Jan 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The birthday festivities in New York were a relatively easy commute for all
those who arrived on Thursday (the day that people who had been marooned in
the city for three days were able at long last to escape), and not quite as
easy for those who arrived on Friday (by which time it was snowing again),
and it was bright and sunny by Sunday, and presumably everyone made it home
safely, except for those who never left home in the first place (and there
were a few who decided not to make the trip from Oregon and Minnesota).

Thursday evening still is the time for informal gatherings (a few members
of The Hounds of the Internet and their friends dined on mutton chops and
other delicacies at Keen's Chop House), but there was no Aunt Clara Sing at
O'Lunney,s (because there's no longer an O'Lunney,s).

Friday began with the Mrs. Hudson Breakfast at the Hotel Algonquin (where
sometimes the lobby seemed to be populated entirely by Sherlockians during
the weekend), and continued with the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's
Restaurant, where Andrew Joffe, Sarah Montague Joffe, and Paul Singleton
presented a new play by Andrew about what really happened when Arthur Conan
Doyle first met William Gillette.  And Otto Penzler's open house on Friday
at the Mysterious Bookshop offered collectors an opportunity to see (and of
course to purchase) some of the treasures Otto brought back from the London
auction of Stanley MacKenzie's collection.

The Baker Street Irregulars gathered at 24 Fifth Avenue, where Mike Whelan
toasted Barbara Herbert as *The* Woman during the pre-dinner cocktail party
(Barbara then went on to dine at the Algonquin with other ladies who have
received that honor), and the evenings' entertainment included the usual
traditions, imaginative toasts by Bob Katz to the Second Dr. Watson and by
Sherry Rose-Bond to Peter Steiler the Elder, Shirley Purves' tour of the
moors (with thoughts on a computerized Sherlock Holmes), and Ev Herzog's
rhyming tribute to her fine collection of M's.

Irregular Shillings and Investitures were awarded to Steven T. Doyle ("The
Western Morning News"), Ralph Hall ("Smack! Smack! Smack!"), Hugh Harring-
ton ("Wisteria Lodge"), Peter Horrocks ("The Inner Temple"), Kate Karlson
("The Evening Standard"), John E. Pforr ("Police-Constable Cook"), Marsha
Pollak ("A Small But Select Library"), and Robert J. Stek ("The Mysterious
Scientist").  And Bob Thomalen received the BSI's Queen Victoria Medal in
recognition for his work as Cartwright (a post from which he has retired).  
Tom Stix announced that Mike Whelan succeeds Bob as Cartwright, and that
Tom and Ruthann Stetak are now the BSI's joint Simpsons, taking over the
secretarial duties that the late John Bennett Shaw performed so well for
many years.

The Fortescue Symposium also convened on Friday evening, at the St. Moritz
Hotel, where the entertainment included Jan Stauber's description of what
it's like to arrive in the world of Sherlockians, Francine Kitts' report on
entries in her contest that sought answers to the question "What would you
give for the box?" (Dr. Watson's battered tin dispatch-box), and presenta-
tions by Barbara Fleming on bootlaces and (in verse) on "The Tale of the
Pinch of Victor Lynch".

Jan 96 #2   On Saturday morning the huckster room at the Algonquin (known
            temporarily known as Covent Garden West) offered a wide variety
of Sherlockian wares that included newly-published Sherlockian and Doylean
books, as well as the usual assortment of old-and-rare and new-and-artistic
material.  The BSI Saturday afternoon cocktail party at the National Arts
Club offered a pleasant venue and excellent food and drink and conversation
that were briefly interrupted by the entertainment: Al Rosenblatt reported
poetically and melodiously on both the Sherlockian year and the BSI dinner,
a hotly-contested auction for eager collectors raised more than $1,000 for
the John H. Watson Fund, and Mike Whelan presented the Morley-Montgomery
Award for the best article in last year's Baker Street Journal to Margaret
K. Nydell (who received an attractive certificate and a check for $500).

The Morley-Montgomery Award will be offered again for the best article in
the BSJ in 1996, and potential contestants are invited to send submissions
to Donald K. Pollock (19 Putnam Street, Buffalo, NY 14213.  Don is the new
editor of the BSJ, beginning with the March 1996 issue (Tom Stix's message
announcing the change, and thanking Bill Cochran for his work over the last
three years appeared in the Sept. 1995 issue).

Samuel Rosenberg died on Jan. 5.  He was a photographer, playwright, stage
manager, artist, literary consultant, and the author of NAKED IS THE BEST
DISGUISE: THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1974).  Michael
Harrison thought that the book "certainly set the deductional cat amongst
the Sherlockian pigeons," and Rosenberg did indeed find many critics who
were outraged by the analysis and analogy presented in that book and in a
essay in Harrison's BEYOND BAKER STREET: A SHERLOCKIAN ANTHOLOGY (1976).  
But there also were many who enjoyed Rosenberg's new approach to the Canon
and to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (his book sold well in cloth and paperback
editions), and it was delightful to spend time with him (he was one of the
speakers at a Sherlockian symposium at Colorado State University in 1975,
and attended at least one annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars).  
He sometimes genially claimed to be a trivialist, but whether in person or
on the printed page he was a guaranteed antidote to boredom.

The current issue of Anglofile quotes British press reports that ITV has
axed the "Poirot" series (there still are some shows not yet aired here).  
A decline in the ratings was cited: the latest shows had only half of the
14 million viewers the series had at first (and the shows aren't cheap, at
L1.2 million each).  But consider: the United States has about four times
the population of Britain.  There aren't all that many shows on the air in
the United States that have more than 28 million viewers.  Anglofile is a
monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00
a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033).

Something new, and nicely done: "Sherlock Through the Magnifying Glass: A
Female Perspective" was dramatized by David Stuart Davies and performed for
the first time for The Northern Musgraves in 1992; now Classic Specialties
has produced an audiocassette performed by Vanessa Maroney, who also reads
an introduction written by Catherine Cooke.  There are has some interesting
insights into the Canon, and some imaginative surprises, in the 60-minute
cassette.  $13.45 postpaid to North America from Classic Specialties, Box
19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 ($14.95 to Europe, $16.45 elsewhere).

Jan 96 #3   Jack Tracy notes that the new MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
            LITERATURE (Springfield: Merriam-Webster, 1995) has entries for
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and The Hound of the Baskervilles;
the anonymous author of the entry on Conan Doyle didn't confirm the titles
of all the Sherlock Holmes book, but it's nice to see continuing attention
paid to the Canon and its author.

Readers who enjoyed Kim Newman's ANNO DRACULA (in which Mycroft Holmes and
other members of the Diogenes Club were working to overthrow Vlad Tepes,
who had married the Widow of Windsor and was ruling as Prince Consort and
Lord Protector) likely will want to read the sequel, THE BLOODY RED BARON
(Carroll & Graf, $21.00).  According to Tim Sullivan's review in the Wash-
ington Post (Dec. 31), the book is a fanciful tale of vampire flying aces:
Prof. Ten Brincken and Dr. Mabuse have turned Richtofen and his brethren
into huge bat-winged night flyers, and the Germans have hired Edgar Allan
Poe (who was vampirized by his child bride Virginia) to write about them.

"Every last one of them," said Altamont of the signals he
had brought to Von Bork, "semaphore, lamp code, Marconi."
Great Britain honored Marconi last year (the centenary of
the first wireless message) with a pair of stamps showing
him as a young man (with early wireless equipment) and as
an older man (using a radiophone).  Thanks to John Baesch
for spotting this philatelic Sherlockiana and for confirm-
ing that the sinking ship in the design of the 60p stamp
is the Titanic.  That tragedy was not the first use of the
S.O.S. signal, but it did result in a public exchange of
letters between George Bernard Shaw and Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle in the [London] Daily News in May 1912.

The birthday blizzards marooned Ben and Joan Wood in Flor-
ida, so they were unable to see their Sherlockian wares at
the Algonquin.  But a sales list of philatelic and other
material is available from Benton Wood, Box 740, Ellenton,
FL 34222-0740.

Cheryl Hurd reports that her local public radio station carries a 30-minute
weekly series called "NPR Playhouse" and (nice news for listeners where the
series airs) that "The Cases of Sherlock Holmes" began on Jan. 14.  This is
a series recorded in Britain by Independent Radio Drama Productions (with
Edward Petherbridge as Holmes and David Peart as Watson), and broadcast in
the United States in 1991 and in Britain in 1992.  The original series had
"A Study in Scarlet" (in 6 episodes), "A Scandal in Bohemia" (2 episodes).  
"The Speckled Band" (2 episodes), "The Valley of Fear" (9 episodes), "The
Five Orange Pips" (2 episodes), and "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (2 epi-
sodes).

Robin Leckbee has reported that one of the floats in the Mardi Gras parades
in New Orleans will feature Sherlock Holmes.  Endymion's parade on Feb. 17
will have "Great Storytellers" as its theme (this won't be the first time
that an image of Holmes has been used to honor the man who created him, of
course).  Mardi Gras now gets national television coverage, but there's no
way of knowing whether or when we might see the float on the air.

Jan 96 #4   A GRAND NIGHT FOR MURDER (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995;
            213 pp., $20.95) is the latest novel by H. Paul Jeffers, whose
earlier Sherlockian works include THE ADVENTURE OF THE STALWART COMPANIONS
(1978) and MURDER MOST IRREGULAR (1983).  The new book involves the murder
of the Mystery Writers of America's newest grand master, who has a host of
enemies (including a book dealer who is an enthusiastic Sherlockian), many
Sherlockian allusions, and some nice twists in the plot.

            A new catalog at hand from Femmes Fatales (Box 3457, Lakewood,
            CA 90712-3457) (800-596-3323), with many mystery-related items,
            decorative and otherwise, including attractive pins (3" high)
            designed by Glyn Swanson.  One of them (as might be expected)
            is Sherlockian; item J101 ($27.95).

            Charles Marowitz's play "Sherlock's Last Case" will be produced
            at the Ted Paul Theatre at Mankato State University, Feb. 1-11,
            1996.  The box-office address is: MSU Theatre Arts, Box 8400,
            Mankato, MN 56002 (507-389-6661).

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE TRUTH ABOUT LUDWIG II, by Zeus Weinstein, is Richard
R. Rutter's translation of SHERLOCK HOLMES: DIE WAHRHEIT UBER LUDWIG II,
first published by Deutsche Verlagsanstalt in 1978.  Zeus Weinstein is the
pseudonym of Peter Neugebauer, who has contributed some fine Sherlockian
scholarship to the German literature.  His pastiche brings Holmes (posing
as an American journalist) and Watson (posing as an American millionaire)
to Bavaria in 1886, unable to prevent the death of the "mad king" who was
responsible for some of Europe's most romantic castles.  $27.00 postpaid
from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada.

Nellie Brown notes that the Quality Paperback Book Club now offers Loren D.  
Estleman's SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. DRACULA and DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HOLMES in one
volume ($12.95); Camp Hill, PA 17012-0001 (800-348-7128).

William Hjortsberg's NEVERMORE (Oct 94 #5) is now available in paperback
(New York: St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1996; 302 pp., $5.99); the novel brings
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini to New York in 1923, where they
are involved with Opal Crosby Fletcher (a provocative and beautiful medium)
and a mysterious serial killer (who copies murders described in Edgar Allan
Poe's stories, and whose targets include Conan Doyle and Houdini).

"Richard III" is now in the theaters: Ian McKellen is executive producer,
wrote the screenplay, and plays the title role, and other actors include
Maggie Smith, Annette Bening, Nigel Hawthorne, and Edward Hardwicke (as
Lord Stanley, played as an Air Vice Marshal who joins Richmond's forces,
taking the RAF with him).  The play is set in the 1930s, and McKellen is
playing Richard as a fascist leader.

The World Wide Web, which now is much more than a hideaway located in stray
corners of the Internet, has a growing list of Sherlockian home pages, one
of which is maintained by Chris Redmond (and which has links to most if not
all of the others).  During the first 17 days of 1996 he averaged 93 hits
per day; you can see what's available by telling a computerized friend that
the URL is <http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~credmond/sh.html>.

Jan 96 #5   David Healy died on Oct. 25.  He was born in Texas, according
            to information at hand from David Morrill, but found an acting
career in Britain, on stage and screen and television.  He played a fine
Watson to Ian Richardson's Holmes in the television film "The Sign of Four"
(1983), and he played Aloysius Moran in "The Noble Bachelor" (1991) in the
Clive Merrison series on BBC Radio 4.

Delicate Arch (in Arches National Park) is featured in McRay
Magleby's design for our new stamp honoring the centennial of
statehood for Utah, and (indirectly) "A Study in Scarlet".

Helen Commodore spotted the announcement of a one-session "An
Evening with Sherlock Holmes" at the New School in New York
City on Apr. 26 (taught by Arthur Liebman, in costume, with
Nickelodeon piano accompaniment by Joyce Ann Liebman); course
0537, 8:00-9:30 pm, $10.00 (212-229-5690).

Plan ahead: an International Sherlockian Congress in honor of "The Devil's
Foot" will be held at Perth in the Swan River Colony on Oct. 4-6, 1997.  If
you are considering a journey to Australia and would like more information
about the festivities, you can contact Douglas Sutherland-Bruce, P.O. Box
74, Sawyers Valley, W.A. 6074, Australia.

A fine way to listen to the Sherlock Holmes tales is when Dr. Watson tells
them himself; Edward Hardwicke does just that, and does it well, in two new
audiocassette sets available from Tangled Web Audio: SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES
OF INTRIGUE (with Croo/Gree/Nava) and SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES OF SUSPENSE
(with Suss/Cree/Spec).  Each set contains two cassettes and costs $20.45
postpaid ($39.90 for two sets); 3380 Sheridan Drive #167, Amherst, NY 14226
(800-249-2666 operator 616); credit card orders welcome.

Jennie Paton reports a box of "34 Tiny Toon Adventures Mystery Valentines"
with two cards with Sherlockian motifs on the back (and more cards inside);
apparently the similar box last year sold well enough be repeated (the new
box is a minor variant).  About $2.00 (check your local drug stores).

"Lasting Impressions" is the newly-chosen title for the celebration by The
Bootmakers of Toronto of their silver anniversary, at the Arts and Letters
Club in St. George's Hall, on June 26-29, 1997.  If you would like to be on
the mailing list for news about the gathering, the address is 30 Elm Avenue
#210, Toronto, ON M4W 1N5, Canada.

Jon Lellenberg was the first to report John McPhee's "The Gravel Page" in
The New Yorker (Jan. 29).  McPhee has been explaining geology to non-geolo-
gists since 1980, and the magazine's lead-in to his latest article suggests
that: "The most frightening crimes have no witnesses except the ground on
which they were committed.  And from that alone forensic geologists illumi-
nate cases in a way that would impress Sherlock Holmes, the science's first
practitioner."  McPhee was aware from the very start that "detective work
is what geologists do," and his article offers a well-written exploration
of how geologists help solve crimes today, and careful acknowledgement of
Sherlock Holmes' contributions to the science he invented (and the title
"The Gravel Page" is taken from the Canon).

Jan 96 #6   THE THINKING MACHINE: JACQUES FUTRELLE, by Freddie Seymour and
            Bettina Kyper (Dennisport: Graphic Illusions, 1995) is a fine
biography of a mystery writer who was only 37 years old when he died on the
Titanic in 1912; his "The Problem of Cell 13" still is widely reprinted in
anthologies of mystery stories, and Prof. Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen rated
two appearances (played by Douglas Wilmer) in the British television series
"The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" in 1971 and 1973.  The book also has some
of his stories, and is available from Seymour/Kyper Productions, Box 1369,
Sandwich, MA 02563; $12.00 postpaid.

Cadds has issued a Sherlock Holmes Diary for 1996: spiral bound, with page
size 6 x 8.25" and a page for each week, with small illustrations (mostly
by Paget) and Canonical quotes.  Available from Cadds Printing (59 Lancas-
ter Avenue, West Norwood, London SE27 9EL, England; $11.00 postpaid (checks
payable to Hugh Scullion).

Sherlockian tourists have long enjoyed visiting Sherlockian sites with the
help of David Hammer's series of guidebooks, and now there's an opportunity
for a guided tour of one of the Canonical tales, with Brad Keefauver as the
almost-always-genial expert in charge of the tour.  Readers of Brad's work
in the BSJ and Plugs & Dottles and The Dangling Prussian APA already know
his fine style, humor, and imagination, all on display in his THE ARMCHAIR
BASKERVILLE TOUR (New York: Magico Magazine, 1995; 153 pp.).  Brad takes a
party of tourists through "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and it's a grand
tour indeed, at least until some members of the tour group vanish in the
midst of the tour (and the story).  The tour allows the tour guide to offer
some intriguing insights into the story, and to answer some unasked-until-
now questions, and it's an enjoyable excursion.  $27.00 postpaid from the
publisher (Box 156, New York, NY 10002).

Our new booklet showing five winter flowers includes a stamp
portraying crocuses, which are mentioned twice in the Canon
(in "The Speckled Band" and "The Empty House").

A new catalog from 800-Trekker, Box 13131, Reading, PA 19612
(800-873-5537) has collectibles for "Star Trek", "The X-Files",
and "Doctor Who", including a videocassette of Tom Baker in
"Doctor Who: The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (1977) at $19.95; the
Doctor is in Sherlockian costume, in Victorian London, fighting
giant rats.

Vincent Price did some grand work in a career that lasted 55 years, and he
was a splendid Ratigan in "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986).  THE COMPLETE
FILMS OF VINCENT PRICE, by Lucy Chase Williams (New York: Citadel Press,
1995; 290 pp., $19.95) offers a biography (with interviews with his friends
and fellow stars), a filmography, stills, posters, and much more.

"In the vaults of Cox was an old tin box, With Watson's name on the lid."
Jay Finlay Christ wrote many years ago, asking "What wouldn't we pay for
that box today, And the secret notes there hid?"  Francine Kitts wonders
what modern Sherlockians would give for that old tin box, and will welcome
brief and imaginative suggestions; her address is 35 Van Cortlandt Avenue,
Staten Island, NY 10301-4019.

Jan 96 #7   Thanks to Janice Fisher and Herb Tinning for forwarding an item
            in Florence Fabricant's column in the food section of the N.Y.
Times (Jan. 24): D. R. Finley, president of the Eerie Establishment restau-
rant company (which includes the Jekyll and Hyde Club on the Avenue of the
Americas near 57th Street), plans to open the Sherlock Holmes this spring,
at 176 West 4th Street (near Jones Street).

It is a pity that some admirers of Sherlock Holmes are not acquainted with
some of the other grand tales told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  One of the
best of those tales is THE LOST WORLD, and a fine way to explore that book
is in THE ANNOTATED LOST WORLD, by Roy Pilot and Alvin Rodin (Indianapolis:
Wessex Press, 1996; 264 pp., $34.95).  The annotated version offers a well-
researched introduction, and annotations, and appendices that cover topics
that include the 1925 silent film and the fascinating archival material to
be found with the manuscript of the story in the Berg Collection at the New
York Public Library, and the wonderful illustrations from both the British
and the American periodical appearances of the stories.  And there is THE
LOST WORLD itself, of course, still full of romance and fun, and enhanced
by excellent contributions from Pilot and Rodin.  The publisher's address
is Box 68308, Indianapolis, IN 46268; $37.70 postpaid.

"Cousins' fairy tale casts a spell over Hollywood film-makers" is the head-
line on a story in The Times (Jan. 9), kindly forwarded by Pat Ward.  The
cousins are Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths, and the fairy tale involves
the Cottingley fairies that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thought really had been
photographed by the schoolgirls in 1917.  And the Hollywood film-makers are
Paramount, now planning to make "The Golden Afternoon" at Pinewood studios
and on location in Yorkshire this spring.

Visitors to London can choose from a variety of guides to London pubs (and
they still are wonderful places to see London and Londoners at their best).  
John Baesch notes that the NICHOLSON LONDON PUB GUIDE (1995) has cover art
showing the Peter Cushing side of the sign for The Sherlock Holmes.

The Hounds of the Internet (which has almost 500 members who
meet out there in the electricity) now have a lapel pin (one
inch square) based on artwork by Stu Shiffman, available from
David L. Hobbet (816 Hill Street, Shelby, NC 28152; the cost
is $3.50 postpaid to U.S. addresses; $5.00 postpaid to other
countries (checks in dollars or U.S. currency, please).

CELEBRITY VAMPIRES is an anthology edited by Martin H. Greenberg (New York:
DAW Books, 1995; 31 pp., $4.99), with stories that include "Dracula on the
Rocks" (by Carole Nelson Douglas, starring Irene Adler), "A Singular Event
on a Night in 1912" (by Roman A. Ranieri, starring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
and Bram Stoker), and non-Sherlockian tales by Jerry Neal Williamson and
Patti Nead Elrod.

The annual meeting of The STUD Sherlockian Society will be held on Mar. 9
at the Ridgemoor Country Club in Chicago, and the weekend also will feature
a meeting of The Solar Pons Breakfast Club and a visit to the site of Vin-
cent Starrett's grave on Mar. 10.  Additional information is available from
Donald B. Izban, 5334 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60639-1524.

Jan 96 #8   New York had many attractions in January in addition to all the
           Sherlockian birthday festivities, including interesting exhibits
at the New York Public Library, which is celebrating its centennial with a
display of one hundred "Books of the Century" (1895-1995); the books are in
various categories, one of which is "Popular Culture & Mass Entertainment".  
And the eighteen books in that category range from Bram Stoker's DRACULA to
Tom Wolfe's THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, and include a copy of THE HOUND OF
THE BASKERVILLES.

The fourth installment in the BSI's archival-history series is IRREGULAR
PROCEEDINGS OF THE MID 'FORTIES, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg (New York:
Baker Street Irregulars, 1995; 392 pp., $24.95), covering the period from
the Trilogy Dinner in March 1994 to Christopher Morley declaration in June
1947 that there would be no more BSI annual dinners.  Those were interest-
ing days, and the book includes reports by Ted Schulz (on The Scowrers and
Molly Maguires of San Francisco), Ronald Mansbridge (on Basil Davenport),
Hugh Harrington (on Clifton T. Andrew), Russell McLauchlin (on The Amateur
Mendicant Society of Detroit), and Allen Robertson and Paul S. Clarkson (on
The Six Napoleons of Baltimore), and fascinating tales of feuds and foibles
and furor, and photographs from the Trilogy Dinner and the annual dinners
in 1946 and 1947, and much more.  The annual-dinner photographs are welcome
indeed, because Bill Vande Water has managed to identify almost everyone in
them, so you'll be able to see what people looked like half a century ago. 
$27.90 postpaid ($28.90 postpaid for international orders) from The Baker
Street Irregulars, Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331.

The 15th annual Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle Symposium will be held
at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Dayton on Mar. 15-17, with papers,
a banquet, and readers-theater presentations of "the Solitary Cyclist" and
"A Duet: With an Occasional Chorus".  Additional information is available
from Jean C. Rodin, 3041 Maginn Drive, Beavercreek, OH 45434.

Dick Lesh notes that bargain-books catalogs from Edward R. Hamilton (Falls
Village, CT 06031-5000) continue to offer all sort of Sherlockian bargains,
Nicholas Meyer's THE CANARY TRAINER ($6.95) and the British edition of Mark
Frost's THE LIST OF SEVEN ($4.95).

And a few commercials: the revised 15-page list of Investitured Irregulars,
Two-Shilling Awards, *The* Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes
costs $1.15 postpaid.  The 74-page list of 682 Sherlockian societies, with
names and addresses for contacts for the 413 active societies, costs $3.80
postpaid.  A run of address labels for 347 individual contacts (recommended
if you wish to avoid making duplicate mailings to people who are contacts
for more than one society) costs $10.35 postpaid.  Checks payable to Peter
E. Blau, please.

For the electronically enabled, the 15-page list of Irregulars and others
is available from me as e-mail (no charge), and both lists are offered by
Willis Frick via ftp from <ftp://sanar.kaiwan.com/user/Sherlocktron/> or on
the Web at <http://www.kaiwan.com/~sherlock/stron1.html>.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Feb 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

David M. Martill continues to find and name new fossils from the Lower Cre-
taceous formations of Brazil.  The pterosaur "Arthurdactylus conan-doylei"
(Sep 95 #2) had been joined by the tetrapod "Irritator challengeri" (which
is described in great detail in the Journal of the Geological Society, vol.  
153, 1996, pp. 5-8, at hand from Bill Sarjeant).  It's the first real dino-
saur to be described from the Santana Formation: it was carnivorous, and it
had a crested skull up to 840 mm long (that's just under 3 feet).  The name
"Irritator" derives from the irritation that Martill and his fellow authors
felt when they discovered that the snout had been artificially elongated by
the professional fossil-hunter who found and sold the skull, and the name
"challengeri" honors Professor George Edward Challenger, of the Lost World.

Martill notes in correspondence that "Irritator challengeri" is the first
fossil named in 1996 (the JGS is published on the first day of the year),
and he says that if enough new fossils turn up he hopes to honor everyone
else in Challenger's party ("Summerleetator and Youngfellameladosaurus are
names to get your tongue around").

Two of Britain's best-known landmarks are for sale, at a combined asking
price of L5.5 million, according to a story in the Yorkshire Post (Jan. 8),
at hand from Jon Lellenberg.  They're John o' Groats and Land's End, and
both are owned by Gulf Resources Pacific (of New Zealand); John o' Groats
consists of 20 acres, and attracts more than 250,000 visitors a year, while
Land's End is 100 acres and has 500,000 visitors a year.  Sherlockians, of
course, will want the one that's mentioned in the Canon: "A draghound will
follow aniseed from here to John o' Groat's," said Sherlock Holmes in "The
Missing Three-Quarter").  John o' Groats (as it's spelled in the guidebooks
now) is named for a man named John who built a house there in the 15th
cen-tury, and it is romantically regarded at the northernmost place in
Britain (it's in Caithness, in the northeastern corner of Scotland).  It
isn't the northernmost place in Britain, actually (that's Dunnet Head,
about 12 miles to the west), but the tourists don't care.

Jerry Siegel died on Jan. 28.  He was a high-school student in Cleveland in
the 1930s when he and classmate Joe Shuster invented Superman, who became a
world-famous superhero as well as one of the most popular characters in the
history of comic strips, films, and television.  During World War II Siegel
and others on the staff of the Pacific edition of Stars and Stripes founded
The Baker Street Irregulars of Honolulu (active 1944-46).

Reported by Don Hobbs: a colorful poster (18 x 26") showing a very stylized
Sherlock Holmes urging "Smart Skin Care: It's Elementary", offered by the
American Academy of Dermatology, Box 2289, Carrol Stream, IL 60132 ($5.00).

Kathy Barry-Hippensteel's "Little Sherlock" doll ("a clever little boy who
thinks he's the world's greatest sleuth") was heavily promoted in 1989 and
1990 by the Ashton-Drake Galleries at $87.00, and now it's available as an
"heirloom ornament" for your Christmas tree a recent catalog, at hand from
Jack Kerr.  It's in a set of three 3" ornament (the other two aren't Sher-
lockian) that's item #96909 ($33.79 postpaid).  Ashton-Drake Galleries, Box
856, Morton Grove, IL 60053 (800-346-2460); credit-card orders welcome.

Feb 96 #2   THE YOUNG WITCHES is a thoroughly adults-only six-issue comic-
            book mini-series from Eros Comix; it's a porno Jack the Ripper
story, and Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson make an appearance in the second
issue (Dec. 1995), and may well turn up in the next issue.  The cover price
The cover price is $3.50, or $4.00 postpaid from the publisher (Box 25070,
Seattle, WA 98125).

Norma Schier died on Nov. 17.  She was a mystery novelist and short-story
writer, and one of the founders of the Rocky Mountain chapter of the Mys-
tery Writers of America; her imaginative collection THE ANAGRAM DETECTIVES
(1979) offered pastiches of famous detectives, including Hoskell Chomers
and Sandwort in "The Adventure of the Solitary Bride" by Aldon Canoy, and
Mooch Sheckls and Tweany in "The Adventure of the Boing! Ritual" by Rif H.  
Lobster.

Jennie Paton reports that "Wishbone: The Slobbery Hound" is now available
on a commercial videocassette from Polygram Video.  This is the "Hound of
Baskervilles" episode of the 30-minute PBS-TV children's series that has
Wishbone (a Jack Russell terrier) encouraging kids to read good books.  If
your local video shop has never heard of Polygram, the address is 825 8th
Avenue, New York, NY 10019 (800-825-7781).

Conan Doyle proposed the principal toast ("The Immortal
Memory") at the Edinburgh Burns Club Dinner on Mar. 23,
1901 (the meeting was postponed from January because of
the death of Queen Victoria), and on Jan. 25 this year
the Royal Mail honored The Immortal Memory on the 200th
anniversary of the death of Robert Burns with a set of
four stamps designed by Tayburn McIlroy Coates.  The 19p
stamp is especially nice for Sherlockians, with the "wee
sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie," made famous in Burns' poem "To a Mouse"
(it was in "The Copper Beeches" that Violet Hunter said of Edward Rucastle
that he showed "quite remarkable talent in planning the capture of mice").
Thanks to Catherine Cooke for her capture of this philatelic mouse.

CANONICAL CRIME SCENES & INVESTIGATIONS, VOLUME 1, by William H. Conway and
Linda L. Conway (Cincinnati: Classic Specialties Books, 1995) offers a new
approach to the Canon: summaries of 14 cases done as official crime-scene
reports; the 54-page spiral-bound book costs $17.95 postpaid from Classic
Specialties (see above), and there are many more books and other Sherlocki-
ana in their new illustrated catalog.

Warren Randall plans to honor the late Bob Brodie in a collection that will
be called "The Log of the 'Gloria Scott'" and would like to hear from those
who corresponded with Bob about Sherlockian matters or who have reminiscen-
ces of Bob that you would like to share.  Warren's address is 15 Fawn Lane
West, South Setauket, NY 11720-1346.

If you don't have a local Wal-Mart, their Sherlockian "bloodhound" plaster
statue (Nov 95 #5) is described as a coon dog in the Dec. 1995 catalog from
Thompson & Co. (Box 30303, Tampa, FL 33630) (800-237-2559) and offered for
$29.95 plus shipping.  The catalog, kindly forwarded by Laura Kuhn, also
has a set of Holmes and Watson meerschaum pipes at $57.50.

Feb 96 #3   The winter 1996 issue of The Armchair Detective has arrived,
            with Daniel Stashower's excellent tribute to and interview with
Jeremy Brett.  And Scott and Sherry Rose Bond's regular Sherlockian column
discusses collecting, with an account of their experience bidding in the
auction of Stanley MacKenzie's collection.  $31.00 a year (quarterly); 129
West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019-3808.

Michael Dibdin's THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY (1978) has been reprinted
as a trade paperback (New York: Vintage Books, 1996; 190 pp., $10.00); the
pastiche pits Sherlock Holmes against Jack the Ripper.

