I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere

To Be a Sherlockian

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"a family mannerism can be traced" [REIG] </h4>
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As we celebrated Father’s Day this year, I thought it was the perfect time for me to reflect on being a Sherlockian.<br />
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But unlike many others, I don’t consider “being a Sherlockian” as being a person… for me, “being a Sherlockian” is a reminder of past events. <br />
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Every time I pick up the Canon, a pastiche, or literary criticism; or view part of a collection of my own or others; or share experiences with other Sherlockians, I think of my father. Because without him, I would not have become a Sherlockian. <br />
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Let me explain. <br />
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Every year or two, I would take the summer sojourn to my grandparent’s farm in rural Indiana. There I would stay in my dad’s boyhood room. And each year, waiting patiently for me, would be a set of books: a few Lone Ranger adventures, six or seven Hardy Boy mysteries, and <i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i>. And yes, it was the 1949 Bantam paperback edition, <a href="https://pulpcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Bantam-366-1949.jpg">with the steamy cover</a>. <br />
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It wasn’t until junior high school I actually learned there were 59 other stories awaiting me. <br />
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But once I was bitten by the bug, I soon found out my dad had been a “closet” Sherlockian for most of his life. For years, if I had a question on anything concerning Sherlock Holmes or Victorian life, all I had to do was ask him. He either had the answer in his vast memory bank, or loved researching the issue and providing the answer. <br />
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As an aside, my dad did not push myself or my siblings to be, or do, anything. That includes our education, career, or leisure activities. He had three simple rules for the three of us though… pay your bills on time (I had to have that pointed out a few times in my younger days); respect what others believe, are, or do (even if you don’t necessarily approve of it); and whatever you do in life, do it right. As a career navigator in the United States Air Force, it was in his nature to everything well, and right. <br />
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Just before he passed away, he finally finished his own pastiche, which had been in his mind for years. Everyone who has read it believes it to be very good, as well as historically accurate. <br />
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My father did not push me to become a Sherlockian… he let me find it on my own… but once I did, he was there to support it. <br />
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Today, I feel extremely lucky my son has also been bitten by the same bug. He has become the webmaster for two different Sherlockian societies, as well as the illustrator of <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2017/02/new-feature-baker-street-elementary.html#.WZPUjlGGPb0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a popular Sherlockian comic strip</a>. I hope I followed my father’s pattern… I did not push or coerce. I was simply there when he wanted me there. <br />
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So, I can sum up my feelings on what “being a Sherlockian means” this way. A Sherlockian is not how much “stuff” you collect, or how many papers you write, or how many times you have read the Canon. <br />
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To be a Sherlockian means you are lucky enough to be able to share your world with the next generation when they ask, whether it is your offspring, students, or even complete strangers. <br />
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After all, for us, it is always 1895.<br />
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To Be a Sherlockian

"a family mannerism can be traced" [REIG] As we celebrated Father’s Day this year, I thought it was the perfect time for me ...

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by Steve

Episode 126: Becoming the Gillettes

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"they are an extraordinarily astute couple" [VALL] </h4>
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Harold and Theodora Niver (that's Tyke and Teddie to all who know them), are a unique couple, even by Sherlockian standards. They've had an abiding love of Sherlock Holmes, Jack the Ripper and Dracula for most of their adult lives, they live at Baskerville Hall, and founded and ran the Men on the Tor, a Connecticut Sherlock Holmes society. [Which just so happens to be the group where Scott first got his start in Sherlockian societies.]<br />
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But one thing that keeps them active is appearing across Connecticut as William and Helen Gillette. They make regular weekend appearances at Gillette Castle, have been special guests at the William Gillette Luncheon during the BSI Weekend, and have been hired for regular events to perform "An Evening with the Gillettes."<br />
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As both of them are members of the Baker Street Irregulars, the Nivers are part of a select group of individuals in the Florin Society - having two shillings between them. Tyke received his investiture "The Man on the Tor" in 1977 and Teddie received her investiture "Carina" in 1997.<br />
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Join us on this very personal episode that has wonderful stories and details about this grand couple's adventures. From Don and Betty Grant at the Castle to Michael Harrison's sly preparedness to the law firm that includes language like "blithering saphead," it's full of surprises. We conclude with a "Gas-Lamp" that's cobbled together from the Introduction to Gillette's play in book form, and a poem written on the occasion of William Gillette's death.<br />
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Information on sponsors, links, timing notes and transcript available below.</div>
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<b>Sponsors</b></h3>
This episode includes our two longtime sponsors, plus a new addition. Please support our sponsors by visiting their sites:<br />
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<li><a href="http://www.wessexpress.com/">Wessex Press</a>, publishers of <i><a href="http://wessexpress.com/html/shrl.html">The Sherlock Holmes Reference Library</a></i>.</li>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/bsijuly50"><i>The Baker Street Journal</i></a>, the original nerd periodical, publishing Sherlockian scholarship quarterly since 1946.</li>
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<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/ihearofsherlock/ihearofsherlock126.mp3">Download</a> [Save As] | File size 40.8 MB, 1:25:50</h4>
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<b>Notes</b></h3>
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<b>Links</b></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose103">Episode 103: Al and Julie Rosenblatt</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.sherlockholmesct.com/">Sherlock Holmes: An Evening with the Gillettes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose34">Episode 34: William Gillette, America's Sherlock Holmes</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2015/06/sherlock-holmes-in-san-francisco.html">Sherlock Holmes in San Francisco: The Triumph of William Gillette</a></li>
<li><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_asc_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aschlock+holmes&keywords=schlock+holmes&ie=UTF8&qid=1502784299">Schlock Holmes</a></i> by Bob Fish</li>
<li><a href="http://essexsteamtrain.com/">Essex Steam Train</a></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Steinbrunner">Chris Steinbrunner</a></li>
<li><i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gillette-Castle-Landmarks-Erik-Ofgang/dp/1467118524">Gillette Castle: A History</a></i> by Erik Ofgang</li>
<li><a href="https://youtu.be/cFxdoPumojQ?t=6m56s">Mysteries at the Castle: Season 3 Episode 2</a></li><li><b>2022 update</b>: <a href="https://www.middletownpress.com/news/article/Gillette-legacy-now-brighter-Farmington-cemetery-17499731.php?fbclid=IwAR1Xizhi7VUHMgkJszqKvVceh25wgO5gEJxdZOjxyZhC-LPWCXB05ekhLwU" target="_blank">William Gillette Legacy Shines a Big Brighter at Farmington Cemetary</a> (<i>Middletown Press</i>)</li>
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Episode 126: Becoming the Gillettes

