The Dream Doctor: The New Adventures of Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective. by REEVE (Arthur B.) - 1914

By Arthur B. Reeve Author of “The Silent Bullet,” “The Poisoned Pen,” etc. Illustrated by Will Foster. New York, Hearst’s International Library Co., 1914. Extra cr.8vo; blank before half-title; half-tone frontispiece with tissue guard, and seven plates; pp.[iv]+379+[i (blank)]; vertically-fine-ribbed deep cerise cloth, lettered, and with short rule, gilt on spine, blocked and lettered bright red, blocked gilt, on front cover. Three insignificant fox-spots to fore-edges and stains to three or four margins, but a very nice, crisp, copy. The third Craig Kennedy title. Detective short stories, many involving inventions that were certainly science-fictive at the time, and some of which are so still. The volume includes “The Dream Doctor”; “The Soul Analysis”; “The Sybarite”; “The Beauty Shop”; “The Phantom Circuit”; “The Detectaphone”; “The Green Curse”; “The Mummy Case”; “The Elixir of Life”; “The Toxin of Death”; “The Opium Joint”; “The Dope Trust”; “The Kleptomaniac”; “The Crimeometer”; “The Vampire”; “The Blood Test”; “The Bomb Maker”; “The ‘Coke’ Fiend”; “The Submarine Mystery”; “The Wireless Detector”; “The Ghouls”; “The X-Ray ’Movies’”; “The Death House”; and “The Final Day”. Craig Kennedy was at one time America’s most popular detective in books, magazines, and silent films, and no American author of any type sold better then in the UK. In World War I, Reeve was asked by the American government to create a scientific laboratory for detecting spies, and his work led to the creation also of the earliest police laboratories in America. Hubin [1979], p.341; Reginald , 12092; Bleiler [1948], p.232. All books listed by Robert Temple are first editions unless otherwise stated.