I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

Signed Letter from Conan Doyle Up for Auction

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"at the Danish capital" [STUD]</h4>
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Here's your chance to own an authentic letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.<br />
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Our regular listener / reader Christian Mongaard let us know that auction house <a href="https://bruun-rasmussen.dk/m/lots/2B18C88AD12F?auction_day_id=1005028" target="_blank">Bruun Rasmussen is offering this autograph letter</a> signed by Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle. The single page letter is 11.3×17.6 cm and was written by Conan Doyle on letterhead from his Crowborough home, dated July 24, 1911.<br />
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The text of the letter is as follows:<br />
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Dear Sir<br />   Pray excuse the delay in answering your kind invitation. I am not clear whether Mr. Schwensen may have made some arrangement for us upon Tuesday. We are of course in his hands. If not we shall be happy to accept your invitation to dinner.<br />          Yours very truly</blockquote>
                    Arthur Conan Doyle<br />
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As with many handwritten items, this comes with a story. According to the site:<br />
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<i>The occasion is Doyle's attendance at his brother's wedding on 2 August 1911. His brother, Major John Innes Doyle (1873–1919), was actually married in the Church of Holmen in Copenhagen with the Danish concert singer, Miss Clara Schwensen (1881–1930), daughter of Landowner Reinholdt Schwensen (1829–1917) from Lolland, who is described in the letter as “Mr Schwensen”.</i><br />
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<i>The recipient of the letter is anonymous, but it is most likely the English emissary, Sir William Conyngham Greene (1854–1934), with whom Doyle had dinner with in Copenhagen the day before the wedding. In this way the letter is not only related to the world of Sherlock Holmes in general, but also has a fun historical relevance for especially Danish Sherlockians.</i></blockquote>
This letter was in the collection of collector, late President of The Danish Baker Street Irregulars, and member of the Baker Street Irregulars Bjarne Nielsen, BSI ("The Veiled Lodger").<br />
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The auction is set to take place on December 13, 2016 at 6:30 pm in Copenhagen and online. <a href="https://bruun-rasmussen.dk/m/lots/2B18C88AD12F?auction_day_id=1005028" target="_blank">Bidding starts</a> at 4,000 kr. (approx. $580) and the estimate is thought to be between 8,000 and 10,000 kr. ($1,160 - 1,450)<br />
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We trust that it will find an equally deserving home.<br />
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Signed Letter from Conan Doyle Up for Auction

"at the Danish capital" [STUD] Here's your chance to own an authentic letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Our regular...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

Remembering Peter Vaughan

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"a strange and impressive figure" [BOSC]</h4>
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We've lost another actor with a connection to Sherlock Holmes. It seems like we're having to pen these kinds of updates far too often these days...<br />
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Character actor Peter Vaughan passed away yesterday at the age of 93, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38225796" target="_blank">according to the BBC</a>.<br />
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His career was long and varied, from <i>Oliver Twist</i> to <i>The Remains of the Day</i>, but he was probably most widely known in recent years for his role as Maester Aemon on HBO's <i>Game of Thrones</i>, where he played that part for five years.<br />
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But Sherlockians may recognize him from his turn as James Turner in the Granada version of "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson.<br />
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You can see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdlxWoOmWuY" target="_blank">a clip of that episode</a> below:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cdlxWoOmWuY" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
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Interestingly, a fellow observer noted that Vaughan seems to be the only character actor in England that didn't manage to make it into one of the 826 episodes of <i>Doctor Who</i>.<br />
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Did you know him from another role? Let us know with a comment below.<br />
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Remembering Peter Vaughan

"a strange and impressive figure" [BOSC] We've lost another actor with a connection to Sherlock Holmes. It seems like we...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