"they are an extraordinarily astute couple" [VALL] Harold and Theodora Niver (that's Tyke and Teddie to al...

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by Scott Monty

Baker Street Elementary — Confidence, Man

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"to force a confidence" [BLAC] </h4>
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Being considered knowledgeable and trustworthy comes with inherent dangers.<br />
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For the entire run of the Sherlock Holmes stories, it is Dr. Watson who is a trusted friend and confidant of the great detective, and through whose eyes we see the action and plot. We have no reason not to trust his judgment (except when later Holmes indicates what he missed). After all, he is a medical man, with a certain knowledge of the world.<br /><br />So it's not too much of a stretch to imagine his classmates relying on Watson for academic help...is it?<br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at </span><a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #006f85; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span></div>
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Baker Street Elementary — Confidence, Man

"to force a confidence" [BLAC] Being considered knowledgeable and trustworthy comes with inherent dangers. For the entir...

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by Scott Monty

The Bimetallic Question: A Canadian Sherlock Holmes Group

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"A point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question" [BRUC] </h4>
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I write these notes aboard a train, heading home after a quick trip to Montréal to attend a meeting of the <a href="http://bimetallicquestion.org/" target="_blank">Bimetallic Question</a>, Canada's second oldest Sherlockian society (founded 1979). I've been to two of the Question's weekend colloquia and once a social gathering, but this is the first time I've ever attended a regular meeting of what turns out to be the nearest Sherlockian group to Carleton Place. <br />
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Unsurprisingly, it was a terrific evening, with Sherlockian erudition, jokes, digressions, a daunting quiz, old-timers, newcomers, and appropriate beverages: sherry or port at $1 a glass for use in toasting.<br />
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Among the old-timers (in a group of two dozen people altogether) was former society president Patrick Campbell, who proudly announced that he is coming up to his 94th birthday. Among the newcomers: a young woman who confided that she has quietly enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes stories for years, but got more serious about them after watching the BBC's <i>Sherlock</i>, and found out about the society through the library branch where its meetings are held.<br />
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The venue is the dignified Westmount Public Library, a jewel of one of Montréal's wealthier (and English-speaking) suburbs. The room where we met has windows that are elegantly engraved with the names of classic children's authors – no doubt it was the children's department at one time. Regrettably Arthur Conan Doyle (writing for "the man who is yet half a boy") was not one of those commemorated.<br />
<br />
The story of the evening was "The Lion's Mane", which was cheerfully agreed to be not one of the best, particularly with that feeble and erroneous deduction about the dry towel. It does have its points of interest, though, particularly the news that Sherlock Holmes was by habit and inclination a swimmer. We wondered where he practiced his sport, other than of course the Reichenbach Falls. <br />
<br />
A very civilized and cordial evening, in short – which is just what one would expect from Sherlockians pretty much anywhere. I look forward to my next visit.<br />
<br />
--<br />
<br />
<br />

The Bimetallic Question: A Canadian Sherlock Holmes Group

"A point which involves the Navy, India, Canada and the bimetallic question" [BRUC] I write these notes aboard a train, head...

+ Read more »

