Jan 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The weather for this year's birthday festivities was rather reasonable, it
would appear, since there were no reports of people marooned in airports by
the Friday snowstorm.  The weekend was launched informally in 1988, with
one far-flung collector arriving in late December in search of items that
might have been overlooked by locals, but the first formal event was, as
usual, the Martha Hudson Breakfast at the Hotel Algonquin on Friday, when
Bishop Rabe's campaign against simony yielded a pleasantly social, rather
than commercial, gathering.

Our visitors from distant shores included Dr. Tsukasa Kobayashi, president
of the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, and his wife Akane Higashiyama, authors
of the splendid A PICTORIAL RECORD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES'S LONDON (published
here in 1986 as SHERLOCK HOLMES'S LONDON).  They represented their society
on the 1987 and 1988 tours of Switzerland, and their contributions to our
literature in Japan now total 26 books of essays and translations of the
Canon and the Writings About the Writings.  The Japan Sherlock Holmes Club,
which was launched in 1977 with only two members (Dr. and Mrs. Kobayashi),
now has 1,200 members and is the largest Sherlockian society in the world.

The William Gillette Luncheon at the Old Homestead was well-attended, as
was Otto Penzler's open house at the Mysterious Bookshop, and the Algonquin
offered a safe haven in its lobby for Sherlockians whose conversations may
well have bewildered the few non-Sherlockians present.  The new management
of the Algonquin, obviously realizing that Benchley, Thurber, and Woollcott
will not be returning, ensured a warm welcome for the birthday celebrants,
and its hospitality may include a special rate for next year's weekend (we
will be celebrating Sherlock Holmes' 136th birthday on January 12, 1990).

The Baker Street Irregulars gathered for dinner at 24 Fifth Avenue, where
Karen L. Johnson was *The* Woman, toasted by Bob Thomalen at the pre-dinner
cocktail party (and by *The* Women at their annual dinner at the National
Arts Club).  The BSI dinner agenda included (non-traditionally) all of the
traditional toasts, Joe Fink's fervent defense of Tonga on behalf of the
DDL (the Dwarf Defense League), Al Rosenblatt's presentation of a special
"Murray Award" (for heroism under fire) to Bob Thomalen, Philip Shreffler's
illustrated series of "Lessons in Canonical Villainy", and Jon Lellenberg's
report on the current (and possibly future) Canonical content of the Oxford
English Dictionary.  Irregular Shillings were awarded to Andrew Joffe ("Sir
Charles Halle"), M. Kenneth McQuage ("The Plumstead Marshes"), Richard M.
Caplan ("Dr. Jackson"), Brad A. Keefauver ("Winwood Reade"), Alvin E. Rodin
("Palmer"), Jack D. Key ("Pritchard"), and Tsukasa Kobayashi ("Baritsu").

The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes gathered at Garvin's Restaurant to
celebrate their collective 21st birthday with toasts and presentations by
Cynthia Wein (on Canonical ladies), Nora Myers (on what her students knew,
or didn't know, about Sherlock Holmes), Delia Vargas (as the still-unknown
lady at Appledore Towers), and Ann Byerly (on some new examples of literary
osmosis).  The ASH were joined eventually by many of the BSI for the post-
dinner festivities scheduled at the Paradise (a basement disco), where the
noise level soon drove most of the Sherlockian celebrants back to the bar
at Garvin's.

Jan 89 #2   Saturday's cocktail party at 24 Fifth Avenue honored *The* Wom-
            en, and 15 of the 29 ladies were present for the formal toast
to those who had, as Sherlock Holmes once suggested, placed themselves in
the power of a band of rascals.  The Queen Victoria Medal was awarded to
Edith Meiser, the BSI's first Commissionaire's Award (a complete portfolio
of the original Sherlockian maps prepared by Julian Wolff) was presented to
Enola Stewart of Gravesend Books for her signal contributions to keeping
green the memory, and Susan Rice and Ezra Wolff offered their rhymed re-
ports on Friday's festivities.

Saturday evening there was a performance of two Sherlockian one-act plays
at the Prometheus Theatre, which had been booked in its entirety (40 seats)
for Sherlockians.  On Sunday, south-bound travelers dined in Philadelphia
with The Master's Class at the Franklin Inn Club, where Jean Upton reported
on "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" and on her visit with Jeremy Brett and
Edward Hardwicke in London.

For some Sherlockians the weekend offered an opportunity for a nostalgic
visit to Scribner's Book Store, scheduled to close on Jan. 22.  The ten-
story Scribner building, at 597 Fifth Avenue, is a designated New York City
landmark for its delightful Beaux Arts facade, and was the headquarters for
the publishing company from 1913 until 1984.  And the book store itself is
a Sherlockian landmark, since it was there that David A. Randall presided
over Scribner's Rare Book Department for twenty-one years and assisted many
of the very early collectors.  His 1943 catalog (D3732a), which offered (to
cite only a few of its treasures) five Canonical manuscripts and two copies
of Beeton's Christmas Annual, is the best-known though certainly not the
only example of how much so many owed to Scribner's.

Some of those attending the birthday celebrations were assisted by "John H.  
Watson", a carefully anonymous Sherlockian who presides over the John H.
Watson Fund, now in its second year and intended to offer financial aid to
Sherlockians (membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might
otherwise be unable to participate in the festivities.  Contributions to
the Fund can be made by check, payable to John H. Watson, and mailed to
him, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr. (34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648).

The souvenirs included fliers for Sherlockian illustrator/cartoonist Jeff
Decker's "Personal (But Slightly Irregular) Baker Street Canonizers" --
personalized full-color artwork per commission -- and you can request the
flier from Jeff at R.D. #1, Box 2175, Jonestown, PA 17038.

Another flier announced plans for SHERLOCK HOLMES BY GAS-LAMP: HIGHLIGHTS
FROM THE FIRST FORTY YEARS OF THE BAKER STREET JOURNAL, edited by Philip A. 
Shreffler.  The book is scheduled for March 1989 (425 pp., $22.50 plus
$1.50 shipping) and can be ordered now from the Fordham University Press,
Box 6525, Ithaca, NY 14850 (they take plastic).

I have revised the 11-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling
Awards, and *The* Women ($1.00 postpaid).  And the 50-page list of the 478
Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for 262 active societies
costs $3.00 postpaid.  Checks to Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119,
Washington, DC 20007.

Jan 89 #3   Umberto Eco's new novel FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, published in Italy
            in October, has already sold 400,000 hard-cover copies, and
will be published in an English translation by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
this fall.  According to an interview with Eco in the N.Y. Times (Dec. 13,
1988), forwarded by Ted Schulz, has no reference to Sherlock Holmes.  Eco's
THE NAME OF THE ROSE has now sold 9 million copies in 24 languages, and Eco
is not bothered a bit by the suggestion that most of those 9 million copies
have not been read.  "When someone speaks of G.U.B., great unread books,
I'm in great company," he said.  "Few people have entirely read 'The Magic
Mountain' or 'Finnegans Wake' or Proust."

Further to Jeremy Brett's statement (quoted Oct 88 #7) that
Daniel Day-Lewis might be "the next Sherlock Holmes," here is
a photograph (from Pattie R. Brunner) of the actor, as seen in
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being".

Charlotte Erickson (726 Sutter Street, Palo Alto, CA 94303)
has revised and expanded her 1985 checklist of SHERLOCK HOLMES
IN THE COMIC BOOKS; $8.00 postpaid.

Charlotte also reports that The Churchills ("Professional Muggers"), Box
327, Somerset, CA 95684, offer handcrafted clay caricature mugs of Holmes
(resembling Rathbone) and Watson (a cross between Bruce and Burke) for
$16.00 each (plus 10% handling).

At hand from Samuel E. Fry: a catalog from the J. Peterman Company (257
Midland Avenue, Lexington, KY 40507), offering "The Baker Street Coat"
(with military collar and removable shoulder cape) in 100% Melton wool,
navy or black or charcoal grey, with black satin lining, men's sizes 38
through 48, $520.00 including shipping.

"I particularly like to sit in the comfortable chair that was once owned by
Lewis Carroll . . .  and I have a chair that was Charles Dickens's, and a
fold-up desk that once belonged to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . . . I got that
at a London auction, along with Conan Doyle's pipe, which--as a pipe smoker
--I can truly appreciate."  Irving Wallace, interviewed by Shirley Lee for
the Franklin Mint's magazine Almanac (Jan.-Feb. 1989).

Andrew G. Fusco (220 Pleasant Street, Morgantown, WV 26505) is disposing of
some of his Sherlockian duplicates, both early and late; write to him for
his 11-page sales list.

Cinderella philately: the Howard Local Post issued a "Sherlock Holmes Old
Radio" local stamp some years ago, and copies are still available for $0.25
(and an SASE) from Howard DuBose, River Runner's Emporium, 201 Albemarle
Street, Durham, NC 27701.

Gary K. Thaden sends news of a new play: "Sherlock Holmes and the Baker
Street Irregulars" (written by Thomas W. Olson) will be presented by the
Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis from Feb. 10 through Apr. 15.  
The Norwegian Explorers (Special Collections, Wilson Library, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) are planning a theater party (no date
yet), or you can call the theater box office (612-874-0400).

Jan 89 #4   Admiration for Sherlockian costume is not universal, at least
            among those who have worn it while stalking deer or other non-
criminous quarry.  "Avoid however, the so-called deer-stalker's cap, which
is an abomination; its peaked brim giving no protection whatsoever to the
eyes when facing the sun quartering, a position in which many shots must be
taken."  Theodore Roosevelt, in the third paragraph of his appendix to THE
WILDERNESS HUNTERS (1893), reported by Richard D. Lesh.

LABYRINTHS OF REASON: PARADOX, PUZZLES AND THE FRAILTY OF KNOWLEDGE, by
William Poundstone (New York: Doubleday, 1988; 274 pp., $18.95), explores
the question of how we actually know that anything is true, using old and
new paradoxes to demonstrate just how frail that knowledge can be.  One
chapter of the book presents a series of puzzles, offered by Watson to
Holmes, by way of showing the relationship between puzzles and paradoxes.  
Poundstone quotes Sherlock Holmes' suggestion that "in solving a problem of
this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward," but readers
of the book will soon discover why paradoxes have fascinated philosophers
for centuries: in a paradox, there is no tenable hypothesis that yields a
solution, and reasoning yields only contradictions.

Tyke Niver reports that a catalog from the House of Tyrol (Box 909, Gateway
Plaza, Cleveland, GA 30528) offers the Bosson wall plaques (Holmes, Watson,
and Moriarty) at $58.00 each (see Jun 88 #2 for an illustration of these
handsome items).

Gary Westmoreland has forwarded news of the Queen's birthday honors, which
included an award of the CBE (Companion of the Order of the British Empire)
to Michael Holroyd, the literary biographer, whose discussion of Hesketh
Pearson's biography of Conan Doyle for a 1977 BBC radio program was both
perceptive and annoying to Adrian.  Ian Richardson, who played Holmes in
two television films, also received the CBE, and the OBE (Officer of the
Order of the British Empire) was awarded to Peter Cushing, who has played
Holmes in films and on television, and to Penelope Keith, who was seen as
the receptionist at the massage parlour in the 1978 film "The Hound of the
Baskervilles".

Peter Marks' SKULLDUGGERY (Aug 87 #2) has been reprinted in paperback (New
York: Carroll & Graf, 1988; 284 pp., $4.50); this is an imaginative and
fictional solution to the Piltdown mystery, and Conan Doyle is portrayed
(with some sympathy, despite several elementary factual mistakes) as one of
the protagonists.

A newspaper survey of 100 film critics reports that "The Thin Blue Line"
appeared most often on their lists of ten best films in 1988, followed by
"Bull Durham" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".  More than 200 films received
at least one "best" vote, including "Without a Clue" (which appeared on the
list prepared by Chuck Davis of The Daily Oklahoman).

Does anyone know the name and address of the company that made (or sold) a
"Signature Collection" of commemorative plates with artwork by Mitchell
Hooks, with one plate showing Holmes and (possibly) another showing Watson?
Kyle Richeson (Box 1354, Calhoun, GA 30701) would like to find (and buy)
one of the plates showing Watson.

Jan 89 #5   THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
            account of his trip to Australia and New Zealand, with his wife
and children, first published in 1921 and reprinted in 1988 in a paperback
facsimile of the first American edition by Ronin Publishing Inc. (Box 1035,
Berkeley, CA 94701; 299 pp., $8.95).  Conan Doyle described his book as a
"go-as-you-please style of narrative," by way of warning readers who have
no interest in spiritualism, but it is an entertaining report on what he
saw and did, as well as on his beliefs.

THE LADIES HOLMES COMPANION: A CALENDAR FOR 1989 was on view during the
birthday festivities.  This is the second calendar from Harpies Bizarre,
with new S'ian artwork and legible S'ian and non-S'ian daily notes.  $8.95
postpaid from P. Moran, Box 854, Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02142.









"The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then he went
prospecting in Arizona." (Nobl)  Our newest commemorative honors the 100th
anniversary of statehood for Montana, with a painting by Charles M. Russell
that features the artist himself, and a new postal card in the "America the
Beautiful" series is based on Bart Forbes' original painting of the Sonora
Desert in Arizona.

Robert Newman died on Dec. 7.  He wrote for radio (he was in charge of the
radio portion of FDR's 1944 re-election campaign) and television (episodes
of "Search for Tomorrow" and "Peyton Place"), and then turned to books for
young readers.  THE CASE OF THE BAKER STREET IRREGULAR (D5095b) had as its
protagonist a 14-year-old boy who meets both the irregulars and Sherlock
Holmes in a well-written mystery that made excellent use of the Canonical
characters.

Paul D. Herbert reports that the Forbes Magazine Gallery at 60 Fifth Avenue
in New York (not far from the site of the BSI cocktail party, for future
reference) had (and may still have) a display of toy soldiers from the
Malcolm Forbes collection.  Part of the display is a military parade by a
village green, where Holmes and Watson are among the onlookers.

RED JACK, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh, and Frank D.  
McSherry, Jr. (New York: DAW Books, 1988; 333 pp., $3.95), is an anthology
of some of the better fiction about Jack the Ripper.  The contents include
a welcome reprint (in its entirety) of Ellery Queen's A STUDY IN TERROR
(D6065a); this is a novelization of the film, with an added ending and a
new solution.

At hand from Andrew G. Fusco: a mail-order flier from Sherlock's of Chapel
Hills (Chapel Hills Mall, 1710 Briargate Boulevard, Colorado Springs, CO
80920), offering a series of Sherlockian pipe-tobacco blends.

Jan 89 #6   Marc Lovell's THE SPY WHO FELL OFF THE BACK OF A BUS (New York:
            Doubleday, 1988; 181 pp., $12.95) is the twelfth in a series of
amusing mystery novels about British secret agent Appleton Porter, whose
six-foot-seven-inch height makes his spy missions a bit difficult.  In his
latest case he is sent to a book-collectors' convention in Cannes, to find,
authenticate, and suppress a document that threatens his nation's prestige:
a one-hundred-page holograph manuscript by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which
he attacks the most famous Englishman of all time: Sherlock Holmes.

Peter J. Crupe reports that the Triton Gallery (323 West 45th Street, New
York, NY 10036) offers a poster (42x58") from the Royal Shakespeare Company
production of "Sherlock Holmes" for $45.00.  Also a poster (14x22") from
"Sherlock's Last Case" for $12.00.  Their number for credit-card orders is
800-626-6674.

At least one person attending the birthday festivities and staying at the
Shoreham Hotel was charged more than the rates reported here (Nov 88 #2),
apparently because those rates were neither requested nor confirmed when
the reservation was made.  It is quite unfortunate that many businesses,
including airlines and hotels, offer special rates, but only to those who
request those special rates, and it is always wise, when reservations are
made, to ask if there are special rates, and to confirm that you are going
to receive the rates you expect.  If there are others who had problems with
the Shoreham, I would suggest that you write to Gerry O'Connor, the hotel's
reservations manager, pointing out to her that you stayed at the hotel on a
weekend, and that you believe that you should have been charged only the
weekend rate.

EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE DUCK, by Gahan Wilson (New York: Mysterious Press,
1988; 202 pp., $15.95), is delightfully indescribable, but Wilson's way
with words is as antic as with his cartoonist's pen, and just as enjoyable.  
The book pits three thoroughly vicious villains, including the Professor
(yes, *that* Professor) against Enoch Bone and his assistant John Weston
(draw your own conclusions) in a modern-day adventure that is a tribute to
as well as a parody of the more picaresque pulps.  Recommended.

Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers a new
lapel pin, in full-color enamel with gold trim, of the "Sherlock Holmes"
cigarette card from the Turf cigarette series; $17.00 postpaid.  Bob also
offers a four-page sales list of collectibles (SASE appreciated), and an
illustrated flier for the Laboromnia collectibles from Britain, including
plates, mugs, statues, clocks, watches, thimbles, and neckties.

"The Return of Sherlock Holmes Tour" to Switzerland and England, led by
Scott Bond and Sherry Rose-Bond, is scheduled for June 10-24.  This is a
sequel to their 1987 "Final Problem Tour", and a detailed brochure (with
artwork by Scott Bond) is available from Geographics Travel & Tours, 21
South 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

Brian and Charlotte Erickson will go on-line with a new bulletin board for
computerized Sherlockians in the San Francisco Bay area on Feb. 1.  221BBS
operates from 6:30 to 9:30 pm PST, Sunday through Thursday, at 415-329-1703
(8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, 300/1200/2400 BAUD).

Jan 89 #7   NAMING THE ROSE: ESSAYS ON ECO'S THE NAME OF THE ROSE, edited
            by M. Thomas Inge (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,
1988; 206 pp., $27.50), is a collection of scholarly essays intended as an
exploration of the cultural significance and literary contexts of Umberto
Eco's novel, whose English translation was a best-seller both in hardcover
(more than 500,000 copies) and in paperback (more than 1.3 million copies).  
The Sherlockian aspects of Eco's medieval mystery are not neglected, and
Eco's own comments (in his "Prelude to a Palimpsest") are of particular
interest for their warning to present and future interpreters of his work:
"In several of the essays in this book I found brilliant, possible readings
my novel," Eco notes, "readings I cannot absolutely challenge because they
are rooted in the text and of which I became aware only by reading the
readings of my readers."

The "Wonderworks" press release for "Young Charlie Chaplin" at hand from
Paul C. Merz.  This is a three-part series from Thames Television, to be
broadcast by PBS-TV on Feb. 11, 18, and 25, and the cast list has Shaughan
Seymour as Saintsbury, allowing inference that we will see Chaplin as Billy
(he first played the role in Saintsbury's touring production of the William
Gillette play, opening at the Pavilion Theatre in London in July 1903).

Reported: THE MACINTOSH HOLMES COMPANION (the Apple Macintosh version of
the MS-DOS computerized Canon), on five 800K disks, in MacWrite 5.0 format,
with public-domain software and shareware, for $59.95 plus $3.00 shipping. 
Details available from Baker Street Software, Box 2712, Santa Clara, CA
95055.  The Macintosh graphics capability provides the full-text version of
the Canon, including drawings, maps, and dancing men.






















New hand-painted sculptures available from Keith Chrimes (112 Cramlington
Road, Great Barr, Birmingham B42 2EG, England): metal figures (70mm) of
Holmes and Watson (L12.00 each), and a resin wall plaque (110mm) of Holmes
(L15.00).

Jan 89 #8   A pair of stories in the Lancashire Evening Post on Nov. 30,
            1988 (possibly published side-by-side to allow readers to draw
inferences that the paper didn't want to specify) reports on two traditions
at one of Conan Doyle's schools: Stonyhurst will admit girls to its sixth
form in this year, "after 400 years as an all-male preserve."  Stonyhurst,
however, has no plans to end its tradition of giving "six of the best to
bad-behaved pupils."  Stonyhurst head teacher Giles Mercer defended the
school's tradition, noting that "We do what we think is right and best for
our own circumstances."  Corporal punishment in state schools was abolished
by Parliament in 1987, but the law does not cover more than 550 independent
schools, of which 27 still cane their students.

The new mail-order catalog from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10011) offers Martin Gardner's THE ANNOTATED INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN
($6.95) and Richard Lancelyn Green's LETTERS TO SHERLOCK HOLMES ($2.98), so
we will likely also see these titles on the remainder tables.

Sherlock Hemlock is included in COOKIE MONSTER COLORING BOOK and BIG BIRD
COLORING BOOK, two oversize (15 by 20 inches) Golden Book coloring books
from Western Publishing Co.  Scout your local toy stores.

Forecast: THE LOST WORLD & THE POISON BELT (300 pp., $8.95) in June from
Chronicle Books (275 5th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103), according to a
catalog at hand from Allen Mackler.

Whitbread's new Sherlock Holmes pub (Dec 88 #1) is now open, in Summerhill
Road in Coseley, near Wolverhampton, which is about 13 miles northwest of
Birmingham in the West Midlands.  Brian Moriarty, trade-quality manager for
Whitbread's, was at the opening ceremonies.

Bill Majeski has written a sequel to THE VERY GREAT GRANDSON OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES (D4497b).  Sherwood Holmes is featured again in a new two-act
high-school comedy, SHERLOCK HOLMES' GREAT GRANDSON GOES HOLLYWOOD,
available for $3.95 (plus $1.25 shipping) from the Dramatic Publishing Co.,
Box 109, Woodstock, IL 60098.

Plans progress for "the ultimate Sherlockian seminar at sea" from New York
to Bermuda and back, July 23-28, 1989, arranged by Poor Little Rich Girl
Travels and Chandris Fantasy Cruises.  John Bennett Shaw reports that he
and Dorothy are recovering nicely from last year's doctoring, and expect to
be on board for the festivities.  Details on the cruise are available from
Mary Ellen Rich, 52 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (212-757-0881).

There are Canonical echoes in Phyllis Ann Karr's mystery story "Murder with
an Artist's Rag" (featuring Senior Sergeant Rosemary Lestrade, a police
detective in the late 21st century) in Space & Time #75 (winter 1989).  
Space & Time is a 120-page fanzine published by Gordon Linzner, 138 West
70th Street #4-B, New York, NY 10023; $5.00.

According to my records, my 1989 seasonal souvenir ("SARASATE PLAYS AT THE
ST. JAMES'S HALL THIS AFTERNOON..."), should have reached all subscribers,
either during the birthday festivities, or since, or with this mailing.  If
I missed someone, please let me know.

Feb 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

"The vogue for Sherlock Holmes . . . simply swept the country. . . . In
more recent years Sherlock Holmes has become the center of a cult, with a
considerable literature, clubs, and a serio-comic bibliophilic scholarship
of amazing proportions."  Frank Luther Mott, in GOLDEN MULTITUDES: THE
STORY OF BEST SELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES (New York: Macmillan, 1947),
noted by Gayle T. Harris.  Those proportions are far more amazing, of
course, more than forty years later.

In my discussion of the Queen's birthday honors (Jan 89 #4) I reported that
Michael Holroyd's discussion of Hesketh Pearson's biography of Conan Doyle
for a 1977 BBC radio program had annoyed Adrian -- who, as I neglected to
remember, died in 1970.  Holroyd's 1977 broadcast did report in some detail
on Adrian's battles with Pearson, who was asked by the BBC to give a radio
talk to celebrate the centenary of Conan Doyle's birth.  Adrian threatened
to retaliate against the BBC by withholding permission to broadcast any of
Conan Doyle's protected works, and the BBC surrendered.

A sales list at hand from Ilene and Corey Fauer (US 2, 563 Clinton Road,
Paramus, NJ 07652) announces their going-out-of-business sale and offers
discounts on their buttons, cards, bumper stickers, notepaper, T-shirts,
signs, and other Sherlockian material.

The Pequod Press, waiting impatiently for the next memoir of Turlock Loams,
has turned to its resident poet, who has prepared a new collection of S'ian
quatrains.  BAKER STREET BOUILLABAISSE is available from John Ruyle, 521
Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $29.50 in cloth or $14.50 in wrappers.

The Walt Disney animation of "The Wind in the Willows" is available on a
34-minute videocassette from Walt Disney Home Video.  First seen in 1949 as
part of the film "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad", "The Wind in the
Willows" is narrated by Basil Rathbone (who mentions Sherlock Holmes in his
introduction) and shows Ratty in a deerstalker and Mole in a bowler.

The Master's Class of Philadelphia are planning to combine their spring
meeting with the fourth annual "Dinner in Baker Street" Victorian buffet at
the Dickens Inn on Apr. 30.  Details available from Victoria M. Robinson,
299-B Summit House, 1450 West Chester Pike, West Chester, PA 19382.

Spotted by Samuel C. Fry in THE GENTLEMEN'S CLUBS OF LONDON, by Anthony
Lejeune and Malcolm Lewis (London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1979) (New York:
Dorset Press, 1984): the description of The American Club at 95 Piccadilly
includes Holmes' warmly Anglo-American comments from "The Noble Bachelor".
The book also includes, without comment, the Canon's description of the
Diogenes Club.

Dr. De Lamar Gibbons uses Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to present some of
the logical deductions in THEIR SECRETS: WHY THE NAVAHO INDIANS NEVER GET
CANCER.  His conclusion is that "the Navahos do not get cancer because they
ignorantly obey some very fundamental health rules that most of us have
ignorantly disobeyed," and his book (124 pp., $10.00 postpaid) is available
from the Academy of Health, Box 497, Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246.

Feb 89 #2   Lawrence Garland's THE AFFAIR OF THE UNPRINCIPLED PUBLISHER is
            still available from Oak Knoll Books (414 Delaware Street, New
Castle, DE 19720) at $30.00 (plus $2.50 shipping).  This pastiche account
of an encounter between Thomas J. Wise and Sherlock Holmes was Oak Knoll's
fine-press Christmas book for 1983; 22 pp. in stiff wrappers.

The Land Press (South Lodge, East Heath Road, London NW3 1BL, England) has
announced a new limited edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, with
all of the Sidney Paget illustrations from The Strand Magazine, a hitherto
unpublished full-page frontispiece portrait of Holmes by Paget, and custom
leather binding with four different designs available.  The cost is $2,000
a copy, and the publisher offers a full-color prospectus with illustrations
of the handsome designs for the binding and of the Paget frontispiece.

The winter 1989 issue of The Armchair Detective has a "Report from 221B
Baker Street" by Sherry Rose-Bond and Scott Bond, scattered Sherlockian
reviews and other references, and an fine article by G. Michael Doogan on
Dashiell Hammett's army service in Alaska during World War II, with (page
88) a photograph showing Hammett and the staff of the base newspaper The
Adakian, including (at lower left) Luther L. Norris.

Sir William Stephenson, who was involved with the Baker Street Irregulars
during World War II, died on Jan. 31.  His wartime career in British secret
intelligence was described (with great verve and some mistakes) in William
Stevenson's A MAN CALLED INTREPID: THE SECRET WAR (D3600b).  Stephenson's
Baker Street Irregulars were the Special Operations Executive, which was
headquartered in Baker Street and had two functions: training people for
sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and supervising the liaison
between Britain's war effort and the underground resistance movements in
enemy-occupied countries.  Bickam Sweet-Escott's BAKER STREET IRREGULAR
(London: Methuen, 1965) is a good source for information about the SOE.

Basil Rathbone's autobiography IN AND OUT OF CHARACTER, published in 1962
and long out-of-print, has been reissued as a trade-paperback (New York:
Limelight Editions, 1989; 278 pp., $10.95).  Rathbone suggested in the
Preface that he was a frustrated writer, but his book needed no apology,
and the new edition will be welcomed by a new generation of Sherlockians,
as well as by older generations frustrated by the difficulty of finding a
copy of the first edition in book-dealers' catalogs.  That scarcity is, of
course, one indication of the quality of the book (people who have copies
tend to keep them), and new readers will quickly learn that Rathbone was a
fine writer.  He discusses his Sherlockians films, and the radio series,
and his play, with honesty and humor, and those qualities also apply to his
comments on his many friends and fellow actors, and on his long career on
stage and screen.  Recommended.

