The American Sherlock Holmes

Publishing History:

The original pulp magazine series that later became Harry Dickson began in Germany in January 1907 under the title of Detectiv Sherlock Holmes und seine weltberühmten abenteuer [Sherlock Holmes' Most Famous Cases], published by Verlagshaus für Volkliteratur und Kunst, and was comprised of 230 issues in total -- until June, 1911. The name Sherlock Holmes was actually used for the first ten issues. After some concern about the legitimate wrath of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's lawyers, the series was retitled Aus dem geheimakten des welt-detektivs [The Secret Files of the King of Detectives] with No. 11, even though the main character was still called "Sherlock Holmes" inside. His "Doctor Watson" however, was a younger man named Harry Taxson...

Sixteen issues of the original German series were adapted into French starting in October 1907 by publisher Fernand Laven for the magazine La Nouvelle Populaire under the title Les Dossiers Secrets de Sherlock Holmes [Sherlock Holmes' Secret Files] for No. 1, immediately changed to Les Dossiers Secrets du Roi des Détectives [The Secret Files of the King of Detectives] with issue No. 2.

In December 1927, Dutch/Flemish publisher Roman-Boek-en-Kunsthandel launched a Dutch translation of the original German series, this time entitled Harry Dickson de Amerikaansche Sherlock Holmes [Harry Dickson, the American Sherlock Holmes]. in 1929. The name may have been inspired by that of Harry Taxson (from the German edition; the young assistant being renamed Tom Wills), or by writer Arnould Galopin's Allan Dickson, the "King of Australian Detectives." Allan Dickson appeared in 1910 in La Ténébreuse affaire de Green Park [The Murky Case of Green Park], L’Homme au Complet Gris [The Man in the Grey Suit] (1912), in which he met an aging Sherlock Holmes, and two more novels. The Dutch series lasted 180 issues, until May 1935.

In 1928, Belgian publisher Hip Janssens asked Jean Ray to translate the Dutch series into French, for distribution in Belgium and France. The French-language edition, entitled Harry Dickson, le Sherlock Holmes Americain, began in January, 1929, and lasted 178 issues, until April, 1938.

Quickly, Ray became tired of translating the mediocre original stories. Using the titles and the covers (by noted German artist Alfred Roloff, a member of the Berlin Academy) as starting points, he began to write his own stories. It is no exaggeration to say that Roloff's covers greatly contributed to the series' success since, when they stopped, it had to be discontinued. Because the covers generally depicted events taking place before World War I, although the stories themselves were supposed to take place in the 1920s, Ray had to draw on his fertile imagination to create an atmosphere of musty death and decadence, of small villages where time and fashions had stood still.

The adventures of Harry Dickson and his young assistant, Tom Wills, have delighted several generations of readers. Because they were written by a master of the fantastique, they quickly became more fantasy-oriented than the Holmesian canon. The best and most fondly remembered Harry Dickson stories were not those where the great detective fought a spy or a blackmailer in true Holmesian fashion, but those that pit him against some monstrous fallen angel. What the intellect lost in logic and deduction, the readers gained in pure entertainment and fantasy.

Harry Dickson's fame in France rivals that of Sherlock Holmes and Arsène Lupin. Filmmaker Alain Resnais tried, unsuccessfully, to get a live-action Harry Dickson feature off the ground in the 1960s.


MORE ABOUT THE OTHER FRENCH SHERLOCK HOLMES PASTICHES

TO FIND OUT MORE, BUY THESE BOOKS

) (1930) (Flax)

) (1932; rep. NéO 4)