Laurie King reports that the Bantam paperback of THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE
will be issued this summer as part of their "read mysteries" promotion, and
the book will be prominently featured in a display rack decorated by Edward
Gorey (who unfortunately has not drawn a portrait of Mary Russell).  A LET-
TER OF MARY, the third title in the series, is due in November, and Laurie
is now working on the fourth book, which involves Mary in a mysterious case
on Dartmoor.

Don Hobbs spotted a "Barnes & Noble Classics" edition of THE ADVENTURES OF
SHERLOCK HOLMES with an Introduction by Eric Ambler ($5.98); it's a reprint
of the volume published by John Murray and Jonathan Cape in London in 1974.  
They published all nine volumes of the Canon, so Barnes & Noble may reprint
all of them eventually.

Michael Brady has forwarded the Sherlockian design
used by the Background Investigation Unit of the
California Youth Authority.

The Wigmore Street Post Office is an electronic
journal published on the Prodigy computer service,
but some of its material can be found in an ink-
on-paper journal of the same name; the winter 1995
issue has 40 pages, and subscriptions cost $6.00 a
year (two issues) from Donald H. Meyers, 4757 47th
Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98105.

The last six shows in Granada's "Sherlock Holmes" series are now available
on commercial videocassettes from MPI video: all 41 shows are offered by
Scarlet Street Video (Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452) at $19.98 each; write
for their price list (which has other Sherlockian videos as well).

Karl Gunnar Ekblad suggests that visitors to Norway might enjoy a visit to
Sherlock's Pub at C.J. Hambros pl. 5 in Oslo (telephone 2241-8218).

Ray Betzner reports that autograph dealer Robert F. Batchelder offers some
Conan Doyle material: item 161 in catalog 101 consists of 14 items relating
to spiritualism, including three autograph letters from Conan Doyle to Mrs.  
Cadwallader, an American from Chicago whom he apparently met during one of
his American visits; there's also a note from Lady Doyle written in 1932,
and the price for the lot is $2,200.  Item 214 in catalog 102 is a letter
from Conan Doyle about spiritualism, and the price is $1,400.  The dealer's
address is 1 West Butler Avenue, Ambler, PA 19002 (215-643-1430).

Feb 96 #4   Diana Ver Nooy, who is editor of Neurology Reviews (a journal
            for neurologists), has begun a continuing quote-of-the-month
feature; the first one (titled "Phrenologically Speaking") is in the Jan.-
Feb. 1996 issue, and should be familiar to Sherlockians: "You interest me
very much, Mr. Holmes.  I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or
such well-marked supra-orbital development.  Would you have any objection
to my running my finger along your parietal fissure?  A cast of your skull,
sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropo-
logical museum.  It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I
covet your skull."  Suggestions for futures issues can be sent to Diana c/o
CPG, 4 Brighton Road, Clifton, NJ 07012.

Don Pollock reports O XANGO DE BAKER STREET, by Jo Soares (Sao Paulo: Com-
panhia das Letra, 1995); it's a pastiche that brings Holmes and Watson to
Rio de Janeiro to investigate the disappearance of a valuable Stradivarius
during Sarah Bernhardt's first visit to the city.  And it's available from
Luso-Brazilian Books, Box 17028, Brooklyn, NY 11217; $28.95 postpaid (they
take plastic, and have an e-mail address <llbooks@aol.com>).  And in Portu-
guese, Don notes, there's a chapeuzinho ("little hat") accent over the O's
in XANGO and Jo.

Barbara Holmes has designed a set of ten Sherlockian notecards available
(with envelopes) for $4.90 postpaid, and a design sheet showing the pencil-
sketch artwork on the notecards is offered in return for a self-addressed
stamped envelope; her address is Box 446, Scottsville, VA 24590.

The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will convene on Wednesday, May 22,
at Luigi's in San Diego, during the annual meeting of the American Associa-
tion of Petroleum Geologists.  Sherlockians and geologists are welcome to
join in honoring the world's first forensic geologist; Luigi's is at 861
West Harbor Drive, in Seaport Village (next to the convention center), and
the festivities will begin with cocktails at 7:00 and continue with dinner
at 8:00; reservations are not needed.

The Jan. 1996 issue of Baker Street W1 offers news from Sherlockian socie-
ties west of the Mississippi, excellent articles about Sherlockian rooms,
both full-size and miniature, and John Farrell's review of the punk rock
song "Quick, Watson" on the stiffs, inc. debut recording "Nix Nought Noth-
ing" (American Records CD 9-43030-2); subscriptions are $9.00 a year (three
issues), from Jerry Kegley, 110 South El Nido #41, Pasadena, CA 91107.

Peter H. Wood's THE WINGED WHEEL is a new novel-length pastiche that brings
Holmes and Watson to the Isle of Man in 1912, investigating a mystery that
involves both the "Old Religion" and a German plot, and that offers Watson
an opportunity to participate in a Manx motorcycle race.  The 180-page book
is available from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0,
Canada; $27.00 postpaid.

John Ruyle, who occasionally masquerades as ringmaster of the Quaker Street
Irregulars, has announced a new collection of poetry from the Pequod Press:
WIGGINS & COMPANY deals with Irregulars and other odd characters and will
be (as usual) set and printed by the proprietor of the Press.  521 Vincente
Avenue, Berkeley, CA 97407-1521; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper).

Feb 96 #5   Further to the report (Jan 96 #7) on the Sherlock Holmes Pub
            (which is due to open later this year at 176 West 4th Street in
New York), John Baesch has reported that it will be across the street from
The Slaughtered Lamb Pub (honoring "An American Werewolf in London") and
not far from the Jack the Ripper Pub, all owned by Eerie Entertainment Inc.

The Easton Press has published a new "Collector's Edition" of the Canon in
three leather-bound volumes that reprint the text of The Limited Editions
Club set and, for the first time, all of the fine introductions (as well as
Edgar W. Smith's "Note on the Collation" and his "Epilogue"); the previous
sets from Easton have been reprints of the Heritage Press version, which
did not have all of the additional material.  The Limited Editions Club set
was warmly welcomed by Sherlockians, not only for its carefully edited text
but also for its excellent illustrations and the new introductions (by Vin-
cent Starrett, Elmer Davis, Fletcher Pratt, Rex Stout, Anthony Boucher, and
Christopher Morley, all still names to conjure with).  Each volume of "The
Leather-Bound Complete Sherlock Holmes" has a color frontispiece (Richard
Sparks' new portrait of Conan Doyle in the first volume, and illustrations
by Frederic Dorr Steele in the other two), and the cost is $41.85 postpaid
per volume; the address is 47 Richards Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06857 (800-243-
5160), and they accept credit-card orders.

Philip Weller reports that The Franco-Midland Hardware Company has issued a
new edition of Arthur Conan Doyle's short story "The Winning Shot" (which
has been reprinted from the original appearance in Bow Bells in 1883), with
a new introduction, illustrations, maps, and more than 300 textual annota-
tions.  L7.00 or $14.00 postpaid (L8.00 or $16.00 for airmail) (please send
dollar payments in U.S. currency), and the address is 6 Bramham Moor, Hill
Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England.

Solar Pons, created by August Derleth almost seventy years ago as a tribute
to Sherlock Holmes, starred in a long series of stories popular with Sher-
lockians, and the saga was continued after Derleth's death by Basil Copper.  
Copper's THE RECOLLECTIONS OF SOLAR PONS (Minneapolis: Fedogan & Bremer,
1995; 248 pp., $25.00) contains four stories, three of them new and one a
revision from an earlier appearance, with fine illustrations by Stefanie K.
Hawks.  The book also is available ($27.00 postpaid) from the publisher at
603 Washington Avenue SE #77, Minneapolis, MN 55414 (800-738-2660); credit-
card orders welcome.

Joseph A. Coppola has reported that The Mycroft Holmes Society of Syracuse
will celebrate its 25th anniversary on Apr. 20, and that a special commem-
orative postmark (with the logo of the society) will be applied by the post
office there.  The Society will offer a cover with its own cachet and with
Sherlockian stamps for $2.00 postpaid (mailed under separate cover); $5.00
postpaid for a set of three covers with different Sherlockian stamps.  You
can send advance orders to Hodge Hodgskin, 7328 Jamesville Road, Manlius,
NY 13104.  If you want to have the postmark on your own covers, you should
send them to the Main Post Office, 5640 East Taft Road, Syracuse, NY 13200;
the postmark will be available from Apr. 20 for 30 days.  This may well be
the first official commemorative postmark honoring a Sherlockian society;
there have been other official postmarks honoring Sherlock Holmes, but I'm
not aware of one honoring a Sherlockian society.

Feb 96 #6   "The Man Who Disappeared" (a dramatization of "The Man with the
            Twisted Lip") was produced in Britain in 1950 as a pilot film
for American television, with John Longden as Holmes and Campbell Singer as
Watson; it never made it onto the air at the time, but it was released to
theaters in 1951, and eventually found its way onto videocassette, although
very little has been known about the history of the project.  Now Richard
Lancelyn Green, drawing upon the correspondence files of Denis Conan Doyle,
has written THE MISADVENTURE OF THE SHERLOCK HOLMES PILOT, a 36-page mono-
graph published by The Northern Musgraves with illustrations from the film,
and it's a delight to have the details.  $13.00 postpaid from Classic Spe-
cialities, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219; credit-cards orders welcome.

Issue #13 of the Sherlock Holmes Gazette includes a fine tribute to Jeremy
Brett, with articles written by David Stuart Davies, Michael Cox, Elizabeth
Wiggins, and Jean Upton, plus reviews and columns and letters about Holmes
and Conan Doyle.  $9.50 postpaid from Classic Specialties (see above).

Leslie Klinger is scheduled to teach a six-week, Monday-evening, extension
course on "Sherlock Holmes and His World" at the University of California
in Los Angeles from Apr. 15 to May 20; details are available from the UCLA
Extension Writer's Program (310-825-0107).  The press contact for the UCLA
program is John G. Watson (no relation, he admits).

There are realtors using the name "Sherlock Homes" here and there, but John
Baesch spotted an advertisement for a different approach, by Rob Watson, in
business in Wilmington, Del., as "Homes & Watson" (800-296-7629).

The Franco-Midland Hardware Company (American Exchange Branch) is planning
a "Valley of Fear" weekend in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, on March 30
and 31.  The focus will of course be on The Molly Maguires, and the plans
included tours of Pottsville and vicinity.  Details are available from Bob
Carter, Box 762, Fort Montgomery, NY 10922.

Herman Herst Jr. (Box 1583, Boca Raton, FL 33429) offers a copy of William
S. Baring-Gould's THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES (1967): two volumes, dust
jackets, second edition (with the added Index of Titles on p. 806); $50.00
postpaid.  Also available from Pat (he was born on St. Patrick's Day) is a
pamphlet reprint of "Dirty Pool" (a pleasant philatelic pastiche that was
published in The Baker Street Journal in June 1966) and a round-robin pas-
tiche to which he contributed; autographed copies of the 24-page pamphlet
cost $10.00 postpaid (same address).

Spotted by Tim O'Connor: SHERLOCK HOLMES: SOUL OF THE DRAGON, a comic-book
collection published by Northstar Press in Sept. 1995 with three stories
written by Joe Gentile and illustrated by different artists (in different
styles), and an introduction by Brad Keefauver; $9.95.

Chuck Kovacic (14383-B Nordhoff Street, Panorama City, CA 91402) offers an
illustrated sales list of reproductions of Sherlockian cigar-box labels and
cigarette cards, postcards, and the 1880 Afghan Campaign medal.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Mar 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

J. Adrian Fillmore is back, no longer involved with incredible and amorous
umbrellas, but rather as the author of the introduction to Marvin Kaye's
new anthology THE RESURRECTED HOLMES (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996;
337 pp., $24.95).  Kaye has posed his authors a double problem: to write a
Sherlock Holmes story, and to write it in the style of yet another author.  
And the results are intriguing: the authors pastiched vary widely, and are
as unusual as Jack Kerouac and H. P. Lovecraft and J. Thorne Smith (and I
wonder uneasily how many of us there still are who fondly remember Smith's
racy novels).  You won't find the styles of Watson or Conan Doyle in this
anthology, but there's fun to be had reading the stories.

And for those who are wondering about J. Adrian Fillmore: sometimes known
as James Phillimore, he was the hero of Marvin Kaye's fantasy novels THE
INCREDIBLE UMBRELLA (1979) and THE AMOROUS UMBRELLA (1981).

                   The United States has marked the Lunar New Year with a
                   stamp honoring the Year of the Rat (that's the first in
                   the twelve-year cycle celebrated by the Chinese).  Rats
                   are mentioned in nine Sherlock Holmes stories (and that
                   doesn't count the giant rat of Sumatra, or the dreaded
                   Balla rat of Australia).

Edward D. Hoch writes delightful short stories, and he has had at least one
story in each issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for many years (John
Dickson Carr who once wrote about Hoch that "Satan himself would be proud
of his ingenuity").  One of his series detectives is Dr. Sam Hawthorne, and
a dozen of those stories have been collected in DIAGNOSIS: IMPOSSIBLE (Nor-
folk: Crippen & Landru, 1996; 203 pp., $38.00 for a signed edition bound in
cloth, or $15.00 for the trade paperback).  And one of the stories is "The
Problem of the Covered Bridge" (reprinted from EQMM, Dec. 1974), which has
an appropriate Sherlockian allusion.  The publisher's address is Box 9315,
Norfolk, VA 23505; add $2.25 for shipping.

Plan ahead: the sixth annual Mid-Atlantic Mystery Book Fair and Convention
will be held at the Holiday Inn (Independence Mall) in Philadelphia on Nov.
8-10.  Membership is limited to 450 and full registration costs $50.00, and
the contact is Deen Kogan, Detecto-Mysterioso Books, 507 South 8th Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19147.  Plan well ahead: the seventh annual convention is
scheduled for Oct. 3-5, 1997.

Forecast: ELEMENTARY, MRS. HUDSON, by Sydney Hosier (from Avon in April at
$5.50); "Introducing Emma Hudson, the other sleuth of Baker Street: called
in by old friend Vi Warner, who believes her employer has been murdered, a
diligent Mrs. Hudson begins an investigation of the snobby upper-crust St.
Clair family and uncovers evidence of a second murder."

"Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (Jeremy Brett's last film) opened in Britain last
June, and was broadcast on German television (VOX) on Dec. 3, according to
Michael Ross, who now edits The Striking Trifles and The Soft-Nosed Bullet-
In for Von Herder Airguns Ltd.  Details on the society and its publications
are available from Michael (Bendheide 65, 47906 Kempen, Germany).

Mar 96 #2   Dorothy Stix has reported on the formation of a new Sherlockian
            society for collectors of foreign-language editions.  The name
of the new society is thoroughly appropriate ("Sherlock Holmes Around the
World"), and membership (including the quarterly newsletter) costs $10.00 a
year.  There's also a lapel pin designed by Jeff Decker, available only to
members, at $10.00 postpaid (or $18.95 for a one-year membership plus the
pin).  Checks to Ralph Hall, 2906 Wallingford Court, Louisville, KY 40218.

TIMEWANKERS #3 (Mar. 1991) had Jonathan Fegly in Sherlockian costume on the
cover, and a non-S'ian pornographic time-travel comic-book story by Stephen
Sullivan; now reprinted in TIMEWANKERS #13 (Aug 94), a graphic album from
Eros Comic (Box 25070, Seattle, WA 98125) with a small S'ian vignette on
the cover.

Thelma Steward is an award-winning doll-maker, and she
now has a "Sherlock Holmes Series" that features Holmes,
Watson, Mrs. Hudson, and Moriarty.  The dolls are hand-
crafted from Cernit polymer and are about 20" high, and
cost from $1,350 to $1,500 each.  Mrs. Steward will be
happy to provide additional information on request (6720
Happy Valley Road, Somerset, CA 95684).

For the dedicated marginalists: Will Walsh reports that
the Eddie Bauer chain is selling a $19.95 stuffed puppy
wearing an Eddie Bauer cap, which is a deerstalker.

Eleanor N. Schwartz wrote the text that accompanied a fine photo story on
"Hooray for Hollywood" in Life (Mar. 1996); the lead photograph (by Alfred
Eisenstadt) shows "Sherlock Holmes and Jessica Fletcher" in the Paramount
commissary in 1955, when Basil Rathbone and Angela Lansbury had roles in
Danny Kaye's "Court Jester".

"A Gathering of Inquiring Minds" is the formal title of the John Bennett
Shaw Memorial Conference in Santa Fe on Apr. 19-20, and the agenda includes
presentations by Sherlockians local and far-flung, and a live broadcast of
Bill Dunning's radio adaptation of "A Scandal in Bohemia".  An illustrated
flier with all the details is available from Rita Martinez-Purson, Santa Fe
Community College, Community Services Office, Box 4187, Santa Fe, NM 87502
<rpurson@santa-fe.cc.nm.us>.

The commercial videocassette of "Wishbone: The Slobbery Hound" is in the
shops at $9.99 (discounted to $7.95 at Best Buy, according to Laura Kuhn).  
It's the "Hound of Baskervilles" episode of the 30-minute PBS-TV children's
series that has Wishbone (a Jack Russell terrier) encouraging kids to read
good books.

Congratulations to William A. S. Sarjeant, who has been elected a fellow of
the Royal Society of Canada, recognizing his long career as a geologist and
as editor of an award-winning bibliography of geologists and the history of
geology.  Bill uses the pseudonym Antony Swithin for his fantasy novels,
and his own name for his Sherlockian and Doyleana, which include MS. HOLMES
OF BAKER STREET: THE TRUTH ABOUT SHERLOCK HOLMES (1989) articles about the
geology of "The Lost World" and "The Terror of Blue John Gap".

Mar 96 #3   The Scowrers and Molly Maguires of San Francisco continue to
            devise interesting events, such as the "day of gala events and
fun" scheduled for June 15 at the Scowrers Inn and Gaming Parlor (aka the
Holiday Inn-Union Square) in San Francisco; details are available from the
Scowrers (V.V. 341, Mount Eden, CA 94557).

THE MAN WITH THE FISTED GRIP is the thirtieth narrative of Turlock Loams,
to be revealed by Dr. Fatso, who is celebrating the occasion with a glass
of cooking sherry (according to his Agent).  Finely printed as always at
the Pequod Press, the booklet costs $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from
John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521.

                    The Lynn Peavey Co. has a thick mail-order catalog full
                    of things of interest to law-enforcement professionals,
                    such as fingerprint kits, evidence bags, prisoner prop-
                    erty bags, gunshot residue kits, and some amusing souv-
                    enirs, including "Tracker the Investigator" (a 13" tall
                    plush dog wearin a trenchcoat and deerstalker).  $24.95
                    plus shipping, and their address is Box 14100, Lenexa,
                    KS 66285 (800-255-6499).

                    The new catalog from Bits & Pieces, 1 Puzzle Place,
                    Stevens Point, WI 54481 (800-544-7297) offers (on page
                    40) two new Sherlock Holmes jigsaw puzzles ("read the
                    mystery story inside, assemble the jigsaw, then try to
                    solve the crime") at $10.95 each or $16.95 for both;
                    shipping extra, and credit-card orders are welcome.

Harry Ryba died on Mar. 4.  He owned hotels and boarding houses and bicycle
rental shops on Mackinac Island (where bicycle rental shops did quite well,
since motor vehicles are banned from the island).  He opened a fudge shop
on the island in 1959, and quickly became known as the "Fudge King", thanks
to the late Bill Rabe, whose inspired public-relations campaign for every-
thing there touted Mackinac Island as "the Miami Beach of the North."  And
of course Bill ensured that those who attended the The Mrs. Hudson Breakast
all those years ago went home with samples of the Fudge King's fudge.

"Sherlock Holmes faces a new challenge...perhaps his greatest ever...and
while he's singing, yet!"  That's the blurb for "Sherlock in Love", a new
musical scheduled at the Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo from Apr. 11 to May 5.  
The box-office address is One Curtain Up Alley, Buffalo, NY 14202, and the
telephone number is 716-852-2600.

Jim Hillestad (The Toy Soldier, Paradise Falls, R.R. 1, Box 379, Cresco, PA
18326) welcomes visitors to his museum (you can call 717-629-7227 for hours
and directions) and mail orders (he offers 54-mm figures of Holmes and Wat-
son, and other Sherlockiana).

Further to last month's mention (Feb 96 #6) of the John Longden film "The
Man Who Disappeared" (1951), David Pearson sent a reminder that the film is
available on videocassette at $19.99 from Movies Unlimited, a firm that is
an excellent source of almost all videocassettes; 6736 Castor Avenue, Phil-
adelphia, PA 19149 (800-523-0823) <movies@moviesunltd.com>.

Mar 96 #4   The winter 1996 issue of Scarlet Street is a fine one, and has
            more than a dozen pages of well-illustrated tributes to Jeremy
Brett, and an interview with Hillary Brooke (who acted with Basil Rathbone
and Nigel Bruce in three of their Universal films), and a note that Steven
Spielberg will start filming "The Lost World" in September (that's Michael
Crichton's book, of course).  Scarlet Street is published quarterly ($20.00
a year), and the address is Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452.

George Burns died on March 9.  His career as an entertainer and comedian
spanned 90 years, and included four decades as genial straight man to his
wife Gracie Allen.  His sense of timing was impeccable, and there still are
many who fondly remember "The Burns and Allen Show" from radio and televis-
ion.  Basil Rathbone was one of the many guest stars who appeared with them
on radio, and you'll find a picture of them on page 83 of Michael B. Drux-
man's BASIL RATHBONE: HIS LIFE AND FILMS (1975).  Rathbone and Allen are in
Sherlockian costume, with Burns as the suspect, in a publicity shot from
the 1940s.

Readers of Playboy surely will recall the magazine's recent pictorial about
Bettie Page, whose many fans were delighted to hear that she is alive and
well, and the subject of a new biography BETTIE PAGE: THE LIFE OF A PIN-UP
LEGEND, by Karen Essex and James L. Swanson (Los Angeles: General Publish-
ing Group, 1996).  In 1953 she was working in New York, enrolled in acting
classes, going to movies, and reading fiction.  "She also loved detective
stories, and read Sherlock Holmes, Raymond Chandler and Erle Stanley Gard-
ner," the biography notes (and thanks to John Comstock for the report).

Classic Specialties Audio has issued a five-cassette (320 minutes) record-
ing of Ronald C. Weyman's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST, read
by the author, who has an excellent voice and does well with accents.  The
pastiche was first published by Simon & Pierre in 1990, and brings Holmes
to Canada during the Great Hiatus to rescue the Empire from "a diabolical
weapon before which nothing could live."  $34.05 postpaid (Classic Special-
ties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219); credit-card orders welcome.

"Footrot Flats" was a comic strip that ran for many years in newspapers in
New Zealand (and it was syndicated elsewhere), about a rancher named Wally
Footrot, and his friends, neighbors, family, and pets, and his dog (named
Dog).  The strip was drawn by Murray Ball, and this excerpt, noted by Linda
Anderson, is from the paperback collection "...LET SLIP THE DOGS OF WAR!"
(Lower Hutt: Inprint, 1992), kindly forwarded by Alex Mitchell.













Mar 96 #5   The fifth annual Watsonian Weekend (celebrating Dr. Watson and
            the Battle of Maiwand) will begin with a regimental dinner at
Knickers Restaurant in Des Plains, Ill.,  on July 19 (when Dr. Watson will
"Meet the Press"), and continues with the 37th annual running of The Silver
Blaze at Arlington Race Course on July 20.  More information is available
from Fred Levin, 8242 North Ridgeway Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076.

Patricia E. Moran ("Patience Moran") died on March 12.  Pat was one of the
founders of The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, and one of the Albertus
Magnus sextette who picketed the annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregu-
lars on a wintry evening in 1968.  She helped edit the Adventuresses' news-
letter, and then their more formal The Serpentine Muse, and always was one
of the usual suspects whenever the game was afoot or aflight or just cooked
and served at the rowdy table.

Richard Wein notes that there's a lot of Sherlockiana in the latest catalog
from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011) (800-843-2665):
THE FINAL ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by Peter Haining (#1884097,
$4.98); THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (#1546977, $14.98); A SHERLOCK HOLMES
COMPANION (a new title for A SHERLOCK HOLMES COMPENDIUM), edited by Peter
Haining (#1903251, $7.98); THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Ken
Greenwald (#E104047, $5.98); and the American edition of THE LIFE & TIMES
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Philip Weller (#1933860, $17.98).

Richard also reports that the "Barnes & Noble Classics" edition of THE AD-
VENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES with an Introduction by Eric Ambler (Feb 96 #3)
also is available as a trade paperback at $4.98.

The Gleniffer Press has published microbook (7/8" high) editions of THE
THREE STUDENTS (1992) and SILVER BLAZE (1993), and now THE EMPTY HOUSE is
available, with 109 pages set in readable 2-point type.  Gleniffer does
excellent work, and the address is 11 Low Road, Castlehead, Paisley, Ren-
frewshire PA2 6AQ, Scotland, United Kingdom; $26.00 (or L15.00) postpaid
(U.S. dollar checks and credit-card orders are welcome).

The Northern Musgraves held a memorial luncheon for Jeremy Brett at the
Cafe Royal in London on Mar. 16, and it was a splendid gathering indeed,
according to a report from Lisa Oldham.  There were toasts and tributes by
David Stuart Davies, Edward Hardwicke, David Burke, Jeremy Paul, and Myra
Fulford (of the Manic Depression Fellowship), and Lisa's detailed report on
the festivities (retelling some of the grand stories she heard) is in the
latest issue of her electronic newsletter The Brettish Empire.  Her e-mail
address is <loldham@freenet.columbus.oh.us>.

Douglas G. Greene's JOHN DICKSON CARR: THE MAN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES is
one of the Mystery Writers of America nominees for an Edgar for Best Criti-
cal Biographical this year (the annual MWA awards dinner will be held on
Apr. 25).  T. R. Bowen's "The Eligible Bachelor" is one of the nominees for
Best Episode in a Television Series, and Jacques Barzun will receive this
year's Ellery Queen Award (for writing teams, editors, and publishers who
have made an outstanding contribution to the mystery genre).  A CATALOGUE
OF CRIME (written by Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor) is still a classic
inventory of the genre, and he has contributed to our own literature.

Mar 96 #6   David Hammer reports on M. F. K. Fisher's LAST HOUSE: REFLEC-
            TIONS, DREAMS, AND OBSERVATIONS 1943-1991 (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1995; 286 pp., $23.00); it was her last book, and chapter 7 ("A Few
of the Men") is her confession about the men she loved, including Brillat-
Savarin, Maigret, and Sherlock Holmes (and there's some excellent analysis
of our hero, David adds).

Frank Darlington notes that THE WORDSWORTH DICTIONARY OF PUB NAMES, by Les-
lie Dunkling and Gordon Wright (Ware: Wordsworth Reference, 1994; 305 pp.,
$3.95 on bargain-books tables), contains entries for The Dangling Prussian
and for all the other inns and pubs mentioned in the Canon, except for the
Alpha (but only The Dangling Prussian is cited as Canonical).  The book was
first published by Routledge & Kegan Paul in London in 1987.

Jerry Bangham spotted an advertisement in Variety (Feb. 26) for "Sherlock
Holmes: The Case of the Temporal Nexus" with a photograph of Patrick Macnee
as Holmes.  The film is billed as produced and directed by David L. Stanton
for Associated Entertainment Releasing in association with Range of Vision
Productions, with the telephone number 310-576-7435, which turns out not to
be in service.  Nor does the telephone company have a listing for either of
the two companies, or for Stanton.  Can someone out there on the southern
Pacific slope find out how to contact someone associated with the film?

SHERLOCK HOLMES' LAST ADVENTURES is a new audiocassette set from K-Tel In-
ternational/AudioScope, with George Takei reading five of the stories (Wist
/Bruc/Lady/ Dyin/Last) on two cassettes; Takei is well-known in the "Star
Trek" world as Mr. Sulu, and has a fine voice (but no British accent).  The
set is in many bookstores at $11.95; the address for K-Tel International is
2605 Fernbrook Lane North, Minneapolis, MN 55447-4736 (612-509-6418).

Walter P. Armstrong, Jr. ("Birdy Edwards") died on Mar. 5.  His career as a
lawyer spanned more than 50 years, as did his interest in Sherlock Holmes:
his first contribution to our literature appeared in the Oct. 1946 issue of
The Baker Street Journal, and his last in the Sept. 1992 issue.  He was one
of the founding members of The Giant Rats of Sumatra of Memphis, and he re-
ceived his BSI Investiture in 1985.  His many essays, articles, and toasts
were collected in HOLMES' RANGE (published by Magico in 1994).

There are few people who have brought as much laughter to as many people as
Chuck Jones has, in the more than 300 hundred animations he has directed in
a career that has lasted more than 50 years.  His Sherlockian "Deduce, You
Say!" (1956) was one of them, and a brief clip from the film was shown when
he received a special Oscar for lifetime achievement at the Academy Awards
on Mar. 25.

Baseball season is almost here, Thom Boykoff notes, and Holmes and Watson
are still pitching: Darren Holmes (traded this winter by the Colorado Rock-
ies to the San Francisco Giants) and Allen Watson (St. Louis Cardinals).              
Thom offers a pair of collectors cards for $2.32 postpaid; his address is
222 Randolph Drive #303, Madison, WI 53717-1647.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Apr 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

"Murder, She Wrote" debuted on CBS-TV on Sept. 30, 1984, with a two-hour
premiere that starred Angela Lansbury as mystery-writer Jessica Fletcher in
"The Murder of Sherlock Holmes" (with Brian Keith playing a man who attends
a costume party dressed as Sherlock Holmes and who may or may not have been
the intended victim of a murderer.  The final episode will be broadcast on
May 19, making "Murder, She Wrote" the longest-running detective-drama ser-
ies in the history of television (it was the highest-rated television drama
series for nine consecutive seasons, from 1985 to 1994).

Kenneth Ludwig's play "Postmortem" is scheduled by the Oldcastle Theatre
Company at the Bennington Center for the Arts in Bennington, Vt., on June
14-29.  The play had its premiere (as "Dramatic License") in 1983 and was
revised and retitled in 1985, and puts William Gillette to work solving a
mystery at his famous home in Hadlyme, Conn.  The box-office phone number
is 802-447-0564.

Simon Callow's ORSON WELLES: THE ROAD TO XANADU was published last year in
Britain, and now has an American edition (New York: Viking, 1996; 638 pp.,
$32.95), and it's an excellent biography of a man known best to many Sher-
lockians as the answer to a trivia-quiz question (name an actor who played
both Sherlock Holmes and Prof. Moriarty).  The book covers only the first
26 years of Welles' life and career, and there was plenty to cover (at the
age of 18 he played Mercutio to Basil Rathbone's Romeo, and by the time he
was 26 he had broadcast his alarming "The War of the Worlds" and launched
his film career with "Citizen Kane").  Callow is himself a director and an
actor (he played Inspector Lestrade in Charlton Heston's "The Crucifer of
Blood" for TNT cable in 1991), and offers splendid insight into what made
Welles such a phenomenon.

John Baesch notes that Sherlockians may wish to visit the Frick Collection
in New York to see a new exhibition called "Greuze: A Portraitist for the
90's" (since Jean-Baptiste Greuze is mentioned in the Canon).  The Frick is
at Fifth Avenue at East 70th Street, and the exhibition closes on Apr. 14.

