The Dynamics of an Asteroid by Professor James Moriarty
Author: Professor James Moriarty
Publisher: not known
Source book: The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Dynamics of an Asteroid was written by the implacable foe of Sherlock Holmes; Professor James Moriarty. On page 1 of Chapter 1 of The Valley of Fear, Dr Watson says Moriarty (the famous scientific criminal) is as famous among crooks as he is unknown to the general public. But Sherlock Holmes admonishes Watson and describes Moriarty as “the greatest schemer of all time, the organiser of every deviltry [sic], the controlling brain of the underworld, a brain which might have made or marred the destiny of nations”. You very much get the impression that Holmes admires Moriarty; the man he might have been had he not devoted himself to criminal activity. A genius, in fact. And he obviously admires his book: “...the book ascends to such rarified heights of applied mathematics that it is said that there was no man in the scientific press capable of criticizing it” which sounds pretty impressive.
Apparently Moriarty’s book is referred to in a number of other books (see Wikipedia) and TV programmes.
The Valley of Fear appears in The Complete Sherlock Holmes Long Stories pub. 1929 or you can find a pdf online.
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