WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.960 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we're doing 00:00:02.960 --> 00:00:05.440 something a little different. Yeah, we have quite 00:00:05.440 --> 00:00:07.639 the extensive stack of notes today. We really 00:00:07.639 --> 00:00:09.919 do. And we're looking at a deeply fascinating 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:14.000 historical figure, Cecil Street. Cecil John Charles 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:17.239 Street, to be exact. Born in 1884 and died in 00:00:17.239 --> 00:00:20.440 1964. Right. And for you listening, if you're 00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:23.239 the kind of person who wants the exact aha moments 00:00:23.239 --> 00:00:25.960 without having to read hundreds of pages of, 00:00:25.980 --> 00:00:29.519 you know. dry historical documents you are in 00:00:29.519 --> 00:00:31.800 the perfect place we are skipping the fluff today 00:00:31.800 --> 00:00:34.380 absolutely because our mission today is to map 00:00:34.380 --> 00:00:37.859 out a truly phenomenal life trajectory yeah it's 00:00:37.859 --> 00:00:40.539 wild we're going to explore how a highly decorated 00:00:40.539 --> 00:00:44.880 british artillery officer and uh world war one 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:47.439 military propagandist which is already a full 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.820 life exactly how that man completely transformed 00:00:49.820 --> 00:00:51.659 himself into one of the most prolific mystery 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:53.810 writers of the 20th century And we also want 00:00:53.810 --> 00:00:56.130 to look at why his books are now this absolute 00:00:56.130 --> 00:00:58.189 holy grail for modern book collectors, right? 00:00:58.270 --> 00:01:00.329 Even though they've faced some pretty harsh literary 00:01:00.329 --> 00:01:02.810 criticism back in the day. Definitely. I mean, 00:01:02.829 --> 00:01:04.269 when you mention the golden age of detective 00:01:04.269 --> 00:01:06.769 fiction, everyone instantly thinks of Agatha 00:01:06.769 --> 00:01:09.370 Christie. Oh, for sure. Or Dorothy L. Sayers. 00:01:09.469 --> 00:01:12.569 Right. But Cecil Street is a completely different 00:01:12.569 --> 00:01:15.650 kind of literary giant. He published over 140 00:01:15.650 --> 00:01:20.250 novels. Over 140. That is just staggering. And 00:01:20.250 --> 00:01:22.090 he didn't even use his own name for most of them. 00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:25.280 He used multiple pseudonyms. Yeah, and he treated 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:27.879 the murder mystery less like a dramatic, you 00:01:27.879 --> 00:01:30.659 know, emotional thriller, and much more like 00:01:30.659 --> 00:01:33.359 an intricate crossword puzzle. A rigidly logical 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:35.879 puzzle. Okay, let's unpack this. Because looking 00:01:35.879 --> 00:01:38.239 at these early life details, his childhood seems 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:41.280 exceptionally privileged, but also really unusual. 00:01:41.719 --> 00:01:44.439 It was. He was born in Gibraltar, which sets 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:47.099 a unique stage right away. Yeah. But his father 00:01:47.099 --> 00:01:49.480 was a retiring general who was actually 62 years 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:52.109 old when Cecil was born. Wow. And then his father 00:01:52.109 --> 00:01:54.569 died suddenly, right? Just after he was born? 00:01:54.650 --> 00:01:57.370 Yes. So Cecil and his mother relocated back to 00:01:57.370 --> 00:01:59.950 England. They moved into a sprawling mansion 00:01:59.950 --> 00:02:03.049 in Woking with his maternal grandparents. And 00:02:03.049 --> 00:02:05.670 the notes explicitly mention this house was staffed 00:02:05.670 --> 00:02:08.719 with seven domestics. Seven. Yes. I mean, that 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:12.379 is a serious level of wealth for the late 1800s. 