ANY people consider Holmes’ Victorian era as a time when exceedingly rigid guidelines were in place for almost any social situation, a time when gentlemen were real gentlemen, ladies were real ladies, and de’il-may-care rogues were real de’il-may-care rogues (in other words, not gentlemen). Myself, I frequently shame and disgrace my dinner companions through the use of an inappropriate fork, an ill-timed request for passing the salt, the occasional elbow upon the table, and –if the meal encourages it– a deafening belch.

Yes, I’m kidding (I do keep my elbows to myself), but it was still with no slight trepidation that I took a few minutes to play the Victorian Manners Game at the Québecois Musée McCord, in which you may “Adopt the role of a late 19th century character, and try to earn your place in a world where every move is governed by the rules of etiquette.”

For those even mildly curious, I did score the full 500 points (as a man — I have yet to play the woman), but it was mainly through textual clues rather than any inherent gentlemanliness I might accidentally possess. The game proved to be quite a lot of fun, although I did expect the giant Monty Python foot to come hurtling down to squash me at any moment.

This link was mentioned in the Conan Doyle Yahoo! Group by the inestimable Bert Coules, whom I suspect actually is a proper gentleman.

OME of the most intriguing bits in the biographies of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concern the strange relationship he had with the great escape artist and magician Harry Houdini. The latter needs no introduction, I’m sure: the tales of his death-defying stunts still amaze and astonish today. But what fewer people realise is that Houdini took it upon himself to expose those tricksters and charlatans working as so-called “mediums,” who were swindling gullible and grief-stricken people seeking only to hear from their dearly departed relatives and friends once more. Of course, one may contrast this to Sir Arthur, one of the greatest champions of the Spiritualist cause, and consider the two an unlikely pairing. Yet, the two were friends, though a falling-out seemed inevitable.

One of my favourite online essays delves into this relationship, and how it began and ended. The fascinating piece called Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of a Strange Friendship is by Massimo Polidoro, and appears courtesy of Uno Studio in Holmes, the Florentine Holmes website.

They were both profoundly interested in the subject of Spiritualism; however, their views differed completely. Houdini was the skeptic, the exposer of psychic frauds; Doyle the believer, the St. Paul of Spiritualism. How could these two persons have become affectionated friends and then bitter enemies is a fascinating tale which deserves telling.

Curl up with a nice cup of tea or cocoa and read the rest. More information can be found at Doyle, Houdini and The Strand Magazine (BakerStreetDozen.com), and Polidoro’s own acclaimed book on the subject, Final Seance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle.

NE thing I love about most Sherlockians is that they are aware of the line that exists between serious scholarship and self-parody, and cross over it frequently. Ironic cartoons, terrible limericks, and –of course– silly songs then become the order of the day, as you’ll see with Craig Hilton’s mash-up of Gilbert, Sullivan and Sherlock entitled The Very Model of a Modern-Day Sherlockian:

I am the very model of a modern-day Sherlockian,
I rank Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with Asimov and Tolkien,
I’m versed in all the works, both imitative and canonical,
Through setting each to memory by strategies mnemonical;
I hold the view from Reichenbach of Holmes’s spark unstoppable,
Believe in all remaining things, no matter how improbable,
I’ll proudly tell you how to pace the ritual Musgravian,
And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavian.

(And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavian.
And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavian.
And why you get a limp from being shot in the subclavi-avian.)

Read the rest (from The Sherlock Holmes Society of Western Australia).

ETWEEN 1997 and 2001, at the height of the dot-com bubble, the Sci-Fi channel decided to invest some money into producing a number of original audio stories under the banner of Seeing Ear Theatre, essentially a “next generation” of radio plays for a modern audience. A talented team of script-writers, actors and sound effects people crafted a series of remarkable episodes, breathing life into the stories of both classic writers, like Harlan Ellison and Frederic Brown, and modern writers, like Neil Gaiman and J. Michael Straczynski. Readers of this site may find particular interest in an adaption of Poul Anderson’s classic science fiction Sherlockian pastiche called The Martian Crown Jewels.

