tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post6007621233868876210..comments2024-03-28T10:31:55.774-07:00Comments on The Passing Tramp: A Remarkable Case of Plagiarism: Don Basil's Cat and Feather (1931) and Roger Scarlett's The Back Bay Murders (1930)The Passing Tramphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-27641014603034327032020-06-16T19:36:38.647-07:002020-06-16T19:36:38.647-07:00I wonder whether Don Basil could have been taken f...I wonder whether Don Basil could have been taken from Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville. Just dawned on me.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-30981142002169128462017-11-08T10:50:36.940-08:002017-11-08T10:50:36.940-08:00I think Bexhill is the clincher, Maurice Balk seem...I think Bexhill is the clincher, Maurice Balk seems to have had a remarkable criminal career Apart from that he directed a film (in 1918) Cheated Vengeance, started a newspaper in Colorado Springs that lasted less than a month. He edited The Journal of Auxiliary Medicine in 1967. He also wrote a Memorandum on Penal Reform, no doubt helped by his numerous stays in prison. He published a booklet on the 1937 Coronation and also wrote and had published religious verse. No doubt there are other things he did of interest before he died in 1981Jamie Sturgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13943149435161728287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-8348644956831348522017-11-08T04:15:08.887-08:002017-11-08T04:15:08.887-08:00I think you've got it! I think he was the eld...I think you've got it! I think he was the eldest son of a Bexhill photographer, and it seems he was a major transatlantic fraudster! How exciting! Notice how in Cat and Feather "Don Basil" references the "Bexhill Murder Mystery."<br /><br />More will be coming soon!The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-20694362004436884842017-11-08T03:01:20.459-08:002017-11-08T03:01:20.459-08:00I would think it quite likely it is the publisher ...I would think it quite likely it is the publisher himself. 'Philip Earle' published a series of books called the 'Holland Library'. In 1933 he was committed to trial for obtaining money by false pretences: From the Western Morning News, MAN AND AUNT COMMITTED Philip Earle described as bookseller and publisher and his aunt, Miss Lucy Griffiths (57), were committed for trial when they were charged remand at Bow Street Police Court, London, yesterday. with conspiring to obtain £3.389 by false pretences from Mrs Kate Christie Miller, an elderly widow. They pleaded not guilty and reserved their defence.<br />When the case came to court in January 1934 he was found guilty and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. His real name was Morris Balk. Oddly the Cat and Feather's copyright was renewed in the US in 1958 by the author<br /> Jamie Sturgeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13943149435161728287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-486471316533730792017-11-07T02:28:21.595-08:002017-11-07T02:28:21.595-08:00Have you tried looking for a Basil Flanders? He al...Have you tried looking for a Basil Flanders? He altered the Americanisms to fit an English setting. So maybe he pulled a similar gag with his name and changed his surname to another, Dutch-language, place in the Low Countries. And if there's anything in Spanish honorific of Don, you might want to be on the lookout for a Basil Flanders who had either traveled a lot or was a linguist. <br /><br />He was not good enough to write his own detective story, but knew exactly which cultural aspects and differences in language to alter. The fact that he plagiarized an American detective novel, which was practically unknown in England, also suggests he had traveled abroad. <br />TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-68746950111902809432017-11-06T16:23:31.902-08:002017-11-06T16:23:31.902-08:00It is the most blatant case of plagiarism I’ve see...It is the most blatant case of plagiarism I’ve seen.The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-86301553377682277262017-11-06T16:22:51.760-08:002017-11-06T16:22:51.760-08:00I also took TomCat’s stance in the introduction I ...I also took TomCat’s stance in the introduction I did to the Scarlett reprints. But I haven’t found a Basil Holland yet! The idea that this might have been a joke seems belied by the fact that the author and his publishers were taking money for someone else’s work—no joke that! Though the dedication may well be pretty sly! <br /><br />That’s a good point about the honorific “don.”The Passing Tramphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09830680639601570152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-84796657492149762132017-11-06T13:25:02.668-08:002017-11-06T13:25:02.668-08:00Fascinating story, Curt, and a completely new one ...Fascinating story, Curt, and a completely new one to me.Clothes In Bookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14680610242823846662noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-29488961814120254182017-11-06T09:39:47.657-08:002017-11-06T09:39:47.657-08:00And the second name of sir Basil was Ho...me...As ...And the second name of sir Basil was Ho...me...As he signed in his first novels as "Indiscretions of lady Asenath " (1898). Sir Basil Ho..me converted in Don Basil and his dedicatory to Basil Ho..lland. A joke. Perhaps the Cat and Feather could be a Bet ....<br />JuanMarihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16943328504438261474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-10173019382904134032017-11-06T09:28:16.648-08:002017-11-06T09:28:16.648-08:00As usual a good post! I think are much more intere...As usual a good post! I think are much more interesting when a real murderer plagiarizas a golden age murde...as in the case of “The Incredible Elopement of Lord Peter Wimsey,” .<br /> And .. about the sugerence of TomCat.... Don Basil and Basil Holland the same person....maybe but...I'm agree in Don ...is similar to "Mr"....or "Sir"...so it will be Sir Basil...and it could be a joke, for instance of an old man who didn't want his name was knew...and with a relation with Holland or dutch people ...for example Mata Hari....an expert on codecs ( an spy for example) who had written mystery crime novels.....Martin Edwards wrote a prologo of his inspector Richardson mystery...... If Don Basil also was Sir Basil Thomson??? After the plagiarist Cat and feather Sir Basil Thomson began in writting his own novels : eight...in his last four year's life.....Cat and Feather was only a joke...the rest of his novels were real...and very good!!!!Please Martin...investigate this!!! Juan Mari B.JuanMarihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16943328504438261474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-137677673775151256.post-14072455067428549542017-11-05T23:37:17.731-08:002017-11-05T23:37:17.731-08:00Old Don was about as subtle as a street mugger!
...Old Don was about as subtle as a street mugger! <br /><br />As to your last question, I wonder if Don Basil and Basil Holland might have been one and the same person. And he simply used the dedication to get his actual name, in a round-a-bout way, into the book. After all, isn't Don used as "Mr" or "Sir" in Spanish speaking countries? So we have a "Mr." Basil who "wrote" a book for relative named Basil Holland. Sounds fishy! TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03415176301265218101noreply@blogger.com