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We've designed this page to help you get a sense of this site and to perhaps answer some questions about Sherlock Holmes and his world.


Getting Started

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The first thing to do is to get yourself subscribed to our site. There are three ways to enjoy updates from us:
1. Add us to your RSS feed by clicking here or on the green "Subscribe" button on the right.
2. Sign up for email updates: at the most, you'll receive one email a day.
3. You can also sign up for weekly email summaries, in case you missed anything.
4. We also have an audio-only feed. You can listen to our shows by subscribing to us on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Spreaker, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, and RadioPublic, or wherever you get podcasts. And with an audio-only email subscription.

And as long as you're here, you may as well listen to our latest shows - we have two:






If you're new to Sherlock Holmes and everything we're about, a great place to start is the Edgar-nominated Sherlock Holmes For Dummies by Steven Doyle, BSI ("The 'Western Morning News'"). Inside you'll find background on the stories and characters, as well as of their creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the inspiration that led him to write about this global icon; how Sherlock Holmes has lived beyond the 60 stories into stage, film, television, radio and now the Internet; the admirers who call themselves "Sherlockians" (or "Holmesians" if you're in Europe) and how their scholarship and research has spanned nearly a century; and resources at your disposal.

The Baker Street Irregulars

The most well known of all Sherlock Holmes societies, the Baker Street Irregulars (or "BSI") is a literary society with Sherlock Holmes at its core. The current head of the BSI, or "Wiggins," is Michael Whelan. When we refer to Irregulars on this site, we place their investitures in parentheses and quotation marks after their name - as we did with Steve Doyle above. The BSI holds its annual gathering in early January in New York City; more information is available at https://www.bsiweekend.com. The BSI is an invitation-only group, but much of the BSI Weekend is open to everyone. The Irregulars are also a publishing powerhouse, producing the quarterly Baker Street Journal since 1946 and a number of books - the Manuscript Series, International Series and History Series, among others.

If you'd like an insider's view about the BSI Weekend, Pulitzer Prize- and Edgar Award-winning columnist and author Michael Dirda, BSI ("Langdale Pike") has a perspective on the New York Review of Books titled "Sherlock Lives." And of course our review of what goes on at the BSI Weekend.

The Canon

We frequently make reference to the "Canon." This is how we refer to the collection of 56 short stories and four novels that make up the Complete Sherlock Holmes works. We're not religious zealots. In fact, the inspiration for this cult-like treatment we give to "the Master" has its roots in a paper delivered at Oxford in 1911 by Ronald Knox called "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes." It was mostly a swipe at those who took biblical scholarship a little too seriously. Was it truly the beginning of "the Game" as we know it? That debate rages on. If you're inclined to read more, Ronald Knox and Sherlock Holmes was recently published and is worth taking a look at.


Finding Your Way Around

When we started the site, we created a post to give you a sense of what the site is. Not to be outdone, we offered up a summary of what happened on the site last year. Also, please take time to look around the sidebars on the right side of this site. There are subscription options, the ability to search the site as well as the Canon and a translation function if you'd like to get this site in another language. You can also sort the site by "label" or topic and browse through the archives (since 2005!). Recent comments, items from our newsfeed, Amazon links, a player for the our shows, and more.



Supporting this Site

This site is provided as a service to Sherlockians worldwide free of charge. In order to help us maintain the site, please consider supporting our sponsors - located on the left and proudly announced in each episode. We also make it easy to support the site on an ongoing basis, as you would with NPR or other recurring subscriptions:

Click here to learn how to become a Patron of the Arts.
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What YOU can do

Please share this site or individual articles with people you know. We've made it easy for you to email, tweet, post to Facebook and most other places on the web - directly from each article or in the toolbar floating at the side of the page. The more people know about this site, the more successful we'll all be in sharing our interest in Sherlock Holmes and bringing new and curious minds to our hobby.

Also, if you have a site - a blog, discussion forum, web site, etc. - please consider providing your readers a link to us, either to the home page or any article that you think is worth their attention.

Every article has a comment section, and we hope you'll add your thoughts so we can all share in them. You'll see the following at the end of every article, depending on whether or not there's been a comment:


You can log in with your Facebook, Twitter or Google account, or simply create your own login.


"They can go everywhere, see everything, overhear everyone." [SIGN]

This site thrives on unique news and information. But we're just a limited number of people. Like Holmes before us who used the Baker Street Irregulars as his eyes and hears, we need help as well. If you have a tip on an event, news item, interesting link, etc., please send us a tip. We have a box at the top of the page to allow you to submit news tips and ideas.


FAQs
The following are questions we hear all the time. Simply click the links in each answer for more information.

Was Sherlock Holmes real?
An interesting question. Sherlockians play "The Game," which means we pretend he was, while acknowledging Conan Doyle was merely Dr. Watson's literary agent (with tongue firmly planted in cheek). Click through for the full story.

How does one get invited to join the BSI? Is there a Sherlock Holmes society near me?
The selection process is a mystery, but as a general rule, one must "toil in the Sherlockian vineyards" for an unspecified amount of time before being investitured. This means more than just being really really interested in Sherlock Holmes. It doesn't hurt to contribute (and subscribe!) to the Baker Street Journal. To find a Sherlock Holmes society near you, please consult the list of Sherlockian Societies that Peter Blau maintains. We also have some societies listed in the Resources page under the "Groups of Mysterious Persons" header.

What are those four-letter abbreviations in the headlines?

You'll notice that every single post we create here is a line from the Canon. The four letters following each quote refer to the story from which the quote came, and the abbreviations were created by Jay Finley Christ, BSI ("The Final Problem").


Where can I find ______ about Sherlock Holmes?
We know there are a myriad of questions out there. One of the single most comprehensive resources on the Web is Sherlockian.net. If you can't find it there, it probably doesn't exist. We also have a variety of resources at your disposal on the Resources page above - references, BSI links, blogs, societies, a calendar  of events, international links and publications.

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