The Martian Crown Jewels have been stolen! The theft threatens to destroy diplomatic relations between Mars and Earth. Inspector Gregg, of the Earth police force stationed on Mars is stumped! Who can solve the baffling mystery and avert a galactic catastrophe of cataclysmic proportions? None other than Mars’ greatest private investigator, Syaloch, a seven-foot stork who lives in the “Street of Those who Prepare Nourishment in Ovens.” He is a brilliant thinker who (despite being a 7 foot tall bird) is the very image of another “great detective” from Earth’s past. Can Syaloch, after all his reading of Earth’s Sherlock Holmes, crack the case in this delightful playfair mystery? Elementary!

Unfortunately, the Seeing Ear Theatre project is no more, but you can still listen to the delightful The Martian Crown Jewels in its archives, at least for now. (Note: RealPlayer is needed, which is a free download for the basic version.)

UCH of what the general public regards as the archetypal image of Sherlock Holmes is due to William Gillette, who personified Holmes for many years in his stage play (named, appropriately enough, “Sherlock Holmes”):

Possibly best known in his day for embodying the celebrated character of Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (with whom the actor also became a close personal friend), Gillette imposed his cachet forever on the character’s stereotype: deerstalker cap, cloak, curved pipe and the phrase: “Oh, this is elementary, my dear Watson.” [Wikipedia]

I’ve always loved the posters I’ve seen for the production, but one in particular is a favourite — the one reproduced below.

I’ve never really found a good reproduction of this poster. The closest I’ve found, I’ve scanned from the wonderful book The Life & Times of Sherlock Holmes by Philip Weller with Christopher Rodin, and then cleaned it up quite a bit in Photoshop.

As a little thank-you to all the readers who have visited my modest site, and the dozens who are sending me so many fascinating materials and links, I thought I’d offer it as a small printable poster. Note that the graphic is not perfect, due mostly to the original source, but it’s significantly better than any other version I’ve seen yet. It should blow up to 8×10 inches without any significant deterioration in quality, and if you bring it to your local Kodak kiosk, you should be able to have it print off a beautiful glossy version worthy of framing. You may have to adjust the brightness and contrast at the machine, so be sure to preview it. (Note that this is intended for personal use only, not for commercial purposes.)

Download: Frohman_Gillette_Lyceum.jpg [1.1 Mb] — Right-click in your browser on the link, and click “Save file (or target) as…”.

If anyone is interested, I can provide a similar download for the other popular Gillette poster later.

OT content to let the adventures of Sherlock Holmes rest at a mere sixty stories, thousands of authors have determined to place the Great Detective in every country of the world, meeting every possible person who’s lived from 1860 to 2300, and seeking mystery of every possible concoction, from plausable to positively ridiculous. It seems like an impossible task to keep track of them all.

But that doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t tried.

The other day, I found myself wondering in which pastiche I read of Holmes’ encounter with Oscar Wilde. A standard old Google search proved fruitless. And then I remembered the site called Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Characters (at www.SchoolAndHolmes.com). A work of great effort and obvious devotion,

The site is essentially a listing of historical, fictional and canonical characters appearing, or mentioned in published Sherlock Holmes pastiches, parodies and other Sherlockian writings.

The site owner has thoroughly catalogued some 1200 works, providing everything from plot summaries to exceedingly detailed character appearances, and has even gone so far as to include book covers and a pastiche writer’s dictionary (with “translations” of Americanisms). This is truly an amazing labour of love and dedication.

As for Mr. Wilde, I was absolutely astounded by the number of his appearances in various pastiches. (By the way, it was Nicholas Meyer’s The West End Horror: A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D. that I was trying to remember.)

ESTERDAY, I outlined the first half of my Sherlockian Top Ten. Now, I’m sure that most of those were certainly no surprise to anyone who’s begun to dive into the depths of Sherlockian studies, but I’m hoping that this list (and my comments) might help guide the occasional poor soul who’s just now beginning to migrate from Sherlock-on-TV, and perhaps looking to part with his or her hard-earned shillings in a meaningful manner.

Herewith, the final five.

6. Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, a “biography” by W. S. Baring-Gould. Although many people have attempted biographies of Holmes (and/or Watson), Baring-Gould’s is considered by most to be the classic. Although rife with speculation and educated guesswork, many of the ideas and events put forth in this out-of-print book seem to have become absorbed by scholars and writers to the point where it sometimes becomes difficult to remember what was in the Canon, and what wasn’t. This edges out June Thomson’s Holmes and Watson for my list, which is still an absorbing read, and foregoes speculation to concentrate mainly upon the facts as laid out in the Canon.
7. Sherlock Holmes in America, by Bill Blackbeard. A fairly difficult volume to find, this book is bursting with lush illustrations, advertising, articles, cartoons and more, and is a pride among my Sherlockian “coffee-table” books. Similar books, and almost as prized, include Peter Haining’s Sherlock Holmes Scrapbook, Life & Times of Sherlock Holmes by Peter Weller with Christopher Roden, and the beautiful and over-sized Pictorial History of Sherlock Holmes by Michael Pointer. I’ve seen the latter three many times in bookstore “sidewalk sales”, so I suspect there’s a lot of them about.
8. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, by Vincent Starrett. It seems that reading this book has become the Sherlockian equivalent of puberty, heralding a crossing-over from neophyte fan to serious scholar. Published in 1933, this collection of essays was one of the first major books of Sherlockian scholarship, and remains one of the most critically acclaimed. Highly sought-after by most beginning collectors, it was re-issued a few years ago in paperback form.
9. The Baker Street Journal CD-ROM. Although I’d much rather the dead-tree versions of this long-lasting Sherlockian journal, my ailing bank account prohibits this. Still, $100 for all the journals from 1946 to 2000 is a very nice deal, especially when it’s possible to easily search and cross-reference most of the issues. (I’m in the midst of writing a review of this product for a later post, so check back if you’re interested.) There is also a CD-ROM version of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, but alas, I haven’t yet been able to afford one of these. O! the life of a poor scholar….
10. My weekly obsession. Okay, so I’m cheating a little here, but it’s because every week or so I become so completely engrossed in a book that it becomes indispensible. My livre du jour is The Science of Sherlock Holmes, by E. J. Wagner, a fascinating look at forensic science at the time of Holmes, illuminated throughout with examples from both the Canon and real-life crimes. Before that, it was The Real World of Sherlock Holmes: The True Crimes Investigated by Arthur Conan Doyle by Peter Costello, and before that, there were several books by Harrison and Hardwick. I confess I have no idea what the next one will be, but the wide array of Sherlockian books adorning the shelves is what makes this subject so interesting. Hmmm… perhaps it’s time for a pastiche, or something a little outré, like Rosenberg’s Naked Is the Best Disguise (note: not this one).

(more…)

HEN I hear tales of entire houses or condominiums chock-a-brick full with Sherlockian tomes, I feel positively ashamed by the meagre offerings afforded by my few hundred books. A glance at the Shaw 100 (the wishlist of every aspiring Sherlockian) reveals that I have about a third of these essential volumes. Mind you, very few of them are still in print, and some are so rare that you’d be extremely lucky to find a copy for less than a hundred dollars.

Still, in keeping with my reductionist lifestyle of late, I’ve begun to think about which books I consider absolutely essential to my Sherlockian addicti… er, hobby. Herewith, the first part of my top ten. (The final five will appear tomorrow.)

1. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (short stories and novels), edited and with notes by Leslie Klinger. No surprise here. I have at least a dozen copies of the Canon by now, but this finally displaces my well-thumbed Annotated Sherlock Holmes edited by W. S. Baring-Gould. The cornerstone of every modern Sherlockian as far as I’m concerned, this hefty three-volume set is a little pricey, but worth at least two years of rolling pennies. I don’t yet have Kinger’s Sherlock Holmes Reference Library or the Oxford annotated Canon, but I do covet them greatly.
2. Sherlock Holmes, the Published Apocrypha, edited by Jack Tracy. “Extensions” to the Canon from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, J.M Barrie, William Gillette and Arthur Whitaker, with commentary by Tracy. Also out of print, but slightly easier to find and with many of the same works, is Peter Haining’s The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. (Many of these works are also available online over at the much-appreciated Diogenes Club library.)
3. The Encyclopedia Sherlockiana (a.k.a, The Ultimate Sherlock Holmes Encyclopedia), by Jack Tracy. Out of print, but fairly easy to find online. The essential reference for Canonical characters, places and things. Not to be confused with the Encyclopedia Sherlockiana: An A-To-Z Guide to the World of the Great Detective by Matthew Bunson, which is still a fine book, but equally concerned with non-Canonical things like films and pastiches.
4. The Sherlock Holmes Handbook, by Christopher Redmond. I am amazed by how much fascinating –if not valuable– information Mr. Redmond packs on every page: it covers the Canon, the characters, the times, Sir Arthur, print, modern media, Sherlockian societies, and so much more. If I have five minutes to spare, this is the book I pick up. Out of print, but I do believe the writer still has a few copies to sell (and of course, you may find him at his ubiquitous site Sherlockian.net).
5. Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle, by Daniel Stashower. In my opinion, this Edgar Award-winning book edges out Pierre Nordon’s Conan Doyle: A Biography, John Dickson Carr’s The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and even Sir Arthur’s hard-to-find autobiography Memories and Adventures. Vivid story-telling, a balanced perspective on ACD’s Spiritualism, a general survey of his whole body of work, and a very human portrayal of the “good giant” make this a favourite in my collection.