For those who still know what phonograph records are (and perhaps even have
machines that play them), John Burkardt offers a treasure trove of Sher-
lockian LP records, at reasonable prices; a sales list is available (send
a #10 SASE to him at 750 Hethwood Drive #200-D, Blacksburg, VA 24060).

The continuing saga of St. Bartholomew's Hospital continues: a year ago The
Times suggested that British Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley had "suc-
ceeded where Henry VIII, the Great Fire of London, the Blitz, and Margaret
Thatcher all failed," and that the long campaign to keep the hospital open
seemed to have failed.  But a later article in The Times (Dec. 7, 1995), at
hand from Chris Redmond, reports that the decision to close Bart's provoked
an unprecedented campaign of opposition that culminated in a damaging Tory
back-bench rebellion blamed for unseating Bottomley.  And a new report from
the King's Fund (an independent health-policy think-tank) suggests that the
hospital can be kept going with state, charitable, and private funding.  So
the site of the historic first meeting between Holmes and Watson is safe to
the end of the century, and perhaps much longer.

Apr 96 #2   Michael J. Farrell died on Mar. 1.  He was a doctor in Queens-
            land, and the founder and president of The Resident Patients of
Toowoomba.  He edited their journal Panacea, and organized both the annual
Silver Blaze race day in Toowoomba and the 1994 national meeting of all the
Sherlockian societies in Australia, and with his family had great fun help-
ing keep the memory green in the Antipodes.

Elizabeth Peters' series of mystery novels about Amelia Peabody Emerson now
runs to seven titles, and they're written with style and humor, set in Vic-
torian England and Egypt, and all with direct or indirect Canonical echoes.  
The latest in the series is THE SNAKE, THE CROCODILE & THE DOG (New York:
Warner Books, 1994; 432 pp., $5.99).

"It's a very rare bird--practically extinct--in England
now, but all things are possible upon the moor," Staple-
ton said (in "The Hound of the Baskervilles").  "Yes, I
should not be surprised to learn that what we have heard
is the cry of the last of the bitterns."  It wasn't the
last one, but there may be only 15 breeding males left in
Great Britain.  The bittern is one of the five threatened
birds shown in a set issued there last month to honor the
50th anniversary of the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (the others are the Mus-
covy duck, the lapwing, the white-fronted goose, and the whooper crane);
the stamps feature paintings by the late Charles F. Tunnicliffe.

David Talbott Cox died on Mar. 15.  He was a Chicago producer, director and
actor for many years (and he was on the cover of TV Guide in the 1960s as a
member of the cast of "The Integrators" when the television play aired was
broadcast by WTTW-TV), and a newsletter publisher, and a Sherlockian: David
was an energetic member of Hugo's Companions and one of the founders of The
Criterion Bar Association.

For those who like trivia questions: name two actors who have played Sher-
lock Holmes who also have played actors who have played Sherlock Holmes.  
The answer will appear later in this issue.

Dominica issued a set of eight stamps in 1991 showing historic trains, and
one of them showed "Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson watching Brunigline train
(built 1888) descending from the Brunig Pass toward Meiringen"; the set of
eight mint stamps is available from the International Collectors Society.  
Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408, for $19.95 postpaid (credit cards welcome).

Brook Manor was the home of the infamous Richard Cabell in 1656, and he is
believed by many to have provided some of the inspiration for the legend of
the Hound of the Baskervilles.  And you can now stay at Brook Manor while
touring Dartmoor: it is open as a guest house, fully restored with modern
conveniences and central heating.  A nicely-illustrated flier is available,
and the address is: Buckfastleigh, Devon TQ11 0HR, England.

William H. "Skip" Boyer has an article "At Holmes with a Good Smoke" (with
a Gahan Wilson illustration showing Holmes offering a cigar to Moriarty) in
the spring 1996 issue of Smoke, a fancy new quarterly for people who fancy
cigars ($3.99); 135 West 41st Street #1050, New York, NY 10036.

Apr 96 #3   Michael Ricker Pewter are preparing to ship the detailed pewter
            reproduction of The Consulting Room (the third element in their
Sherlock Holmes Collection); $260.00 postpaid.  Dr. Watson and Mrs. Hudson
(the first two figures) are still available ($92.00 each postpaid), and the
set will be completed by early 1997 with Inspector Lestrade, a Baker Street
Irregular, and Sherlock Holmes.  An illustrated flier is available from the
company (5333 West 88th Avenue #132, Westminster, CO 80030) (800-554-1571);
credit-card orders welcome.

"George Spelvin, Performing Legend, Takes His Final Bow" was the headline
on an article (not included in every edition of the Newspaper of Record,
but reprinted in New York magazine on Apr. 8).  According to Randall Short,
"It is with sadness tinged by a modicum of embarrassment that these pages
find themselves called upon to report (somewhat belatedly) the passing of
George Spelvin, a giant of the American theater whose legend in that notor-
iously fickle milieu rivals--it is hardly an exaggeration to say--those of
Edwin Forrest, Ethel Barrymore, and warm orange-flavored intermission bev-
erages.  The great man appears actually to have departed the sphere of our
sorrow--or, at any rate, New York--immediately following his last recorded
(1988) appearance in 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood', but it seems to have
been a while before anybody noticed."  Short also notes that Spelvin was a
native New Yorker, and made his stage debut in Charles A. Gardner's 1886
"Karl the Peddler" on 14th Street in a space currently housing Phil's World
of Electronics, and that he is survived by a sister, Georgina.

George Spelvin also had many Sherlockian credits, according to George Van-
derburgh's index to Ron De Waal's THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES, including
supporting roles in the 1970s and 1980s in productions of Martin Keeley's
"Sherlock Holmes and the C.P.R. Murders", Paul Giovanni's "The Crucifer of
Blood", William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes", and Dennis Rosa's "Sherlock
Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of Four".  The index also has credits for
Georgina's children Georgia, Garff, and P. Highley Spelvin.

And for those who have not noticed the name of George Spelvin before, it is
traditionally used in cast listings when a producer isn't sure which actor
will be playing a role, or occasionally (and incorrectly) when a character
is another character in disguise.

The question was: name two actors who have played Sherlock Holmes who also
have played actors who have played Sherlock Holmes.  Patrick Horgan, who
played Sherlock Holmes on stage in William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" and
in Conan Doyle's "The Speckled Band", played Gillette in Kenneth Ludwig's
play "Dramatic License" (now "Postmortem").  And Nicol Williamson, who was
Holmes in the film "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution", is playing John Barrymore
(who starred in the silent film "Sherlock Holmes") on stage in "Jack" at
the Belasco Theatre in New York.  "Jack" started previews on Apr. 20, and
will have an eight-week run (212-239-6200).

William K. Everson died on Apr. 14.  He was a film historian and collector,
and helped saved hundreds of films from the days when studios didn't bother
to.  He wrote 16 books on the cinema, and included discussion of Moriarty
in THE BAD GUYS: A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE MOVIE VILLAIN (1964), and had a
chapter on Sherlock Holmes in THE DETECTIVE IN FILM (1972).

Apr 96 #4   Lots of dramatic items in this issue, so I'll also mention that
            Bert Coules (Fairway, Sandling Road, Saltwood, Hythe, Kent CT21
4QJ, England) still offers laser-printed scripts (about 60 pp. each) of his
adaptations for the BBC radio series that stars Clive Merrison and Michael
Williams as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson ("The Hound of the Baskervilles"
in 1988 had Roger Rees and Crawford Logan in 1999).  The stories are: Stud/
Sign/Scan/Bosc/Blue/Nobl/Silv/Croo/Fina/Empt/Norw/Danc/Soli/Chas/SixN/Seco/
Houn/Wist/Bruc/Devi/Last/Illu/Maza/Suss/Thor/Lion/Reti.  The postpaid cost
(sterling check or draft) for each short-story script is L12.00 (surface)
or L14.00 (airmail), or you can pay with currency ($19.00 or $22.00) or by
dollar check ($28.86 or $30.02).  The cost is doubled for the three long-
story scripts.

One of the nice things about collecting Sherlockiana is that the old can be
as interesting as the new, and it can be fun to catch up with something you
missed.  As is the case with THE NOISELESS TENOR: THE BICYCLE IN LITERATURE
(East Brunswick: Cornwall Books, 1982).  James E. Starrs is well-known now
for forensic investigation of questions such as whether Alferd Packer dined
on the party he was supposed to be guiding over the mountains (Starrs dug
up the victims, and concluded that they had indeed been murdered, and quite
likely butchered).  And he enjoys bicycling, and he has edited a delightful
anthology that includes "The Priory School" (and some discussion of bicycle
tracks), and a splendid Foreword by William Saroyan, and two excerpts from
Christopher Morley, and much more.

Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers a new
sales list, with figurines, statues, Mardi Gras doubloons, programs, lobby
cards, books, and other Sherlockiana.

Lawrence J. Kaplan has been teaching a course on "Chemistry and Crime: From
Sherlock Holmes to Modern Forensic Science" at Williams College since 1990,
and this month the National Science Foundation awarded him a $234,539 grant
to create a CD-ROM version of his course.  The disk is intended to make the
laboratory portion of his course accessible to colleges that cannot offer
forensics laboratory classes, and it will include simulations of equipment
used in forensics analysis as well as cases for students to solve using the
equipment.  Kaplan hopes to have a finished product available in two years.

Stuffed Moose Audio has issued an amusing audiocassette with four "classic
humorous ghost stories" written by Stephen Leacock, Charles Dickens, Mark
Twain, and Arthur Conan Doyle (whose story is "Selecting a Ghost").  George
Plumley has dramatized the stories, and they're performed well by a group
of talented actors.  The Lodestone Catalog offers SPIRITED YARNS: VOLUME 1
for $9.95 plus shipping; the address is 611 Empire Mill Road, Bloomington,
IN 47401 (800-411-6463), and credit-card orders are welcome.

Heritage Media (Castle Eden Studios, Castle Eden. Durham TS27 4SD, England)
offers a catalog of classic audio and video, including radio drama: three
double-cassette sets of "The Best of Sherlock Holmes" (each set with four
Gielgud/Richardson broadcasts); L7.99 each (or L19.99 for all three in a
slip case) plus shipping.  The cassettes are available here from National
Review Radio Classics (150 East 35th Street, New York, NY 10016); $16.99
each (or $39.99 for all three); $4.50 shipping per order; plastic welcome.

Apr 96 #5   The first annual Sherlock Holmes Festival will be held in Crow-
            borough on July 5-7, according to an item in The Times Literary
Supplement (Mar. 15).  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived in Crowborough for many
years, but the Chamber of Commerce believes that far too few Sherlockians
visit the town.  The festival will feature an exhibition, a street party, a
concert, and a mystery trail, and the organizers are hoping that Sherlock-
ians "will come to see Crowborough as the Mecca for Sherlock Holmes buffs."
Details are available from The Sherlock Holmes Festival, The Town Hall, The
Broadway, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 1DA, England.

Francine Kitts notes that a radio-theater production of "The Six Napoleons"
will be performed five times at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center in Staten
Island, N.Y. on May 2-5; tickets cost $10.00, and the phone number for the
box office is 718-979-3190.

For anyone who might need another reason to keep away from the moor, Fred
Barbash reported in the Washington Post (Apr. 18), that "There's a monster
loose that's threatening the cities and the towns of Britain, its national
heritage, its animals, its health, and its wealth.  It's called traffic."
The threat is everywhere, including "the great moors of lore and legend,
like Dartmoor, the setting in western England for 'The Hound of the Basker-
villes.'  Any hound venturing into it today risks life and limb, according
to a recent study, which said that some 300 sheep, ponies, and cattle were
run down and killed by speeding cars there last year."

Jim Suszynski spotted Shaggy in a deerstalker in "The Maltese Mutt" in the
comic book SCOOBY-DOO #9 (June 1996) from Archie Comics ($1.50).  And Jack
Kerr spotted Fred Flintstone in a deerstalker in "Fred Flintstone: Private
Eye!" in THE FLINTSTONES #11 (July 1996), also from Archie ($1.50).

FROM PRUSSIA WITH LOVE, by John DeChancie (Rocklin: Prima, 1996; 261 pp.,
$5.99), is a spin-off from the Castle Falkenstein role-playing game created
by R. Talsorian Games.  The game and the novel are set in a magical Victor-
ian alternate universe that includes fairies, dwarves, steam engines, and
dragons, and Prof. Moriarty makes a brief but villainous appearance in the
novel.  Stu Shiffman, who knows far more than I about this steampunk world,
reports that Moriarty also is in a second novel (DeChancie's MASTERMINDS OF
FALKENSTEIN), and that a third novel (by George Alec Effinger) will involve
both Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes.

Richard Olken has reported Alan M. Young's article "C. Auguste Dupin, Alias
Holmes" (about Conan Doyle's debt to Poe) in the Feb. 1996 issue of Sextant
(Salem State College, 352 Lafayette Street, Salem, MA 01970); the article
has some fine illustrations of Dupin and Holmes (and photographs of Poe and
Conan Doyle).  The e-mail address is <sextant@mecn.mass.edu>.

"The Molly Maguires" is a new musical (book by William Strempek, and music
and lyrics by Sid Cherry), and it will have its world premiere this year at
the Grand Candlelight Theatre in Milton, Pa., Aug. 7-31 (800-355-3099), and
at the Media Theatre for the Performing Arts in Media, Pa., Sept. 4-Oct. 6
(800-355-3099).  There will be a theater party for Sherlockians on Sept. 28
at 2:00 pm in Media; details are available from Sherry Rose-Bond, 519 East
Allens Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119.

Apr 96 #6   Videotaper alert: "Wishbone" is featured in "A Dogged Expose"
            on PBS-TV on May 3.  Wishbone is a Jack Russell terrier who
stars in a fine children's series about a dog who finds himself involved in
literary classics (this time in "A Scandal in Bohemia"); the series has 40
programs that cycle in repeats, and there is another interesting episode
called "The Slobbery Hound" (yes, "The Hound of the Baskervilles").  Also:
many PBS-TV stations are likely to repeat some of the Granada programs with
Jeremy Brett in May: "The Dying Detective" and "The Cardboard Box" will air
in Washington on May 16, and "The Three Gables" on May 23.

It was in the Sept. 1983 issue of Science 83 that John Hathaway Winslow and
Alfred Meyer accused Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of being the perpetrator of the
Piltdown hoax, presenting a detailed and thoroughly circumstantial argument
that received considerable publicity (mainly because they provided the N.Y.   
Times with an advance copy of their article).  And now Robert B. Anderson
has made the same accusation, in the spring 1996 issue of Pacific Discovery
(California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA 94118;
$5.00 postpaid).  Anderson, who is earth science editor at Natural History
magazine at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, has drawn
heavily upon Winslow's work, but (using Sherlock Holmes to reveal the solu-
tion) offers some additional evidence that is just as circumstantial.  One
is tempted to wonder whether the spring issue of Pacific Discovery was pub-
lished on April Fool's Day . . .

ELEMENTARY, MRS. HUDSON, by Sydney Hosier (New York: Avon, 1996; 206 pp.,
$5.50), is yet another yellowed manuscript, part of the "Hudson Collection"
(that's Emma Hudson, housekeeper to Sherlock Holmes), and the story is set
in 1898, when Holmes and Watson are on holiday and Mrs. Hudson answers an
old friend's plea for help and solves two mysterious murders (with the help
of her old friend's powers of astral projection).

R. Dixon Smith and Paulina M. Smith have a new catalog of "Conan Doyle and
Sherlock Holmes" with 592 items old and new: books, pamphlets, magazines,
posters, programs, and other ephemera; write to Rupert Books, 58/59 Stone-
field, Bar Hill, Cambridge CB3 8TE, England.

Societies looking for ideas for souvenirs might take a look through the new
catalog from Best Impressions (Box 802, La Salle, IL 61301) (800-635-2378).  
Their promotional products range from mugs ($35.00 set-up charge, and $2.38
each for 72) to wooden nickels and key fobs and totebags and other items.

Apparently I'm not the only one who has had trouble ordering new magazine
cases from the Magafile Company in Vandalia, Mo., and it may well be that
the company has gone out of business.  Please let me know about alternate
sources for inexpensive fold-up cardboard cases in various sizes.

Is anyone planning a visit to Moscow?  Does anyone know anyone who is plan-
ning a trip to Moscow?  I need a courier who can retrieve some Sherlockian
videocassettes that I am reluctant to entrust to the Russian mail system.  
Please let me know if you can help.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

May 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

Marlene R. Aig died on Apr. 25.  She earned a Master's degree from McGill
University (as did Christopher Morley's friend Jane Nightwork), and joined
the Associated Press in 1978, becoming their Westchester correspondent in
1983.  Marlene was as enthusiastic and energetic as a Sherlockian as she
was as a journalist, and she made sure that her AP beat also included the
Sherlockian world, filing stories on the birthday festivities and on other
important events.  Her AP obituary described her as a small, fast-talking,
frequently squawking mass of energy, with a mop-top of rusty red hair and a
spirit to match: that's the sort of personal touch that journalists like to
give their colleagues, and it's the way her friends will remember her.

The spring 1996 issue of The Armchair Detective includes excellent articles
by Jan B. Steffensen and Kate Derie about the continuing spread of mystery-
related material on the Internet, and Scott and Sherry Rose Bond's memorial
to Jeremy Brett and Robert Stephens.  $31.00 a year (quarterly); 129 West
56th Street, New York, NY 10019-3808.

Nice news for everyone interested in the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the
University of Minnesota (now the home of John Bennett Shaw's collection and
much more): the state legislature has approved a bill that provides $38.5
million to build the new Minnesota Library Access Center, which will be the
new home of the special collections, and the governor has signed the bill
into law.  That's bricks-and-mortar money, and The Friends of the Sherlock
Holmes Collections are always happy to accept tax-deductible contributions
to help maintain the collections.  And there's an excellent reason to give
now: the F. R. Bigelow Foundation in St. Paul will match all contributions
(up to a total of $30,000) to the John Bennett Shaw Fund (fund no. 3906).  
You can send your donations to the Sherlock Holmes Collections, 466 Wilson
Library, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (matching gifts from employers also qualify
for the for the matching grant).  And there's a deadline: the first $15,000
must be raised by June 30.

Christopher Roden reports that EMI has issued a "Writers and Poets" set of
three CDs (L26.99 in Britain) that includes an excerpt (3:48 minutes) from
the longer recording that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made for His Master's
Voice in 1930.

Further to last month's report (Apr 96 #5) on a paperback spin-off from the
Castle Falkenstein role-playing game, the second book in the series is MAS-
TERMINDS OF FALKENSTEIN, by John DeChancie (Rocklin: Prima, 1996; 25 pp.,
$5.99); Moriarty turns up again in a magical Victorian alternate steampunk
universe.  The third novel in the series will be THE LEAGUE OF DRAGONS, by
George Alec Effinger, due in October ("Tom Olam and the lovely, swashbuck-
ling Marianne meet Sherlock Holmes, the young, not-yet-famous hero of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle's series").  If your local bookseller can't find Prima
Publishing, their address is Box 1260-BK, Rocklin, CA 95677.

John Ruyle is once again perpetrating poetry, and hand-printing it himself
at the Pequod Press: SIR ARTHUR AGONISTES "dips into unexpected areas of
the Canon and ranges over other Holmesian matters as well."  521 Vincente
Avenue, Berkeley, CA 97407-1521; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper).

May 96 #2   Do any "Howdy Doody" fans remember Inspector John J. Fadoozle?
            Paul Martin spotted mention of the Inspector ("America's number
one--boi-i-i-i-nggg--puh-rivate eye"), and a photograph showing him with a
deerstalker, cape, and mustache, in HOWDY AND ME: BUFFALO BOB'S OWN STORY,
by Buffalo Bob Smith and Donna McCrohan (New York: Penguin/Plume, 1990).

Orville Prescott died on Apr. 28.  He was a book critic for the N.Y. Times
from 1942 to 1966, and reviewed John Dickson Carr's THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR
CONAN DOYLE (1949) and Adrian Conan Doyle's HEAVEN HAS CLAWS (1953), prais-
ing them both but noting that Adrian Conan Doyle "lacks the literary skill
to present his material in effective fashion."  Prescott also enjoyed the
writings of Christopher Morley, and in his review of Morley's THE MAN WHO
MADE FRIENDS WITH HIMSELF (1949) suggested that if the book "is a failure
as a novel and as a commentary on the neurosis of our time, it at least
flashes intermittently with wit and charm.  Christopher Morley never wrote
anything that didn't do that."

Herman Herst Jr. was able to combine his knowledge of philately and his in-
terest in Arthur Conan Doyle in a souvenir he prepared for the 1981 annual
dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars.  If you would like learn more about
the world's first Christmas envelope (which was designed by Conan Doyle's
uncle, Richard Doyle, in 1840) you can send him a #10 SASE (Box 1583, Boca
Raton, FL 33429).

Malice Domestic VIII (in Bethesda, Md., at the end of April) was an inter-
esting convention, with Peter Lovesey as guest of honor and Josephine Tey
as ghost of honor, and a focus on "mysteries of manners," although not ex-
clusively, since this year there were sessions on "The Scientific Sleuth:
from Sherlock Holmes to Gideon Oliver" and on "Sherlock Holmes as a Foren-
sic Scientist".  The first session offered a panel consisting of Douglas G.  
Green, Aaron Elkins, Paul Sledzik, and me, and the second session was just
me (and questions and comments from the audience).  Audio Visual Inc. off-
ers audiocassettes of any of the 50 convention sessions at $10.00 each plus
shipping (there's a discount for volume); 4390-B Parliament Place, Lanham,
MD 20706 (credit-card orders welcome).

Mary Frost-Pierson also was at the convention, offering a demonstration of
the "mysteries" division of America Online, which is an excellent reason to
try out AOL's free-trial-offer (now 15 hours).  You'll need to be driving a
Macintosh, or running Windows, with a 256-color card, and then you can take
your own tour through Mary's offerings, which include on-line editions of
magazines (The Sherlock Holmes Review and Scarlet Street), bulletin boards,
discussion groups for kids and teachers, opportunities to browse the stock
and buy books and gifts (Sherlockian and otherwise) from Mary's bookshop
(Mysteries from the Yard), and much more.  The address of Mary's shop is
253-B Xenia Avenue, Yellow Springs, OH 45387 <msteries@aol.com>; ask for
AOL's 15-free-hours floppy disk.

Glyn Szasz reports from Australia that a Planet Hollywood opened recently
in Sydney, packed with movie memorabilia, including the pipe from "Young
Sherlock Holmes".  Glyn is the first Sherlockian I've heard of who has ad-
mitted going to a Planet Hollywood, let along finding anything Sherlockian
there (I have been to a Hard Rock Cafe, but didn't).

May 96 #3   Web-cruiser alert: thanks to the energy and expertise of Willis
            Frick, the three most recent issues of the electronic edition
of this newsletter are now available on a home page at his kaiwan.com web
site; the URL is: <http://www.kaiwan.com/~sherlock/SCUTTLE.HTML>.  URLs are
case-sensitive, so you need to use the upper-case letters.

Stephen Hemming died on Apr. 19.  He was an actor in Wisconsin, and one of
his fellow actors said that "when he was given a role, he was like Sherlock
Holmes, investigating it, diving into learning everything he could about
it."  And perhaps that was only natural: he played Sherlock Holmes in "The
Case of the Lurking Variable" on an audiocassette made for an instructional
series on mathematics distributed the University of Wisconsin in 1987.

Thanks to all who responded to my request for other sources for inexpensive
cardboard magazine cases, what with the Magafile Company having vanished.  
The good news is that there are alternate sources, and the bad news is that
all the different sizes aren't available.  The office-supply stores such as
Staples and Office Depot offer "regular" (12" x 4" x 9") cut-corner boxes
for about $1.60 each.  So do mail-order companies such as Quill (800-789-
1331) and Highsmith (800-558-2110); Highsmith offers inexpensive boxes at
$19.15 for 20.  Brodart (800-233-8959) offers "super-budget files" at $0.96
each (cheaper by the dozen), and "economical shelf files" in five different
sizes, ranging from 8.5" high ($1.30 each for a dozen) to 14.5" high ($1.95
each for a dozen); Brodart would be best for those who want BSJ-size boxes
and for those who want low prices (don't forget that shipping costs extra).

Bartholomew's Ink (Box 359, Warner, NH 03278-0359) offers a catalog full of
mystery-related rubber stamps (with quite a few Sherlockian designs).

Tim Kelly's adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" will be performed
at the Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend, Ontario, July 16-27.  Their
address is R.R. #1, Grand Bend, ON N0M 1T0, Canada (519-238-6000) (800-706-
6665).

"Holmes lies on the border of fantasy.  He has charm and verve, but no one
actually knew him.  This gives every actor who plays Holmes an unexcelled
chance to use his imagination, but also exposes him to criticism from every
person with an imagination of his own."  According to Basil Rathbone, in an
article "On Playing Sherlock Holmes" in Radio Varieties (Mar. 1940).  And:
"Portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, I might say, causes me more
worry than my portrayal on the radio.  The screen leaves little to the ima-
gination, and anyone in the audience may disagree with my idea of how Sher-
lock Holmes should look and act.  Radio leaves every listener free to draw
individual mental pictures of Holmes."

"A New Pinnacle for Sherlockian Achievement" is the slogan of the Downstate
Illinois Sherlockian Invitational, to be held on Sept. 28 in Peoria.  The
Hansoms of John Clayton have offered a challenge to other societies in a
Knowledge Competition, to be followed by The Nineteenth Annual 2704 Banquet
of the Hansoms, and anyone interested participating, or merely attending,
is invited to communication with Robert C. Burr, 4010 Devon Lane, Peoria,
IL 61614-7109, by Aug. 31.  One wonders about those pinnacles in downstate
Illinois, which is not known for its mountains.

May 96 #4   "While the British Library management makes swingeing cuts to
            finance its move to St. Pancras, the British Museum is this
month seeking planning permission and listed building consent to vandalise
the Round Reading Room when, and if, the British Library finally leaves
Bloomsbury," is the news from Marysa Demoor, posted to the Gaslight elec-
tronic mailing list.  "Contrary to its stated policy over many years, the
British Museum is now preparing to sacrifice its commitment to keeping the
Round Reading Room as a library and work place for scholars.  Such a com-
mitment is now deemed to be inconvenient to the realisation of 'The Great
Court Scheme' in which the Round Reading Room is redefined as circulation
space, with information terminals and, as one British Museum spokesman mem-
orably reported, 'a place for schoolchildren to eat their sandwiches'.  The
'library' element is restricted to a small sector, surrounded by low glass
walls, providing passing tourists with a glimpse of how things used to be."

And there's more, of particular importance to Sherlockians: "The desks, in-
tegral to the original design, will have to be largely removed."  One would
hope that before all those desks are hauled off to a land-fill, they will
be carefully inspected to see whose initials might be carved in or on them.  
If Sherlock Holmes carved his initials on a laboratory stool at Bart's (and
that one has been found and preserved), perhaps he did the same at a desk
in the British Museum.  "When I first came up to London I had rooms in Mon-
tague Street, just round the corner from the British Museum," he recalled
(in "The Musgrave Ritual"), "and there I waited, filling in my too abundant
leisure time by studying all those branches of science which might make me
more efficient."

Moris H. Goldberg died on Apr. 29.  Moris ("that's with one r," as he liked
to remind people) was an enthusiastic member of The Giant Rats of Massillon
and The Inverness Capers of Akron, and he was the founder of The Deerstalk-
ers of Akron, and a grand story-teller, Sherlockian and otherwise.

Tim O'Connor notes that Parade Magazine is offering $100 prizes to ten win-
ners of a contest for funny, clever, or unusual vanity license plates; you
need to enter a photograph of the actual license plate of a vehicle regis-
tered to the contestant, and the winners will need to prove that they are
the registered owners of the vehicles.  The complete rules were in the May
12 issue of Parade, and entries must be received by June 16; the address is
Vanity License Plate Contest, c/o Parade, Box 4943, Grand Central Station,
New York, NY 10163-4943).  In the early 1980s someone had a vanity plate in
San Francisco reading BSKRVLS, on a Honda.

Tim also reports that Charles Marowitz's play "Sherlock's Last Case" will
be produced at the Candlelight Dinner Theater from Mar. 5 to May 25, 1997.  
The address is 5620 South Harlem Avenue, Summit, IL 60501 (15 minutes from
downtown Chicago, according to the advertisement), and the box-office phone
number is 708-496-3000.  It is likely, of course, that one or more of the
local Sherlockian societies will arrange for a theater party.

Planning continues for Australia's seventh national Sherlockian convention,
to be held on Oct. 4-6, 1997, in Perth, with festivities centering on "The
Devil's Foot".  The organizers are Tim Richards and Narrelle Harris, and
their address is Box 896, Fremantle, W.A. 6160, Australia.

May 96 #5   The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met for dinner on May 22
            at Luigi's in San Diego to honor (as always) the world's first
forensic geologist and to celebrate some local Sherlockian and Doylean con-
nections.  We were made welcome by Darlene Nelson, Debi Pollard, and Vinnie
Brosnan, who all quite modestly declined personal responsibility for spring
weather as delightful as any I've seen anywhere this year, and the visitors
included Les Clutter, who has ascended Holmes Peak both as a geologist and
as a member of the Afghanistan Perceivers of Tulsa.  Our peripatetic socie-
ty will meet next in Denver in October 1996 and in Dallas in April 1997.

Visitors to San Diego may wish to stay at the Hotel del Coronado, which is
the world's largest wooden hotel, carefully preserved and established as a
national landmark, and it would be especially appropriate to stay in room
3236, since that's the room where William Gillette stayed in December 1898,
when he settled in to write his play "Sherlock Holmes".  Visitors also can
visit the Spreckels Theater in downtown San Diego: the theater was built in
1912 and seats 1,400 (it was the largest theater of its kind west of New
York), and it was still quite new when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lectured at
the theater in May 1923.  And it's still in use as a theater, with much of
the grand old decorative style.

My journey to the Left Coast also included a stop in Long Beach for dinner
with some of the Trained Cormorants, and a trip to jail for a visit with
the Dartmoor Residents, the latter society being students in classes taught
by Michael Brady at the California Youth Authority; Mike uses the Canon to
good advantage, and his students are interested and knowledgeable.

And I descended briefly on Los Angeles, where I had arranged for a Houdini
Seance at the Magic Castle, which is a private club for magicians.  There
were twelve of us at the seance, and the medium was impressive indeed: he
managed many of the manifestations produced by mediums in Houdini's time,
and an appearance by Houdini himself.

Vinnie Brosnan, I hasten to add, still presides over Sherlock in L.A. (1741
Via Allena, Oceanside, CA 92056); his new mail-order catalog is as always
well-illustrated and has 711 items of Sherlockian and Doylean literature,
Vinnie's warm tribute to John Bennett Shaw, and an intriguing "brief look"
at Sherlockian scion societies by Bill Vande Water and fellow non-members
of A Case of Identifiers.