Remembering Andrew Sachs

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"my dear Watson, was very faulty" [SOLI]</h4>
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Actor Andrew Sachs <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/12/01/andrew-sachs-much-loved-fawlty-towers-actor-manuel-role-dies/" target="_blank">passed away on November 23</a>, aged 86. He was most well known for his role as Manuel, the hapless Spanish waiter in <i>Fawlty Towers</i> with John Cleese. But Sherlockians knew him for his turn as Dr. Watson on the radio plays on BBC.<br />
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Bert Coules, whom we interviewed on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose68" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 68</a> and <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose69" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Episode 69</a> (click for more), was the head writer for the series that dramatized the entire 60 stories of the Sherlock Holmes canon and starred Clive Merrison as Sherlock Holmes and Michael Williams as Dr. John Watson.<br />
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After Williams' death in 2001, the BBC green lit 16 more episodes, collected in <i><a href="http://merrisonholmes.com/further_adventures.php" target="_blank">The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</a></i>, which Coules wrote. At this point, Andrew Sachs had been selected to play Watson, but Coules was still under a confidentiality agreement when he spoke to Scarlet Street in an interview, as he recounts in his book <i><a href="http://ihose.co/221BBC" target="_blank">221 BBC</a></i>:<br />
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"I can tell you that our new Watson is a well-known actor, most closely associated with one particular role (and one about as far removed from Dr. John H. Watson as it's possible to get) but with a very wide and varied career in stage, film, TV and radio, and experience as both a writer and director. He will bring exactly the same qualities to the part as did the late Michael Williams: a fine sense of intelligence and strength, a refusal to play second fiddle, a subtle humour and a great and long-suffering affection for Holmes."</blockquote>
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Once Sachs took over the part, it was seamless, picking up perfectly from where Williams left off, yet bringing his own individuality to the role. According to Roger Johnson, BSI ("<i>Pall Mall Gazette</i>"), writing in <i>Sherlock</i> magazine:<br />
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"Sachs' Watson is quietly assured, thoughtful, courteously charming and wryly humorous... a self-confident man, modest and above all, likeable."</blockquote>
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Sachs had initially intended to play Watson like Nigel Bruce, but series director Patrick Rayner gave him the best advice. Says Sachs:<br />
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"I started out thinking of bumbling old Nigel Bruce but Patrick put me right. He told me 'Just say the words' - best advice ever."</blockquote>
And Bert Coules shares the story of <a href="https://soundcloud.com/ihearofsherlock/episode-69-sherlock-holmes-on-radio-part-2?in=ihearofsherlock/sets/sherlock-holmes-radio-musical#t=1:09:08" target="_blank">the development of The Further Adventures series</a>. The preceding link will place you directly at the point of the interview. Andrew Sachs begins at the <a href="https://soundcloud.com/ihearofsherlock/episode-69-sherlock-holmes-on-radio-part-2?in=ihearofsherlock/sets/sherlock-holmes-radio-musical#t=1:15:01" target="_blank">1:15:01 mark</a>.<br />
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Or you can click on the embedded sound file below, beginning at the 1:09:08 mark (hover over one of those little IHOSE icons on the sound bar and click on it to go there):<br />
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/172682315&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe><br />
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We'll miss Andrew Sachs, but we're thankful that he'll remain with us forever. It's picked up in particular in "The Marlbourne Point Mystery," the final episode of <i>The Further Adventures</i>, as Merrison's Holmes answers Watson's question as to how such a thing would be possible:<br />
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"Because of your stories. Don't you see? It doesn't matter what happens here, in the real world. We're...more than reality, you and I. You, my friend, have made us immortal."</blockquote>
R.I.P. Andrew Sachs.<br />
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Remembering Andrew Sachs

"my dear Watson, was very faulty" [SOLI] Actor Andrew Sachs passed away on November 23 , aged 86. He was most well known for ...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