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:14.599 It really is. But what's interesting is that 00:02:14.599 --> 00:02:17.000 he apparently valued personal accomplishment 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:20.759 way over his wealthy heritage. He didn't just 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.319 lounge around on his family's money. Right. He 00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:26.300 got an education, Wellington College, and then 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:29.000 the Royal Military Academy. Exactly. He became 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.520 a captain in the Royal Garrison Artillery. And 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:34.979 he saw real combat in the First World War. Ruling 00:02:34.979 --> 00:02:37.550 combat. He was wounded three separate times. 00:02:37.750 --> 00:02:39.770 Three times, yeah. He was awarded the Military 00:02:39.770 --> 00:02:42.669 Cross and later the Order of the British Empire. 00:02:43.009 --> 00:02:45.150 But his career takes this sharp turn, right? 00:02:45.210 --> 00:02:47.750 It wasn't just firing artillery shells. No, it 00:02:47.750 --> 00:02:50.430 wasn't. He moved deep into covert operations 00:02:50.430 --> 00:02:53.009 and intelligence. He actually became a propagandist 00:02:53.009 --> 00:02:56.569 for MI7 during the war. MI7. Right. And then 00:02:56.569 --> 00:02:58.509 later on, during the Irish War of Independence, 00:02:58.870 --> 00:03:01.599 he served as an information officer. Operating 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.439 right out of Dublin Castle? Yes. Working closely 00:03:04.439 --> 00:03:06.919 with a prominent British official named Lionel 00:03:06.919 --> 00:03:09.560 Curtis. And we should pause here for a second 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:12.539 just to be completely impartial. Looking objectively 00:03:12.539 --> 00:03:15.240 at the Irish War of Independence, that was a 00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:19.099 remarkably tense, chaotic period. Right. We are 00:03:19.099 --> 00:03:21.439 not taking any political sides here. We're simply 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:23.400 looking at the fact that he was operating in 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:25.439 this environment where facts and propaganda were 00:03:25.439 --> 00:03:28.870 constantly colliding. Precisely. It was a period 00:03:28.870 --> 00:03:32.409 where he gathered profound real -world experience 00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:36.169 in information control. Narrative shaping. What's 00:03:36.169 --> 00:03:38.849 fascinating here is how directly that military 00:03:38.849 --> 00:03:42.110 intelligence background feeds into his future 00:03:42.110 --> 00:03:45.189 career as a mystery novelist. Oh, I see where 00:03:45.189 --> 00:03:47.479 you're going with this. Think about it. In MI7 00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:50.419 propaganda, or as an information officer, you 00:03:50.419 --> 00:03:52.740 have to gather confusing, contradictory details, 00:03:53.060 --> 00:03:56.080 synthesize them, and spot a hidden pattern. Which 00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:58.159 is exactly what a detective does in a murder 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:00.879 mystery. Exactly. He took those analytical skills 00:04:00.879 --> 00:04:03.080 and applied them to the mechanics of crime fiction. 00:04:03.300 --> 00:04:05.539 And he did it with a level of productivity that's 00:04:05.539 --> 00:04:07.759 genuinely hard to wrap your head around. I mean, 00:04:07.780 --> 00:04:09.939 let's look at this literary output. Over 140 00:04:09.939 --> 00:04:12.719 books. That's massive. How do you even manage 00:04:12.719 --> 00:04:16.129 that? Well... By splitting your author persona. 00:04:16.370 --> 00:04:19.170 He wrote under his own name, C .J. Seastreet, 00:04:19.269 --> 00:04:22.490 but he also created three distinct crime fiction 00:04:22.490 --> 00:04:24.829 personas. John Rhode. Yes, John Rhode was the 00:04:24.829 --> 00:04:26.750 most prominent. Then there was Miles Burton. 00:04:26.990 --> 00:04:29.709 And Cecil Way. Right. It was like he had too 00:04:29.709 --> 00:04:32.430 many intricate plots for one single author's 00:04:32.430 --> 00:04:35.350 career. Did each pseudonym have its own detective? 