have seen a number of books over the years that are –as an academic friend calls such things– “quotefests”, collections of quotations taken from various sources to illuminate a particular subject. Any library of Sherlockian commentary is likely to contain a few of these, and mine is no exception. The first one that comes to mind (and one of the better ones, in my opinion) is The Sherlock Holmes Companion by Michael and Mollie Hardwick. However, many of these books having gone out of print over the years, it’s nice to be able to find one online that I can share with people, and so I was glad to trip across The Whole Art of Detection, written by “Sherlock Holmes” and edited by W. Lambert Gardiner. As you’ve probably deduced by now, this is an online book about Holmes’ observation and deduction, filled with quotations taken from the Canon and sprinkled with a bit of commentary. The name is taken from The Adventure of the Abbey Grange, wherein Holmes says, “At present, I am, as you know, fairly busy, but propose to devote my declining years to the composition of a text-book which shall focus the whole art of detection into one volume.” (ABBE) The premise here is that Gardiner has found this fabled book:

Taking my cue from Holmes, I will not describe my emotion but simply state the fact that, in the space above the false ceiling, there lay my quarry - the manuscript of The Whole Art of Detection. What follows is a transcription of this wonderful document. I have taken the liberty of adding footnotes to place it in its modern context, trusting that Holmes would have approved since he conceded that even he had little capacity to foresee the future [HOUN].

You can read the entire book online at Scot & Siliclone Books (don’t fret — it’s fairly short). If you’re not famiiar with the abbreviations, don’t forget that you can download my handy-dandy reference card to help you along.

‘ve spent most of my life immersed in either Sherlock Holmes, or books about criminology and forensics (all quite relaxing late-night reading material, you understand). I’ve read the occasional account of the emergence of forensic science around the turn of the last century, and –while fascinating– it’s barely been enough to whet my appetite. And so I was thrilled to hear of a new book by E.J. Wagner called The Science of Sherlock Holmes. From the dust jacket:

The Science of Sherlock Holmes is a wild ride in a hansom cab through medicine, law, pathology, toxicology, anatomy, blood chemistry and the emergence of real-life forensic science during the 19th and 20th centuries along the road paved by Sherlock Holmes.

From a “well-marked print of a thumb” on a whitewashed wall in “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder,” to the trajectory and impact of a bullet in the “The Reigate Squires,” author E. J. Wagner uses the Great Detective’s remarkable adventures as springboards into the real-life forensics behind them.

You’ll meet scientists, investigators, and medical experts, such as the larger-than-life Eugène Vidocq of the Paris Sûreté, the determined detective Henry Goddard of London’s Bow Street Runners, the fingerprint expert Sir Francis Galton, and the brilliant but arrogant pathologist Sir Bernard Spilsbury. You’ll explore the ancient myths and bizarre folklore that were challenged by the evolving field of forensics—including the belief that hair and nails grow after death, and the idea that the skull’s size and shape determine personality—and examine the role that brain fever, Black Dogs, and vampires played in criminal history.

[…] Through numerous cases, including celebrated ones such as those of Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden, the author traces the influence of the coolly analytical Holmes on the gradual emergence of forensic science from the grip of superstition. You’ll find yourself turning pages of The Science of Sherlock Holmes as eagerly as you would of any Holmes mystery.

The advance praise seems to be quite flattering (which, one guesses, is why it’s called “praise” to begin with), even from noted Sherlockians, and the description on Wagner’s website has truly piqued my interest.

Coming this April to a bookstore near you, or order from Amazon.

Update: Her publisher Wiley has posted chapter one, the index and the table of contents on its website page for the book, if you’d like to read more.

received a few email asking me the origin of the somewhat familiar phrase “where it is always 1895″ in my welcome post. The line actually comes from a classic and oft-reprinted poem by one of the first –and most eminent– Sherlockians, Vincent Starrett, who wrote (among other things) The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1933) and 221 B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes (1940). This poem was first published in 1942 by Edwin B. Hill in a now very rare pamphlet called Two Sonnets. I’ve found some three dozen copies of this poem on the web already, and so I hope I’m not being too remiss in offering yet another.

rom the February 27, 2006 edition of the Yorkshire Post Today comes an article by Martin Hickes about Dr. Francis O’Gorman’s new annotated edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles - A whole new world in the story of Conan Doyle’s famous hound:

EVEN Holmes would have been bemused.

Seventy-five years after the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the erstwhile detective’s illustrious creator, a new edition of The Hound of the Baskervilles suggests Holmes’s best-loved case may actually have been more of a journey into the psyche of its author rather than a simple whodunit.

Dr Francis O’Gorman from the University of Leeds has just completed a fully annotated version of the Hound, a book first published 105 years ago, which is allegedly Tony Blair’s favourite detective novel, and loved by millions across the world.

And while Conan Doyle’s interest in spiritualism – he was after all the man who resolutely backed the infamous photographs of the Cottingley fairies – has been well-documented elsewhere, the leading English literature academic, believes it reflects his own inner debates about the supernatural more so than has previously been realised.

See also the publication details from Broadway Press: The Hound of the Baskervilles with the Adventure of the Speckled Band.

n my other life at DIYPlanner.com, I produce free templates and forms to help people become more productive or creative. I’ve always had a yearning to make something Holmes-related, though, and seeing we’ll be discussing various stories using the “standard abbreviations,” I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to create my first Sherlockian reference card.

This is a template for producing four double-sided 3×5″ cards that bear the abbreviations (as developed by Jay Finley Christ) for all 60 Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as the year that each one was first published.

(more…)

ver a decade ago, I was forced into a debate with a fellow mystery fan who insisted that downloading any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories (known affectionately among the faithful as “The Canon”) from that new World Wide Web thing was actually illegal. After all, he said, why would anyone bother buying books if they could get the text for free?

Those were different days, of course. Few people had any knowledge of copyright or intellectual property, and even fewer were familiar with the Web. Times have changed, and now it’s possible for almost anyone to browse through the thousands of books with expired copyrights available on Project Gutenberg, and then download anything that strikes one’s fancy to a computer, a Palm, an iPod or even a disc for the local copy shop to print off. While I don’t believe that squinting at the glare of a digital device will ever replace the intimate experience of a good book, this still opens up many exciting possibilities. Schools can now assign classic literature without concern for non-existent funds, people in far-away places can access books they’ve been hoping to read for years, and –to finally get to my point here– newcomers can sample the original stories of Sherlock Holmes immediately and without cost.

(more…)

t the National Public Radio (in the United States) website can be found a ten minute interview with Leslie Klinger, the editor (and, erm, notemaker) of the must-have Sherlock Holmes edition for this generation: It’s Elementary - An Annotated Sherlock Holmes.

In the year of the famed sleuth’s 150th birthday, Norton has published a definitive edition of the Holmes canon: The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories. NPR’s Liane Hansen talks to Leslie Klinger, editor of the huge two-volume set.

Also on the same page is a 17 minute interview “extra” with Jeremy Brett, the celebrated Grenada/BBC television Sherlock Holmes of the 80’s and 90’s.

Yes, this is from December 2004, but please be patient while I play a little catch-up.