RICHARD DOYLE AND HIS FAMILY was the 76-page catalog for an exhibition at
the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1983-84, with many illustrations (some in
full color) of paintings and drawings by many members of the family, which
included Richard's brother (Charles Altamont Doyle) and nephew (Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle).  And it was spotted by readers (more eagle eyed than I) in a
recent catalog of discount/remainder books offered by Edward J. Hamilton,
Falls Village, CT 06031; item 536067, $4.95.

Feb 89 #3   One of the nice things about living in a big city is the chance
            to see 70mm films with six-track Dolby sound, such as the newly
restored 216-minute version of "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962).  The film was
(and now is again) splendid.  One can find S'ian connections for almost any
film, of course, but this cast includes an actor who has played Watson: at
the end of the film, in Damascus, the angry British medical officer is H.
Marion Crawford, who was Watson to Ronald Howard's 1954 television Holmes.

One of the souvenirs distributed during the birthday festivities was Glenn
Shea's list of French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish editions of
the Canon and other Sherlockian books available from Schoenhof's Foreign
Books, 76-A Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.  Write to Schoenhof's
for a copy of the list.

The film may not have lasted long in the theaters, but the music survives:
Andrew Jay Peck reports a performance of Bruce Broughton's score for "Young
Sherlock Holmes" by the Greensboro (N.C.) Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 29.

Reported: a third audio cassette from Simon and Schuster, with two more of
the Rathbone/Bruce radio shows: "The April Fool's Adventure" (Apr. 1, 1946)
and "The Uneasy Easy Chair" (Apr. 13, 1946).

The Mar. 1989 issue of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact may still be on
the newsstands: Harry Turtledove's story "Nothing in the Night-Time" has
some pleasant Canonical echoes.

Historian Barbara Tuchman died on Feb. 6.  In 1985 she reported that as a
teenager her favorite reading was historical novels, including Alexandre
Dumas and Conan Doyle's THE WHITE COMPANY, "whose central figure did not
equal the Musketeers, but the events carried the story, especially the
dramatic siege of the castle by the fierce rebellious peasants--a scene I
have never forgotten."  And it was in 1985 that she re-read THE HOUND OF
THE BASKERVILLES, noting that it "astonishing how this old and worn-out
story, which I must have first read more than 50 years ago, gripped my
attention and held it in suspense until I reached the last page."  Story is
the source and the bloodstream of literature, she suggested, adding that
"with seeming ease Conan Doyle could achieve the goal of every writer's
desire--to enthrall the reader by the written word."

Further to my recommendation of Gahan Wilson's EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE DUCK
(Jan 89 #6), Otto Penzler offers the first edition, inscribed (or simply
signed, if you prefer) with an original Sherlockian cartoon by the author,
on copies ordered through The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street,
New York, NY 10019); $15.95 plus $3.00 shipping.  Otto also reports that
ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MURDERS, a new collection edited by Thomas Godfrey
for The Mysterious Press ($17.95), includes "The Abbey Grange" and James
Miles' new S'ian story (written for the collection) "The Worcester Enigma".

Michael Hardwick's THE REVENGE OF THE HOUND is now available in paperback
(New York: Pinnacle Books, 1989; 347 pp., $3.95); a gigantic and ferocious
hound appears on Hampstead Heath, and Holmes and Watson investigate a case
that involves Oliver Cromwell and King Edward, with a climax at Highgate
Cemetery.

Feb 89 #4   Check the discount tables for HOUND DUNNIT, edited by Isaac
            Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh (New
York: Carroll & Graf, 1987); it's a collection of mysteries that involve
dogs, including "Silver Blaze", Barry Perowne's "Raffles on the Trail of
the Hound", and Rex Stout's "A Dog in the Daytime".

THE QUEST FOR SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: THIRTEEN BIOGRAPHERS IN SEARCH OF A
LIFE, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg (Nov 87 #4) is available through Apr. 30
from the Southern Illinois University Press for $14.62 plus $3.00 shipping;
#1384 in the current catalog, they take plastic, and the telephone number
for credit-card orders is 800-444-8525 ext 950.  The book is a fine guide
to the many, and frequently unreliable, biographies.

Videotaper alert (for Jeremy Brett fans): "My Fair Lady" will be broadcast
on cable by The Movie Channel at 4:00 pm on March 26.

It is possible that one of Michael Harrison's most important virtues is the
eloquence that he inspires in others: the 1988 issue of Beeman's Christmas
Annual contains six tributes from Sherlockians he met on his tours of the
United States.  The 24-page pamphlet is available from William R. Cochran,
517 North Vine Street, DuQuoin, IL 62832; $5.00 postpaid.

THE CHRISTMAS MURDERS, edited by Jonathan Goodman (London: Sphere Books,
1988; 208 pp., L2.99), is an anthology of accounts of murders committed
during the Christmas season (murders of "the old-fashioned sort," suggests
the editor nostalgically, because "most present-day murderers give murder a
bad name"); the contents include Conan Doyle's report on "The Case of Oscar
Slater" (1912).

Research proceeds on the Souvenir Edition of THE SIGN OF FOUR, for a report
similar to the one on A STUDY IN SCARLET in the summer 1987 issue of BSM.  
Owners of copies of THE SIGN OF FOUR bound in green or blue cloth with the
attractive Egyptian-motif design are invited to request a copy of my
one-page questionnaire listing the points of interest identifying the
variants.

"Facts . . . how facts obscure the truth.  I may be silly--in fact, I'm off
my head--but I never could believe in that man--what's his name, in those
capital stories?--Sherlock Holmes."  Basil Grant is the Mycroftian figure
in G. K. Chesterton's story "The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown", and
Grant's younger brother Rupert is in many respects a parody of Sherlock
Holmes, in that story and five more, collected in THE CLUB OF QUEER TRADES
(1905) and now available in a welcome trade-paperback reprint (New York:
Dover Publications, 1987; 146 pp., $4.95).  The reprint also offers all of
Chesterton's artful illustrations (not included in the first American ed.),
and a perceptive introduction by Martin Gardner.

Thayer Cumings ("His Last Bow") died on Feb. 19.  A senior executive in the
advertising world (vice president and director of Batten Barton Durstine &
Osborne) and a member of The Five Orange Pips as well as the BSI, his many
contributions to our literature appeared in the BSJ from 1946 to 1958, in
THE BEST OF THE PIPS (1955), and in his own collection SEVEN ON SHERLOCK
(1968).

Feb 89 #5   Fans of Margery Allingham's books can look forward to seeing
            "Campion" on "Mystery!" this autumn; Peter Davison will play
Albert Campion, and Brian Glover will play his ex-con cockney manservant
Magersfontein Lugg.  Vincent Price will end his long tenure as the host of
"Mystery!" at the end of this season.  Pacific Arts Video has dropped the
price of its videocassettes of the four Australian animations (with Peter
O'Toole as Holmes) to $19.95 each.  All this news from the fifth issue of
Anglofile (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033; $12.00 a year).

News from Britain: Jeremy Brett has told an interviewer that "The Secret of
Sherlock Holmes" will run at Wyndham's Theatre until September, when the
play will move to Birmingham and then to Manchester, and while they are in
the North, Granada will begin work on the next Sherlock Holmes series.

Sherlockians on tour in Britain should not neglect the Brambletye Hotel in
Forest Row, Surrey.  The hotel honors its appearance in the Canon with a
wall display of Sherlockian theater posters, and the hotel's bar is named
in honor of Black Peter.

"Young Charlie Chaplin" (on "Wonderworks" on PBS-TV) did show Chaplin as
Billy in H. A. Saintsbury's touring company of the Gillette play, in the
second episode, broadcast on Feb. 18.  But the time sequence in the series
was compressed: Chaplin's father did die in 1901, but Chaplin first played
with Saintsbury in July 1903 (in "Jim, A Romance of Cockayne" and then in
the Gillette play).  Chaplin was hired by Gillette to play Billy in Oct.
1905 (in "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes" and then in "Sherlock
Holmes"), and that's when he first met Marie Doro.  Chaplin's mother was
institutionalized twice, first in May 1903 and again in Mar. 1905.  The
best biography of Charlie Chaplin (well-written and reliable) is CHAPLIN:
HIS LIFE AND ART, by David Robinson (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985).

"The Hound of the Baskervilles, by A Collie Dog" (a soft vinyl dog toy in
the shape of a book) is still to be found in some pet shops.  It is made by
Vo-Toys Inc., Harrison, NJ 07029 (item 491) but they sell only wholesale;
you could ask a neighborhood pet shop to find out who the local distributor
for Vo-Toys is, and order for you.

Bill Nadel reports hearing of the recent death of Frank Giacoia, who drew
the fine Sherlock Holmes comic strip that ran in the N.Y. Herald Tribune
from 1954 through 1956 (D6196a and D5818b).

Videotaper alert: "An Appointment with Sherlock Holmes" will be broadcast
in syndication in April, generally on independent television stations, on
different dates in different cities.  Marketed by Multimedia Entertainment,
the three-hour program has colorized versions of two Rathbone/Bruce films
("Secret Weapon" and "Woman in Green").  A second program (with "Dressed to
Kill" and "Terror by Night") will be available in the fall.

Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers copies
of Charles Hall's book THE SHERLOCK HOLMES COLLECTION: THE GREAT DETECTIVE
AND HIS CREATOR (Jan 88 #3) at $27.00 postpaid.  It's a 100-page gathering
of pictorial material, mostly British but also including unusual items such
as stills from Danish, German and Czech films, and Soviet television.

Feb 89 #6   THE LITERATURE OF CRIME AND DETECTION: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
            FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT, by Waltraud Woeller and Bruce
Cassiday (New York: Ungar, 1988; 215 pp., $24.50), was first published in
Germany in 1984.  The revised American edition offers an extended survey,
from the 5th century BC (Aeschylus and Sophocles) to the 1980s (Joe Gores
and Elmore Leonard); Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle are not neglected, but
the real strength of the book is in its coverage of the genre in countries
such as Switzerland, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Sweden, and
the Soviet Union.

Four words in the English language end in "gry".  Two are angry and hungry. 
What are the other two?  I'm not sure why anyone would pose that question
to Ann Landers, or why she would run it in her syndicated advice column,
but one of her readers recommended that she consult "the best authority on
words in the United States," which turned out to be George H. Scheetz, head
of the public library in Sioux City, Iowa -- and one of the founders of The
Hansoms of John Clayton as well as the first editor of the scion's journal
Wheelwrightings.  George offered a list of 48 words ending in "gry", almost
all of which Ann Landers rejected as being too obscure or too foreign, as
well as not being included in any of the seven dictionaries she uses.  But
she reported (Jan. 31) that there are five acceptable candidates in the
Oxford English Dictionary, the other three being aggry, meagry, and puggry.

"Then the buckboards," said Sherlock Holmes, commenting on the rather
unusual assortment of agricultural machinery advertised by Howard Garrideb.  
The U.S. Postal Service reports that a buckboard can be seen in Wendell
Minor's design for our new commemorative honoring the 100th anniversary of
North Dakota statehood.  According to sharp-eyed philatelists, it's a farm
wagon, not a buckboard (a proper philatelic buckboard is shown in the BSJ,
Sept. 1985, p. 189).  But Howard Garrideb's advertisement also mentioned
farmers' carts, so you can take your pick and still be Canonical.







Two more philatelic items, from Canada, show a red fox and a grizzly bear.  
There are many mentions of foxes in the Sherlock Holmes stories, including
the description of Lady Frances Carfax as "a stray chicken in a world of
foxes" and of "Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face," but there is only
one mention of a grizzly bear ("The clumsy grizzly bear lumbers through the
dark ravines" in "A Study in Scarlet").

Check to see if your doctor gets MD magazine, and is willing to surrender
the Feb. 1989 issue, which has an article on "Doctoring the Evidence", by
William B. Ober.  The article is a Canonically illustrated revision of his
classic investigation of "The Dying Detective" (D2365a).

Reported by Vivian Heisler: Jeremy Brett played the title role in "Macbeth"
on stage in Los Angeles in 1981 (with Pipe Laurie as Lady Macbeth), and
there is a videocassette available.  Brett fans can check the local shops.

Mar 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The third audio cassette with two 1946 Rathbone/Bruce broadcasts "The April
Fool's Day Adventure" and "The Uneasy Easy Chair") with introductions and
comments by Mary Green (the wife of Denis Green, who shared writing credit
with Anthony Boucher) has been released ($9.95).  Fans frustrated by poor
distribution of the cassettes will welcome the news that the sales campaign
through American Express is underway, with 26 cassettes in the series.  The
first two cassettes are offered free (with a $2.95 charge for shipping and
handling), and then they will ship three cassettes every two months ($29.95
plus $2.95).

Videotaper alert: Betty Pierce reports that Granada's "The Final Problem"
and "The Empty House" will be broadcast by the Disney Channel on Apr. 2, by
way of beginning their run of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes".

And some more information on "An Appointment with Sherlock Holmes" (the
three-hour package due in syndication on independent television stations in
April).  It's open for broadcast in a four-week window (Apr. 3 through Apr.  
30), and will have 18 two-minute commercial breaks (it's a barter package,
with your local stations allowed to sell one minute in each of the breaks).  
The program will have colorized versions of "Secret Weapon" and "Woman in
Green" (with Eli Wallach as host); I've seen a promotional cassette, and
the colorization is, I fear, pretty much the washed-out standard for such
work.  A second program will be open for broadcast later this year (Nov. 24
through Dec. 23), with "Dressed to Kill" and "Terror by Night".

Richard Armour, the splendid poet and satirist, died on Feb. 28.  He wrote
more than 6,000 items of humorous poetry and prose, including the poems "On
Last Looking into Watson's Holmes" (BSJ, Apr. 1946) and "Ban: Hungary Has
Banned Sherlock Holmes" (The New Leader, Mar. 9, 1953; and BSJ, Jan. 1954).

National Pipesmokers' Week was celebrated on March 12-19, and Rick Hacker
(the author of THE ULTIMATE PIPE BOOK) reports that participating Tinder
Box International shops had (and may well still have) Sherlockian buttons,
offered free to any Sherlockian who asks for one.  A poster may also be
available.  While in London in January, Rick presented Jeremy Brett with
the British Pipesmoker of the Year Award.

Herb Tinning reports a new and imaginatively named business in New Jersey:














Mar 89 #2   Sherlockians seeking centenaries to celebrate in 1989 can, of
            course, turn to the Canon: it was a busy year for Holmes, with
Baring-Gould dating six of the recorded cases in 1889, as well as several
of the unrecorded cases and other important events such as the marriage of
John H. Watson to Mary Morstan.  But there are also some significant 50th
anniversaries to be celebrated this year.  It was in 1939 that "The Hound
of the Baskervilles" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" were released
by Twentieth Century-Fox, and Edith Meiser's radio series "The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes" began, all with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in roles
that provided them with an opportunity that all too few actors have had: to
create an archetype.  They were not the first actors to portray Holmes and
Watson, certainly, but they were the first to do so in an age when modern
technology made their films and radio broadcasts so widely available that
their characters became accepted standards.  The fact that those standards
were not necessarily accurate, especially in the case of Nigel Bruce (who
nevertheless did a splendid job with the role that was written for him),
does not diminish the effect that their portrayals had on their audiences.

This year's running of The Silver Blaze at Belmont in New York will be held
on Saturday, Sept. 23.  If you would like to be on the mailing list, write
to Stephen L. Stix, Route 1, Box 452, Markleville, IN 46056.

A CASE OF BLIND FEAR #1 (Jan. 1989) is now in the comic-book shops.  This
is the first issue of Eternity's four-part sequel to SCARLET IN GASLIGHT,
and has Sherlock Holmes involved in tracking down The Invisible Man.  And
SHERLOCK HOLMES #7 (Jan. 1989) is also available, continuing Eternity's
reprints of the Meiser/Giacoia newspaper comic strips; the series has now
run through their pastiches, and is doing Canonical stories, starting with
"A Scandal in Bohemia".  CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #14 (July 1988) seems to
have been the last issue from Renegade.

Further to the report (Feb 89 #6) from Ann Landers that George H. Scheetz
is "the best authority on words in the United States," Bob Burr reports
that George has issued a clarification, suggesting that he is rather only
the best authority on words ending in "gry".  So there's no need to send
George questions such as: how many words are there in English that contain
all of the vowels, in correct order?

Forecast for April: Julian Symons' A THREE-PIPE PROBLEM, a trade-paperback
reprint by Penguin, $4.95.  Also: Eve Titus' BASIL AND THE LOST COLONY, a
trade-paperback reprint by Minstrel/Pocket Books, $2.50.

It would appear that the curse of the Baskervilles has not yet been laid to
rest.  At hand from Mel Ruiz is a report that Peter Cushing is now in the
hospital for treatment of a fractured leg.  He was cycling last month near
his home at Whitstable in Kent, and was knocked off his bicycle by a pack
of hounds.

Beth Kalikoff's MURDER AND MORAL DECAY IN VICTORIAN POPULAR LITERATURE (Aug
87 #3) has been reissued by the UMI Research Press in paperback (193 pp.,
$19.95); it's a scholarly discussion of the portrayal of murder during the
Victorian age, from the street literature of 1830 to the fiction of 1900
(including the Sherlock Holmes stories).

Mar 89 #3   1989 is also the 50th anniversary of the film "The Wizard of
            Oz".  There have been four Oz pastiches involving The Great
Detective published in the magazine Oziana, but there is a much earlier
connection between the creator of Oz and Sherlock Holmes, in "The King of
Gee-Whiz" (a three-act "musical extravaganza"), written by L. Frank Baum
and Emerson Hough, registered for copyright in 1905 but apparently never
produced.  At the end of the play, Willie Cook, a fat missionary, emerges
from a cannibal kettle to declare that he is none other than Sherlock
Holmes.  See Anthony Boucher's article in the BSJ (July 1959) for more
details on the show.

Fred Stone and David Montgomery starred in the musical version of "The
Wizard of Oz" in 1902, and in 1906 they appeared in Victor Herbert's "The
Red Mill" as Con Kidder and Kid Conner, impersonating Holmes and Watson,
and "The Red Mill" included the earliest known use of the line, "Quick,
Watson, the needle."  William Gillette is reported to have told Stone,
after Gillette saw "The Red Mill", that he would probably have to learn to
dance for his next portrayal of Holmes.  Richard R. Rutter has reported on
this at greater length in Shadows of the Gnomon (July 1981), as has Daniel
P. Mannix in The Baum Bugle (summer 1981 and autumn 1981).

             "An Abraham Lincoln keyed to base uses instead of high ones
             would give some idea of the man," reads the description of J.
             Neil Gibson in "Thor Bridge".  Abraham Lincoln is shown on a
             90-cent stamp issued in 1869 and reprinted on a commemorative
             honoring the World Stamp Expo (to be held in Washington later
             this year).

             Viewers of "The Last Place on Earth" on PBS-TV last year (Jun
             88 #4) will recall the huge tonnage of supplies that Capt.
             Scott took with him on his ill-fated attempt to be the first
             man to reach the South Pole.  The hut on Cape Evans, from
which Scott staged his expedition, was preserved and can still be visited,
as it was recently by Paul Brown, who reported in The Guardian (Feb. 15,
1989) that "by Scott's bunk was THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR AND
SPORT by A. Conan Doyle, labelled inside the flyleaf 'British Antarctic
Expedition 1910'."

Herb Tinning reports a variant edition of "The Hound of the Baskervilles by
A Collie Dog" (Feb 89 #5).  His copy, acquired in London, has a "Good Boy
Press" publisher's imprint on the spine and a sales tag noting that it was
"made specially for Armitages in Taiwan" (there's no publisher's imprint on
the spine of mine, which was "made in U.S.A.").  Compulsive collectors can
write to Armitage Bros., Colwick, Nottingham, England.

It doesn't take long for most movies to appear in the video shops: Andrew
Jay Peck reports an advertisement from Orion Home Video announcing May 25
as the "street date" for "Without a Clue".  The price will be $89.95.

Mark W. Erdrich (49 Kings Lacey Way, Fairport, NY 14450) is interested in
the use of Sherlockian artwork or themes in advertisements for computers
and other electronic wonders.  Please send him photocopies if you encounter
such items.

Mar 89 #4   Leslie Bricusse's "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" (with Ron
            Moody as Holmes) had a one-month run in Exeter last year (Dec
88 #1), and will open at the Cambridge Theatre in London on April 24.  The
Daily Mail reported (Feb. 25) that Michael Caine and "top Hollywood mogul"
Aaron Spelling are two of the backers of the L1.25 million production.

Julian Symons' A THREE-PIPE PROBLEM (D5202b) has been reissued by Penguin
in their trade-paperback "classic crime" series (192 pp., $4.95).

                            Georgia was one of the "different parts of the
                            country" in which the Ku Klux Klan formed local
                            branches ("The Five Orange Pips").  Georgia's
                            Okefenokee Swamp is shown in the painting by
                            Bart Forbes used on the new postal card in the
                            "America the Beautiful" series.

                            "Rosenblatt Back on the Bench," according to
                            the headline on an article in the New York Law
Journal, at hand from Andy Peck.  Our congratulations to Al Rosenblatt, who
was appointed by Governor Cuomo to be a justice of the appellate division.  
Al has been serving as the chief administrative judge, and will now "turn
his attention from case-disposition statistics, computer networks, and
fencing with the legislature over court budgets, back to the search-and-
seizure issues, contract interpretation and state constitutional arguments
he left behind nearly two years ago."

An older item to watch for (discovered by John B. Taylor): THE CASE OF THE
FELON'S FIDDLE: A MCGURK MYSTERY, by E. W. Hildick (New York: Macmillan,
1982); one of a series for younger readers, with McGurk imagining that he
is Sherlock Holmes as he and his friends attempt to solve a mystery.

Reported by Dana Richards: GARDNER'S WHYS & WHEREFORES, by Martin Gardner
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989); a collection of Gardner's
recent writings.  "Did Sherlock Holmes Meet Father Brown?" is a review of
Bayer's SOME NOTES ON A MEETING AT CHISHAM, reprinted from BSM (winter
1984) with a new postscript.

And there's a Sherlockian cover on the Mar.-Apr. 1898 "special edition" of
Games (marked for newsstand display until Apr. 25).

Poor Little Rich Girl Travels and Chandris Fantasy Cruises report that the
demand for deluxe cabins on the S.S. Galileo for "the ultimate Sherlockian
seminar at sea" from New York to Bermuda and back, July 23-28, 1989, has
exhausted the supply, and that the remaining standard accomodations are
selling briskly.  The deadline for reservations is Apr. 23, and details on
the cruise are available from Mary Ellen Rich, 52 West 56th Street, New
York, NY 10019 (212-757-0881).

A two-cassette set from the BBC Audio Collection is being marketed here by
The Mind's Eye (Box 6727, San Francisco, CA 94101) and available in some
stores at $14.95.  "Sherlock Holmes: Vol. 1" has four of the Hobbs/Shelley
programs ("Spec", "Chas", Scan", and RedH").  The Mind's Eye charges $3.50
for shipping and handling, and their toll-free number is 800-227-2020.

Mar 89 #5   We try to avoid vague reports, but vague is all there is on
            this one: The BBC World Service has made, and will broadcast
(sometime) a long interview with Jeremy Brett about Sherlock Holmes and the
television series and the play.  Their monthly magazine London Calling may
(or may not) be helpful in providing a more specific warning.

Catalog at hand from Gary Lovisi (Gryphon Publications, Box 209, Brooklyn,
NY 11228), announcing a new printing of his pamphlet (52 pp., $4.00) RELICS
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (BSJ Sep 87) and his new bibliography SHERLOCK HOLMES:
THE GREAT DETECTIVE IN PAPERBACK; the latter title will be a revised and
expanded edition (100+ pp., $19.95 cloth or $9.95 paper) of his SHERLOCK
HOLMES: 50 YEARS OF THE GREAT DETECTIVE IN PAPERBACK (BSJ Mar 84).

Another mail-order source for audio cassettes (S'ian and otherwise): Audio
Editions (Box 6930, Auburn, CA 95604) offers the first two of the "221A"
Rathbone/Bruce reissues ($9.95 each); three two-cassette packages read by
Robert Hardy (each with four stories, $16.95); three more with long stories
("Houn", "Sign", "Stud") read by Hugh Burden or Tony Britton (each $16.95).  
They take plastic, and their phone number is 800-231-4261.

The 13-hour dramatization of Len Deighton's "Game, Set and Match" has begun
on "Mystery!" on PBS-TV, and there may well be Sherlockian references in
the series: in the books, KGB colonel Lenin was an admirer of the Sherlock
Holmes stories.  Mel Martin, who plays Fiona Samson, was Alice Faulkner in
the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in
Washington and New York in 1974 and 1975.

The latest mail-order catalog from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10011) offers (item 1262336) the Galley Press edition of THE CONAN
DOYLE STORIES ($9.95) and (item 1546977) the Doubleday one-volume edition
of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES ($12.95).  Both are bargains, and
THE CONAN DOYLE STORIES is especially recommended: it's a collection of 76
fine examples of ACD's skills as a teller of tales, reprinted from the 1956
John Murray edition (the stories are non-S'ian, except for the apocryphal
"The Lost Special" and "The Man with the Watches").

Brian MacDonald reports: THE MYSTERIOUS PROWLER and THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE,
by Francis Carfi Matranga, published by Victor Books and featuring Nina,
also known as "Lady Sherlock Holmes" ($5.00 each from Heavenly Blessings,
210 North Jefferson, Martinsville, IN 46151).

Also from Brian: "The Case of the Colorful Disappearing Eggs: An Intriguing
Egg Decorating Kit" (an 8-inch-square box) with Harelock Holmes and Dr.  
Wabbitson on the cover and inside (where they are joined by Bunny-Arity).  
$1.79 at discount and drugstores, and possibly still available (item #1724)
from the manufacturer (Easter Unlimited, Carle Place, NY 11514).

The British government has suggested that Britain's six largest brewers be
required to sell many of their "tied pubs" -- one of which is Whitbread's
"The Sherlock Holmes" in London.  There are about 45,000 "tied pubs" in
Britain (and about 37,000 "free houses"), and the government has proposed
that no brewer be allowed to own more than 2,000 pubs.  If the proposal is
adopted, Whitbread would be required to sell more than 4,000 of its pubs.

Mar 89 #6   The Jan. 1989 issue of the August Derleth Society Newsletter
            reprints Peter Ruber's "A Weekend with August Derleth" (his
introduction to the 1965 Candlelight Press edition of PRAED STREET PAPERS),
with some additional comment.  Membership in the society includes their
quarterly newsletter, and costs $5.00 a year.  The society also has just
published REMEMBERING DERLETH, a 112-page booklet of Derlethiana (including
two pages about The Praed Street Irregulars) at $7.00 postpaid.  Membership
dues and orders for the booklet (membership is not required) can be sent to
the society, c/o Herb Attix, 3333 Westview Lane, Madison, WI 53713.

Reported by John Bennett Shaw: TAUCHNITZ INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS IN ENGLISH
1841-1955, by William B. Todd and Ann Bowden (New York: Bibliographical
Society of America, 1988; $75.00), with discussion (pp. 412, 919, 941) of
John's library and his four Tauchnitz editions of the Canon once owned by
the Czarina.  And listings of the many Tauchnitz editions of ACD's works.

Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine #65 has a color cover and other
photographs of Brent Spiner playing Lt. Cdr. Data playing Sherlock Holmes,
as seen on "Elementary, Dear Data" on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in
Dec. 1988.  The magazine costs $3.00 postpaid from Star Trek: The Official
Fan Club, Box 11100, Aurora, CO 80011.

It appears that the markets for videocassettes differ in Britain and the
U.S., if prices for new releases are any indication.  Granada's "Houn" and
"Sign" are available in Britain at a suggested retail price of L9.99 each
(that's $16.88).  It might be that the rental market in Britain is so small
that companies ignore that segment, concentrating instead on direct sales.  
But it is also possible that cassettes of television programs are priced
low because so many people have already recorded the programs off-the-air. 

Those who carefully examined Jeff Decker's fine cartoon in the BSJ (Dec 88)
will have noticed the Adventuress asking, "How many B.S.I.'s does it take
to screw in a lightbulb?"  We will be happy to publish the best suggestions
for a response to this question.

For those who are not familiar with this sort of exchange, the format goes:
How many folk singers does it take to screw in a light bulb?  Two: one to
change the bulb and one to write a song about how good the old light bulb
was.  Or: how many consultants does it take to change a light bulb?  I'll
have an estimate for you a week from Monday.

Brian and Charlotte Erickson (726 Sutter Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303) have
announced a new edition of THE INVENTORY OF 221B BAKER STREET (Oct 87 #5);
this is a booklet of text and photographs describing the recreation of the
sitting-room in San Francisco, and the cost is $8.00 postpaid.

Illustrated sales list at hand from Chuck Kovacic (18307 Burbank Boulevard
#49, Tarzana, CA 91356), offering full-color reproductions of Sherlockiana
such as a lobby card for the Rathbone/Bruce "The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes", the "Spy" caricature of William Gillette for Vanity Fair, the Turf
cigarette cards from Boguslavski, and the 1914 advertisement for Postum.
Chuck also offers a handsome new four-color lapel pin honoring The Hound of
the Baskervilles.

Apr 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

It's not all that easy to find "The Hound of the Baskervilles, by A. Collie
Dog" (a soft vinyl dog toy in the shape of a book), without worrying about
the fact that there are at least three variants.  Tom Stix reports that you
can order from Plaza Pet World, 91 Closter Plaza, Closter, NJ 07624 ($6.00
postpaid); this is the "made in Spain" variant.

It wasn't all that long ago that the Motion Picture Association of America
was campaigning hard against the VCR, because it was such a threat to the
movie business, but MPAA president Jack Valenti has changed his mind.  "The
more a person watches movies on a VCR, the more that person is drawn to
view a movie in a theater," Valenti has concluded, based on studies that
show that movie attendance has increased along with VCR sales.  In 1971,
movie attendance was 800 million admissions, and in 1988 admissions neared
1.1 billion, with box-office revenues at an all-time high of $4.4 billion.

               Dame Ngaio Marsh, shown on a stamp in a set issued this year
               to honor New Zealand authors, wrote a fine series of mystery
               novels about Inspector (and later Superintendent) Roderick
               Alleyn, and echoed the Canon from time to time, as in GRAVE
               MISTAKE (1978).

               Joseph J. Eckrich (7793 Keswick Place, St. Louis, MO 63119)
               offers a seven-page sales list of Sherlockian books.

               Andrea (formerly Mrs. Sheldon) Reynolds is planning to marry
in July -- but her new husband won't be Claus von Bulow.  According to the
[London] Daily Mail (Mar. 13), Andrea will marry Shaun Plunket, heir to a
title dating from the early nineteenth century, when one of his ancestors
was Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

More news from Hollywood: "Without a Clue" had a box-office gross of more
than $8 million, as of Dec. 20, 1988 -- far less than the cost of the film,
which thus is a commercial failure so far.

The new edition of THE INVENTORY OF 221B BAKER STREET (Oct 87 #5) has 21
pages and is available for $8.00 postpaid from Brian and Charlotte Erickson
(726 Sutter Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303); this is a booklet of text and
photographs describing the recreation of the sitting-room in San Francisco.

"Sherlock Holmes and the Weather", by Randall S. Cerveny and Sandra W. 
Brazel, is the lead article in the Apr. 1989 issue of Weatherwise (4000
Albemarle Street NW, Washington, DC 20016; $3.50).  The article deals with
Holmes and an observer and forecaster of the weather, and there's a fine
color cover by Ron Blalock.

THE BEST HORROR STORIES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, edited by Frank D. McSherry,
Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh (Chicago: Academy Chicago, 1989;
294 pp., $6.95), has an Introduction by McSherry and 13 of Conan Doyle's
fine tales in this genre.  Many of the stories will be familiar, but one of
them ("The Silver Hatchet") was first published in 1883 and has, I believe,
been reprinted only twice before in this century.

Apr 89 #2   Frank Morley, in LITERARY BRITAIN: A READER'S GUIDE TO ITS
            WRITERS AND LANDMARKS (New York: Harper & Row, 1980, p. 31),
suggests that "it was on that footway of Hungerford Bridge, on the black
rain-drenched equinoctial night in September 1887, that Sherlock Holmes
allowed the young John Openshaw to be intercepted and lured to death on the
Embankment, as five orange pips had fatefully foretold."  In the Canon it
is the Waterloo Bridge.  Does anyone know of any discussion, by Morley or
others, on why it would have been the Hungerford Bridge?

Charles Higham, author of THE ADVENTURES OF CONAN DOYLE, has written a new
biography.  In CARY GRANT: THE LONELY HEART (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1989; 358 pp., $18.95), Higham and co-author Roy Moseley claim that Grant
had homosexual affairs with Randolph Scott and Howard Hughes.

"Many thanks for the remarks in which I am sure that you are quite right,"
Conan Doyle wrote to Captain Charles Low from Undershaw.  "I stupidly mixed
up Vernon with Venables.  If there is ever a reprint I shall see to that."
Conan Doyle lived at Undershaw from 1897 to 1907.  There is no Vernon or
Venables in the Canon: can anyone suggest a non-Canonical reference?

David L. Hammer (Gasogene Press, Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004) offers a new
sales-list for Gasogene's in-print and upcoming titles.

British news from Roger Johnson: Peterson of Dublin introduced a "Sherlock
Holmes" briar pipe in 1987 (seen selling for $100 to $125 in a New York
pipe shop in Jan. 1988), and is now offering a "Baskerville" pipe; there
will be others in the series, to be issued at six-month intervals.  And a
list of Granada-related Sherlockiana is available from Judith M. Naylor,
Merchandise Manager, Granada Studio Tours, Manchester, M60 9EA, England).

Christopher Roden (Grasmere, 35 Penfold Way, Dodleston, Chester CH4 9ML,
England) is preparing for the official launching of The Arthur Conan Doyle
Society on May 22 (Sir Arthur's birthday).  He plans to publish a journal
twice a year, supplemented by a regular newsletter, and you can write to
him for a copy of his publicity flier.  Membership outside the U.K. will
cost L10.00 a year (plus L4.50 a year if airmail is desired).

The seventh annual "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held at Bear Mountain,
N.Y., on Oct. 7-8, 1989.  Robert E. Thomalen (69 Glen Road, Eastchester, NY
10709) will be happy to send you a copy of this year's flier.

"A Tourist Guide to the London of Sherlock Holmes" (D1889b), a collection
of Charles O. Merriman's fine articles in the SHJ, has been reprinted by
The Sherlock Holmes Society of London; $6.50 postpaid (checks payable to
the Society) from Capt. W. R. Michell, The Old Crown Inn, Lopen, South
Petherton, Somerset TA13 5JX, England.

"They Might Be Giants" is the title of an album of rock music recorded by
"They Might Be Giants" and issued by Bar-None Records in 1986 (and still
available on tape and records).  There's nothing S'ian about the recording,
except for the title of the group, which was taken by John Flansburgh and
John Linnell (who *are* "They Might Be Giants") from the name of the George
C. Scott film.

Apr 89 #3   A clipping from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, at hand from Tom
            and Ruthann Stetak, reveals that there is a Cleveland Club of
Washington, founded in 1957, with membership requirements as strict as
those of some S'ian societies.  "To join, a prospective member has to have
been born in Cleveland, raised in Cleveland, graduated from a Cleveland
university, lived in Cleveland, flown over Cleveland in an airplane, know
how to spell Cleveland, or generally agree to the principles of the club
(which have never been spelled out)."

Tom and Ruthann also report that there is a minor Sherlockian connection
for the new film "Major League": the deerstalkers that Tom and Ruthann wore
in the stadium when the long-shots were taken of the 65,000 spectators.

American Express has shipped the first two cassettes in its subscription
series (Mar 89 #1) covering the 26 cassettes to be issued by 221A Baker
Street Associates (each with two programs from the Rathbone/Bruce radio
series).  The two cassettes are the same as those already available in
stores (though with different packaging).  Tom Galbo has had a letter from
Ken Greenwald of 221 "A" Baker Street Associates, explaining some of the
problems they have had with distribution through the Waldenbooks and B.  
Dalton chains, and noting that the chains are gearing up to do better (in
June Waldenbooks will have a special counter display of the first four
cassettes), but the chains will have one new cassette every three months.  
American Express, however, will be releasing three new cassettes every two
months; their subscription series is available only to card-holders, but if
you (or a friend) are a card-holder, the toll-free number for orders is
800-528-8000.  Ken Greenwald also notes that the contents of the first
cassette (with "The Unfortunate Tobacconist" and "The Paradol Chamber") are
not exactly the same as on the LP record album: one of the commercials has
been deleted from the cassette, and Ben Wright's introduction is shorter
(this was done to preserve the collector's-item status of the LP album).

THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE is one of four titles in a series of "Nina Christina
Mysteries" by Frances Carfi Matranga (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1986); Nina is
a modern twelve-year-old, known to her friends and family as "Lady Sherlock
Holmes" as she solves a pleasant suburban mystery.

Adela Holzer, who was one of the producers of the New York production of
the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in
1974, seems to be unable to stay out of jail.  In 1979 she was convicted of
swindling a group of investors out of $2.3 million, and served two years in
the women's state prison at Bedford Hills.  Now she's in a cell on Rikers
Island, unable to raise $1 million in bail, while awaiting trial on charges
of cheating a new set of investors out of more than $7 million.

The Society's summer tour will be a visit to Cambridge, and the guidebook
will be available to those who cannot join the tour; $17.50 postpaid (and
checks again payable to the Society) from Jonathan McCafferty, 5 Jonathan
Court, Windmill Road, Chiswick, London W4 1SA, England.

Travelers to London might wish to request a copy of the brochure offered by
City Walks of London (9/11 Kensington High Street, London W8 5HP, England);
their walking tours include "The Sherlock Holmes Trail of Mystery".

Apr 89 #4   Eternity Comics has published SHERLOCK HOLMES CASEBOOK #1 and
            #2 (both dated Mar. 1989), reprinting the 1961 comic books NEW
ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (D6189a and D6190a), omitting the page about
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that appeared inside the back cover of D6189a and
adding a new page on "Sherlock Holmes' London Haunts" that I don't recall
seeing before.  How times change: the 1961 comic books (all in color) cost
15 cents each on the stands, while the 1989 comic books (in black and white
except for the cover) cost $2.25 each at your local comic-book shop.

John Woolford's long article on "Sherlock Holmes" in the Apr. 1989 issue of
the Scott Stamp Monthly is well illustrated (photographs show the 1984 set
from Turks & Caicos Islands and covers from two of the recent British stamp
booklets).  Box 828, Sidney, OH 45365; $3.00.

Frances Steloff died on Apr. 15, at the age of 101.  In 1920 she founded
the Gotham Book Mart in New York and made her store a gathering place for
authors and their readers.  "Wise men fish here" was the slogan she chose
for her bookshop, and one of those wise men was Christopher Morley, who
discovered the shop in 1931, and spent many hours helping with publicity
and other business matters (such as writing a set of dunning verses to be
sent to delinquent customers).  When Frances Steloff was arrested in 1935,
charged with selling obscene literature (the Random House edition of Andre
Gide's autobiography), Morley came to her defense, in his "Bowling Green"
column in the Saturday Review of Literature, and Morley's column was quoted
by the judge when he dismissed the case.  The Gotham Book Mart continues in
business (at 41 West 47th Street), and is well worth a visit.

THE ANNOTATED INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN, edited by Martin Gardner, was a
delightful exploration of the first collection of Chesterton's stories
about the "little priest" (and the annotations do not neglect the S'ian
aspects of the stories).  First published at $18.95 (Jul 87 #4), the book
is now discounted at $4.95 (item 839825) in the April catalog from Edward
R. Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031).

Reported by Michael McClure: the comic book WEB OF SPIDERMAN (#50, May
1989) has (page 40) a panel in which Spidey explains how he used "an old
Sherlock Holmes story" to solve a mystery.

Sheldon Wesson's THE SHERLOCKIAN TRIVIALITY INDEX is an ingenious analysis
of the Canon, proposed to The Red Circle in 1983 and privately published in
1985, and now available as an attractive miniature book (2.0 by 2.3 inches)
from The Press of Ward Schori, 2716 Noyes Street, Evanston, IL 60201.  The
volume is a fine small-press production, bound in suede, and costs $30.00
postpaid.

Further to the paragraph (Mar 89 #5) on the adaptation of Len Deighton's
"Game, Set & Match" on "Mystery!" on PBS, Mike Kean has reminded me of his
article on "Deighton's Spies and Sherlock" in Wheelwrightings (Jan. 1987).  
It was KGB colonel Stinnes who admired the Sherlock Holmes stories, and
Samson called him Lenin.  The actor who played Stinnes in the television
series didn't look at all like Lenin, and the Sherlockian exchange was
omitted from the television script.  There was a lesser S'ian exchange in
the book MEXICO SET, but the series will probably skip that, too.

Apr 89 #5   The Basil Rathbone Collection" is a 101-minute videocassette
            with some interesting older television material not otherwise
available: "A Christmas Carol" (with Rathbone as Ebenezer Scrooge), "The
Christopher Program" (a religious talk show with Rathbone as guest), "I the
Leader" (with Rathbone as the leader of a gang of criminals), "The Stones
Began to Move" (with Rathbone as a scientist who helps to solve the riddle
of the pyramids), and a two-and-a-half-minute commercial Rathbone made for
the Prudential Insurance Co.  There are also theatrical previews for three
of Rathbone's films, including "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (this is
the only S'ian item in the collection, but it's an international version
without dialog, allowing voice-overs to be added in other languages).  The
cassette (VHS only, on TDK High Standard tape) can be ordered from George
Stover, Cinemacabre Video, Box 10005, Baltimore, MD 21285 ($24.95 plus a
$2.00 shipping charge).  TDK Extra High Grade tape is available on request,
for an additional $2.00.

Renegade's comic-book series has resumed after a hiatus: CASES OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES #15 (Sept. 1988) is on the stands, with "The Adventure of Charles
Augustus Milverton" (and "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" announced
for the next issue).

The Pequod Press is "relentlessly moving on" with plans to complete Dr.  
Fatso's memoirs of Mr. Turlock Loams, and announces THE ADVENTURE OF THE
CARDBOARD LOX, available from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA
94707; $29.50 cloth or $14.50 paper.

Reported by Bob Burr: the 1888 first edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET offered
for sale by a dealer at last month's New York Antiquarian Book Fair, priced
at $40,000.  I don't know whether it was sold, but that's the highest price
I know of for any item of published Sherlockiana (and only one manuscript
has ever changed hands at a price higher than $40,000).

Alert readers of the television schedules were the only ones to have any
advance warning of the new Sherlockian episode in the "Alfred Hitchcock
Presents" series broadcast on cable by the USA Network on Apr. 22, since
there seems to have been no advance warning.  "My Dear Watson" (filmed in
Toronto in Oct. 1989) featured Brian Bedford (Sherlock Holmes) and Patrick
Monckton (Dr. Watson) in a 30-minute story marred by ridiculous casting,
costumes, sets, and script.  The best part of the show was the introduction
by Alfred Hitchcock, colorized, wearing a deerstalker, and blowing bubbles
from his calabash pipe.

Hitchcock's introduction was obviously taken from one of the old black-and-
white shows in the original "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series.  But which
one?  There's no mention of a Sherlockian introduction in the series in my
notes, but surely some Sherlockian was watching back in the old days.

The New Playwrights' Network (35 Sandringham Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire
SK10 1QB, England) has published two new Sherlockian scripts.  THE SHERLOCK
HOLMES SOLUTION (L4.40 postpaid) is a two-act drama by Peter Hartley that
was performed on tour in England by the Spare Parts Theatre Company in the
summer of 1986.  THE PRIVATE LIVES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (L1.75 postpaid) is a
one-act comedy by Michael Lambe.

Apr 89 #6   April having only three weeks this year (I was in San Antonio
            one week of the month for a geology convention and the spring
dinner of The Practical, But Limited, Geologists), there is a shortage of
news, allowing room to reprint of one of the more unusual S'ian advertise-
ments, noted by Eileen Katz in the June 1988 issue of Female Patient.

















































May 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The new "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" has opened at the Cambridge Theatre
in London.  The two reviews seen so far are decidedly unenthusiastic, with
suggestions that "one reels away aghast from this Kamikaze concoction of
misdirected endeavour" (Jack Tinker, in the Daily Mail), and that Ron Moody
as Holmes "is never concerned with understatement and his obvious contempt
for Inspector Lestrade and even his bovine Watson eventually makes one long
for another Reichenbach Falls into which he can be pushed" (Milton Shulman,
in the Evening Standard).

Jerry Margolin reports that his new address (as of June 16) will be 10007
S.W. Quail Post Road, Portland, OR 97219-6368.

Jennie C. Paton (206 Loblolly Lane, Statesboro, GA 30458) would appreciate
hearing from anyone who sees Sherlockian television commercials, so that
she can try to obtain copies for her television archives.  The information
she needs is the name of the company doing the advertising, the date and
time the commercial was broadcast, and the name (or channel) and address of
the television station.

Reported by Connie Steffan: a Nerds coloring book (from Marvel Books) with
"Case of the Fading Nerds" and Nerdslock Combs and his friend Dr. Whatsit.  
Nerdslock Combs appears in Sherlockian costume in full color on the cover,
and you (or your kids) get to do your own coloring on the inside pages.

A new comic book reported by Tim O'Connor: BAKER STREET #1 (Mar. 1989) from
Caliber Press (31162 West Warren, Westland, MI 48135; $1.95); a punk-rocker
Sherlockian adventure (without Holmes and Watson) set in an alternate but
still present-day London.  And a mention (possibly a forecast) of SHERLOCK
HOLMES: STUDY IN SCARLET from Innovation (no address; $5.95).

Further to the mention of Frances Carfi Matranga's THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE
(Apr 89 #3), the suggested retail price is $4.50, and I am advised by the
publisher that they will be discontinuing the book soon.  The publisher is
Victor Books, 1825 College Avenue, Wheaton, IL 60187.

The May 1 issue of New York magazine was their special issue "The New Guide
to Living in New York" with one of the articles giving brief notes on "Buff
Groups", which included the Baker Street Irregulars, listed after the Mark
Twain Association of New York and before the Count Dracula Fan Club.

Paulette Greene (140 Princeton Road, Rockville Centre, NY 11570) is plans
to retire from the book business, and wants to sell her entire stock as one
lot: about 4,000 mystery and detective books and reference works, and about
600 Sherlockian books, including her own three privately-published titles.  
Contact Paulette for details.

Wilfrid de Freitas reports that the Grosvenor Resort at Disney World is
offering "Sherlock Holmes Mystery Weekends" on Sept. 2-4 and Nov. 17-19.  
The cost is $299 per person and covers meals, rooms, a day at Epcot center,
two cocktail parties (one with Watson and the other with Holmes).  Call
800-624-4109 for additional information.

May 89 #2   The Northeast Victorian Studies Association will hold its 16th
            annual conference at Princeton University on Apr. 20-22, 1990,
and the topic will be "Disguises, Dreams, and Deceptions".  If you'd like
to submit a paper, write to Dr. L. M. Shires, English Department, Syracuse
University, Syracuse, NY 13210.  If you'd like to attend the conference,
contact Prof. Earl E. Stevens, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 02908.

A new catalog at hand showing production cels, cartoon artwork, and special
editions offered by Gallery Lainzberg (200 Guaranty Building, Cedar Rapids,
IA 52401) (800-5533-9995).  "Sleuthing II" is a new Friz Freleng limited
edition (FF-38) with Inspector Clouseau and a deerstalkered Pink Panther
($395.00).

The BSI's chaplain is publishing again: The Bohemian Scandal Sheet is his
new newsletter, "published periodically and edited irregularly," and the
first issue is now available.  There is no charge for the newsletter: all
you need do is write to Ben Wood (Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222) and ask for
a subscription, and then write to him again at least once a year.

The March 1989 issue of Philatelie Quebec has an intriguing article (in
French) by Bruce Holmes, showing postage stamps keyed to the 21 Canonical
references to saints (including references to the Virgin Mary, the Angel
Gabriel, and the Devil).  Editions Phibec, 4545 avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin,
Montreal, Quebec H1V 3R2, Canada; (CA)$3.00.


























Penny Fabb (4 Oldacres, Maidenhead, Berks., SL6 1XJ, England) offers a
matched pair of 90-mm. hand-painted metal figurines of Sherlock Holmes and
Dr. Watson for L44.00 postpaid (or L40.00 if payment is made in sterling).

May 89 #3   George F. Burrows ("Dr. Grimesby Roylott") died on Apr. 10, and
            his Associated Press obituary noted that he "was described as a
talented oddball whose passions ranged from social justice to Sherlock
Holmes."  He was a member of The Speckled Band of Boston for many years,
serving as its Herpeton, and he received his Investiture in 1964.  He was a
founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, an early president
of the Community Church of Boston (the first church to demand a fair trial
for Sacco and Vanzetti), and a New Deal Democrat.  He was also a university
policeman at Harvard for twenty years, and during a riot in the 1960s was
bitten on the leg by a Radcliffe student.  "I'm lucky she wasn't taller,"
he later remarked.

Further to the news (Dec 88 #3) of the reopening of the Sherlock Holmes
Society of London's membership list, the Society has now switched to a
two-tier entry system: new applicants will start as associate members
($15.00 a year) who will receive the SHJ and who can attend meetings as
guests of full members.  As vacancies occur, associate members will be
promoted to full membership ($20.00 a year), receiving also announcements
of meetings and other activities.  Applications should be sent to the
Society's honorary secretary, Cdr. Geoffrey S. Stavert, 3 Outram Road,
Southsea, Hants. PO5 1QP, England.

Forecast for July: THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, by Robert Richardson (St. Martin's
Press, $14.95).  "When the owner of an unpublished Sherlock Holmes manu-
script by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is murdered, Augustus Maltravers turns to
the only expert who can solve this crime--Holmes himself."

Ames Johnston ("The Missing Three-Quarter") died on April 17.  In 1947 he
was one of the founders of The Sons of the Copper Beeches, and in 1959 he
was one of the editors of the society's anthology LEAVES FROM THE COPPER
BEECHES, to which he contributed a nostalgic description of "The London of
the Canon".

Planning by Deen and Jay Kogan continues for Bouchercon XX in Philadelphia
on Oct. 6-9: there will be "only" three panel tracks, beginning on Friday
morning, and the dealers' room will open at noon on Friday.  The guest of
honor will be Simon Brett, creator of the actor-sleuth Charles Paris, and
the program is expected to give some emphasis to "performance" mystery.  
Advance registration reached 600 last month, it is reported, and it thus
seems likely that (as happened last year in San Diego), registration will
close before the convention opens.  Registration costs $40.00 (Bouchercon
XX, Box 59345, Philadelphia, PA 19102).

Bouchercon XXI will be in London, at King's College, on Sept. 21-23, 1990,
arranged by Marion and Robin Richmond, owners of Ming Books UK (1 Penrose
Avenue, Carpenders Park, Watford, Herts. WD1 5AE, England).  This will be
the first Bouchercon to be held outside the U.S., and the Richmonds note
that the World Science Convention will be held in the Hague, Sept. 7-9, and
the Agatha Christie Festival in Torbay, Devon, Sept. 14-16, 1990.  Details
on registration, hotels, an airline package, European and British tours,
and a play competition (the best play submitted will be awarded L1,000 and
performed at the convention) will be available later this year, but you can
write to the Richmonds now to get on their mailing list.

May 89 #4   Garry James' article on "Sherlock Holmes' Snubby" is a detailed
            discussion (with many illustrations) of the Webley Metropolitan
Police revolver, in the Guns & Ammo Complete Guide to Pocket Pistols, Apr.
1989 (8490 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069; $2.95).  Also still
available is the 1986 Guns & Ammo Annual ($6.95), which includes "The Guns
of Sherlock Holmes", by Garry James and Scott McMillan; this is a revised
version, also well-illustrated, of their earlier article (D2529b).

Pattie R. Brunner (3019 Fire Weed Court, Florissant, MO 63031) would like
to hear from anyone who knows of currently available Sherlockian needlework
patterns or counted cross-stitch charts (and from anyone willing to share
copies of patterns or charts that aren't currently available).

Reported by Joe Eckrich: THEY NEVER SAID IT, by Paul F. Boller, Jr., and
John George (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989; 159 pp., $15.95),
notes (p. 47) that "Elementary, my dear Watson" doesn't appear in the
Sherlock Holmes stories.  They attribute the quote to Basil Rathbone; can
anyone identify an earlier appearance?

Thom Utecht notes a magazine advertisement for "Little Sherlock" ("a clever
little boy who thinks he's the world's greatest sleuth"): an 11-inch
hand-crafted bisque porcelain doll by artist Kathy Barry-Hippensteel, in a
new "Born to be Famous" collection, for $87.00 (plus $2.44 shipping plus
state sales tax).  Details available from The Ashton-Drake Galleries, 212
West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610, with a June 30 deadline for
orders.

Reported by Emory Lee: the May-June 1989 issue of Philip Morris Magazine
(120 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017) has a two-page article by Raymond
Schuessler on "Tobacco Stamps: Quite a Collection" with color illustrations
including the Nicaraguan issue showing Sherlock Holmes with his pipe.  And
a U.S. commemorative showing Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a member of the
BSI as well as a cigarette-smoker.

Emory also reports some Sherlockian items discounted at B. Dalton (and thus
probably available at other chains): THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, with
the fine Frederick Dorr Steele artwork (Mysterious Press, $9.98); THE BAKER
STREET DOZEN, ed. by Pj Doyle and E. W. McDiarmid (Congden & Weed, $8.98);
and SHERLOCKIAN LIMERICKS, by Isaac Asimov (Mysterious Press, $2.98); and
THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (Doubleday, $12.95).

SCARLET IN GASLIGHT: AN ADVENTURE IN TERROR (Newbury Park: Eternity Comics,
1988; $7.95) is a trade-paperback one-volume collection of the four comic
books written by Martin Powell and drawn by Seppo Makinen; the book also
contains a Foreword by Powell, an Afterword by Makinen, and eight pages of
Makinen's preliminary sketches.  Eternity also reports that their SHERLOCK
HOLMES series will run for 23 issues, reprinting all of the Giacoia strips;
they will also issue six-issue collections as trade paperbacks, with the
first one due in July.  Their SHERLOCK HOLMES CASEBOOK series had only two
issues (since there were only two in the original series from Dell).  And
they are working on a new one-volume collection, tentatively scheduled for
December, of a Sherlock Holmes strip from the 1930s (presumably the strip
by Leo O'Mealia).

