On Maigret and the Good People of Montparnasse
• On Maigret and the Ghost
• On Maigret and the Headless Corpse
• On Maigret and the Minister
• On Maigret and the Nahour Case
• On Maigret and the Old People
• On Maigret and the Reluctant Witnesses
• On Maigret and the Saturday Caller

• On Maigret and the Tramp
• On Maigret at Picratt's
• On Maigret Goes to School
• On Maigret in Court
• On Maigret, Lognon, and the Gangsters
• On Maigret Travels
• On Maigret's Anger
• On Maigret's Doubts
• On Maigret's Failure
• On Maigret's First Case
  
• On Maigret's Patience
• On Maigret's Secret
• On Maigret Sets a Trap

Additional resource:

• Interview with John Simenon, son of Georges

Simenon exhibition opens in China.

Georges Simenon,
10 May 1965.
Anefo, Dutch Nat Archives

The exhibition "Simenon, auteur belge a multi-facettes” (Simenon, multifaceted Belgian author) opened in Guangzhou Library's Multiculture Library on May 13 and will be displayed until June 8. It features details on Georges Simenon's life and work, as well as posters of film adaptations of Simenon's books. Cosponsors are the library, the Consulate General of Belgium, and Wallonie-Bruxelles Internationale. Guangzhou Library holds both French editions and Chinese translations of Simenon's works.

The first hundred years of detective fiction.

Illustration from Lawrence L.
Lynch, Dangerous Ground (1885)

A valuable resource is the Lilly Library of Indiana University's online version of its 1973 exhibition "The First Hundred Years of Detective Fiction, 1841–1941," which provides a useful history of the genre through the works selected. Besides the expected items by Edgar Allan Poe, Wilkie Collins, and Arthur Conan Doyle, there are works by lesser known authors such as William Russell (the rare Recollections of a Detective Police Officer, 1856–59) and Lawrence L. Lynch (pseudonym of Emma Murdock Van Deventer, 1885). Other goodies include G. K. Chesterton's sketch of Holmes and Moriarty for a never published version of Conan Doyle's "The Final Problem," a manuscript page from S. S. Van Dine's The Scarab Murder Case (1930), and Georges Simenon's first two novels. Note that the statement "It was not until eleven years later, in 1878, that the first native detective novel appeared in America, Anna Katherine [sic] Green's The Leavenworth Case" is not true, as Metta Fuller Victor is now given this distinction for her novel The Dead Letter (1866).

Simenon's "The Old Lady of Bayeux" (1952).

Georges Simenon, May 1965.
Fotocollectie Anefo,
Dutch National Archives

In this Sept. 1952 episode of Suspense directed and produced by Robert Stevens with lots of dramatic organ music, a wealthy widow dies, and a visiting Inspector Maigret (Luis Van Rooten) doubts that a heart attack was the cause of death. The episode is based on Georges Simenon's Aug. 1952 EQMM story of the same name (trans. of "La Vieille Dame de Bayeux," 1939).

Mystery reading group guides.

For those looking for mystery reading group guides:

• The New York Review of Books has guides for William Lindsay Gresham's Nightmare Alley, Jean-Patrick Manchette's Fatale, and Georges Simenon's The Engagement.

• Michigan Center for the Book has a Reading Guide to Robert Traver's Anatomy of a Murder.

 

August Derleth: Best mysteries of 1969.

Essential Solitude: The Letters of
H. P. Lovecraft and August Derleth
Hippocampus P

In the Dec. 6, 1969, issue of the Capital [WI] Times, August Derleth (creator of the Holmes-like Solar Pons) listed his selections for the best fiction, nonfiction, and poetry books of 1969. Mysteries and sci-fi appeared under the subtitle "Entertainments" rather than the "Fiction" category. It may have been ethically questionable that he listed H. P. Lovecraft et al.'s Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos—which was issued by Arkham House, the publishing firm he cofounded.