Videotaper alert: "Remember WENN" is an original 30-minute series now seen
on Saturdays on American Movie Classics cable, about a fictional Pittsburgh
radio station during the golden age of radio; it's written by Rupert Holmes
(who is perhaps best known as the author of the musical "The Mystery of Ed-
win Drood" and whose pen name reflects his enjoyment of Rupert Knickerbock-
er beer and the Canon), and the episode scheduled for June 22 (titled "Arm-
chair Detective") will be Sherlockian.

And: the "Wishbone" series continues to repeat on PBS-TV, and it's a grand
way to get kids interested in literature.  Wishbone is a Jack Russell ter-
rier who finds himself involved in literary classics, and "A Dogged Expose"
(about "A Scandal in Bohemia") will air on June 28.  "The Slobbery Hound"
(about "The Hound of the Baskervilles") also is well worth watching for.

May 96 #6   It was only last month (Apr 96 #6) that there was a report of
            yet another article identifying Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the
perpetrator of the hoax at Piltdown, but now there's real news: an article
by Kings College professor Brian Gardiner in the May 23 issue of Nature
suggests that the culprit was Martin A. C. Hinton, a curator at the Natural
History Museum in London.  And for the first time there's some persuasive
physical evidence: a trunk left behind at the museum by Hinton has been
found to contain bones, teeth, and fossils stained with the same chemical
mixture that was used to deceive those who first examined the Piltdown dis-
coveries.  Gardiner also found that Hinton had done some staining work for
Charles Dawson (who made the Piltdown discovery), and was an expert on the
geology of the area of Sussex where the find was made, and had good reason
to bear a grudge against Arthur Smith Woodward (who was thoroughly deceived
by the hoax).  Hinton, who died in 1961, lived to see the hoax exposed by
modern scientists in the early 1950s.

"The Incredible Murder of Cardinal Tosca" will be performed at the Thousand
Islands Playhouse in Gananoque, Ont., July 25-Aug. 25.  That's not far from
Kingston; their address is: Thousand Islands Playhouse, Box 241, Gananoque,
ON K7G 2T8, Canada (613-382-7020).

                      Lisa Lambert (77 Mendham Avenue, Hastings on Hudson,
                      NY 10706) has designed some attractive Sherlockian
                      wine labels (6.5x4.5") and bordered quotations (7.5"
                      x 3.5"); the artwork is hand-colored and thoroughly
                      artistic, and the prices are about $25.00 postpaid,
                      and complementary matting is available.  The wines
             include varieties such as Silver Blaze Bordeaux, Hound Port,
             Musgrave Montrachet, Speckled Band Claret, and Holmes Port,
             and they make for nice displays.  If you're interested, Lisa
             will be glad to send you a photocopy that will show her work
             to better advantage than I can.

The Sub-Librarians Scion of The Baker Street Irregulars in the American Li-
brary Association will meet in New York this year during the annual meeting
of the ALA, at the Renaissance Hotel at 4:30 pm on July 7.  For additional
information, you can write to Marsha L. Pollak, 1318 Mildred Avenue, San
Jose, CA 95125 (and non-librarians are welcome to attend the festivities,
of course).

Laura Kuhn reports that the latest catalog from What on Earth is offering a
one-third-off discount on its Sherlock Holmes Pub T-shirts (now $9.95) and
sweatshirts (now $18.95); 2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087
(800-945-2552).  Note: the design is their own, rather than the actual pub
sign.

David Pearson reports that Critics' Choice Video offers discounts through
July 1 on Peter Cushing's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959) at $14.77,
and Cushing's "The Masks of Death" (1986) at $14.95; Box 749, Itasca, IL
60143 (800-367-7765).

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Jun 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The long series of Rathbone/Bruce radio programs on audiocassettes produced
by Ken Greenwald and his 221A Baker Street Associates is expanding into the
1946-47 season with Tom Conway as Sherlock Holmes.  There are new introduc-
tions by old-time radio actors Elliott Reid and Parley Baer, and there will
be 16 cassettes in the new series (and four cassettes will be issued every
three months).  Eight cassettes are available now, and they are a grand re-
minder of the wonderful old days of radio, with scripts by Denis Green and
Anthony Boucher, nice performances by Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson (he got top
billing) and the rest of the cast, and fine high-fidelity engineering.  The
series title is MORE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES; the cassettes (each
with two shows) are distributed by Brilliance Audio and cost $9.95 each; if
you can't find them in local stores, Brilliance is at Box 887, Grand Haven,
MI 49417 (800-222-3225).  The eighth cassette includes "The Singular Affair
of The Ancient Egyptian Curse" (1947), in which Ben Wright played Sherlock
Holmes while Tom Conway was ill.

Minnesota voters will have a chance to vote for a Sherlockian on Sept. 10,
in the state's Republican primary: one of the six candidates for the Senate
is former Senator Rudy Boschwitz, who lost the seat to Democrat Paul Well-
stone in 1990.  Boschwitz attended meetings of The Red Circle in the 1980s,
and hopes to return (to the Senate, that is, although of course he's always
welcome in The Red Circle).

Andy Peck reports that eagle-eyed Sherlockians will find two small plaques
at Doc Watson's (a bar-style restaurant at 1490 Second Avenue in New York),
but nothing else Canonical.  And that he and Les Klinger hard at work pre-
paring an up-to-date revised edition of his comparative chronology THE DATE
BEING --? (first published in 1970, with an addendum in 1973).

Movies, movies, movies.  Clint Eastwood received a Life Achievement Award
from the American Film Institute (the televised special was broadcast by
ABC-TV last month), and his many fans will recall that in "The Dead Pool"
(1988) Dirty Harry's boss Captain Donnelly (played by Michael Currie) has a
framed portrait of Sherlock Holmes on the wall of his office; it also is of
(remotely) Sherlockian interest that Callahan kills the villain by pinning
him to a wall with a harpoon through his chest.  Entertainment Weekly has a
brief report on the film "The Lost World" (due for release in the summer of
1997): co-screenwriter David Koepp's $1.5 salary is the most ever paid for
an adapted screenplay; the film is based on the book by Michael Crichton,
and will be directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Julianne Moore and Jeff
Goldblum.  And: Jeremy Brett's last film was "Moll Flanders" (released this
month), starring Robin Wright as Moll, Stockard Channing as the evil madam
who makes Moll's life miserable, and Morgan Freeman as Hibble (who doesn't
appear in Daniel Defoe's book); Brett has a brief appearance as the wealthy
father of the artist with whom Moll falls in love.

"Sherlock Holmes and the Sticky Wicket" is the title of an interesting and
well-illustrated article by Peter N. Street in the Jan.-Feb. 1996 issue of
the Journal of Sports Philately, about Holmes and Conan Doyle and cricket.  
The issue costs $2.50 postpaid from John La Porta, Box 2286, La Grange, IL
60525 (checks payable to Sports Philatelists International, please).

Jun 96 #2   Ralph Hall spotted a new paperback edition of Graham Landrum's
            THE ROTARY CLUB MURDER MYSTERY (New York: St. Martin's, 1996;
$4.99); there are two Sherlockian chapters ("The Baker Street Irregulars"
and "Second Meeting of the Baker Street Irregulars"), and there was a hard-
back edition from St. Martin's in 1993.  Also: Maurice Horn's 100 YEARS OF
AMERICAN NEWSPAPER COMICS (New York: Gramercy Books, 1996; $14.99) will be
found on the bargain tables, with sections on Sherlock Holmes, Hawkshaw the
Detective, and Sherlocko the Monk.

Laurie R. King reports that A LETTER OF MARY (her third mystery novel about
Mary Russell) is now set for publication in January 1997, and that THE BEE-
KEEPER'S APPRENTICE is due in England this summer ("at long last").

Tamara Toumanova died on May 29.  At the age of five she danced with Anna
Pavlova in France, and was one of the first of George Balanchine's "baby
ballerinas" when she joined his Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo in 1932.  She
danced on Broadway and in films, and played the ballerina Petrova in "The
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970), proposing that Sherlock Holmes
father a child with her, so that the child would have his brains and her
beauty.  Mrs. Patrick Campbell made the same proposal to George Bernard
Shaw, who pointed out that the child might have his beauty and her brains,
but Holmes managed to find another way to avoid a liaison with Petrova.

Al Gregory and Jan Stauber offer three new lapel pins
with artwork by Sidney Paget (shown here actual size);
$6.00 each postpaid (checks made payable to Al Gregory,
please), and Al's address is 118 South Prospect Street,
Verona, NJ 07044.

Captain Sharkey was one of the more memorable characters
created by Arthur Conan Doyle, and he was one of the most
vicious villains to be found in literature (if you like
tales of pirates and the high seas).  There are four sto-
ries about Sharkey, and you can find them in THE DOYLE      FINA-1   NAVA-1
STORIES and in other collections.  "How the Governor of
St. Kitt's Came Home" was published in Pearson's Magazine
in Jan. 1897, and the 23-page signed manuscript went to
auction at Christie's in New York on May 17, estimated at
$4,000-6,000.  And it sold for $12,650 (including the 15%
buyer's premium).                                               BOSC-1

"I do believe we're dealing with something we haven't seen before..." was
the quote in a full-page advertisement in the May 6 issue of Variety for
"Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Temporal Nexus", one of the television
projects promoted at the Cannes film festival by Associated Entertainment
Releasing.  And promoted quite successfully: the project has been pre-sold
in European markets, and filming will begin soon in and near Los Angeles,
with Patrick Macnee as Holmes, assisted by a young American reporter.  The
"legendary investigator is immersed in a case of paranormal murders and ex-
tra-terrestrials" in the two-hour television film that will be followed by
a series of 22 one-hour shows.  Work also is underway in England on a one-
hour series of television specials called "Sherlock Holmes' Tour of London"
with Macnee as host, viewing London through the eyes of Sherlock Holmes.

Jun 96 #3   Allen Mackler has spotted some bargains available from Daedalus
            Books (Box 9132, Hyattsville, MD 20781): the Chronicle Books
editions of THE HORROR OF THE HEIGHTS & OTHER TALES OF SUSPENSE (1990) and
WHEN THE WORLD SCREAMED AND OTHER STORIES (1992), now discounted at $3.98
each; and Carroll & Graf's 100 GREAT DETECTIVES, edited by Maxim Jakubowsky
(1992), with H.F.R. Keating's discussion of Sherlock Holmes, at $2.98.  And
The Scholar's Bookshelf (100 Melrich Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512) offers the
Academy Chicago editions of Conan Doyle's THE BEST HORROR STORIES (1989),
THE LOST WORLD (1989), and TALES FOR A WINTER'S NIGHT (1990) at $19.90 for
all three.

A hot plate: license plate, that is.  The culprit most likely is a cruising
teen-ager collecting things to display on a wall, but if you discover some-
one with a Maryland license plate reading BAKERST, it was stolen from a car
owned by Wayne and Francine Swift.  Just the one plate, which is why it's
likely to be on a wall rather than one someone else's car.

Marcus Geisser, the editor of The Reichenbach Journal (published in German
by The Reichenbach Irregulars, the Sherlockian society in Switzerland), has
been publishing German translations of some of the classic writings about
the writings, including essays by Ronald Knox and Christopher Morley, (and
an essay by Dorothy L. Sayers will be in the next issue).  And Marcus would
like to hear from anyone who can help with future translation; his address
is 40 avenue de la Gare, CH-1003 Lausanne, Switzerland; and or by e-mail at
<mgeisser@access.ch>.

              "The Ku Klux Klan ... rapidly formed local branches in diff-
              erent parts of the country, notably in Tennessee, Louisiana,
              the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida," according to the Ameri-
              can Encyclopaedia consulted by Sherlock Holmes in "The Five
              Orange Pips".  The State Capitol Building is seen in a photo-
              graph on a new stamp honoring the 200th anniversary of Tenn-
              essee's statehood.

              "Sitting in a London pub, James O'Brien admits that he con-
              templated wearing his deerstalker hat, but opted instead for
the more conservative blazer and tie of an academic," Alina Tugend noted in
her article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (May 24).  Jim, usually to
be found teaching chemistry at Southwest Missouri State University, taught
a two-month weekly course on the science of the Sherlock Holmes stories at
the University of London's Imperial College.

Percy Edwards died on June 8.  "Of Psyche the dog and other noises," is the
subhead on The Guardian's obituary for Edwards, who made his show-business
debut at the Pier Pavilion in Worthing in 1928, so intriguing the audience
with his bird songs and growls that other seaside engagements followed.  In
1931 he took his act to London's Windmill Theatre (more famous for its nude
tableaux), and in the 1950s and 1960s he starred on BBC radio as Psyche the
dog, and as Gregory the chicken (in different series).  He also performed
in films (producers often found that he was far more reliable and cheaper
than real animals).  The obituary reports that he once was The Hound of the
Baskervilles (most likely with Carlton Hobbs and Norman Shelley in the BBC
Radio series in 1958, but full credits for that series aren't available).

Jun 96 #4   Paula M. Brown is starting work on planning for a memorial to
            Jeremy Brett at the Holiday Inn (Union Square) in San Francisco
on Sept. 14, and she would be happy to hear from anyone who would like to
participate in the program, and to share thoughts and memories of the actor
and his career.  Paula's address is 40787 Canyon Heights Drive, Fremont, CA
94539; e-mail <vgtd52b@prodigy.com>.

"Autumn in Baker Street" will be held on Oct. 26-27 at the Tarrytown Hilton
in Tarrytown, N.Y.  This annual gathering is always well-attended, and the
agenda always interesting (this year the speakers will include Wilma Brown,
Carey Cummings, Sue Dahlinger, David Houle, Bill Hyder, Dick Kitts, Sandra
Kozinn, Linda Spessotti, and Diana Ver Nooy).  Details are available from
Robert E. Thomalen, Highview Drive, Carmel, NY 10512 <crwk02a@prodigy.com>.

"The Terror of Blue John Gap" continues to delight geo-
logists who admire Conan Doyle's fiction, because the
story offers an interesting mineral and a monster that
turns out to be a Pleistocene cave bear.  In a fine ar-
ticle about the story published in A.C.D. (1994), Dana
Martin Batory and William A. S. Sarjeant suggest that
the terror was not, in fact, a cave bear, but rather a
great scimitar cat (*Homotherium sainzelli*).  The dirk-
tooth cat (*Megantereon megantereon*), was a close relative and much better
known, since its upper canines were much longer, and thus tends to show up
on postage stamps, such as the one just issued by the United States.

The Running Press published a semi-miniature edition (2.75 x 3.25 in.) of
SHERLOCK HOLMES: TWO COMPLETE ADVENTURES in 1989, and there's a new edition
(1994) with a truly handsome jacket and illustrations by Andrew Davidson,
the British artist who designed the attractive Sherlockian covers for four
stamp booklets issued by Britain in 1987-1988, and the set of five Sherlock
Holmes stamps issued by Britain in 1993.  The cost is $4.95 in bookstores,
or $5.95 from the publisher (125 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-
4399); "But try your bookstore first!" the publisher urges.

John Ruyle modestly suggests in the 50th issue of Tantalus that ten years
ago he had no idea that The Pequod Press would survive for ten years, but
it certainly has, and its latest pressing will be THE ADVENTURE OF THE SEC-
OND BRAIN, another of Dr. Fatso's accounts of the many cases of his friend
Turlock Loams.  $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) postpaid from John, at 521
Vincente Avenue Berkeley, CA 94707-1521.

The lion's mane jellyfish seem to be spreading, turning up last year in an
exhibit at the New England Aquarium in Boston (Mar 95 #3), and now, accord-
ing to Peter Calamai, in an exhibit of "Phantoms of the Deep" at the Aquar-
ium in Baltimore.

Francine Swift notes that the Carriage Museum at the Ladew Topiary Gardens
contains a fine hansom, and a very sporting dog cart, for those who might
wish to see what those methods of Canonical transportation look like close
up.  The Ladew Topiary Gardens are at 3535 Jarrettsville Pike, Monkton, MD
21111 (410-557-9570); that's north of Baltimore, about halfway to the bor-
der, and the dates are mid-April through the end of October.

Jun 96 #5   THE HERPETOLOGICAL HOLMES: A MONOGRAPH ON REPTILES AND AMPHIB-
            IANS IN THE TIME OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, illustrated with artwork
of the period, is the eighth volume in Donald Girard Jewell's continuing
Sherlock Holmes Natural History series; the pamphlet costs $12.95 postpaid
from the Pinchin Lane Press, 4685 Geeting Road, Westminster, MD 21158.

There are many singular Sherlockian societies, of course, and Luther Norris
delighted in making The Praed Street Irregulars singular in more ways than
one.  Vinnie Brosnan has recently found that Luther awarded the Investiture
"Meadows" to Basil of Baker Street.

The Stage One Theatre Company will launch a tour of Tim Heath's play "Sher-
lock Holmes: The Adventure at Sir Arthur Sullivan's" in Brighton on Sept.  
11, playing for three weeks in Croydon, and will close at Walton-on-Thames
on Nov. 30; details of the schedule are available from Stage One at 34 Jas-
mine Grove, London SE20 8JW, England).  Miles Richardson will play Holmes,
and he is the son of Ian Richardson, who was Holmes in two television films
(and as far as I know this is the only father-and-son to play the role).

Jack Tracy ("A Case of Identity") died on May 9.  He was an author, editor,
and publisher, and a Doylean as well as a Sherlockian.  His first article
in The Baker Street Journal appeared in 1971, and his investigation of "St.  
Savior's near King's Cross" earned him the Morley-Montgomery Award for the
best article in the BSJ in 1977.  His ENCYCLOPAEDIA SHERLOCKIANA (1977) and
his Conan Doyle collections SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE PUBLISHED APOCRYPHA (1980)
and MASTERWORKS OF CRIME & MYSTERY (1982) were widely distributed by trade
publishers, and his own Gaslight Publications, founded in 1979, issued many
fine Sherlockian books by authors such as Robert L. Fish, David L. Hammer,
Michael Harrison, Paul D. Herbert, and Jon L. Lellenberg, as well as seven
books by Conan Doyle, each carefully edited and with new Afterwords written
by Doylean enthusiasts.  The many books he wrote and edited and published
are a fine memorial to Jack.

Hugh Scullion (Cadds Printing, 59 Lancaster Avenue, West Norwood, London
SE27 9EL, England) offers an illustrated sales list of Sherlockiana, old
and new (the new includes The Norwood Magazine, which is "The Empty House"
reset in Strand Magazine format, with color covers, at $5.00 postpaid); his
e-mail address is <beetons@aol.com>.

Thanks to Debi Rotmil for an item from The Times (May 23): "Mr. Peter Will-
iam Jeremy Huggins, of London SW4, Jeremy Brett, the actor, known for his
portrayal of Sherlock Holmes on television, left estate valued at L634,744
net.  He left L3,000 to his fan club known as 'The Regulars', with the wish
it be divided equally between those persons who are members at his death."
"The Regulars" is a group of fans who met during the run of "The Secret of
Sherlock Holmes" (the group was founded by Linda Pritchard, and they were
responsible for placing his memorial plaque at Wyndham's Theatre).

Further to the report (May 96 #3) on other sources for magazine file cases,
it turns out that The Magafile Company is back in business ("after experi-
encing some difficulties that we have fortunately been able to overcome");
I have received a shipment of cases from them.  They offer a wider range of
sizes (heights and widths), and the address is Box 66, Vandalia, MO 63382.

Jun 96 #6   Plan ahead: "Sherlock's Secret Life" (a new play written by Ed.  
            Lange) is scheduled at the New York Theatre Institute in Troy,
Mar. 13-26, 1997.  Lange describes the play as "a good mystery with lots of
'inside' references and plausible speculations," and the box-office address
is 155 River Street, Troy, NY 12180 (518-274-3256).

SHERLOCK HOLMES: CLASSIC THEMES FROM 221B BAKER STREET is a new "music to
read Sherlock Holmes by" compact disk produced by Varese Sarabande (with
liner notes by the Scarlet Street's editor Richard Valley), offering music
from films and television, from "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939)
to the Granada series.  $18.98 postpaid (or $24.98 to Canada, $27.98 else-
where); credit card orders welcome, and the Scarlet Street address is Box
604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452.  Note: all of the music is newly recorded, by an
orchestra conducted by Larry Meyers.

An official Baker Street Irregulars necktie is again available (but only to
those who have Investitures in the BSI), in a new edition (a bit wider, and
with slightly different shades of the traditional purple, blue, and mouse);
$23.00 postpaid ($25.00 outside the U.S.) from Wayne B. Swift, 4622 Morgan
Drive, Chevy Chase, MD 20815-5315.

The Eighth International Holmesian Games will be held on Sept. 21-22 at an
extinct volcano in Mount Tabor Park in Portland, Ore. [warning: the locals
may claim that the volcano is extinct, but volcanoes are either active or
dormant].  Additional information is available from Karen Bridger (940 S.W.  
Vincent Place, Portland, OR 97201) or Don MacLachlan <donmac@wimsey.com>.

Meg Moller Martin spotted an interesting item in the June issue of Esquire
(in the "Reality Check"): some celebrities use pseudonyms when they travel
(to avoid publicity and occasionally overeager admirers), and Indiana Pacer
guard Reggie Miller checks into hotels as Sherlock Holmes.

Carolyn and Joel Senter's latest sales list ("Quick Watson...!" #2) offers
some nice Sherlockian books, audio, video, pins, and much more, including
some items for admirers of Inspector Morse; Classic Specialties, Box 19058,
Cincinnati, OH 45219.

A new catalog from MindWare (6142 Olson Memorial Highway, Golden Valley, MN
55422) (800-999-0398) includes an illustration showing the Sherlockian art-
work on the cover of Eleanor W. Hoomes' book CREATE-A-SLEUTH: WRITING A DE-
TECTIVE STORY.

Jennie Paton spotted some videocassette bargains: Nicol Williamson's "The
Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976) and Peter Cushing's "The Masks of Death"
(1984) at $14.99 each from Movies Unlimited, 6736 Castor Avenue, Philadel-
phia, PA 19149 (800-523-0823) <movies@moviesunltd.com>

Jennings Lang died on May 29.  A veteran MCA-Universal vice-president, he
was the producer of "Earthquake" and "Airport", and "They Might Be Giants"
(1971) was "a Jennings Lang presentation."

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Jul 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

A plaque on all your houses.  Members of The Wolfe Pack were on hand at 454
West 35th in New York to watch the installation of a plaque that reads: "On
this site stood the elegant brownstone of the corpulent fictional private
detective Nero Wolfe.  With his able assistant Archie Goodwin, Mr. Wolfe
raised orchids and dined well, while solving over seventy cases as recorded
by Rex Stout from 1934-1975."  Three brownstones at the site were torn down
after Wolfe retired to his house in Egypt, and a new building erected.  The
new building houses formerly homeless adults, and the ceremony was attended
by Parks Commissioner Henry Stern and Rex Stout's grandson Reed Maroc.

The Wolfe Pack has about 400 members world-wide, and some of them are just
as fanatic about Wolfe as some Sherlockians are about Holmes.  Membership
in The Wolfe Pack costs $25.00 for two years (including four issues of The
Gazette); Box 822, Ansonia Station, New York, NY 10023.

The Sherlock Holmes Museum (221B Baker Street, London NW1 6XE, England) has
a 28-page full-color catalog of Sherlockian souvenirs and mementoes: dolls,
deerstalkers, buttons, badges, figurines, plaques, posters, prints, books,
and videos.  This is the museum founded some years ago by John Aidiniantz
at 239 Baker Street; Grace Riley and Linda Riley are the directors now, and
the e-mail address is <sherlock@easynet.co.uk>.

Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli died on June 27.  He started his film career in
1938 as an assistant directory with 20th Century-Fox, and is best known as
the producer of all but one of the James Bond films.  Born in New York, he
was an agronomist before entering the film business.  His obituary in the
Washington Post noted that agronomy was in the family: forebears in Italy
invented the vegetable that bears their name by crossing the Italian rabe
with cauliflower.

Caliber has started a new comic-book mini-series called THE SEARCHERS, with
a story by Colin Clayton and Chris Dows and artwork by Art Wetherell: issue
#1 ($2.95) is in shops now.  Real-life descendants of characters created by
Wells, Verne, Haggard, Burroughs, and Conan Doyle "must band together in a
mutual quest for not only their own survival, but that of reality itself."
But the Conan Doyle character isn't a Holmes: she's a Moriarty.

Laura Kuhn notes that bargain-books catalogs from Edward R. Hamilton (Falls
Village, CT 06031-5000) continue to offer all sort of Sherlockian bargains,
and items such as THE BOXTREE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TV DETECTIVES, by Geoff Tibb-
alls (1992) at $3.95; with brief entries for many of the Sherlockian series
from 1951 (with Alan Wheatley) through the Granada series.

The Washington Post has a contest each Sunday called "The Style Invitation-
al" (in the Style section), and a recent contest called for tasteless "what
is" jokes punning on someone's name.  Among the runners-up were "What revo-
lutionary leader led his guerrilla forces while wearing an evening gown and
a string of pearls? (Che Edgar Hoover)" and "Who steals from the rich and
mismanages the proceeds? (Robin HUD)", and the winning entry was "Who wrote
'The Hatchback of Notre Dame? (Victor Yugo)."  An honorable mention went to
"What famous mystery writer had no heirs? (Sir Arthur Condom Doyle)".

Jul 96 #2   DINOSAUR TALES is a fine collection of stories by Ray Bradbury,
            illustrated by Gahan Wilson, Steranko, and others; the book was
first published by Byron Preiss in 1983, and is now available in a new edi-
tion (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1996; 144 pp., $5.98).  Bradbury dedicated
the book to Willis O'Brien, "who animated the beasts in 'The Lost World' in
1925, and so changed my life, forever."  Ray Harryhausen tells in his fore-
word of seeing the same film when he was five; he worked with Bradbury on
"The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" (based on the story "The Fog Horn", which
is included in the book.

And no, there's no real Sherlockian connection for Cubby Broccoli, but the
story about the vegetable having been named for an ancestor deserved to be
shared.  And apparently it's too good to be true; according to the Oxford
English Dictionary, the word was first in print in 1699 and the vegetable
wasn't named for anyone.  But it's pleasant to think of great-grandfather
telling his children the story.

Luci Zahray has noted Ellis Peters' THE HIPPOPOTAMUS POOL (New York: Warner
Books, 1996; 384 pp.); this is the eighth in her series of mystery novels
about Amelia Peabody Emerson, set in Victorian England and Egypt, all with
direct or indirect Canonical echoes.

Hugh S. Scullion's SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES:--POLITICALLY CORRECT? examines
the Canon for examples of language and attitudes and actions that would be
considered incorrect or offensive by today's standards, and finds a lot of
them, and he concludes that the author of the stories was a racist bigot.  
The paperback book (97 pages) costs $16.00 postpaid from Hugh Scullion at
59 Lancaster Avenue, West Norwood, London SE27 9EL, England.

There's a new society lapel pin, from Watson's Tin Dispatchers,
and the cost is $6.00 postpaid from Francine Kitts, 35 Van Cort-
landt Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301.

For Sherlockian societies tired of the same old lapel pins and
mugs and such: Calico Temporary Tattoos (2" x 2") cost $189.00
for 1,000 (and $10.00 for shipping); they use your design, and
offer full-color service.  And their address is 315 Plantation Way, Vaca-
ville, CA 95687.  No reports of a Sherlock Holmes Tattoo Society so far,
but I wouldn't be surprised if someone starts one.

Further to earlier reports (Jul 95 #1 and Aug 95 #3) on cameo appearances
by Sherlockians in non-Sherlockian books, Bill Nadel reports that you will
find him (as Chick Nadel, a barkeep with a load of hot radios) on page 44
of James Ellroy's L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (New York: Mysterious Press, 1990).

Those who felt the recent film "Moll Flanders" (with Robin Wright, Morgan
Freeman, Stockard Channing, and Jeremy Brett) was unfaithful to the book
will welcome the news that Granada's version (written by Andrew Davies and
starring Alex Kingston as Moll) will open the fall season on "Masterpiece
Theatre" on PBS-TV in two episodes on Oct. 13 and 14.  According to Anglo-
file, the new version is closely based on Defoe's book, and Dame Diana Rigg
is in the cast.  Anglofile is a monthly newsletter with detailed coverage
of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033).

Jul 96 #3   CHINESE BOX MYSTERIES: SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Dan Kilcup (Spring-
            field: Allen Wayne Limited, 1996; 268 pp., $24.00 postpaid),
offers two pastiches involving an elderly Sherlock Holmes and a young John
S. Watson (son of the doctor), and a third featuring the ghost of Sherlock
Holmes.  Kilcup reports that his grandmother was the niece of Mrs. Victoria
Hampton, successor to Mrs. Hudson as housekeeper to Sherlock Holmes at Hud-
son Farm in Surrey, and that there are eight more stories in the mysterious
Chinese box, to be published in a second volume later this year.  The pub-
lisher's address is 5404-A Port Royal Road, Springfield, VA 22151 (800-695-
8880); credit-card orders welcome.

R. Caton Woodville was a fine illustrator and artist, and you can see his
illustrations for Arthur Conan Doyle's "An Exciting Christmas Eve; or, My
Lecture on Dynamite" in the Boy's Own Paper (Christmas, 1883) and in Every
Boy's Magazine (Feb.-Mar. 1905), "Uncle Jeremy's Household" in Boy's Own
Paper (Jan. 8-Feb. 19, 1887) and Every Boy's Magazine (Feb.-Aug. 1907), "A
Shadow Before" in the Windsor Magazine (Dec. 1898) and "The Pot of Caviare"
in The Strand Magazine (Mar. 1908).  He is more widely noted as an artist,
and one of his classic works is "Saving the Guns at Maiwand" (showing the
Royal Horse Artillery withdrawing with the enemy in hot pursuit during the
Afghan war of 1879); a reproduction of the painting is available in full
color and in two sizes from Cranston Fine Arts (Torwood House, Torwoodhill
Road, Rhu Helensburgh, Scotland G84 8LE, Great Britain), and from an Amer-
ican distributor, Scottish Images, Box 160133, Sacramento, CA 95816 (800-
700-0334), for $60.00 (30 x 20 in.) or $20.00 (14 x 10 in.).  Shipping is
$10.00, and credit-card orders are welcome.  Scottish Images' catalog also
offers a 75-mm metal figurine of Sherlock Holmes at $19.95, and reproduc-
tions of Napoleonic paintings by Holmes' grand-uncle, Horace Vernet.

Bill Barnes (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) offers copies
of THE HOUNDS COLLECTION, which has 120 pages of stories, cartoons, poems,
puzzles, and plays written by members of The Hounds of the Internet; most
of the material is new, but a few pieces have appeared elsewhere.  AU$18.00
(US$15.00 or L9.00) postpaid by air, or AU$11.50 (US$10.00 or L6.00); post-
paid by surface mail.  Payment in Australian dollars is preferred, but U.S.
and British checks and currency are acceptable.

Further to the report (May 96 #4) on plans, or lack of plans, for preserva-
tion of the Round Reading Room in the British Museum, Catherine Cooke notes
that the summer 1996 issue of the British Museum Magazine reports that the
original blue, white, and gold interior will be restored and used for a new
Information Center that will have terminals connected to a multimedia data-
base, and a growing range of CD-ROM discs which can be consulted on "topics
such as the Anglo-Saxons, the history of money, or the Rosetta Stone."