May 89 #5   More excerpts from reviews of "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical":
            "Unpretentious, modest, often very funny, *Holmes* could bring
considerable pleasure to audiences seeking refuge from the pomposity of
contemporary musicals" (Mark Steyn, in the Independent).  And: "a vacuous
evening of unrelenting jollity and the kind of showbiz cliches everyone
hoped had gone out of fashion 20 years ago" (Charles Spencer, in the Daily
Telegraph).  And: "This is an elaborate production, starting well with the
exciting battle of the Reichenbach Falls, enjoyably staged.  But I fear it
may meet the fate of *Edwin Drood*.  The thrills fade and it turns into a
corny parody of Conan Doyle -- who has surely been parodied enough" (D.A.N.  
Jones, in the Sunday Telegraph).

The Players, for many years the gathering place for Sherlockians attending
The Silver Blaze in New York, celebrated its 100th anniversary last month,
according to a wire-service report, and welcomed the club's first female
members (Helen Hayes, Mary Tyler Moore, and Lauren Bacall were among those
honored).

"What sounds like a good buy is the first English edition of *The Hound of
the Baskervilles* (1902) listed at $3 by Norman Alexander Hall, 67 Union
St., Newton Center, Mass." (as reported by P. E. G. Quercus in his "Trade
Winds" column in The Saturday Review, Mar. 4, 1939).  Fifty years ago
Christopher Morley could include this sort of item in his column, which
also noted: "It amused sardonic Old Q. to learn from the Argus Bookshop,
Chicago, that there is now a 'Variorum Edition' of Mark Twain's *1601*,
edited by Franklin J. Meine.  Old Ben Abramson, equally sardonic, remarks
in his circular that 'for purity of text, this volume is unapproachable.'"

And more comic-book news: Renegade's CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #15, now in
the shops, will be the last issue from Renegade, because the comic book is
going to another company.  Renegade will send refunds to its subscribers,
and information on the other company when it's available.  The new company
is Northstar, based in Blue Island, Ill., and they intend to have #16 in
print in August.  We will report again when there's more information.

Jennie Paton has discovered a source for rental of some of the older S'ian
films, which is pleasant news for societies that are too large to gather
around a VCR and a television set.  The Em Gee Film Library (6924 Canby
Avenue #103, Reseda, CA 91335) offers "The Copper Beeches" (1912), "The
Dying Detective" (1921), "The Devil's Foot" (1921), and "The Man with the
Twisted Lip" (1921) for $8.50 each; "Sure-Locked Homes" (1926) and "Slick
Sleuth" (1926) for $5.00 each; "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" (1916) for
$12.50; "Burstup Homes Murder Case" (1913) for $10.00; "Biograph Primitives
#1 (with the 1900 "Sherlock Holmes Baffled") and "The Case of the Screaming
Bishop" (1944) for $6.00 each; and "The Sleuth" (1925) for $7.50.

Jennie has also found a source for a videocassette ($24.95) of "Sherlock
Jr." (1924): Facets Video, 1517 West Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614
(800-331-6197).  This is a Buster Keaton film, and it's a fine one, even
though it is S'ian almost only by title: Keaton plays a projectionist who
falls asleep and dreams that he has walked into the film being shown in the
theater; he plays a brilliant sleuth, and there are some truly splendid
special effects in the film.

May 89 #6   Mohamed Bazzi, president of The Young Sherlockians of Jackson
            Heights (a society founded last year at the Joseph Pulitzer
Intermediate School), plans to publish The Sherlockian Tabloid, beginning
in October and featuring the work of the scion's members.  The magazine
will cost $3.00 an issue, and can be ordered from Mohamed Bazzi, 80-08 35th
Avenue #5-F, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 (checks payable to I.S. 145 Queens).

"Frank here and I met in '84, in McQuire's
Camp, near the Rockies, where pa was working a
claim," Hattie Doran Moulton explained.  The
new postal card in the "America the Beautiful"
series shows Bart Forbes' original painting of
the Rocky Mountains.

River Oaks Travel (800-223-7174) is offering a
series of one-week tours (leaving every Sunday
from July 16 to Aug. 20) called "The Pub Package" tied to Malcolm Cooper's
series of miniature sculptures of "Great British Pubs" (one of which is The
Sherlock Holmes).  Texans and Canadians can call 713-526-1960.  The cover
of their brochure shows The Sherlock Holmes.

Judy Wolfsohn (9554 S.W. 82nd Street, Miami, FL 33173) offers the first
volume of her SHERLOCK HOLMES WORDSEARCH PUZZLES, with 25 puzzles, and
answers ($9.50 postpaid).

Reported by Michael McClure: Spiderman continues to show that he reads the
Canon.  The comic book WEB OF SPIDERMAN (#53, Aug. 1989) has (page 16) a
passing reference to a deerstalkered detective.

Film posters seem to have become the new target for speculative collecting.
"What's new is that doctors and lawyers are buying big-ticket items to put
in a portfolio," according to dealer Edwin Neal, quoted in the N.Y. Times
(May 22).  "They say, 'I want to spend $25,000.  You tell me what to buy.'"
At a recent auction in New York, a poster for "The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes" (1939) sold for $4,000.  The same auction included a jockey shirt
worn by James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" ($4,500) and a copy of GONE
WITH THE WIND signed by most of the cast ($20,000).

Reported by John Ruyle: THE MUMMY, OR RAMSES THE DAMNED, by Anne Rice (New
York: Ballantine Books, 1989, 436 pp., $11.95 in paper covers) is dedicated
to Arthur Conan Doyle (among others).  Anne Rice wrote THE VAMPIRE LESTAT
and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, and her new book is dedicated to ACD "for
his great mummy stories 'Lot No. 249' and 'The Ring of Thoth'."  She has
also written (as A. N. Roquelaure) three volumes of erotica, and although
there's nothing unusual about a mainstream author working in that genre,
she's the first I've seen to list such books on the "also by" page.

Henry Brandon, Washington correspondent for The Sunday Times, was one of
the earliest journalists to use a Sherlockian motif in reporting on the
Watergate break-in (D2284b), so early, in fact, that he (among many others)
still thought of it as a minor event with no political significance.  He
mentions his Sherlockian column in the Watergate chapter in his memoirs:
SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS (New York: Atheneum, 1989; 436 pp., $24.95).

Jun 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

THE BAKER STREET DOZEN, edited by Pj Doyle and E. W. McDiarmid, has been
reissued as a trade paperback (New York: Contemporary Books/Congdon & Weed,
1989; 354 pp., $9.95).  Originally published in 1987 (Oct 87 #1), the book
contains ACD's favorite Sherlock Holmes stories, plus essays by Sherlockian
scholars and an afterword by Dame Jean Conan Doyle.  The paperback actually
is a collectible new edition, with an new page of acknowledgements and new
commentary on "The Priory School" by the editors in place of the earlier
contribution by George Fletcher.

There are six "Inspector Puzzle Mini-Mysteries" in a series of children's
puzzle books written by Patricia Lakin Koenigsberg and illustrated by Marc
Nadel, with Inspector Puzzle in S'ian costume (Mahwah: Watermill Press,
1988; 32 pp., $1.50 each).  Titles: THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING DINOSAURS,
THE MYSTERIOUS SPACE CHASE, THE GREAT JUNGLE BUNGLE, THE CASE OF THE RUN-
AWAY TIME MACHINE, THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MICROCHIP, and THE SECRET OF
THE SINISTER SEA VILLAIN.

Brian and Charlotte Erickson are adding a file of National Holmesian Events
for Traveling Sherlockians to their computerized bulletin board, and anyone
planning a trip can call the bulletin board to see what's happening where.  
And societies are, of course, encouraged to send advance notice of meetings
to the Ericksons, either by mail (725 Sutter Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303)
or directly to the bulletin board (415-329-1703).  Information needed: date
and time and place of the meeting, society name, and contact name, address,
and telephone number.

When discussing whether movies such as "Young Sherlock Holmes" and "Without
a Clue" were successful at the box office (each grossed about $16 million
in eight weeks), it can be instructive to see how real success is measured:
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" did $5.6 million on its first day in
the theaters, and $46.9 million in its first six days.














Cartoonist Dik Browne died on June 6, after a long career as an advertising
artist (he created the Bird's Eye bird and Chiquita Banana, and redesigned
the Campbell Soup kids) and as a cartoonist ("Hi and Lois" and "Hagar the
Horrible").  He was the only cartoonist ever to have received the National
Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for two different comic strips.  This
Sherlockian "Hi and Lois" cartoon was first published on Jan. 17, 1985.

Jun 89 #2   The second shipment of Rathbone/Bruce audio cassettes has been
            shipped by American Express: three cassettes, with a shelf box
that will hold thirteen cassettes.  The programs are "The April Fool's Day
Adventure" and "The Uneasy Easy Chair" (duplicating the cassette already in
bookstores), "The Headless Monk" and "The Demon Barber" (with comments by
Ben Wright), and "The Amateur Mendicant Society" and "The Vanishing White
Elephant" (with comments by Ben Wright).  The subscription series is only
available to American Express card-holders (and surely you know someone who
is a card-holder, if you aren't), the cost is reasonable ($2.95 shipping
for the first two cassettes, and $29.95 plus $2.95 shipping for the next
three cassettes, with a new shipment every two months), and the toll-free
number for orders is 800-528-8000.

If you are a card-holder and didn't receive a promotional flier, there's a
reason: I have heard that American Express did a test mailing, to only one
million card-holders, to see what the response would be.  They were hoping
for a one-percent response (10,000 subscriptions to the series), but they
are reported to have received only 2,000 orders, and to be considering not
continuing the subscription series.  If you are at all interested in these
cassettes, you would be wise to subscribe, no matter how long the series
actually runs, considering how difficult it is to find the cassettes in the
chain bookstores.

And there is an alternative to the American Express subscription series and
to buying the cassettes in bookstores: you can buy direct from Simon and
Schuster (800-678-2677).  The price is $9.95 per cassette, plus $2.95 per
order for shipping, so the overall cost is higher, and it would appear that
cassettes will be available only at the bookstore schedule (one cassette
every three months).

A CASE OF BLIND FEAR #2 (Apr 89) has been published by Eternity Comics: the
comic-book series has Sherlock Holmes in pursuit of the Invisible Man, with
Irene Adler and Prof. Challenger involved in the battle.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was one of five Arctic explorers
honored by the U.S. Postal Service three years ago (Jun
86 #1), and he has now been honored by Canada with a
stamp showing Stefansson on the Arctic ice (the rather
modernistic design is by Frederick Hagan).  Stefansson
knew and admired ACD.  "In his home Conan Doyle is not
merely a sturdier Watson and a kinder Holmes," Stefans-
son wrote in 1922 (D2051b).  "He is also a gentler Sir Nigel and a mellow
blend of all the host of his nobler characters."

Further to Jennie Paton's report (May 89 #5) that "Sherlock Jr." (1924) is
available from Facets Video, the company has returned her check, because "a
current rights dispute has removed the tape from distribution."

Reported from Britain: MURDER WILL OUT: THE DETECTIVE IN FICTION FROM POE
TO THE PRESENT, by T. J. Binyon (Oxford University Press, 192 pp., L15.00);
"illustrates how the character of the detective has often overshadowed its
creator."  And a paperback reprint of Michael Dibdin's THE LAST SHERLOCK
HOLMES STORY [D4891b] (Faber, 192 pp., L3.99).

Jun 89 #3   Another plug for the mail-order catalog from Signals (Box
            70870, St. Paul, MN 55170): this is a subsidiary of WGBH in
Boston, and they offer video-cassettes of six programs from the Granada
series, the recording of music from the series, and the well-illustrated
book SHERLOCK HOLMES: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION, as well as many other items
tied to public television.

Scott Bond reports that registration for Bouchercon XX in Philadelphia is
now closed, having reached its limit of 1,000.  Those who were wise enough
to have registered already can plan to attend the Sherlockian session on
Saturday afternoon.

Gary Lovisi's RELICS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Feb 87 #4) is now available in an
expanded second edition (56 pp.), concentrating on mostly recent ephemera,
with brief comments on newspaper, magazine, and fanzine articles, as well
as reproductions of advertising artwork, magazine covers, theater programs,
and cartoons.  Order from Gryphon Books, Box 209, Brooklyn, NY 11228; $4.00
postpaid.  Gary also reports that his PAPERBACK PARADE #8 (also $4.00) has
an article on "The Non-Sherlockian Paperbacks of Arthur Conan Doyle" by Roy
G. James (six pages, with reproductions of some of the covers).

                              "The whole story concerning the politician,
                              the lighthouse, and the trained sea gulls" is
                              not exactly the theme of Bart Forbes' design
                              for the new "seashore" postal card, but it
                              shows Cape Hatteras Light in North Carolina.  
                              North Carolina is also mentioned in the Canon
                              as the locale of the Anderson murders, and
                              the K.K.K. had branches in the Carolinas.

The latest issue of Anglofile at hand, with a report that Granada's "The
Devil's Foot" won an Edgar for best episode in a television series at the
1989 annual dinner of the Mystery Writers of America ("The Musgrave Ritual"
won a similar Edgar last year).  In Anglofile's own British Entertainment
Awards, Jeremy Brett was voted the best television actor, and "The Return
of Sherlock Holmes" tied for best television series (with "All Creatures
Great and Small").  Anglofile covers British television, stage, film, and
video, and is published bi-monthly by the Goody Press, Box 33515, Decatur,
GA 30033 ($10.00 a year).

Travelers to Edinburgh who seek out the Conan Doyle pub will find that it
has been renamed: it is now the Cafe a la Ronde.  We do not know whether
the pub's rather scanty Doylean decorations have been retained.

But Conan Doyle *is* remembered in Edinburgh.  There is a plaque on the
wall of a hotel near Conan Doyle's birthplace at 11 Picardy Place, and an-
other at 23 George Square, where he lived from 1876 to 1880.  Nothing came
of the plans to commission sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi to design a memorial
to Conan Doyle in the center of the traffic circle where 11 Picardy Place
once stood (Sep 87 #5), but the Edinburgh Evening News now reports that the
Edinburgh branch of the Federation of Master Builders want to commemorate
their 50th anniversary (in 1991) by donating a statue of Sherlock Holmes to
the city.  The bronze statue is expected to cost L35,000.

Jun 89 #4   "The Agent must keep on Sh'lockin'," reports the proprietor of
            the Pequod Press, announcing a new episode from the memoirs of
Turlock Loams.  THE NAPA VALLEY MYSTERY offers Dr. Fatso's revelation of
the malefic consequences of the sinister researches of Victor Gravenstein,
a young botanist from Calistoga, and the book is available from John Ruyle,
521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $29.50 cloth, $14.50 paper.

Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) was a 19th-century merchant, banker
and investor, and philanthropist, who gave $7 million to fund a
hospital, university, and medical school in Baltimore, and there
has been a proposal for a Canonical connection.  "But all have
wondered just what Holmes was doing between the time he left the
university and his taking rooms in Montague Street," Christopher
Morley suggested in his essay "Was Sherlock Holmes an American?" (Saturday
Review of Literature, July 21, 1934).  "My own thought is that the opening
of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1876, and the extraordinary
and informal opportunities offered there for graduate study, tempted him
across the water."  Bradbury Thompson designed our new $1.00 regular issue.

A report from the 1989 convention of the American Booksellers Association
(never again to be held in Washington, unless a new convention center is
built, because the one we have now is too small): the next twelve months
are unlikely to be considered "The Year of the Book" by Sherlockians, since
L. B. Greenwood's new pastiche SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THISTLE OF SCOTLAND
(due in October from Simon and Schuster) appears to be the only new book
planned by a commercial publisher.

We are, however, entering the age of audio: according to one publisher's
statistics, more than three million portable audio-cassette players are
used by consumers today in the United States, and more than 70% of all new
cars sold in the United States in 1988 came equipped with audio-cassette
players.  In S'ian audio, Simon and Schuster are pleased with sales of
their continuing series of Rathbone-Bruce radio shows from the 1940s, Dove
Books on Tape is releasing A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: A COLLECTION OF
SEVEN GREAT STORIES read by Ben Kingsley on four cassettes, Great American
Audio Corp. has THE BEST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES VOL. II with four stories read
(by an unidentified reader) on four cassettes, and Dercum Press is ready to
issue THE SIGN OF THE FOUR read by William Barker on four cassettes.

Caedmon has nothing new planned, but will repackage earlier audio material
(Basil Rathbone's SHERLOCK HOLMES SOUNDBOOK, Nicol Williamson's THE HOUND
OF THE BASKERVILLES, and John Wood's SHERLOCK HOLMES' ADVENTURES.  Academy
Chicago is preparing the third volume in their series of trade-paperback
reprints of Basil Copper's Solar Pons pastiches.  Troll Associates will
release four video cassettes with SHERLOCK HOLMES' MOST THRILLING CASES at
$14.95 each (these are the Australian animations of Stud, Sign, Houn, and
Vall, with Peter O'Toole as Holmes).  Eternity is working on collections of
their comic-book reprints of the 1950s comic strips, aiming for bookstore
sales.  And Iron Crown Enterprises confirmed that their series of "Sherlock
Holmes Solo Mysteries" ended with seven titles in the U.S. (enthusiasm for
choose-your-own-ending game-books has waned here), but there is an eighth
title in the series in some foreign translations (we will report further on
this when more information is available).

Jun 89 #5   Another variant of Doubleday's THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES has
            appeared.  The one-volume "Dorset Press Edition" is similar to
the standard Doubleday edition (1960), but was published by Marboro Books
to be sold only by B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble, at $12.95 (discounted from
$18.95).  The main distinguishing point is the statement on the title-page
verso: "This edition published by Dorset Press, a division of Marboro Books
Corporation, by arrangement with Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday
Dell Publishing Group Inc. 1988 Dorset Press."  Other points: the endpapers
are plain white; the binding is brown paper-covered boards with a facsimile
signature of A. Conan Doyle in gold on the front cover, quarter black cloth
with spine lettered in gold; and the jacket is yellow, brown, and black on
much glossier stock than the earlier tan, brown, and black jacket.

William B. Lemar, an energetic member of The Maiwand Jezails, died in May.  
He was a civil engineer, and had retired from the Army with the rank of
colonel, triggering an interest in military history (S'ian and otherwise)
that involved considerable correspondence with Brigadier (retd.) Flashman.

"The Adventures at the Atheneum Club" is the title of a Sherlock Holmes
Mystery Weekend scheduled at Roselawn House (part of the Donald Gordon
Centre at Queen's University) in Kingston, Ontario, on Aug. 25-27, 1989.  
The weekend is arranged by a company specializing in English Murder Mystery
Weekends, the cost is $289 a person, and further information is available
from Whodunnit Inc., 173 Camden Road, Napanee, Ont. K7R 1E1, Canada.

Loren Estleman's SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. DRACULA (D4907b) is back in print, in
a new printing of the Penguin paperback (214 pp., $3.95).

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's "Nate the Great" series of children's book has
another entry: NATE THE GREAT STALKS STUPIDWEED (Dell Yearling paperback,
$2.95) features the deestalkered young detective in a botanical mystery.

SHERLICK HOUND AND THE VALENTINE MYSTERY, by Kelly Goldman and Ronnie
Davidson, is a pleasant children's mystery, with attractive illustrations
by Don Madden (Niles: Albert Whitman, 1989; 40 pp., $7.95).

There may be more Sherlockian audio in store for American listeners: Clive
Brooks, who has written a series of stories read by Nick Girdler on Radio
Solent in England, reports that they may eventually be available here.  And
his book SHERLOCK HOLMES REVISITED, with twelve stories, is to be published
next spring.  A demonstration cassette reveals that his stories are written
and read with fine style.

Gunnar E. Sundin, an active Sherlockian in Chicago, died on June 12.  His
SHERLOCK'S LONDON TODAY (BSJ Mar 86) is a fine guide-book for visitors to
the London of Sherlock Holmes, and his four-sheet reprint of the Weekly
Dispatch's 1861 Map of London is a valuable resource for researchers.

Plan ahead: Nov. 12-19 will be National Children's Book Week, and Nov. 15
will be National Young Reader's Day, celebrated by the Library of Congress
and by local libraries.  Sherlockians and their societies might with to use
the occasion as an opportunity to help libraries to encourage young readers
to read a good detective story.

Jun 89 #6   Gary Thaden has forwarded an American reprint of a report from
            The Observer [London] on a proposal to renumber Baker Street so
that the present No. 239 will become No. 221B.  "The devilish mind behind
the plot is that of John Aidiniantz, an entrepreneur" who recently placed
an advertisement in Country Life: "Investor/sleeping partner required with
$4 million.  World famous London landmark for sale.  May suit titled person
with cultural and historical interests."  Aidiniantz notes that No. 239 has
17 steps leading up to the first floor, and says that he wants to set up a
Sherlock Holmes Center, with a reconstruction of the sitting-room, museum,
and library.  The Westminster City Council announced that it will consider
Aidiniantz's request, which has met with objections from the Abbey National
Building Society ("we have looked after Mr. Holmes for so long that to us
he is a real person") and by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London ("the
location of the house where the detective lived is probably the most vexed
question in the whole of the Holmes saga").  One might wonder when someone
will get round to asking Aidiniantz whether the interior of No. 239, along
with the 17 steps, is original, or was rebuilt after the WW2 bombing that
gutted almost all of Baker Street.

Travelers to France might want to plan an itinerary that includes Avignon,
where, on a road between the Hotel Mercure (outside of town) and the old
city, one will find the "Pub Sherlock Holmes".

Judson Philips died on Mar. 7, ending a writing career that spanned fifty
years.  As Hugh Pentecost he wrote the short story "My Dear Uncle Sherlock"
(D6051), which was later televised (D4619b), and he was the author of a
truly memorable opening line for a story: "Believing in ghosts is not at
all difficult.  If you are one."






















John Pryce Figurines (132 Brookfield Road, The Acorns, Welshpool, Powys,
United Kingdom) offers hand-painted figurines (5 in. high) of Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson at L10.25 each.

Jun 89 #7   Hy Gardner died on June 17.  He wrote a Broadway gossip column
            for the N.Y. Herald Tribune from 1951 until the paper ceased
publication in 1966, and then wrote a syndicated gossip column.  He also
was a member of the original celebrity panel on the television program "To
Tell the Truth".  In 1965 Gardner provided the introduction for the WFUV-FM
radio broadcast by The Priory Scholars of "The Sinister London of Sherlock
Holmes" (adaptations by Chris Steinbrunner of "The Man with the Twisted
Lip" and "Charles Augustus Milverton").

SHERLOCK HOLMES: TWO COMPLETE ADVENTURES is a new (1989) semi-miniature
book (2.75 x 3.25 in., 153 pp.) with "Five" and "Blue" (and with the title
SHERLOCK HOLMES: THREE COMPLETE ADVENTURES on the dust jacket); $4.95 in
bookstores ($7.45 postpaid from the Running Press, 125 South 22nd Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19103).

Plan ahead: "The Bimetallic Colloquium" will be held in Montreal on June
15-17, 1990.  The weekend event will be held at McGill University, under
the sponsorship of the local Sherlockian society (The Bimetallic Question),
and additional information is available from Wilfrid de Freitas, Box 883,
Stock Exchange Tower, Montreal H4Z 1K2, Canada.

John Bryan's JAMES BOND: DID HE REALLY LIVE TWICE? (Domino Books, 1989, 130
pp., L6.95) is an examination of the echoes and parallels between the Canon
(and the Rathbone films) and the saga of James Bond (in print and on film);
Bryan concludes that the echoes and parallels are more than coincidental.  
The publisher's address is Springfield Court, New Castletown Road, Douglas,
Isle of Man, Great Britain.

The Eternity reprints (as SHERLOCK HOLMES CASEBOOK) of the Dell comic books
NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES reveal that there are variants of Dell
#1245 (D6190a).  Eternity has reprinted the page "Sherlock Holmes' London
Haunts" from the inside back cover of their original copy of Dell #1245,
which also exists with a full-page advertisement for Kellogg's OKs on the
inside back cover.

John H. Jenkins, the colorful Texas antiquarian book dealer, was shot to
death on Apr. 16, leaving law-enforcement authorities, friends, and family
arguing about whether his death was suicide or murder.  His autobiography
AUDUBON AND OTHER CAPERS: CONFESSIONS OF A TEXAS BOOKMAKER was published in
1976, the same year in which the John H. Jenkins Award for Bibliography,
funded by Jenkins and Union College to mark his participation in an FBI
sting operation that resulted in the recovery in 1971 (from Mafia thieves)
of a volume of Audubon's BIRDS OF AMERICA stolen from the college library,
was given to Ron De Waal for his THE WORLD BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
AND DR. WATSON.

The silver cigarette case inscribed "From Sherlock Holmes 1893" presented
by Arthur Conan Doyle to Sidney Paget on the occasion of his wedding will
be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on July 20, accompanied by a one-page
letter from Conan Doyle to Paget, arranging to meet him in London, in one
lot estimated at L1,500-2,000.  The cigarette case was last seen at auction
on July 24, 1980, when it went for L1,500 to A. K. Shiel of Edinburgh (who
had earlier in the sale purchased the letter for L200).

Jun 89 #8   The personal essay may indeed be a vanishing literary art form,
            despite occasional appearances in periodicals such as the BSJ
(where a fine essay by Bill Schweickert will be found in the June issue).
Christopher Morley was a masterful essayist, in era when essays were widely
read and enjoyed, and George Fletcher has assembled a splendid selection in
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY'S NEW YORK (New York: Fordham University Press, 1988;
377 pp., $19.95), along with a warm tribute by Morley's friend Bill Hall.  
There is a section of essays on The Three Hours for Lunch Club in the early
1920s (when it was far more philosophical and much less social than it was
to became later in the decade after Morley had joined the founders of the
Saturday Review of Literature).  And the 1949 essay "On Belonging to Clubs"
may surprise those who do not know, or have forgotten, just how informal an
organization The Baker Street Irregulars once was.

THE LIGHT IS DARK ENOUGH is a 36-page booklet prepared for this month's
"Cambridge Expedition" by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, edited by
Jonathan McCafferty and offering a series of essays and illustrations of
the Cantabridgean aspects of the Canon.  The cost of the booklet is L8.00
(or $17.50) postpaid from Jonathan McCafferty, 5 Jonathan Court, Windmill
Road, Chiswick, London W4 1SA, England (checks payable to the Society).

If the Kroger chain of supermarkets is in your area, check the egg section:
Jennie Paton reports that their "symbol of eggcellence" egg cartons show an
egg with deerstalker and magnifying glass.

Chris Steinbrunner has a new address: Golden Hill HCC, 2028 Bridgeport
Avenue, Milford, CT 06460 (203-877-0371).

Oliver Bruhns' PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S LITERARY WORKS
PUBLISHED IN GERMANY, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON SHERLOCK HOLMES IN
PASTICHE is a 74-page checklist of German Sherlockiana ranging from SPATE
RACHE (the earliest translation, in 1902) to SHERLOCK'S SPURNASENSCHULE
(EIN SESAMSTRASSEN-BUCH).  The checklist is in German, with a Preface in
English, and with artwork by Richard Gutschmidt (the earliest known German
artist to illustrate the stories).  It is available (postpaid airmail) from
Oliver Bruhns (Kathe-Kollwitz-Weg 10, 2400 Lubeck 1, West Germany) for DM
10.00 (in currency or by international money order or bank draft); if you
pay with a US dollar check, the cost is $8.50.

