NE NEEDS NOT BE VERY ASTUTE to realise that this blog hasn’t been updated for quite a while. The reason has to do with another new web project, one also dealing with Sherlock Holmes, which will far surpass the meagre resources and writing within this site. More details to come as we get nearer to launch.

R. IAN VISSER OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, is in the enviable position (well, at least from my perspective) of having access to the vast archives of the Toronto Star, in which he has found numerous pieces on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes going back more than a century, including some intriguing advertisements of the time featuring the Great Detective. Mr. Visser has been kind enough to send a few of these to me, with plenty more to come. As I receive them, I’ll clean them up and post them here, transcribing the contents when the quality makes them difficult to read.

Here is the first article, which covers a Canadian lecture by ACD, and which appeared in the Toronto Star on November 24th, 1897. It is transcribed below, and you can also download an image of the article, or a PDF of the full page.

An Author’s Life

Dr. A. Conan Doyle Sketches His Own Career.
Tells of the Creation of Sherlock Holmes.
An Interesting Lecture by an Interesting Man.

Dr. Conan Doyle gained success from writing a department of literature in which his heart never was. He said last night in his lecture at Massey [?] Music Hall that Sherlock Holmes was dead, and that he would not be resurrected.

It is the historical novel, with its gay, bright pictures of chivalry and deeds of daring like those in which Scott won his fame that the worthy author longs for and will make his future work.

Dr. Doyle says that he is not Sherlock Holmes. He claims no superiority as a detective. He says that he has been deluged with letters requesting him to attempt to solve mysterious [sic] but that he has never undertaken any case. He says he is not a sharp man, and that he only in writing puts himself in the position of a shrewd man and imagines what the shrewd man would do.

“It is rather embarrassing to speak about one’s self,” said Dr. Doyle when he began his address. “I would prefer to talk about some other author’s work, but I suppose all are interested in me on account of what I have written.”

Dr. Doyle is a giant in size. He looks to be about six feet four and is not at all slim. His style of lecturing is not at all attractive, and it was believed that had he chosen any other subject, as he said he had wished, that he would not have been so entertaining.

He stood all the evening behind a high desk, and spoke from a carefully prepared manuscript. The audience was a Sherlock Holmes-Conan Doyle one, and every one present listened intently to all that was said.

The lecture was an autobiographical sketch. It began with early reminiscences, when in childhood he met and sat on the knee of William Makapiece Thackeray. He hold of his first short story, written at the age of six, of his entrance into literary work and his short story writing.

When he came to tell of Sherlock Holmes he read some short sketches from the memoirs and adventures of the far-famed detective.

He told of his historical novels, of the writing of “Micah Clarke,” “The White Company,” “The Great Shadow” and “The Refugees.”

Of the last he spoke most probably because it was based on a Canadian subject. He said that his work in that had been a labor of love, for he had attempted to join together whatever interested two factions of the English-speaking race, whose common language had oftentimes been used only for libel and mutual reproach.

The program was completed by a reading from an unpublished piece, “The Lord of Chateau Noir,” which is one of the strongest extracts of all his works.

My heartfelt thanks goes out to Mr. Visser for taking the time and effort to make these articles available to us.

HERE’S A SHORT ARTICLE in the online Westmount Examiner concerning the 26-year-old Sherlockian society based in Montreal: Bimetallic Question keeps Sherlock alive:

More than a century after the fictional detective first captured the imagination of Victorian Londoners, there are still many loyal Sherlockians all over the world—with a division of followers here in Montreal, and they meet regularly at the Westmount Public Library.

It’s a typical piece about the 5 W’s, including location, fees, typical activities, and so forth, but of course the greatest benefit of articles like this is the local publicity that draws in new members.

Hmmm. Are there any other Sherlockians (or Doyleans) here in Yellowknife, the Northwest Territories, I wonder?

HE BRITISH GOVERNMENT’S Inside Justice website currently has a poll entitled Who is your all-time favourite British justice character?. Of course, the Great Detective is in the list, but he’s currently tied at second place with Inspector Morse, while “Danger Mouse” is number one. I can’t say I’m familiar with the aforementioned rodent, but I suspect I’d rather count on Sherlock Holmes if my neck was on the line. Keep the memory of the Master green — head on over and vote.

Update: Apparently, you can vote once per day.

T ISN’T UNUSUAL to find our favourite detective used to illuminate some modern mystery, and especially those political ones mused by pundit journalists. A case in point — the Palm Beach Post of July 31st has a dialogue between Holmes and Watson in which they discuss Valerie Plame: Watson, the Plame game is afoot.

