Don Diavolo and the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box

[mescallado]

The first book I bought via mail order upon arriving in Canada was Derleth's The Final Adventures of Solar Pons from the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. That was almost 8 years ago. Recently I learned they've published all Thinking Machine stories in one volume. Pricey (US$50 or C$75) but I ordered one just the same and is expecting it in the weeks to come. In the meantime, they have the Clayton Rawson Don Diavolo adventures scheduled to printed this fall (at roughly the same price as the Futrelle volume). Cant' wait!

Oh yeah, in another post, Ben Elton's Dead Famous was talked about and I managed to get a secondhand copy at less than $10 (again, by mail). Hope the accolades are well-deserved.

[Dave]

What (who?) is the Battered Silicon Dispatch Box? I've never heard of them. Do they do reprints?

[mescallado]

The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box (BSDB) is a small publisher based in Shelburne, Ontario, Canada. The company takes its name from a reference in one of those Sherlock Holmes tales. They reprint Sherlockian writings (pastiches, studies, scholarly writings, etc.), pulp classics (e.g., the complete adventures of the Golden Amazon, Bill Brent, Horatio Humberton, etc.), R. Austin Freeman, Vincent Starrett, August Derleth, and forgotten classics.
Address:
(US) PO Box 122
Sauk City, Wisconsin 53583-0122

(Canada)
PO Box 122
Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0

Books as I mentioned are pricey but do they have some "cheaper" CD-ROM versions.

[mescallado]

The Thinking Machine Omnibus finally arrived! Pristine white pages, as big as a coffee-table book with some illustrations and the inclusion of non-Futrelle TM stories (actually, 4 pastiches, 3 by Carolyn Wells). Quite heavy. Look sturdy enough!

As promised all stories from all the original sources, including the lone TM novel. I just wished Stan Smith's introductory piece made mention of the use of the TM plots to "inspire" some of the Banacek plot lines.

Now, if someone will come up with a leatherbound edition....

[Dave]

I'm curious what you paid for it. It sounds like an attractive book.

[shyster]

I've a battered copy of a book on the Titanic disaster which belonged to my grandfather--the hardcover equivalent of what today would be a quickie paperback on the death of Princess Di.

Many's the time I've paged through the yellowed pages, antique photographs and political cartoons, and turned to the list of the dead, with the bare notation of one Jacques Futrelle.

Like many another kid with the Problem of Cell 13, I still wonder what the other ways out were....I understand that several Thinking Machine scripts went down with the Titanic and I'd sooner have them than that damned diamond in the picture.