Sherlockians traveling on British Airways should not neglect the in-flight
entertainment, which includes a Sherlockian "Play of the Month" in their
headphone repertoire.  These are 30-minute dramatizations from the Canon,
adapted by Grant C. Eustace and recorded by Daedalus Productions, with Roy
Marsden (Sherlock Holmes) and John Moffatt (Dr. Watson).  They are nicely
done, and faithful to the Canon, and there are 24 programs in the series
(which began in 1987).  Daedalus hopes to be able to release the series on
audio cassettes eventually.

A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Dove Books on Tape) is a new four-cassette
package with seven stories (Scan, RedH, Twis, Croo, Card, Copp, SixN) read
by Ben Kingsley, who does a good job with his characterizations (and better
with the supporting roles than with Holmes and Watson).  In bookstores or
direct from Dove (800-345-9945).

Jul 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

Harvard Magazine has a "Chapter and Verse" department ("a correspondence
corner for not-so-famous lost words"), and in the May-June 1989 issue ran a
query asking for Canonical authority for Christopher Morley's reference in
his introduction to THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES to Sherlock Holmes having
had earlier lodgings in Montague Street.  There were more than 30 replies
to the query, including one from David Musto on behalf of the Yale Sherlock
Holmes Society, and the answer appeared in the July-August issue.  Not all
the queries are literary: the current issue also asks for the words to a
song about "My Little Papaya Tree" (sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of
Christmas") once heard on the radio.

Julian Symons' Sheridan Haynes pastiche THE KENTISH MANOR MURDERS is now
available in paperback (New York: Penguin Books, 1989; 191 pp., $3.95).

THE ROAD TO KHARTOUM: A LIFE OF GENERAL CHARLES GORDON, by Charles Chenevix
Trench, first published by Norton in 1978, has been reissued as a trade
paperback by Carroll and Graf (320 pp., $10.95), and will be of interest to
those who recall Watson's newly-framed picture of Gordon.

Bernie O'Heir reports that recent one-sheet movie posters are available
from Jerry Ohlinger (242 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011): "Murder by
Decree" ($30.00), "Young Sherlock Holmes" ($15.00), and "Without a Clue"
($10.00).  Shipping costs per order are $3.00 (UPS) and $4.00 (USPS).

                     John Bennett Shaw reports a handsome Sherlockian ring,
                     designed and hand-crafted by Roger Worland (Touchstone
                     Jewellery, 49 Bouldrewood Road, Benfleet, Essex SS7
                     5UA, England) in solid 14-carat gold.  The ring costs
                     L125.00 postpaid, including insurance and U.S. import
                     duty.  Mr. Worland has designed lapel pins for The
                     Northern Musgraves and The Arthur Conan Doyle Society,
                     and welcomes commissions from other societies.

Eve Titus' BASIL AND THE LOST COLONY (New York: Pocket Books/Minstrel,
1989; 96 pp., $2.50), is the second in a series of new trade-paperback
editions, with new color cover art by Judith Sutton.

Jim Backus, who provided the voice for the nearsighted Mr. Quincy Magoo,
died on July 3.  In a 1964 sequence for the television series "Mr. Magoo's
Storybook" (D6098b), Backus played Magoo as Dr. Watson, and the episode is
available on the videocassette "Mr. Magoo...Man of Mystery" (Paramount Home
Video).

Paulette Greene, still preparing for her move to Florida, invites queries
from anyone interested in a nine-room English Tudor house, with a slate
roof and five bedrooms, in a nice part of Long Island: 140 Princeton Road,
Rockville Centre, NY 11570.

Reported: WONDER BEARS TREASURE CHEST OF FUN (four books to read and color,
for children ages 4-8) with a Wonder Bear in S'ian costume on the cover
(Mahwah: Troll Associates, $4.95).

Jul 89 #2   A bibliographic query: I have seen two copies, in dust jacket,
            of Blakeney's SHERLOCK HOLMES: FACT OR FICTION? (London: John
Murray, 1932) with a laid-in promotional flier for Bell's SHERLOCK HOLMES
AND DOCTOR WATSON: A CHRONOLOGY OF THEIR ADVENTURES.  Wondering whether
this is more than mere coincidence, I would appreciate hearing from anyone
who has a copy of Blakeney's book, letting me know whether or not the book
is in dust jacket, and whether or not the book includes the laid-in flier.

          Kate Karlson Redmond has found some new S'ian items: authentic
          HOLMES neckties ($15.00), lapel pins ($4.00), and mechanical
          pencils ($2.00), all with an appropriate silhouette and a HOLMES
          inscription.  This HOLMES is the Home Office Large Major Enquiry
          System, a computerized case-management data-base system designed
          in Britain and used for "major-incident investigations" there and
now in Toronto.  Prices are in US dollars and include postage, and orders
can be sent to Sgt. David A. Reinhardt, 76 Lord Simcoe Drive, Bramalea,
Ont. L6S 5G6, Canada.  The necktie is navy blue with white HOLMES design
(and a red maple leaf to show you're not advertising the British system).

Ben Wright died in July.  British by birth, he arrived in Hollywood in
1946, and was a splendid radio actor.  In the 1946-47 season he appeared in
various roles in the ABC series "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"
(D5463a) and on one occasion, when Tom Conway was ill, replaced Conway as
Holmes.  On Feb. 12, 1949, he played the detective (Inspector Collins) in
an adaptation of "The Lost Special" in the CBS series "Escape", and in the
1949-50 season he played Holmes in the ABC series "Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes" (D5466a).  In 1977 he was cast as Watson in "The Sherlock Holmes
Radio Theatre", a series planned by KIIS (Los Angeles); only seven programs
were recorded, and the series was never broadcast.  Ben Wright recorded the
introduction for the record album "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"
produced by 221A Baker Street Associates in 1986, and his introductions and
comments can also be heard on three of the 221A audio cassettes distributed
by Simon and Schuster.

The 221A audio cassettes have also had some nice publicity.  On June 23 the
ABC series "The Radio Show" included a one-hour segment in which Tom Snyder
interviewed Glenhall Taylor and Harry Bartell (with some discussion of the
Rathbone/Bruce series, and much more about old-time radio in general), and
on July 9 the television series "Entertainment This Week" included a four-
minute segment on Leonard Maltin's visit to a recording session for new
introductions for future cassettes.  And a long story on the series, in the
Chicago Tribune (July 2), reports that the first cassette in the series has
sold an estimated 25,000-30,000 copies in the first three months (I think
that estimate may be highly optimistic, but only 10,000 copies is regarded
as a best-seller for an audio cassette).

Rick Hacker reports that THE ULTIMATE PIPE BOOK (May 85 #1) is scheduled
for a second (revised) edition in September (with discussion of Sherlock
Holmes' smoking habits), and that the summer 1989 issue of Carey's Club
News has an article (with a photograph) about his presentation of the Pipe
Smoker of the Year Award to Jeremy Brett.  Carey's Club is a mail-order
pipe-and-tobacco club, and the address (attn: Denise Drumm) is 7245 Whipple
Avenue NW, North Canton, OH 44720.

Jul 89 #3   Duncan Kyle's political thriller THE DANCING MEN is now on the
            remainder tables at $1.98.  The book is non-Sherlockian, except
for the title, but it is possible to put together an interesting collection
of such books, which might include A CASE OF IDENTITY (by Leonard Brain and
by Richard Marsh), THE CROOKED MAN (by Shelley Smith), THE EMPTY HOUSE (by
Michael Gilbert, by Francis Grierson, and by Irina Karlova), THE VALLEY OF
FEAR (by John Creasey, by Francis Addington Symonds, and by Robin Gar), and
THE YELLOW FACE (by William Murray Graydon).  There are also THE CRIMSON
CIRCLE (by Edgar Wallace), THE SCARLET CIRCLE (by Jonathan Stagge), COPPER
BEECH (by Ariadne Thompson), WISTERIA COTTAGE (by Robert M. Coates), and
THE DANCING MAN (by P. M. Hubbard).  Many of these titles were reported by
the late John Nieminski (Nov 86 #1).  Can anyone add to the list?

One of my correspondents notes that Americans and British use different
formats for writing dates: 12-25-88 (American) and 25-12-88 (British).  It
doesn't make much difference when it's Christmas, but a date written as
07-01-88 can be confusing.  Does anyone know why the formats differ, and
how they evolved?  What formats are used in other countries?

SHERLOCK HOLMES BY GAS-LAMP: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST FOUR DECADES OF THE
BAKER STREET JOURNAL, edited by Philip A. Shreffler (New York: Fordham
University Press, 1989; 423 pp., $22.50), demonstrates in many ways why the
world of Sherlockians is so interesting.  For an older generation it serves
as a reminder of how important the BSJ has been to those who played the
Sherlockian game, and for younger Sherlockians it offers fine examples of
the wit and intelligence and devotion that have been and still are brought
to that game by those who play it in the traditions of its inventors.  The
book offers an informative and appreciative account of the history of the
BSJ, and a thoroughly successful selection that cannot have been easy to
make.  Recommended.

26 programs from the Granada series are now available on video cassette in
Britain, on 16 cassettes at L9.99 each, according to the current program
for "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" at Wyndham's Theatre.  The British use
PAL format, so the cassettes won't play on American or Japanese machines
(which use NTSC format); only the first six programs have been issued here.

Mel Blanc died on July 10, after more than fifty years of providing voices
for many of the most popular cartoon characters on film and television (and
the sound of the wheezing Maxwell automobile on Jack Benny's radio series).  
His characters included Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, and he is heard in the
films "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" (1945) and "Deduce, You Say!" (1956).

GRANADA COMPANION NUMBER ONE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES ALBUM is the 40-page album
published by Karizzma in 1987, with an introduction by Vincent Price, and
articles by Kenneth Harris, plus many color photographs of actors, sets,
and scenery, now available for $7.95 postpaid from Ming Books, 225 South
18th Street #1502, Philadelphia, PA 19103; they take Visa and Mastercard.

There's nothing Sherlockian about the latest nutritional advisory, but it's
a fascinating idea: don't eat or drink anything advertised on television.  
It it was good for you, they wouldn't have to spend all that money to get
you to buy it.

Jul 89 #4   SHERLOCK HOLMES: A STUDY IN SCARLET is a new "graphic novel"
            ($5.95) with "A Study in Scarlet" (adapted by James Stenstrum,
and illustrated by Noly Panaligan) and "The Singular Case of the Anemic
Heir" (written by William B. Dubay and Kevin Duane, and illustrated by
Anton Caravana).  If it's not stocked by your local comic-book shop, the
publisher is Innovation Books, 3622 Jacob Street, Wheeling, WV 26003.

Laurence Olivier died on July 11.  He was a great actor, both in leading
roles and as a supporting character, on stage and screen and television,
including a bewildered and persecuted Professor Moriarty in the film "The
Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976).  He was honored by his fellow-actors and
his country (he had received a life peerage), and his ashes will be buried
in Westminster Abbey.

The fifth audio cassette in the 221A series, already shipped to those who
subscribed to the series through American Express, will be in book stores
in August (or you can order from Simon & Schuster at 800-678-2677).  The
cassette ($9.95) has "The Amateur Mendicant Society" (Apr. 2, 1945) and
"The Vanishing Elephant" (Oct. 8, 1945), both available for the first time
since they originally aired.

At hand from Gary Westmoreland is a wire service report with welcome news
that Peter Cushing says he has "confounded science in his fight against
cancer and now has a clean bill of health."  His prostate cancer is in
remission and he is less dependent on medication: "I was on so many pills
for so long, I was in danger of becoming a drug addict."  A 90-minute TV
documentary on Cushing was broadcast in Britain on June 4.

Troll Associates continue to add S'ian titles to their series of "Watermill
Classics" paperbacks, which now includes ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and
THE BEST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1980, each with six stories), THE HOUND OF THE
BASKERVILLES (1980), GREAT DETECTIVE STORIES (1986, with "Bosc" and four
stories by other authors), THE SIGN OF FOUR (1987), and A STUDY IN SCARLET
(1987).  The books have appropriate color covers and cost $1.95 each, and
the publisher is Watermill Press, 100 Corporate Drive, Mahwah, NJ 07430.

Hirotaka Ueda's continuing "EQ Sherlockiana" column began in the Mar. 1980
issue of the bimonthly Japanese edition of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine,
and the first 49 columns, each with an imaginative Sherlockian sketch by
the author, have now been collected in SHERLOCK HOLMES DAIHAKURANKAI (ISBN
4-489-00262-9), published in 1988 by Tokyo Tosho (2-5-22, Suido, Bunkyo-ku,
Tokyo 112, Japan) (Y2,800).

Further to the report (Jun 89 #1) on the file of National Holmesian Events
for Traveling Sherlockians maintained by Brian and Charlotte Erickson in
their computer, their correct address is: 726 Sutter Avenue, Palo Alto, CA
94303.

Studio Gallery Decorative Editions (50 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London
N1 9DP, England) offers a "Portrayals of Sherlock Holmes" bone-china plate
(in two sizes) with portraits of nineteen actors who have portrayed Holmes.  
The prices (postpaid by surface mail) are L22.00 (27.5 cm) and L18.00 (20.5
cm), with payment in sterling required.  An illustrated flier is available.

Jul 89 #5   David L. Hammer's THE 22ND MAN: IN RE SHERLOCK HOLMES: GERMAN
            AGENT (Gasogene Press, 1989; 125 pp., $15.95), is an entertain-
ing extrapolation of his earlier articles on Sherlock Holmes' ancestry and
on the possibility that Holmes was a German secret agent before and during
the Great War.  Hammer's sense of style and place and humor, already known
to readers of his S'ian travel books, are all present in this account, with
an added point-counterpoint exchange with Jon L. Lellenberg reprinted from
the BSJ.  The publisher's address is Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004.

News from Britain: the Crowborough Cross, an old coaching pub near Conan
Doyle's home at Windlesham, is being refurbished, and part of the pub will
be renamed The Conan Doyle Rooms.  Malcolm Frame, a local admirer of Conan
Doyle, hopes to fill the rooms with photographs and memorabilia.

Dick Rutter, our far-flung European correspondent, reports that "Holmes
Investigation" is a firm of private detectives in Turin, Italy, staffed
entirely by women (except for Bubu, the office dog).

A new mailing at hand from Peter E. Melonas, offering Sherlockian prints,
posters, T-shirts, deerstalkers, audio, and the reissue of Rathbone's IN
AND OUT OF CHARACTER.  If you're not already on his mailing list, you can
write to him at the Sherlock Holmes Tobacco Shop, 1726-A Sycamore Square
Mall, Memphis, TN 38134.

Himan Brown, who created the radio mystery series "The Inner Sanctum" in
the 1930s, was inducted into the Emerson Radio Hall of Fame in June.  In
1977 he produced and directed the "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" (which ran
for more than five years and included at least a dozen Canonical stories
and, in 1980, a fine "Nightmare in Gillette Castle" with Kevin McCarthy as
both William Gillette and Sherlock Holmes).  And at Bouchercon in New York
in 1977 he presented a fine talk on "How I Invented Radio Mystery", with an
interesting demonstration of sound effects from radio's early days.

Elizabeth Peters, who has written five fine mysteries about Egyptologist
Amelia Peabody Emerson, has an intriguing story in the anthology SISTERS IN
CRIME, edited by Marilyn Wallace (New York: Berkley Books, 1989; 306 pp.,
$3.95).  "The Locked Tomb Mystery" is set in ancient Egypt, in the days of
the pharaoh Nebmaatre, and the mystery is solved with careful Sherlockian
deduction by the sage and scholar Amenhotep Sa Hapu, with the assistance of
his friend Wadjsen.

Elizabeth Peters' five mystery novels about Amelia Peabody Emerson, set in
Victorian England and Egypt and written with style and humor, are CROCODILE
ON THE SANDBANK (1975), THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOHS (1981), THE MUMMY CASE
(1985), LION IN THE VALLEY (1986), and THE DEEDS OF THE DISTURBER (1988).  
THE CURSE OF THE PHARAOHS opens with the death of Sir Henry Baskerville
("of the Norfolk Baskervilles, not the Devonshire branch of the family")
during an excavation in Egypt (two members of his staff are epigrapher Karl
von Bork and photographer Charles Milverton).  THE MUMMY CASE offers two
passing allusions to the Canon.  LION IN THE VALLEY includes an appearance
by a lean, hawk-nosed, private investigator named (or claiming to be named)
Tobias Gregson.  And THE DEEDS OF THE DISTURBER ends with a pleasant echo
from the Canon.

Jul 89 #6   There's a new commercial videocassette: "Sherlock Hound in Tales
            of Mystery" from Celebrity Home Entertainment ($39.95 suggested
retail in your neighborhood video store).  This is the first release in the
United States of the series co-produced by TMS (Japan) and RAI (Italy), and
the cassette (not yet seen) probably contains four tales.  One of the tales
was broadcast here by HBO in 1983, and many are available on cassettes in
Britain, and they are nicely done: the stories are amusing, the characters
are all dogs, and the animation is first-rate (as usual from Japan).

Further to the report (Mar 89 #5) on the British government's proposal that
Britain's six largest brewers be required to sell most of their "tied pubs"
(Whitbread's "The Sherlock Holmes" in London is one of them), an uproar of
outraged protest has forced the government into an embarrassed surrender.  
The protesters included the Bishop of Truro, who argued in the House of
Lords that the pub "has served local needs as nothing else has, including
the church," and compared the possible loss of the nation's pubs to the
dissolution of the monasteries.

The third running of The Silver Blaze at Canterbury Downs in Shakopee will
be held on Aug. 26 (near Minneapolis).  Contact: Bruce E. Southworth, 822
South 2nd Street, Stillwater, MN 55082.

"Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" closed on July 8, after a run of about 11
weeks at the Cambridge Theatre in London, not even close to the record for
the shortest run for a Sherlockian stage production (that record is held by
Basil Rathbone's "Sherlock Holmes", which closed after only 3 performances
at the New Century Theatre in New York in 1953).  "Baker Street" (the first
major Sherlockian musical) ran for about 39 weeks at the Broadway Theatre
in New York in 1965.

Further to the report (Jun 89 #8) on the guide-book for the Sherlock Holmes
Society of London's tour of Cambridge, a similar visit was made to Oxford
in 1988, and a few copies of the 1988 guide-book (A STUDY IN DARK BLUE) are
still available for $16.80 postpaid, from Mrs. Margaret Bird, 193 Richmond
Road, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 5DD, England.

           The Norwegian Explorers have a new lapel pin, nicely executed in
           multi-color enamel.  The price is $5.00 and you can order from
           The Norwegian Explorers, Special Collections, Wilson Library,
           University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455.

           The N.Y. Times Book Review celebrated summer vacations by asking
           several writers what character (or characters) in fiction or
history they would most like to travel with, and why.  Stephen King chose
Sherlock Holmes: "It would be fascinating to view American life through his
deductive eyes." And David Mamet wanted to take a long train journey with
Mrs. Lecount (the archvillain in the Wilkie Collins novel "No Name"): "She
is, in my estimation, the most despicable and the smartest fiend ever to
trouble the reading public.  She sees through every disguise, foresees and
nullifies every strategy.  She is self-interest without shame, an artist of
the ego.  She makes Professor Moriarty seem, at best, naughty."

 The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830

Aug 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The silver cigarette case inscribed "From Sherlock Holmes 1893" presented
by Arthur Conan Doyle to Sidney Paget on the occasion of his wedding went
to auction at Sotheby's in London on July 20, accompanied by a one-page
letter from Conan Doyle to Paget, arranging to meet him in London, in one
lot estimated at L1,500-2,000.  The new owner (as yet unidentified) paid
L12,000 for the lot, according to Bob Hess.  The cigarette case was last
seen at auction on July 24, 1980, when it went for L1,500 to A. K. Shiel of
Edinburgh (who had earlier in the sale purchased the letter for L200).

News from Britain: a new edition of Conan Doyle's MEMORIES AND ADVENTURES
has been published by Oxford University Press (L5.95).

"Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" may have had a relatively short run at the
Cambridge Theatre in London, but the show may go on elsewhere, according to
the musical's author, Leslie Bricusse, who told the Daily Mail: "We've had
an offer to take our entire London production to Japan, where I'm told they
go crazy for Holmes!"

Cinemacabre #7 (fall 1988) includes a long interview by Bernie O'Heir with
Reginald LeBorg, who has directed many fine horror and fantasy films, and
discusses his work with Basil Rathbone (on non-Sherlockian films).  The
cost is $4.35 postpaid, from Cinemacabre, Box 10005, Baltimore, MD 21285.

A new catalog of animated-film artwork at hand from Gallery Lainzberg (200
Guaranty Building, Third Avenue & Third Street SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401)
(800-553-9995); production cels from "The Great Mouse Detective" are still
available ($425), and a limited-edition cel showing a deerstalkered Pink
Panther ($395).

Repeating (from Jul 89 #4) (because these special-offer prices apply only
to enquiries received before the end of September): Studio Gallery Decora-
tive Editions (50 Caledonian Road, Kings Cross, London N1 9DP, England)
offers a "Portrayals of Sherlock Holmes" bone-china plate (in two sizes)
with portraits of nineteen actors who have portrayed Holmes.  The prices
(postpaid by surface mail) are L22.00 (27.5 cm) and L18.00 (20.5 cm), with
payment in sterling required.  An illustrated flier is available.

News from Los Angeles: the new host of the PBS-TV series "Mystery!" will be
Diana Rigg.

R. Dana Batory and William A. S. Sarjeant are the authors of a five-page
article on "Sussex *Iguanodon* Footprints and the Writing of *The Lost
World*" in DINOSAUR TRACKS AND TRACES, edited by David D. Gillette and
Martin G. Lockley (Cambridge University Press, 1989; $59.50).  Their arti-
cle notes the discovery in 1909 of dinosaur footprints near Conan Doyle's
home, and discusses the development (and scientific accuracy) of his story.

Discovered by Ely Liebow: ALEFBET POP-UP AND STORY BOOK, by Sol Scharfstein
(Hoboken: KTAV Publishing House, 1984; $10.95 postpaid); one page features
Sherlock Sholom (the world's smartest detective) foiling his nemesis Dr.  
Tippish.  The publisher's address is Box 6249, Hoboken, NJ 07030.

Aug 89 #2   Ken Greenwald reports that WBAI-FM (the New York outpost of the
            Pacifica network) is planning to broadcast about three hours of
Sherlockian programming on Sept. 10 or 17, with the schedule to include the
symposium on "Sherlock Holmes on American Radio" recorded at Sherlockon II
in Torrance, Calif., in 1987, and live interviews with some of the people
involved with producing the 221A audio cassettes.

Readers who have seen earlier issues of these mailings will no doubt have
noticed that The Spermaceti Press is using a new printer.  The stalwart
Epson RX-80 has been replaced by a Panasonic KX-P1124 that can pretend it
is a typewriter, and do fairly well at it.  It is also possible to print on
single sheets of paper or on envelopes without taking the fan-fold paper
out of the machine, and there are some other nice features, such as being
able to change the printer's configuration using a control panel located on
the front of the machine (rather than dip switches).

For those of you who do not use computers and do not know why the absence
of dip switches is a nice feature, the reason is that the personal computer
was invented and designed by people who like to take things apart and mess
around with the innards.  They used tiny "dual in-line package" switches to
set printers to do italics or graphics, and to decide whether to advance
the paper automatically, and other things like that, and in order to change
the settings it was necessary to take the printer apart.  It did not take
long for people who don't like to take things apart to point out that this
arrangement is rather annoying, but it took quite a while for the designers
to take the hint.

Rex Harrison, who was considered for the role of Sherlock Holmes in the
early stages of planning for both the musical "Baker Street" and the Leslie
Bricusse musical, received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth in July.

The Library of Congress is running a series honoring "The Films of 1939",
including "The Saint in London".  "What Basil Rathbone is to Sherlock
Holmes, so George Sanders is to Leslie Charteris' reformed master thief
Simon Templar," the program notes suggest.  "Sanders infuses this 'B' film
character with so much of his casual, amoral brilliance that he suggests
what A. Conan Doyle's Moriarity might be like if he decided to take a
hiatus from Holmes and match wits with the criminal class for a while."

THE LAST BOOKMAN (D4625a), the fine tribute to Vincent Starrett published
by Peter A. Ruber in 1968, is not seen all that often in dealer's catalogs.  
Fred Mende (1214 Tarrington Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28205) offers two copies,
in mint condition with slightly worn dust jackets, at $37.00 each postpaid.

An illustrated flier at hand for a new Sherlockian T-shirt, from Judith A.  
Culligan, 120 West Pacific Street, Appleton, WI 54911.  Also a report that
a letter to her at that address was returned, marked "doesn't live here any
more."  If anyone knows where she does live now, please let me know.

PREMIER POPS: HENRY MANCINI is a new audio cassette (Denon CC-72320), also
available as a CD (Denon CO-2320): Mancini conducts the Royal Philharmonic
Pops Orchestra in selections from his own music, including the main title
from "The Great Mouse Detective".

Aug 89 #3   A bibliographic query about George Annand's dust-jacket artwork
            and endpaper "A Map of Sherlock Holmes's London" used in the
first edition of THE BOYS' SHERLOCK HOLMES (D657a).  First printing: light
green cloth (decorated in blue), plain white endpapers, dated 1936 on the
title page, stated as "first edition" on the title-page verso with the code
"L-L" [Nov. 1936].  Later printing: white dust-jacket (decorated in red and
black with design by Annand), light green cloth (decorated in dark green),
white endpapers (with the Annand map in black), no date on the title page,
no edition statement on the title-page verso but with the code "C-I" [Mar.  
1959].  Does anyone have a copy of the first printing with Annand's dust-
jacket and map, or with any other dust-jacket and plain white endpapers?
Does anyone have a copy of a later printing, with a code other than "C-I"
(with or without the dust-jacket and map)?

The second edition of THE BOYS' SHERLOCK HOLMES (D658a) has red endpapers
(with the Annand map in white), and the title-page verso code "G-L" [July
1961].  The dust-jacket design is not by Annand, and at least one later
printing of the second edition is known, coded I-Q [Sept. 1966].

Scott and Sherry Rose Bond, who met Jeremy Brett during their "Return of
Sherlock Holmes Tour" in June, report that Brett has interesting plans
after "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" closes in December and after he and
Hardwicke make six new programs for Granada.  They will revive the play at
the end of 1990 and bring it to the United States for a one-year tour,
starting on the west coast and working eastward.  And when that tour ends,
Granada executive producer Michael Cox (who is planning to leave Granada)
and Granada art designer Mike Grimes and Brett and Hardwicke will make a
full-length Sherlock Holmes film (from the Canon, Brett said, because he
will never, never appear in a pastiche).  On the other hand:

Joan Kerins reports that Jeremy Brett, in a BBC radio interview broadcast
on July 18, said that his "breathing's gone" because he has to smoke so
much on stage, and "pigeon" his chest to achieve Holmes' long, thin look.  
He also said that he had decided to stop playing Holmes "altogether" come
Christmas.  However: it has also been reported, by someone who has dined
with Brett, that he smokes much more off-stage than on.

In what year was "The Sign of Four" first published?

Plan ahead: the 1990 celebration of Sherlock Holmes's birthday will be held
on Friday, January 12, 1990.  And the Hotel Algonquin has arranged, at the
request of Tom Stix, for a limited number of rooms ($140 a room, single or
double occupancy).  To take advantage of the offer, call the Algonquin at
800-548-0345 to make reservations, telling them that you are attending the
Sherlock Holmes weekend.

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, by Robert Richardson (New York: St. Martin's Press,
1989; 192 pp., $14.95), is a pleasant murder mystery set in today's Lake
District and tied to a Sherlock Holmes story written in 1894 and published
by Conan Doyle in an edition of only ten copies, all of which he presented
to his godson as a christening present.  The pastiche is included in the
novel, and shows more imagination and style (the author is English) than
many others in the genre.