Thanks to Didi Johnson for recommending THE BETTER BROWN STORIES, by Allan
Ahlberg (New York: Viking, 1995; 97 pp., $12.99); it's a grand existential-
ist story for children, about "a monstrous dog, a monstrous Milkman, free
money, some Mysterious Men, a forgotten baby, baffled police, and a bewild-
ered town."  The monstrous dog isn't our Hound, but the author does thank
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the Acknowledgements, and rightfully so.  Ahlberg
is British, and with his wife Janet has written many other childrens' books
that are reported to be just as good, if not as Sherlockian, as this one.

Jul 96 #4   Plan well ahead: The Pleasant Places of Florida will mark their
            25th anniversary with a "Sunshine State Sherlockian Scion Sym-
posium" in or near St. Petersburg on May 2-4, 1997.  The contact is Carl L.  
Heifetz, 5490 Salem Square Drive South, Palm Harbor, FL 34685-11387; e-mail
to <72642.3220@compuserve.com>.

Thomas F. McGee ("Wilson, the Notorious Canary Trainer") died on June 25.  
He was an Army cryptographer and a commercial artist before beginning his
career as a social worker, and he was a member of many of the Sherlockian
societies in Chicago as well as The Baker Street Irregulars, from whom he
received his investiture in 1981.  He contributed to our literature in the
1970s and 1980s, and in 1976 he designed and manufactured the first Sher-
lockian chess set.

You'll win one of 150 signed and numbered uncorrected proofs of A LETTER TO
MARY (to be published later this year), and an acknowledgement in the next
book in Laurie R. King's series about Mary Russell, if you submit the best
"Sherlockismus" (or possibly "Russellismus") to be uttered (preferably) by
Mary.  A Sherlockismus, identified by Ronald A. Knox, is an exchange such
as: "I followed you."  "I saw nobody."  "That is what you must expect to
see when I am following you."  But for the contest, it can also be a witty
statement.  Entries to Rebecca J. Anderson, 1877 Dumont Street, London, ON
N5W 2S3, Canada <rebeccaj@mercury.execulink.com>; the deadline is Aug. 17.

                     Karen M. Mullen (721 Vashti Drive, Houston, TX 77037-
                     4128) <kmam1@aol.com> offers her graphite print (12 x
                     20 in.) titled "A Tribute to Jeremy Brett as Sherlock
                     Holmes" ($75.00 postpaid; credit-card orders welcome).

                     Chris Redmond notes that THE ADVENTURES OF SURELOCKED
                     HOMES: MAKING ENTRY LESS ELEMENTARY still is offered
                     by the State Farm Insurance Companies, Box 7661, West-
                     chester, IL 60154; the pleasant 16-page pamphlet was
                     first issued in 1975, with suggestions on how to make
                     your home safer, and there's no charge (although they
                     hope that you'll think of them for home insurance).

Ted Friedman made a pleasant discovery in Alan MacKinnon's MURDER, REPEAT
MURDER (Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1952).  The dedication reads: "This
book is offered to James Keddie Jr. of Boston, Mass. and the Baker Street
Irregulars, in some slight return for the friendliest and most encouraging
letter a downhearted writer can ever have received."

Jim Suszynski's daughter spotted Larry "Sheerluck" Holmes in a deerstalker
in "The Barking!" in the comic book SCOOBY-DOO #11 (Aug. 1996) from Archie
Comics ($1.50).

Priscilla Juvelis (1166 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138; 617-497-
7570) offers interesting material in her catalogs, including from time to
time some interesting Sherlockian and Doyleana.  And her summer miscellany
(list 96-3) has a still from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939) showing
Holmes meeting Sir Henry, signed by Basil Rathbone in blue ink across the
margin and a bit of the photograph, in fine condition; $150.00.

Jul 96 #5   Reported by Ralph Hall: MYSTERIOUS MENAGERIE, edited by Cynthia
            Manson (Berkley, 1996, $5.99); with a Sherlockian dog on the
front cover.  THE BIG BOOK OF BERENSTAIN BEARS BEGINNER BOOKS, by Stan and
Jan Berenstain (Random House, 1996, $10.00); with reprints of two stories
about the Bear Detectives.  THE JEWELLED PEACOCK OF PERSIA, by Jake and
Luke Thoene (Moorings/Ballantine, 1996, $5.99); the third in a series of
"Baker Street Mysteries".  ESCAPADE, by Walter Satterthwait (St. Martin's,
1996, $5.99); a reprint of his Conan Doyle/Houndini pastiche (Sep 95 #4).  
CLASSIC MYSTERIES: A COLLECTION OF MIND-BENDING MASTERPIECES, edited by
Molly Cooper (Lowell House, 1996, $5.95); with "The Veiled Lodger".  And:
Sherlockian allusions in THE CASE OF THE U.S. SPACE CAMP MISSION, starring
Mary Kate and Ashley (a videocassette from Kid Vision/Warner, $9.95), and a
Sherlockian Roquefort, the Cheese Detective, in THE ARISTOCATS (from Walt
Disney Home Video, $12.99).

             Our recent set of stamps honoring folk heroes, with designs
             by David La Fleur, includes a stamp honoring the Mighty Casey
             (who was launched into legend on June 3, 1888, when Ernest L.  
             Thayer's poem "Casey at the Bat" first was published in the
             San Francisco Examiner).  In a footnote in his THE ANNOTATED
             CASEY AT THE BAT (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1967), Martin
             Gardner noted that Mudville's civic leaders, in an effort to
             change its rather forlorn image, had the town's name official-
             ly changed to Moorville, but residents of the area refused to
             use the new name, and the town continued to deteriorate rapid-
ly.  By 1907 it had disappeared entirely, explaining why neither Mudville
nor Moorville can be found in Kansas today (although, of course, there was
a Moorville at the time of "The Three Garridebs").  Gardner's friend John
Bennett Shaw often proudly admitted that he had helped with certain aspects
of the book.

Steve Legenhausen has nice news for those who would like to see just what
the Vermissa Valley looked like in the days of the Scowrers: there are many
19th-century photographs, with informative captions, in IMAGES OF AMERICA:
POTTSVILLE, by Leo L. Ward and Mark T. Major (Dover: Arcadia Publishing,
1995; 144 pp., $16.99).  Pottsville, the county seat of Schuylkill County,
is where the real Mollie Maguires were known and feared; the publisher's
address is One Washington Center, Dover, NH 03820.

I mentioned earlier (Apr 96 #1) an exhibition called "Greuze: A Portraitist
for the 90's" at the Frick; the show has closed, but Sonia Fetherston notes
that two of his portraits are part of the permanent collection: he painted
famous Comedie Francaise actor Baptiste AŒne and his young wife in the early
1790s.  The Frick is at Fifth Avenue at East 70th Street in New York.

Bert Coules has reported on the auction (at Phillip's of London, on July
11) of items from the estate of the late Peter Cushing.  One of them was a
deerstalker "worn by Cushing in the role of Sherlock Holmes" (estimated at
L30) that brought L1,200.  A Cox Moore red smoking jacket (also worn in the
role) sold for L480, and a Berman green tweed suit (ditto) for L440, and a
small collection of pipes and smoking accessories (ditto) for L950.  And a
collection of film and television scripts annotated by Cushing (including
"The Masks of Death" and "The Abbot's Cry") brought L1,250.

Jul 96 #6   The Quality Paperback Book Club now offers a ten-volume uniform
            Sherlock Holmes set for $34.95 (that's the nine volumes of the
Canon, plus their 96-page "guide to the lives of the great detective and his
creator"); the club is for members only, but it's easy to join: the address
is Camp Hill, PA 17011-9902.

The summer 1996 issue of The Sherlock Holmes Journal has arrived, with the
usual fine assortment of interesting material, including Catherine Cooke's
enthusiastic evaluation of Michael Harrison's IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES (1958) as the first of a series on "The Classics Reassessed", and
Nicholas Utechin's announcement that next month the BBC will issue a video-
cassette with two shows ("The Speckled Band" and "The Illustrious Client")
from the 1960s television series starring Douglas Wilmer and Nigel Stock
(the cassette will be in the British PAL format, and so far there's no word
of plans for a release in the American NTSC format).  The SHJ is published
two times a year, and a subscription costs $21.00 to the U.S. (different
prices for other countries); checks payable to the society, and you should
write to Bob Ellis, 13 Crofton Avenue, Orpington, Kent BR6 8DU, England.

                                     The United States certainly wasn't the
                                     only country to honor the Year of the
                                     Rat on stamps (Mar 96 #1); there are
                                     two rats on a handsome souvenir sheet
                                     from Australia (for Christmas Island,
                                     which of course is closer to Sumatra).

William E. Butler's SHERLOCKIAN BOOKPLATES (Jul 92 #3) still is available
from its publisher (Silent Books, Boxworth End, Swavesey, Cambridge CB4
5RA, England) for L9.95 postpaid.  The 57-page booklet does a fine job of
showing a wide variety of bookplates created for and by many Sherlockians
from Vincent Starrett and Edgar W. Smith to more recent times.

The South Atlantic Chronicle (The Journal of the St. Helena, Ascension and
Tristan da Cunha Philatelic Society), and this year it published Michael D.  
Mueller's three-part article on "The Saint Helena Hypothesis".  He explores
the Sherlockian and philatelic connections of four well-known men: Darwin,
Napoleon, Halley, and Newton (three of them actually visited the island,
and are shown on its stamps, and of course St. Helena is mentioned in the
Canon).  The set of three issues is available ($10.00 postpaid) from the
author at 3201 Wisconsin Avenue NW #401, Washington, DC 20016-3802.

Jerry Wachs reports that John English Gifts Ltd. (6 Princes Arcade, Picca-
dilly, London WS1Y 6DS, England) have a sales list of Sherlockian figures,
including the Bossons wall sculptures, Robert Harrop's Country Companions
(the Holmes and Watson dogs), Cloudside figures, and chess sets.

John W. Chancellor died on July 12.  He began his career in journalist in
1948, moving to television in 1950, and gained national attention with his
on-the-scene coverage of the school-integration struggle in Little Rock in
1957; he had become one of America's most highly-regarded television jour-
nalists when he retired in 1993, and he often referred to the Canon during
his broadcasts (during the 1992 presidential campaign he called Bush and
Baker "the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of the Republican Party")

Jul 96 #7   There's still time to register for Bouchercon 27 (in St. Paul,
            Oct. 10-13); I've not heard about any Sherlockian programming,
but Douglas Greene's JOHN DICKSON CARR: THE MAN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES has
been nominated for an Anthony in the "best critical work" category.  Bouch-
ercon is the world mystery convention, named in honor of Anthony Boucher;
additional information is available from Bouchercon 27, 4400 Upton Avenue
South #408, Minneapolis, MN 55410 <bcon27@winternet.com>.

What place, mentioned in the Canon, was a city when Conan Doyle was there,
but isn't now?  I'll give the answer on the next page.

Ev Herzog has forwarded an interesting article in the New York Press (Jan.  
3) about Richard B. Shull -- well, it's really about lost kingdoms, such as
the Kingdom of Araucania and Patagonia, which briefly existed more than a
century ago in what is now Chile.  But there's still a Prince Phillipe, who
lives in France, and a North American Araucania Royalist Society, of which
Shull is director; their newsletter is called The Steel Crown (his address
is 400 West 43rd Street #33-A, New York, NY 10036-6301) and they have a web
site <http://www.pitt.edu/~figtree/kap.html>.  He also has been knighted by
the Sovereign Military Order of the Temple of Jerusalem, and the Orthodox
Order of St. John of Jerusalem, and he is a member of the Society of the
Colonial Wars, the Veterans Corps of Artillery, the Military Society of the
War of 1812, the Colonial Order of the Acorn, the Sons of Union Veterans of
the Civil War, the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels, Washington Irving's
St. Nicholas Society, and the Dutch Treat Club.  Not mentioned in the arti-
cle is the Baker Street Irregulars (in which his Investiture is "An Actor
and a Rare One").  When you're in New York you can see him on stage in the
musical "Victor/Victoria" at the Marquis Theatre.

Russ Geoffrey reports that the latest catalog from What on Earth has hand-
cast stone busts (also useful as bookends) of Holmes and Watson at $54.95
each plus shipping; 2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087-2351
(800-945-2552).  And the new catalog from Cash's of Ireland has a painted
resin Sherlockian chess set for $295.00 plus shipping; Box 158, Plainview,
NY 11803 (800-223-8100).

Paul Martin notes that a yet another hand-decorated Sherlockian chess set
is available from British Exports Ltd., Box 11240, Merrilville, IN 46411;
$450.00.  Is anyone keeping count of how many different Sherlockian chess
sets there are?

Christopher Roden reports that next month the Calabash Press will publish
THE CASE FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE MUSGRAVE RITUAL, with essays on the
story by Sherlockians and Doyleans.  The 167-page book will be available in
cloth ($33.00 by air, $29.00 by surface) and paper ($22.50 by air, $19.50
by surface) and the address is Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd,
Chester, CH4 0JG, England.

The Bull Terrier Club of Boston University is again planning an excursion
to a polo match (USA vs. Argentina) at Glen Farm in Portsmouth, R.I., on
Sept. 7.  Polo is mentioned in the Canon, of course, and details about the
event are available from Scott Monty, 1836 Columbia Road #2, South Boston,
MA 02127-4342 <wsmonty@bu.edu>.

Jul 96 #8   Philip J. Attwell reports that Maggie Fox and Sue Ryding will
            star in "Move Over Moriarty" (they play all the roles, in fact)
at The Castle in Wellingborough on Nov. 20.  The play is a comedy, and the
duo has had high praise from The Independent.  The Castle's address is Cas-
tle Way, Wellingborough, Northants. NN8 1XA, England (01933-270-007).

                   The Commonwealth of Dominica has just issued a sheetlet
                   of nine stamps honoring "Legendary Sleuths of the Silver
                   Screen", and one of those legendary sleuths is Sherlock
                   Holmes, as portrayed by Basil Rathbone.  The others are
                   Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart), James Bond (Sean Connery),
                   Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty), Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler),
                   The Thin Man (William Powell), Inspector Clouseau (Peter
                   Sellers), Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum), and Inspector
                   Poirot (Peter Ustinov); there's also a separate souvenir
                   sheet for Miss Marple (Margaret Rutherford).  And there
                   is no need to travel to the Windward Islands to get the
                   Sherlock Holmes stamp: Benton Wood has a limited supply
                   of the nine-stamp sheetlets, priced at $7.50 postpaid.  
Ben's address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222-0740.  And (for those who are
not philatelists) Ben also offers a fine sales list for the Pleasant Places
of Florida's "Super Sherlockian Sale" of books, videocassettes, and other
Sherlockiana.

Gary Thaden has passed on a copy of the summer issue America Brews News, a
newsletter for people who brew their own beer.  The company offers recipe
kits (with ingredients and instructions) for Sherlock's Bitter ($20.95) and
Watson's Cream Stout ($21.65); shipping extra.  The address is 9925 Lyndale
Avenue South, Bloomington, MN 55438 (800-200-3647) <abrews@aol.com>.

What place, mentioned in the Canon, was a city when Conan Doyle was there,
but isn't now?  Brooklyn (mentioned in "The Red Circle") was a city when he
was there during his lecture tour in 1894; it was annexed into the city of
New York in 1898, and now is a borough.  If you want to try the question on
non-Sherlockians: name a city in the United States that once had a popula-
tion more than a million, and no longer exists.

The latest issue of the Reichenbachian Cliff-Notes, edited by Kendall Pagan
and published occasionally by The Reichenbach Cliff-Divers, has the usual
assortment of skewed Sherlockiana, including a report on Juan Melondirge's
plans for IRREGULAR MEMORIES OF 1996 and its supplements JOE BOB'S IRREGU-
LAR MAMMARIES OF 1996 and IRREGULAR MUMMERIES OF 1996.  A few copies still
are available from the Lascarian Press, 4010 North Devon Lane, Peoria, IL
61614 ($1.00 postpaid).

Paula M. Brown has more information on the memorial to Jeremy Brett at the
Holiday Inn (Union Square) in San Francisco on Sept. 14-15; she has blocked
rooms at the Holiday Inn and at the nearby (and less expensive) Hotel Rex,
and is lining up speakers and other items for the agenda.  Her address is
40787 Canyon Heights Drive, Fremont, CA 94539 <vgtd52b@prodidgy.com>.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Aug 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

Claudette Colbert died on July 30.  She started her film career in "Love O'
Mike" (1927), and won an Academy Award as best actress in "It Happened One
Night" (1934), and became one of the most-admired stars in Hollywood; when
she was awarded a Kennedy Center Honor in 1989, Gregory Peck introduced her
as the "best thing we've gotten from France since the Statue of Liberty."
She also acted on stage (including an appearance with Rex Harrison and Jer-
emy Brett in "Aren't We All" in 1985).  And if you have a chance to see her
with James Stewart in the splendid comedy "It's a Wonderful World" (1939),
don't miss it: in one scene Colbert asks Stewart, "Couldn't you just think
of me as if I were Sherlock Holmes?"  And he replies, "OK, have it your own
way.  You're Sherlock Holmes.  Here's your pipe."

Sorry about that: the author of the fine Amelia Peabody Emerson mysteries
(Jul 96 #2) is Elizabeth Peters (a pseudonym used by Barbara Mertz).  Ellis
Peters (a pseudonym used by Edith Pargeter) wrote about Brother Cadfael and
others.  And of course there is Ludovic Peters (a pseudonym used by Peter
Ludwig Brent), who wrote about Ian Firth.  It may well be that there are no
mysteries written by someone who really is named Peters.  Or perhaps some-
one named Peters is writing mysteries, but has wisely chosen a pseudonym.

"A Japanese museum has launched a bizarre search for bricks from buildings
featured in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes," according to a story in The
Guardian (July 5, 1996), at hand from Jon Lellenberg.  Not so bizarre, in
fact: the World Brick Museum in Maizaru is preparing for an exhibition of
British building bricks, and has targeted New Scotland Yard, Covent Garden,
the Royal Albert Hall, and St. Pancras Station.  The Guardian also reports
that Sherlock Holmes was created when Arthur Conan Doyle lived in Ports-
mouth, "where there is concern at the methods that may be used by Japanese
tourists to obtain the bricks."

Also at hand from Jon are articles from Yorkshire about the start of film-
ing on "The Golden Afternoon" (Jan 96 #7), the film about the two girls who
created the Cottingley fairies and fooled Conan Doyle and many others.  The
film is budgeted at L9 million, and will star Peter O'Toole as Conan Doyle
and Harvey Keitel as Houdini.  The film has a new title ("Illumination"),
and is scheduled for release next spring.  Houdini?  Well, according to the
film-makers, Houdini and Conan Doyle "were friends who famously fell out
over the authenticity of the pictures" of the fairies.  Not true, but of
course two big names are better than one.

Is anyone planning a visit to Moscow?  Does anyone know anyone who is plan-
ning a trip to Moscow?  I still need to find someone who can retrieve some
Sherlockian videocassettes that I am reluctant to entrust to the Russian
mail system.  Please let me know if you can help.

The latest issue of Scarlet Street has arrived, with the last installment
of Jeremy Brett's conversations with David Stuart Davies and Jessie Lilley.  
a fine discussion of film and television versions of "Laura" (it's not all
that easy to discuss a television program when neither script nor tape have
survived), and much more.  Scarlet Street is published quarterly ($20.00 a
year), and the address is Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452.

Aug 96 #2   Herman Herst Jr. (Box 1583, Boca Raton, FL 33429) distributed
            copies of his illustrated report on the world's first Christmas
card at the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars in 1981, and it is
available from him again for $2.00 and a #10 55c SASE.  Why would the story
of an 1840 Christmas card be of interest to Sherlockian?  It was designed
by Richard Doyle, uncle of Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will convene on Tuesday, Oct. 29, at
the Cadillac Ranch in Denver, during the annual meeting of the Geological
Association of America.  Sherlockians and geologists are welcome to join in
honoring the world's first forensic geologist; the restaurant is in Larimer
Square (1400 Larimer Street), and the festivities will begin with cocktails
at 7:00 and continue with dinner at 8:00; the dinner will cost $28.95 (with
tax and tip included), and a choice of three entrees (prime rib, salmon, or
chicken).  It would be helpful (although it's not absolutely necessary) if
you let me know in advance if you will attend the gathering.

The current issue of Anglofile reports that Raymond Benson will be the new
author of additions to the James Bond saga, following in the footsteps of
John Gardner (who "has tired of the 007 writing chores after 14 novels and
two novelizations of Bond movies"); this may mean that Gardner will at long
last have time to write the third novel in his "Moriarty" trilogy.  And we
will see some Sherlockian actors in non-Sherlockian roles: Christopher Lee
will play Lucas De Beaumanoir in a BBC/A&E six-hour mini-series based on
Sir Walter Scott's "Ivanhoe", and Michael Caine will star as Capt. Nemo in
an ABC-TV mini-series "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".  Anglofile (a monthly
newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment) costs $12.00 a
year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033).

Two of Val Andrews' British pastiches were on the shelves at a local Barnes
& Noble, and presumably are available elsewhere; Andrews is a knowledgeable
magician, and it shows.  SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE EGYPTIAN HALL ADVENTURE
(London: Breese Books, 1993, 112 pp., $9.00) has Holmes and Watson involved
with J. N. Maskelyne in 1898; SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE HOUDINI BIRTHRIGHT
was published in 1995 and also costs $9.00 (Sep 95 #5).

"The Sherlock Holmes Museum (221B Baker Street, London NW1 6XE, England)"
is what I gave as the address last month (Jul 96 #1), and of course some
readers were quick to wonder whether the Museum had moved from 239 to 221
(or had persuaded the Royal Mail to give the 221 address to the Museum).  
No.  But: as far as I know, a letter addressed to the Museum at 221b will
be delivered to the Museum at 239, and a letter sent to Sherlock Holmes at
221b will be delivered to his secretary at Abbey House (since the carriers
in England pay attention, which cannot always be said of carriers here).

A correspondent in England reports that John Aidiniantz is now allowed out
of jail each day, but must return to the nick in Richmond for the night.  
Aidiniantz, formerly the proprietor of The Sherlock Holmes Museum, was con-
victed on charges of obtaining L1.2 million by deception (in this case it
multiple mortgages on the same properties), and was fined L30,000 in costs
and jailed for three years in Jan. 1995; the British legal system allows
one-third off for good behavior, so he's likely to be paroled soon.  Mrs.
Grace Riley, currently the Museum's proprietor, is his mother.

Aug 96 #3   Don't delay too long: Malice Domestic IX will be held at the
            Hyatt Regency in Bethesda on May 2-4, 1997, but registration is
likely to close in October (attendance is limited to 700); Malice Domestic
is a convention for fans of mysteries of manners, and this year's gathering
was nicely done.  Details are available from Malice Domestic, Box 31137,
Bethesda, MD 20824-1137 <malice@erols.com> <http://www.erols.com/malice>.

The Patchwork Playhouse performed Catherine Baker's dramatizations of four
Sherlock Holmes stories in 1994-95, and two more plays have been scheduled:
"The Noble Bridegroom" (Oct. 3-19, 1996) and "The Man with the Twisted Lip"
(Mar. 13-Apr. 5, 1997).  The box-office address is: 711 East Main Street,
Lexington, SC 29072 (800-477-7252).

Most if not all of the volumes in the "Franklin Library of Mystery Master-
pieces" are now on the bargain tables at Barnes & Noble at $4.98 each, and
one of them is the handsome GREAT CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, first published
in 1987 (at $19.95); it has 19 stories, and five excellent illustrations by
Mitchell Hooks, and a rear section reprinting many of Julian Wolff's fine
Sherlockian maps.  You can identify the discount variant on the title-page
verso, which no longer states that Magico Magazine owns the copyright for
the maps (which apparently were taken from the Magico reprint of Julian's
THE SHERLOCKIAN ATLAS).

The Pequod Press presses on, with Dr. Fatso's report on Turlock Loams's en-
counter with the Rat Girl, Bulldog Drumstick, three sinister rodents, and
their mysterious bonny blue eggs.  THE ADVENTURE OF THE THREE RODENTS is
available (hand-crafted as always) from Fatso's literary agent John Ruyle,
521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707: $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper).

Mark Frost's Conan Doyle pastiche THE SIX MESSIAHS was issued on audiocass-
ettes last year (Mar 95 #1); the six-hour audio version (abridged with the
approval of the author) is read on four cassettes by David Warner with fine
voice and style (Dove Audio, $24.95).

Syd Goldberg forwarded an item from the July 7 issue of the N.Y. Post: Otto
Penzler, proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York, was in London
scouting for a location for the British sister bookstore he hopes to open
later this year.  And in September he will spend a month as "the Alistair
Cooke of mystery" when he does the introductions for 59 mystery classics on
the Turner Classic Movie channel.

An Orthodox rabbi is found shot to death in his study in the synagogue, in
Batya Swift Yasgur's nice short story "Kaddish" in EQMM (Sept.-Oct. 1996);
there's a copy of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES among the books on his desk,
and there's good reason for that.

Further to the earlier review of the eight audiocassettes from Brilliance
Audio starring Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce (Jun 96 #1), Ken Greenwald notes
that he has just finished recording the introductions for the next four
cassettes (the introductions include a dramatic encounter between Mycroft
and Moriarty).  There will be two more cassettes, for a series total of 16,
and there's a possibility of a new series of 20 cassettes with 40 programs
from 1947-1949, starring John Stanley as Sherlock Holmes.

Aug 96 #4   Jessica Mitford died on July 23.  Time magazine dubbed her the
            "Queen of Muckrakers" when she wrote her expose of the funeral
industry in THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH (1963), and in her long career as a
writer she also attacked the Famous Writers School, overpriced restaurants,
and the American prison system.  And when her how-I-did-it book POISON PEN-
MANSHIP was published in 1979, she happily posed in deerstalker and cape in
advertisements in the N.Y. Times and other papers.

Eddie Maguire's A DEATH AT THE CRICKET (Bridgwater: Big House Books, 1996)
follows in the footsteps of last year's THE IRISH PROFESSOR (Sep 95 #2);
the new pastiche takes Holmes and Watson to Sussex for a cricket match and
a murder mystery.  The 30-page pamphlet costs $6.50 postpaid from Ian Henry
Publications, 20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England.

The sixth issue of The Shoso-in Bulletin has arrived from The Men with the
Twisted Konjo, with 162 pages (in English) of articles, pastiches, poetry,
and illustrations by contributors from Japan and eight other nations.  The
journal is edited by Yuichi Hirayama, and is truly an international effort
(don't neglect the delightful Japanese cover artwork, which isn't).  $12.00
postpaid (to United States and Canada) from Jennie C. Paton, 206 Loblolly
Lane, Statesboro, GA 30458; or L7.50 postpaid (to Britain and Europe) from
John Hall, 20 Drury Avenue, Horsforth, Leeds, W. Yorks. LS18 4BR, England.  
Checks in U.S. dollars to Jennie; checks in sterling to John (or any other
nation's currency, John notes).

One of the nice things about modern technology is that it allows Sherlock-
ian (and other) authors access to broader audiences than is possible with
ink-on-paper publication.  John Hall's monograph 140 DIFFERENT VARIETIES
(on the use of tobacco in the Canon) was published as pamphlet in 1994 by
the Northern Musgraves, and can now be read on the World Wide Web at the
Pipe Digest home page at <http://www.pipes.org>.

Luci Zahray kindly forwarded an excerpt from the list of items available at
Mark Hime's booth at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair last
April: a fine, bright copy of the first edition of THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES ($2,250); one of the 147 sets of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (1953)
with Conan Doyle's signature ($2,750); and the almost-complete manuscript
of "The Valley of Fear" ($525,000).  They may still be available; you can
write to Biblioctopus, 2142 Century Park Lane, Century City, CA 90067.

Pepper & Stern are offering books from the library of Nigel Bruce, includ-
ing his copies of the first editions of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
(1892) and THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1894), at $6,500 for the set.  
More reasonable, perhaps, is his wife Bunny's signed copy of THE BEDSIDE
BOOK OF FAMOUS BRITISH STORIES (1940), with "The Speckled Band", at $150.
Pepper & Stern's address is 1980 Cliff Drive #224, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
<psbookwest@aol.com>.

THE KINGS' TALES, by Phillip and Robert King (London: B. T. Batsford, 1994;
142 pp.), is a collection of bridge-problem pastiches, done in the styles
of authors such as Chandler, Runyon, Wodehouse, Asimov, Kafka, and Coward,
and one of them is "A Study in Sherlock".  $20.95 postpaid from Trafalgar
Square, Howe Hill Road, North Pomfret, VT 05053 (800-423-4525).

Aug 96 #5   The BBC has ended its educational daytime programs on Radio 3
            FM, but continues to broadcast School Radio programs at night
(when teachers can make off-the-air recordings for later use).  And "Music
Workshop" will offer "Sherlock Holmes and the Rogues Gallery" at 3:00-3:20
am Fridays from Sept. 20 to Nov. 29 ("Holmes and Watson unravel a mystery,
set in Victorian London, as we do a spot of musical detection; the musical
focus is pitch and structure").  BBC Educational Publishing (P.O. Box 234,
Wetherby, West Yorks. LS23 7EU, England) mentions teacher's notes, radio
tapes, pupils' booklets, and music workshop cassettes in the catalog cover-
ing this series and many others on BBC radio and television.

The Conan Doyles liked Mercedes-Benz cars: Sir Arthur owned one, and his
sons Denis and Adrian owned and raced four of them.  One of the sons' cars
is preserved in the collection at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart,
and that's where another one was sold in April at an auction conducted by
Brooks of London.  Their 1934-35 7.1-litre supercharged Mercedes-Benz type
'SSK' two-seat competition Spyder rated four full pages in the auction cat-
alog, with photographs of the car as it looks now, and when they raced it
in England and Ireland.  And there is some evidence that when the car was
built for Denis and Adrian, Mercedes-Benz used the engine from Sir Arthur's
older and more sedate car.  Adrian sold the car in 1948, and it has been in
the hands of collectors ever since; it was fully restored in 1990, and then
was driven in rallies in England and Europe.  The catalog described the car
as "an immediately usable, reliable, and spectacular thoroughbred mount,
ideal for a full programme of vintage motor sporting events of all kinds."
And it sold for 1.2 million deutschmarks (about $813,600).

                                   The Montague Street Lodgers of Brooklyn
                                   celebrated their tenth anniversary last
                                   year, and commemorated the event with a
                                   souvenir magnifying glass (5.25" long)
                                   $7.00 postpaid from Peter Crupe (checks
                                   payable to him, please), at 1533 64th
                                   Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219-5709.