00:04:35.829 --> 00:04:39.100 They did. Under John Rhode, the detective was 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:42.100 Dr. Lancelot Priestley. A mathematics professor. 00:04:42.339 --> 00:04:45.259 Yes. And under Miles Burden, it was Desmond Marion, 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:48.379 a retired naval officer. He really followed in 00:04:48.379 --> 00:04:51.259 the footsteps of Arthur Conan Doyle. Focusing 00:04:51.259 --> 00:04:53.379 heavily on the scientific detection of crimes. 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:56.220 Exactly. It wasn't about dramatic interrogations. 00:04:56.220 --> 00:04:59.399 It was about analyzing the specific mud on a 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:01.759 suspect's shoe to prove they walked near the 00:05:01.759 --> 00:05:03.579 crime scene. I have to share a couple of these 00:05:03.579 --> 00:05:06.420 specific plots because they are brilliantly convoluted. 00:05:06.439 --> 00:05:08.240 Oh, they really are. Listen to this one from 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:12.319 1934, The Rob Thorne Mystery. A classic. So one 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:15.540 of the Rob Thorne twins commits suicide, but 00:05:15.540 --> 00:05:17.540 the detective has to figure out, first of all, 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:19.959 which twin actually died because they're identical 00:05:19.959 --> 00:05:22.500 and they swapped lives. Right. And second, was 00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:26.240 it really suicide or an incredibly staged murder? 00:05:26.540 --> 00:05:28.920 It's the ultimate puzzle box. And then there's 00:05:28.920 --> 00:05:32.360 the corpse in the car from 1935. Lady Misterton 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:34.680 is killed while sitting completely alone in her 00:05:34.680 --> 00:05:37.399 vehicle. A locked room mystery on wheels. Yes. 00:05:37.500 --> 00:05:40.360 How do you murder someone in a closed, locked 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:43.339 car without physically being inside it? And he 00:05:43.339 --> 00:05:46.000 didn't just write novels. He was incredibly versatile. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:49.420 He wrote radio plays for the BBC. Oh, really? 00:05:49.720 --> 00:05:52.319 Yes. And a stage play called Six Pennyworth. 00:05:53.069 --> 00:05:55.490 And because he had such a technical mind, the 00:05:55.490 --> 00:05:57.709 script for Six Pennyworth actually featured an 00:05:57.709 --> 00:06:00.350 ingeniously neat physical method for creating 00:06:00.350 --> 00:06:03.230 an instant stage blackout. Wait, like he engineered 00:06:03.230 --> 00:06:05.649 a mechanism for the theater production itself? 00:06:05.990 --> 00:06:08.110 Exactly. He didn't just write, the lights go 00:06:08.110 --> 00:06:10.569 out. He designed how to physically achieve the 00:06:10.569 --> 00:06:13.639 blackout flawlessly. That is amazing. So he's 00:06:13.639 --> 00:06:16.600 churning out these brilliant, intricately plotted 00:06:16.600 --> 00:06:19.720 mysteries at lightning speed. He is. But here's 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:22.060 where it gets really interesting. You would assume 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:24.660 a guy writing over a hundred of these would be 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:27.160 universally celebrated by critics. You would 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:29.639 think so. But there's actually a fierce literary 00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:32.699 debate about his work. Crime fiction critic Julian 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:36.100 Simons absolutely tore into him. Yes. Simons 00:06:36.100 --> 00:06:39.160 labeled Street as a prominent member of the humdrum 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:41.720 school of British detective fiction. Humdrum 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:44.779 sounds pretty harsh. It was meant to be. Simons 00:06:44.779 --> 00:06:47.199 argued that these humdrum authors had very little 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:51.399 actual talent for fiction. His critique was that 00:06:51.399 --> 00:06:53.319 they had great skill in constructing puzzles, 00:06:53.459 --> 00:06:55.740 but they treated the detective story strictly 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:59.329 as a riddle, or a crossword puzzle. So no deep 00:06:59.329 --> 00:07:01.889 character psychology. Right. No sweeping dramatic 00:07:01.889 --> 00:07:04.910 prose. Just pure puzzle mechanics. But honestly, 00:07:05.050 --> 00:07:06.689 isn't that the point? If I pick up a mystery 00:07:06.689 --> 00:07:09.029 about a locked car murder, I want the puzzle. 