Aug 89 #4   "OCLC" is an abbreviation well-known to librarians, and the
            Online Computer Library Center is a cooperative computerized
data base that now has more than 20 million entries in its Online Union
Catalog.  An article on the "Top 100 Authors in the OCLC Database" in the
May-June 1988 issue of the OCLC Newsletter listed Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in
that ranking, as #38 (with Jules Verne as #37 and Horace as #39).  You are
invited to pause for a moment to guess who the first five authors might be.

Additional research by the OCLC staff has revealed that in 1988 there were
2,594 entries for Conan Doyle as an author, in various languages, editions,
and formats, ranging from his contribution to Grant Allen's HILDA WADE: A
WOMAN WITH TENACITY OF PURPOSE (1900) to Darryl F. Zanuck's "The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes" (1939).  The database entries represent cataloging by
member libraries who thought the item they had was different enough from
extant records to warrant a new entry in the OCLC, so there is occasional
duplication among the entries, but the listing is a fascinating display and
a fine demonstration of how useful such a database can be to librarians.

And the first five authors in the top 100?  William Shakespeare (with more
than 15,000 entries), Charles Dickens, Sir Walter Scott, Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe, and Aristotle.

In what year was "The Sign of Four" first published?  It is well known that
"The Sign of the Four" appeared in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in Feb. 
1890, and that "The Sign of Four" was serialized in The Bristol Observer in
May, June, and July 1890, but there is an authoritative report that the
story was first published earlier than 1890.  Unfortunately, no copy of the
first appearance of "The Sign of Four" has been found, as is the case with
the first appearance of "A Study in Scarlet" that preceded the reprint in
Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887.  Credit Michael J. Halm, editor of The
Norbury Chronicle (the newsletter of The Holmesian Studies Special Interest
Group) for observing the statement by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and surely
Sir Arthur should be regarded as an authority), in the Mar. 1927 issue of
The Strand Magazine and in his preface to THE CASE BOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES,
that "Holmes made his debut in *A Study in Scarlet* and in *The Sign of
Four*, two small booklets which appeared between 1887 and 1889."

Ben Wood, the BSI's chaplain, editor and publisher of The Bohemian Scandal
Sheet, and enthusiastic philatelist, hopes to start a "Holmes on Stamps"
study unit in the American Topical Association.  Ten members of the ATA are
needed for official status, and ATA members are invited to write to Ben at
Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222.

John Ruyle, feverishly buttering his parsnips at the Pequod Press, has
announced the latest case in Dr. Fatso's continuing memoirs of Turlock
Loams.  THE MUSCATEL RITUAL is available from the publisher, at 521
Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $30.00 (cloth) or $15.00 (paper).

Gaston Leroux's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, with a Foreword by Peter Haining
and reprints of two articles about the Phantom's Sherlockian connections,
by David M. Rush (D4170a) and Barbara Goldfield (D4158a), published earlier
in Britain (Mar 88 #3), is available here in a cloth-bound discount edition
(New York: Dorset Press, 1988; 264 pp., $4.98).

Aug 89 #5   MCA Home Video is planning to expand its list of Abbott-and-
            Costello films, and next month will issue a $19.95 cassette of
their 1942 film "Who Done It?"  Abbott and Costello played radio writers
involved in a murder case, and appeared in Sherlockian costume in publicity
stills and advertisements (though not in the film).  The only Sherlockian
aspect of the film is the statement by one of the other actors that "I
could devise a murder that would baffle even Sherlock Holmes."

Further to the report (Jul 89 #6) on the new videocassette "Sherlock Hound
in Tales of Mystery" from Celebrity Home Entertainment: if your local video
shop doesn't know where the company is, the address is 6320 Canoga Avenue,
17th floor, Box 4112, Woodland Hills, CA 91365.

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's Nate the Great is enjoying summer on the beach
and detecting again (though without his usual deerstalker), in NATE THE
GREAT AND THE BORING BEACH BAG (New York: Dell, 1989; 48 pp., $2.95).

Kilgore Trout's VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL, first published in 1975, is again
available, in a new paperback edition (New York: Bantam, 1988; 178 pp.,
$3.95), with a new introduction by Philip Jose Farmer, who wrote the book
with permission from Kurt Vonnegut.  There's a Sherlockian connection (a
complicated Sherlockian connection): Kilgore Trout is a sad-sack science-
fiction author who appears in three of Vonnegut's books (and VENUS ON THE
HALF-SHELL is mentioned in Vonnegut's GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER.  In
Farmer's version (the only published version) of VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL,
the hero is Simon Wagstaff, who admires the work of Jonathan Swift Somers
III.  And Jonathan Swift Somers III has written two stories of interest to
Sherlockians: "A Scarletin Study" (D4915b) and "The Doge Whose Barque Was
Worse Than His Bight" (D4913b).  There is, however, one link missing from
the circular chain: Ralph von Wau Wau, the protoganist in Somers' stories,
was going to write a story about a writer named Shorter Vondergut, but Kurt
Vonnegut and Philip Jose Farmer had a falling-out, and the story was never
written.  Farmer's new introduction explains who Jonathan Swift Somers I
and Jonathan Swift Somers II were, and much much more.

A new sales list at hand from David L. Hammer for the titles in print and
scheduled from the Gasogene Press.  If you are not already on his mailing
list, you can write to him at Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004.

Plan well ahead: Bouchercon XXI will be held on Sept. 21-23, 1990, at Kings
College in London, and will include (according to a recent announcement)
visits to the Black Museum, the Ripper's London, and the haunts of Sherlock
Holmes.  Details on advance discount membership and discount air travel are
available from Ming Books, 225 South 18th Street #1502, Philadelphia, PA
19103 (or from Bouchercon XXI, 1 Penrose Avenue, Carpenders Park, Watford,
Herts. WD1 5AE, England).

Further to the report from the American Booksellers Association convention
on the "Sherlock Holmes Solo Mysteries" (Jun 89 #4), Iron Crown Enterprises
reports that the first five titles have been published in translation in
Germany, Japan, Spain, Italy, France, and Sweden.  THE LOST HEIR, by Milt
Creighton (the eighth and last title in the series), was not published in
the United States, but will appear, eventually, in Germany and Japan.

Aug 89 #6   On Oct. 2, 1987, the National Library of Medicine held a fine
            symposium on "Images of the Health Professions in the Popular
Arts" (in honor of the centennial of the National Institutes of Health),
and one of the participants was Dr. David F. Musto, who gave an interesting
lecture on "The Physician in the Mystery Story: The Case of John H. Watson,
M.D.".  The lecture is now available on VHS on interlibrary loan (use the
lecture title and call number WZ 330 VC #6 1987), and your local library
can write to the National Library of Medicine, Collection Access Section,
8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894.  You can also ask your librarian
to copy the cassette for you (the cassette was produced by an agency of the
U.S. government, and thus is not protected by copyright).

Andrew Fusco reports that Bill Rabe appeared on the "Today" show on NBC-TV
on August 4, offering a guided tour of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island
(where Bill is the official island historian).  The tour included a visit
to the hotel's presidential suite, in which no president has yet stayed.

Reported by Tom Stix: Sherlock Hemlock solves "The Mystery of the Missing
Muffins" in ON MY WAY WITH SESAME STREET: MY ABC'S.  This is the first in a
new fifteen-volume series published by Children's Television Workshop/Funk
& Wagnalls and available in supermarkets.

Further to the report (Jul 89 #2) on the second (revised) edition of Rick
Hacker's THE ULTIMATE PIPE BOOK, the book is due in tobacco and pipe shops
in mid-September, priced at $19.95.  If you would like an autographed copy,
write to Rick Hacker, Box 634, Beverly Hills, CA 90213 ($23.00 postpaid).  
The book will have a detailed description of Sherlock Holmes' pipe-smoking
habits, photographs of some of the rarest Sherlockian commemorative pipes,
and a dedication to Holmes and to Rick's wife (in that order).

MURDER ON CUE: VOLUME 1, edited by Eleanor Sullivan (New York: Walker,
1989; 322 pp., $19.95), is an anthology of stories (including "The Red-
Headed League") that have been adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and
television.  The book is the hard-cover edition of ELLERY QUEEN'S MEDIA
FAVORITES (summer 1988).

Plan ahead: The Sherlock Holmes Society of London will visit Switzerland
from Apr. 26 to May 5, 1991, to celebrate the centenary of the battle at
the Reichenbach, with participation restricted to members of the Society.             
A new reconstruction of the sitting-room at 221B, for which Tony Howlett
has already begun assembling Holmesian material, will be officially opened
in the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Meiringen on May 4.

The Swiss pilgrimage does conflict, unfortunately, with the Fifth Irregular
Quinquennial Holmesian Dinner at the Culinary Institute of America, which
is also scheduled for May 4, 1991.  But you have plenty of time to decide
which commemoration you wish to attend.

"Without a Clue" is now available on commercial videocassette from Orion
Home Video, but if you don't want to pay $89.95 for the cassette, you can
wait a few months and tape the film off-the-air from The Movie Channel or
Showtime, which will be broadcasting the film on cable later this year.

 The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830

Sep 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The Reader's Digest has launched a new series of "Best Loved Books for
Young Readers" consisting of 16 volumes reprinted by Choice Publishing and
available in Safeway supermarkets (and presumably in other chains).  THE
ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER is their loss-leader, priced at 99c and packaged
with a free 32-page parent's guide (which has one uninteresting page about
Sherlock Holmes).  Other titles in the series cost $3.49, and one of them
is GREAT CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, a reprint of D687a (but with only two of
Guy Deel's nice illustrations).

"Sherlock Holmes and the Development of Scientific Methodology in Criminal
Investigation" is the title of a symposium that will be held by the Pacific
Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in June
1990 at the University of California (Davis).  If you would like to present
a paper or attend the meeting, write to Brian and Charlotte Erickson, c/o
Harraway, VV 341, Mount Eden, CA 94557.

Charlotte Erickson has published a second edition (revised and extended) of
her checklist of "Sherlock Holmes in the Comic Books" (now 48 pp., $12.00
postpaid from Charlotte at their new address: 1920 Marich Way, Mountain
View, CA 94040).  The new telephone number for the Erickson's electronic
bulletin board 221BBS is 415-949-1734.

"I have a wonderful superstitious love of mystery." (James Boswell)  "I am
lost without my Boswell." (Sherlock Holmes).  It was in 1944 that Lillian
de la Torre began her fine series of stories, with the great Samuel Johnson
as her Holmes and James Boswell as her Watson.  Four paperback collections
of the stories have been published by International Polygonics, and they
offer a nice mix of mystery and history: DR. SAM: JOHNSON, DETECTOR (1983);
THE DETECTIONS OF DR. SAM: JOHNSON (1984); THE RETURN OF DR. SAM: JOHNSON,
DETECTOR (1985); and THE EXPLOITS OF DR. SAM: JOHNSON, DETECTOR (1987).  
And there is a Canonical echo in "Murder Lock'd In" (in THE RETURN OF DR.  
SAM: JOHNSON, DETECTOR).

Sherlock Hemlock is *not* owned by Walt Disney Co.  Disney's acquisition of
Henson Associates (at an estimated price of $100 million) (but less costly
than Epcot Center, according to Disney chairman Michael Eisner) affects
the Muppets, and Kermit, but not the other Sesame Street characters, which
are owned by Children's Television Workshop.

The postmaster general says that the postal service is going to ask for
higher postal rates, which will probably take effect in 1991.  Have postal
rates ever gone down in this century?  Yes: in 1919 the first-class letter
rate went from 3c to 2c.  Some other incidental information: the postal
service handled 160.4 billion pieces of mail in 1988, or about 640 pieces
of mail per person.  That's fewer than 3 pieces a day.  Sherlockians are
(of course) above average.

An advertisement at hand from Robert Brosch Archival Photography (14845
Anne Street, Allen Park, MI 48101), offering color-photograph reproductions
of posters and lobby cards from Rathbone's S'ian films ($4.00 for 8x10,
$7.00 for 11x14, $25.00 for 16x20, plus shipping).  Send SASE for details.

Sep 89 #2   During a visit to Nebraska, Basil Rathbone participated in the
            official opening of the John H. Watson Reading Room at the
Wayne State Library on Nov. 5, 1965, and a recording of the proceedings is
now available on a 19-minute audio cassette.  The recording will be of
interest only to fanatic collectors, since it has a very brief speech by
Rathbone, followed by considerable chit-chat (some intelligible) by Bill
Rabe, John Bennett Shaw, Fred Kelly, George John, Dick Lesh, and other
members of The Maiwand Jezails.  You can order the cassette from Richard D.
Lesh, 620 Mathews Street #208, Fort Collins, CO 80521; $5.00 postpaid.

Charles Norman's poem "A Study in Mauve" (D4466a) has been reprinted from
the BSJ as a nicely designed and printed pamphlet from the Bartlett Press
(20 Bartlett Road, Middletown, RI 02840); $25.00 postpaid.

Fred Saberhagen's THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILE (D5167b) has been reissued in a
new paperback edition with new cover art by Glenn Hastings (New York: Tor
Books, 1989; 249 pp., $3.95).

Thanks to those who responded to the query (Jul 89 #3) about the different
formats for writing dates: 12-25-88 (American) and 25-12-88 (British).  We
have received no explanation about when the different formats evolved, or
why, but one correspondent notes that the British format is also used in
much of Europe, and that it is more logical, since the progression is from
the smallest to the largest unit.  Joel Lima also reports that there is a
third format (88-12-25) that has been formally approved by the European
Economic Community and adopted by some of its members, including Portugal.























Joel Lima also asks for help in identifying the source of an illustration
showing Baskerville Hall.  The uncredited artwork appeared in the first
Portuguese translation of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1907).  Can anyone
recall if, when, or where the artwork might have appeared earlier?

Sep 89 #3   Holmes and Watson have been bit-
            mapped, and are now available in
the MacNet graphics library (this is a 50% re-
duction, and they will look better at 100%). 
Translation: you need a Macintosh computer and
a modem and a laser printer to use the artwork.

Thanks also to those who responded to the bib-
liographic query (Jul 89 #2) about the promo-
tional flier for Bell's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND
DOCTOR WATSON: A CHRONOLOGY OF THE ADVENTURES
found laid-in with some copies of Blakeney's
SHERLOCK HOLMES: FACT OF FICTION? (London: John Murray, 1932).  The results
are not conclusive, but it appears likely that all copies of the book were
first sold with the flier: most copies reported with dust jacket also have
the flier, and it is reasonable to assume that original owners who were
careful enough to preserve the dust jacket would also preserve the flier.

On or about Aug. 1, James J. Kilpatrick discussed Conan Doyle's use of the
word "disillusionize" (in "Reig") in his syndicated column on "The Writer's
Art", mentioning having commented on the usage "a few weeks ago."  His next
report noted that "I have heard from Holmesians from Florida to Hawaii,"
and that "I now know more about the matter than I really wanted to know,"
and that "disillusionize" appears in the British versions of the story (it
is "disillusion" in the American versions).  His column on language does
not run in Washington, and I would appreciate a copy of the column with his
earliest comments (some time before Aug. 1).

Gay Southworth discovered, and Dave Galerstein photographed (in case proof
positive is needed) a Barnes & Noble store display that had the Sherlock
Holmes radio series in the non-fiction section of their audio shelves.

THE LOST WORLD & THE POISON BELT is a new trade-paperback (San Francisco:
Chronicle Books, 1989; 250 pp., $8.95), offering the first two Challenger
stories with an introduction by science-fiction writer William Gibson and
cover art by Martha Mueller (based on one of the fine illustrations Harry
Rountree did for THE LOST WORLD).  Chronicle is planning a second volume,
with three more Challenger stories, next spring.

Ollie North has had his day(s) in court, but it has only now come to our
attention that he was far from the first person to have shredded documents. 
One early instance, in the year 1349 but recorded much later ("with his own
hands he had shredded those august documents"), will be found in SIR NIGEL
(1906).  The usage is cited in the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY.

News from Britain, courtesy of Roger Johnson: a British edition of Esther
Friesner's alternate-universe pastiche DRUID'S BLOOD (Jul 88 #2) has been
published by Headline (L3.50).  Glen Petrie's THE DORKING GAP AFFAIR: A
MYCROFT HOLMES ADVENTURE will be published in September by Bantam Press
(L12.95).  Charles Viney's SHERLOCK HOLMES IN LONDON will be published
September by Equation (L12.95).  And the News of the World has reported on
plans for a new film: "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Santa
Claus", with David Bowie as Holmes and Gene Kelly as Santa.

Sep 89 #4   A STUDY IN BANKING: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF MR.
            SHERLOCK HOLMES WITH HIS BANK offers an imaginative discussion
by James Cuthbertson (himself a banker, now retired) of the detective's
dealings with the Hampshire Banking Company from 1871 until 1914 (by which
time it had been renamed the Capital and Counties Bank).  The pamphlet (27
pages) is available from the author (5 Meadow View Close, Wareham, BH20
4JQ, England), and the postpaid prices are L3.75 (surface) or L5.00 (air)
if paid in sterling, or $5.00 (surface) or $10.00 (air) if in currency.

John Newton (Box 471, Claymont, DE 19703) (office: 302-594-1594) offers a
copy of "Conan Doyle Speaking" (D5559a), the recording made in May 1930 and
issued by His Master's Voice later that year as #C-1983.  The phonograph
record is in excellent condition and the price is $325.00 plus shipping.

Another item available from Sgt. David A. Reinhardt (76 Lord
Simcoe Drive, Bramalea, Ont. L6S 5G6, Canada): this lapel pin
(US$4.00 postpaid) for the Home Office Large Major Enquiry
System is based on a similar lapel pin made for the Canadian
National Railway Police (who bear the responsibility for the
thoroughly non-Sherlockian handlebar mustache).

THE COMPLETE PROFESSOR CHALLENGER stories is available from Barnes & Noble
(577 pp., $9.95); this is probably a reprint of THE PROFESSOR CHALLENGER
STORIES published by John Murray in 1952.  Also: DETECTIONARY (D1860b) at
$5.98, and the 1988 "Dorset Press" edition of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES
at $12.95.  Add $4.00 per order for shipping, and the address for Barnes &
Noble is 126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011.

Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke are now touring in their play "The Secret
of Sherlock Holmes" and one-week runs are scheduled in Bradford, Croydon,
Hull, Guildford, Cardiff, Chichester, Birmingham, Aberdeen, Brighton, Man-
chester, and Bath (where they are scheduled to close on Dec. 16).

Reported by Ted Friedman: THE SPIES AND DETECTIVES CUT AND COLOR BOOK, with
an adaptation of "The Blue Carbuncle" and a cut-out-and-assemble model of
the sitting-room (Crown/Chatham River, 1989; 48 pp., $3.98 at Waldenbooks).

MINI-MYSTERIES FEATURING MICKEY MOUSE AND FRIENDS includes one illustration
of Mickey in Sherlockian costume (New York: Western Publishing Co., 1989;
$1.75 at B. Dalton shops).

Eagle-eyed Dave Galerstein has spotted a Watsonian error (actually due to
our compositor's careless thumb) in our earlier report on the potential
conflict in 1991.  The correct dates are Apr. 26 to May 5, 1991, for the
Swiss visit by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and May 4, 1991, for
the Fifth Irregular Quinquennial Holmesian Dinner at the Culinary Institute
of America.

Further to the report on the appearance of H. Marion Crawford in the film
"Lawrence of Arabia" (Feb 89 #3), I am now informed there is an additional
connection, in the newly restored version: in some scenes the voice of the
late Jack Hawkins was supplied by Charles Gray, who has played Mycroft on
screen and television.

Sep 89 #5   The editor blithely assumes that readers of this newsletter are
            also subscribers to The Baker Street Journal, and the editor
will continue editing on that assumption (even though it is only about 90%
correct), and will refrain from repeating news that has already appeared in
the BSJ, which (for the benefit of the 10%) costs $15.00 a year, from the
Fordham University Press, University Box L, Bronx, NY 10458.

Aware, however, that the limit on membership in The Sherlock Holmes Society
of London means that some of you may not be able to receive their mailings,
the editor will report that the society's Christmas card for 1989 shows a
British soldier alone on the first Christmas Even of the Second Afghan War,
thinking of those left behind, his family, and of the festivities usual in
Britain.  Ten cards and envelopes cost $9.00 postpaid (airmail) and you can
send your checks to Capt. W. R. Michell, The Old Crown Inn, Lopen, South
Petherton, Somerset, TA13 5JX, England.

International travelers might wish to check the duty-free shops for "Black
Peter": a new liquor-loaded licorice candy from the Finnish company Chymos.

The script for SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA, a two-act
"Victorian musical spoof, with book by Tim Kelly and music and lyrics by
Jack Sharkey, is available from Baker's Plays, 100 Chauncy Street, Boston,
MA 02111; $5.25 postpaid.

At long last (and priced at $9.98 at Waldenbooks): THE LOST ADVENTURES OF
SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Ken Greenwald, based on the original radio plays by
Denis Green and Anthony Boucher (Mallard Press/BDD Promotional Book Co.);
13 stories based on Rathbone/Bruce radio broadcasts.

TV Guide had about 16.3 million subscribers at the end of 1988, and they
don't take subscriptions for more than one year.  That means they get 16.3
million checks a year.  At six days a week, 52 weeks a year, that's 52,244
envelopes to open each day.











Some philatelic Sherlockiana: Czechoslovakia issued a stamp earlier this
year to honor Charlie Chaplin, who appeared as Billy in William Gillette's
"Sherlock Holmes" and "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes".  And we
appear to be seeing North Carolina everywhere, in June on the "seashore"
postal card, and last month on a new postal card, with Bart Forbes' design
showing a scene in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.  With a more
direct reference to North Carolina (where the Anderson murders occurred),
there is a new commemorative honoring the 200th anniversary of statehood,
designed by Bob Timberlake and showing the state flower, the dogwood.

Sep 89 #6   The Brambletye Hotel in Forest Row, one of the few hotels to
            appear in the Canon under its own name, has a new owner.  Mr.             
Millar writes that the hotel is decorated with Sherlockian memorabilia, and
that some of the rooms have been named after Canonical characters.  The new
restaurant, named The Deerstalker, will open in October.  We can only hope
that the Black Peter Bar still adjoins the hotel (a photograph of the hotel
and the bar will be found in David L. Hammer's THE GAME IS AFOOT).

I've finally had a brief report, via Ted Schulz, from someone who has gone
on the Universal Studios tour during a visit to Los Angeles.  The tour area
includes Victorian London, where one will find a sign for "Sherlock Holmes,
Consulting Detective" outside a shop (which sells nothing Sherlockian).

Further to the report (Feb 89 #2) on the new edition of THE ADVENTURES OF
SHERLOCK HOLMES from the Land Press, with a hitherto unpublished full-page
frontispiece portrait of Holmes by Sidney Paget, bound in leather with your
choice of four different designs (price $2,000): Don Pollock reports that
the prospectus is now also available from their American agent, Priscilla
Juvelis (150 Huntington Avenue #SD-L, Boston, MA 02115).

One page from the manuscript of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is offered
in catalog 25 from Pepper & Stern (1980 Cliff Drive #224, Santa Barbara, CA
93109) at $20,000.

Sherlockians touring Cape Cod in the vicinity of West Hyannisport may wish
to try the Copper Beech Inn -- a bed-and-breakfast establishment featured
in Innsider (Sept.-Oct. 1989) and noted by Richard Wein.

                            "Bearlock Holmes" is now available from the
                            North American Bear Company (attn: Advertising
                            Department), 401 North Wabash #500, Chicago, IL
                            60611 ($66.00 plus $2.50 shipping).

                            Fred A. Stutman, who included Sherlock Holmes
                            in WALK, DON'T DIE: HOW TO STAY FIT, TRIM AND
                            HEALTHY WITHOUT KILLING YOURSELF (Oct 86 #4),
                            has now returned to Holmes in WALK TO WIN: THE
                            EASY 4-DAY DIET AND FITNESS PLAN, which has a
                            chapter on "The Mystery of the Walking Men".  
                            The book is available from Medical Manor Books,
                            3501 Newberry Road, Philadelphia, PA 19154
                            ($19.95 cloth, $10.95 paper).

                            Visitors to Canada will find Sherlock Holmes in
                            the post offices there, in a flier promoting
                            Canada Post's new bar-coded registered mail and
                            security mail services.  Wilfrid de Freitas
                            reports that there is also a poster.

Only two copies (both from the second printing) remain from the earlier
supply of the well-traveled paperback (and only) edition of Frank Thomas'
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MASQUERADE MURDERS.  $6.00 postpaid from:

 The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830

Oct 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The Abbey National Building Society is in the news, but not because of
their providing secretarial services for Sherlock Holmes.  Their plans to
go public were far from problem-free, as reported by the Sunday Telegraph
on Aug. 13: "Conan Doyle's hero would surely have relished a case in which
365,000 share certificates -- enough to fill several lorries -- worth L150
million have disappeared into thin air, mysterious fire have broken out and
there are mutterings of blackmail and commercial rivalry.  All it lacks is
a dog that didn't bark in the night."  The missing shares represent from 10
to 15 percent of the issue, and Abbey National and Lloyd's Bank are now at
work, trying to find out what went wrong.

Other news from Britain: a modern-day Hound of the Baskervilles is on the
rampage in Wales, where residents of Clyro believe that their legend of the
Black Dog of Hergest provided the source for the Sherlock Holmes story (and
where the local pub, The Baskerville Arms, boasts a stone hound squatting
outside on the porch).  Dozens of sheep have been killed on a near-by farm
("their throats were torn and their insides ripped out"), and there have
been reports of howling, carried on the wind, down the valley.

The Sherlock Holmes Society of Australia offers its own Christmas card for
1989, showing the convict ship *Success* ("whose early career paralleled
that of the *Gloria Scott*").  US$20.00 for ten, or US$12.00 for five,
postpaid with envelopes, and you can order from Alan Olding, P.O. Box 12,
Stirling, S.A. 5152, Australia.

Sterling Lanier's THE CURIOUS QUESTS OF BRIGADIER FFELLOWES, was published
in 1986 (Jan 87 #2) and includes his giant-rat pastiche "A Father's Tale"
(D5042b); the book is a collection of Lanier's stories, illustrated by Ned
Dameron, signed by the author and artist, and still available ($30.00) from
the publisher: Donald M. Grant, Box 187, Hampton Falls, NH 03844.

The Royalton, which many Sherlockian visitors to New York will remember as
an inexpensive alternative to the Hotel Algonquin, is still an alternative,
but no longer inexpensive.  According to their rate card, at hand from Al
Rosenblatt, single rooms cost $190-$285 a night, double rooms $215-$310,
and the weekend rate (for Friday and Saturday) is $140 a night (the same as
the special Sherlockian rate announced by the Algonquin for the January
birthday festivities).  The Royalton's toll-free number is 800-635-9013.

2AM is a nicely-produced quarterly fanzine devoted to horror, fantasy, and
science fiction, with a column ("The Dark Corner") by J. N. Williamson.  In
the fall 1989 issue Jerry recalls his early adventures as the founder of
The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis and as a teen-aged editor of three
anthologies that are now S'ian cornerstones.  $5.95 postpaid (or $19.00 a
year) from Gretta M. Anderson, Box 6754, Rockford, IL 61125.

Check your grocery-store cereal shelves for packages of Honey Nut Cheerios:
television commercials for the cereal have a Sherlockian theme, tied to a
game on the packages, which display a deerstalkered honey bee.  And Yoplait
yogurt has a give-away game on containers that display a small Sherlockian
silhouette on the front.

