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Who is Solar Pons? Solar Pons is the 'Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street.' He was created in 1928 by August Derleth when the author learned that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not intend to write any more Sherlock Holmes stories. Pons is very much like Holmes, often wearing an Inverness cape and deerstalker cap and frequently smoking pipes. Pons is a private detective who makes the brilliant seem, well, elementary.
Who is Doctor Parker? Doctor Lyndon Parker is Solar Pons' assistant and chronicler. Parker shared lodgings with Pons at 7B Praed Street for many years before his marriage to the former Constance Dorrington. His first wife, unfortunately, was lost on the Titanic. Parker is a general practitioner and also writes up the cases of Solar Pons for publication.
Anybody else I should know about? Sure. There are several other people that appear more than once in the stories. Pons' elder brother Bancroft is a valuable employee at the Foreign Office and as brilliant as Solar, though overweight and rather lazy. Inspector Jamison appears in many cases and is Pons' most frequent contact at Scotland Yard. Pons employs a group of ragged street urchins he refers to as The Praed Street Irregulars. Because of their age and appearance, they assist him in ways an adult could not.
So, there are a bunch of stories out there? Yep. Though released over a period of some forty-plus years, August Derleth's original tales can be found in In Re: Sherlock Holmes, The Memoirs of Solar Pons, The Return of Solar Pons, The Reminiscences of Solar Pons, The Casebook of Solar Pons, The Chronicles of Solar Pons, and the full-length novel, Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey. A Praed Street Dossier also contains a few stories, entries from Dr. Parker's journal and some essays, all written by Derleth. Several unpublished short stories and one novel were released after the author's death as The Final Adventures of Solar Pons.
After Derleth's death, Basil Copper, with the blessing of the late author's estate, continued the Pons tales. The collections are The Dossier of Solar Pons, The Further Adventures of Solar Pons, The Secret Files of Solar Pons, The Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons, The Exploits of Solar Pons and The Recollections of Solar Pons. There is also a novel, Solar Pons and the Devil's Claw, as well as a collection of short stories revised by the author, The Final Cases of Solar Pons. Copper's stories are a bit wordy and longer than Derleth's originals, but they capture the Solar Pons style extremely well and are highly recommended.
Tell me a little bit about this August Derleth, please. August Derleth was a prolific author who wrote many books that described his native state of Wisconsin. His most famous creation was Solar Pons, the successor to Sherlock Holmes. Oddly enough, Derleth never traveled to England, though the Pons tales took place there. August Derleth died in 1973. Basil Copper was a prolific author with a specialty in the horror field. |
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