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On July 11, 1891, The Scandal of Bohemia was published in newspapers across America. The first of a series of short stories which would eventually become
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes , it not only legitimized the detective story but also reintroduced Americans to an indigenous genre. Edgar Allan Poe had essentially invented the detective story three decades earlier with his introduction of Auguste Dupin. Yet, at the turn of the century, his stories remained obscure to many Americans. The intervening years between Poe and Doyle were basically devoid of literature which could truly be called a detective story. Plentiful dime novels and detective yarns decried vice, promoted sensationalism and generally lacked the literary quality of Poe’s work. With Sherlock Holmes, Doyle reintroduced respectability to detective fiction with his emphasis on logic, reason and methodical thinking. Focusing especially on turn-of-the-century publications, this volume covers the formative years of American detective fiction, enumerating the societal forces which changed the sensation-laden detective narrative of the mid - 19th century to the modern detective story which appeared in the years after World War I. It examines elements which influenced the writers of the time including the rise and decline of police as an institution; the parallel development of private detectives; and the birth of the crusading newspaper reporter. The work also looks at the beginnings of forensic science and criminology as well as the ways in which this new awareness changed the rules of evidence and judicial procedures - and consequently, the detective story.