by Chris Redmond

Remembering Robert Hardy

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"The stage lost a fine actor" [SCAN] </h4>
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Multifaceted character actor <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0362735/" target="_blank">Robert Hardy</a> has died at the age of 91. He was recognizable to generations of fans from the popular roles he played on television and screen. And of course, Sherlockians have their own reasons for remembering him.<br />
<br />
Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy was born in the Cotswolds in 1925 and got his start on the stage with the troupe that would eventually become the Royal Shakespeare Company. His roles ranged from historical figures, to nobility, politicians, villains and more. While his early career was mostly stage work, Among Hardy's first major off stage work was a television series adaptation of <i>David Copperfield</i>, in which he played the title role in 1956.<br />
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But looking back on his 70-year career, there were three roles which gained him the most fame. The first was as veterinarian Siegried Farnon in 90 episodes of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Creatures_Great_and_Small_(TV_series)" target="_blank"><i>All Creatures Great and Small</i> </a>from 1978-1990. The series was based on the books by James Herriot, the pseudonym of veterinarian Alf Wight. The second was his portrayals of Winston Churchill. Hardy portrayed the irascible and inveterate politician in five separate movies and three stage productions, beginning with the miniseries <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill:_The_Wilderness_Years" target="_blank">Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years</a></i> in 1981. He prepared for his role by listening to numerous audio recordings of Churchill's speeches. Finally, modern audiences got to know Hardy from a role he took up in his late seventies: that of Cornelius Fudge, the bewildered Minister of Magic in four Harry Potter movies.<br />
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But one role along the way led to a lifelong passion that inspired Hardy to pen two books. Inspired by his portrayal of Henry V in the play of the same name, Hardy took to the longbow and later wrote the definitive book on its history: <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Longbow-Military-History-Robert-Hardy/dp/1558212353/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501943293&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Longbow+hardy" target="_blank">Longbow: A Social and Military History</a></i> (1976). He co-authored a follow-up volume in 2004, <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Great-Warbow-Hastings-Mary-Rose/dp/085733090X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1501943381&sr=1-1&keywords=warbow+hardy" target="_blank">The Great Warbow: From Hastings to the Mary Rose</a></i>.<br />
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<b>"His voice was as smooth and suave as his countenance" [CHAS]</b></h4>
Your editor first had the pleasure of experiencing Hardy in a medium about Sherlock Holmes via an audio cassette (remember those?), and it was in the medium of audio that first brought Hardy into a Canonical role.<br />
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In 1970-71, Hardy took up the role of Sherlock Holmes opposite Nigel Stock for a set of LP recordings. [Audiences will of course remember Stock for his role as Watson opposite Douglas Wilmer and Peter Cushing in <a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2010/09/lyceum-theatre-sign_14.html#.VObHmPldWSr" target="_blank">the BBC television series in the 1960s</a>.] The four-record set contained eight stories and was issued by the Discourses label. They were:<br />
<ol>
<li>The Speckled Band / The Blue Carbuncle [DCO 1210]</li>
<li>Charles Augustus Milverton / Black Peter [DCO 1211]</li>
<li>The Norwood Builder / Lady Francis Carfax [DCO 1212]</li>
<li>Shoscombe Old Place / The Illustrious Client [DCO 1213]</li>
</ol>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Hardy and Nigel Stock on the Discourses set</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Hardy as Sherlock Holmes</td></tr>
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But to this editor's ear, it was Hardy's narration of certain Sherlock Holmes stories that solidified the association. As far as we were able to ascertain, there were five volumes produced by the Argo label in 1981, in which Hardy read 20 Sherlock Holmes stories, unabridged. These were:<br />
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<ol>
<li>Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: RESI, IDEN, BLUE, FIVE</li>
<li>Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: YELL, STOC, GLOR, FINA</li>
<li>Four Sherlock Holmes Stories: 3STU, GREE, SUSS, CHAS</li>
<li>More Sherlock Holmes Stories: DYIN, SHOS, MUSG, CROO</li>
<li>The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes: 3GAB, 3GAR, LION, RETI</li>
</ol>
<b>Update</b>: Nick Utechin tells us there was a sixth volume, called the Return of Sherlock Holmes, consisting of EMPT, SOLI, REDC, MAZA. These stories are quite elusive online; we haven't been able to locate them anywhere.<br />
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[For the key to the story abbreviations, <a href="http://ihose.co/ABREV" target="_blank">click here</a>.]<br />
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<br />
Hardy's reading is easy on the ears and conveys every element of the stories as Conan Doyle wrote them, with Hardy giving the words their due. Our favorite among this set is his reading of "Charles Augustus Milverton," in which the smarmy, vile blackmailer scolds the detective with a smooth, "Mr. Holmes, Mr. Hoooooolmes..." and concludes with Milverton's late night visitor shouting as she delivers the final justice, "Take THAT! And THAT! And THAT! And THAT!" It's a delight to listeners' ears to hear Robert Hardy take up each of these cases.<br />
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We have to believe that it is these recordings that led the producer's of the Granada Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett to consider Hardy for the role of Charles Augustus Milverton in their version of the story, the two-hour film <i>The Master Blackmailer</i>. Without a doubt, Hardy simply looked the part of Milverton, who was described by Watson as having<br />
<blockquote>
"a large, intellectual head, a round, plump, hairless face, a perpetual frozen smile, and two keen gray eyes, which gleamed brightly from behind broad, golden-rimmed glasses. There was something of Mr. Pickwick's benevolence in his appearance, marred only by the insincerity of the fixed smile and by the hard glitter of those restless and penetrating eyes. His voice was as smooth and suave as his countenance, as he advanced with a plump little hand extended, murmuring his regret for having missed us at his first visit."</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holmes and Watson corner Milverton</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeremy Brett, Robert Hardy, and Edward Hardwicke in <i>The Master Blackmailer</i></td></tr>
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His portrayal of one of the worst men in London made Milverton's eventual demise a welcome conclusion. But some reviewers thought that the production—a two-hour film for the shortest story in the Canon—was a bit of overkill.<br />
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There is much more to Robert Hardy's life and career than we were able to convey here. And thankfully much of his work remains in various formats for all to enjoy. For those able to discover and purchase his audio interpretations—whether it's his readings of Sherlock Holmes, Rumpole or the Aubrey-Maturin series—Hardy's voice gives new life to old works.<br />
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--

Remembering Robert Hardy

"The stage lost a fine actor" [SCAN] Multifaceted character actor Robert Hardy has died at the age of 91. He was recogniz...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

