Jan 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The birthday festivities in New York were once again graced with delightful weather (no guarantees for next year, of course), and a rather empty lobby at the Hotel Algonquin (which is being renovated by the new owners, who are hoping to have almost everything back the way it was, or perhaps better, in a few months). The BSI's Distinguished Speaker Lecture, on Thursday after- noon, featured Nicholas Meyer, who selected as his topic "Sherlock Holmes, Wine Bottles, and the Catholic Mass" (and told some splendid stories about the casting of the film "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution"). And the Aunt Clara Sing at O'Lunney's was well attended on Thursday evening. The Mrs. Hudson Breakfast on Friday morning was rather informal, since the Algonquin had no dining room (and far fewer people than usual were able to stay at the Algonquin), but the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chel- sea Seafood Restaurant was as always a splendid event, with Andrew Joffe, Sarah Montague Joffe, and Paul Singleton presenting a new playlet by Andrew about "Sherlock Holmes in Hell". And Otto Penzler's traditional open house at the Mysterious Bookshop was a nice opportunity for collectors to browse and buy. The Baker Street Irregulars gathered at 24 Fifth Avenue, where Paul Martin toasted Mary Schulz as *The* Woman during the pre-dinner cocktail party (Mary then went on to dine at the Harvard Club with many of the other ladies who have received that honor). The evening's entertainment included the usual traditions (Steve Rothman's toast to the Second Mrs. Watson turned out to honor the Second Dr. Watson's Mrs.), and a lively program that ranged from selections from the late Harvey Officer's Sherlockian songbook presented by Bruce Montgomery and members of the Penn Glee Club, to an astounding cook- ing demonstration by Fritz Sonnenschmidt, assisted by a bewildered George Fletcher, of just how a master chef prepares pheasant livers with orange on toast points (or, for this one occasion, on bagels). And Mike Whelan (our "Wiggins") announced two official appointments: Peter E. Blau as the BSI's secretary ("Simpson"), and Jon L. Lellenberg the his- torian ("Thucydides"), and awarded Irregular Shillings and Investitures to James E. Smith II ("Winner of the Jackson Prize"), Susan Z. Diamond ("The Great Mogul"), Lou Lewis ("William Whyte"), Thierry Saint-Joanis ("Monsieur Bertillon"), and John F. Baesch ("State and Merton County Railroad"). Pam- ela Bruxner ("The British Government") received her membership in the BSI from Mike eight days later in London. The Baskerville Bash also took place on Friday evening, at La Belle Epoque, with a capacity crowd of 110 (reserve early next year), souvenirs for all (including Jane Hinckley's imaginative "Do-It-Yourself Baskerville Threat- ening Letter Kit"), toasts and scholarly papers (Tom Cynkin proposed that Sherlock Holmes was a Fakir), and other fun and frivolity, with The Grimpen Mire Choir transformed at one point into the Sherlettes, recalling the 60s with red sashes, gold glitter, and Canonical doo-wop. On Saturday morning the huckster room (at the Princeton Club this year) was as usual packed with dealers who offered a wide variety of Sherlockiana to eager browsers and collectors. And (yes, there's more) . . . Jan 98 #2 Saturday afternoon's cocktail party at the National Arts Club honored the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes with Bill Vande Water's display of photographs from the BSI's 1968 annual dinner (the one they picketed) and the 1992 annual dinner (the first one to which ladies were invited); some of the people in both pictures were remarkably recogni- zable in the earlier one. Susan Rice accepted the plaudits of the crowd as the winner of the Morley-Montgomery Award (an attractive certificate and a check for $500) for the best article in last year's Baker Street Journal, and energetic bidders helped the Dr. John H. Watson Fund in the traditional auction (the Fund also benefited from auctions at the BSI annual dinner and the Baskerville Bash). The festivities continued into the evening, but on a more informal basis, with The Canonical Capricorns celebrating Sherlock Holmes and others born under that sign, and with some going off to theaters or getting into other mischief. And for the hardy souls who stayed on, or perhaps up, until Sun- day noon, there was a Sherlockian brunch at Le Max, where the decorations honored recent newlyweds Mary Ellen Rich and Philip A. Shreffler. I've not reported on everything, I hasten to add; if you want more details than fit into print here, it is quite likely that there will be much longer reports in the March issue of The Baker Street Journal (quarterly, $18.95 a year, and the address is Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331). The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI is not required) who might otherwise not be able to participate in the weekend's festivities, and contributions of interesting and unique items for the auction are always welcome. If you have something you would like to donate to this worthy cause, you are cordially invited to write to Michael F. Whelan, Box 2189, Easton, MD 21601. Paul Martin offers a nicely coincidental excuse to see the musical "Cats" at the Winter Garden Theater in New York: the actor playing Macavity (the Mystery Cat in Eliot's poem) is Philip Michael Baskerville. CapAccess (the Internet service provider managed by WETA, the local public broadcasting service) celebrated the New Year by crashing, and was off-line for more than a week, in case anyone still hasn't received responses to any e-mail messages that are lost out there in the electricity, somewhere. My new e-mail address at Digital Gateway Systems is . The Beeman's Christmas Annual for 1997 is dedicated to Dr. John H. Watson, with contributions from eight members of The Occupants of the Empty House, including Brad Keefauver's imaginative explanation of why everyone likes Watson. The 24-page pamphlet costs $10.00 postpaid from the society (Box 21, Zeigler, IL 62999). Constance P. Montgomery died on May 21, 1997. Connie was just as musical as her husband Jim and her son Bruce, both members of the BSI, and proud to be called "Hot Rod Nanny" from her prowess at the wheel: she drove without an accident from the age of 16 until she "grounded" herself four years ago at the age of 94. In 1961 she was the first lady invited to the cocktail hour preceding the BSI's annual dinner and toasted formally as *The* Woman. Jan 98 #3 Musical adaptations of the Canon are quite rare, and one of the best of them will be found on JON DEAK: MUSICAL FANTASIES, a CD (CRC 2296) issued by Centaur Records in 1996. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (commissioned by Richard Hartshorne of the Apple Hill Chamber Play- ers in 1983) is an adaptation of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" for double bass and six voices (all provided by Hartshorne), and it's delightful. The CD also offers Deak's "Eeyore Has a Birthday" and "Lady Chatterly's Dream" (all performed by the Apple Hill Chamber Players), and if you can't find it in a record store, it's available from Centaur Records, 8856 Highland Road #206, Baton Rouge, LA 70808; $15.00 postpaid (credit-card orders welcome). Frederick D. Bryan-Brown died in Nov. 1997. He was one of the most senior members of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, which he joined in Sept. 1951, and was for many years Head of Classics at Bishop's Stortford School, which surely helped with his choice of topic for his first published paper (about "Sherlockian Schools and Schoolmasters") in the summer 1956 issue of The Sherlock Holmes Journal. Movies Unlimited (3015 Darnell Road, Philadelphia, PA 19154) (800-466-8437) offers just about anything you can imagine might be on videocassettes, and some you might not think of, such as the 12-chap- ter 211-minute serial "Daredevils of the Red Circle" (1939): "three circus stuntmen join forces to track down a cunning madman bent on catastrophic revenge" ($19.99). Absolutely non-Sherlockian, except for the title, and a cast that includes Miles Mander. It's the Year of the Tiger . . . of San Pedro, perhaps . . . in the twelve-year Lunar New Year cycle celebrated by the Chinese, and by our postal service. And if "Wis- teria Lodge" doesn't have your favorite tiger, there are plenty of tigers (and tiger cubs and tiger-skin rugs) in other stories. Bill Dunning suggests that it's time to request reservation forms for the Fourth Biennial John Bennett Shaw Memorial Conference for Sherlockian Stud- ies at Santa Fe Community College on Sept. 25-27; Jon L. Lellenberg will be the keynote speaker. You can write to: Santa Fe Community College, Center for Continuing Education, 6401 South Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87505 . For new readers (and those who don't remember the question from a couple of years ago): name a city, mentioned in the Canon, that had more than a mill- ion inhabitants when Conan Doyle visited it, but no longer exists? ON STAGE: SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Charles Hall and Peter Blythe, is a guide to 70 Sherlockian plays and musicals from 1899 to 1993, with synopses and com- mentary, and it's well done indeed, ranging from the major productions to scripts written for school performances, and from serious dramas to broad farce, offering a splendid look at the wide variety of Sherlockian theater. There are two booklets with a total of 105 pp., and the cost is L6.60 post- paid, from Charles Hall, 12 Paisley Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 7JW, Scotland, Great Britain (sterling checks are welcome, but otherwise please send only currency or add L5.00 for bank charges on foreign-currency checks). Jan 98 #4 The current issue of Anglofile reports that Britain's year-end honors list included a knighthood for science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke (who has discussed Arthur Conan Doyle and the Cottingley fairies in his television series "Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Pow- ers"), and CBEs for Deborah Kerr, who had three roles in the film "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943), and Alan Howard, who played the Duke of Holdernesse in Granada's version of "The Priory School" (1986). Anglofile is a monthly newsletter that offers detailed coverage of British entertain- ment; Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033 ($15.00 a year). William C. Thomas (9507 East 65th Street #407, Tulsa, OK 74133) publishes The Jack-Knife for his fellow-members of Holmes in Scales, an informal cor- respondence society for those who like to make (or read about) Sherlockian models (a subject that includes more than miniatures). Glenhall Taylor died on Dec. 28. He produced or directed hundreds of radio programs in the days when Hollywood was a broadcasting center, and he wrote for radio and television. He produced the Rathbone/Bruce "Sherlock Holmes" radio series from 1943 to 1945, and in 1977 he wrote scripts for a proposed series (unfortunately not broadcast) that was to star Edwin Mulhare and Ben Wright. He was a delightful raconteur, and his memoirs BEFORE TELEVISION: THE RADIO YEARS (1979) offer some grand tales about Rathbone and Bruce and many others from those long-ago days. Ron Fish has begun work on a directory that will list Sherlockian societies and the dates of their meetings, to be published in 1999 and then updated annually. If your society would like to be included, contact Ron at Box 4, Circleville, NY 10919-0004 . Carolyn Gassner is asking for photographs (or .gif or .jpg graphic files) of "Ugly or Bizarre Sherlockian Collectibles" so that she can hold a con- test on the World Wide Web: visitors to her "Sherlockian humor" home page will be able to vote for the "Epitome of Sherlockian Bizarritude" (and if you are wondering how to define bizarritude, she suggests that "bizarritude is as bizarritude does"). There's no URL yet, but you can send photographs to her at P.O. Drawer G, Corrales, NM 87048; and e-mail and graphic files to her at . When in New York: Leslie Tonkonow Artworks+Projects (601 West 26th Street) has a show on "The Cottingley Fairies and Other Apparitions" (with photo- graphs of otherwordly phenomena from the 19th century to the present) until Feb. 21 (212-255-8450). The Times has reported briefly on some of the provisions of Dame Jean Conan Doyle's will: she left three Sherlock Holmes manuscripts to the British Li- brary, a museum in Edinburgh, and a museum in Portsmouth or Southsea (to be chosen by her trustees); six other Conan Doyle manuscripts are to be sold and the proceeds shared among the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, the Not Forgotten Association, the Royal Air Force Association, Help the Hospices, the Distressed Gentlefolks' Aid Association, and the Royal Star and Garter Home; other original papers and letters written by her father to the Brit- ish Library; her copyrights to the Royal National Institute for the Blind; and L1,000 to Minstead Church. The total estate was valued at L1,867,361. Jan 98 #5 John Stephenson wonders whether anyone knows anything about a souvenir he found recently: a small deerstalker imprinted for "Empress Coffee" (it appears to be an advertising handout from the 1950s); any recollections of Empress Coffee or their advertising? John's address is 6807 East Briarwood Drive, Englewood, CO 80112). Frank Muir died on Jan. 2. Best known here for his decades as a punning panelist on the radio quiz shows "My Word!" and "My Music" (still heard in re-runs on public radio), he was also credited with inventing the televis- ion situation comedy, and he was an inspired wit, described by Marc Fisher in the Washington Post as a man who could "wink on radio." His specialty was a complicated story that ended in a startling pun, and one of them was Sherlockian, published in his collection OH, MY WORD! (1980) and reprinted (with permission) by Douglas Sutherland-Bruce in The Western Flyer (winter 1986); it's well worth tracking down. Thom Boykoff reports a set of "Facts & Feats" Guinness Records collector's cards issued in 1992 by Pro Set; card #38 has Sherlockian artwork by Frank Wiles, and notes that Holmes is the most-portrayed character on the screen. Travelers from afar (San Francisco) report that S. Holmes, Esq., atop the Holiday Inn, Union Square, has been closed. The top floor of the hotel is being renovated, and when it opens again there won't be space for the fine recreation of the sitting-room at 221B. But everything is being carefully preserved, in hopes of finding a new location for the sitting-room. What city, mentioned in the Canon, had more than a million inhabitants when Conan Doyle visited it, but no longer exists? 