“You know, Holmes,” I said, “there is still something about the Valerie Plame matter that mystifies me.”

“No doubt,” the great man replied. There may have been a note of condescension in his response, but it was a relief from his infernal violin scraping. It was partially to stop the violin that I had spoken up. As we talked, however, I realized our thoughts were headed for the case book. Call it the Singular Case of the Missing Victims.

For those of you not in North America, or who don’t care enough to follow American political scandals (they do tend to bore me), Plame was a CIA agent “outed” by a high profile politician in the Bush entourage after her husband wrote an article criticising the U.S. invasion of Iraq. More details can be found in the Wikipedia entry for Valerie Plame.

or those readers wondering why things suddenly became so erratic here, I ought to come forth with an apology, and some personal news. It’s been quite a month or two at the homestead, involving plenty of job-hunting, shuffling across the continent, taking care of young’uns, and –last week– the birth of our new son Daniel, simultaneous with a job offer requiring the packing up of our old life to begin another up north.

As Jenny is not yet fit to do much packing or moving, my spare time is being divided between taking care of our two-year-old Conor, packing up our worldly possessions, and trying to organise the transition. I’ll soon be heading up to Yellowknife to set up our new place (and life), and sending Jenny and the kids a plane ticket when everything is ready.

Needless to say, that doesn’t leave very much time for the blogs for the next few weeks. In fact, all my books except a beat-up Holmes collection and Chris Redmond’s handbook is already packed away and ready to go.

So, I’m terribly sorry for the lack of posts recently –and in the near future– but once I have a connection in Yellowknife, my online life will be getting back to normal. I assure you, I’m very much looking forward to daily Sherlockian postings once more. There’s still a tonne of stuff in queue that needs editing and nice graphics, and I can’t wait to get this site au courant again. In the meantime, if you come across a link or some Holmes-related information you wish to share, please don’t hesitate to use my contact form (see the menu above); I’ll be checking mail often, and these are the sort of things I can post even while on the road.

EARCH giant Google changes its logo on a frequent basis to reflect an event of some historical importance happening on that day; a link is then provided to a page of search results, so that those of a curious nature might discover more about the topic. Owing to the company’s technological leanings, the chosen events tend to be somewhat “geeky” in nature, such as Einstein’s birthday or the flight at Kittyhawk. (I’m using the word geek here in the broadest and most favourable light — that of an intellectual with a penchant for technical knowledge.)

Today, what could be a more natural choice than the birthday of the author who created one of the ultimate geek heroes, the Master Detective?

The logo links to a page of search results for “sir arthur conan doyle’s birthday”.

A flamboyant tip o’ the deerstalker to Tony Gurney and Phil Adams for this one.

SAD day for some baby boomers, and perhaps even a few Holmes fans: USATODAY.com - ‘Space Cadet’ star Frankie Thomas dies.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Frankie Thomas, who became famous in the 1950s for his starring role in the TV children’s show Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, has died. He was 85. […]

Thomas quit acting when the series ended in 1955 and, over the years, worked as a television and radio writer, bridge instructor and author of mystery novels, including Sherlock Holmes and the Masquerade Murders.

Read the rest. Thanks to R.H. Riethmeier for the link.

I’m afraid I’m quite unfamiliar with Thomas’ novel Sherlock Holmes and the Masquerade Murders (from The Armchair Detective Library). Can anybody here offer any feedback on it?

FROM Shelly Shepherd Klaner at the Santa Rosa (California) newspaper The Press Democrat comes an interesting look at two of the current kings of Sherlockian pastiche, Two mystery scribes at home with Holmes - Despite their differences, writers say it’s elementary, dear reader - they were destined to meet:

Arthur Conan Doyle himself couldn’t have foreseen the serendipitous meeting of two Petaluma mystery writers, both of whom use Sherlock Holmes in their new novels.

Michael Kurland and Steve Hockensmith are 30 years apart in age and seemingly as different as Felix and Oscar from “The Odd Couple.”

Kurland sports a list of published books on a canon several pages long; Hockensmith is excited about the release of his first novel.

Kurland used to be a stand-up comic; Hockensmith made his living as an entertainment reporter and even spent a year as the editor of X-Files magazine.

Along the way, Hockensmith, 37, interviewed Kurland, 67, for an article about the longevity of Sherlock Holmes.