Episode 125: Revenge of the Sherlockian Nerd

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"a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend possessed" [FIVE] </h4>
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Curtis Armstrong, BSI ("An Actor, and a Rare One") is known by many names. Miles Dalby, Charles De Mar, Herbert Viola, Scooter, Metatron, and of course, Booger. But around these parts, he is known as a keen Sherlockian who has been part of our little corner of the universe since his grade school days.<br />
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His memoir <i><a href="https://amzn.to/2Wg5U7e" target="_blank">Revenge of the Nerd: Or...the Singular Adventures of the Man Who Would Be Booger</a></i> tells a series of tales that will be of interest to those who only know him through his remarkable career in show business. But we wanted to get behind all of that an delve into the intersection with his many other interests, such as Sherlock Holmes and P.G. Wodehouse, among others.<br />
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From Detroit to Geneva and back again, from the stage to the big screen and small screen, we explore the intricacies of nerd culture — particularly when it comes to the Victorian misfit Sherlock Holmes. Early influences of Curtis still have an impact today, and he leaves us with lessons that should have every Sherlockian embracing their inner nerd.<br />
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This episode includes our two longtime sponsors, plus a new addition. Please support our sponsors by visiting their sites:<br />
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<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/ihearofsherlock/ihearofsherlock125.mp3">Download</a> [Save As] | File size 38.2 MB, 1:22:33</h4>
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<b>Notes</b></h3>
1:36 Panty raid!<br />
5:50 Wessex Press<br />
7:06 The many faces of Curtis Armstrong<br />
9:15 What is a nerd?<br />
12:00 Nerd beginnings in Detroit<br />
17:01 First meeting with Sherlock Holmes<br />
23:06 Joining the Trifling Monographs<br />
25:22 Curtis's favorite Sherlock Holmes story currently is...<br />
28:51 Radio dramatizations—the "Orson Welles" period<br />
33:51 Who's a nerd in the Canon?<br />
36:05 Was Sherlock Holmes a nerd?<br />
43:37 The Baker Street Journal<br />
45:07 Booger was Curtis!<br />
47:02 Instruction at Meadow Brook by Billy the Page<br />
52:05 A Plum interest<br />
56:34 The roll tossing tradition at Wodehouse meetings<br />
1:00:13 Comparing an actor's life to that of Sherlock Holmes's profession<br />
1:03:34 Pay attention, grammar nerds and pun nerds<br />
1:09:49 The Editor's Gas-Lamp—guest reading from Curtis's book<br />
1:19:19 Just one more thing...</div>
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<h3>
<b>Links</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Curtis Armstrong's book: <a href="https://amzn.to/2Wg5U7e"><i>Revenge of the Nerd: Or...the Singular Adventures of the Man Who Would Be Booger</i></a> </li>
<li>Michael Dirda on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose38">Episode 38: On Conan Doyle</a> </li>
<li>Susan Rice, Curtis' Sherlockian mentor, on <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose61">Episode 61: The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes</a> and <a href="http://ihose.co/ihose89">Episode 89: The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes</a> </li>
<li>The 2003 <a href="http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/christmasannuals.html"><i>Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual: The Strength and Activity of Youth</i></a> </li>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0452953/">Terry Kilburn</a> from the IMDb </li>
<li><a href="http://wodehouse.org/">The Wodehouse Society</a></li><li><a href="http://ihose.co/ihose143" target="_blank">Episode 143: P.G. Wodehouse and Sherlock Holmes</a></li>
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Transcript<br />
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Transcript not yet released</span></span><br />
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Episode 125: Revenge of the Sherlockian Nerd

"a field for those peculiar qualities which my friend possessed" [FIVE] Curtis Armstrong, BSI ("An Actor, an...

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by Scott Monty

Baker Street Elementary — Things Are Seldom What They Seem

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"the impersonal joy of the true artist" [VALL] </h4>
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The scenes we develop in our mind's eye when reading are as unique as each one of us. We make a mental image of setting, scene and characters, and absent any other kind of visual cues, that becomes our reality of the fiction we enjoy.<br />
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Artists' depictions bring those scenes to life, but of course, we're at the mercy of the artists, who are invariably bringing to life the image in their minds. But just imagine if a work was based on a real-life adventure or actual people. Then the depictions might be scrutinized just a little more by the protagonists...<br />
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Oh, and for the uninitiated, "Ignatius" is Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle.<br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at </span><a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #006f85; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span></div>
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Baker Street Elementary — Things Are Seldom What They Seem

"the impersonal joy of the true artist" [VALL] The scenes we develop in our mind's eye when reading are as unique as e...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

Sleuth Your Way Through This Sherlock Holmes Corn Maze

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"the gap which opened into the cornfield" [STUD] </h4>
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If you're anywhere near Leicestershire, England, the famed Wistow Maze is a seasonal wonder. And for Sherlockians, it's a must-see this year.</div>
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Every year, this maze takes on a different shape. It's  one of the country's largest maize mazes, set in 8 acres of living maize and sunflower crop. </div>
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This year, to mark the 130th anniversary of the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the maze has been designed in the shape of Sherlock Holmes himself, with a 'Whodunnit' themed Quiz Trail hidden among the three miles of pathways.</div>
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Wistow Maze is a winner of Leicestershire's "Best Visitor Attraction" and attracts more than 20,000 visitors each year. The maze is open from Wednesday, July 19 to Sunday, September 3 daily, then weekends only until Sunday, September 17. Located near Wistow south of Leicester, the maze is open from 10:00 am — 6:00 pm. Parking is free and admission is £5.95 child, £6.95 adult, and a family ticket (2+2) is £24.<div>
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<h4>
<b>"I was very much surprised" [HOUN]</b></h4>
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A quick word about the connection between corn and Sherlock Holmes. We must admit that we were skeptical that we would find a Canonical quote that would relate to the subject. Certainly, in The Hound of the Baskervilles, there's the mention of "the lodge gates, a maze of fantastic tracery in wrought iron, with weather-bitten pillars on either side," and about 90 instances of the word 'amazement' in the Canon. But we couldn't possibly recall a mention of corn in the Sherlock Holmes stories.</div>
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Until...</div>
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Corn (maize) has its origins in Mexico and is the most widely grown grain crop in the Americas, so we wouldn't expect to see corn to make an appearance in the Canon. And at any rate, when it came to food, Watson seemed to focus his attentions on main courses rather than side dishes. Beef, fish and fowl are typically what we think of along with "a group of ancient and cobwebby bottles" [NOBL] at dinner. </div>
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Of the visions of food that Watson brings us, there are but two vegetables which he named: yams / sweet potatoes ("<i>I gave him directions to have several gourds of water and a lot of yams, coconuts, and sweet potatoes</i>" [SIGN]) and peas ("<i>the landlady babbled of green peas at seven-thirty</i>." [3TSU]).</div>
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So imagine our joy when we turned the pages of <i>A Study in Scarlet</i> — partially an American story, after all — and found this passage:</div>
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"Jefferson Hope had the scanty provisions and water, while Lucy had a small bundle containing a few of her more valued possessions. Opening the window very slowly and carefully, they waited until a dark cloud had somewhat obscured the night, and then one by one passed through into the little garden. With bated breath and crouching figures they stumbled across it, and gained the shelter of the hedge, which they skirted until they came to the gap which opened into the <b>cornfield</b>."</blockquote>
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In our business, it doesn't get much more exact than that.</div>
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If you do visit the Wistow Maze don't expect to return home with an edible Sherlockian souvenir. As mentioned above, this maze is maize, not sweet corn. Maize is typically used for animal feed.</div>
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However, if you really want to stretch a connection, you can always buy yourself a 'Missouri Meerschaum': a <a href="http://corncobpipe.com/">corn cob pipe</a>.</div>
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<i>Thanks to Karen Murdock for the tip.</i></div>
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Sleuth Your Way Through This Sherlock Holmes Corn Maze

