Episode 38: On Conan Doyle

One of the great benefits of being a member of the Baker Street Irregulars is that we get to meet a lot of interesting and famous people. Chief among them are the literati, such as Michael Dirda, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic for the Washington Post, who makes his living by writing about the literati.

In this case, Michael himself is the author, having been tapped by the Princeton University Press to contribute to their "Writers on Writers" series with the volume On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling. In it, he takes us through Conan Doyle's life and writings - many of which may not be familiar to the Sherlock Holmes fan - and gives us a perspective on many of them through the Canon.

Burt and Scott had a chance to sit down with Michael at the Players in New York City during the 2012 Baker Street Irregulars Weekend - marking the first time our podcast has been recorded with the two hosts together in the same room.

Rather than give you an Editor's Gas-Lamp in this episode, we asked Michael to read something from his own work.

Links:

• On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling  (Amazon)
• The Baker Street Journal
• Michael Dirda's content in the Washington Post
  

Listen now:

Download this episode by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Save As..." or simply click on the file to listen, or on the nice box above. (File size: 34.7 MB, 37:51)

Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.

And as always, please visit our sponsors Wessex Press.
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Episode 37: The Lost Conan Doyle Manuscript

You may recall that we had Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower on the show when they published Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters in 2007. The pair has returned with another publication, but this time it's one that is even more intriguing.

In 1883, when he was just twenty-three, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote The Narrative of John Smith while he was living in Portsmouth and struggling to establish himself as both a doctor and a writer. He had already succeeded in having a number of short stories published in leading magazines of the day, such as Blackwood’s, All the Year Round, London Society, and the Boy’s Own Paper — but as was the accepted practice of literary journals of the time, his stories had been published anonymously. Thus, Conan Doyle knew that in order to truly establish his name as a writer, he would have to write a novel.

The only wrinkle is that once Conan Doyle finished this novel, it went missing in the post, never to be seen again.

Join Burt and Scott as we discover how this lost manuscript has made its way to publication, some 125 years after it was first written, and why it had never before made its way to the public eye.

As to the Editor's Gas-Lamp for this episode...well, we'll make that our little surprise that you can discover within the show.

Links:

• The Narrative of John Smith (Amazon)
• The British Library
• The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection

Listen now:

Download this episode by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Save As..." or simply click on the file to listen, or on the nice box above. (File size: 51.9 MB, 56:39)

Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.

And as always, please visit our sponsors Wessex Press.
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Episode 36: Michael Hoey and the Fabulous Faces of Universal

It's not very often that one has an opportunity to speak with someone who has a direct connection to a legend. In this case, Burt and Scott spoke with Michael Hoey, the son of Dennis Hoey -Inspector Lestrade to Basil Rathone's Sherlock Holmes.

Michael Hoey is the author of Sherlock Holmes & the Fabulous Faces - The Universal Pictures Repertory Company (affiliate link). In this fascinating book, Mr. Hoey focuses not on Rathbone and Bruce, but rather on the 68 men and women in supporting roles in the 12 Sherlock Holmes films that Universal Pictures produced in the early 1940s.

Join us as a very special guest introduces Mr. Hoey, as Hoey reminisces about his visits to the sets of Universal, recounts many bits of trivia about the Universal series that we all know and love, and reveals some little-known gems.

Mr. Hoey will be appearing at From Gillette to Brett III in Indianapolis in November. There's still time to register - and if you click through to the link above to buy his book, you might be able to get it signed by Mr. Hoey himself.


We wrap up the show with a reading of the Editor’s Gas-Lamp from a 1956 issue of The Baker Street Journal, Vol. 6, No.1 covering "Fictional Characters."

Links:

• Roy William Neil (IMDb)
• Games, Gossip and Greasepaint - Nigel Bruce's autobiography. More excerpts here.
• The Brits Who Conquered Hollywood: Tales from the Hollywood Raj
• Terror by Night

Listen now:

Download this episode by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Save As..." or simply click on the file to listen, or on the nice box above. (File size: 57.15 MB, 1:02:16)

Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.

And as always, please visit our sponsors Wessex Press.
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Episode 35: Sherlock Holmes in the News

In this episode, we catch up on some of the interesting tidbits of news that have touched the world of Sherlock Holmes lately. From a new television adaptation to Sherlockians passing, fake literary Twitter handles to banned books and more, we cover some of the more remarkable stories that have been in the public's eye over the last few weeks.

In addition, we also take a look at events in the weeks ahead. While there are many events at Sherlockian societies in the North America, the United Kingdom and beyond, we focused on those in London, Toronto, Indianapolis and Providence in this case.

We wrap up the show with a reading of the Editor’s Gas-Lamp from the Summer 2011 issue of The Baker Street Journal, Vol. 61, No.2.

Links:

• The news of CBS's pending modern "Sherlock Holmes" adaptation
• The avclub.com reaction
• William Lipscomb, from the Annals of Improbable Research
• Some canonically-connected fake literary profiles on Twitter
• That entire list for you to follow
• Burt's @A_Conan_Doyle account
• The state of Undershaw and how you can help
• A Study in Scarlet banned from school reading lists in Ablemarle County, Virginia

Upcoming Events

• The Sherlock Holmes Society of London’s Richard Lancelyn Green Lecture - Sir Christopher Frayling
• Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scandal (Toronto, Oct. 13-16) 
• From Gillette to Brett III (Indianapolis, Nov. 11-13)

Listen now:

Download this episode by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Save As..." or simply click on the file to listen, or on the nice box above. (File size: 55.62 MB, 1:0:41)

Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.

And as always, please visit our sponsors Wessex Press.
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