Masamichi Higurashi has helped to make some American pastiches available in
Japan, providing translations for Edward B. Hanna's THE WHITECHAPEL HORRORS
in two volumes (Tokyo: Fusosha, 1996; 336/312 pp., Y560/Y540), and Randall
Collins' THE CASE OF THE PHILOSOPHER'S RING (Tokyo: Kawade Shobo Shinsha,
1996); 272 pp., Y700).  Masamichi also has translated four stories [RedH/
Twis/Blue/Silv] for HOLMES THE GREAT DETECTIVE (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1996; 224
pp., Y560) in a children's series; the book has attractive illustrations by
Hitoshi Wakana and "Ki".

For Jeremy Brett fans: Ashley Lynn Decker reports that the episode of "The
"The Incredible Hulk" on the Sci-Fi Channel on Sept. 16 will be "Of Guilt,
Models and Murders" (with Brett in the cast).

Collectors seeking specific old, used, and rare books have long relied on
book-search firms, and now there's an electronic equivalent on the World
Wide Web at <http://www.bibliofind>.  Dealers post what they have in the
data base, and you can run a search on-line (and if you don't find what
you're looking for, you can put a want-list on file).

Aug 96 #6   CSA Telltapes has issued another set of Sherlockian audiocass-
            ettes: THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EPISODE TWO has two
cassettes with three stories ("The Cardboard Box", "The Man with the Twist-
ed Lip", and "The Bruce-Partington Plans") read by Edward Hardwicke, who as
always does a splendid job with the text and voices; L9.00 postpaid, from
CSA Telltapes, 101 Chamberlayne Road, London NW10 3ND, England.  SIX GREAT
ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES has the earlier and the current cassettes, at
L14.00 postpaid.  The cassettes also are available in stores in the United
States at $12.00/$19.95; the distributor is Cimino Publishing, Box 174,
Carle Place, NY 11514; $14.00/$22.95 postpaid.

Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers a new
sales list, with figurines, statues, programs, posters, lobby cards, books,
magazines, and other Sherlockiana.

Sonia Fetherston reports that the new film "A Very Brady Sequel" has Jesse
Lee (Bobby Brady) with deerstalker and magnifying glass while he searches
for Cindy's missing Kitty Carry-All doll (which also wears a deerstalker).  
The film is a sequel to "The Brady Bunch Movie" (1995), which of course was
a sequel to the television sit-com series "The Brady Bunch" (1969-1974).  
I've not yet heard any rumors of a television series sequel to the films.

And Susan Dahlinger reports that in the new film "The Island of Dr. Moreau"
Val Kilmer (Douglas) explains the "dog in the night-time" Sherlockismus to
a group of Moreau's genetic "children".

William Seil has reported that his pastiche SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE TITANIC
TRAGEDY is available for $14.95 (postage extra) from Breese Books, 164 Ken-
sington Park Road, London W11 2ER, England (credit-card orders accepted).  
According to Bill, the 256-page book also is carried by some of the mystery
and other bookshops in the United States.

Enola Stewart (Gravesend Books, Box 235 Pocono Pines, PA 18350) has issued
a new catalog offering lots of rare, unusual, and interesting Sherlockiana
and other material, much of it from the collection of Julian Wolff, who was
for many years the leader of The Baker Street Irregulars, and editor of The
Baker Street Journal.

John Farrell has discovered an intriguing CD issued by Channel Classics in
1995: "Modern Times: Dutch Jewish Composers 1928-1943" (CCS 7995); the con-
tents include "Deux Homages" for solo piano by Leo Smit, and one of them is
"a Sherlock Holmes" (a Charleston written in 1928).

Forecast for September: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RED DEMON (a new pastiche
by Larry Millett) from Viking/Penguin, $22.95; THE LOST WORLD (the sequel
to  Michael Crichton's JURASSIC PARK) in paperback from Ballantine, $7.99;
THE LIST OF 7 (the Conan Doyle pastiche by Mark Frost) reissued in paper-
back from Avon, $5.99.  And David Stuart Davies' BENDING THE WILLOW: JEREMY
BRETT AS SHERLOCK HOLMES (Calabash Press, 192 pp., L19.99) will have its
launch party at Crime in Store in London on Oct. 23.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Sep 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

"Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" has returned.  Leslie Bricusse was hired by
MGM to write a new score for a film version of the musical "Baker Street"
(1964), but the film was never produced, and Bricusse eventually used his
songs in "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" (1988), which received lukewarm
reviews in London and the provinces.  And "The Revenge of Sherlock Holmes"
appears from the program to be a restaging of the musical; the new version
was produced at the Bristol Old Vic in Mar. 1993 (but not reported by any
local Sherlockians), and then in May 1996 at the Little Theatre in Gates-
head (noted in a newspaper article recently forwarded by Jon Lellenberg).  
Samuel French Ltd., is handling licensing for amateur productions.

The August Derleth Society commemorated the 25th anniversary of Derleth's
death last June in Sauk City, with a tour of his home "Place of Hawks" and
a visit to his grave, according to an article in the local paper, at hand
from George Vanderburgh.  Peter Ruber, one of Derleth's editors, noted that
"Derleth's genius was in storytelling, whether he wrote about the people of
his home town or detective stories or stories of the macabre and the super-
natural."  Some of those detective stories will be found in the Solar Pons
saga, of course.  Membership in the society (including the quarterly news-
letter) costs $10.00 a year; Box 481, Sauk City, WI 53583.

Plan ahead: Theatre Aquarius will present 19 performances of Tim Kelly's
dramatization of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in Hamilton, Ont., on Feb.
12-Mar. 1, 1997; the box-office address is 190 King William Street, Hamil-
ton, ON L8R 1A8, Canada (800-465-7529).

The summer 1996 issue of the Amherst alumni magazine has an amusing item
about Henry Ward Beecher, who in addition to being admired by Watson was
an Amherst graduate (1834) and author of the novel NORWOOD, "of which he
characteristically remarked, 'People used to say that I had had a hand in
[my sister's] writing of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, but when NORWOOD was published
I heard no more talk of this kind.'"

The Friends of Bogie's (Andrew Joffe, Sarah Montague, and Paul Singleton)
have been delighting Sherlockian audiences for a dozen years with inspired
pastiches and parodies (such as a retelling of some of the Canonical tales
in the styles of Shakespeare, Pinter, Joyce, Chandler, and Milne), and you
can hear and enjoy their humor on five audiocassettes (THE FOB'S ON BAKER
STREET, THE FOB'S RETURN TO BAKER STREET, THE ADVENTURES OF THE FOB'S ON
BAKER STREET, THE MEMOIRS OF THE FOB'S ON BAKER STREET, and THE CASEBOOK OF
THE FOB'S ON BAKER STREET), each also with a poetic account of one of the
cases by Baker Street bard Henry W. Enberg.  The cassettes cost $8.95 each
(or $35.00 for all five) plus $2.00 shipping per order, from Andrew Joffe,
340 East 63rd Street, New York, NY 10021.

Christopher Morley turns up in unexpected places: USAir had "Kitty Foyle"
(1940) as one of the in-flight movies (well, they're in-flight television
now) on trans-Atlantic and trans-continental flights in July.  And in the
N.Y. Times Magazine (Aug. 4): Charles Harrington Elster reports in his "On
Language" column that Morley minted the word "infracaninophile" (a champ-
ion of the underdog) in his preface to THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (1930).

Sep 96 #2   One of the most delightful of the Sherlockian bibliohoaxes is
            THE PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BEE CULTURE: WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS
UPON THE SEGREGATION OF THE QUEEN, by Sherlock Holmes (London: Methuen &
Co., 1911), actually published by Remsen Ten Eyck Schenck in an edition so
limited that the few fortunate recipients were warned never to reveal the
source of the rarity.  And the book was real: the title page was reproduced
in the Sept. 1966 issue of The Baker Street Journal, and the book is cited
in THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES, and Julian Wolff's copy was advertised by
Enola Stewart in 1993.  Enola, with help from British bee-books specialists
Betty and Karl Showler, eventually was able to find the source of Schenck's
clever forgery: Kenneth K. Clark's handbook on BEEKEEPING (Harmondsworth:
Penguin Books, 1951), a post-war paperback that Schenck had bound in cloth
after substituting a new title-page.  Copies of Clark's book turn up from
time to time, and the Showlers now offer THE CASE OF THE HOLMES BEE BOOK: a
carefully crafted box containing Clark's BEEKEEPING and a 28-page pamphlet
with a detailed discussion of the affair.  $60.00 postpaid (checks payable
to Karl Showler, please) from B & K Books, Riverside, Newport Street, Hay-
on-Wye, via Hereford HR3 5BG, England.  But note: there's a waiting list,
with orders filled as more copies of Clark's book turn up.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: VICTORIAN SLEUTH TO MODERN HERO was the title of a fine
conference held at Bennington College in Vermont in June 1994, and it is
the title of a collection of papers presented at the conference, edited by
Charles A. Putney, Sally Sugarman, and Joseph A. Cutshall King, members of
The Baker Street Breakfast Club (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 1996; 356 pp.,
$34.50); $37.50 postpaid from the publisher, 4720 Boston Way, Lanham, MD
20706 (800-462-6420).

Video-taper alert: the latest issue of Anglofile reports that "Nightmare!
The Birth of Victorian Horror" will air on A&E cable on Oct. 28-31 (and on
BBC-1, probably); this is a four-part mini-series with Christopher Frayling
as host, examining Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", Bram Stoker's "Dracula",
Robert Louis Stevenson's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", and Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (actors impersonating Conan Doyle
and Fletcher Robinson were filmed in Sept. 1995 at the Links Hotel in West
Runton, and John Nettles plays Sherlock Holmes).  Anglofile is a monthly
newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year
(Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033).

The Gainesville Children's Theatre will perform Suzan L. Zeder's play "The
Death and Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1987) at the Pearce Auditorium on the
Brenau University Campus in Gainesville, Ga. on Oct. 11-12 (six school per-
formances on Oct. 8-10 have already been sold out).  The box-office address
is Box 2267, Gainesville, GA 30503 (770-503-1118).

Further to the mention of IMAGES OF AMERICA: POTTSVILLE (Jul 96 #5), Bruce
Aikin notes that IMAGES OF AMERICA: NIAGARA FALLS, by Daniel M. Dumych (Do-
ver: Arcadia Publishing, 1996; $16.99) also has fine period photographs of
a place mentioned in two Sherlock Holmes stories ("A Study in Scarlet" and
"The Cardboard Box"); the publisher's address is One Washington Center, Do-
ver, NH 03820.  There is a person named in Canon who visited Niagara Falls
many times, and was famous for what he did there.  Who was he? and what did
he do there?  I'll give the answer on the next page.

Sep 96 #3   Victoria Gill has forwarded an item from the Toronto Globe and
            Mail (Aug. 20): filming has started in Winnipeg on a 13-episode
children's mystery series "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" (with Meredith
Henderson as Shirley Holmes, the 12-year-old great grandniece of Sherlock
Holmes); like her ancestor, Shirley is brilliant and eccentric and wants to
become the world's greatest detective.  The 30-minute series will air next
year on YTV cable in Canada.

Queen Victoria was discussing the Diamond Jubilee with the Bishop of Win-
chester, and she asked him, "From what point did you see the procession?"
And then, recollecting, she said, "Oh! you were on the steps of St. Paul's.  
I was unfortunate -- I had a very bad place and saw nothing."  That's only
one of the stories in THE JUBILEE YEARS 1887-1897, compiled by Roger Hudson
and published by The Folio Society to celebrate its own 50th anniversary.  
It's lavishly illustrated, and costs $57.00, and available only to members
of the Society (Box 694, Holmes, PA 19043) (800-353-0700), but it will be
found in used-book shops eventually, and it looks like a grand view of the
world of Sherlock Holmes.

Christopher Roden reports that the Calabash Press will publish collections
of fine articles from Baker Street Miscellanea, Canadian Holmes, and Wheel-
wrightings within the next eighteen months, and that all major articles in
the journals will be reprinted in the book.  The Sherlock Holmes Society of
London also is preparing to publish a similar volume of articles reprinted
from The Sherlock Holmes Journal, so the next two years will be banner ones
for "best of" books.

Sorry about that: I gave an incorrect World Wide Web address for the elec-
tronic equivalent of a book-search firm (Aug 96 #6).  The correct address
is <http://www.bibliofind.com>.

Thomas M. McDade ("The Dancing Men") died on Mar. 2.  He was an FBI agent
in the 1930s, in the days when the G-Men battled Public Enemies, and then
became an attorney and a writer.  He won an Edgar from the Mystery Writers
of America for his book THE ANNALS OF MURDER, and his article on "Sherlock
Holmes and the F.B.I." appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1957
(the same year in which he received his Investiture from The Baker Street
Irregulars).

The Bull-Terrier Club of Boston University returned to Newport, R.I., on
Sept. 7 for its second annual polo outing, and enjoyed a thoroughly rainy
afternoon (thanks to Hurricane Fran) rather than a polo match.  A revised
edition of their (now 20-page) booklet that explores the history of this
Canonical sport is available for $2.50 postpaid from W. Scott Monty, 1836
Columbia Road #2, South Boston, MA 02127-4342.

Who visited Niagara Falls many times, and was famous for what he did there?
Blondin (mentioned in "The Sign of the Four").  Jean Francois Gravelet was
a French acrobat who performed as Blondin and won the title "Hero of Niag-
ara" when he crossed the Falls on a tightrope many times in 1859 and 1860.  
If you would like to know more about him, I recommend "Blondin, Prince of
Manila" in Vincent Starrett's BOOKMAN'S HOLIDAY: THE PRIVATE SATISFACTIONS
OF AN INCURABLE COLLECTOR (New York: Random House, 1942).

Sep 96 #4   Planning continues for the "Devil's Foot Congress" in Guildford
            (near Perth) in Western Australia on Oct. 4-6, 1997, should you
need a good excuse for a trip to the Antipodes.  Douglas Sutherland-Bruce
(P.O. Box 74, Sawyers Valley, W.A. 6074, Australia) will be happy to send
more information about plans for the festivities.

Cadds Printing has issued THE SHERLOCK HOLMES DIARY 1997, with page size 6
x 8.25". and a page for each week, with small illustrations (most by Paget)
and Canonical dates and quotes.  Available from the publisher (59 Lancaster
Avenue, West Norwood, London SE27 9EL, England) for $14.00 postpaid (checks
payable to Hugh Scullion, please); the Filofax version is $13.00 postpaid.

Kathleen Zacharias (Tribute Portrait Studio, Box 1153, Law-
rence, KS 66044) offers an attractive full-color tribute to
Jeremy Brett on a hockey shirt (XL); $18.00 postpaid.

"Mr. Milne pooh-poohs my fears...." is an unexpected bit of
wordplay noted by Mary Lee Herrick in a posting to the Gas-
light electronic mailing list -- and the wordplay certainly
is unexpected from an author who hadn't had a chance to read
A. A. Milne's WINNIE THE POOH.  The author was Arthur Conan
Doyle, in "The Captain of the Pole-Star" (1883).

The current catalog from Seventh Avenue (1112 Seventh Ave-
nue, Monroe, WI 53566-1364) has a Sherlockian photograph on
the front cover (but nothing Sherlockian in the catalog).

David Pearson notes that Far-Out Flix (404 Cooper Road, Poughkeepsie, NY
12603) offers John Neville's "A Study in Terror" (1965) on a cassette for
$20.00 plus $4.00 shipping (much less than the $69.99 asked by other com-
panies).  Far-Out Flix also offers "The Deadly Bees" (1967), with screen-
play by Robert Bloch based on H. F. Heard's novel A TASTE FOR HONEY; the
only problem is that Mr. Mycroft doesn't appear in the film (but he was in
Bloch's script -- Anthony Marriott was brought in to "juice up" the script
and Bloch once told me that he had never seen his "deformed offspring").  
And Movies Unlimited (6736 Castor Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19149; 800-523-
0823) offers "Movie Madness Mystery" at $19.99; this is the L.A. Connection
version of Basil Rathbone's "The Woman in Green" with new dialogue supplied
by parodists.

Richard Lancelyn Green's CONAN DOYLE OF UPPER WIMPOLE STREET (Aug 94 #6) is
a well-researched 20-page booklet issued to commemorate the unveiling of a
plaque at Conan Doyle's surgery in London, and it's still available ($7.00
postpaid) from The Arthur Conan Doyle Society, at Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford
Drive, Penyffordd, Chester, CH4 0JG, England); $7.00 postpaid.

"Currently on a tour of South America, the Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rif-
kind, thought of an apt gift for one of his hosts, the Argentinian Foreign
Minister.  The pair went to visit the Iguazu Falls on the border between
Argentina and Brazil on Saturday, and afterwards Rifkind handed over a copy
of THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, carefully marking the famous fight scene
between the detective and Moriarty at the Reichenbach Fall in Switzerland."
From the [London] Times, Apr. 15, 1996.

Sep 96 #5   Jim Vogelsang reports that the "Wishbone: A Classic Hero!" wall
            calendar for 1997 has Wishbone (the star of the imaginative PBS
children's television series) in Sherlockian costume at Sept. 1997 (Land-
mark Calendars, $10.99); and a new stuffed-toy Wishbone in Sherlockian cos-
tume, in a box designed as a stage, from Equity Toys ($19.99 at Toys R Us,
and likely at other toy stores).  And Jennie Paton reports that Wishbone is
a Wendy's (that's the fast-food chain), as part of their kid's meal motif,
with one of the prizes being a little "photo book" with one page for "The
Slobbery Hound" and a stick-on Sherlockian costume for Wishbone.

Reported by Ralph Hall: a Sherlockian Word Search in the Oct. 1996 issue of
Games.  Michael Mallory's pastiche "The Adventure of the Damsel in Grey"
(told by Watson's wife Amelia) in the summer 1996 issue of Murderous Intent
(Box 5947, Vancouver, WA 98668; $5.00).  STAR IN YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: THE
HAUNTED SCHOOL, written by Caroline Rose, illustrations by Mike Dorey (Bar-
ron's, $14.95); a children's book that comes in a plastic kit with a 35mm
camera (and a Sherlockian illustration on the cover).  The NATE THE GREAT
series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Rosalind Weinman have been reissued
by Bantam Doubleday Dell ($3.99) in new printings with covers that differ
from the earlier printings.

Vincent Bugliosi won 105 of 106 felony jury trials will at the Los Angeles
district attorney's office (Charles Manson was one of the many criminals he
helped to convict), and wrote the recent best-seller OUTRAGE: THE FIVE REA0
SONS WHY O.J. SIMPSON GOT AWAY WITH MURDER, and (according to the Sept. 16
issue of People), his inquisitive part-Siamese cat is named Sherlock.

Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RED DEMON (New York: Viking, 1996;
318 pp., $22.95) is yet another long-lost manuscript, found in a safe hid-
den in the wall of the James J. Hill mansion in St. Paul; Hill was a 19th-
century railroad magnate who brought Holmes and Watson to Minnesota to help
save the Great North Railway from an insane arsonist.  Holmes becomes an
expert on American railroads, and on the logging industry, and faces dire
perils, and manages to save the railroad.

221B BAKER STREET: THE MASTER DETECTIVE GAME is now available in a pocket-
size version from by Gibsons Games (L14.95 in the catalog from The Sherlock
Holmes Memorabilia Company, 230 Baker Street, London NW1 5RT, England); the
board game was designed by Antler Productions for the John N. Hansen Co. in
1977, and appeared in a video version in 1987, and was issued full-size in
England in 1992.

Further to earlier reports (Jan 96 #7 and Aug 96 #1) on the new film "Illu-
mination" (also known as "One Golden Afternoon"), now in production with
Peter O'Toole as Conan Doyle and Harvey Keitel, Mel Gibson has been added
to the cast in a small role as the father of the two girls who created the
Cottingley fairies and fooled Conan Doyle and many others.  And articles at
hand from Mel Hughes report that shooting has started in Britain on "Photo-
graphing Fairies" (adapted from Steve Szilagyi's book); Conan Doyle and his
daughter Mary are incidental characters in the book, which is well-written
fantasy rather than a fictionalized account (Aug 92 #6).  Toby Stephens,
Emily Woof, Ben Kingsley, Frances Barber, and Phil Davies will star in the
film (there's no word yet on whether the Conan Doyles will be characters).

Sep 96 #6   Brenda Forbes died on Sept. 11.  She began her acting career in
            1927, and made her Broadway debut as a loyal maid in Katharine
Cornell's "The Barretts of Wimpole Street" (1931); she was Madge Larrabee
in Orson Welles' radio adaptation of "Sherlock Holmes" (1938), and appeared
in "Aren't We All" on Broadway with Rex Harrison, Claudette Colbert, and
Jeremy Brett in 1985.

Filming is now underway on a new version of "The Day of the Jackal" (1973),
which centered on a plot to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle.  
The new film will star Bruce Willis as the assassin, Sidney Poitier as the
FBI deputy director, and Richard Gere as the former Irish Republican Army
commando who helps Poitier track down the assassin.  There's no word yet on
the target of the assassin, but it would appear to be someone other than de
Gaulle.  Nor is there any word on whether the new film will follow the book
written by Frederick Forsythe (1971), in which the Jackal's rifle is smugg-
led in the country in an aluminum crutch.

THE SHERLOCK HOLMES IQ BOOK, by Eamonn Butler and Madsen Pirie, previously
published in England (Apr 95 #1), now has an American edition (New York:
Carroll & Graf, 1996; 193 pp., $9.95); the book used summaries of Canonical
cases as introductions to 74 Mensa-type puzzles.

THE BOURBON BULLION BAFFLEMENT is the latest round-robin pastiche written
by six members of The Pleasant Places of Florida; $6.00 postpaid from Ben
Wood, Box 740, Ellenton, FL 24222.  Ben also offers SHERLOCK ON STAMPS (a
presentation folder with color reproductions of all the stamps that honor
Sherlock Holmes); $2.50 postpaid.  And he still has a few copies of the new
Commonwealth of Dominica sheetlet with the stamp showing Basil Rathbone as
Sherlock Holmes; $7.50 postpaid.

"You're Sherlock Holmes, and the game is afoot, but you're not in 19th-cen-
tury London any more.  Thanks to H. G. Wells' time machine, you're in 20th-
century America, tackling 20 true unsolved crimes," according to the blurb
for 221B BAKER ST.: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE TIME MACHINE, a new version of
the board game first marketed 20 years ago by John N. Hansen Co.  $34.95 in
stores, and the current catalog from Bits & Pieces, 1 Puzzle Place, Stevens
Point, WI 54481 (800-544-7297).

This year's Christmas card from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London will
again be in full color, with another attractive watercolor by Douglas West,
showing Holmes and Watson arriving to question Breckinridge about his geese
(in "The Blue Carbuncle").  The cost is $13.50 postpaid for ten cards (or
L5.50 to the U.K., L6.00 to Europe, L7.00 elsewhere); checks payable to the
Society, please, and orders should be sent to Cdr. G. S. Stavert, 3 Outram
Road, Southsea, Hants. PO5 1QP, England.

Sherlock Holmes appeared in one of the new programs that debuted on Sept.  
14 in the one-hour "Great Books" television series on The Learning Channel.  
Not because the Canon made the list of Great Books, but rather in the pro-
gram devoted to "Plato's Republic": narrator Donald Sutherland noted (over
a clip showing Rathbone and Bruce) that "Even Arthur Conan Doyle, creator
of Sherlock Holmes, pays tribute when Dr. Watson quotes Plato to describe
his detective friend as 'the best and wisest man I have ever known.'"

Sep 96 #7   Former Senator Rudy Boschwitz won easily in the Republican pri-
            mary on Sept. 10 in Minnesota, winning 80 percent of the vote
against four challengers.  He will now face Democratic Sen. Paul Wellstone
in November, hoping to regain his Senate seat as well as his status as the
highest-ranking elected politician who's a Sherlockian (Boschwitz attended
meetings of The Red Circle when he was in the Senate in the 1980s).

                    "Dangermouse, the world's greatest detective, and his
                    faithful assistant, Penfold, the world's most obvious
                    coward, operate from a letterbox on Baker Street, help-
                    ing their boss, Colonel K, solve crises that range from
                    exploding custard that is taking over the world to a
                    weather machine run amok."  Dangermouse was created by
                    Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall in 1981, and was the star
of a ten-minute animated cartoon series that aired in Britain, and later on
Nickelodeon cable in the United States.  And he is one of five children's
television characters on a set of stamps issued this year in Britain.

Mark Frost's THE 6 MESSIAHS (a sequel to his THE LIST OF SEVEN) is now out
in paperback (New York: Avon, 1996; 423 pp., $6.99); the book is alternate-
universe fantasy, opening in 1894, with Conan Doyle about to leave England
for his tour of the United States, and the story involves him in a struggle
to possess the mystical Book of Zohar, and to prevent the end of the world.  
The title-page verso mentions an Avon Book special printing in Feb. 1996;
does anyone know what this was?

George A. Vanderburgh has published a 32-page Fall Price List with details
on publications available from The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box; Box 204,
Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada <gav@gbd.com>.

Robert S. Gellerstedt, Jr., (1035 Wedgewood Drive, Fayetteville, GA 30214)
has tucked away in his computer some nice indexes to various Sherlockian
anthologies, and to the obituaries published in The Baker Street Journal,
and to the recorded cases, all included in an updated version of his earl-
ier THE SHERLOCKIAN ANTHOLOGIES INDEX (Aug 94 #2); $5.00 postpaid (in the
United States) for a print-out.

Takahiko Endo reports that the World Brick Museum (Aug 96 #1) is in Maizuru
(in case you're planning to visit Japan, and have been wondering about The
Guardian's misspelling of the town's name).  Maizuru is about 100 minutes
by train from Kyoto.

Canadians have been enjoying CBC Radio's "The Mystery Project" on Saturdays
at 6:30 pm: the series started Sept. 7, and offers rebroadcasts of the 1954
1954 BBC radio programs with John Gielgud as Holmes and Ralph Richardson as
Watson.

Reports of his death were greatly exaggerated: Vasily Livanov did not die
in 1995 (Oct 95 #2), but is in fact alive and well.  According to Peter A.  
Kartsev, reporting from Moscow, Livanov was interviewed on television there
on Sept. 11, discussing his latest project (a Russian-Bulgarian co-produc-
tion of "Don Quixote").  He starred as Holmes in a series of dramatizations
of Canonical stories on Soviet television from 1979 to 1985.

Sep 96 #8   SUPERNATURAL SLEUTHS, edited by Charles G. Waugh and Martin H.
            Greenberg (New York: Roc, 1996; 348 pp., $5.99), has "14 mys-
terious cases of uncanny crimes," including a reprint of "The Adventure of
the Ball of Nostradamus" (a 1955 science-fiction Solar Pons story written
by August Derleth and Mack Reynolds).  MURDER BY THE BOOK, an anthology ed-
ited by Cynthia Manson (New York: Berkley, 1996; 326 pp., $5.99), includes
Penelope Wallace's "The World of Uncle Albert" (which starts "My uncle was
mad about Sherlock Holmes").

"We all know that the year 1891 was Holmes' worst year," Caroline Gassner
suggests, "having to do all that running from Moriarty, baritsu fighting at
the edge of a cliff, and faking his death.  We would like to know what you
think is the *second* worst year of Holmes's life, and why."  That will be
the theme of this year's "Unhappy Birthday You Bastard Celebration" by The
Brothers Three of Moriarty, in Moriarty (of course), in November.  You all
are invited to send your papers/diatribes/poems/songs/rants to C. B. Gassner
(P.O. Drawer G, Corrales, N.M. 87048), to arrive by Nov. 1.  The Brothers
Three, founded by the late John Bennett Shaw, continue to dishonor Moriarty
on or near his birthday (deduced by John to have been Halloween), and all
those attending wear name-tags reading "James".

Billy Childish and Thee Headcoats made
an appearance at Bimbo's 365 Club in
San Francisco on Aug. 8, according to a
"nightlife" item noted by Mike Kean in
the San Francisco Chronicle.  According
to the paper, they have made their mark
"in the world of alternative music on
the strength of Childish's offbeat ob-
sessions (Native Americans, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle) and the driving force of
their post-punk sound, influenced by
such diverse types as Link Wray, Lead-
belly, and the Cure."

The University of Iowa Press still offers two excellent books: LETTERS TO
THE PRESS (1986), edited by John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green
(a 383-page collection of Conan Doyle's letters to newspapers and magazines
on non-Sherlockian topics), $37.95; and THE SHERLOCK HOLMES LETTERS (1987),
edited by Richard Lancelyn Green (a 272-page collection of Sherlockian let-
ters to the press by others), $32.95.  Shipping is $3.50 for one book, and
$4.00 for two; the address of the press is 119 West Park Road, Iowa City,
IA 52242 <kate-capps@uiowa.edu>.

Further to the mention (May 96 #2) of Mary Frost-Pierson's demonstration at
Malice Domestic of the nice things that Mysteries from the Yard was making
available America Online, Mary notes that "AOL cancelled MFTY Online after
nine months of operation, due to our inability to attract a large enough
audience quickly enough."  But Mary hopes to be able to open her own online
mystery site if she can find a corporate sponsor.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Oct 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

"A Saturday with Sherlock Holmes" will be the 17th annual program of talks
and panel discussions presented by The Six Napoleons and The Carlton Club
at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore on Nov. 16.  This year's theme
will be "50 Years with the Master" (honoring the 50th anniversary of The
Six Napoleons); the program begins at 10:00 am with a coffee hour in the
Edgar Allan Poe Room at the Library (at 400 Cathedral Street), and there's
no admission charge for the festivities.

                          Australia issued two attractive stamps showing
                          opals last year (Jun 95 #3), and now the series
                          has continued with stamps showing a pearl and a
                          diamond.  There are many mentions of pearls and
                          diamonds in the Canon, and it's nice to think
                          that some of the Canonical gems might have been
                          Australian.

                          Further to the mention (Jul 96 #2) of temporary
                          tattoos, David McCallister has reported (someone
                          else's) real Sherlockian tattoo: a photograph of
                          a rather Brettish Holmes, with Watson, shown on
                          p. 96 in Chris Wroblewski's SKIN SHOWS III (Lon-
                          don: Virgin, 1993); the endnotes state that the
                          artist was "Ian of Reading", and that the tattoo
                          is owned by Jim Laird, address unknown.

EXITS & ENTRANCES is the latest volume of verse from the Pequod Press, and
consists mostly of Canonical examples of such, save when the author's pro-
tean skills lead him astray, and the obligatory homage to Poe."  The author
also sets type and prints and binds the books.  $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00
(paper) postpaid from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707.

The new BBC "Sherlock Holmes" videocassette provides a fine opportunity to
see two of their 50-minute programs ("The Speckled Band" and "The Illustri-
ous Client") broadcast in 1964, with Douglas Wilmer as Sherlock Holmes and
Nigel as Dr. Watson.  It is nice to be reminded of what television was like
in the 1960s (black-and-white, and slower-paced, and lower-budgeted), and
to be able to compare the scripts, direction, production, and acting in the
BBC programs with the same stories in the Granada series.  The BBC cassette
costs L14.99 (shipping extra) from BBC Video, Box 44, Leatherhead, Surrey
KT22 7AE, England (credit-card orders welcome).  But (alas): the cassette
is available only in the British PAL system (rather than the American NTSC
format); the BBC apparently has no plans to distribute the cassette to the
American market.

