In the stories Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S., M.D., M.D.S. solves a variety of different mysteries together with his friend and companion Hutchinson Hatch, reporter of a fictional newspaper called The Daily New Yorker. The professor is known as “The Thinking Machine”, solving problems by the remorseless application of logic. His catchphrases include, “Two and two always equal four,” “Nothing is impossible,” and “All things that start must go somewhere.”
Futrelle died at age 37 on April 15, 1912, on the RMS Titanic. He refused to board a lifeboat, insisting that his wife board instead.