00:07:09.149 --> 00:07:11.329 I want to know how the trick was done. I don't 00:07:11.329 --> 00:07:13.569 need a 40 -page internal monologue about the 00:07:13.569 --> 00:07:15.670 detective's feelings. And that is exactly the 00:07:15.670 --> 00:07:19.269 defense. Historian Jacques Barzun heavily praised 00:07:19.269 --> 00:07:21.769 Street's work for that exact reason. And more 00:07:21.769 --> 00:07:25.509 recently, in 2012, Curtis Evans wrote a book 00:07:25.509 --> 00:07:29.379 called Masters of the Humdrum Mystery. Yes, defending 00:07:29.379 --> 00:07:33.000 Street as an accomplished literary artist. Evans 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.279 pointed out that these clever tales actually 00:07:35.279 --> 00:07:38.439 serve as incredibly valuable social documents 00:07:38.439 --> 00:07:40.920 of everyday Britain between the wars. That makes 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:43.279 sense. They capture the details of daily life 00:07:43.279 --> 00:07:45.600 perfectly to make the puzzles work. Exactly. 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.079 And if we connect this to the bigger picture, 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:51.720 it really asks you... the listener, to consider 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:54.240 why we consume information. Why do we like these 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:56.160 stories? Street actually wrote an article about 00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:59.540 this in 1935. It was titled, Why People Like 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:02.060 Detective Stories. And what was his answer? For 00:08:02.060 --> 00:08:05.100 him and his readers, it was all about the deep 00:08:05.100 --> 00:08:07.800 satisfaction of a fair play puzzle. Meaning a 00:08:07.800 --> 00:08:09.779 puzzle where the author explicitly gives the 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:12.379 reader all the clues. No cheating. Right. It's 00:08:12.379 --> 00:08:14.639 the comfort of entering a chaotic situation and 00:08:14.639 --> 00:08:16.740 knowing that logic and order will definitely 00:08:16.740 --> 00:08:18.939 be restored. Which actually leads me to a great 00:08:18.939 --> 00:08:21.600 tip for you listening. If you are ever at a thrift 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:24.420 store or a used bookstore and you see a book 00:08:24.420 --> 00:08:27.360 by John Rhode or Miles Burton, grab it immediately. 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:31.379 Do not hesitate. Because he wrote so many, often 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:34.480 in limited runs. These books are incredibly hard 00:08:34.480 --> 00:08:36.879 to obtain today. They are fiercely sought after 00:08:36.879 --> 00:08:39.120 by collectors. The source material literally 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:42.600 says they command eye -wateringly high prices. 00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:46.580 It's deeply ironic. Books once dismissed by critics 00:08:46.580 --> 00:08:49.500 as mere humdrum puzzles are now these highly 00:08:49.500 --> 00:08:52.929 prized artifacts. It really is. To understand 00:08:52.929 --> 00:08:55.509 why he was so obsessed with logic and order, 00:08:55.649 --> 00:08:57.730 we have to look at his personal life. Because 00:08:57.730 --> 00:08:59.809 it wasn't just sitting quietly in a study writing 00:08:59.809 --> 00:09:02.350 puzzles. His private life had a profound amount 00:09:02.350 --> 00:09:05.389 of turmoil. It did. His first marriage to Maude 00:09:05.389 --> 00:09:09.210 Kerouan in 1906 was highly unsuccessful. The 00:09:09.210 --> 00:09:11.570 notes mention she suffered from a severe mental 00:09:11.570 --> 00:09:13.549 imbalance. Yes, and she was eventually admitted 00:09:13.549 --> 00:09:15.909 to an asylum. Which had to be incredibly difficult 00:09:15.909 --> 00:09:18.450 to manage in the early 20th century. And tragically, 00:09:18.549 --> 00:09:20.929 their only daughter, Verena, died at the very 00:09:20.929 --> 00:09:22.809 young age of 25. That is just heartbreaking. 