"the gap which opened into the cornfield" [STUD] If you're anywhere near Leicestershire, England, the famed Wistow Maz...

+ Read more »

by Scott Monty

Intrigue Around Victorian Men Living Together

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<span style="font-weight: bold;">"I should have suspected a mere vulgar intrigue" [REDH] </span></div>
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There was an argument on Twitter the other day (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Nishtana">ma nishtana</a>) about whether Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson were lovers. It wasn't about the characters by those names in the BBC's "Sherlock" television series — that war has finished, with both sides declaring victory. This time, it was about the Holmes and the Watson of the original stories, written between 1887 and 1927 by Arthur Conan Doyle.<br />
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I'm not here to take a position in that argument. Anything I have to say about the issue, I said three years ago in <i><a href="http://bakerstreetjournal.com/">The Baker Street Journal</a></i>, in an article that may not have been particularly original, but represented the first time the case for a potentially gay Holmes and Watson had been set out for the readers of that relatively conservative Sherlockian journal. (The text of the article is <a href="http://credmond.ca/intimate-converse.pdf">available on my website</a>, for those who don't have the winter 2014 BSJ at hand.)<br />
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I'm just here to riff on something one participant in the conversation mentioned: after she wrote something about Conan Doyle's intentions, and whether or not they're relevant to readers these days, the Twitter software urged her to "tag" ACD (that is, mention his Twitter name explicitly) so he could join in the discussion.<br />
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Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930, and Twitter began in 2006, but that isn't necessarily an obstacle for a man who believed in Spiritualism — communication with the dead — and in fact wrote a book posthumously (<i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/return-Arthur-Conan-Doyle/dp/0854870458">The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle</a></i>, 1963). However, there might be a little difficulty finding <a href="http://twitter.com/A_Conan_Doyle">the authentic man</a> among Twitter's millions of users, and while the actual user of Twitter name <a href="https://twitter.com/acd">@acd</a> is, among other things, a beekeeper, there's no indication that he is also a novelist, a Briton, or dead.<br />
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The more interesting issue is, if we did manage to get into electronic communication with Sir Arthur, what would we ask him? "Did you intend for Holmes and Watson to be gay?" I think we know what his response would be, consisting mostly of spluttering. And, as another participant in the recent Twitter conversation, observed, "the author is both literally and figuratively dead and you do not need his permission." So.<br />
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Way more interesting, I think, would be to ask Doyle about daily life in the era he lived in and wrote about. It's generally accepted that his stories are, in most ways, a realistic portrayal of how people lived. Indeed, one thing that made the Sherlock Holmes stories stand out from earlier "detective" tales is their setting in everyday London, with familiar streets, trades and allusions. Arthur Conan Doyle knew Pope's Court and the Serpentine Mews well, even if he gave them pseudonyms, and he wrote about ostlers, stockbrokers and typists convincingly because he had observed them. <br />
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Well, then, what about the habits of impecunious single young men in English cities in the Victorian era? We weren't there to observe, and we have a tendency to impose today's norms and categories on those who dwell in a different century. But Conan Doyle was there, and we have to assume that his portraits are accurate ones. Wouldn't it be helpful to hear a bit more explanation, not about Holmes and Watson specifically but about men and their housing generally?<br />
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When Doyle was in the young-and-impecunious category himself, setting up as a doctor in Southsea in 1882, he rented a house and did his best to provide for both himself and his younger brother — a "bachelor establishment" for sure, to borrow a phrase from "The Reigate Squires." Victor Hatherley [ENGR] was a bachelor who lived alone, and so was Jonas Oldacre [NORW], but they both could afford it. The Canon does however, offer at least one bachelor who took on a roommate for financial reasons: Mr. Roundhay, the vicar in "The Devil's Foot." <br />
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As for gays on the London scene, Conan Doyle was certainly aware of them. He knew Oscar Wilde at the time of the historic Lippincott dinner in 1889, though I am not aware of any evidence that they were particular friends after that. Also in 1889, he must have been aware of the Cleveland Street scandal that horrified London, though he was not a member of either social class that was involved (aristocracy on the one hand, post-office messengers on the other). Much later, he got to know Roger Casement, worked with him in the Congo Reform Association, and based a character in <i>The Lost World</i> on him. When Casement's homosexuality became known following his conviction for treason, Doyle described it as a "mania."<br />
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It seems reasonable to think that if Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to make a character appear gay, he would know how to do it — as he did, arguably, with John Scott Eccles and Aloysius Garcia of "Wisteria Lodge." Other authors certainly did, including Wilde, and including Conan Doyle's own brother-in-law, E. W. (Willie) Hornung, whose stories about the gentleman burglar A. J. Raffles and his sidekick "Bunny" Manders began with <i>A Thief in the Night</i> in 1899. That book was dedicated to Conan Doyle.<br />
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Surely he read it, and surely he recognized that the bond between Raffles and Manders was not entirely fraternal. Wouldn't it be illuminating to hear what he thought about it?<br />
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Intrigue Around Victorian Men Living Together

"I should have suspected a mere vulgar intrigue" [REDH] There was an argument on Twitter the other day ( ma nishtana ) ab...

