Richmond: Scenes in the Life of a Bow Street Runner, Drawn Up from His Private Memoranda

by E.F. Bleiler (editor)

A facsimile of the 1827 collection of detective stories is supplemented by information on the Bow Street Runners, eighteenthand early-nineteenth-century England's famous and skillful criminal investigators

266 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1976

About the author

Everett Franklin Bleiler (April 30, 1920 – June 13, 2010) (see also Everett F. Bleiler) was an editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" series of science fiction anthologies, and his Checklist of Fantastic Literature has been called "the foundation of modern SF bibliography". Among his other scholarly works are two Hugo Award–nominated volumes concerning early science fiction—Science-Fiction: The Early Years and Science-Fiction: The Gernsback Years—and the massive Guide to Supernatural Fiction.

Bleiler worked at Dover Publications from 1955, becoming executive vice-president of the company from 1967 until he left the company in 1977; he then worked for Charles Scribner's Sons until 1987. He edited a number of ghost story collections for Dover, containing what the genre historian Mike Ashley has described as "detailed and exemplary introductions".

Bleiler received the Pilgrim Award for lifetime achievement in science fiction scholarship in 1984, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 1988, the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1994, and the International Horror Guild Living Legend award in 2004.

Bleiler wrote two works of fiction: the fantasy novel Firegang: A Mythic Fantasy (2006), set in the tree of Yggdrasil as well as moving across time and space, and Magistrate Mai and the Invisible Murderer (2006), a detective story set in ancient China, similar to the work of Robert Van Gulik.

Bleiler's son, Richard, is also a science fiction historian and assisted his father on several of his works.

Reviews

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll give it a 3.7 rating, rounded to a 4.


Continuing on with my look at crime fiction history, I discovered this book, which the front cover says is "the first collection of detective stories (1827) in English." According to E.F. Bleiler's introduction, true authorship of this book is unknown (well, at least it was in 1976 when this volume was published), although the names of two different men (Thomas Surr or Thomas Gaspey) have been floated about as having written these tales. Bleiler dismisses the possibility of either one having done so.

I'd say that for modern readers, it's definitely a book for a niche audience -- for people like myself who can't get enough of this sort of thing, for people interested in the popular side of 19th-century British fiction, for readers looking into the history of British crime fiction, for people interested in the Bow Street Runners (and so on). The writing is thick, meaning a bit archaic for today's reading audience, and there is a lot of narrative yammering by both narrator and other characters which can drive a person crazy. Then again, the author realizes this here and there, as in Richmond's fourth case when he notes during a scene in the courts:

"The magistrate soon grew tired of this stuff, as I fear the reader has been long ago..."

or in scenes in which Richmond tells people to, as translated into our modern verbiage, cut to the chase and get on with the story. That sort of thing is only annoying for me every so often here, and doesn't really bother me too much -- in short, I had great fun with this book.

Originally published in three volumes, it is here divided into two parts, Richmond's early life prior to becoming a Bow Street Runner, and five of his cases. Not only are these stories fun in the reading, but they move in and out of social, economic and class divides, exposing the best and the worst among all kinds of different people; it also moves between city and countryside so that we get the idea that crime happens everywhere. Richmond's detection skills are first rate; at the same time, having lived with the "gipsies" and gaining an understanding of how need and want can sometimes drive people into crime, he often turns his head to ignore some illegal activities that he feels are not as heinous as others.

As I said earlier, it's a narrow circle of readers who will be attracted to this book, making it what I call an "NFE" read -- not for everyone, and that's okay. For me it's another window into the history of crime fiction, and I'm very happy to have discovered it. For any reader deciding to take a look, Bleiler's introduction covers a wide range of topics not just connected with Richmond -- it also includes a brief history of the Bow Street Runners and how they were perceived as well as many other subjects of great interest to nerdy people like myself. I found Richmond fascinating -- then again, I could make a steady diet of books like this one.

http://www.crimesegments.com/2017/04/...

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book contains detective stories from 1827, which makes it one of the, if not the, first anthology of mysteries. If you like things like Sherlock Holmes, this book is for you.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: from 1827. Stories of Richmond's life prior to becoming a Bow Street Runner. Includes five of his cases.