00:09:23.250 --> 00:09:27.049 It is. They were separated by the 1930s, though 00:09:27.049 --> 00:09:29.600 he did eventually find a comfortable life. He 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:32.620 lived in attractive older homes in Kent and Norfolk 00:09:32.620 --> 00:09:35.059 with Eileen Annette Waller. And they eventually 00:09:35.059 --> 00:09:38.299 married, right? Yes, in 1949 after Maude passed 00:09:38.299 --> 00:09:41.200 away. So he did find some peace. But I want to 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:42.759 draw a contrast here for you listening because 00:09:42.759 --> 00:09:44.980 it is so poignant. It really is the core of who 00:09:44.980 --> 00:09:47.740 he was. This is a man who lived through the bloody 00:09:47.740 --> 00:09:51.669 chaos of three wars. He navigated the incredibly 00:09:51.669 --> 00:09:54.590 complex, murky intelligence operations of the 00:09:54.590 --> 00:09:56.990 Irish War of Independence. Right. And he suffered 00:09:56.990 --> 00:09:59.509 profound personal tragedy with his wife's illness 00:09:59.509 --> 00:10:01.970 and his daughter's early death. He experienced 00:10:01.970 --> 00:10:05.649 immense real world chaos. Yet he dedicated his 00:10:05.649 --> 00:10:09.669 life to writing over 140 books where every single 00:10:09.669 --> 00:10:12.370 loose end is logically tied up by the final page. 00:10:12.570 --> 00:10:14.450 Where everything makes perfect sense. Exactly. 00:10:14.490 --> 00:10:17.480 So what does this all mean? We started by looking 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:20.440 at a wealthy kid from a woking mansion and watched 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:22.539 him become a decorated military intelligence 00:10:22.539 --> 00:10:25.179 officer. And then the mastermind behind this 00:10:25.179 --> 00:10:28.519 massive, heavily debated library of scientific 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:32.320 mysteries. Mysteries that are now rare collector's 00:10:32.320 --> 00:10:34.559 items. And whether you view him as a literary 00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:39.649 master or just a humdrum puzzle maker. His dedication 00:10:39.649 --> 00:10:44.029 to logic and fair play absolutely left an indelible 00:10:44.029 --> 00:10:46.610 mark on the golden age of detective fiction. 00:10:46.809 --> 00:10:49.370 He really did. And as we wrap up, I want to leave 00:10:49.370 --> 00:10:52.070 you with one final provocative thought to mull 00:10:52.070 --> 00:10:54.090 over. Well, let's hear it. We know Street spent 00:10:54.090 --> 00:10:57.090 his early career as an MI7 propagandist and an 00:10:57.090 --> 00:10:59.549 information officer in Ireland. Right. Managing 00:10:59.549 --> 00:11:01.450 information. He was literally a professional 00:11:01.450 --> 00:11:04.070 narrative spinner. He operated in these real 00:11:04.070 --> 00:11:07.090 world, highly murky conflicts where the quote 00:11:07.090 --> 00:11:09.740 unquote truth. was completely subjective and 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:12.059 shaped by whoever had the loudest voice. That's 00:11:12.059 --> 00:11:14.460 true. So you have to wonder, did he spend the 00:11:14.460 --> 00:11:17.360 next 40 years writing rigidly logical, mathematically 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.379 certain murder mysteries under pseudonyms because 00:11:20.379 --> 00:11:22.480 it was the only world where he could guarantee 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.639 that the absolute truth would always come out? 00:11:24.740 --> 00:11:27.019 Wow. That is quite a thought. It makes you look 00:11:27.019 --> 00:11:29.179 at a simple crossword -style mystery in a whole 00:11:29.179 --> 00:11:31.580 new light. Thank you so much for joining us on 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:33.899 this deep dive. Keep exploring, and we will catch 00:11:33.899 --> 00:11:34.480 you next time.