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by Chris Redmond

Baker Street Elementary — Hip Replacement

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"The magnificent spectacle cheered the hearts of the three" [STUD] </h4>
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It's always a daunting task when preparing a paper. Whether it's a grade school theme, a high school research paper, or a presentation to be given before one's peers at an event, it's something that one puts quite a bit effort into.<br />
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Of course, poring over the material from which the paper is derived is another story. We recall the heavy oak card catalogs at our town's library that contained the descriptions and Dewey Decimal numbers of countless books lining the shelves that led us to adventure after adventure, like 3 x 5 treasure maps, encoded with the coordinates of our loot.<br />
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Then again, collecting material from classroom lectures didn't always hold the same level of intrigue...<br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>Baker Street Elementary</i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at </span><a href="http://www.bakerstreetelementary.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #006f85; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;">www.bakerstreetelementary.org</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #0e0e0e; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">.</span></div>
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Baker Street Elementary — Hip Replacement

"The magnificent spectacle cheered the hearts of the three" [STUD] It's always a daunting task when preparing a paper....

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by Scott Monty

Episode 124: Replay - To Keep the Memory Green

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"seared into my memory" [SPEC] </h4>
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Richard Lancelyn Green, BSI ("The Three Gables"), who died in March 2004, was the world's leading expert on the life and works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He amassed one of the finest collections of Conan Doyle, and specifically, Sherlock Holmes material in private hands and had intended to produce a three-volume biography on Conan Doyle.<br />
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He was not yet 30 when he co-edited the towering <i>A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle</i> in 1983. He served a term as Chairman of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. His tragically early death was mourned by both friends and those who knew of him only by reputation, and it was decided that a collection of essays should be brought out in his honor and memory.<br />
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We interview co-editors Nicholas Utechin, BSI ("The Ancient British Barrow") and Steven Rothman, BSI ("<i>The Valley of Fear</i>") on the resulting volume, <i>To Keep the Memory Green</i>. While this is a previously released episode, there are a few more interesting tidbits of information, including a July sale being held by the BSI Press. Listen in for details on how to get this volume for half price.<br />
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<b>Please nominate I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere and/or Trifles on <a href="http://podcastawards.com/">Podcast Awards</a> in the Arts category. It's quick and easy.</b><br />
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Sponsors</h3>
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<li><i><a href="http://www.baskervilleproductions.com/books" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes and the Cryptic Clues: A Grave Undertaking</a></i> by Michael McClure. You should buy it. We're deadly serious.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.wessexpress.com/" style="font-style: normal;" target="_blank">Wessex Press</a>, publishers of <i><a href="http://wessexpress.com/html/newspaper3.html" target="_blank">Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle in the Newspapers: Volume 3</a></i>. </li>
<li style="font-style: normal;"><a href="http://ihose.co/bsijuly50" style="font-style: italic;" target="_blank">The Baker Street Journal</a>, where you can find the <a href="http://ihose.co/bsijuly50" target="_blank">July Half-Off Sale</a> on four titles:<i> A Remarkable Mixture; To Keep The Memory Green; The Grand Game, Volume Two; The Remarkable Characters of Arthur Conan Doyle.</i></li>
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4:30 Nick & Steve give some perspective on their editorial experiences<br />
14:29 A bit about Richard Lancelyn Green<br />
17:20 The genesis of To Keep the Memory Green<br />
21:12Steve recalls memories of Richard, a bus station and plastic carrier bags<br />
23:17 Nick harkens back to the early 1970s and an Oxford connection<br />
24:57 The Baker Street Irregulars and the Sherlock Holmes Society of London join forces<br />
27:00 Quartering together – the fruits of labor<br />
30:35 The impetus behind the project – capturing the essence of a “one-off”<br />
40:14 Editor’s Gas Lamp<br />
49:24 Final thoughts on Richard’s contribution<br />
52:08 Burt springs a question on Scott<br />
54:32 Hunting through old bookshops<br />
56:10 Scott’s inspiration for collecting – from a movie<br />
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Links</h3>
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<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/journal.php"><i>The Sherlock Holmes Journal</i></a></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/"><i>The Baker Street Journal</i></a></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0192123297?ie=UTF8&tag=thebakerstree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0192123297"><i>The Oxford Sherlock Holmes</i>: 9 volume set</a></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.conandoylecollection.co.uk/">The Portsmouth Central Library exhibit</a></li>
<li style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005JKHF?ie=UTF8&tag=thebakerstree-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00005JKHF"><i>The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes</i></a></li>
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Many more links, articles and images are available in our Flipboard magazine at  <a href="http://ihose.co/flipsherlock" target="_blank">ihose.co/flipsherlock</a>, as well as on the <a href="https://plus.google.com/communities/114565123495685504221" target="_blank">The Sherlock Holmes Community</a> on Google+ (with over 4,200 members), as well as through our accounts on  <a href="http://facebook.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://instagram.com/ihearofsherlock">Instagram</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/ihearofsherlock" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</div>
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Episode 124: Replay - To Keep the Memory Green

"seared into my memory" [SPEC] Richard Lancelyn Green, BSI ("The Three Gables"), who died in March 2004, ...

