Wed 14 Jul 2021
An Archived Review by Doug Greene: WILL SCOTT – Giglamps.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[22] Comments
WILL SCOTT – Giglamps. Cassell, UK, hardcover, 1924. No US edition.
I have seldom enjoyed a book more than Giglamps, a collection of short stories about a tramp who sometimes acts as detective and sometimes runs afoul of the law himself — all told with rare warmth and humor. Giglamps himself is a marvelous character:
Will Scott’s style is Chestertonian in its use of paradox and unexpected juxtaposition of ideas, but it avoids GKC’s atmospheric preoccupations and occasional obscurity,
“The Vanishing Rouse,” the first story in Giglamps, has two mysteries. First, why did someone steal Giglamp’s dilapidated boots and replace them with “good boots; great boots; boots worthy of being sung, fit to pass into the epics and the legends of highway and casual ward”? Second, how can a house simply disappear like smoke?
Eavesdropping outside a small house in the middle of a field, Giglamps witnesses a murder, When he brings the law to the scene, however. there is no house to be found. This fine tale, filled with humor and a variety of incidents, is damaged only by the unlikelihood that no sign whatever would have been left of the removal of the house.
Just as good a story is “A Holiday By the Sea,” in which Giglamps consciously becomes a detective and discovers a completely unexpected crime. Most of the other stories do not have pure detection, but in each one Giglamps has to resolve some sort of problem.
EQ did not know of Giglamps; if he had, the book surely would have been a Queen’s Quorum choice.
Contents:
The Battle of Sideways · ss Pan Jan 1923
The End of the Road · ss Pan Jul 1923, as “Good-bye Giglamps�
Giglamps in Eden · ss Pan Apr 1923
A Holiday by the Sea · ss Pan Aug 1922
Medals for It · ss Pan Oct 1922
Meeting of Creditors · ss Pan May 1923, as “Giglamps Meets His Creditorsâ€
One in a Million · ss
Roads to Rome · ss Pan Sep 1922
Too Much Mercury · ss Pan Jun 1923
Trussed to Luck · ss Pan Dec 1922
The Vanishing House · ss
When Snakes Were Ladders · ss Pan Nov 1922
A Wish for a Cigar · ss Pan Mar 1923, as “Giglamps Revokesâ€
July 14th, 2021 at 8:30 pm
Not only could I not find a cover image for this book, but I also could not even find a copy of it for sale, anywhere on the Internet.
Perhaps you can do better than I.
July 14th, 2021 at 8:35 pm
Will Scott, the author, has a very extensive Wikipedia entry here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Matthew_Scott
and the Golden Age of Detection has a much smaller entry for him here:
http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7931486/Scott%2C%20Will
July 14th, 2021 at 10:16 pm
This is circa 1924? If so, then the author rubs elbows (or at least eats at the same table) with the wonderful Welshman, W.H. Davies, the original ‘Super-Tramp’ (1908).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Autobiography_of_a_Super-Tramp
July 15th, 2021 at 6:37 am
This collection is in dire need of fresh ink and paper. I’m not just saying that because “The Vanishing House” is a permanent resident on my locked room wishlist. Well, ok, the main reason is that locked room story, but I wouldn’t give the other stories a pass.
July 15th, 2021 at 10:16 pm
I have asked Doug Greene if he still owns his copy, but I haven’t heard back. I believe he’s had health issues so I won’t press him on it.
July 15th, 2021 at 7:07 am
Will Scott and Giglamps are discussed in “The Encyclopedia of Mystery & DEtection” (1976) by Steinbrunner and Penzler. I’ve wanted to read them ever since, for 45 years now.
Lots of mystery books have simply become rare books. I have no access to them.
It is very frustrating. I try sincerely to cover the mystery field. But the rare-book situation throws big obstacles in one’s way.
July 15th, 2021 at 7:10 am
Frustrating, yes. But it warms the cockles of what passes for my heart to be reminded that there are always obscure delights out there to be discovered.
July 15th, 2021 at 7:22 am
I think these problems might be hurting my professional reputation, as a mystery historian.
I really try to cover the field. My history is now 3100 pages long, and growing. The article on Ellery Queen is 115 pages, all by itself.
But people can look at my site, and say “This site is no good. It doesn’t cover Giglamps!”
ARRRGH!!!
July 15th, 2021 at 10:10 am
The only library copy in the USA is at the Harry R Ransom Library at the University of Texas, it seems.