I should note that the Douglas Wilmer programs (and lots of other Sherlock-
ian video) can be borrowed on American-format NTSC cassettes from the lend-
ing library maintained by Jennie C. Paton (206 Loblolly Lane, Statesboro, GA
30458-4247).  There's a charge of $5.50 for shipping, and you get to keep a
cassette for a day or two, and then you pay the return postage.  But there
may well be a waiting list for something that's in high demand (such as the
Douglas Wilmer cassette, right now).

Oct 96 #2   Basil Rathbone on the Baker Street Irregulars: "They are bores.
            Why, those fellows do not even recognise Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
as the creator of Holmes.  They say that Watson, Watson, mind you, was his
creator.  I'm a life member, you know.  But I haven't attended one of their
ridiculous meetings."  Quoted in an interview with Jim Keep in the Austral-
alasian Post, Oct. 6, 1960.

                           Gertrude Mahoney reports that a new catalog from
                           Expressions from Potpourri offers a Limoges por-
                           celain deerstalker, 2.5 in. long, with a magnify-
                           ing-glass clasp and an even smaller pipe.  Item
                           172882, $225.00; the address is 120 North Mead-
                           ows Road, Medfield, MA 02052 (800-338-2699).

                           Dick Lesh reports that the new catalog from Sig-
                           nals (Box 64428, Saint Paul, MN 55164) (800-669-
                           9696) now offers the cupro-nickel version of the
                           eight one-crown Sherlock Holmes coins issued by
                           Gibraltar (Nov 94 #3), for $89.90 postpaid.

Walter Kerr died on Oct. 9.  In 1939 he began his theatrical career teach-
ing speech and drama at Catholic University, and in 1951 joined the staff
of the N.Y. Herald Tribune as a theater critic; when the Herald Tribune
stopped publishing in 1966, he moved to the N.Y. Times, retiring in 1983.
His body of work won him the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1978, and the
Walter Kerr Theater in Manhattan was named in his honor in 1990.  "He was a
man who loved the theater," his friend, theater-caricaturist Al Hirschfeld,
once said.  "Even if you didn't agree with what he said, you wanted to see
the show, because the review was so well written."  And some of those well-
written reviews were devoted to Rathbone's "Sherlock Holmes" (1953), the
musical "Baker Street" (1964), the Royal Shakespeare Company's "Sherlock
Holmes" (1974 and 1975), and "The Crucifer of Blood (1978).  In 1978 Kerr
noted that "Sherlock Holmes is a legendary figure of fiction, so powerful a
legend that we take him as almost real: the pretense that he *is* real has
spurred countless reincarnations at other hands, has gleefully supported a
society devoted to continuing admiration and the further recording of his
activities."

The latest issue of Anglofile reports that MYSTERY! A CELEBRATION, by Ron
Miller (KQED Books, $24.95) will be in book stores in November (one would
of course assume that Granada's "Sherlock Holmes" will be one of the many
programs celebrated).  The book also will be available from WGBH (Boston)
by mail order (800-255-9424), but it isn't available yet.  Anglofile is a
monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00
a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033).

The Credit Lyonnaise (one of the few banks mentioned by name in the Canon)
still has problems.  The Times [London] suggested earlier that it might be
"the world's worst bank" (Aug 95 #8 and Sep 95 #7), and now the Washington
Post has reported (Oct. 5) that the chairman of the state-owned bank has
called for more government funds to bail out the bank, which flourished in
the late 1980s and then ran into collapsing property values in the 1990s.  
The bank has $17.4 billion in "dud assets" amassed during its expansion.

Oct 96 #3   Michael Atkinson's THE SECRET MARRIAGE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES AND
            OTHER ECCENTRIC READINGS (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1996; 192 pp., $29.95) uses the tools of modern literary theory in
(according to the publisher) "a series of flirtations" with nine of the
Sherlock Holmes stories.

The Eurotunnel opened in 1994, 81 years after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote
in The Times that a Channel Tunnel "seems to me to be of such importance
that I grudge every day that passes without something having been done to
bring it to realization," and the tunnel has now captured 45 percent of the
freight and passenger traffic between England and France.  The tunnel also
still is deeply in debt, and last year suspended interest payments to its
creditor banks (the Washington Post reported on Oct. 12 that the banks have
accepted a deal that swaps debt for equity, and now own 45 percent of the
Eurotunnel company).

Milt Halpert spotted an interesting design on a Turkish
semi-postal stamp issued in February to raise funds to
assist the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina.  I've not been
able to find out just what the symbolism of the design
is, but they don't seem to be *our* dancing men . . .

Mary Burke found Holmes and Watson (a photograph of Rathbone and Bruce) in
one of the collages on display in Hanne Darboven's "Kulturgeschichte 1880-
1983" at the Dia Center for the Arts; the collages are arranged chronolog-
ically and Holmes and Watson are among the 1940s cinema subjects.  The Dia
Center is at 548 West 22nd Street in New York, and the exhibit runs through
June 29, 1997.

Femmes Fatales has issued a new catalog of gifts to please any mystery fan
(including Sherlockians); their address is (Box 3457, Lakewood, CA 90712)
(800-596-3323) <bytocrime@aol.com> <http://register.com/femfatal>.

Further to the earlier mention (Sep 96 #5) of the new film based on Steve
Szilagyi's book PHOTOGRAPHING FAIRIES, Christopher Roden has reported that
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will appear in the film, played by Edward Hardwicke
in a cameo appearance.  Clive Merrison, who plays Holmes on BBC Radio, will
be in the film as well, playing the theosophist Edward Gardner.  There are
actors who have played both Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, and both Conan
Doyle and Inspector Lestrade, but Edward Hardwicke may well be the first to
play both Conan Doyle and Dr. Watson.

There are lots of plans afoot for "Lasting Impressions" (the Bootmakers of
Toronto Silver Anniversary Weekend on June 26-29, 1997), and a flier now is
available with a detailed schedule.  The address is Lasting Impressions, 30
Elm Avenue #210, Toronto, ON M4W 1N5, Canada <lasting@syndesis.com> <http:
//www.edu.yorku.ca/~li>.

Tim O'Connor (6015 West Route 115, Herscher, IL 60941) offers a 1997 Baker
Street Pages International weekly pocket calendar and pen gift-set.  The
calendar is 3.5 x 6 in. with a black cover decorated in metallic green (or
medium blue or purple) with a Sherlockian collage and coat or arms.  $6.00
each, plus $1.50 shipping per order.

Oct 96 #4   John Baesch, recently in London, reported from the Ritz that he
            discovered an excellent pizza shop at 197 Baker Street.  The
pizzas include Marinara, Portafino, and Margherita, but no Sherlock.  One
does wonder what toppings might be suitable for a Sherlock pizza . . .

Mark Alberstat's 1997 Sherlock Holmes Calendar is illustrated with artwork
from The Strand Magazine, and displays important Sherlockian birthdays and
William S. Baring-Gould's dates for the cases.  The cost is US$12.00 post-
paid, and his address is 5 Lorraine Street, Dartmouth, NS B3A 2B9, Canada.

Luci Zahray reports a six-inch Sherlock Holmes ornament for
your Christmas tree in a catalog from Bronner's Christmas
Wonderland, Box 176, Frankenmuth, MI 48734 (800-361-6736);
$27.00 plus shipping.

Luci also offers some of the Cadds items from Hugh Scull-
ion: THE SHERLOCK HOLMES JOKE BOOK, by Peter V. Rochford
and Hugh S. Scullion [Dec 95 #4] ($7.00 postpaid); SHERLOCK
HOLMES STORIES: --POLITICALLY CORRECT?, by Hugh S. Scullion
[Jul 96 #2] ($16.00 postpaid); and Sherlockian silhouette
      stickers ($2.50 per sheet postpaid) (small size shown
      here, 81 per sheet; or a larger size, 42 per sheet).  
      Her address is 685 Marylane Drive, Holland, MI 49423.

Kay Sturm notes that Laurie R. King's THE BEEKEEPER'S AP-
PRENTICE (the first in her series about Mary Russell and
Sherlock Holmes) now is available in a large-print edition
(New York: G. K. Hall Large Print Books; $24.95).

The Commonwealth of Dominica's sheetlet of nine stamps honoring "Legendary
Sleuths of the Silver Screen" (Jul 96 #8), with one stamp showing Sherlock
Holmes as portrayed by Basil Rathbone, is available from Bick International
(Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408) for $9.95; first day covers cost $12.95.

"Reading a Sherlock Holmes story and wondering how long a hansom cab ride
is from Baker Street to Kensington?" asked the page-a-day calendar for com-
puter buffs on Oct. 15.  The University College of London offers a web page
called "The London Guide" at <http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/misc.uk/london.html>.

Don Pendleton died on Oct. 23.   Best known as the author of 38 books in
the Mack Bolan "Executioner" series, he also wrote an excellent introduc-
tion for the Ballantine paperback of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1975).

Forecast: RIVALS OF DRACULA, edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert E.  
Weinberg, and Martin Harry Greenberg (from Barnes & Noble in Oct.); with
Carole Nelson Douglas' Irene Adler story "Dracula on the Rocks" (reprinted
from the 1995 anthology CELEBRITY VAMPIRES).

The first eight audiocassettes in the series MORE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHER-
LOCK HOLMES (Jun 96 #1) from the fine old 1946-47 radio series that starred
Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce still are available ($9.95 each) from Brilliance
Audio at Box 481, Grand Haven, MI 49417 (800-222-3225); and more cassettes
are due in the shops in November.

Oct 96 #5   Sherlock Holmes' 143nd birthday will be celebrated on Friday,
            Jan. 10, with the traditional festivities in New York.  But the
festivities actually will begin on Thursday at 9:00 am at the Hotel Algon-
quin (59 West 44th Street), whence Allen Mackler and Charlie Shields will
lead participants in the annual Christopher Morley Walk, which ends with
luncheon at McSorley's.  Allen's address is 324 2nd Street NE, Osseo, MN
55369, and from Jan. 7 he will be at the Iroquois Hotel (212-840-3080).

Friday begins with the Martha Hudson Breakfast from 7:00 to 10:00 in the
Oak Room at the Hotel Algonquin at 59 West 44th Street; the Algonquin pro-
vides its guests with a continental breakfast, and others are welcome to
order from the menu (reservations are not required).  The William Gillette
Memorial Luncheon starts at noon, at Moran's Restaurant at 146 Tenth Avenue
at 19th Street; $35.00 (Susan Rice, 125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY
10014).  And Otto Penzler's open house at The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West
56th Street) is on Friday, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm; it is possible that
Sherlockian authors will be on hand to sign their books.

The Baker Street Irregulars will gather at 6:00 pm at 24 Fifth Avenue (at
9th Street), and The Baskerville Bash (open to all Sherlockians and their
friends) will convene for drinks, dinner, and entertainment at 6:30 pm at
Bill's Gay Nineties at 57 East 54th Street between Park and Madison Ave-
nues; $40.00 (Maribeau Briggs, 46 East 29th Street, 2nd floor, New York,
NY 10016).  Early reservations are advised for the William Gillette lunch-
eon and the Baskerville Bash.

On Saturday a posse of purveyors will offer a wide variety of S'iana in a
room on the second floor of the Algonquin (also known for the occasion as
Covent Garden West) from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm; vendor tables are available
(Donald B. Izban, 213 Ivy Court, Streamwood, IL 60107.  The Baker Street
Irregulars will hold their annual reception, open to all Sherlockians and
their friends, on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:30 at the National Arts
Club at 15 Gramercy Park (on 20th Street between Park and Third Avenues);
open bar, and hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, and the cost is $35.00 a person
until Dec. 28 (checks payable to the Baker Street Irregulars should be sent
to Donald E. Novorsky, 5182 Mahoning Avenue NW, Warren, OH 44483); tickets
also will be available at the door, at $40.00 a person.

The Baker Street Irregulars are a tax-exempt organization, and Tom Stix
arranged with the Hotel Algonquin for rooms (single or double) at $155.00 a
night (Wednesday through Saturday); this is the total cost, because no tax
is due on reservations made through the BSI.  Other charges (such as room
service, telephone calls, meals, drinks, etc.) are not covered.  The offer
is available to all Sherlockians: your reservations, accompanied by payment
(to The Baker Street Irregulars) should be sent to Thomas L. Stix, Jr. (see
below) to arrive no later than Dec. 16.  Please include names, addresses,
and phone numbers of occupants, and the type of room (single, double, or
twin) desired.

Note: payments to The Baker Street Irregulars for the Algonquin, the annual
dinner, and the cocktail party, can be combined and made with one check (in
U.S. funds, please) or by international money order, to be sent to the BSI,
c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr., 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648.

Oct 96 #6   Mary Ellen Rich has once again kindly provided a list of hotels
            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 plan to arrive on Thursday, you
should confirm the rates, and that the weekend rates include Thursday.

Lexington (511 Lexington Ave. at East 48th St.): $99 (single-double) (800-
448-4471); Radio City Suites (142 West 49th St.: $97 (studio) $127 (one
bedroom) (212-730-0728); Portland Square (132 West 47th St.): $89 (single/
double) (212-382-0600); Iroquois (49 West 44th St.): $85 (single) $99 dou-
ble) $135 (suite) (800-332-7220) [they anticipate some construction at the
beginning of January, and wish to warn guests that there may be some dis-
ruption]; Edison (228 West 47th St.): $81 (single) $95 (double) (212-840-
5000); Pickwick Arms (230 East 51st St.): $80 (single) $99 (double) (800-
742-5945).

The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians
(membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might otherwise not
be able to participate in the weekend's festivities.  A carefully anonymous
John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes contributions, which can
be made by checks payable to John H. Watson and mailed (without return any
address on the envelope) to Dr. Watson, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr. (address as
above); Tom forwards the checks unopened, and Dr. Watson will acknowledge
your generosity.

A single page of the manuscript of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" sold at
auction at Sotheby's in New York on Oct. 29 for $14,950 (including the 15%
buyer's premium); the page was owned by Victor Jacobs, and is from Chapter
VI (pages 107-109 in the first British book edition).

And there's more auction news: two Conan Doyle manuscripts will be sold at
auction at Sotheby's on Dec. 4.  "The White Company" (estimated at $60,000-
90,000) and "The Sign of the Four" ($250,000-$300,000) are from the collec-
tion of the late Redmond A. Burke, and came to him from the 1973 auction of
the David Gage Joyce collection; "The Sign of the Four" is complete in 160
pages (the first page is a "fair copy" in Conan Doyle's handwriting), and
it is accompanied by four letters from Conan Doyle to J. M. Stoddart (who
commissioned the story for Lippincott's).  The catalog for the Dec. 4 sale
will be available soon, and interested bidders can contact Sotheby's (attn:
Paul Needham), 1334 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021 (212-606-7385).

I hope you all wished the Earth a happy birthday on Oct. 25, which was its
6000th birthday, according to Bishop Ussher, who calculated that the Crea-
tion occurred on that date in 4004 BC.  It also was on Oct. 25 that members
of the Geological Society of America began assembling in Denver for their
annual meeting, which of course including a dinner for The Practical, But
Limited, Geologists on Oct. 29, when the visitors were welcomed by Doctor
Watson's Neglected Patients at the Cadillac Ranch in Larimer Square, and we
all toasted the world's first forensic geologist.  Our next dinner meetings
will be in Dallas in Apr. 1997 and in Salt Lake City in Oct. 1997.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Nov 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

Further to the report (Oct 96 #6) of the sale of a page from the manuscript
of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", I've now seen the catalog illustration
of the page: it's from Chapter VI (from "said to be a young lady . . ." to
". . . hours of darkness when the"), and it's interesting to note that as
first written, Holmes directly addressed Sir Henry as "Mr. Baskerville" and
as "Baskerville" -- both corrected by the author to read "Sir Henry".

And, still on the subject of manuscripts, J. M. Stoddart dined with Arthur
Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde in London, and commissioned stories from both
of them; both stories were published in Lippincott's, and both manuscripts
were sold at auction in 1909.  "The Sign of the Four" sold for $105, and
"The Picture of Dorian Gray" brought $1,000; what might the prices be today
if both manuscripts went to auction in the same sale?

St. Vincent issued five stamps this year honoring the 100th
anniversary of wireless transmission, with portraits of some
radio personalities: Fred Allen, Eve Arden, Major Bowes, Wal-
ter Winchell, and Hedda Hopper; Hedda Hopper also was a movie
actress: she played Madge Larrabee in the John Barrymore film
"Sherlock Holmes" (1922).

Plan ahead: The STUD Sherlockian Society's annual meeting and
dinner will be held March 7 at the Starlight Inn in Schiller Park (near
Chicago), and Brad Keefauver will be the guest speaker; there will be a
Solar Pons Brunch on Mar. 8, and a visit to Vincent Starrett's grave at
Graceland Cemetery.  Additional information is available from F. Dennis
France, 8546 North Ked-vale Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076.

Nice news from Minnesota: after a bit of delay, James F. Hubbs has now been
reappointed as collection specialist for the Sherlock Holmes Collections at
the University of Minnesota.  Carol Johnson is acting assistant curator and
Carol Urness is the acting head of the Special Collections and Rare Books
department until they appoint a successor to the late Clarence Carter (who
spoke at the dedication of the John Bennett Shaw Collection in Oct. 1995).  
Planning also is under way for construction of the new Minnesota Library
Access Center (May 96 #1), where the special collections will be housed.

Kemp R. Niver died on Oct. 15.  He had been a private detective, a police
officer, and a veteran cameraman when he was hired in the early 1950s by
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as an archivist and film
historian; he used equipment he built himself to transfer some 3,600 movies
made between 1894 and 1912 from copyright-deposit frame-by-frame paper pho-
tographs to film.  All those who have enjoyed the amusing "Sherlock Holmes
Baffled" (1900) on film or video owe thanks to Kemp Niver.

Jim Weiss does an excellent job of combining narration and dialogue on his
recordings for younger audiences in SHERLOCK HOLMES FOR CHILDREN (Maza/Spec
/Musg/Blue) and MYSTERY! MYSTERY! (RedH, plus tales by Poe and Chesterton);
cassettes are $9.95 each, and CDs are $14.95 each, and other non-Sherlock-
ian recordings are available (shipping is $2.50 per order).  Greathall Pro-
ductions, Box 813, Benicia, CA 94510 (800-477-6234).

Nov 96 #2   John Baesch reports some new evidence in the continuing debate
            about which university Sherlock Holmes attended: Oxford or Cam-
bridge.  John notes that the new British film "True Blue" (to be released
this year) tells the story of the annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, one of
the oarsmen in the Oxford boat is played by Nicholas Rowe, who some years
ago was Young Sherlock Holmes.

AT&T has chosen John R. Walter as its new president.  Walter is chairman
and chief executive of R. R. Donnelley & Sons (the world's largest commer-
cial printer), and the Washington Post (Oct. 24) reports that his favorite
books are "mysteries, particularly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."

The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis celebrated their 50th anniversary
last month, with an anniversary dinner and an interesting 38-page pamphlet
recording the history of the society: Steven T. Doyle's THE ADVENTURES OF
THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENTS costs $4.50 postpaid, from Mark Gagen, 3625-B Glen
Arm Road, Indianapolis, IN 46224.

Warren Randall is preparing a new lapel pin called "The
Gas Lamp" that will be sold during the January birthday
festivities in New York for $10.00 (the pin is 1.25 in.                     
in diameter, with the design in red, gold, and black on
white); the pin also will be available by mail ($11.50
postpaid); his address is 15 Fawn Lane West, South Se-
tauket, NY 11720-1346.

Tangled Web Audio has extended its series of excellent
recordings of the Canon, read by Edward Hardwicke, who does his usual fine
job with the stories in SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES OF BETRAYAL (with Scan/Silv/
Copp) and SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES OF AVARICE (with Prio/RedH/Blue); each set
has two cassettes, and costs $20.00 postpaid ($37.00 for two sets); Tangled
Web Audio, 3380 Sheridan Drive #167, Amherst, NY 14226 <tangled@bis.on.ca>.
For those want to use credit cards, the cassettes also are available (same
prices) from Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati. OH 45219).

HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg,
and Carol-Lynn Waugh (New York: Berkley, 1996; 304 pp., $21.95), offers 14
new pastiches, all with a seasonal theme, written by Anne Perry, Barbara
Paul, Carolyn Wheat, Carole Nelson Douglas, Edward D. Hoch, and others.

Phil Attwell has noted a "Sherlock Holmes Celebration Cakes" (suitable for
all occasions): a luxury two-pound Victorian fruit cake, with brandy, mar-
zipan, and icing featuring a plaque with a silhouette of Sherlock Holmes,
delivered to your door anywhere in the country (Great Britain), for L19.50;
overseas prices are available on request.  Good Food and Cakes, 21-A Market
Street, Wellingborough, Northants., England (or you can call Sue or Enid at
01933-227100 to discuss the details).

Further to the report (Oct 96 #2) on the availability of the cupro-nickel
version of the eight one-crown Sherlock Holmes coins issued by Gibraltar
(Nov 94 #3), Peter Mosiondz, Jr. (Box 1483, Bellmawr, NJ 08099) notes that
you can get them from him at a far better price ($60.00 postpaid); he also
offers the silver and gold versions, and you can write to him for details.

Nov 96 #3   "I shall be the Hans Sloane of my age," said a hopeful Nathan
            Garrideb.  The Sept.-Oct. issue of Preservation (the magazine
of the National Trust for Historic Preservation) has Roland Flamini's fine
article about the Chelsea Physic Garden, founded in 1673 by the Worshipful
Society of Apothecaries.  It's the second oldest botanic garden in England
(Oxford's was founded in 1621), and when it was threatened with closure in
the early 18th century it was rescued by Sir Hans Sloane, whose statue now
stands guard over the medicinal herb beds; in 1722 he leased it back to the
Apothecaries in perpetuity, for L5 a year, and it was from the Physic Gar-
den that cotton seeds were shipped to the new American colony of Georgia to
start the plantations there.  In 1977, Sloane's heirs, the Cadogan Estate,
hoping to build on the site, challenged the lease, but lost in court.  And
it is thanks to Sir Hans that each year Sue Minter, the garden's curator,
writes a check for L5 to the Cadogan Estate as rent, for three and a half
acres of prime land that is now worth millions.

Ben Wood offers a flier for his close-out sale of Sherlockian books, pamph-
lets, and other material; his address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222.

Platinum Press has published THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE MEMOIRS
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and THE RETURN OF SHER-
LOCK HOLMES in facsimile from The Strand Magazine (with Sidney Paget's fine
illustrations), separately and as a boxed set.  These are reissues of the
four volumes published by Schocken Books in 1975 and 1976, but now without
the introductions by Steven Marcus, Leslie Fiedler, and Samuel Rosenberg.  
$9.98 each or $40.00 for the boxed set, and if you can't find them locally,
there's a toll-free telephone number (800-284-3580).

Megan Follows does a fine job with her audiocassette readings of Laurie R.  
King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE and A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN; each
(abridged) audiobook is on two cassettes (issued by Durkin Hayes) and costs
$16.99.  And Megan Follows' reading of the third book in the Mary Russell
series, A LETTER OF MARY, will be issued by Durkin Hayes in January when
the book is published.  If you can't find the cassettes in your shops, the
address for Durkin Hayes Audio is 1 Colomba Drive, Niagara Falls, NY 14305.

Al Rosenblatt reports that the "Sly Fox" necktie (Jun 92 #6) is available
again in a catalog from Chipp II (9 Ethan Allen Lane, Stamford, CT 06903):
the pattern shows a brown fox, wearing a green deerstalker and holding a
magnifying glass, on a navy (or medium blue) background; $27.25 postpaid,
and they take plastic.

First roses were red, and then roses were pink, and now roses
are yellow.  The postage stamps have the same design as in the
past, but with a new color.  And there still are more mentions
of roses in the Canon than we have stamps showing roses.  Per-
haps this one could honor all of the Texans in the Canon.

John McGowan spotted a report from London about a grand resource for those
who have access to the World Wide Web: <http://www.victoriana.com/> is the
URL for the Resources for Victorian Living web-site, and it's packed with
articles and archives and pictures and information, as well as lists of and
links to many companies that offer Victoriana for sale.

Nov 96 #4   Sorry about that: Oct. 25, 1996, was not the 6,000th birthday
            of the Earth (Oct 96 #6).  Chris Redmond points out that 4004
BC was only 5,999 years ago.  There was no year 0, of course.  You'll hear
a lot more about that when we get closer to celebrating the beginning of
the next millennium, on Jan. 1, 2000.  Or perhaps 2001.  Or perhaps both.

Jerry Margolin reports that Caliber Comics has published THE SUSSEX VAMPIRE
as a one-shot comic-book, with adaptation by Warren Ellis and art by Craig
Gilmore; $2.95.  Caliber is at 225 North Sheldon Road, Plymouth, MI 48170.

Brilliance Audio is continuing its series of audiocassettes produced by Ken
Greenwald and his 221A Baker Street Associates with radio programs from the
1946-47 season with Tom Conway as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson; Elliott
Reid provides fine new introductions about the old days of radio, and it's
grand to be able to hear these hitherto-unavailable programs.  Cassettes #9
through #12 are now available; they cost $9.95 each (with two shows on each
cassette).  The series title is MORE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and
if you can't find them in your local shops, Brilliance is at Box 887, Grand
Haven, MI 49417 (800-222-3225).

James Pepper Rare Books have an intriguing new catalog of Peter Cushing's
personal copies of his scripts, for films and television shows, produced
and unproduced, heavily annotated and sometimes illustrated (alas, there's
no Sherlockian material); 2026 Cliff Drive #224, Santa Barbara, CA 93109
<pepbooks@aol.com>.

I wondered (Oct 96 #4) what toppings might be suitable for a Sherlock pizza
-- and Alan Saunders offered an excellent suggestion: the plugs and dottles
from the previous day's pizzas, carefully collected and dried out on the
end of the mantelpiece.  And John Baesch, who bears some responsibility for
all this, has responded to various suggestions by exclaiming "What inedible
twaddle!"

Our new endangered-species sheet shows 15 different animals, and eight of
the animals are mentioned in the Canon: the butterfly, caribou, crocodile,
ferret, plover, seal, snake, and trout.  But which of the eight endangered
species is the most likely match to the animal mentioned in the Canon?

















Nov 96 #5   PBS-TV broadcast a excellent mini-series on "The Great War" in
            November (it also is airing in Britain), with some discussion
of Conan Doyle in the final episode, which dealt with the increased inter-
est in Spiritualism after the war.  And it is a pleasant coincidence that
Stephen Davies recently discovered Rudyard Kipling's book SEA WARFARE (Gar-
den City: Doubleday, Page & Co., 1917), which includes "Tools of the Trade"
(written in 1916 about the Submarine Service).  Kipling tells the story of
how the E 14, on patrol in Turkish waters, encountered an enemy ship: "When
the crew of the Turkish brigantine full of stores got into their boats by
request, and then 'all stood up and cursed us,' E 14 did not lose her tem-
per, even though it was too rough to lie alongside the abandoned ship.  She
told Acting Lieutenant R. W. Lawrence, of the Royal Naval Reserve, to swim
off to her, which he did, and after a 'cursory search'--Who can be expected
to Sherlock Holmes for hours with nothing on?--set fire to her 'with the
aid of her own matches and paraffin oil.'"

Which of the eight endangered species is the most likely match to the ani-
mal mentioned in the Canon?  The woodland caribou, which is mentioned in
"The Valley of Fear" ("It was the worst enemy I had among them all--one who
has been after me like a hungry wolf after a caribou all these years.").

Paul Martin reports that "Sherlock Holmes Revisited" is available on a 57-
minute videocassette from PBS Home Video, Box 751089, Charlotte, NC 28275
(800-645-4727); item A2093, and the cost is $19.95 plus shipping.  This is
a reissue of "The Sherlock Holmes Video" (Jan 95 #2), written and directed
by Martin Hesp (who also plays Sherlock Holmes in a tour of Canonical loca-
tions); the video also offers interviews with Stanley MacKenzie and one of
Sherlock Holmes' secretaries.

Former Senator Rudy Boschwitz, a Sherlockian who attended meetings of The
Red Circle when he was in the Senate in the 1980s, lost to Democratic Sen.  
Paul Wellstone, who was elected to a second term on Nov. 5.

Ferdinand "Ferd" Johnson died on Oct. 14.  He was only 17 when he enrolled
at the Chicago Art Institute, and met cartoonist and teacher Frank Willard,
who had just begun drawing his cartoon strip "Moon Mullins".  Willard hired
Johnson as an assistant at the Chicago Tribune, and they worked together
for 35 years; when Willard died in 1958, Johnson took over "Moon Mullins"
and drew the strip until he retired in 1991.  This cartoon is from Feb. 20,
1979.














Nov 96 #6   He's probably only a distant relative of the Musgraves in the
            Canon, but: 61-year-old astronaut F. Story Musgrave began his
sixth and final shuttle flight on Nov. 19, becoming the oldest human to fly
in space.  He joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in
1967, and made his first flight in 1983, taking part in the first shuttle-
program space-walk; he's an accomplished pilot, with more than 17,000 hours
of flying time in 160 different aircraft types, and has made more than 500
parachute jumps.  In his spare time he's studying for two master's degrees
(to add to the three master's degrees and one doctorate he already has).

The Hounds of the Internet discuss (well, they're invited to discuss) a
different story each week, and Chris Redmond has been providing "delicate
questions" each week intended "to stimulate discussion, research, contro-
versy, delight and flights of fancy as devotees of Sherlock Holmes explore
the stories."  For example, his question for "The Illustrious Client" was:
"Baron Gruner is, by general consent, among the worst of the villains whom
Sherlock Holmes encounters; is it only the whiff of kinky sex in this story
that makes him so, or is there something else about him -- his nationality,
perhaps -- that makes him the man Sherlockians love to hate?"  And, since
he now has a question for each of the cases, he offers them all in booklet
form, for $2.00 (US or CA) postpaid; his address is 523 Westfield Drive,
Waterloo, ON N2T 2E1, Canada.  The questions make fine discussion topics
for societies seeking things to do at their meetings.

THE FLOOR PLANS OF BAKER STREET, by Edward S. Smith, Jr., offers a survey
of what was where at 221 Baker Street, on all of the floors, with plans and
citations; the 38-page booklet is available from the author (Box 353, Will-
iston Park, NY 11596); $7.50 postpaid to the U.S. and Canada, and $9.50 to
other countries.

It was at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre that
Mary Morstan was directed to meet her unknown benefactor.  And, further to
the report (Apr 95 #2) on plans to restore the long-neglected theater, the
Daily Telegraph has reported that the Prince of Wales formally reopened the
Lyceum on Oct. 30.  The first production at the theater in half a century
is a revival of "Jesus Christ Superstar", which opened on Nov. 19.  Apollo
Leisure, a chain that owns 22 theaters in Britain, spent L14.5 million on
the restoration project.