) (1932)
75. Le Mystère de la Vallée d'Argent (

) (1933; rep. HD3, MarF 269; NéO 9)
100. La Mort Bleue (

) (1934; rep. HD15, MarF 456; NéO 12)
120. Ce Paradis de Flower Dale (

) (1935; rep. HD11, MarF 379; NéO 14)
140. Le Loup-Garou (

) (1936; rep. HD7, MarF 300; NéO 17)
160. Les Nuits Effrayantes de Felston (

Pastiches

In 1996, Editions Fleuve Noir published Les Exploits d'Harry Dickson by Gérard Dôle, No. 29 in their SuperPoche imprint, an omnibus paperback reprinting a series of short stories written by Dôle and initially published by Corps 9 between 1984 and 1989. The table of contents includes:
Les Mystères de la Tamise (The Thames Mystery) (48 pp.).
Harry Dickson raconte... (Harry Dickson Speaks...) (32 pp.).
Le Mystère du Mathilda Briggs (The Mathilda Briggs Mystery) (30 pp.).
L'Oeil d'Osiris (The Eye of Osiris) (10 pp.).
Les Masques de Mort (The Death Masks) (8 pp.).
L'Aventure Étriquée (The Narrow Adventure) (10 pp.).
L'Abominable Freaks Museum (The Abominable Freaks Museum) (36 pp.).
La Malédiction du Lac Tritrive (The Curse of Lake Tritrive) (40 pp.).
Le Cas de Lord Glanmour (The Lord Glammour Case) (58 pp.).
Le Fantôme du British Museum (The Ghost of the British Museum) (64 pp.).
La Bande du Sakya-Mouni (The Sakya-Mouni Gang) (32 pp.).
Harry Dickson raconte... (Harry Dickson Speaks...) (16 pp.).
Le Trésor de Jim le Borgne (The Treasure of One-Eyed Jim) (42 pp.).
Les Chevaliers du Chardon Bleu (The Knights of the Blue Thistle) (56 pp.).
L'Aiguille de Cléopâtre (Cleopatra's Needle) (32 pp.).
Le Champignon du Diable (The Devil's Mushroom) (14 pp.).
Le Vampyre de Londres (The Vampyre of London) (88 pp.).

JOHNNY HART'S FRENCH HARRY DICKSON SITE

Dargaud Edition: Wri: Christian Vanderhaeghe; Art: Pascal J. Zanon. 1. La Bande de l'Araignée (The Gang of the Spider) (Art BD, 1986) 2. Les Spectres Bourreaux (The Ghost Executioners) (Art BD, 1988) 3. Les Trois Cercles de l'Épouvante (The Three Circles of Terror) (Art BD, 1990) 4. Le Royaume Introuvable (The Hidden Kingdom) (Dar., 1994) 5. L'Étrange Lueur Verte (The Strange Green Glow) (Dar., 1997) 6. La Conspiration Fantastique (The Fantastic Conspiracy) (Dar., 1999) 7. Echec au Roi (The King in Check) (Dar., 2002) 8. Le Temple de Fer (The Iron Temple) (Dar., 2003) Note: This version loosely adapts some of Jean Ray's original stories.

Soleil Edition: Wri: Richard Nolane; Art: Olivier Roman. 1. L'île des Possédés (The Island of the Possessed) (Sol., 1992) 2. Le Démon de Whitechapel (The Demon of Whitechapel) (Sol., 1994) 3. Les Amis de l'Enfer (The Friends From Hell) (Sol., 1995) 4. L'Ombre de Blackfield (The Shadows of Blackfield) (Sol., 1996) 5. La Nuit du Météore (Night of the Meteor) (Sol., 1998) 6. La Terreur Jaune (The Yellow Terror) (Sol., 2000) 7. Les Loups de Darkhenge (The Wolves of Darkhenge) (Sol., 2001) 8. Le Sanctuaire du Grand Ancien (The Sanctuary of the Elder One) (Sol., 2002) 9. Le Secret de Raspoutine (Rasputin's Secret) (Sol., 2003) 10. La Sorciere du Kent (The Witch of Kent) (Sol., 2004) 11. Le Semeur d'Angoisse (Sower of Terror) (Sol., 2005) 12. Le Diable du Devonshire (The Devonshire devil) (Sol., 2008) Note: All-new stories.