Oct 89 #2   The first issue of "Holmes for the Holidays" is at hand, with
            attractive color covers by Bob Weber, Jr. (creator of "Slylock
Fox") and 12 pages of stories and puzzles designed for young Sherlockians.  
The magazine, edited by Michael W. McClure, will be published five times a
year by the Chester Baskerville Society, 1415 Swanwick Street, Chester, IL
62233, and costs $5.00 a year.

Bouchercon XX in Philadelphia was nicely arranged and well-attended, with
about 1,300 people on hand for the festivities, which included a Saturday-
afternoon Sherlockian session arranged by Scott and Sherry Rose Bond.  The
program book included a warm tribute to Anthony Boucher, written by Lenore
Glen Offord, with due attention to his Sherlockian interests.

For those who wish to plan ahead, Bouchercon XXI will be held in London on
Sept. 21-23, 1990 (the organizers are Marion and Robin Richmond, 1 Penrose
Avenue, Carpenders Park, Watford, Herts. WD1 5AE, England).  And Bouchercon
XXII will be held in Pasadena on Oct. 11-13, 1991 (Len and June Moffatt,
2334 Beach Avenue, Venice, CA 90291).  Bouchercon XXIII will probably be in
Boston in 1992, and Milwaukee is plans to bid for Bouchercon XXIV in 1993.

And there are a growing number of regional gatherings, such as the second
"Malice Domestic" convention in Washington on Apr. 6-8, 1990 (details are
available from Box 701, Herndon, VA 22070), and the first annual Midwestern
Mystery & Suspense Convention in Omaha on May 26-28, 1990 (Little Professor
Book Center, Baker's Square, 13455 West Center Road, Omaha, NE 68144).

The First International Holmesian Games, held in Seattle on Sept. 16 and
arranged by The Sound of the Baskervilles, opened with Hugo Baskerville's
Wild Midnight Pursuit (entrants, at the cry, "The Dame's Afoot," joined
Hugo and his evil pack to chase a designated chaste yeoman's daughter
across the moor) and closed with Dr. Watson's Quick Resuscitation Drill
(entrants, with the aid of a funnel and a flask of Dr. Watson's universal
specific, gave funnel-to-mouth injections to designated supine patients:
speed and accuracy of aiming funnel were judged).  The program for the
games, it should be noted, did specify a chaste yeoman's daughter, rather
than a yeoman's chaste daughter.










Sherlockian philately: Philadelphia is mentioned in two of the Canonical
tales, and a new postal card, designed by Bart Forbes, shows an aerial view
of Philadelphia's Independence Hall.  Another postal card, also designed by
Bart Forbes, shows the Inner Harbor in Baltimore (where, Christopher Morley
once suggested, the extraordinary and informal opportunities offered for
graduate study when Johns Hopkins University opened in 1876 attracted
Sherlock Holmes across the water).

Oct 89 #3   One new book, omitted from the Christmas list sent with the
            announcement of the December meeting of The Red Circle, is the
American edition (to be published in November) of Charles Viney's SHERLOCK
HOLMES IN LONDON (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989; 168 pp., $24.95).  It is
a delightful book, with more than 200 sepia-toned contemporary photographs,
accompanying appropriate quotations from the Canon.  Recommended.

Edgar P. Smith ("The Smith-Mortimer Succession Case") died on Oct. 10.  He
was the son of Edgar W. Smith, and his contributions to the cause included
two fine sculptures: the "Statuette of Sherlock Holmes" (D4888a) and the
reproduction (as by E. Pichard) of the "Oscar Meunier Bust of Sherlock
Holmes" in 1959 (D4887a).

American Express has shipped the third installment of the Simon & Schuster
audio cassettes to subscribers, bringing the total number of cassettes to
eight.  The new programs are "Colonel Warburton's Madness", "The Iron Box",
"The Limping Ghost", "The Girl with the Gazelle", "The Out of Date Murder",
and "The Waltz of Death", and the cassettes have introductions by Phyllis
White (Mrs. Anthony Boucher) and Ben Wright.  I don't know whether American
Express card-holders can still subscribe to the series, but their toll-free
telephone number is 800-528-8000.  Nor do I know if you can now purchase
all eight cassettes directly from Simon & Schuster, but their toll-free
number is 800-687-2677.

In response to queries occasioned by people's inability to find copies of
Ken Greenwald's THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (the collection of
adaptations of 13 of the Rathbone/Bruce radio scripts), the publisher is
Mallard Press, an imprint of BDD Promotions Book Co. (666 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10103).  That's the address of Bantam Books, which is owned by BDD
(which also owns Barnes & Noble, and B. Dalton).  My guess is that the book
has been published to go directly to the bargain-books tables and shelves
at Barnes & Noble, and B. Dalton, and that it will turn up eventually there
and at other stores and at mystery-specialist bookshops.  When I hear of a
shop that offers the book by mail-order, I will report again.









More philately (Doylean rather than Sherlockian): the set of four stamps,
designed by John Gurche and showing prehistoric reptiles: *Tyrannosaurus*,
*Pteranodon*, *Stegosaurus*, and *Brontosaurus*.  One USPS press release
refers to "four extinct dinosaurs" (from which we might infer that the USPS
knows of some dinosaurs that aren't extinct), but one of the reptiles was
not a dinosaur (*Pteranodon*).  The USPS has also been criticized by
scientists who know that the name *Brontosaurus* was preempted a few years
ago, when it was determined that the first the person to describe the
animal used the name Apatosaurus.  According to Edward D. Malone, which of
these reptiles lived in "The Lost World"?

Oct 89 #4   "Moriarty Free After 29 Months in U.S. Prison" was the headline
            on a story from the Los Angeles Times (Nov. 4, 1988), at hand
from Gary Westmoreland, reporting the release of W. Patrick Moriarty after
serving 29 months of a five-year prison sentence on charges of political
corruption.  Moriarty was an Orange County businessman, according to an
earlier report (Aug 85 #1), who pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud as
part of a plea-bargain agreement with the government, and then testified
against a bank official charged with conspiring with Moriarty in an alleged
money-laundering scheme.  But the federal jury in Los Angeles voted for
acquittal.  "They flat didn't believe the man," said an observer, "I would
love to defend anybody with Moriarty as a complaining witness."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's praise for the Parker Duofold ("I have at last met
my affinity in pens") was used in an advertisement in the Saturday Evening
Post (Feb. 7, 1931), and now in a new advertisement in Fortune (Oct. 16),
New Yorker (Oct. 16), Life (Nov.), and Time (Nov. 6).

The Mind's Eye (Box 6727, San Francisco, CA 94101) offers a profusion of
audio cassettes, including some of the Hobbs/Shelley and Gielgud/Richardson
broadcasts, and the cover of their 1989-90 catalog is a striking full-color
cover portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Bruce Wolfe.

Michael Dibdin won the Gold Dagger Award from the Crime Writers Association
in 1988, and his British publishers have celebrated with a new edition of
THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY (D4891b), another attempt to solve the
mystery of Jack the Ripper (London: Faber and Faber, 1989; 192 pp., L3.99).

Of the four prehistoric reptiles shown on the new set of stamps (Oct 89
#3), only the stegosaur is named by Edward D. Malone in "The Lost World".

An American book club (Mystery Guild) edition of Robert Richardson's THE
BOOK OF THE DEAD (Aug 89 #3) has been published by St. Martin's Press, and
it is easily distinguished: the trade edition is bound in black, with a
first-edition statement on the title-page verso; and the book-club edition
is bound in gray, without the first-edition statement (and with a
book-club-edition statement on the front flap of the dust jacket).

There have been more (and conflicting) reports on Jeremy Brett's plans.  
Andy Solberg reports that WGBH-TV (Boston) reports that "Mystery!" has
purchased six more programs from Granada, and that the play has closed and
that Granada is now making the programs, which will be shown here in the
1990-1991 season.  Paul Singleton reports that Granada will begin work on
the new series in 1990, and that the programs will be Bosc, Chas, Thor,
Lady, and Vall (two parts), and that Brett will then take the play on tour,
opening on the west coast of the United States in December 1991.

Paul's report is certainly more accurate, since the play is now on tour in
the provinces.  And if you would like to have more news and reviews of
Sherlockian stage, screen, radio, and television, you will enjoy reading
The Third Pillar: A Newsletter for Thespian Pursuits in Sherlockiana, a
quarterly newsletter edited and published by Paul Singleton (523 Central
Avenue, Bethpage, NY 11714); the first issue (Sept. 1989) is available, and
the cost is $3.00 a year.

Oct 89 #5   "A Woman of Mystery" is an eight-page monthly newsletter edited
            and published by Amy Lubelski for Agatha Christie fans, and a
recent Sherlock Holmes Special Issue gives careful attention to the many
parallels and echoes found in Christie's work.  Subscriptions cost $30.00 a
year, and a single issue costs $3.00, and the newsletter's address is Box
1616, Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013.

Charles Kovacic (18307 Burbank Boulevard #49, Tarzana, CA 91356) has a new
illustrated sales list, offering Sherlockian pins, watches, bookplates,
postcards, Christmas tree ornaments, posters, and reproductions of older
lobby cards and other artwork.

A ROSE BY ANOTHER NAME: A SURVEY OF LITERARY FLORA FROM SHAKESPEARE TO ECO,
by Robert F. Fleissner (West Cornwall: Locust Hill Press, 1989; 164 pp.,
$24.00), is a collection of essays on literary roses, their symbolism, and
their connections, noting intriguing examples as disparate as Rosa Budd in
"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" and Rosebud in "Citizen Kane".  And the Canon
is not neglected: in one of the essays Fleissner discusses the roses, and
the detectives, in "The Moonstone" and "The Naval Treaty".  The publisher's
address is Main Street, West Cornwall, CT 06796.

"The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (a concert version of "The Hound of the
Baskervilles") was commissioned by Richard Hartshorne from Jon Deak some
years ago, and performed by Hartshorne in Washington this month during a
concert by the Apple Hill Chamber Players.  The composition is for double
bass and six voices (all provided by Hartshorne, who quickly changes hats
to show who's speaking), and it is thoroughly imaginative and amusing.  An
audio cassette (with two other pieces) is available ($10.00 postpaid) from
Richard Hartshorne, Apple Hill Chamber Players, East Sullivan, NH 03445.

















THE DICTIONARY OF IMAGINARY PLACES, by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi
(San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987; 454 pp., $16.95), was first
published in 1980 and is now available in an expanded edition, and it is a
splendid gazetteer, with maps and charts by James Cook and illustrations by
Graham Greenfield.  Due attention is given to Conan Doyle's works, and the
dictionary has entries for Atlantis, Baskerville Hall, Camford, Challenger
Field, Fulworth, Maple White Land, and Uffa.

Oct 89 #6   Bill Rabe reports that he still offers copies of VOICES FROM
            BAKER STREET I, II AND III, the landmark four-record boxed
album issued some years ago (Dec 83 #3), with new pressings of VFBS I and
II and two new records of "sounds to deduce by" (all accompanied by careful
annotations and explanations).  The cost is $40.00 postpaid, and you can
order from W. T. Rabe, 1204 Davitt Street, Sault Ste. Marie, MI 49783.  And
you should, if you don't have the album already, because it is a splendid
collection of the aural history of the world of Sherlockians.

The fall 1989 issue of Anglofile includes a long interview with Tom Baker,
whose roles have included Rasputin and Pope Leo X.  "I'm always getting
twisted priests or Sherlock Holmes," Baker notes.  "I mean, look what a
nutcase he is.  He's one of the great comic creations of the last century.  
I've played him twice, actually."  Anglofile publishes six issues a year
($12.00), and the address is Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30333.

Anthony Quayle died on Oct. 20.  He began his acting career as a straight
man to a music-hall comedian, and his first serious stage role was a small
part in a production of "Robin Hood" in 1931.  His long career included
films and television, and a knighthood in 1985.  In his Sherlockian films
he played Dr. Murray in "A Study in Terror" (1965) and Sir Charles Warren
in "Murder by Decree" (1979).

Alvin T. Retzlaff (1 South Federal Street #811, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866)
is planning to publish a Sherlockian cookbook, and will be happy to hear
from individuals or societies who wish to submit their favorite recipes, or
who wish additional information.

Jerry Margolin reports a new item Sherlockian from Gallery Lainzberg (200
Guaranty Building, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401) (800-5533-9995): a limited-edi-
tion cel by Bob Clampett showing Daffy (as Duck Twacy) and Sherlock Holmes
in a scene from "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" (1945).  The price is $425.  
Also a limited-edition cel showing Daffy (in S'ian costume) and Yosemite
Sam (in cowboy costume) in a western saloon.  This is not from any known
film, and the price is $475.

An eight-page Sherlockian sales list (books and other items) at hand from
Chris and Beth Caswell at Sherlock's Home, 4137 E. Anaheim Street, Long
Beach, CA 90804.

Six programs in the Granada series (Blue, Danc, Nava, Scan, Soli, and Spec)
have long been available from Simon & Schuster at $29.95 each, but they've
now been discounted to $14.95 each (plus $5.00 per order for shipping) by
Facets Video, 1517 West Fullerton, Chicago, IL 60614 (800-331-6197) -- and
it's likely that the same discount is now available elsewhere, because MPI
Home Video has started issuing programs from the series: Copp, Croo, Fina,
Gree, Norw, RedH, and Resi ($24.95 each), and Houn and Sign ($34.95 each).

THE BLACK SCHOOL, by J. N. Williamson (New York: Dell, 1989; 273 pp.,
$3.50), is the latest of Jerry's horror novels to include characters who
are familiar with the Sherlock Holmes stories.

 The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830

Nov 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

As expected, Ken Greenwald's THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (with
stories based on the Rathbone/Bruce radio scripts) is offered by Barnes &
Noble in their new mail-order catalog (941M-217B), at $9.98.  It is item
1609049, shipping costs $4.00 per order, they take plastic, and the address
is 126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011.  It has also now been reported at
Waldenbooks here and there, and it will be widely distributed in the book-
store chains, through perhaps only a few copies in each store.

THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is also available from Once Upon a
Crime (604 West 26th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55405), for $9.98 plus $2.50
shipping.  And from The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street, New
York, NY 10019, for $10.00 plus $3.00 for shipping (they take plastic).  
And from Gaslight Publications (626 North College Avenue, Bloomington, IN
47404, for $9.95 plus $1.50 for shipping (they take plastic).

California book dealer Mark Hime was at the Santa Monica Bookfair in Oct.,
offering some interesting items: a good copy of the first separate edition
of A STUDY IN SCARLET ($35,000), a mint first edition of THE ADVENTURES OF
SHERLOCK HOLMES ($10,000), and a very fine first edition of THE VALLEY OF
FEAR in dust jacket ($17,500).

The first five stories in Eternity's comic-book reprints of the 1954 comic
strips by Edith Meiser and Frank Giacoia have been reissued as SHERLOCK
HOLMES: BOOK ONE (Newbury Park: Malibu Graphics, 1989; 140 pp., $29.95
cloth or $17.95 paper), with a foreword by Tom Mason and an introduction by
Jim Korkis.

Wallace Laboratories (A Division of Carter-Wallace, attn: Joe Conti, Box
1001, Cranbury, NY 08512) have issued a series of five promotional fliers
(under the general title "A Successful Team Solves Another Case") with
short Sherlockian pastiches promoting cough-and-cold medicines Rynatan and
Tussi-Organidin.

Ron De Waal writes that he is recovering from his accident -- he was hit by
a car while jogging, and hospitalized for four weeks -- he's now feeling
better, though with one leg still in a full cast, and you can send get-well
cards and letters to him at 638 Twelfth Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84103.

"SHERLOCK HOLMES.--Any persons thinking themselves capable of filling a
post in a Modern Inquiry Office, which requires qualifications of the
nature indicated in Dr. A. Conan Doyle's well-known stories, are requested
to send testimonials, etc., which will be treated as confidential, to -----
Office."  We are indebted to Joel Lima for the advertisement, in an unnamed
Scottish newspaper, quoted in a letter in Tit-Bits (Nov. 26, 1892), asking
"Should Detectives Be Specially Educated?"  Tit-Bits was a weekly magazine
published by George Newnes, and at the time was reprinting "The Sign of
Four" as a serial.  The editor had earlier acknowledged to readers that the
story had already been published as a book, noting however that "it was
done at a time when the great Sherlock Holmes had not made the brilliant
reputation which now surrounds his name, and the sale was not of a very
general character."

Nov 89 #2   Baskerville Hall is again available for purchase.  Brook Manor,
            home of the infamous Richard Cabell, was offered three years
ago for L150,000 (Oct 86 #4), and the house is again on the market, with
offers of more than L600,000 being sought.  The present owners rewired the
house and added central heating and new bathrooms, using the house for bed
and breakfast on a small scale, and the estate agents have suggested that
the ten-bedroom property could be adapted as a small hotel or guesthouse.

For those who want the British (and true first) edition of Charles Viney's
SHERLOCK HOLMES IN LONDON (Oct 89 #3), it differs only in the publisher's
imprint and is published by Equation in London (L14.95).

Peter Haining's THE TELEVISION SHERLOCK HOLMES (London: W. H. Allen, 1986;
224 pp., L14.95) is still available in the United States, distributed by
Lyle Stuart ($24.95).  Half of the book is a discussion of Sherlock Holmes
and S'ian television pre-Granada, and the other half is devoted to the
first twenty Granada programs, and both sections are profusely illustrated,
with much color.  Recommended.

James O. Duval (72 Merrimack Street, Penacook, NH 03303) offers a ceramic
Christmas-tree ornament, with Holmes on one side and Watson on the other,
with a ribbon for hanging on a tree and a pedestal holder for display on a
shelf.  The price is $17.00 postpaid.

Classic Specialties (Box 19058Y, Cincinnati, OH 45219) has an illustrated
sales list offering their knit-wear and other Sherlockian items.

Robert Quackenbush's DETECTIVE MOLE AND THE HALLOWEEN MYSTERY was published
in 1981, with Detective Mole in Sherlockian costume, and it's now out in a
large paperback from Little Simon/Simon & Schuster ($3.95).

The mid-Dec. issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine has a nicely S'ian
cover, H. R. F. Keating's Sherlockian story "A Snaking Suspicion", and an
enthusiastic editor's note about Sherlockians and Sherlockiana.

The series of red paperback volumes published by Edgar W. Smith in the
1950s, offering the Sherlockians of those days reprints of rare classics
and some of Edgar's own fine writing, has been succeeded by a new "BSI
archival series" that will focus on the early (and not so early) days of
The Baker Street Irregulars.  "DEAR STARRETT--"/"DEAR BRIGGS--" is the
first volume in the new series, and it is a fascinating collection of
correspondence between Gray Chandler Briggs and Vincent Starrett in the
early 1930s, carefully transcribed by John Nieminski and annotated by Jon
L. Lellenberg.  Briggs was an early enthusiast, rescuing the surviving
original artwork from Frederic Dorr Steele's discard-box, and traveling in
1921 to London, where he was the first to identify a location for 221B
Baker Street.  He offered great assistance and encouragement to Starrett,
who was then writing the essays that were to be published as THE PRIVATE
LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and their letters offer an intriguing picture of a
time when the cornerstones of the Writings About the Writings were still
being quarried.  The book is available from the Fordham University Press,
Box 6525, Ithaca, NY 14850 (800-666-2211), and costs $20.95 postpaid, and
they take plastic.  Recommended.

Nov 89 #3   The Sherlock Holmes in London is far from the only feature of
            Whitbread's, which also has a "spirits division", according to
a Wall Street Journal article (Oct. 19) at hand from Bruce Southworth.  But
Whitbread won't have the spirits division much longer, because it's up for
sale.  Whitbread & Co., it turns out, owns Laphroaig single-malt whiskey,
Beefeaters gin, a branch that distributes Cutty Sark whiskey in the U.S.,
and the Atlas Peak Vineyard in the Napa Valley.  Whitbread plans to focus
on its brewing interests and its newer hotel, liquor store, and restaurant
businesses in Europe and North America.

And Bruce Southworth has a new address: 2600 West 86th Street, Bloomington,
MN 55431 (612-888-6324).

Further to earlier reports on Jeremy Brett's forward planning, earlier this
year he told backstage-visitor Jean Upton that the Booth Theater in New
York has been booked for "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" for the spring of
1991.

Sherlock Holmes Society of London member Winston Plows found a novel way to
raise money for the Talking Book Library of the Royal National Institute
for the Blind: a sponsored three-week 1,000-mile bicycle ride (on a 1955
Raleigh Roadster) from Montpelier to Baker Street.  "Holmes certainly made
the journey from Montpelier," Plows said, "but it is only my theory that he
did it by bicycle."

Quoting from Philip Purser's review (in the [London] Daily Mail, Sept. 1,
1988) of the Granada version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles": "[Jeremy
Brett's] balance of arrogance, conceit, charm and even a little genuine
concern is absolute.  And Edward Hardwicke made the most of Dr. Watson's
occupation of centre stage, giving a creditable impersonation of George
Bush finding himself in charge at the White House."

Reported by Jack Kerr: CHEMISTRY AND CRIME: FROM SHERLOCK HOLMES TO TODAY'S
COURTROOM, edited by Samuel M. Gerber (BSJ Mar 84) is still available from
the American Chemical Society in cloth ($19.95) and paper ($14.95).  Their
address is West End Station Box 57136, Washington, DC 20037 (800-227-5558),
and they take plastic.

Further to our report (Sep 89 #4) on James Cuthbertson's monograph A STUDY
IN BANKING: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES
WITH HIS BANK, that report was not quite correct as to the price of the
pamphlet, which costs (postpaid) $8.00 (by surface mail) or $10.00 (by
airmail) if (and only if) payment is made in currency (not checks).  The
banking industry (in this country as well as in Britain) imposes heavy
surcharges for converting checks drawn in foreign currencies, making small
checks impractical for small transactions.  Mr. Cuthbertson's address is:
15 Meadow View Close, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4JQ, England.

Jack Tracy reports that "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" will run
on the Disney Channel through Dec. 15.  This is the 1949 film, offering the
Disney animations of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "The Wind in the
Willows" (narrated by Basil Rathbone, who mentions Sherlock Holmes in his
introduction, and with Ratty in deerstalker and Mole in bowler).

Nov 89 #4   "The bird smelled like the inside of a cow," notes Stuart D.  
            Strahl, an ornithologist who has written extensively about the
hoatzin, a bird found in the jungles of Venezuela and so far the only one
known that digests its food in the same way that cows, sheep, and other
ruminants do.  The bird's name is pronounced WAT-sin or wat-SEEN, and that
accounts for the headline "Alimentary, My Dear Hoatzin" on an article in
Science News (Oct. 21), at hand from Douglas C. Zinn.

Nikki Caparn, who has served as Sherlock Holmes' secretary for four years,
is planning to retire, according to a report in the N.Y. Times (Nov. 5).  
One of the letters she has answered was from a man who wrote that the only
dispute he and his wife had ever had was over whether Sherlock Holmes had
actually existed.  The writer wanted the argument settled, even if it ended
in divorce.  "We never say he never existed," Miss Caparn noted.

THE PERFECT MURDER: A STUDY IN DETECTION, by David Lehman (New York: Free
Press/Macmillan, 1989; 242 pp., $19.95), is a welcome addition to the long
list of all-too-often boring studies of the detective story: the author has
obviously enjoyed the books he has read and written about, and his comments
on the genre are original and entertaining.  THE PERFECT MURDER *ought* to
be a widely-used textbook, since it is an effective antidote to the lec-
tures given by the many academics who are not quite persuaded that the de-
tective story is neither literature nor important.

Further to last month's news (Oct 89 #6) that additional programs from the
Granada series are being issued by MPI Home Video, Rosemary Michaud reports
that the programs are not complete, apparently because they have been cut
down to fit a 50-minute format (it is possible that the cassettes have been
made from the shorter versions broadcast by USA cable).

The Victorian Villa Guesthouse (601 North Broadway Street, Union City, MI
49094) is a pleasantly and carefully restored 1876 house where the current
owners offer thirteen Sherlockian mystery weekends a year, and a detailed
brochure on their 1990 schedule.

Videotaper alert: on Jan. 1, 1990, your local stations will air a repeat of
"Divorce Court" program #842, which first aired in syndication on Nov. 9.  
The program is "Holmes vs. Holmes" and involves a man who is obsessed with
Sherlock Holmes and appears in court dressed as his hero, accompanied by a
friend dressed as Dr. Watson.  His villainous wife won't put up with this
nonsense, of course.  Tune in on Jan. 1 to see whether the judge grants the
divorce (unless your local station preempts the show for sports or parade
coverage).

"An Appointment with Sherlock Holmes" (the colorized versions of "Sherlock
Holmes and the Secret Weapon" and "Woman in Green" broadcast in April, with
Eli Wallach as host) has a sequel: colorized versions of "Dressed to Kill"
and "Terror by Night".  Check your local schedules to see which independent
station will air the program, and when (the "window" closes on Dec. 23).

And "Animal Crackers" will be broadcast on cable on The Movie Channel in
December.  This 1933 Marx Brothers film has a bit of Sherlockian dialog.
Also on The Movie Channel: "My Fair Lady" (with a youthful Jeremy Brett).

Nov 89 #5   We will celebrate Sherlock Holmes' 136th birthday on Friday,
            Jan. 12, with the now-traditional festivities in New York.  
Friday begins with the Martha Hudson Breakfast at 9:00 am at the Algonquin
Hotel, at 59 West 44th Street; no reservations are required.  The William
Gillette Luncheon begins at noon at the Old Homestead, at 56 Ninth Avenue,
at 14th Street (Susan Rice, 125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY 10014).  
At 6:00 pm The Baker Street Irregulars will meet at 24 Fifth Avenue, at 9th
Street; and The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes at Garvin's Restaurant, at
19 Waverly Place, south of 8th Street, one block east of Washington Square
Park (Evelyn A. Herzog, 235 West 15th Street #4-B, New York, NY 10011).  
Space will be limited at the Gillette luncheon and the ASH dinner, and
early reservations are requested.

Otto Penzler's annual open house at The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th
Street) is also on Friday, from 11:00 to 6:00; all Sherlockians and their
guests are welcome to attend, and there is as usual the possibility that
Sherlockian authors will be on hand to sign their books.

There will be a new event on Saturday: from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm a posse of
purveyors will be selling a variety of Sherlockiana on the second floor of
the Algonquin Hotel (56 West 44th Street).

On Saturday afternoon The Baker Street Irregulars will hold their annual
reception, open to all Sherlockians and their friends, from 2:30 to 5:00
pm, at 24 Fifth Avenue, at 9th Street.  The reception will honor a group of
contemporary Sherlockian artists and will feature a display of their works.
There will be an open bar, with hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, and tickets
cost $25.00 a person.  Your checks, payable to The Baker Street Irregulars,
should be sent to Robert E. Thomalen, 69 Glen Road, Eastchester, NY 10709.

Lee Shackleford's new two-act play "Holmes and Watson", which premiered at
the University of Alabama in Birmingham in May, will be produced in New
York in January, with the author playing Sherlock Holmes, at the Theater at
St. Peter's Church, City Corp. Center, 54th Street at Lexington.  The play
opens Jan. 4 and closes Jan. 14, with performances Tuesday through Sunday
evenings, and extra matinees on Saturdays and Sundays.  The theater has 150
seats, the box office telephone is 212-688-6022 (if there's no answer, keep
trying), tickets cost $20.00 each, and they are alleged to take plastic.  
There are no plans for a formal S'ian theater party on the evening of Jan.    
13, so travelers from afar are advised to make their own reservations.