The Godfather by Mario Puzo and Daphne du Maurier's The House on the Strand were two of his fiction selections, whereas two of his sci-fi picks were Fritz Leiber's A Spectre Is Haunting Texas and Douglas Warner's Death on a Warm Wind. His mystery selections included:

Allingham, Margery. The Allingham Casebook. Campion and Charlie Luke short stories
Bernkopf, Jean F., ed. Boucher's Choicest. Some of Anthony Boucher's picks for best mystery short stories
Carr, John Dickson. The Ghosts' High Noon.
Carter, Philip Youngman. Mr. Campion's Farthing. Carter was Allingham's widower
Christie, Agatha. By the Pricking of My Thumbs.
Davies, L. P. Stranger to Town.
Fish, Robert L. The Murder League.
Gardner, John. A Complete State of Death.
Kahn, Joan, ed. Hanging by a Thread.
Marric, J. J [John Creasey]. Gideon's Power.
Marsh, Ngaio. Clutch of Constables.
Queen, Ellery, ed. Queen's Minimysteries.
Simenon, Georges. Maigret in Vichy (aka Maigret Takes the Waters)
Stout, Rex. Death of a Dude.
Whitney, Phyllis A. The Winter People.

The Brothers Rico (1957).

In The Brothers Rico, a former Mob accountant (Richard Conte) finds himself entangled with his ex-employers when his brothers (James Darren, Paul Picerni) fail to go along with Mafia plans. The film, based on the novella Les Frères Rico by Georges Simenon and featuring screenplay work by Dalton Trumbo, also stars Kathryn Grant (aka Mrs. Bing Crosby).

Simenon's The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949).

In The Man on the Eiffel Tower, impoverished medical student Franchot Tone is hired to kill a man's rich aunt. Also featured are Burgess Meredith, Charles Laughton (as Maigret), and Wilfred Hyde-White, with directing duties taken by Meredith, Laughton, and Irving Allen. The film is adapted from Georges Simenon's A Battle of Nerves (aka War of Nerves).

BBC Radio 4 program on European detectives.

BBC Radio 4 has a new series, Foreign Bodies: An Investigation into European Detectives, that looks at mystery fiction in an international context. The first episode deals with Christie's Poirot and Simenon's Maigret (although I disagree with presenter Mark Lawson's opinion that Christie made Poirot a Belgian to differentiate him from Sherlock Holmes; I thought she did so because she was familiar with the plight of World War I refugees and a detective who was a foreigner reinforced the role of the detective as outsider). The fifth episode focuses on Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo's Martin Beck; the sixth episode on P. D. James's Adam Dalgleish and Ruth Rendell's Reginald Wexford.

Mystery goodies on EUscreen.

EUscreen offers free online access to thousands of videos, stills, and other materials from European broadcasters. A quick tiptoe through the archives yielded the following:

• An August 1962 interview with Alfred Hitchcock regarding The Birds (in French and English) in which he refutes the idea of working with Grace Kelly again ("Ce n'est pas possible")

• On location in Ireland in 1966 for the film Casino Royale with John Huston and Deborah Kerr

• Two interviews (in French) with Georges Simenon (1959, 1967)

• A July 1958 interview (in French) with Leslie Charteris, creator of the Saint

• Still from a 1955 Dutch TV production of Gaslight

(Thanks to Critical Studies in Television)

Clues 29.2: Simenon, Stout, Sayers, et al.

Vol 29, no. 2 of Clues: A Journal of Detection has just been published, including the following topics:

• Analyses of two matchups of the detective vs. archcriminal. The first one is Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe and Arnold Zeck; John Littlejohn looks at Stout's reasons for creating a major adversary for Wolfe. The second is the Sara Martin Allegre's examination of the complex relationship between Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus and his nemesis, "Big Ger" Cafferty.

• Detection Club president Simon Brett pays tribute to his late colleague H. R. F. Keating:  "Whenever I think of Harry, I think of the Olympic Diving competition."