I’ll head for the BL with my reader’s ticket…
July 15th, 2021 at 7:22 pm
The only book length series I can think of with a tramp sleuth was Ben the Tramp by Farjeon. I can think of at least one Cellini Smith story where he is hired by hoboes to solve a case, and of course Wallace’s THE NORTHING TRAMP.
Quite a few detectives went undercover over the years as wanderers if not tramps, usually as mystery figures who reveal themselves to be sleuths. In the same general era it wasn’t unusual in quite a bit of literature for some mystery figure believed to be a tramp to turn out to be a mysterious nobleman, millionaire, brother, father, or other figure.
I haven’t kept up with the digests the last few years, but I would be surprised if someone hasn’t done at least a couple of stories with a homeless sleuth. Ed McBain’s Curt Cannon comes close from McBain’s early years.
The tramp was a more romantic than tragic figure in that era before the Depression when it became the plight of many displaced men. O Henry did a lot to contribute to that, but then so did most popular literature and drama of the era.
Romanticized tramps show up in a lot of British thriller literature like the one who saves Norman Conquest’s life in MISS DYNAMITE, and while John Buchan’s heroes aren’t tramps they do go undercover as poachers for a little semi legal fun in JOHN MCNAB.
July 15th, 2021 at 10:35 pm
The Mike Grost summaries of historical periods and trends in detective literature are stellar; profound. I recommend them avidly to cohorts whenever the topic arises. Permanently bookmarked and pages-downloaded for re-reading on my laptop.
Also much love for Otto Penzler mentioned above. Whatta guy.
July 15th, 2021 at 10:53 pm
Agreed.
July 16th, 2021 at 8:49 am
LG and Barry,
Thank you very much.
It is greatly appreciated!
Mike
July 16th, 2021 at 8:59 am
Here’s a 14the post, so Steve doesn’t need to add it!
Anthony Boucher wrote a series of short stories about Nick Noble. They are in the terrific collection “Exeunt Murderers”.
Nick Noble was a wrongfully fired ex-cop, who had hit bottom and now was a barfly. He was still terrific at solving murders.
On the TV show DIAGNOSIS MURDER, the episode LIVING ON THE STREETS CAN BE MURDER is good. It has a homeless man pair up with Dick Van Dyke and help solve a case, about villains preying on the homeless.
July 19th, 2021 at 10:18 am
When I was verifying the series data for my Digest Index I came across a mystery by Garnett Weston in which the solution was expounded by a mysterious hobo named Highway. According to Hubin there are two more books with this character.
July 19th, 2021 at 7:43 pm
Hi Ken
This sounds like an interesting series, no doubt about it:
Murder in Haste (n.) Stokes 1935 [California]
Dead Men Are Dangerous (n.) Stokes 1937 [California]
Poldrate Street (n.) Messner 1944 [Los Angeles]
J. F. Norris reviews the second in the series here:
https://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2017/03/ffb-garnett-weston-screenplay-writer.html
July 19th, 2021 at 11:03 pm
Wow. Very much enjoy that website devoted to ‘Sinister’ Books.
Regarding writer Garnett Weston and the first book discussed (‘Murder on Shadow Island’, 1933). What a fun summary.
Just want to point out that the St. Lawrence seaway actually does have several islands exactly like that described (in the synopsis of the plot).
‘Dark Island’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Island
‘Boldt Castle’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boldt_Castle
The latter, an actual castle.
July 20th, 2021 at 5:01 am
There’s an Ellery Queen radio-play from the 1940s, “The Adventure of the Forgotten Men,” which takes place among the makeshift shacks of a homeless community during the Depression. Not what most outsiders would expect from a Golden Age detective story. You can find the story in the Crippen & Landru collection The Adventure of the Murdered Moths and Other Radio Mysteries.
Last year, John Pugmire’s Locked Room International published a translation of Tokuya Higashigawa’s Lending the Key to the Locked Room. One of the false-solutions is proposed by a homeless detective (of sorts), Kinzo (“Moneybags”), who lives in the cardboard section of the city.
July 20th, 2021 at 9:18 am
There’s obviously a small but significant subgenre of mystery fiction — homeless detectives — that I was totally unaware of till now.
February 20th, 2022 at 10:36 am
I found this book in a secondhand store, but its not for me i think. If anyone wants it i can send it out?
October 12th, 2022 at 8:48 am
I would love to read it, and wishing myself some luck with permissions, republish it as a Red Herrring Book.
October 12th, 2022 at 1:44 pm
Robert
Good luck with that! It looks like you have a very interesting catalog already:
http://www.redherringbooks.com/