On Sunday, southbound travelers (and others) will be welcome at the annual
dinner of The Master's Class, which will start at 4:00 at the Franklin Inn
Club at St. James and Camac Streets in Philadelphia (ending early to allow
people to catch the last train out of town).  Details are available from
Victoria M. Robinson, 299-B Summit House, 1450 West Chester Pike, West
Chester, PA 19382.

Mary Ellen Rich has again kindly provided a list of hotels (reported on the
next page) that offer reasonable (as defined by New York landlords) rates,
along with a warning about non-optional extras: $2.00 a day occupancy tax,
8.25% state tax, and 5% city tax.  If you are arriving on Thursday, it is
important to confirm that the weekend-package rates include Thursday.

Nov 89 #6   Hotels in New York:  Century-Paramount, 235 West 46th Street
            (212-764-5500); $80.00 single.  Henry Hudson, 353 West 57th
Street (212-265-6100); $70.00 single.  Roosevelt, 45 East 45th Street (800-
223-1870); $85.00 room.  Salisbury Hotel, 123 West 57th Street (800-223-
0680); $85.00 room (FR-SA).  Shoreham, 33 West 55th Street (212-247-6700);
$75.00 single.  And another possibility: Iroquois Hotel, 49 West 44th
Street (800-332-7220); $65.00 single, $75.00 double, $100.00 suite (ask for
Connie).

The manuscript of "The Three Garridebs" (22 pages, signed on the first and
last pages) will be offered at Christie's in London on Dec. 6, presumably
sent to auction by Mrs. Adrian Conan Doyle, who is the recorded owner.  The
estimate by Christie's is L20,000-30,000.

And an auction of "English Literature and History" at Sotheby's in London
on Dec. 14, will have two items of interest.  Estimated at L600-800 is the
collar of the prototype of the Hound of the Baskervilles (a large black
leather collar with studs and buckles, about 20 inches in circumference,
with an attached metal plate engraved "'Derby the Devil' presented by
Jerome K. Jerome to A. Conan Doyle, Undershaw, Hindhead"); it belonged for
many years to a Surrey family who lived near ACD's home at Undershaw, and
by family tradition "Derby the Devil" was the huge mastiff which inspired
the Hound of the Baskervilles, hence the point of Jerome's presentation to
ACD.  And the second item (estimated at L3,000-4,000) is Sherlock Holmes'
dressing gown (the dressing gown owned by Sidney Paget and apparently used
as the model for six illustrations); it was displayed at The Sherlock
Holmes until 1979, and sold at Sotheby's in 1980 for L450 (the dressing
gown is in dog-toothed tweed with a light-brown checked pattern, and is
described as "patched and rather moth-eaten").

Air-guns have not been taken all that seriously since the
long-gone days of Von Herder and Straubenzee, but may seem
to be making a comeback, as reported in an article in the
Wall Street Journal (Sept. 13) about the air-guns made by
the Beeman Precision Arms of Santa Rose, Calif.  Comparing
Beemans to the tiny and cheaply made Red Ryders of our
youth is, the article suggests, "like comparing a Mercedes
to a moped."  And on Apr. 27-30 the Sixth World Air-Gun
Championships were held in Sarajevo, honored by a stamp
issued by Yugoslavia.

Can anyone supply a current address for Dan Baker (no longer at Box 221B in
Cecilia), John Comstock, Carley Cat Herd, William L. Russell, Joseph F. 
Taggard, or Jerry Tucker?

John Ruyle reports that the Pequod Press survived the Loma Prieta quake,
and that the presses are still rolling.  Newly available are DOYLE A LA
CARTE ("23 new quatrains that attempt to broaden the mere Canonical into
the Conanical") and THE PRENATAL ENTREATY (the 20th adventure of Turlock
Loams).  Each book costs $30.00 (cloth) or $15.00 (paper), from the author
(521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707).  Readers who have only recently
discovered the artistically designed and printed Pequod pressings can ask
John about earlier books (a few copies are still available of some titles).

Nov 89 #7   Dick Warner, who is Head Sherpa of the Holmes Peak Preservation
            Society, reports that the Oklahoma Historical Society has now
approved the manufacture and installation of an official Oklahoma Roadside
Marker for Holmes Peak, and that the marker (to be cast in aluminum, five
feet tall, with an appropriate explanatory inscription) will be located by
the side of a highway near the peak as soon as the Holmes Peak Preservation
Society provides the funds for the marker, which will cost about $1,200.  
Dick hopes that 60 Sherlockians will be willing to contribute $20 each (or
smaller or larger amounts) to help honor the only geographical feature in
the U.S. named in honor of Sherlock Holmes, and you are invited to send
your checks to Dick Warner, 3168 South Rockford Drive, Tulsa, OK 74105.

Further to the report on the Reader's Digest series of "Best Loved Books
for Young Readers" (Sep 89 #1), their reprint of GREAT CASES OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES has all eight of Guy Deel's fine illustrations from D687a, as noted
by an observant Tom Stix, who also reports that at his local supermarket
the Sherlockian title in the series is in short supply, offering continuing
evidence for the popularity of the Master.

THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES is now available on CD-ROM, produced by CMC
ReSearch and marketed by Professional Solutions, 21777 Ventura Boulevard
#226, Woodland Hills, CA 91364 (800-677-1725), discounted to $90.00 (plus
$5.00 shipping) until the end of 1988 (the price will be $99.00 next year),
and they take plastic.  CD-ROM is an abbreviation for Compact Disc-Read
Only Memory, a technology that uses a compact disc (similar to an audio
disc), and a special player and an adapter card that allows your computer
to read text and artwork from the disc.  There are now an estimated 300,000
CD-ROM players in use (many libraries have them, and BOOKS IN PRINT, the
GROLIER ENCYCLOPEDIA, and the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY are a few of the
books that have been published on CD-ROM discs).  The CD-ROM version of THE
COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES is based on Bob Stek's floppy-disk version, and
also contains the MEDICAL CASEBOOK OF DOCTOR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (the 1984
book written by Alvin E. Rodin and Jack D. Key), some medical poetry, and
Sherlockian artwork (by Sidney Paget and Betty Wells).

International Polygonics' fine reprints of long-out-of-print mystery
writers include Jonathan Latimer, whose MURDER IN THE MADHOUSE (1934) was
the first in a series featuring William Crane, a hard-boiled detective who
is both humorous and occasionally incompetent.  Latimer moved to Hollywood
shortly before the war, writing screenplays for films such as "The Glass
Key", "The Big Clock", and "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes", and for the
"Perry Mason" television series.  An earlier book, THE SEARCH FOR MY GREAT-
UNCLE'S HEAD (1937), was a departure from his hard-boiled series, offering
a country-house murder mystery, a college-professor hero, and pleasantly
Sherlockian allusions.  Both titles were reissued in 1989 as trade
paperbacks ($7.95).

Reported from Britain: CONAN DOYLE AND THE SPIRITS: THE SPIRITUALIST CAREER
OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, by Kelvin I. Jones (Aquarian Press, 256 pp.,
L8.99).  NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUSPENSE: FROM POE TO CONAN DOYLE, edited by
Clive Bloom (Macmillan, 139 pp., L8.95); focusing on "The Parasite" and
"The Lost World".  And a Sherlockian pastiche "Murder to Music" in Anthony
Burgess' new collection THE DEVIL'S MODE (Hutchinson, L12.95).

Nov 89 #8   Carl H. Anderson ("The Resident Patient") died on Nov. 20.  He
            was an early member of the BSI, and in 1947 he was one of the
founders of The Sons of the Copper Beeches (the second meeting of the Sons
was at his house in Penn Valley, amidst the copper beeches that surrounded
his home).  He was an enthusiastic collector and an ardent Sherlockian, and
in 1982 he received the BSI's Two-Shilling Award.

More real-estate news from Britain: the historic Lustleigh railway station,
advertised as having been filmed for "The Hound of the Baskervilles", was
offered for sale in June, with an asking price of L230,000.  The building
was part of the line from Bovey Tracey to Moretonhampstead, and dates from
the 1860s; it was closed in the 1960s and purchased by a man who renovated
the building, which is now a five-bedroom bungalow which still preserves
the 250-foot railway platform.  The Sherlockian connection should be viewed
with some skepticism, however, since an article reports that the station
was filmed for the Basil Rathbone film, and that's thoroughly unlikely: the
1939 movie was filmed in its entirety on a Hollywood set.

Jan. 6 (appropriately) will be the publication date of Ben Wood's new THE
PHILATELIC & NUMISMATIC HOLMES (40 pp., $5.00 postpaid pre-publication and
$6.00 afterward).  Ben's address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222.

American Express has shipped the fourth set of three Simon & Schuster audio
cassettes to subscribers, bringing the total number of cassettes to eleven.  
The new programs are "A Scandal in Bohemia", "The Second Generation", "In
Flanders Field", "The Eyes of Mr. Leyton", "The Telltale Pigeon Feathers",
and "The Indiscretion of Mr. Edwards", and the cassettes have introductions
by Peggy Webber, Ben Wright, and series announcer Harry Bartell.  American
Express card-holders may still be able to subscribe to the series (their
toll-free telephone number is 800-528-8000), and you may be able to buy all
eleven cassettes directly from Simon & Schuster (800-687-2677).

William Berner (Box 31175, San Francisco, CA 94131) offers a six-page sales
list of older and newer Sherlockian books and periodicals, at reasonable
prices.  Bill asks that you send a #10 SASE.

A CATALOGUE OF CRIME, by Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor (D3696a)
has been published in an enlarged edition (New York: Harper & Row, 1989;
922 pp., $50.00).

Robert Lewis Taylor's W. C. FIELDS: HIS FOLLIES AND FORTUNES, a splendid
biography of a fascinating man, was first published in 1949 and has been
out-of-print for many years.  It has been reissued as a trade paperback
(St. Martin's Press, $9.95), and includes an account of Fields' appearance
as Sherlock Baffles in "The Ham Tree" in New York in 1905 and on tour in
1906 and 1907.

Robert Harling's long-running play "Steel Magnolias" is now a movie, with
an all-star cast, including Shirley MacLaine as Ouiser.  In the play (and
possibly in the movie), Ouiser says, "Sis Orelle is so dumb.  She thinks
Sherlock Holmes is a subdivision."

 The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830

Dec 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The "Batman" book-and-record set first issued in 1976 (D4644b) has been
reissued, according to Tim O'Connor, presumably to take advantage of the
enthusiasm for the new movie.  One of the two stories in the set is "The
Mystery of the Scarecrow Corpse" (involving Batman and Inspector Derek
Holmes), and it costs $10.00 to $15.00 at local toy and record stores.

Further to the news (Jun 89 #6) of plans by entrepreneur John Aidiniantz to
set up a Sherlock Holmes Center on Baker Street, the Marylebone Mercury has
reported (Nov. 9) that the Westminster City Council has granted permission
to turn the derelict three-story building at No. 239 into a Sherlock Holmes
Museum.  Aidiniantz has founded the Sherlock Holmes International Society,
and claims that the house is the genuine No. 221B, saying that as a museum
it can be restored to its former glory "as a Victorian lodging house with a
housekeeper and two maids to welcome visitors."  The house was bought for
the society for L500,000 "by an anonymous titled woman" and Aidiniantz said
that it should be open to the public on Jan. 6.

Scottish Images (Box 160133, Sacramento, CA 95816) offers an illustrated
catalog that includes a series of Marlborough military models from Wales.  
These are 54mm alloy-metal hand-painted figures sculpted by Frank and Jan
Scroby, and Holmes and Watson are available at $19.95 each.

There are two minor variants of SHERLOCK HOLMES: BOOK ONE (Newbury Park:
Malibu Graphics, 1989), the reissue of the first five stories in Eternity's
comic-book reprints: the cover's lettering SHERLOCK HOLMES in yellow is
embossed on some copies, and not embossed on others.

NINETEENTH-CENTURY SUSPENSE: FROM POE TO CONAN DOYLE, edited by Clive Bloom
and first published in Britain, is now available in the U.S. (New York: St.  
Martin's Press, 1988; 139 pp., $35.00).  The book is a collection of nine
essays of modern psychoanalytical literary criticism, including essays by
Anne Cranny-Francis on "Arthur Conan Doyle's *The Parasite*: The Case of
the Anguished Author" and by Howard Davies on "*The Lost World*: Conan
Doyle and the Suspense of Evolution".

There's a mustached detective in Sherlockian costume on the box of "Math
Blaster Mystery", a computerized teaching aid aimed at grades 5-12, and
available for $34.99 (IBM or Apple) from Egghead Discount Software (22011
S.E. 51st Street, Issaquah, WA 98027) and (presumably) other software
                                                distributors.

                                                Kathy Cabanyog (daughter-
                                                in-law-elect of Ted Schulz)
                                                discovered this Sherlockian
                                                memo pad (100 sheets) in
                                                Phoenix.  It's made by
                                                Sangamon (Taylorville, IL
                                                62568), the sheets are 4 x
                                                6 in., and the footprint
                                                design continues down the
                                                full sheet.

Dec 89 #2   Kathy Barry-Hippensteel's "Little Sherlock" doll ("a clever
            little boy who thinks he's the world's greatest sleuth") was
advertised earlier (May 89 #4) with a June 30 deadline for orders, but it
was widely advertised again in TV Guide at the end of October.  It was
split-edition advertising, so if your local edition of TV Guide didn't run
the ad, write to the Ashton-Drake Galleries (212 West Superior Street,
Chicago, IL 60610) and ask for more information.  It's a mawkish 11-inch
hand-crafted bisque porcelain doll in their "Born to be Famous" collection,
and will be issued at $87.00 (plus $2.44 shipping and state sales tax).  
And if you've postponed ordering, there's no great hurry, since they will
take orders until the end of 1990, with a limit of two dolls per customer.
One does wonder a bit, whether there's going to be any increase in value
after this "limited edition" closes, since anyone who really wants one of
the dolls will already have two of them.

The 1954 television series "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (with Ronald
Howard and H. Marion Crawford) has many admirers, despite the sometimes
silly scripts, and those who have watched the syndicated package now on the
air here-and-there may not be aware that the original opening credits and
atmospheric music have been edited out of the syndicated package.  Andy
Jaysnovitch (6 Dana Estates Drive, Parlin, NJ 08859) offers 36 of the 39
programs on nine videocassettes, and will be happy to send you a list of
the programs available (one cassette costs $33.00 postpaid, and there is a
discount offered if more than one cassette is ordered).

An interesting portrait of Sherlock Holmes,
by John Tyburn, is available in full-page
size (8.5 x 11 in.) for $23.00 postpaid from
Kate Karlson, at 329 Marion Avenue, Endwell,
NY 13760).

Reported by Michael McClure: SOUNDS AROUND, a
Sesame Street "talking book" from Playskool
($15.99): Sherlock Hemlock is included, with
a soundtrack announcing "There's Sherlock
Hemlock!" and "Sherlock loves mysteries!"

Art Buchwald appears in a deerstalker on the
dust jacket of (and in the ads for) his new
book WHOSE ROSE GARDEN IS IT ANYWAY? (G. P.
Putnam's Sons).

Further to the report (Sep 89 #6) on The
Brambletye Hotel in Forest Row (East Sussex
RH18 5EZ, England), a photograph in the new hotel brochure confirms that
the Black Peter Bar is still very much a feature of the establishment.  The
brochure, with S'ian decorations, also mentions that Holmes and Watson once
had rooms there.

Peter Haining's THE SHERLOCK HOLMES SCRAPBOOK (D709b) is still available on
the discount shelves and tables, in the 1986 edition from Crescent Books,
at $5.98.  This edition has new cover and jacket artwork (for completists),
and value-for-money (for those who don't already have the book).

Dec 89 #3   A WOMAN'S PLACE IN THE CANON: BEING A REFERENCE SOURCE FOR ALL
            FEMALE NAMES MENTIONED OR INFERRED THROUGHOUT THE CANON WITH
COMMENTS ABOUT EACH (Hudson's Crony Press, 1989) is a carefully-researched
tribute to the fair sex, including victims, heroines, monarchs, clients,
villainesses, godesses, and others, all computerized and annotated in a
73-page monograph available for $9.00 postpaid from Jennie C. Paton (206
Loblolly Lane, Statesboro, GA 30458).

Sherlockian visitors to England can visit Riding Thorp Manor (or Ridling
Thorp Manor, depending on which edition of the Canon you have), if you're
willing to settle for the house used by Granada in its version of "The
Dancing Men".  Leighton Hall in Yealand Conyers, north of Carnforth in
Lancashire is open to the public from May to September, and the house now
also features a mini-exhibition about Jeremy Brett and Sherlock Holmes.

Can anyone identify the source (recent or not-so-recent) for a published
report of a "Sherlock Holmes Cocktail" or a "Mycroft Holmes Cocktail"?

Bill Smith has 116 issues of The Baker Street Journal available for sale,
from the late Carl Anderson's library.  Issues are available from 1946 to
the present, the cost is $5.00 per issue, and the money will go to Andy's
estate.  Orders will be filled on a first-come first-served basis, and you
can send your want-list to Bill Smith (15 West Hillcrest Avenue, Havertown,
PA 19083); you'll be billed when your copies are shipped.

A flier at hand from Timothy E. Liebe (212 West 91st Street #720, New York,
NY 10024) for "That's Elementary!" (a new videocassette of The Friends of
Bogie's at Baker Street in Sherlockian performance); the cassette features
Andrew Joffe, Sarah Montague, Paul Singleton, and Henry Enberg, and costs
$33.00 postpaid (VHS only).

Check your discount toy stores for 100-piece SHERLOCK HOLMES jigsaw puzzles
showing scenes from the "Sherlock Hound" animations.  The puzzles are made
by Schmidt Spiel+Freizeit (Eching, W. Germany), and Tom and Ruthann Stetak
and Paul Herbert have found two of them (Schmidt Puzzle 02812 and 02813) in
stories in Ohio; a third puzzle may exist, but has not been located.

Arthur Conan Doyle's early interest in spiritualist phenomena, his eventual
conversion to Spiritualism as a religion, and his long campaigns on behalf
of his cause, were all discussed and energetically defended by his first
biographer, John Lamond (CONAN DOYLE: A MEMOIR, 1931), but they have been
essentially ignored or treated with mild embarrassment by most of his later
biographers.  But Conan Doyle himself was never embarrassed by disbelief or
ridicule (and he encountered much of that), and his belief in Spiritualism
should not be ignored by anyone who is interested in the man whose stories
and books have given and still give so much pleasure to so many.  Kelvin I.  
Jones' DOYLE AND THE SPIRITS: THE SPIRITUALIST CAREER OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN
DOYLE (Wellingborough: Aquarian Press, 1989; 256 pp., L8.99) is a biography
that focuses on Conan Doyle as a Spiritualist, using Conan Doyle's books,
stories, and articles, as well as reports from Spiritualist newspapers and
magazines, and the archives of the Society for Psychical Research.  While
there are a few minor errors in the book, Jones offers a detailed look at
what Conan Doyle believed to be the most important aspect of his life.

Dec 89 #4   Ben Wood's new THE PHILATELIC & NUMISMATIC HOLMES is nicely
            done: 40 pages of illustrations and notes on stamps showing
Holmes, Conan Doyle, and many Canonical items, plus a reprint of Arthur
Pierce's "Was Sherlock Holmes a Stamp Collector?" (D4217a), and more
illustrations and notes on Canonical coins.  The cost is $5.00 postpaid
until Jan. 6, and Ben's address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222.

Peter Crupe reports that the Gillette-as-Holmes cigar label appears on p.  
228 of Joe Davidson's THE ART OF THE CIGAR LABEL (Secausus: Wellfleet
Press, 1989; $29.99).

Further to the rather confused report (Oct 89 #3) about BDD Promotions Book
Co., I'll try again.  BDB Inc. is the parent company that owns B. Dalton
and Barnes & Noble.  BDD (as in Bantam/Doubleday/Dell) Promotions Book Co.  
publishes bargain books that often wind up on the bargain tables and in the
discount catalogs, as is the case with Ken Greenwald's THE LOST ADVENTURES
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, which was published by the BDD imprint Mallard Press.
Simple as ABC, or whatever . . .

Jennie Paton has found a source that actually does have a videocassette of
"Sherlock Jr." (1924).  This is a Buster Keaton film, and it's a fine one,
even though it is S'ian almost only by title: Keaton plays a projectionist
who falls asleep and dreams that he has walked into the film being shown in
the theater; he plays a brilliant sleuth, and there are some truly splendid
special effects in the film.  You can it order from Movies Unlimited, 6736
Castor Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19149 (800-523-0823); the cassette is item
539004V in their winter catalog, the cost is $24.95 plus $4.00 shipping,
and they take plastic.

"Worst of them all, Rowsby Woof, is the great rat spirit, the giant of
Sumatra, the curse of Hamelin."  The quote was discovered by Elizabeth
Burns, in Richard Adams' WATERSHIP DOWN.

The latest issue (autumn 1989) of The Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris is an interim
issue, intended to tide readers over until the 25th anniversary issue is
published in 1990, and the only Sherlockian content is an illustration by
John Bognar.  TPSE is an irregular quarterly edited and published by Tom
Dunn, 20-37 120th Street, College Point, NY 11356, for pipe-smokers and
tobacco-lovers, and there is no charge the mailings (although Tom welcomes
contributions, financial and otherwise, from his readers).

Lisa McGaw ("Mrs. Hudson") died on December 22, and she will be missed by
all those who have enjoyed the William Gillette Memorial Luncheons over the
years.  It was in 1964 that Clifton Andrew asked Lisa to continue the long
tradition of luncheon gatherings that he had started at Keen's Chop House
in the 1940s, when only a few out-of-town Sherlockians attended (and when
the luncheon was not yet named in honor of Gillette), but by the 1960s the
affairs were much grander (and the cost had risen to $8.00, including tax,
tip, and open bar).  She received her BSI Investiture in 1982.

Plan well ahead: the Culinary Institute of America has confirmed May 4,
1991, for the Sherlock Holmes Dinner that will commemorate the battle at
the Reichenbach.

Dec 89 #5   THE STORY OF THE SEPULCHRE: THE CABELLS OF BUCKFASTLEIGH AND
            THE CONAN DOYLE CONNECTION, by Susan Cabell Djabri, provides a
detailed account of the family, including the third Richard Cabell (who was
happily married though unpopular in Devon) and his daughter Elizabeth (who
at the age of 15 inherited the Cabell estates and at the age of 35 married
Sir John D'Oyly) (and who, when her husband died, discovered that she was
one of his two widows).  The 16-page pamphlet is available from the author
(32 Ernle Road, Wimbledon Common, London SW20 0HJ, England), the price is
L2.00 ($4.00 in currency will be both acceptable and convenient), and the
proceeds will be used to repair the Cabell family tomb, "now in a sad state
of dilapidation."

More (and as usual, different) news of Granada's plans for the next Jeremy
Brett series, on which work is now scheduled to start in March: according
to Michael Cox (as reported by Roger Johnson), the programs will be Bosc,
Cree, Illu, Lady, Shos, and Thor.  A few months ago (Oct 89 #4) the six
programs were to be Bosc, Chas, Lady, Thor, and Vall (two parts).

WINTER'S CRIMES 21, edited by Hilary Hale (London: Macmillan, 1989; 352
pp., L11.95), is the latest volume in a annual series of fine anthologies
of previously unpublished stories.  This year Colin Dexter (author of the
"Inspector Morse" series) has turned his hand to Sherlockian pastiche in "A
Case of Mis-identity" (in which he also offers an amusing analysis of the
Canonical case that Holmes may or may not have solved correctly).

TALES FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT (Chicago: Academy Chicago, 1989; 207 pp., $4.95)
has eight of ACD's non-Sherlockian stories, reprinted from ROUND THE FIRE
STORIES.  Two apocryphal tales ("The Man with the Watches" and "The Lost
Special") are included, along with a pleasant reminder of the suggestion by
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor (in A CATALOG OF CRIME) that the
stories in this collection "are worth reading even around a radiator."

Vincent Brosnan (Sherlock in L.A., 1741 Via Allena, Oceanside, CA 92056)
has issued a new catalog, dedicated to the late Robert R. Pattrick and
offering many treasures from his collection, as well as other Sherlockiana
and a section of Jack-the-Ripper material.  The catalog, which also has a
tribute to Pattrick by Don Hardenbrook, and a hitherto-unpublished S'ian
parody by Pattrick, costs $2.00 postpaid.










The latest postal cards in the "America the Beautiful" series designed by
Bart Forbes honor New York City, showing the Manhattan skyline and the 59th
Street or Queensborough Bridge (which connects New York with Long Island,
where Mr. Leverton investigated a mystery), and Washington, with a
night-time view of the U.S. Capitol.

Dec 89 #6   Sherlockian scholars have discussed, and occasionally debated,
            the sexuality and gender of Sherlock Holmes for many years, and
C. Alan Bradley and William A. S. Sarjeant have now explored the subject in
considerable detail, carefully avoiding the "let's be outrageous" approach
taken in the past by most who have considered the possibility that Holmes
was not what he appeared to be.  In MS. HOLMES OF BAKER STREET: THE TRUTH
ABOUT SHERLOCK HOLMES (Dubuque: Gasogene Press, 1989; 262 pp., $19.95) the
authors present a careful and well-written examination of the evidence that
Sherlock Holmes was female, twice pregnant, and possibly once a mother.  
The publisher's address is Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52001; $22.45 postpaid.

A thick full-color catalog at hand from Levin Pipes International (RFD 1,
Box 565, West Hill Road, Craftsbury, VT 05826) offering a wide range of
pipes, accessories, and tobacco.  One full page shows the first two pipes,
in various sizes and finishes, in the "Sherlock Holmes Classic Collection"
from Peterson of Dublin.  The pipes range in cost from $99.95 to $119.95,
and they take plastic.

The Universal Postal Union met in Washington last month, and apparently
decided nothing of immediate importance.  But there were some statistics
announced, including the fact that the total world mail volume in 1988 was
401 billion pieces of mail, of which 40% was handled by the U.S.  That's
160.4 billion pieces of mail, more than 600 pieces per person in the U.S.

L. B. Greenwood's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THISTLE OF SCOTLAND (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1989; 205 pp., $17.95) is the third in her series of
well-written novel-length pastiches and, as with SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE
CASE OF THE RALEIGH LEGACY and SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF SABINA HALL,
it presents Holmes and Watson with a case that is interesting (rather than
merely fantastic).  Greenwood is one of the very few modern writers whose
style and characterizations are consistent with the Canon, and her books
are a pleasant antidote to the dullness of most Sherlockian imitations.

Lenny Picker reports (from the N.Y. Daily News) that Edward Woodward and
John Hillerman will be Holmes and Watson in a two-hour CBS-TV television
film "Napoleon of Crime" that will begin production in England in February.
It's not clear who's which, but Woodward ("The Equalizer") played Watson in
John Kane's "Murder, Dear Watson" at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley in
1983, and Hillerman ("Magnum, P.I.") will remember the Canon from a 1984
episode of that series called "Holmes Is Where the Heart Is".

There's a new comic strip called "Norb" (described by Steve Rothman as
being in the vein of the old "Popeye" or "Barnaby"), drawn by Tony Auth
(editorial cartoonist for the Philadelphia Inquirer) and written by Daniel
M. Pinkwater (author of THE SNARKOUT BOYS & THE AVOCADO OF DEATH and THE
SNARKOUT BOYS & THE BACONBURG HORROR, both of which have S'ian echoes).  
The strip is thoroughly literate (and apparently in some trouble on that
account), with frequent S'ian allusions.  And Steve reports that Daniel
Pinkwater's FISHWHISTLE, a collection of essays published this summer,
includes "My Layde Nicotine", in which he explains that he started smoking
a pipe due to Sherlock Holmes.

 The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830