Tomorrow, the last five, and some tips on where to find the more elusive tomes.

can’t believe I almost missed this: the BBC 7 Listen Again archive sports another week’s worth of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a set of non-canonical adventures dramatised by Bert Coules and starring Clive Merrison and Andrew Sachs. Jump into each weekday and look down the list to the 13:00 slot.

• Monday: The Abergavenny Murder
• Tuesday: The Shameful Betrayal of Miss Emily Smith
• Wednesday: The Tragedy of Hanbury Street
• Thursday: The Determined Client
• Friday: The Striking Success of Miss Franny Blossom

Better hurry: come Tuesday, the archived programs will start to be replaced by the new week. (Note: RealPlayer needed to listen.)

ART of the fun of being an educator is exploring new ways of approaching a subject. While teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to pupils in France, I was personally known to leap atop desks to recite Shakespeare, conduct a square dance, and lead a sing-song taken from the score to Camelot. (All of which is somewhat ironic, given that I’m tone-deaf and look rather odd in tights.) However, if I taught elementary school math, I now know one tack I’d certainly take….

Students in Susan Hoffman’s sixth-grade class at Jacks Valley Elementary School got a math lesson Tuesday afternoon that they’re possibly not soon to forget. After all, the lessons the elementary school students were learning were … “elementary.”

“Mastering Math - A Sherlock Holmes Problem Solving Mystery” is a musical play, featuring several musical numbers including, He’s Mastering Math, I Just Want to Solve a Mystery, Guess and Check, Work Backwards, Draw a Table, Act It Out, A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words, Find a Pattern and Four Steps.

Read the full story at the Record-Courier. Educators looking to order the play/CD package or sample the songs can find it at Bad Wolf Press.

O doubt many of my readers are familiar with the very wide range of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s influential works that were produced with astounding regularity before his death in 1930. But… did you know that he was also a gifted author after his death? Or so the late Ivan Cooke would have us believe, in his classic spiritualist book The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle, re-released in a 1994 edition called Arthur Conan Doyle’s Book of the Beyond.

From the White Eagle Lodge in Canada book review for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Book of the Beyond:

He spent his last years touring and lecturing about Spiritualism, at great cost to himself, his health and his family. Prior to his death, he vowed to his wife and family that he would contact them from the spirit world, thus proving to them the truth of life after death.

After his death, he realized that some of his teachings had been inaccurate. His greatest desire, apart from contacting his family, was to provide an accurate description of life after death. In this way he could also correct the misconceptions he had taught about Spiritualism.

The extraordinary revelations which followed apparently led to the formation of the White Eagle Lodge, which not only reviews this book, but (conveniently for us) also publishes it and offers it for sale online at $14.95.

Having read a fair amount of religious and spiritual literature over the years, I must admit, I am a little curious….

OW that E. J. Wagner’s The Science of Sherlock Holmes : From Baskerville Hall to the Valley of Fear, The Real Forensics Behind the Great Detective’s Greatest Cases has been released to an eager public, the reviews have started to appear, the first I could find being CSI: Sherlock Holmes? at the Christian Science Monitor:

Yet, this revelation about Holmes only scratches the surface. E.J. Wagner, a well-known crime historian and lecturer, has taken it one step further.

In her fascinating book, The Science of Sherlock Holmes, Wagner juxtaposes some of Holmes’s famous cases with a number of real mysteries, and finds some surprising similarities. She sets Holmes’s work in the context of the forensics of his time and proves that the detective’s scientific mind was more than a mere work of fiction.

Read the full review.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy, and I must say that it’s quite a fascinating read, combining history, forensics and Sherlock Holmes in a way that I’ll be unlikely to forget. I’ll be posting a review of my own here soon.