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, and that's why New York City is celebrating its centennial this year. Cliff Goldfarb reports that The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collec- tion at the Toronto Reference Library have arranged a special performance of Arthur Conan Doyle's play "Waterloo" at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on- the Lake, Ont., on Aug. 15; there will also be a buffet lunch afterward at the Prince of Wales Hotel. Doug Wrigglesworth (16 Sunset Street, Holland Landing, ON L9N 1H4, Canada is the contact for more information about the event. "I hesitated for a moment, searching for the proper phraseology. 'There was something I did *not* observe that was highly significant.' The blood rushed into Emerson's lean cheeks. 'Curse it, Peabody,' he shouted, 'You have been reading those damnable detective stories again!'" Reported by Melissa Ennis in SEEING A LARGE SNAKE, by Elizabeth Peters (New York: War- ner Books, 1997); the latest in the fine series of mystery novels starring Amelia Peabody Emerson. "A Study in Scarlet" (produced by Jennifer and Robert Spahr, and directed and adapted by Bart Lovins), will be performed by Expanded Arts on Feb. 5- 7, 12-14, 19-21 at 7:00 pm. Tickets cost $12.00, and the theater is at 85 Ludlow Street, New York, NY 10002 (212-253-1813); that's between Broome and Delancey Streets. You can also reserve on-line at . Jan 98 #6 The STUD Sherlockian Society's annual banquet on Mar. 6 (at the Starlight Inn in Schiller Park near Chicago) will feature David L. Hammer as the featured speaker (on "A Study in Scarlet: A Triumph of the Geography of the Imagination"). There will also be a Solar Pons Breakfast on Mar. 7, and a Rache Road Rally on Mar. 8, and additional information is available from Dennis France, 8546 North Kedvale Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076. Laurie R. King's THE MOOR (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; 307 pp., $23.95) brings Mary Russell and her husband to Dartmoor in 1923, summoned by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould to solve a new mystery that echoes the one that Sherlock Holmes solved there decades earlier. The moor is as wet and cold as ever, in the book, at any rate (the first time Laurie was there to do research the weather was so pleasant that she had to make another trip), and she has done a fine job with the time and place and characters, as well as with the mystery. She also has discovered a delightful echo of the rev- erend in his grandson's biography of Sherlock Holmes (no spoiler here). Laurie will be visiting bookshops in the west, and of course will be happy to sign copies of THE MOOR: Feb. 8 at Black Oak Books (Berkeley, Calif.), Feb. 12 at Clues Unlimited and Feb. 13 at Antigone Books (Tucson, Ariz.), Feb. 15 at the Poisoned Pen (Scottsdale, Ariz.), Mar. 1 at the Left Coast Crime convention (San Diego), Mar. 8 at Book Passages (Corte Madera, Cal- if.), Mar. 15 at Trinity Cathedral (San Jose, Calif.), and Apr. 25 at the Pleasant Hill Literary Women conference (Pleasant Hill, Calif.). And Laurie's A LETTER OF MARY (Dec 96 #7) is now in the stores in paperback (New York: Bantam Books, 1998; 318 pp., $5.99); set just before the events in THE MOOR, it's also a good read, with a fine mystery. Bantam will issue THE MOOR in paperback in the spring of 1999. Rebecca J. Anderson reports an announcement that the June-July issue of British Heritage will include an article about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and how Dartmoor became "the major character his "Hound of the Baskervilles." Rebecca also presides over The Beekeeper's Holmes Page for fans of Laurie King's books about Mary Russell , as well as the RUSS-L electronic mailing list; Rebecca's e-mail address is . Plan ahead: The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn are considering celebrating the turn of the century and the new millennium by spending Christmas and New Year's 1999-2000 in England; more information is available from Michael E. Bragg (Box 256, St. Charles, MO 63302. One assumes that those who want to celebrate the turn of the century and the new millennium one year later will be planning their own tour. Lawrence Treat died on Jan. 7. He began his writing career in the 1930s, and was a pioneer in the police-procedural genre and a founding member of the Mystery Writers of America. "Once upon a time there was no TV," he wrote in an essay published in MURDER INK (1977). "People walked to the movies and used their cars to neck in, but when they stayed home there was nothing much to do except listen to the radio and play games." So in 1935 he invented a game called BRINGING SHERLOCK HOLMES that was so popular that it's a rare collectible now (you'll find one of the puzzles in MURDER INK). Jan 98 #7 Milestone Films & Video now offers a videocassette version of the laserdisc edition of "The Lost World" (1925) issued by Lu- mivision in 1991 (it has 65 percent of the original footage, a trailer, a promotional short, and a demonstration of the stop-motion special effects devised by Willis O'Brien; it's the most complete version of the film now available. A much longer version of the film was found in the Czech Repub- lic recently (Jul 97 #6), but is unlikely to be issued on videocassette for some years. Milestone's address is: 275 West 96th Street #28-C, New York, NY 10025 ; the cassette costs $29.95 postpaid (credit- card orders welcome). Alfred Thelin died on Jan. 15. Carolyn Gassner reports that he was a den- tist and a member of The Brothers Three, and enjoyed their Trap Shoots in Tesuque. He was an easy-going man known for his quiet humor, and he will be missed by the Sherlockians in New Mexico. The Wigmore Street Post Office is an electronic journal that appears on the Prodigy computer service, but some of the best of its material can be found in its ink-on-paper version; the winter 1997 issue, dedicated to Jephro Ru- castle, has 40 pages, and a subscription costs $10.00 (three issues), from Mel Hughes, 2664 Sam Hardwick Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL 32246. The next issue will include the entries in an on-going contest for the worst opening paragraph of a Sherlockian pastiche (contestants must write the paragraphs themselves). Russ Geoffrey, still selling his Sherlockian collection (Oct 97 #8), offers an illustrated sales-list of statues, audiocassettes, videocassettes, etc.; send him a #10 SASE (21 Baker Street, Warren, RI 02885). Christie's South Kensington will have some interesting material in an auc- tion on Mar. 19: the Midg and Cameo cameras used by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths to take the photographs of the Cottingley fairies; six original photographs on contemporary mounts; a first edition of Conan Doyle's THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES (1922); three later watercolors of fairies made by Elsie; and a 1983 holograph letter by Elsie giving her version of events. And (perhaps) two of the original glass negative. An illustrated catalog will be ready in mid-February; their address (attn: Michael Pritchard) is 85 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3LD, England (0171-321-3279) . Sir Arthur Conan Doyle appeared as a character in comic books TARZAN #13 and #14 (from Dark Horse), and there are mentions of "Sir Arthur's detec- tive" in #15 ($2.95). Carole Bugge wrote the Dashiell Hammett pastiche in Marvin Kaye's anthology RESURRECTED HOLMES (Mar 96 #1), and now wields Watson's own pen in THE STAR THE STAR OF INDIA (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; 197 pp., $21.95); it is 1894, and Holmes and returned from the Reichenbach to find that Moriarty also survived the battle there, and is plotting revenge. Jennie C. Paton's video lending library is up and running again, and you can ask her for more information (please enclose a #10 SASE): Box 17197, Tampa, FL 33682-7198; her e-mail address is . Jan 98 #8 It's not often that one can attend a concert that includes the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus (the most recent I know of being a performance by the Palestrina Choir at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Wash- ington three years ago (Mar 95 #5), but Catherine Cooke has reported that the Renaissance Singers will offer music by Lassus, Willaert, de Rore, and Manchicourt in "The Legacy of an Archbishop" at St. Pancras Church, Euston Road, London NW1 at 7:30 pm on Feb. 14 (telephone 0171-923-2182). Robert M. George (14441 S.W. 124th Place, Miami, FL 33186) offers copies of death certificates for William Sherlock Scott Holmes (b. 6 Jan. 1854, d. 6 Jan. 1957) and John Hamish Watson (b. 7 Aug 1852, d. 24 July 1929); $10.00 postpaid (with a bonus color portrait of Holmes). William S. Baring-Gould supplied the dates and other details. The digital video disk (DVD) is starting to find a market. According to an article in the N.Y. Times (Jan. 16), spotted by Syd Goldberg, 200,000 play- ers ($600 each) and five million disks ($25) were sold in 1997. And Warner has announced that "My Fair Lady" (1964), with Jeremy Brett in a supporting role, will be released on DVD later this year. Texas offers the newest venue for a running of The Silver Blaze, which will be held at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie (near Dallas), on Apr. 26; addi- tional details are available from Don Hobbs, 2100 Elm Creek, Flower Mound, TX 75028 (972-335-2746) . The Sir James Saunders Society (for Sherlockian dermatologists) will gather for luncheon in Orlando, Fla., this year, on Mar. 2, and local Sherlockians are welcome at the event; details are available from Don Hazelrigg, 15 Vic- toria Drive, Newburgh, IN 47630. One of the more interesting discoveries during the birthday festivities was that the package of copies of my new seasonal souvenir ("WHERE THE BODY WAS FOUND") intended for the BSI annual dinner seems to have vanished en route to New York, perhaps demolished by the massive package-sorting machine that is rumored to be bedeviling postal workers and postal customers somewhere in the wilds of New Jersey; subscribers to this newsletter who have not re- ceived the souvenir previously, or with this mailing, please let me know. And a few commercials: the revised 15-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling Awards, *The* Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes costs $1.20 postpaid. The 79-page list of 733 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for contacts for the 432 active societies, costs $4.00 postpaid. A run of address labels for 362 individual contacts (recommended if you wish to avoid making duplicate mailings to people who are contacts for more than one society) costs $10.40 postpaid. Checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please. The list of irregulars and others also is available from me by e-mail (no charge), and both lists are available at Willis G. Frick's "Sherlocktron" home page at . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Feb 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Jerry Margolin reports that the poster promoting the video of the film "The Line King" (about famed N.Y. Times theater artist Al Hirschfeld) has as its border some of his portraits of celebrities, including Rathbone and Bruce as Holmes and Watson (that artwork is also briefly seen in the film). The Rathbone/Bruce lithograph sold some years ago for $500 (Mar 92 #1); the new poster's available from the Margo Feiden Galleries (669 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021) for $75. Or you may be able to get one for much less when your local video shop is finished with their copy. Allen J. Hubin launched The Armchair Detective in October 1967 for people who shared his enjoyment of the mystery genre, and it still does an excell- ent job of covering the field. The latest issue has an interesting article by Laurie R. King on what it's like to chair an Edgar Awards committee (for Best First Novel, an award she has won herself), and Scott and Sherry Rose Bond's discussion of Sherlockian pastiches and parodies. $31.00 a year for four issues; Box 929, Bound Brook, NJ 08805. And The Armchair Detective reports the Michael Bond received an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List last summer. Bond is the creator of Padding- ton Bear, who uses Sherlockian methods and dialogue in "Paddington Turns Detective" in MORE ABOUT PADDINGTON (1959) and PADDINGTON ON STAGE (1977). Our new commemorative honors Winter Sports, showing an Alpine skier who looks far more stylish than Arthur Conan Doyle did when he helped popularize the sport with his article "An Alp- ine Pass on 'Ski'" in The Strand Magazine (Dec. 1894). Laura Kuhn reports that a new mail-order catalog from Carey's Smoke Shop offers their "Vintage Holmes" pipe-tobacco blend (Flake/Cavendish Cut), plus cigars and pipes and such. 7835 Freedom Avenue NW #3, North Canton, OH 44720 (800-992-7427). "In the Bay of Bengal Some Tribes Still Greet Visitors with Bows and Arr- ows" is the title of an article by Tom Huth in the Nov.-Dec. 1997 issue of Islands magazine, spotted by John Baesch; Huth visited the Andamans, but missed seeing the fiercest of the Andamanese ("there might be some pretty beaches," he notes, but "the program is that the government restricts tour- ists from setting foot on most of them"). The season brochure is available for the Shaw Festival in Ontario (it will include 15 performances of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Waterloo" from Aug. 6 to Sept. 19). The box-office address is: Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0, Canada (800-267-4759) . Rebecca J. Anderson reports that there are more dates for locations where Laurie R. King will be signing her books (including THE MOOR): Mar. 8 at Book Passages (Corte Madera, Calif.), Mar. 10 at Kepler's (San Mateo), Mar. 16 at A Clean Well-Lighted Place (San Francisco), Apr. 5 at Trinity Cathe- dral (San Jose), Apr. 16-19 at the Palm Springs Writers Conference (Palm Springs), Apr. 25 at the Pleasant Hill Literary Women's Conference (Pleas- ant Hill), and Apr. 27-30 at various shops in New York during Edgars Week. Feb 98 #2 TALES OF WRYKYN AND ELSEWHERE, by P. G. Wodehouse (Maidenhead: Porpoise Books, 1997; 323 pp.), offers 25 stories published in British magazines from 1901 to 1910, more than half of them reprinted for the first time. They are "school stories" (published in boys' magazines), and they're great fun, and two of them are Sherlockian parodies featuring Burdock Rose and Wotsing; another story ("Pillington Detective") has nice Sherlockian echoes. And in other stories Wodehouse's characters show that they have read "The White Company" and "Rodney Stone". $45.00 postpaid in the United States and Canada from Frederik Menschaar, 140 Cabrini Boulevard #132, New York, NY 10033; or L27.50 postpaid in Britain and Europe (credit- card orders welcome) from Book Systems Plus, 2-B Priors Hall Farm, Widding- ton, Essex CB11 3SB, England . "We are very rich in orchids on the moor," said Beryl Sta- pleton (in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"). And a lady's slipper orchid (*Cypripedium calceolus*) is shown on one of the stamps in a new "Endangered Species" set from Britain. Thanks to Sandy Kozinn for spotting my mistake (Jan 98 #5): SEEING A LARGE CAT is the correct title of the latest addi- tion to Elizabeth Peters' fine series of mystery novels that star Amelia Peabody Emerson. Miniature Collector magazine offered clues to a Sherlock Holmes quiz in its Sept. 1997 issue (Paul D. Herbert won the first prize, and other Sherlock- ians were among the runners-up); the answers, and some color photographs of some spectacular Sherlockian miniatures (including Dorothy Rowe Shaw's two- story replica of the entire house in Baker Street), have been published in the March issue ($3.95; 30595 Eight Mile, Livonia, MI 48152). For the completists: Andy Peck reports that the Mystery Guild has their own editions of Laurie R. King's A LETTER OF MARY and THE MOOR ($11.98 each or $21.98 the pair) as well as Martin H. Greenberg's anthology HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS ($10.98); Box 6325, Indianapolis, IN 46206 . Adam Worth's arrest, conviction, and refusal to avoid seven years imprison- ment by surrendering the stolen Gainsborough portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was headline news in London in July 1893, shortly before "The Final Problem" was written, and many echoes of the man can be found in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Ben Macintyre's THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ADAM WORTH, MASTER THIEF (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997; 336 pp., $24.00) is a fine account of what happened to the painting, and to Worth, who was indeed called "the Napoleon of Crime" by some of his contemporaries. The connection between Worth and Moriarty appears first to have been reported by Vincent Starrett, in his THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES in 1933: "this was revealed by Sir Arthur in conversation with Dr. Gray Chandler Briggs, some years ago." St. Bartholomew's Hospital (the site of the historic first meeting between Holmes and Watson) has been saved: the full-scale review of London's health needs ordered by Labor prime minister Tony Blair (May 97 #2) has concluded that Bart's, scheduled for closure by the previous Conservative government, should instead be turned into a specialized cancer and heart unit. Feb 98 #3 "An Evening of Musical Mystery and Other Noteworthy Adventures" at Elizabethtown College in Mt. Gretna, Pa., on Jan 31 included the world premiere of "The Cryptic Composition of Sherlock Bach" (composed by Allen Krantz, with story written and performed by Cary Burkett). Based on the characters "Sherlock Bach and Dr. Witless" (created by Burkett for WITF-FM), the work "follows the famous detective as he explores the mystery of musical composition in a fun musical odyssey for violin, cello, piano, oboe, and french horn." Former RAF Air Commandant Dame Jean Conan Doyle's memorial service at St. Clement Danes in the Strand on Jan. 29 was a very military ceremony, Jon Lellenberg reports, with Royal Air Force officers and aircraftwomen serving as ushers, senior RAF officers reading the Lessons, and Air Chief Marshal Lewis Hodges, giving the eulogy, in which both her father's literary heri- tage and Dame Jean's work defending it were remembered. The service was followed by a reception at the RAF Club in Piccadilly. Dame Jean's ashes had been interred a week before beside those of her husband Air Vice Mar- shal Sir Geoffrey Bromet at the Minstead cemetery near her parents' graves; she was cremated on Nov. 27 with her body wrapped (as she had requested in her will) in the Union Flag. Her father's copyrights, to published works and unpublished material, are now part of the Estate of Dame Jean Conan Doyle, with the income from the U.S. copyrights and ancillary rights to go to the Royal National Institute for the Blind. Jon L. Lellenberg and Saul Cohen continue to represent the Estate as agent and copyright lawyer, as they had represented Dame Jean for the last twenty years. The "Sherlock Holmes Festival" held in Tryon, N.C., last year (Oct 97 #5) included performances of Hendrik Booraem's 30-minute adaptations of "The Red-Headed League" and "The Sign of Four" by the Blue Ridge Radio Players. They're nicely done, and audiocassettes are available for $4.00 each (plus $1.50 shipping per order) from the Blue Ridge Players, Box 933, Henderson- ville, NC 28793-0933. If you're interested in "Titanic" incunabula: Ben Wood (Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222) has long been a member of the Titanic Historical Society (as well as a Sherlockian), and he offers a sales-list of Titanic-related items that includes books, magazines, and artwork (and a sales-list of Sherlockiana). Roger L. Stevens died on Feb. 2. He was the founding chairman of the Kenn- edy Center for the Performing Arts, and helped persuade Congress to provide $150 million for the Center's construction, operation, and endowment, and to pass legislation establishing the National Endowment for the Arts, serv- ing as the NEA's first chairman. He had produced many plays and musicals before he came to Washington, and he ensured that the Center continued that function, co-producing (in a long list of other shows) the American tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of "Sherlock Holmes" in 1974. In case you're planning a trip to Scotland: "Move Over Moriarty" stars Mag- gie Fox and Sue Ryding playing all the roles (including Holmes and Watson); they toured in the comedy in England in 1996 and to Santa Fe last year, and they will be performing at the Edinburgh Festival on Aug. 10-28. Feb 98 #4 The fourth issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota reports on the late Bill Rabe's exploits, and the donation by his family of Bill's Sherlockian collection to the university, with articles about Bill and other matters. You can join the mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Henry W. Enberg ("John Garrideb") died on Feb. 9. He was a senior editor with the Practicing Law Institute, and the poet laureate of The Friends of Bogie's, contributing to many of their performances as well as to meetings of the Sherlockian societies in New York, and he received his Investiture in The Baker Street Irregulars in 1991. Walter R. Brooks' delightful books about "Freddy the Pig" have amused chil- dren for more than 65 years, and his FREDDY THE DETECTIVE is once again in print, with the original Sherlockian illustrations by Kurt Wiese (New York: Overlook Press, 1997; 256 pp., $23.95). And the Friends of Freddy, founded in 1984, have nearly 500 members, an irregular quarterly, and a home page . Membership is $15.00, and the contact is Con- nie Arnold, 5-A Laurel Hill Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770. Reported: DINOSAUR SUMMER, by Greg Bear (from Aspect/Warner in February at $23.00): Conan Doyle's "Lost World" was a factual account of the Challenger expedition, but by 1947 nobody cares about dinosaurs any more, and the last dinosaur circus in America is closing, and there's an attempt to return the dinosaurs to the Lost World, filmed for National Geographic by John Ford. Dover Thrift Editions offer spectacular value-for-money with their inexpen- sive reprints (SIX GREAT SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES and THE HOUND OF THE BAS- KERVILLES are among the many titles available at $1.00 each), and now there is DETECTION BY GASLIGHT: 14 VICTORIAN DETECTIVE STORIES, edited by Douglas G. Greene (258 pp., $2.00); Greene notes in his introduction that the open- ing of the first Golden Age of the Detective Story can be precisely dated: it began when The Strand Magazine published "A Scandal in Bohemia" in July 1891 (Greene's fine anthology contains "The Copper Beeches"). Sigurdur Gustavsson offers a sales list of Icelandic translations of Conan Doyle's stories, Sherlockian and otherwise, published from 1898 to 1914 and priced from $95 to $365; his address is Vidihlid 33, 105 Reykjavik, Iceland . Susan Conant has extended her Dog Lover's Mystery series into the world of the Canon: THE BARKER STREET REGULARS (New York: Doubleday, 1998; 262 pp., $21.95) involves amateur sleuth Holly Winter and her malamutes Rowdy and Kimi with some Boston Sherlockians, an animal psychic, and a murder; it's an amusing story: Conant knows and loves dogs, and had Sherlockian assist- ance from Bruce Southworth. New York magazine reports (Feb. 2) that New York restaurateur Nello will be in England in March to film a role in David Mamet's new period drama "The Winslow Boy", playing a "Sherlock Holmes type" who investigates the movie's central mystery (it's a new adaptation of Terence Rattigan's 1946 play). Feb 98 #5 I noted last year (Jul 97 #1) Robert S. Ennis' article in The Baker Street Journal in which he reported an early Sherlockian calabash in the film "The Nitwits" (1935); since then others have turned up even earlier calabashes in newspaper cartoons and