Bill Hyder reports that the first edition of his excellent collection FROM
BALTIMORE TO BAKER STREET (Dec 95 #4) has sold out, and that a revised sec-
ond edition is now available ($27.00 postpaid) from George A. Vanderburgh,
Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada.  The revisions are some corrections
of errata; those who already have the first edition and would like to have
an errata sheet can send an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) to Will-
iam J. Hyder, 5488 Cedar Lane #C-3, Columbia, MD 21044-1220.

Collectors of foreign Sherlockiana will be happy to learn about the first
known item of Sherlockiana to have been published in Liechtenstein: Marcus
Geisser reports that 5 NEUE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES contains stories (in
German) written by 11-year-old Martin K. Hasler; the 30-page booklet costs
$8.00 or L5.00 postpaid (in currency only, please) from the author, whose
address is: Dorfstrasse 59, FL-9495 Triesen, Furstentum Liechtenstein.

Nov 96 #7   Jerry Margolin reports that Caliber's comic-book mini-series
            THE SEARCHERS (Jul 96 #1) has ended with issue #4 ($2.95 each).  
Real-life descendants of various characters created by Haggard, Burroughs,
Wells, Verne, and Conan Doyle "band together in a mutual quest for not only
their own survival, but that of reality itself."  But Conan Doyle's charac-
ter isn't a Holmes: she's a Moriarty.

William L. DeAndrea died on Oct. 9.  He was a fine mystery writer, and his
ENCYCLOPEDIA MYSTERIOSA (1994) is a splendid reference work.  He also was a
long-time contributor to The Armchair Detective, and noted last year that
he had once described Sherlockian pastiche as "the acne on the face of the
detective story," admitting that he forgot one very important fact about
acne: "in the course of growing up, virtually everybody gets it."  And Bill
wrote two Sherlockian pastiches, one (in the style of Mickey Spillane) in
Marvin Kaye's anthology RESURRECTED HOLMES (1996) and the other in Martin
H. Greenberg's anthology HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1996).

David Stuart Davies' one-act play "Fixed Point: The Life and Death of Sher-
lock Holmes" was first performed for The Northern Musgraves in 1991, with
Davies himself as Holmes, and it now has been adapted for audio by Meredith
Granger and issued on a single cassette by Classic Specialties (Box 19058,
Cincinnati, OH 45219); $9.45 postpaid to the U.S. and Canada, $10.50 to Eu-
rope, $11.00 elsewhere, and credit-cards are accepted (wholesale inquiries
welcome).  The voices are excellent, as is the play, which offers Watson's
reminiscences of his life with Holmes.

Warren Randall (15 Fawn Lane West, South Setauket, NY 11720)
also offers a new lapel pin ("hot off the Prescott presses");
it's silver on gray, 1" wide, and costs $8.50 postpaid.

Alexander Lebed, formerly the National Security Advisor in Russia (until he
was summarily dismissed by President Boris Yeltsin a few months ago), and
now regarded by some as the person most likely to be the next President of
Russia, was asked at a recent meeting in Washington about his critical com-
ments about various religious groups, including the Mormons.  Lebed replied
that he had thought the Mormons were a cult or sect that practiced polygamy
"because I learned about them from reading Conan Doyle in my youth," and he
has since apologized to the Mormons.

If you missed the Sherlock Bloodhound "country companion" offered by Wild
Wings a few years ago (Mar 92 #5) you can still buy a similar hand-painted
figurine (5.5 in. high) offered in a recent catalog from The Cottage Shop,
Box 4836, Stamford, CT 06907 (800-388-7660); $35.00 plus shipping.

Further to the report (Aug 95 #6) that on the purchase of Christ Cella's
restaurant by Ken Aretsky, who had not then yet decided whether to keep the
name, but intended to keep the steakhouse genre "with some additions and
changes," Tom Stix has forwarded a report from the N.Y. Times (Nov. 8) that
reveals that there have indeed been some changes: the restaurant is now the
Patroon, the hamburger costs $23.00, and a porterhouse steak for two costs
$75.00 (without side dishes, which cost $9.00).  The first formal meeting
of The Baker Street Irregulars took place at Christ Cella's original loca-
tion, but not at 160 East 46th Street, where the Patroon is now.

Nov 96 #8   Ken Koftan reports that "Sherlock Holmes and the Curious Adven-
            ture of the Clockwork Prince" (a one-act "Victorian romp" by
Cleve Haubold, with music by James Alfred Hill, published by Samuel French
in 1980) is being produced at the Empire House Restaurant and Theatre in
Wichita through December 22.  This probably is a dinner theater, and the
address is 1817 West Sim Park Drive, Wichita, KS 67203 (316-269-0900).

Antonio Iriarte reports that Jo Soares' O XANGO DE BAKER STREET, a pastiche
published last year in Brazilian Portuguese (Feb 96 #4) is now available in
Spanish as EL XANGO DE BAKER STREET (Madrid: Ediciones Siruela, 1996; 272
pp., 1,900 ptas.); copies are available from Antonio (Barbara de Braganza 4
(5), 28004 Madrid, Spain) by surface post for $20.00 (in currency, please).  
Holmes and Watson investigate the disappearance of a valuable Stradivarius
during Sarah Bernhardt's first visit to Rio de Janeiro.

Basil Rathbone was one of six actors featured on a sheet of
"official stamps of the stars and studios" issued in 1947;
Israel I. Bick (Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408) offers a full-
color reprint of the entire sheet (5 x 8.5 in.) for $9.95
postpaid.

The shoe horn with a bust of Sherlock Holmes on the handle
(Oct 94 #2) is offered at $23.95 in the current catalog from
the Finck Cigar Company, Box 831007, San Antonio, TX 78283
(800-221-0638) <www.finckcigarcompany.com>.

The Mysterious Bookshop has a new Holiday Catalogue, with a
nice selection of Sherlockian books, new and old (and lots
of other books, of course); 129 West 56th Street, New York,
NY 10019 (800-352-2840).

Takahiko Endo has kindly forwarded a copy of the catalog prepared for the
special exhibit on "Sherlock Holmes and English Bricks" at the World Brick
Museum in Maizuru, and the museum must be a wonderful place to visit, even
without a Sherlockian display (the special exhibit closes on Nov. 30, so
there's still time to see it); much of the Sherlockian material on display
is from the collection of Yumiko Shigaki.  Maizuru is near Kyoto, and it is
a seaport, with many brick buildings, reminiscent of Portsmouth.  Also well
worth a visit is the Shoso-in, which contains some wonderful Japanese art
("What do you know of the Emperor Shomu and how do you associate him with
the Shoso-in near Nara?" Baron Gruner asked during his interview with Dr.  
Watson); Emperor Shomu who founded this great repository of Japanese art in
the 8th century.  And the Shoso-in has a home page with some fine pictures
at <http://www.bekkoame.or.jp/~joykun>.

Don Hobbs notes a Canonical excerpt in THE BOOK OF VICES: A COLLECTION OF
CLASSIC IMMORAL TALES, edited by Robert J. Hutchinson (New York: Riverhead
Books, 1996; 280 pp., $9.00); the excerpt (from "A Study in Scarlet") runs
from "Well, I have a trade of my own," to the departure of the commission-
naire, and is described by Hutchinson as "a character study in pride."

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)

Dec 96 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

Further to the report (Jun 94 #6) of the auction sale of the Gainsborough
portrait of Georgiana, 5th Duchess of Devonshire (of rather more than pass-
ing interest to Sherlockians), Bob Robinson has kindly forwarded a report
from London that Ben Macintyre, whose stories about the painting were pub-
lished in The Times and The N.Y. Times, has now written a book about Adam
Worth, the master thief who once stole the painting, and the book has been
purchased by Steven Spielberg's production company DreamWorks.  The book's
title is THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME, which is what some called Adam Worth (whose
arrest, conviction, and refusal to surrender the portrait to avoid his sen-
tence of seven years imprisonment made headlines in 1893, shortly before
"The Final Problem" was written).

Adam Worth has, by the way, appeared in one film, as noted by Bob: "Harry
and Walter Go to New York" (1976); Harry and Walter were con-men, played by
James Caan and Elliott Gould, and Adam Worth was played by Michael Caine.  
We'll have to wait to read Ben Macintyre's book, which is due in May 1997
from HarperCollins in Britain.

Arsene Lupin, the hero of many novels and stories by Maurice
Leblanc, was honored by France in a recent set of semi-postal
stamps celebrating great characters in French mystery stories.  
And Lupin succeeded in defeating Sherlock Holmes (or Herlock
Sholmes, after Sir Arthur complained).  Thanks to Jean-Pierre
Cagnat for supplying the stamp.

Noted by Don Hobbs: MURDEROUS SCHEMES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CLASSIC
DETECTIVE STORIES, edified by Donald E. Westlake (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1996; 519 pp., $25.00); "The Dying Detective" is
included in section devoted to the "I Confess" genre.

From the N.Y. Times News Service, via Paul Martin: "the state of euphoria a
historian experiences when unearthing a long-forgotten manuscript may be
chemically induced, according to Linga Franca magazine.  It cites a report
in the Lancet, a British medical journal.  A fungus that grows on moldy
books apparently releases spores when disturbed, and the airborne spores
can induce hallucinations.  Dermatologist R. J. Hay of London suggests that
'It is not inconceivable that intoxication might follow the inhalation of
spores from suitable mold fungi in libraries.'"  Bibliophiles do sometimes
act strangely, and it's nice to know why . . .

Tom Huntington's article about his travel "On the Trail of Sherlock Holmes"
in the Feb. 1997 issue of Historic Traveler focuses on Sherlockian sites in
London, with lots of fine color photographs; the magazine's address is 741
Miller Drive SE #D-2, Leesburg, VA 22075 ($3.99).

The Dispatch Box is an interesting newsletter published in English by The
Japanese Cabinet (a branch office of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company)
with news of Sherlockian events in Japan, and articles such as a report on
a new "Sherlock Holmes" cocktail bar in Naha on Okinawa.  A subscription
costs $8.00 or L5.00 (currency only, please) for four issues, from Yuichi
Hirayama, 2-10-12 Kamirenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo 181, Japan.

Dec 96 #2   Bouchercon 27 in St. Paul included a Sunday-morning panel on
            "The Bottomless Battered Tin Dispatch Box", moderated by Bruce
Southworth and with panelists Jon L. Breen, Carole Nelson Douglas, Edward
D. Hoch, and Larry Millett, discussing "what makes writing a Sherlockian
parody or pastiche so attractive for both new and established writers?"  An
audiocassette (session 41) is available ($8.75 postpaid) from Bouchercon
St. Paul Program, On Site Taping, 29318 Quail Run, Agoura Hills, CA 91301;
$8.75 postpaid (note: the recording is not complete, and occasionally the
sound is defective).

Bouchercon 28 will be held in Monterey on Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 1997 (Box 6202,
Hayward, CA 94540); Mike Kean is working on arranging a Sherlockian agenda.  
Bouchercon 29 will be in Philadelphia in 1998 (dates not yet set); the or-
ganizer is Deen Kogan, who has run successful local conventions each fall
in Philadelphia.

"A Grand Design: The Art of the Victoria and Albert Museum" is the title of
the exhibit, ten years in the planning, that will open at the Baltimore Mu-
seum of Art in Oct. 1997 at the start of a five-city tour of North America.  
Museum directors and sponsors hope that the show will be a blockbuster that
rivals the "Treasure Houses of Britain" exhibit at the National Gallery of
Art in Washington in 1985-86, and it may well do that: the Victoria and Al-
bert was founded in 1852, and it is the first and largest decorative-arts
museum in the world.  But the "Treasure Houses of Britain" had enough items
with Sherlockian connections on display to warrant a six-page mini-catalog
prepared by The Red Circle.

Carolyn and Joel Senter (aka Classic Specialties) have a new
issue of The Sherlockian Times (their illustrated catalog of
Sherlockian books, pamphlets, screen savers, mouse pads, ban-
ners, prints, and et ceteras.  So new that it didn't get into
the catalog is an amusing lapel pin, inspired by Ashley Lynn
Decker and executed by Stu Shiffman.  It's shown here actual
size, with a white background and (of course) the happy face
in yellow; the cost is $11.00 postpaid to North American, or
$11.75 to Europe, or $12.50 elsewhere.  Credit-card orders welcome; their
address is Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 <sherlock@sherlock-holmes.com>.

The "fossil apostle of poetic Sherlockismus" has prepared another volume of
verse "with all the Canonical verve and whimsical jiggery-pokery you have
come to expect," finely-printed as always on his Pequod Press.  That's John
Ruyle (521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521); the price is $40.00
postpaid in cloth, $20.00 in paper.

Syd Goldberg spotted a 72-minute videocassette called "The Diary of Jack
the Ripper: Beyond Reasonable Doubt?" (1993), with an interesting account
of the discovery of and debate about the diary of James Maybrick.  Michael
Winner presents the story, which is narrated by Tom Baker, and at the end
of the video Winner suggests that "Perhaps another celebrated Victorian,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was right: when you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."  The video is
available from Consumer Video Marketing, 60 Cutter Mill Road, Great Neck,
NY 10021 (800-530-8035); $19.95 plus shipping.

Dec 96 #3   Auction news: the manuscript of "The Sign of the Four" sold for
            $519,500 (including the premium paid by the buyer) at Sotheby's
in New York on Dec. 4; the price was well above the catalog estimate, poss-
ibly because of increased interest fueled by a nice article about the manu-
script in the N.Y. Times the day before the auction.  And the manuscript of
"The White Company" sold for $85,000 (also including the buyer's premium).  
Both manuscripts were owned by Father Redmond A. Burke, C.S.V., Ph.D., who
died on May 14 (the 57th anniversary of his Ordination to Priesthood); "The
White Company" is now owned by Fred Kittle of Chicago, but the new owner of
"The Sign of the Four" has not yet been identified.

Scott Monty reports that there's a floating restaurant called the "Aurora"
in Boston, rather larger than Mordecai Smith's steam launch.  It's an old
harbor-cruise ship moored at 310 Congress Street (right next to the Boston
Tea Party exhibit); The Bull-Terriers are planning a dinner meeting there.

Al Gregory notes that the Early Holiday 1996 catalog from Design Toscano,
17 East Campbell Street, Arlington Heights, IL 60005 (800-525-0733) has a
Sherlockian chess set in natural bone and mahogany ($228) or hand-painted
($448), and a Sherlock Holmes walking stick ($68.95).  The company special-
izes in "historical European reproductions for home and garden," with armor
and tapestries and gargoyles and other delights for those who are thinking
of redecorating their homes as the Manor House of Hurlstone, or Baskerville
Hall, or Holdernesse Hall, or some other "picturesque pile" in the Canon.

That sheet of "official stamps of the stars and studio"
that included Basil Rathbone (Nov 96 #8) wasn't the only
one issued in 1947; another sheet showed twelve actors,
including Nigel Bruce, and a full-color reprint of that
entire sheet (4.25x8.25") is available ($9.95 postpaid)
from Israel I. Bick (Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408).

Russ Geoffrey notes some interesting Sherlockian referen-
ces in Kinky Friedman's new mystery novel THE LOVE SONG OF
J. EDGAR HOOVER (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996).

Fans of "Mystery!" on PBS-TV may recall the BBC Television series "Campion"
(based on the stories written by Margery Allingham), and remember that the
two-hour program "Police at the Funeral" (1988), in which Inspector Oates
finds Albert Campion (played by Peter Davison) dressed in Sherlockian cos-
tume.  And the solution to the murder of John Franklyn-Robbins had a nice
echo from the Canon.  There may be more Sherlockian discoveries to be made
in Allingham's books, but I'll leave that to members of The Margery Alling-
ham Society, which twice a year publishes an interesting journal called The
Bottle Street Gazette.  Membership in the society costs L7.00 (or $10.00) a
year; the society's contact is Pamela Bruxner, St. Cuthbert's Cottage, 23
North Street, Barming, Maidstone, Kent ME16 9HE, England.

Lisa Oldham's electronic newsletter The Brettish Empire continues to offer
interesting material about Jeremy Brett, with the latest issue reporting on
the launch party for David Stuart Davies' new biography of Brett, BENDING
THE WILLOW.  Lisa's e-mail address is <loldham@freenet.columbus.oh.us>, and
back issues are posted on the Web at <http://www.infinet.com/~jwolfe/tbe>.

Dec 96 #4   Further to the item (Nov 96 #6) on astronaut F. Story Musgrave,
            who started his sixth and final shuttle flight on Nov. 19, the
shuttle Columbia returned safely to Cape Canaveral on Dec. 7.  Musgrave, 61
years old, is the oldest active astronaut, and now also shares the record
for the longest-lasting shuttle mission.

Ben Wolf ("Vernet, the French Artist") died on Dec. 5.  Ben was an artist,
writer, teacher, biographer, editor, poet, and bookman, and a member of The
Baker Street Irregulars (he received his Investiture in 1964) and a Master
Copper Beechsmith of The Sons of the Copper Beeches of Philadelphia (whose
dinner menus have for many years been decorated with his amusing Sherlock-
ian artwork).  He also was an admirer of Conan Doyle, and during a visit to
England in the early 1970s discovered Constance Holland, Sir Arthur's last
secretary (he called her "Tiny" and that's how she still signed her letters
in the 1970s), and brought her to the United States for a tour of Philadel-
phia and Washington.

                             Tom Rieschick offers an illustrated flier for
                             his attractive prints of Sherlock Holmes (as
                             portrayed by Rathbone and Brett), and Watson
                             and Moriarty, and Hercule Poirot, and others,
                             and he accepts commissions; his address is 179
                             Gold Kettle Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20878.

                             Holmes by Hall offers an illustrated flier for
                             their hand-crafted porcelain Sherlockian mugs
                             and teapots; Box 221-B, Flushing, MI 48433.

The latest issue of Scarlet Street has arrived, with a good article about
what went into assembling the music for the Varese Sarabande CD "Sherlock
Holmes: Classic Themes from 221B Baker Street" and a report by David Stuart
Davies on British television, including notes on what David Burke, Edward
Hardwicke, and Jeremy Paul are up to (unfortunately, nothing Sherlockian).
Scarlet Street is published quarterly ($20.00 a year), and the address is
Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452.  The CD is available from Varese Sarabande,
11846 Ventura Boulevard #130, Studio City, CA 91604 (800-827-3734); $15.98
plus $4.50 shipping.

Jerry Bangham spotted an advertisement in Variety (Sept. 30) for "Sherlock
Holmes in the 22nd Century: The Future Files" (an animated television ser-
ies with 26 30-minute episodes) planned by DIC Entertainment in Burbank, in
cooperation with Scottish Television.  DIC hopes to start production during
1997, aiming for availability on-the-air in the fall 1998 season; you may
already have seen DIC's animations on television: they've done "Where in
the World is Carmen Sandiego?", "Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters", "Sonic
the Hedgehog", and "Madeline" (based on Ludwig Bemelmans' book).

"Underneath it all, those Victorian Violets were women of steel," suggests
Sonia Fetherston, who recommends an exhibit of Victorian underwear (hoops,
corsettes, drawers, pantalettes, petticoats, cage crinolines, chemises, and
other assorted hard and soft wear from 1840 to 1900) at the Wadsworth Athe-
neum in Hartford, Conn., through Mar. 2; the Atheneum's address is 600 Main
Street, and their textile curator is Carol Dean Krute (860-278-2670).

Dec 95 #5   The latest issue of Anglofile reports that the final episodes
            of Granada's "Sherlock Holmes" series will repeat on "Mystery!"
on PBS-TV beginning May 8, 1997.  And MPI Home Video has reported "healthy
sales" of its videocassettes "with a surprising number of people buying the
entire set" of 41 "Sherlock Holmes" programs.  "The Thin Blue Line" (a BBC-
TV sitcom starring Rowan Atkinson as police inspector in suburban London)
will air on PBS-TV stations at the end of the year; Alan Saunders has noted
that Atkinson's character has a rather nice bust of Holmes on the desk in
his office, and in one episode waxes lyrical about the pleasures of spend-
ing his lunch break reading a few chapters of Sherlock Holmes.  Anglofile
is a monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment;
$12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033).

John Semper offers Frank Giacoia's original black-and-white artwork for the
"Sherlock Holmes" newspaper comic strip that appeared on Apr. 15, 1956; the
artwork (from "Silver Blaze") shows Fitzroy Simpson being charged with the
murder of John Straker, and Holmes and Watson leaving 221B Baker Street to
travel to King's Pyland.  It's framed and in excellent condition, and costs
$3,000; 10153-1/2 Riverside Drive #392, Toluca Lake, CA 91602 (818-993-6859)
<johnsemper@aol.com>.

Marina Stajic has found the Gillette Tavern at the Hale-N-Hearty (381 Town
Street, East Haddam, Conn.), quite convenient for visitors to nearby Gill-
ette Castle; the menu notes that the owner, Mary Ellen Klinck, is a justice
of the peace, and will be happy to perform weddings at the restaurant.

Walter R. Brooks wrote 26 children's books about Freddy the Pig, with nice
illustrations by Kurt Wiese, who appropriately showed Freddy in Sherlockian
costume in FREDDY THE DETECTIVE.  The Friends of Freddy, founded in 1984,
hold conventions, and publish the quarterly Bean Home Newsletter, and show
Freddy the Detective on the flier you get if you request information about
the society (5-A Laurel Hill Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770); please include a
#10 SASE (stamped self-addressed envelope).

I hope you all enjoyed Stephen Davies' nice discovery of Rudyard Kipling's
use of "Sherlock Holmes" as a verb (Nov 96 #5).  It's an earlier use of the
two words as a verb than the earliest citation in the second (1989) edition
of the OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY, which notes James Joyce's ULYSSES (1922)
for "He had been meantime taking stock of the individual in front of him
and Sherlock-holmesing him up."

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine wishes Sherlock Holmes a happy 143rd birth-
day with the Feb. 1997 issue, with a note on the birthday festivities, the
late Harlan L. Umansky's poem "Watson's Mournful Reveries", and reviews by
Jon L. Breen of recent Sherlockian books.

Willie Rushton died on Dec. 11.  He was a British comedian, satirist, writ-
er, and artist, and a major figure in the anti-establishment comic movement
that flowered in the 1960s.  He appeared on television with David Frost in
"That Was the Week That Was", and was a co-founder of the magazine Private
Eye, and in 1973 he played Watson to John Cleese's Holmes in the BBC tele-
vision comedy "Elementary, My Dear Watson" comedy; he also wrote and illu-
strated the Watsonian pastiche novel W. G. GRACE'S LAST CASE (1984).

Dec 96 #6   Charles Hamilton Jr. died on Dec. 11.  He was a handwriting ex-
            pert and autograph dealer, and brought the manuscript of "Black
Peter" to auction in 1972, when it was happily purchased by Norm Nolan.  In
1983, Hamilton was one of the first to describe the alleged Hitler diaries
as obvious forgeries; he also wrote about his work in books such as SCRIBB-
LERS & SCOUNDRELS (1968), and he always had grand tales to tell.

John Bennett Shaw had great fun compiling his list of "the basic 100 books"
for Sherlockians, despite understandable frustration in deciding what books
to include and exclude from his list, but his list always was just that: a
list, rather than a discussion of the books themselves.  Carl William Thiel
now offers the list, and describes and discusses the books, and offers some
suggestions of his own, in THE BASIC 100: AN ANNOTATED COLLECTOR'S GUIDE.  
It's nicely done, and there's an excellent foreword by Ray Betzner, and the
56-page pamphlet costs $13.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204,
Shelburne, ON L0N 1SO, Canada.

The next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., will be held on Mar.
14-16.  There will be a mystery to solve (with prizes for the winners) dur-
ing a tour of six Victorian homes, and meals, and other fun and games.  For
more information, contact the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts at: Box 340,
Cape May, NJ 08204-0340 (609-884-5404).

Ben Fairbank reports that the Oxford University Press is again offering the
nine cloth-bound volumes of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES at a discount.  The
sale price is $65.00 for the set, and you also get the nine color postcards
showing the cover art; it's item 725 in their catalog (credit cards only),
and the toll-free number is 800-230-3242.

"Part of you think it's in poor taste," the Los Angeles County Coroner's
Department suggests in their latest mail-order catalog, adding that "part
of you wants an XL."  Their artwork includes the old skeleton Sherlock, and
a new Sherlock-and-magnifying-glass, on T-shirts, mugs, playing cards, and
lapel pins.  Profits support that department's Youthful Drunk Driver Visi-
tation Program, and the catalog is available from Skeletons in the Closet,
1104 North Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA 90033.

Plan ahead: the next Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes Symposium will be
held in Dayton on Mar. 14-16, 1997.  If you'd like to be on their mailing
list, contact Mary Frost-Pierson, 101 Cemetery Street, Yellow Springs, OH
45387 <msteries@aol.com>.

Jon Lellenberg has forwarded an article from the British press about a pro-
posal to open a "Sherlock Holmes Experience" in the basement and first two
floors at 231-237 Baker Street; architects' plans include moving models of
Victorian street urchins, bobbies on the beat, and hansom cabs.  A spokes-
man for the project refused to identify who's behind it, but it's not Grace
Riley, director of the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street; she said
that "to have two museums on the same street is ludicrous."  She fears that
the new museum would be a "state of the art, hi-tech entertainment complex
or something.  Can you imagine that sort of freak show here?"  The property
at 231-237, now vacant, is owned by the Abbey National, and the Westminster
Council had decided to visit the site before making a decision.

Dec 96 #7   AUGUST W. DERLETH (1909-1971): A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CHECKLIST OF
            HIS WORKS, edited by William Dutch and others, offers a check-
list of his novels, some additions to an earlier bibliography by Alison M.
Wilson, a list of some of the contents of the August Derleth Society News-
letter, and other material.  The 76-page pamphlet is available from George
A. Vanderburgh (Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada); $13.00 postpaid.

                    W. Scott Monty (1836 Columbia Road #2, South Boston, MA
                    02127) offers a wrist watch (male or female style) with
                    the emblem of The Bull-Terrier Club on the watch-face
                    (writing in red, the bull terrier in gray and black);
                    $26.00 postpaid (or $28.00 if you want your name on the
                    watch face).

                    A LETTER OF MARY (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996;
                    276 pp., $23.95) is Laurie R. King's third novel about
                    Mary Russell, and it's a fine one.  The time is 1923,
and Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes now are married (yes, to each other),
and involved in solving a mystery that's really a mystery, and Mary is more
mature, and she's very much a character in her own right.  There are some
subtleties to amuse mystery fans, and some new insights into the lives of
both Russell and Holmes, and a good story, told well.

Rebecca Anderson has kindly provided a list of dates and cities for Laurie
R. King's tour promoting her new Mary Russell book A LETTER OF MARY (names
of bookstores and times of book-signings are not yet available): Jan. 20-21
(New York), 22 (Boston), 23 (Washington), 24 (Baltimore), 25-26 (Minneapo-
lis), 27-28 (Chicago); Feb. 2-3 (Phoenix), 4 (Tucson), 5-6 (Los Angeles),
7-8 (Portland), 9-10 (Seattle).  Attenta: the list is not necessarily accu-
rate; she will be signing at MysteryBooks (at 1715 Connecticut Avenue NW in
Washington) from noon to 1:00 pm on January 24.

And Laurie's second Mary Russell novel A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN now is
available in paperback (New York: Bantam Books, 1997; 336 pp., $5.99); this
is a collectible, because it contains a teaser at the end: 13 pages from A
LETTER OF MARY.  Some paperback publishers are doing this for some of their
series (they need to have the next book in hand, of course, or perhaps only
the opening pages); if the paperback teaser beats the actual first edition
into the shops, then there's a partial first edition for the completists.

Chris Caswell (Baker Street Emporium, Box 2324, Seal Beach, CA 90740) has a
new sales list of Sherlockiana, including a life mask of Basil Rathbone, a
doormat with a Sherlockian profile in two sizes, and much more.

Edward F. Clark, Jr. ("The Matter of the French Government") died on Dec. 
13.  He was a Wall Street lawyer, and a fine Sherlockian; his first contri-
bution to our literature won the Morley-Montgomery Award for the best piece
in the BSJ in 1963, and his scholarship and humor were a continuing delight
both in print and at society meetings.  He received his BSI Investiture in
1963, and the BSI's Two-Shilling Award in 1986; he once described himself
as "one of the dwindling array of Edwardians who report for duty in Baker
Street," and he was a wonderful link to the days of lamplighters and many
other things that we can now only read about.

Dec 96 #8   Michael Atkinson's THE SECRET MARRIAGE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES AND
            OTHER ECCENTRIC READINGS (Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press,
1996; 198 pp., $29.95) easily refutes the widely-held belief that pop-cult
lit-crit must be deadly dull and packed with academic jargon.  The eccen-
tric aspect of his approaches to nine Canonical stories is that he offers
an intriguing starting-point for his discussion of each story, such as the
kundalini-yoga serpent for "The Speckled Band" and Nietzschean iconoclasm
for "The Six Napoleons".  Atkinson explains what he's doing, in critical
appendices and readable end-notes; three of the chapters are revised and
expanded from earlier articles, and six are new, and all are interesting.

It seems quite appropriate that a Sherlockian society
in California has produced its own wine glasses, and
that's just what The Scowrers and Mollie Maguires of
San Francisco had done: the design is in 22 kt. gold,
kiln-fired on a clear 8-oz. bowl, with a black twisted
stem.  $13.50 postpaid for one, $26.00 for two, $44.00
for four, $86.00 for eight; Charlotte Erickson, Sher-
lock's Corner, 1029 Judson Drive, Mountain View, CA
94040.

And if you would like some Sherlockian wine in your Sherlockian wine glass,
you might consider a Canonically-appropriate French claret, a 1995 Bordeaux
produced by Chateau Plain-Point in Saint Aignan, in a 750-ml. bottle with a
comemorative Sherlockian label and a Sherlockian profile on the wax seal.  
$34.95 postpaid from Chris Caswell, Baker Street Emporium, Box 2324, Seal
Beach, CA 90740.

Forecast for February: MURDER, MRS. HUDSON, by Sydney Hosier (Avon); Emma
Hudson, housekeeper to Sherlock Holmes, is the detective in this sequel to
ELEMENTARY, MRS. HUDSON (Apr 96 #6).

Perhaps the only real problem for those who attend Sherlockian symposiums
and workshops and weekends is that all too often one goes home without the
papers presented at the gatherings, because the sessions generally aren't
recorded and the papers generally aren't published, and it's even worse if
there are multiple sessions, and one can't attend all of them.  A pleasant
exception is the conference organized by The Baker Street Breakfast Club at
Bennington College in June 1994.  SHERLOCK HOLMES: VICTORIAN SLEUTH TO MOD-
ERN HERO (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 1996; 396 pp., $34.50) is a thoroughly
welcome collection, and the editors (Charles R. Putney, Joseph A. Cutshall
King, and Sally Sugarman) have done an excellent job of offering 24 of the
papers from the conference, including Nicholas Meyer's fine keynote address
on "Sherlock Holmes on Film: A Personal View" (he has never seen a Sherlock
Holmes film he didn't dislike, and explains why, with considerable insight
and humor).

Robert C. Hess has a new sales list of Sherlockiana, and a nicely-illustra-
ted flier of British souvenirs, gifts, and collectibles; his address is 559
Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718.

 The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington,
  DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) (Internet: pblau@capaccess.org)