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by Scott Monty

Specific and Universal

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  "If we could <span class="highlight">fly</span> out of that window hand in hand" [IDEN] </h4>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbw5jJUuDRytjrEed-Ljen8cO957pf6VRJxdVTjwc2U8if5LWhLlMLPbQfMfflcF2mSQmF8SPKl7bPSbUz4LWmEAPPUy1XTlq_3dq-cB6IlkOb02ZYGi5mSFubWbT1b8VnkQvhXoBoPlwp/s1600/Sherlock+Holmes+and+Peter+Pan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="676" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbw5jJUuDRytjrEed-Ljen8cO957pf6VRJxdVTjwc2U8if5LWhLlMLPbQfMfflcF2mSQmF8SPKl7bPSbUz4LWmEAPPUy1XTlq_3dq-cB6IlkOb02ZYGi5mSFubWbT1b8VnkQvhXoBoPlwp/s640/Sherlock+Holmes+and+Peter+Pan.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Arthur Conan Doyle had the good fortune to be a working author in the one time and place where Sherlock Holmes and John Watson could achieve, not literary immortality but, historical reality and create the fandom movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Historical reality. People believed in the reality of Holmes and Watson.<br />
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Like all human beliefs, the reality of Holmes and Watson ran on a spectrum. Some believed that the pair were as real as the family members and neighbors they lived and interacted with every day. Some believed the pair were as real as Queen Victoria and the politicians whose names they read in the paper and who they might have seen in the distance but had never met in person. Some believed the pair were as real as Timbuktu and the mines of Ballarat, places they had never been to and never would go to, but knew existed because, well, that was common knowledge. Others believed that Holmes and Watson existed if not exactly as presented in the pages of <i>The Strand Magazine</i> then in some form close to it. Some believed that if they weren’t real, they should be. While the <i>The X-Files</i> may have popularized the “I Want To Believe” meme, that desire has always been a part of the human experience.<br />
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As the Industrial Age got underway, the need for an educated and literate workforce grew. Schools where reading, writing and mathematical skills were supplemented to religious indoctrination increased. Mass production costs decreased. Early in the eighteenth century all but the poorest could afford a newspaper and all but the poorest could read it and as the century went on the ratio of “poorest” decreased. The papers served the entertainment function of radio and television of later ages and carried a mix of fact and fiction; the line between the two could be broad and blurred. Serialized novels ran in the papers as a way to guarantee a constant circulation and the lengthy tomes that bore in today’s English class were the breathless “find out what happens next” to Edmond Dantès or Samuel Pickwick in the must-buy next issue.<br />
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Wilkie Collins, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Leo Tolstoy and many others had their novels first serialized in newspapers and magazines, but it was <i>The Strand Magazine </i>and Doyle who first serialized a character in a self-contained story in the 1890s that gave the public real-life fictional people.<br />
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The end of the nineteenth century was the apex of Newtonian certainty. Humanity was on the brink of looking behind the veil of stars to see the clockwork mechanics of the universe. Science and technology were filling in the untidy gap on the bookshelf of knowledge and it was men like Sherlock Holmes (and, generally unsung, women) who were penning those new tomes.<br />
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The self-contained unit of the short story combined with continuing adventures of two realistic men in a real city, in a current time period (“One night - it was on the 20th of March, 1888,” [SCAN] “I had called upon my friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, one day in the autumn of last year,” [REDH] “When I glance over my notes and records of the Sherlock Holmes cases between the years ‘82 and ‘90 …. The year ‘87 furnished us with a long series of cases of greater or less interest …. It was in the latter days of September, and the equinoctial gales had set in with exceptional violence.” [FIVE]), using cutting edge, but real, knowledge and technology that let the reader believe, if they were so inclined, that Holmes and Watson were real or very well could be.<br />
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It was Doyle’s talent, the short story format and the tools of the popular magazine memoirist that gave the fictional pair the verisimilitude of life. They existed outside of Doyle’s stories almost as soon as they appeared in the <i>Strand</i>. Ann K. McClellan in "<a href="http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/issue/view/27/showToc"><i>Tit-Bits</i>, New Journalism, and early Sherlock Holmes fandom</a>" wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“For instance, just a year after Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the <i>Strand</i>’s ‘A Scandal in Bohemia,’ <i>Tit-Bits</i> published an inquiry regarding the character’s real-life existence: ‘Buttons wishes to know whether Sherlock Holmes, the detective genius…is or is not an actual person. We cannot positively say. As a matter of fact, we have not made the personal acquaintance of Mr. Sherlock Holmes…If…we should find that no such person is in existence we shall then be very much disappointed indeed’ (<i>Tit-Bits</i>, January 23, 1892).” </blockquote>
A modern media whose attributes have remained constant over the last 150 years added to that plausibility by reporting Holmes’s presence in advertisements, plays, musicals and song. The immediate popularity of the twenty-four short stories between 1891-1893 inspired other series characters, which flourished in the slicks and pulps until the Great Depression of 1929 winnowed the market.<br />
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<i>The Hound of the Baskervilles</i> was serialized in <i>The Strand Magazine</i> in 1901-1902. During that run, an open letter to Dr. Watson—not Doyle mind you—appeared in the January 23, 1902 issue of the <i>Cambridge Review</i> and took the doctor to task for the inconsistencies present in the tale. Published in book form in 1902, it became one of the first best-sellers in the modern sense and the latter half of Holmes’s literary career gave rise to the Golden Age of mystery fiction staring in the 1920s when many of the rules of the genre were codified. While short stories still had a market from the 1930s to the 1960s, the money for publishers and authors shifted to the novel series character. <br />
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With this move from the transient immediacy of monthly publication to library-shelf permanence of the novel came the Peter Pan-ing of the series character.<br />