comic strips. But all of the calabashes are used by characters who are not Sherlock Holmes. Who was the first artist or actor to portray Sherlock Holmes with a calabash? I'll provide the answer next month (if, that is, someone supplies the answer). Brian Pugh has more information about the Sherlock Holmes Festival in Crow- borough on July 3-10: Philip Weller will deliver a slide and video talk on "The World of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" on July 3, and a memorial service on July 5, followed by a five-mile "Walk with Sir Arthur" in and around Crow- borough. Details on bed-and-breakfast accommodations, a map of the town, and a brochure about Groombridge Place are available from Brian (20 Clare Road, Lewes, Sussex BN7 1PN, England); $5.00 (in currency, please). Ed Wiltse reports that he will discuss his article on "'So Constant an Ex- pectation': Sherlock Holmes and Seriality" during a seminar on Victorian Literature and Culture at Harvard's Barker Center (12 Quincy Street, Cam- bridge, Mass.) at 7:00 pm on Mar. 9; there's no charge to attend. The long series of "Doctor Who" novels (there have been more than 50) has had appearances by Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in Andy Lane's ALL-CON- SUMING FIRE (Jul 94 #4) and by Arthur Conan Doyle in John Peel's EVOLUTION (Feb 95 #6). Paul Cornell's HAPPY ENDINGS (London: Doctor Who Books/Virgin Publishing, 1996; 291 pp., L4.99/$5.95) has guest appearances by scores of characters from earlier books in the series, including Holmes and Watson; there's romance and mystery and a wedding, and various dire threats, and a lot of humor (as is always the case in the Doctor Who books). I suggested (Jan 98 #8) that the package of copies of my seasonal souvenir intended for the BSI annual dinner might have been demolished by the postal service; it turns out I was correct: I have received some of the souvenirs, kindly forwarded by the Most Holy Trinity Church in Mamaroneck, N.Y., with a note saying, "these were enclosed with our package which was re-packed by the post office." David Stuart Davies has a long review of John Barrymore's "Sherlock Holmes" (1922) in the latest issue of Scarlet Street (a 16mm flash-titles print was shown to The Sherlock Holmes Society of London in 1997); there's also a re- view of the laserdisc of Peter Cushing's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959), and Paxton Whitehead in the play "The Mask of Moriarty", and an ad- vertisement for a $165 "Basil Rathbone as the Great Detective" casting kit from Supporting Castings (Box 1061, Whittier, CA 90609), and other coverage of the mystery/horror genre. The magazine now is published bimonthly, for $35.00 a year (Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452). Scott Monty reports an interesting course for people who want to pursue the interests that Sherlock Holmes pursued: The Massachusetts Audubon Society will offer a four-Saturday course beginning Mar. 28 on beekeeping; veteran beekeeper Tom Sisson will preside, and participants are asked to bring bee veils, hive tools, and (optional) gloves. $50 for Audubon members, $58 for others (Drumlin Farm Programs, South Great Road, Lincoln, MA 01773). Feb 98 #6 Some book catalogs are a delight to read, if they offer inter- esting books and describe them with imagination and enthusiasm; that certainly was true of Ben Abramson's catalogs from The Argus Bookshop, and it is what one finds in catalogs from A Common Reader, a company that concentrates on current books at reasonable prices (sometimes in its own reprint editions), with titles such as Brendan Gill's HERE AT THE NEW YORK- ER ($15.95), Berton Roueche's THE MEDICAL DETECTIVES ($14.95), and a long list of George MacDonald Fraser's FLASHMAN books ($11.95 or $12.95). And COOKING WITH THE TWO FAT LADIES, by Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright ($25.00); "there's no substitute for lard or beef dripping," they say of bubble and squeak. "If you object, eat something else." A Common Reader's address is 141 Tompkins Avenue, Pleasantville, NY 10570 (800-832- 7323) . "The Bibliophile's Book Shelf & Miscellanea" is the new mail-order catalog from Carolyn and Joel Senter (Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 ; mostly books, but some et ceteras. The Reichenbach Irregulars and the Societe Sherlock Holmes de France are preparing for their Sherlock Holmes Worldwide Congress on Apr. 30-May 4 in Meiringen, Switzerland. Additional information is available from Michael A. Meer (Morgenstrasse 70, 3018 Bern, Switzerland) . The Sherlockian chess set offered by The Daily Planet for $484.00 (Oct 97 #2) has been discounted to $249.99 in the spring catalog from Smart Shopper (which also offers discounts on items from the Signals and Wireless cata- logs); Box 64494, St. Paul, MN 55164 (800-736-3055). David Pearson notes that some attractive 54mm Sherlockian figures in mail- order catalogs from Valley Plaza Hobbies (2211 Mouton Drive, Carson City, NV 89706), The Saratoga Soldier Shop (Box 89, Burnt Hills, NY 12027), and The Toy Soldier Co. (100 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10024). The Pequod's poet laureate is at it again, celebrating the 28th anniversary of the Press with a new collection of verse: WATSON FURIOSO (which "pulls no punches and spares no one") costs $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521. THE DIARIES OF MRS. JOHN H. WATSON, NEE MORSTAN was written and privately published by the late Fraser Smyth in 1995 for his own pleasure, according to his wife Anna, and to interest and amuse his friends and others who love the Sherlock Holmes stories. "Mary Morstan was an elusive creature," Smyth noted in his introduction, and her diaries demonstrate she was quite modern (and quite unconventional) in her behavior and outlook. The book (112 pp., nicely bound in cloth) is not for sale, but Mrs. Smyth has kindly agreed to make it available for only the cost of shipping (from Great Britain to the United States and onward); that's $4.00 postpaid in the U.S. and $4.30 by surface post elsewhere; checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please, sent to the address below. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Mar 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "FairyTale: A True Story" will be released on videocassette in the U.S. and Canada on Mar. 31, for the video rental market; you will be able to buy the cassette for $102.00, but you'll be wise to wait a month or two, when there will be a sell-through price of $16.00 or so. It's an excellent film, with some fine acting, about Conan Doyle and Houdini and the Cottingley fairies and the two girls who photographed them (the fairies were real and the pho- tographs faked, according to the film). The film was dumped into theaters last year by Paramount, and essentially abandoned; the videocassette will make it available to many who were unable to see it during its brief visit to the big screen. Conan Doyle's own account of the Cottingley photographs also is available, in a new edition of his THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES (London: Pavilion Books, 1997; 111 pp., L9.99); it shows very well how sincere a believer he was, in the reality of the photographs and in the honesty of the girls. The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street in London has a vacancy, ac- cording to a report in the Daily Mirror (Jan. 29): they're advertising for a Sherlock Holmes look-alike ("superb take Holmes pay," the paper punned). And the Museum has a new 36-page full-color mail-order catalog of souvenirs and mementos, plus a flier for their solid silver heraldic badge (L60) for their new Sherlock Holmes Worldwide Friendship Society. The office address of the Museum is 1 Parkgate Road, London, SW11 4NL, England. Jim Suszynski found a "Mickey Detective" snow-globe (3.5 in. high) that has Mickey Mouse in Sherlockian costume; $20.00 at local Hallmark shop. Made by Westland Giftware (Mickey & Co. #6407). Donna Goldthwaite reports that THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES (nine volumes) is available for $50.00 postpaid in the winter sale catalog she has received from the Oxford University Press (Order Department: 2001 Evans Road, Cary, NC 27513 (800-230-3242). Owen Dudley Edwards was the general editor of the set, which was first published in 1993; individual volumes were edited and annotated by Edwards, Richard Lancelyn Green, Christopher Roden, and W. W. Robson; the set is cloth-bound (item #0192123297). "There's a bunch of detective stories that have been important to me," Jake Kasdan told an interviewer, "and Sherlock Holmes is certainly among them." Kasdan wrote and directed the new film "Zero Effect" with Bill Pullman as a dysfunctional and emotionally-handicapped detective named Daryl Zero, and Ben Stiller as his sidekick Steve Arlo. I noted last month (Feb 98 #5) that all the Sherlockian calabashes seen in comic strips and films in the mid-1930s belong to characters who are not Sherlock Holmes, and I asked who the first artist or actor to show Sherlock Holmes with a calabash might have been, and promised to provide the answer this month, if someone supplied the answer. And the answer is: sorry, no one has supplied an answer supported by evidence. A few readers suggested William Gillette, who used a curved wooden pipe rather than a calabash. I will still be happy to hear from anyone who has a reasonable answer to the question. Or perhaps even an unreasonable answer. Mar 98 #2 Bert Coules reports that the BBC has released a two-audiocass- ette set of the 1997 radio broadcast of "The Valley of Fear" (with Clive Merrison as Sherlock Holmes); L8.99 in shops in Britain. The BBC also entered into an agreement with a greeting-card company that plans to issue a series of cards containing CDs with BBC programs; the price is expected to be L4.99 each. The first batch (release date not yet known) will include the Merrison/Williams "A Scandal in Bohemia" and the second batch (expected for Christmas) will have "The Blue Carbuncle". Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets have 15 differ- ent stamps for each decade, so it should be easy to find at least one Sherlockian connection for each decade. Such as the Model T Ford (1900s) and Charlie Chaplin (1910s); it was in a little Ford that Altamont arrived for his meeting with Von Bork (in "His Last Bow"), and Chaplin played "Billy" on stage with William Gillette. The seventh annual Watsonian Weekend (celebrating Dr. Watson and the Battle of Maiwand) begins with a regimental dinner in Bensonville, Ill., on June 26; continues with the annual running of The Silver Blaze at Sportsman's Park on June 27; and concludes with a Fortescue brunch in Des Plaines on June 28. Additional details are available from Fred Levin, 8242 North Ridgeway Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076. Laurie R. King was online in the Barnes & Noble chat room recently, answer- ing questions about Mary Russell and other things, including the next book in the series; the electronically-enabled can see the questions and answers at or in a more coherent transcript provided by Jennifer Chance at Rebecca J. Anderson's home page at . Ben Macintyre's THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ADAM WORTH has been nominated for Mystery Writers of America Edgar (best fact crime); the Edgar winners will be announced at the MWA banquet in New York on Apr. 30. The Northern Musgraves are planning "The Return of the Mini Tonga Cruise" on May 16 in York (where the society was founded, and where the society had a similar event on the river Ouse some years earlier). The event includes lunch at York's Pizza Express, formerly a gentlemen's club, and additional information is available from Mark Hunter-Purvis, 6 Deer Park Way, Axwell Park, Blaydon-on-Tyne NE21 5PD, England. Scott Price (The World of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Shop, 3957-A Grahamdale Circle, Memphis, TN 38122) (toll-free 888-355-6877 2:00pm-10:00pm CST) has a new illustrated mail-order catalog with a wide variety of Sherlockiana. A STUDY IN SILVER, by David Silver (Toronto: Master Point Press, 1998; 128 pp., US$9.95/CA$12.95/UKL6.99), is a collection of amusing bridge stories that echo authors such as Melville, Conrad, Bierce, and (four of the tales) Conan Doyle. Silver modestly claims that he has "partnered all the leading Canadian bridge players of his generation, once." The publisher's address is 22 Lower Village Gate, Toronto, ON M5P 3L7, Canada . Mar 98 #3 An article from The Baker Street Journal has been reprinted on the World Wide Web, on a San Diego Natural History Museum web- page honoring Laurence M. Klauber, an amateur naturalist whose specialty was herpetology. "The Truth About the Speckled Band" (Apr. 1948), can be read at . "I had been through a Florence Nightingale phase and I was getting sick and tired of being a nanny and a nurse to men," Andrea Reynolds said (quoted in a report in The Times this