The Real First Publication Date of A Study in Scarlet

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"The date being–?" [CREE]</h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNW8z0RHwr_LxOZ6REotwQhk_mbniLeVkvm_5nI82ljv49bJTjByOHqVnNFXf4qNLJJVhvvhYm8czrlxGM0DbkVv9UhsRRTgwQtIKsbYLh7v1d_UwHQEwHeKCe3RWAX6vTyctdVnv8pWB_/s1600/STUD+-+publication+date.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="348" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNW8z0RHwr_LxOZ6REotwQhk_mbniLeVkvm_5nI82ljv49bJTjByOHqVnNFXf4qNLJJVhvvhYm8czrlxGM0DbkVv9UhsRRTgwQtIKsbYLh7v1d_UwHQEwHeKCe3RWAX6vTyctdVnv8pWB_/s640/STUD+-+publication+date.PNG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>LitHub's <a href="http://lithub.com/lithub-daily-december-1-2016/" target="_blank">erroneous claim</a></i></td></tr>
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A number of sites across the Internet mentioned that December 1 is a day that Sherlock Holmes fans should celebrate, since <i>Beeton's Christmas Annual</i> — containing <i>A Study in Scarlet</i> — was published on that date in 1887. It would seem to make sense, as the beginning of December would be the natural time for a Christmas annual to make its way to the newsstand.<br />
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However, this is not the case.<br />
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No information about the exact date is to be found on the <i>Annual</i> itself, but since it's a Christmas publication, December would not be a terrible guess. The first thing to do is to check what the foremost experts on the subject have said about it, in this case <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Bibliography-Conan-Doyle-Soho-Bibliographies/dp/0198181906/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480647719&sr=8-1&keywords=A+Bibliography+of+A.+Conan+Doyle" target="_blank">A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle</a> </i>by Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson. They mention that the <i>Annual</i> was issued in November 1887.<br />
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To get even closer to an exact publication date we must check the British newspapers for November 1887, searching for advertisements. And the very first one we find is in the <i>Standard</i>, November 21. It states that the <i>Beeton's Christmas Annual</i> is "Just Ready, in Picture Covers. One Shilling." The same advertisement is then repeated in the newspaper on several occasions that week, and it can also be found in other newspapers, e.g. the <i>Daily News</i>, November 22, the<i> Yorkshire Post</i>, November 23, and the <i>Glasgow Herald</i>, November 24. Remember: these were the days before Amazon's pre-order system was in place; Ward, Lock, and Co. wouldn't have advertised if the publication wasn't for sale yet.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncarA8w6UXj-tgmKxHZ-DZoJ5zb6lkdueyDJu2UfeD-_MQn6j53bHSv1k2p0IZCmetFL63eQVlAV4H-Fx3LfAo-Uhr9mlYX4pSIAGACZIuTqHaxpKDemosYoD6WOhAHfaAPmYLdfMh7kv/s1600/The_Standard_November_21_1887.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncarA8w6UXj-tgmKxHZ-DZoJ5zb6lkdueyDJu2UfeD-_MQn6j53bHSv1k2p0IZCmetFL63eQVlAV4H-Fx3LfAo-Uhr9mlYX4pSIAGACZIuTqHaxpKDemosYoD6WOhAHfaAPmYLdfMh7kv/s400/The_Standard_November_21_1887.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Nov. 21 ad in <i>The Standard</i>.</td></tr>
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November 21 was a Monday, and no advertising for the <i>Beeton's Christmas Annual</i> can be found in the <i>Standard</i> during the previous week. In 1886 we find an advertisement for the <i>Annual</i> as early as Wednesday, November 17. And in 1885 on Monday, November 16.<br />
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We can therefore be sure that the 1887 <i>Beeton's Christmas Annual</i> wasn't published on December 1, or on any other December date. It was definitely issued in November— most likely on November 21. If it had been published the week before, it seems strange that the publisher didn't advertise it.<br />
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<i><b>Editor's note:</b> Mattias Bostrom, together with Matt Laffey, is co-editor of the series of books <a href="http://ihose.co/shnewsvol1" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers</a>, an exhaustive collection of contemporary news and commentary relating to the Great Detective and his creator.</i><br />
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