• Dorothy L. Sayers's engagement with true crime between the wars by Victoria Stewart.

• Ahmet Mithat Efendi's Esrar-i Cinayat, the first Turkish detective novel (1884), by Zeynep Tufekcioglu

• The role of class in the 1930s Maigret novels of Georges Simenon by Bill Alder.

• The use of sound in the works of Raymond Chandler by Eric Rawson and the role of the automobile in the works of Chandler and James M. Cain by Shelby Smoak.

• Gender bending in Mickey Spillane's Vengeance Is Mine! (1950) by Heather Duerre Humann.

• The Montana-set police procedurals of Robert Sims Reid by Rachel Schaffer.

• Margaret Atwood's techniques that lead the reader to become a detective by Lisa A. Wellinghoff.

The favorite mystery writers of 1941.

The New York Times of April 18, 1941, reported on a survey conducted by Columbia University Press of the readership of its weekly newsletter The Pleasures of Publishing. Respondents reported reading 4.5 mysteries a month (one hopes they eventually finished the half portion) and the following as their favorite writers (in order of popularity):

1. Dorothy L. Sayers
2. Agatha Christie
3. Arthur Conan Doyle
4. Ngaio Marsh
5. Erle Stanley Gardner
6. Rex Stout
7. Ellery Queen
8. Margery Allingham
9. Dashiell Hammett
10. Georges Simenon

Thus the total is 4 Brits, 4 Americans, 1 New Zealand citizen, and 1 Belgian.

Lord Peter Wimsey was voted best detective; Marsh's Death of a Peer (aka A Surfeit of Lampreys, 1940) was deemed the best story read within the past six months, followed by Allingham's Traitor's Purse (1941).

Unlikely Mystery Fan #3: Robert Graves.

Part of a series on unexpected individuals who enjoy or enjoyed mystery-related works and authors.

Poet-author Robert Graves (I, Claudius; Good-bye to All That, etc.), wrote "After a Century, Will Anyone Care Whodunit?", which appeared in the August 15, 1957, New York Times.  In it, Graves prognosticated on which 20th-century "crime-and-detection thriller" authors will be taught in the 21st century, with quite emphatic likes and dislikes.

The mystery writers he liked:

• Erle Stanley Gardner. "As a former practicing attorney he can be trusted not to cheat . . . the legal situation is always novel and fascinating."

• Dashiell Hammett, "The Cleansing of Personville"/Red Harvest. "He writes a good practical English."

• Selwyn Jepson (author of Man Running, adapted by Hitchcock as Stage Fright, 1950, and uncle of writer Fay Weldon). "A refreshing exception."

• Georges Simenon. "a law to himself . . . his diversity and brilliance put most of his rivals to shame."

The mystery writers he dissed:

• E. C. Bentley. "flat-footed."

• Raymond Chandler. "...I would succumb more often to his ingenious impostures, if the style were not so sadly meretricious..."

• G. K. Chesterton. "self-satisfied criminologist . . .a jolly Catholic priest."

• Agatha Christie. "... nobody could promise Agatha immortality as a novelist." (never mind that Christie dedicated a book to him) 

• Edgar Allan Poe. "...Heaven knows why nobody in Paris caught sight of the ape [from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"] during all that excitement, though it was wandering paw-loose for days and must have felt pretty hungry and thirsty."

• Dorothy L. Sayers.  "Dorothy Sayers . . . will . . . sink without a trace; she clearly has no belief in her outrageous drawing-room charades..."

Graves's crystal ball seems to have been cloudy, given how seriously he missed the mark on Chandler, Christie, and Sayers, and Jepson is hardly a household name in the present day.

Georges Simenon in Hitler's Germany.

One selection in Oliver Lubrich's Travels in the Reich, 1933–1945 (2010) features Georges Simenon's account "Hitler in the Elevator" that describes the catastrophic events around the Reichstag in 1933.

In addition, Simenon unveils a Maigret statue in the Netherlands in this British Pathe clip from 1966.