month). "Instead I became Zorro. I decided to fight injustice." The men who benefited from her nannying and nursing were Sheldon Reynolds and Claus von Bulow, and a six-year battle over royalties from a 1979 Sherlock Holmes television series that starred Geoffrey White- head has ended with New York state supreme court judge ruling (according to the newspaper story) that Andrea, rather than Sheldon, controls the newly- revived European copyright on the Sherlock Holmes stories. Andrea also an- nounced that a competition will be held for new writers of Sherlock Holmes stories, "with possible publication of the winning entries." "Read the book that inspired Michael Crichton's dinosaur bestsellers" urges the Book-of-the-Month Club in its monthly offers to members, noted by John Baesch. It's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's THE LOST WORLD, of course, in a BOMC exclusive edition ($19.95 to members). Item 45-7799, and their address is Camp Hill, PA 17012-0001 (800-348-7128). More verse from the Pequod: BRICKS WITHOUT CLAY "leans heavily on the un- told adventures and other Holmesian topics on which we have little data," John Ruyle reports. Hand-set and hand-printed as usual; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John, at 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521. John also keeps an eye on the obituaries, and casts his net widely when it comes to Sherlockian connections. The actor Lloyd Bridges died on Mar. 10 after a long career that seems not to have included any Sherlockian roles. But his full name was Lloyd Vernet Bridges II, and perhaps a distant rela- tive of someone else who had art in the blood . . . Sydney Hosier's MOST BAFFLING, MRS. HUDSON (New York: Avon Books, 1998; 246 pp., $5.50) is his third book about "the other sleuth of Baker Street," who solves another murder mystery, with the assistance of her friend Vi Warner (who performs no astral projection this time), but without any input from her famous lodger except one of his cast-off suits. Gary Hildebrandt notes a report in Lee's Action Figure News & Review (Mar.) that a "Star Trek" figure of Data in Sherlockian costume will be released this fall. Credit Brad Keefauver for the additional news that it will be one of the 9-inch deluxe collector series figures (with two outfits) from Playmates (who likely will sell a lot more "Star Trek" action figures than they did "FairyTale: A True Story" figures last year). The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection offer a handsome flier by way of an invitation to join them in supporting the collection at the Tor- onto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada); if you aren't on their mailing list already, you can write to the Friends, or send an e-mail request to Doug Wrigglesworth . Mar 98 #4 I've been telling people that it has been forty-two years since I was in Japan, and I figured it was time to go back to see if anything had changed, since my visit in 1956 when the USS Mullany operated out of Yokosuka and Sasebo. The occasion for my second visit was the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club's special spring convention, in Kamakura and Kawasaki, and both the convention and the sightseeing (afterward, in Kyoto and Nara and Tokyo) were delightful. Japan has changed, of course: it's not as Japanese as it used to be: almost everyone wears western clothes (rather than traditional costume), and west- ern food and drink is everywhere (although it was much more fun to avoid it), and many more Japanese speak English (six years of it are required in schools now), and their bullet trains are absolutely astounding. And there are a lot more Sherlockians now: the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, founded in 1977, has more than 1,300 members and is the largest Sherlockian society in the world. There were about 150 people at the convention, with ages ranging from six to eighty-four, and the foreign visitors included Mike and Mary Ann Whelan and Jim Webb from the United States, Catherine Cooke and Philip and Jane Weller from Britain, and Mike Berdan from Hong Kong. It was wonderful to see old friends again, and to meet new ones, and to enjoy the scholarship and fun and games. It also was nice to be reminded of the Japan I remem- bered from forty-two years ago, since some of the ladies were kind enough to wear kimonos. Tsukasa Kobayashi and Akane Higashiyama were the organizers of the conven- tion, with Shigeru Koike as chairman and Masamichi Higurashi as secretary general, and many others helped with the festivities, which included papers and presentations and dinners and parties and exhibits and auctions from a welcoming dinner on Friday evening to a memorial reception on Sunday even- ing (the convention combined the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club's 10th annual seminar in Kamakura and its 40th semi-annual general meeting). It was at the Sunday-evening reception that Mike Whelan told some stories about the early history of the Baker Street Irregulars, and awarded membership in the BSI to Masamichi Higurashi ("Baron Adelbert Gruner"). The convention also featured sightseeing tours for the foreign visitors in Kamakura: Yuichi Hirayama led us on a visit to the battleship Mikasa, which was Admiral Togo's flagship during the attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in 1904 (which you may recall from the 1983 television mini-series "Reilly: Ace of Spies"), and Kiyoshi Tanaka took us to the Engaku-ji Temple and the bronze statue of the Great Buddha (both 13th century treasures). There was other sightseeing after the convention, including the Nijo Castle (in Kyoto), which was built in 1603 by Tokugawa Ieyasu (who was the Shogun in the 1980 television mini-series "Shogun"), and the Shoso-in (in Nara), which is a treasure repository created in 752 and which is mentioned in the Canon (in "The Illustrious Client"). And accidental discoveries such as a Sherlockian poster for the Gakusei Jutaku real-estate company in Kyoto. Well, one page isn't anywhere near enough to cover everything, but one page is all you get. Except for the flier on the next page (Mar 98 #5). Mar 98 #6 "So the bibliophile steals pleasure from a catalogue, the lover from his fantasies," A. J. Liebling wrote in BETWEEN MEALS, and that's one of the appropriate quotes in a recent catalog from Bibliophile Books (5 Thomas Road, London E14 7BN, England). Their offers include Jack Tracy's THE ULTIMATE SHERLOCK HOLMES ENCYCLOPEDIA (L7.00), Michael Coren's CONAN DOYLE (discounted to L7.00), and William S. Baring-Gould's SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BAKER STREET (discounted to L4.00). There we were, in a nice Chinese restaurant in Chinatown in Yokohama, dis- cussing whether Sherlock Holmes is a "tiger" (which is nice if you're also a "tiger"), and Tokie Miyoshi noted that all twelve of the animals in the lunar cycle are mentioned in the Canon. Name the animals, and one story in which each is mentioned. For extra credit: it's now the year of the tiger (Jan 98 #3); what is Sherlock Holmes? A modest prize is offered for the first correct answers by e-mail and by mail. Ted Friedman continues to discuss Sherlockian philately in Topical Time: his two-page article on "Sherlockian Postmarks" is in the Mar.-Apr. issue ($5.00 postpaid from the American Topical Association, Box 65749, Tucson, AZ 85728). TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU MAD is a new series, reprinting the earlier issues of Mad; Jack Kerr spotted #3 (spring 1998) with full-color reprints of original issues #7-9, including the classic "Shermlock Shomes!" from the Oct.-Nov. 1953 issue; $3.99. Daniel Massey died on Mar. 25. He was a distinguished actor, as were his father Raymond Massey and his mother Adrianne Allen, and as is his younger sister Anna Massey (who was Jeremy Brett's first wife). Daniel Massey was a fine J. Neil Gibson in Granada's "The Problem of Thor Bridge" (1991) and the casting was imaginative, what with Watson suggesting that Gibson resem- bled Abraham Lincoln, a role that made Raymond Massey a star in Hollywood. Here's the schedule for Douglas Wilmer's public appearances during his tour of the U.S.: in Boston at a dinner at The Algonquin Club at 6:30 pm on Apr. 22 (contact: W. Scott Monty, 1836 Columbia Road #2, South Boston, MA 02127; office: 800-253-4417 ext 6981); in New York at The Penn Club at 6:30 pm on Apr. 27 (Paul Singleton, 104 Second Avenue #3, New York, NY 10003; office: 212-236-1756/home: 212-533-9093); in Philadelphia at the Community College of Philadelphia at 6:30 pm on Apr. 30 (contact: Scott Bond, 519 East Allens Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119; home: 215-247-2962); and in Washington at The National Press Club at 2:00 pm on May 2 (contact: Peter E. Blau (see below for address and phone number). In Washington there will be a $5.00 charge at the door to hear Mr. Wilmer, and lunch will be available at the National Press Club from 11:30. Joe Eckrich offers his new six-page sales-list of books, comics, menus, and other Sherlockiana, by e-mail on request to , or you can send a #10 SASE to him at 914 Oakmoor Drive, Fenton, MO 63026 (outside the U.S. please send two IRCs or $1.00 in currency). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Apr 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The movie "Titanic" has been getting a lot of publicity, and making a lot of money at the box office, and of course it was nice to learn that there's a Sherlockian connection: the passengers on the ship included Harry Widener and his father and mother; only his mother survived, and she gave his book collection to Harvard University, as well as the money to build the Widener Library. And Dan Posnansky reports that one of the books in Widener's col- lection (at the Houghton Library) is his copy of MY FIRST BOOK (1894), with a letter from each contributor to the anthology laid in; Conan Doyle is not represented by a letter, but instead by a page from the manuscript of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (the start of Chapter II: The Curse of the Bas- kervilles); it is nice news indeed that a hitherto-unreported page from the manuscript has turned up. A reminder that Jennie C. Paton's video lending library is available again, with all sorts of major and minor Sherlockian material. She charges $5.50 per cassette for shipping and handling (borrowers pay return postage), and her address is Box 17197, Tampa, FL 33682-7198 (please enclose a #10 SASE) or if you'd like the list of what's in the library. "What do you get when you cross a French dictator with a bucket of dirt?" The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn will celebrate Halloween with their Sher- lockian convention "The Game's Afloat 1998" at the Sheraton Plaza Hotel in West Port, on Oct. 30-Nov. 1; additional information is available from Bar- bara Roscoe, 7101 Mardel Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63109 . The fine recreation of the sitting-room at 221B that delighted both Sher- lockians and tourists for many years at S. Holmes, Esq. in San Francisco closed earlier this year (Jan 98 #5). Willy Werby reports that she would prefer to find a new home for the sitting-room in the Bay area, but will consider another city; if you have any suggestions, you can send let her know at 2700 19th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 . Michael Ross offers a commercial videocassette with the 1979 Soviet televi- sion dramatization of "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Speckled Band" starring Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin as Holmes and Watson (134 minutes) in PAL format (with dialogue in Russian). The videocassette of "Der Hund von Bas- kerville" (1937) with Bruno Guttner and Fritz Odemar is still available, too, also in PAL format (dialogue in German). Note: PAL cassettes can't be played on American NTSC-format VCRs. The cassettes cost DM49.90 or L17.00 or $28.00 each; postage costs DM4.40 in Germany or L4.00 in Europe or $8.50 elsewhere for one to four cassettes (so you save money on multiple orders). Pay with Eurocheques or currency only, please; Michael's address is: Post- fach 83-01-25, 51034 Koln, Germany. The argument about whether the Molly Maguires were terrorist anarchists or heroic defenders of the working man probably will continue forever, both in Pennsylvania and in print; Kevin Kenny's MAKING SENSE OF THE MOLLY MAGUIRES (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998; 368 pp., $39.95 cloth, $18.95 pa- per), reviewed in the Los Angeles Times (Apr. 5) (reported by Les Klinger), appears to be even-handed, criticizing almost everyone involved. Apr 98 #2 "What do you get when you cross a French dictator with a bucket of dirt?" Jeff Dow asked recently, and his answer is "The Napo- leon of Grime." Cribbed from Communication (the newsletter of The Pleasant Places of Florida, where this sort of thing is not at all unusual); $10.00 a year from Carl L. Heifetz, 3693 