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<i>In A Visit to Three Fronts: Glimpses of the British, Italian and French Lines</i>, published in August 1916, Doyle wrote<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“[French General Georges] Humbert is a Lord Robert’s figure, small, wiry, quick-stepping, all steel and elastic, with a short, sharp upturned moustache, which one could imagine as crackling with electricity in moments of excitement like a cat’s fur. What he does or says is quick, abrupt, and to the point. He fires his remarks like pistol shots at this man or that. Once to my horror he fixed me with his hard little eyes and demanded <i>‘Sherlock Holmes, est ce qu’il est un soldat dans l’armée Anglaise?’</i> [Is Sherlock Holmes a soldier in the British Army?] The whole table waited in an awful hush. <i>‘Mais, mon general,’</i> I stammered, <i>‘il est trop vieux pour service.’</i> [But, general, he is too old to serve.] There was general laughter, and I felt that I had scrambled out of an awkward place.” </blockquote>
In the late spring of 1916, when this incident took place, Doyle knew Holmes’s approximate age. In “His Last Bow,” the stated age of the Altamont-disguised Holmes was 60, which in fact fits very well with the then-published corpus. But the demands of publishers, with stays on best-seller lists for months, library lending for years and, in 1935, the rise of paperbacks, called for the existence of ageless characters inhabiting an ever-present now of novels, preventing literary characters from achieving a historical reality.<br />
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Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe ages only nine years in the fourteen years that transpire between <i>The Big Sleep</i> and <i>The Long Goodbye</i>. From <i>Raymond Chandler: A Literary Reference </i>edited by Robert F Moss:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“In answer to a letter, receive in 1951 from a D.J. Ibberson of London, Chandler wrote a long account of ‘the facts of Philip Marlowe’s life.’ The date of Marlowe’s birth, he said, was uncertain, but he was about thirty-eight, and remained the same age.”</blockquote>
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In <i>The Mysterious Affair at Styles</i> (published in 1920, written in 1916), Hercule Poirot was already an old man and retired from police work in Belgium. In the novels <i>Third Girl</i> (1966), <i>Hallowe’en Party</i> (1969), and <i>Elephants Can Remember</i> (1972) the setting is clearly the 1960s (or “the present”). Even if Poirot retired at a canonical 49, he’d be 99 in 1966. Agatha Christie was well aware of the ridiculousness of the situation and wrote Poirot’s last case, <i>Curtain</i>, about 1940, although it wasn’t published until 1975, shortly before Christie’s own death.<br />
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Earl Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason was in over eighty novels and short story collections from 1933’s <i>The Case of the Velvet Claws</i> to 1973’s T<i>he Case of the Postponed Murder</i>. Mason, Della Street and Paul Drake not only remain ageless in their ever-present now, but have very little backstory. They exist to serve the function of the mystery and are seemly stored in amber between cases.<br />
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It is impossible to play The Game in such an unhistorical vacuum, where the age of the characters cannot be matched to the date of their adventures; where indeed the adventures have no dates. As Watson wrote in "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger,"<br />
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“When one considers that Mr Sherlock Holmes was in active practice for twenty-three years, and that during seventeen of these I was allowed to co-operate with him and to keep notes of his doings, it will be clear that I have a mass of material at my command.” </blockquote>
Holmes and Watson are dimensional; they lived in a space and time that could be plotted by the contemporary and future reader and had existence outside of the current memoir being read; Holmes’s college years and travels during the Great Hiatus, Watson’s marriage and military experience, the many other cases they worked on—hinted at but unchronicled. While the end of the nineteenth century was the apex of the Newtonian worldview, the twentieth century unveiled a quantum microcosm where Heisenberg is uncertain of both the exact speed and exact position of an object, where Schrödinger’s cat is alive or dead whether you observe it or not, where spooky action at a distance can entangle the untouched. Peter Pan becomes the norm, never aging because he refuses to. Time happens to Holmes and Watson as it does to other mortals; Marlowe, Mason and Poirot pass through time but don’t partake of it. They are Lost Boys will-o’-wisps in a Neverland, not solid points in a fixed age. They may have a shelf life, but they don’t have life.<br />
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Doyle wrote in that brief period when the contemporary and historical could coexist without being shunted into the Historical Mystery category and cast in bronze like Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael, Lindsey Davis’ Marcus Didius Falco or even Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins. Holmes and Watson went to see Sarasate and Norman-Neruda with the readers of the <i>Strand</i> (or the readers <b><i>might </i></b>have sat with the pair at any rate) and aged with the faithful audience. In the late 1880s, Holmes and Watson are “two middle-aged gentlemen … flying westward at fifty miles an hour” [BOSC]; in 1914, Watson is “a heavily-built, elderly man with a gray moustache” [LAST] and in "The Adventure of the Creeping Man," we the reader are greeted like old friends:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Mr Sherlock Holmes was always of opinion that I should publish the singular facts connected with Professor Presbury, if only to dispel once for all the ugly rumours which some twenty years ago agitated the University and were echoed in the learned societies of London. There were, however, certain obstacles in the way, and the true history of this curious case remained entombed in the tin box which contains so many records of my friend’s adventures. Now we have at last obtained permission to ventilate the facts which formed one of the very last cases handled by Holmes before his retirement from practice. Even now a certain reticence and discretion have to be observed in laying the matter before the public. It was one Sunday evening early in September of the year 1903 ….” </blockquote>
One can almost feel the crackling hearth, smell the leather chairs and taste the proffered tea (or Petri wine) of our host.<br />
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Such realities have disappeared from our serial fiction. Publishing demands to keep contemporary series characters timeless and ever-green in novels pumped out yearly decade after decade have made them lifeless and never-being. The fandom that grew around Sherlock Holmes can only exist around science fiction and TV shows, of which the best of them have their own reality and chronology that can approximate the experience of its consumer.<br />
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Within that fandom of The Game we explore the history Holmes and Watson lived, a Victorian world that is very relevant to our own, peopled with being just like the ones with whom we interact daily. By the specificity of time and place we find universality. Through the contingencies of history, Doyle created the only serialized characters with the reality of living, with which The Game could be played as “solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord’s”; where we can open the pages of the Canon and believe.<br />
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A lesser author couldn’t have done it.<br />
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