The new novels in question are, of course, Michael Kurland’s The Empress of India : A Professor Moriarty Novel and Steve Hockensmith’s Holmes on the Range.

VER at The Glowing Dial, an Old Time Radio fan site offering free downloads, you can download and listen to a special tribute to the Master on radio. With nearly three and a half hours of Holmes culled from Mutual, ABC and the Beeb, as well as a short recording of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, this makes a dandy little introduction to the various series that were so popular from the 1940’s to the 1960’s. Note that the sound quality of such old recordings can be quite variable, so be prepared for some static, pops and scratches.

The Glowing Dial tips its magnifying glass to the world’s premier detective, Sherlock Holmes in EPISODE NET 18 (first run between August 22, 2004 and September 11, 2004) of The Glowing Dial, in which we present five different actor pairings of Holmes and Watson plus a special commentary by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. “William Fox has the honor to present the world famous author and scientist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” (soundtrack from a short film produced around 1930 or 31 in which Conan Doyle talks about his literary creation, Sherlock Holmes as well as his interest in spiritualism).

[Hear Episode 18]

The Holmes episodes in question are:

• The Case of the Limping Ghost, a 1945 Mutual production with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
• The Adventure of the Haunted Bagpipes, a 1947 ABC production with Tom Conway (Rathbone’s immediate radio successor) and Nigel Bruce
• The Case of the Cradle That Rocked Itself, a 1947 Mutual production with John Stanley and Alfred Shirley
• The Case of the Six Napoleons, a 1954 BBC production with Sir John Gielgud and Sir Ralph Richardson
• The Adventure of Silver Blaze, a 1962 BBC production with Carleton Hobbs and Norman Shelley

Be prepared to wait an hour or so for the download, as it’s 47 Mb and server can be a little slow. (I topped out at 10K/s.) For those without high-speed or any patience, you can also listen to it via RealMedia streaming. See the bottom of the page.

For those Rathbone fans among us, you can also catch him reading four Poe stories in the Glowing Dial’s Tribute to Edgar Allan Poe.

Careful observers have no doubt noted our little “scandal sheet” in the sidebar at right. Currently, these are tidbits of news brought to you on a semi-daily basis about all things Sherlockian, culled from the various online presses and news services. Now, there are a few problems with this, chief among them being the fact that the most interesting Sherlockian news tends not to appear online in any place easy to find, at least on a daily basis. (The very notable –and rather addictive– Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press does an excellent job with a monthly newsletter, however.) A second problem is due to the fact that roughly two-thirds of current Sherlockian news stories are part of a seemingly endless parade of reviews for Arthur & George….

So if you’ve found an interesting online news story, event, essay, photograph, review (aside from Arthur and George, that is), or anything else that may be of note or interest to other Sherlockians, please feel free to drop me a line with the particulars. Likewise, if you’d like to promote a new book you’ve written (or published), a meeting of your society, an article you’ve crafted about Holmes, or even a goofy picture of a Baker Street Irregular taking offence to your camera, don’t be shy — send it in. Just remember two things: the link, since this is an online medium; and to keep the nudity to a minimum, unless it’s something I can send along to my good friend C.A.M. for his perusal.

rom the February 22, 2006 edition of the Petaluma Argus Courier is a dandy little article called Two Holmesians, no Watson, concerning a book signing with two of the current kings of Sherlockian pastiche, Steve Hockensmith and Michael Kurland:

Poor Watson. He won’t be getting his royalty check this month. That’s because two Petaluma authors, Michael Kurland and Steve Hockensmith, have published Sherlock Holmes-inspired mysteries that are not narrated by Dr. John Watson, and, in fact, don’t include much of Holmes either. […]

For Hockensmith, “Holmes on the Range” is his first Holmes-inspired mystery, and in fact his first published book. It’s set during the Holmes era, 1893, but in the Old West. In it, two cowboy brothers find work on a ranch during hard times. They have heard of Sherlock Holmes from stories in Harper’s Weekly, and the eldest brother, “Old Red,” has become a big fan of Holmes. Fortunately, people on the ranch keep turning up dead, so there’s a big mystery to be solved.

For Kurland, “The Empress of India” is his fourth Sherlock Holmes mystery that focuses on Holmes’ nemesis Professor Moriarty. In the series, Moriarty is represented as somewhat misunderstood. Certainly he is still a criminal, but most of his dalliances are staged to raise money to fund his worthy scientific endeavors, such as astronomy.