Siena Lane, Palm Harbor, FL 34685. The Pleasant Places of Florida are continuing their tradition of publishing round-robin pastiches, and the latest is THE ADVENTURE OF THE YULE LANTERN LOST; the 16-page pamphlet costs $3.00 postpaid (or $4.00 outside the U.S.) from Carl Heifetz (address above). Also available (ditto) is HAPPY 144TH SHERLOCK!, a 20-page pamphlet that reports in detail on the society's first annual Sherlock's Sunshine Celebration, on Jan. 17, 1998, with texts of the presentations and toasts ($2.50/$3.50). Caliber Comics offers a sales-list of Sherlockian graphic novels and comic books by Martin Powell & Seppo Makinen and others. Their address is (225 North Sheldon Road, Plymouth, MI 48170) . Nice news from Gillette Castle in Hadlyme, Connecticut: Tyke Niver reports that at long last visitors will be able to see the old miniature train that Gillette used to run on three miles of track on his estate. The train was sold to the Lake Compounce Amusement Park in 1943, but modernization of the park left no room for the "quaint ride" around the lake, and the owners de- cided to donate the train to the state park at the Castle. The state will refurbish the train for display at the Castle, but at the moment there are no plans to lay track on the old roadbed. Tyke also reports that a mail-order catalog from What on Earth, 2451 Enter- prise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087 (800-945-2552) has a T-shirt (item V143T, $18.95) with a small publicity still that shows the Three Stooges in Sherlockian costume. "Sheer Luck" is the slogan (or possibly the warning) on a new series of Minnesota state lottery tickets reported by Julie McKuras. Alas, there has been no report of a winning sheerlucky Sherlockian, but perhaps they're just modest. Susan Conant's THE BARKER STREET REGULARS (Feb 98 #4) is only one of a long shelf of dog-lovers' mysteries: Patricia Guiver's DELILAH DOOLITTLE AND THE PURLOINED POOCH (New York: Berkley Prime Crime, 1997; 196 pp., $5.99) stars a pet detective in southern California whose own Doberman pinscher is named Watson, which generates a bit of occasional Canonical dialogue during their pursuit of missing animals and assorted criminals. "No animals were harmed in the writing of this book," the acknowledgements promise. Turlock Loams and Dr. Fatso are drawn into a spectral vortex of evil (and pawky humor) in THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEVIL'S YARD in a new Pequod pressing, hand-set and hand-printed as usual. $40.00 (in allusive cloth) [which does seem to call for an explanation, but I'm afraid to ask] or $20.00 (in pap- er) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Apr 98 #3 Bibliophile Books (5 Thomas Road, London E14 7BN, England) is offering more interesting books in its mail-order catalogs, in- cluding Peter Haining's A SHERLOCK HOLMES COMPENDIUM (discounted to L3.50) and Judy Williams' THE MODERN SHERLOCK HOLMES: AN INTRODUCTION INTO FOREN- SIC SCIENCE TODAY (discounted to L5.00); the latter book is based on a BBC World Service radio series that brought up to date "the meticulous detec- tion methods set down by Sherlock Holmes 100 years ago." Tokie Miyoshi noted that all twelve of the animals in the lunar cycle are mentioned in the Canon, I noted (Mar 98 #6), asking for the names of the animals, and one story in which each is mentioned. Tom Cynkin won a prize for being the first to respond correctly by mail (no one has responded by e-mail). So far, everyone responding has identified Sherlock Holmes as a tiger, but he was an ox (Jan. 6 comes before the Lunar New Year). "There is not a great deal to celebrate in the sleepy southern English town of Woking," Trevor Datson wrote in a Reuters dispatch (Apr. 13) spotted by Scott Monty. "It does have the headquarters of the McLaren grand prix mot- or racing team, and the Spice Girls once recorded here, but otherwise there is little to set it apart from any other commuter town." But the item does not go on to say that Woking is mentioned in a Sherlock Holmes. Woking has something else to brag about: The Martian. It was 100 years ago in Woking that a vast metal cylinder containing the first extra-terrestrial invaders landed on Horsell Common, as recorded in H. W. Wells' classic science-fic- tion story, and Woking has honored the event with a 23-foot-high sculpture of one of the invaders. Sherlockians know, of course, that Holmes was in- volved in the battle against the Martians, reported by Manley Wade Wellman and Wade Wellman in their SHERLOCK HOLMES' WAR OF THE WORLDS (1975). THE SIGN OF 4 is a three-CD set from Knitting Factory Works (KFW197) offer- ing contemporary jazz by Derek Bailey and Pat Metheny (guitars) and Gregg Bendian and Paul Wertico (percussion); the CDs and some of the tracks have Sherlockian titles, and the music is thoroughly avant-garde. The set costs $20.00 in the shops, and from the company (74 Leonard Street, New York, NY 10013) . The Norwegian Explorers will celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, at a "Founders' Footprints Conference" on Aug. 7-9 in Minneapolis, and a flier about the fun and games and other events is available from Julie A. McKuras (13512 Granada Avenue, Apple Valley, MN 55124) . David Pearson notes that the current catalog from The Toy Soldier Co. (100 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10024) (201-792-6665) offers 54mm figures and models that include as "Sherlock Holmes on Bicycle, with Dr. Watson" ($75.00), sets of the 66th Foot and some Afghan soldiers ($159.00 each), a set of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers ($91.00), and a steam launch that might pass for the Aurora ($75.00). British police are to "use bloodhounds for the first time in 60 years in their fight against crime," according to an article in the International Express (Mar. 24), at hand from John Baesch; Essex police have bought two pedigreed 14-week-old puppies that are now being trained and are expected to be at work by year's end. The dogs are named "Sherlock" and "Morse". Apr 98 #4 Penguin Audiobooks has issued a new set of audiocassettes with Douglas Wilmer's fine readings from the Canon. THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: VOLUME 3 has four stories (Engr/Nobl/Bery/Copp) and it costs L7.99 in England (Penguin USA lags far behind Penguin UK, alas, and the set won't be in the shops here for some time). "Sherlock Holmes and the Lost Rose of India" is a new play, which opened on Mar. 26 at the Gaslight Theatre in Tucson, and will run through May 30; the address is 7010 East Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85710 (520-886-9428). Elaine Hamill reports that the prospectus for the Sherlock Holmes Statue commissioned by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London for installation in Baker Street to celebrate the millennium is available to donors. A seven- page brochure with original artwork by Alan Keeler and a photograph of the maquette by John Doubleday (who designed the statue of Sherlock Holmes at Meiringen) will be sent to those who contribute L25.00 ($40.00), and copies signed by the artist and sculptor to those who contribute L50.00 ($80.00). Checks (payable to The Sherlock Holmes Statue Company Ltd.) can be sent to the Appeal Fund (16 Kirton Close, Chiswick, London, W4 5UU, England. R & M George (14441 S.W. 124th Place, Miami, FL 33186) offered death certificates for William Sherlock Scott Holmes and John Hamish Watson (Jan 98 #8), and there are many other fictional certificates available, from Cleopatra to Rick Blaine to King Kong to Arthur Conan Doyle (ask for a list). Jim Suszynski found a Book Essentials Promotions paperback edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES published in 1994 with atmospheric cover art by Jim Seward; priced at $4.95 on the cover, but discounted to $1.00 at a local shop. And his daughter, visiting Disney World, found a $40.00 clock showing the Whitbread pub sign for The Sherlock Holmes (from the British Pub Collectables Club, The Old Coach House, 92 Lodge Road, Feltwell, Nor- folk 1P26 4DN, England) Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwater, NY 11718) offers a new sales-list of Sherlockian posters, prints, dolls, puzzles, artwork, cards, and much more. The March issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota reports on the search for foreign translations of the Canon, and other news; you can join the mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Ev Herzog spotted a colorful beaver in Sherlockian costume on the cover of Sarah Benjamin's SPELLING Golden Books "Step-Ahead Workbook" (grades 2-3); $2.39 in magazine shops and elsewhere. Doug Wrigglesworth spotted Massimo Polidoro's article on "Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of a Strange Friendship" in Skeptical Inquirer (Mar.-Apr. 1998); the issue also has an excellent interview with Martin Gardner, now 83 years old (he doesn't feel a day over 75), and still having fun debunk- ing pseudoscience. $4.95; Box 703, Amherst, NY 14226 (800-634-1610). Apr 98 #5 Michael Bourne visited Rex Stout at his home in 1973, and some of their discussion was published in 1977 in CORSAGE: A BOUQUET OF REX STOUT & NERO WOLFE. And now the entire interview is available on a 90-minute audiocassette; AN INFORMAL INTERVIEW WITH REX STOUT costs $20.00 postpaid from James A. Rock & Co., 113 North Washington Street, Rockville, MD 20850. There are only a few comments on Sherlock Holmes, but it's grand to hear Stout's thoughts about everything, including his own writing. Jim Rock also offers SUBCUTANEOUSLY, MY DEAR WATSON, by Jack Tracy with Jim Berkey (1978); it's a detailed and careful examination of Sherlock Holmes' use of cocaine, and what that involved at the end of the nineteenth century (91 pp.). The postpaid price is $25.00 (cloth) or $15.00 (paper). William Gillette wrote twenty full-length plays, and he starred in nine of them. And the play in which he performed most often (more than 1,800 per- formances) was not "Sherlock Holmes" but rather "Secret Service: A Romance of the Southern Confederacy". STAGING THE NATION: PLAYS FROM THE AMERICAN THEATER 1787-1909, by Don B. Wilmeth (Boston: Bedford Books, 1998; 574 pp., $17.99), is intended as a textbook, with the texts of nine plays (including "Secret Service"), and it offers a good chance to see what Gillette could do when he wasn't writing about Sherlock Holmes. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE STUDY OF DEATH is Tony Lumb's third pastiche about Holmes' adventures in Yorkshire (where Tony lives, so he handles the local color well indeed); it's a locked-room murder mystery, and the 46-page pam- phlet costs $6.00 postpaid (in currency, please) from the author (21 Albert Street, Featherstone, Pontefract, West Yorks. WF7 5EX, England). The Calabash Press has issued its spring 1998 catalog, with information on the new and older books; Box 1360, Ashcroft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada . The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet for dinner in honor of the world's first forensic geologist at 7:00 pm on May 20 at The Chart House at 340 West South Temple in Salt Lake City. If you would like to join us for the event, please let us know; my address is at the end of the newsletter, and from May 16 I'll be staying at the Peery Hotel (801-521-4300). The Baker Street Dispatch is an interesting eight-page newsletter edited by Thomas and Janet Biblewski ($8.50 a year for six issues; Box 5503, Toledo, OH 43613); the March issue includes articles by Donald A. Redmond on how he came to be a Sherlockian indexer, and by Don Hobbs (who proudly calls him- self a maniac collector) on "What Is a Completist?" George Schwartz (Another Fine Mess, R.D. 1, Box 1419, Freeland, PA 19224) offers full-color laser-print reproductions of posters and lobby cards from Basil Rathbone's "Sherlock Holmes" films ($5.00 to $7.00 each); send $1.00 for his illustrated list. A flier at hand for The Sherlock Holmes Festival scheduled in Crowborough on July 3-10; the festival will include events both Doylean and Sherlock- ian, and additional information is available from P.O. Box 17, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 1WU, England. Apr 98 #6 "The ship is magnificent, the program engrossing, and the com- pany superb," Dorothy Stix writes, about the Fourth Occasional Sherlockian Cruise, which sails from New York on June 20 to Bermuda; there will be two days at sea, and four days in Bermuda, and the Sherlockian en- tertainers include Philip Shreffler, Marilynne McKay, Irving Kamil, Joanne Zahorsky, Kate Karlson, and Mary Ellen Rich. Cabins are still available ($998 to $1370 per person) and more information is available from Dorothy at Box 96, Norwood, NJ 07648 (201-768-2241) Rebecca Anderson received a report from Laurie R. King that you can order signed or inscribed copies of her "Mary Russell" series from Laurie's local bookstore: Crossroads Books (attn: Jan Van Wardenburg), 1935 Main Street, Watsonville, CA 95076 (408-728-4139); credit-card orders welcome. Laurie also reports that O JERUSALEM, the next book in the series, may be in the bookstores before the end of 1999. Colin R. Grimes' new play "Exit Sherlock Holmes" will have its world prem- iere in Florida next month at the Chapters Bookshop dinner-theater: part 1 ("Autumn of Terror") on May 8 and 15 cost $24.95, and part 2 ("The Master's Word") on May 9 and 16 costs $29.95 (or $49.95 for both parts). This is a Jack-the-Ripper play, and the Chapters Bookshop & Cafe is at 717 West Smith Street, Orlando, FL 32804 (407-246-1546). The WISHBONE JUMBO FUN BOOK (New York: Modern Publishing, 1998; $3.99) in- cludes eight pages on Wishbone's investigation of the Hound of the Basker- villes; it's a coloring book with puzzles and mazes and other fun for fans of the television series. Emory Lee kindly sent this cartoon by T. O. Sylves- ter from the San Francisco Chronicle (Feb. 1); the caption says: "How come the Cat of the Baskervilles never gets blamed for anything?" The summer mail-order catalog from The Daily Planet (Box 64411, St. Paul, MN 55164) (800-324-5950) off- ers their Sherlockian deerstalker (sizes M/L/XL) for $22.00 (discounted from $32.00); item 52184. Paul Martin reports that the summer-preview catalog from Signals (Box 1029, Des Moines, IA 50336) (800-669-9696) offers a "Holmes Bloodhound" figurine for $69.95 (item 62360); this one is different from similar figures avail- able elsewhere, and comes in a gift box/display stand. Keith E. Webb has lived in Japan since 1991, and he is one of the founders of The Japanese Cabinet and editor of The Dispatch Box (the only English- language newsletter about Sherlockians in Japan). His SHERLOCK HOLMES IN JAPAN was one of the items available at last month's convention there; the 52-page pamphlet has thirteen interesting articles on Japanese Sherlockians and Sherlockiana and it costs $10.00 postpaid. Your checks or currency can be sent to Keith at 15104 SE 22nd Street, Bellevue, WA 98007. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) May 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The Sons of the Copper Beeches celebrated their 50th anniversary this month in Philadelphia, with a reception at the Athenaeum and a dinner at the Down Town Club, and it was a grand affair, marking the first time in the history of the society when ladies have been welcomed to dinner with the Sons. It did seem a bit strange, however, that the historic event was held at a club that had no functioning ladies room. And Douglas Wilmer had a fine time on his tour, entertaining Sherlockians in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington with readings from the Sherlock Holmes stories and fascinating tales about his long career as an actor. He hopes to be able to record all of the stories for Penguin (which has issued five four-story sets so far), but it seems quite unlikely that the BBC can be persuaded to release any more episodes from his 1960s "Sher- lock Holmes" television series. The fourth volume in the BSI's archival-history series was IRREGULAR PRO- CEEDINGS OF THE MID 'FORTIES, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg (New York: Baker Street Irregulars, 1995; 392 pp., $24.95) and covering the period from the Trilogy Dinner in March 1994 to Christopher Morley's June 1947 declaration that there would be no more BSI annual dinners; copies are still available with photographs of those at the Trilogy Dinner and at the 1946 and 1947 annual dinners, and with almost everyone identified. $27.90 postpaid (or ($28.90 for international orders) from The Baker Street Irregulars, Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331. Dave Galerstein reports that Ely Liebow's JOE BELL still is available from the publisher (item 197-9, $18.95 postpaid); it's excellent biography of the man who impressed Arthur Conan Doyle so highly. Popular Press, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH 43403 (800-515-5118). Thomas F. Grady ("Mr. Hilton Soames, of the College of St. Luke's") died on Mar. 24, 1998. He was a stalwart member of The Speckled Band of Boston for decades, and proud that his grandfather had heard Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lecture about spiritualism in Boston in 1922 ("his presentations were well constructed, but unconvincing," Tom's grandfather noted in his diary). He had a long and distinguished career as a professor and dean, reflected in his Investiture, which he received in 1962. Plan ahead: Bouchercon (the world mystery convention) will be held in Phil- adelphia on Oct. 3-5, 1998 (507 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147). and in Milwaukee on Sept. 30-Oct 3, 1999 (Box 341218, Milwaukee, WI 53234), and in Denver on Sept. 7-10, 2000 (Box 17910, Boulder, CO 90308). It's not all that often one gets to see an 85-year-old Sherlockian film for the first time, and even though only the title of "Piu forte che Sherlock Holmes" is Sherlockian, it was nice to discover that the film has survived, and to see it at the National Gallery of Art (in a program on "Italian Stu- dio Production: The Early Years"). Made by the Itala Film Co. in Turin in 1913, the seven-minute short involves a man who falls asleep and dreams he is a policeman chasing a criminal (with a lot of trick photography). The title translates as "Stronger Than Sherlock Holmes". May 98 #2 Sherlockians have held elected political office over the years, but they've been few and far between in law enforcement. Jim De Stefano ("The St. Pancras Case" in the Baker Street Irregulars) was ap- pointed Police Commissioner of Hudson, New York, in 1996 and he will serve until the end of 1999; he presides over 21 officers and 8 civilian person- nel, and proudly reports there no longer are any Moriartys in Hudson. Here a Sherlock, there a Sherlock: further to the mention (Mar 97 #1) of Sherlock H. Lincoln, who died aged 77 in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1895, Gayle Harris has found Edwin and Caroline Kiln Lincoln, who named their first son (born in Philadelphia in 1863) Sherlock Harvey Lincoln. He and his wife Alice Loretta Ashenfelter named their first son (born in Burns, Kans., in 1901) Sherlock Edwin Lincoln. And Sherlock Harvey (died in 1933) isn't the Sherlock H. who died in 1895. Apparently genealogical records can't yet be searched by first name only, but one assumes that there must be other pre- Holmesian Sherlocks to be found. Rosemary Michaud asked, on one of the electronic mailing lists: "why were the children of the Scowrers such insufferable brats?" Jacques Futrelle was only 37 years old when he died on the Titanic in 1912; Freddie Seymour and Bettina Kyper wrote about his life and his career as a mystery writer in 1995 in THE THINKING MACHINE: JACQUES FUTRELLE (Jan 96 #6), and now they have reprinted his THE GREAT SUIT CASE MYSTERY from the front pages of the Boston American (Oct. 5-8, 1905). The story is a Sher- lockian pastiche in which Futrelle offered a fictional solution to a murder mystery then baffling the Boston police; the 58-page pamphlet costs $5.00 postpaid ($8.00 outside the United States) from Seymour/Kyper Productions, Box 1369, Sandwich, MA 02563. The latest stamp in our series honoring "Great Americans" shows Henry R. Luce (1898-1967); he was an editor and publisher, and the founder of Time, Fortune, Life, and Sports Illustrated (and all those magazines have published Sherlockiana). "Mysteriously Yours" (a mystery dinner-theater company appearing at the Royal York Hotel and at the Old Mill Restaurant Toronto) is now performing "The Love Boat Mystery!" (which features Hercule Poirot); their repertoire includes a Sherlockian event and they will be glad to per- form for groups. Additional information is available from the company at 1927 Yonge Street, Toronto ON M4S 1Z3, Canada (416-486-7469) (800-668-3323) . Carole Nelson Douglas has reported that her new Irene Adler story "Mesmer- izing Bertie" will be published in CRIME THROUGH TIME II, edited by Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharan Newman, due in September from Berkley ($6.99). Roberta Davies notes a report in The Bookseller (Apr. 17) that Virgin Books has celebrated Spike Milligan's 80th birthday with a special edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES ACCORDING TO SPIKE MILLIGAN (L15.99). Milligan has some familiarity with the story, having played a Policeman in the Peter Cook/Dudley Moore film "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978); he also has played Sherlock Holmes in a skit broadcast in the BBC-TV "Q" series. May 98 #3 The Gleniffer Press has published its fourth microbook (2.3 x 1.9 cm) edition of one of the Sherlock Holmes stories: THE EN- GINEER'S THUMB (101 pp. set in readable 2-point type) costs L15.00 (to the U.K.) or $26.00 (elsewhere) postpaid; they do excellent work, and their new address is Benvoir, Wigtown, Newton Stewart, Galloway DG8 9EE, Scotland, U.K. (U.S. dollar checks and credit-card orders are welcome). If your taste for miniature books extends beyond the Canon, The Lord Advocate for Scotland, on behalf of Her Majesty, has granted a Royal License to Gleniffer to print and publish a miniature edition of the King James New Testament on the first day of January 2000. Rosemary Michaud asked: "why were the children of the Scowrers such insuff- erable brats?" Because their parents were too Vermissive. It was a Sherlockian silhouette on the flier that caught my eye, and then the two-track programing at the Virginia Romance Writers Conference that's scheduled for Mar. 26-28, 1999, in Williamsburg. The second track offers criminology workshops on crime scenes and FBI role playing (most romance novels have subplots that involve more than love and sex, I was told). If you'd like to be on their mailing list, write to Virginia Romance Writers, 13 Woodlawn Terrace, Fredericksburg, VA 22405 . The Mysterious Bookshop's spring-summer catalog with two pages of new Sher- lockiana (and additional rare and collectable material), and lots of other books, of course. And three addresses: 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (800-352-2840); and 8763 Beverly Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90048 (800-821-9017); and 82 Marylebone High Street, London W1M 3DE, England. A separate (and larger) S'ian list also is available . The colorful beaver in Sherlockian costume (Apr 98 #4) also appears on the cover of Jeanie Ahrens' ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION Golden Books "Step-Ahead Workbook" ($2.39 in magazine shops and elsewhere). Sherlock Holmes said he had bought his Stradivarius for only 55 shillings, and told Watson that it was worth 500 guineas. It would be worth more now: according to a report in the Wilmington News Journal (Apr. 2), at hand from Jack Kerr, a London dealer has paid a record $1.58 million for a Stradivar- ius that once was owned by Rudolphe Kreutzer (to whom Beethoven dedicated the "Kreutzer" sonata). Alexandra Haropulos spotted Victor Lewis-Smith's review (in the April issue of Harpers & Queen) of the Sherlock Holmes Restaurant in the Victoria & Al- bert Hotel in Manchester (which is owned by the Granada Group): "dinner was one of the most perfect, and most expensive, I have ever had in this coun- try" (L170 for two, with wine). The Holmes & Watson Report continues to offer an interesting mix of sense and nonsense, and the May issue will be of special interest to film buffs and television fans, with Jennie Paton's report on the Russian television series that starred Vasily Livanov, and Dave Morrill's take on Christopher Lee's "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace" (1962). $14.00 a year (six issues), from Brad Keefauver, 4009 North Chelsea Place, Peoria, IL 61614. May 98 #4 A VOICE FROM THE ETHER (Bridgwater: Big House Books, 1998) is Eddie Maguire's third pastiche; an Edison phonograph presents a mystery to Sherlock Holmes in 1891, and he solves it in Essex. The 39-page pamphlet costs $11.00 postpaid from Ian Henry Publications, 20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England. Also available (same address) is a packet of ten note-cards (with envelopes) with two different illustrations by Sid- ney Paget ($12.00 postpaid). McCranie's Pipe and Tobacco Shop offers their Sherlock Holmes ceramic tobacco jar (in green, burgundy, or tan) for $70.00; 4143 Park Road, Charlotte, NC 28209 <704-523-8554) (888-523- 8554) . The HBO mini-series "From the Earth to the Moon" was delight- ful, and if you missed it this time, it likely will repeat in this fall. Episodes 10 (about the Apollo 15 mission) and 12 (about the Apollo 17 mission) offer a chance to see the actors portray astronaut-geologist Jack Schmitt (who named Sherlock Crater on the Moon in honor of Sherlock Holmes), astronaut Joe Allen (who while Capcom in Houston held a Sherlockian conversation with Schmitt on the Moon), and geo- logist Farouk El-Baz (who persuaded the International Astronomical Union to give official approval for the name Sherlock Crater). You don't see any of the Sherlockian stuff, but the mini-series tells a grand story and tells it well indeed. Dave Galerstein reports that his daughter lives in Morristown, N.J., just down the road from Baker Street, a name that dates from when Edgar W. Smith lived in Morristown; his was the only house on the lane, and he was able to persuade the local authorities to approve the name. And the latest news is that a builder is putting up a new development of expensive homes called: Holmes Court. An inflationary note: the "illustrated classic edition" of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, adapted by Malvina G. Vogel, first published by Moby Books in 1977 at 95c, is still in print, but it now costs $2.50. Planning already is under way for the next Baskerville Bash on in New York on Jan. 8, 1999. If you'd like to be on the mailing list, contact Maribeau Briggs (46 East 29th Street #2R, New York, NY 10016) or Susan E. Dahlinger . The program committee will be happy to hear from anyone who would like to offer short (and humorous) skits, plays, poems, readings, papers, acts, or other performances (Spessoti and Russo, 164 Concord Ave- nue, Hartsdale, NY 10530). Quinn Fawcett's AGAINST THE BROTHERHOOD: A MYCROFT HOLMES NOVEL (New York: Forge/Tom Doherty, 1997; 319 pp., $23.95) is set in 1887, when Mycroft's newly-hired personal secretary is sent under cover into a thoroughly male- volent scheme that threatens (of course) the security of Europe; Mycroft also is on hand and in action, in various disguises and in European cities far from Pall Mall, and saves almost everyone worth saving. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and William Fawcett are the actual authors of the book, which care- fully leaves plenty of room for a sequel, or even sequels. May 98 #5 The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met at The Chart House in Salt Lake City on May 20, for a dinner honoring the world's first forensic geologist, during the annual meeting of the American Associ- ation of Petroleum Geologists. Heidi-Marie Mason welcomed the visitors on behalf of the locals, and Sarah Andrews reported that she plans to murder a vertebrate paleontologist in her next book, which will be her fifth in her series about Emily Hansen, a petroleum geologist who doubles as a detective (the first four are still in print, and recommended: TENSLEEP, A FALL IN DENVER, MOTHER NATURE, and ONLY FLESH & BONES). Our next dinner is sched- uled for Oct. 20, when the Geological Society of America meets in Toronto. The Shadows of the Elm, a society of elementary-school students in New Mex- ico, are once again out and about, Carolyn Gassner notes, and their latest theatrical production was a radio-play version of "The Hound of the Basker- villes", which now is available on audiocassette; $5.00 postpaid (or $7.00 outside the U.S.) from Carolyn (P.O. Drawer G, Corrales, NJ 87048). Barbara Roscoe has a new e-mail address (in case you received no response to your request for information about "The Game's Afloat 1998" at the Sher- aton Plaza Hotel in West Port on Oct. 30-Nov. 1); 7101 Mardel Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63109 . Ken Lanza has spotted a report in the Old Time Radio digest that the Sci-Fi channel will air an "Alien Voices" radio-drama telecast of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" on July 12, from a Los Angeles theater; this would appear to have been taped when the company recorded the audiocassettes that were released last year (Nov 97 #6). Leonard Nimoy directed, from a script by Nat Segaloff and John de Lancie, with Armin Shimerman as Challenger and Dwight Schultz as Malone, and the recording was nicely done indeed. Joe Eckrich offers a second sales-list of Sherlockiana from his collection, by e-mail on request to , or you can send a #10 SASE to him at 914 Oakmoor Drive, Fenton, MO 63026 (if outside the United States, please send two IRCs or $1.00 in currency). Ben Wood (Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222) offers the twelve stamps issued by Nicaragua in 1972 to honor Interpol (Sherlock Holmes is on the high value); $15.00 postpaid (to the United States only). Also in Florida, The Pleasant Places are planning a visit to the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp on July 11; there will be discussions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and spiritualism, and additional information is available from David Scott (Box 463, De Land, FL 32721 . Sorry about that: I had the address wrong (Apr 98 #5). A flier at hand for The Sherlock Holmes Festival in Crowborough on July 3-10; the festival will include events both Doylean and Sherlockian, and additional information is available from P.O. Box 117, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 1WU, England. It isn't often that you can look at a book that looks back at you, but that certainly is true of MYSTERIES IN BUGTOWN, written by William Boniface and illustrated by Jim Harris (Denver: Accord, 1997; $15.95); spotted by Jennie Paton, it's a children's book that is imaginative and amusing. And one of the inhabitants of Bugtown is an Inspector Cricket in Sherlockian costume. May 98 #6 TEDDY & ARTHUR is the latest collection of John Ruyle's poems, honoring Ted Schulz, who was born on June 2, 1923, when Sir Ar- thur Conan Doyle was lecturing in San Francisco; hand-set and hand-printed at the Pequod Press, as always, and the postpaid cost is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John, at 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. The "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" was an award-winning one-hour series that ran from 1974 to 1983, produced and directed by Himan Brown, with more than a dozen Sherlock Holmes stories starring Kevin McCarthy (Sherlock Holmes) and Court Benson (Dr. Watson). And the good news is: the series is back on the air, syndicated by Westwood One as "Mystery Theater" (since it's avail- able to any local station). But the bad news is: Westwood One isn't able to tell you which of your local stations will be airing the series. But it has been rumored that in Chicago it's WMAQ-AM (670). Prof. Larry Meinert (Washington State University) teaches an honors seminar on "Mysteries of the Earth: If Sherlock Holmes Had Been a Geologist", and his syllabus demonstrates how well the Sherlock Holmes stories can be used to interest and educate students. The electronically enabled can check his web-site at . Plan ahead: the STUD Sherlockian Society will hold its Sixth Annual Angli- can Holiday Getaway Weekend on Oct. 16-18 at the Stagecoach Inn in Cedar- burg, Wis. The Eighth Annual STUD Dinner is scheduled for Mar. 5, 1998, in Schiller Park, Ill., followed by a Solar Pons Breakfast on Mar. 6. Details are available from Allan Devitt (16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106. Thomas Pitner's one-page article "Taking Tea with Sherlock Holmes" (which discusses tea in the Canon) appeared in the May-June issue of Tea: A Maga- zine; $4.95 in stores such as Borders or Barnes & Noble, or $5.45 postpaid (Box 348, Scotland, CT 06264) (888-456-8651). Bill Barnes (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) offers copies of THE HOUNDS COLLECTION: VOLUME 3, with 116 pages of pastiche, poems, and serious writing by members of The Hounds of the Internet; most of the mate- rial is new, but a few pieces have appeared elsewhere. $13.00 or CA$18.00 or L9.00 postpaid by airmail; $9.00/$12.00/L6.00 postpaid by surface mail. Payment by personal checks or currency is welcome. The Apr.-May issue of British Heritage mentions Conan Doyle in Anita Frul- lani's article on "The Piltdown Man Forgery", and the June-July issue has Jim Hargan's well-illustrated article on "Dartmoor of the Baskervilles". $4.99 on newsstands, or $6.00 postpaid (6405 Flank Drive, Harrisburgh, PA 17112 (800-358-6327). And there's a web-site at . THE DIARIES OF MRS. JOHN H. WATSON, NEE MORSTAN (Feb 98 #6) is still avail- able, but not for much longer (from me, at any rate); the late Fraser Smyth wrote the diaries in 1995, and they show a Mary Morstan who was both modern and unconventional. $4.00 postpaid in the U.S., and $4.30 by surface post elsewhere; checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please, at the address below. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jun 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Mike Whelan and Mary Ann Bradley have moved to Indianapolis, and their new address is 414 North Park Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46202-3642. That's the address to use for official (or unofficial) letters to the "Wiggins" of The Baker Street Irregulars, and for journals, newsletters, and meeting notices that societies are sending to Mike. Frank Darlington reports that a recent catalog from the Worldwide Treasure Bureau (Box 5012, Visalia, CA 93278) (800-437-0222) offers Victorian gold sovereigns ($295.00), Victorian and Edwardian pennies ($9.95 for ten), and gold Napoleons ($215.00-350.00). And for Doyleans, U.S. "gold back" bills (series of 1922) that he would have seen when he visited here ($375.00 for the $10 bill and $450.00 for the $20 bill). There are (at least) three connections between the actors Eille Norwood and Jeremy Brett. They have both played Sherlock Holmes. And Eille Norwood's real name was Brett. What's the third (Kevin Baconish) connection? The American Association of Petroleum Geologists' annual meeting in Salt Lake City last month had an official postal- service postmark, arranged by the AAPG with the aid of Highland Stamp and Com- memorative Design (4835 South Highland Drive #1346, Salt Lake City, UT 84117). The company will be happy to assist in designing and arranging for a commemorative postmark for any sort of con- vention (including Sherlockian gatherings), and can produce cacheted covers that can be canceled at the convention (which need not be in Utah). And as an added attraction, the Salt Lake City post office arranged for two clerks to sell stamps that showed attractive dinosaurs and Martian geology. The summer issue of The Serpentine Muse (published quarterly by The Adven- turesses of Sherlock Holmes) offers an assortment of amusing winning essays from the competitions during the "Holmes at His Zenith" cruise to the Car- ibbean in 1995; $10.00 a year from Evelyn A. Herzog, 360 West 21st Street, New York, NY 10011. The latest issue of Scarlet Street has David Stuart Davies' interview with Ian Richardson (with discussion of his work on the 1980s television films), and an interview with Adrienne Corri (who played Angela Osborne in "A Study in Terror" in 1965), as well as the usual coverage of the mystery-and-hor- ror genre. Scarlet Street now is published bimonthly, and costs $35.00 a year; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. I had a chance last month to thank Jim Lehrer last month, for a delightful quote I've often repeated. So I will repeat it again: it was in the Smith- sonian magazine (Mar. 1990, when he was an associate editor of the MacNeil/ Lehrer Newshour"); he wrote about the pleasures of collecting, describing himself as a world-class collector of depot signs and other memorabilia). Collectors, Lehrer suggested, are not odd. "We are merely possessed with a need to collect certain things that some people might consider odd." Jun 98 #2 Gypsies appear to be no more welcome in Great Britain now than they were at the time of "The Speckled Band" (according to an item in the April 10 issue of the Boston Globe, kindly forwarded by Scott Monty): Interior Minister Jack Straw said that he had received reports of an exodus of gypsies from the Czech Republic and Slovakia and warned them they would not be welcome if they sought asylum in Britain. Les Klinger reports that "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" (1916) is avail- able on videocassette from Foothill Video (Box 900367, Palmdale, CA 93590) for $7.95 plus $3.50 shipping. This is the two-reel silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks as the detective Coke Enneyday (in Sherlockian costume) and Bessie Love as The Little Fish Blower. From a story by D. W. Griffith (as Granville Warwick), just to drop another name. Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets (with 15 differ- ent stamps for each decade) have now reached the 1920s. The first known Sherlockian radio program was broadcast on Dec. 4, 1929 (by the BBC, actually, and it was a biography of Dr. Watson, by Desmond MacCarthy). Doyleans might prefer stamps that recall baseball, prohibition, or the 19th amendment, as Sir Arthur had something to say about all three of them. Further to the report (Jan 98 #7) that Christie's South Kensington planned an auction of the Midg and Cameo cameras used by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths to take the photographs of the Cottingley fairies, six original photographs on contemporary mounts, a first edition of Conan Doyle's THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES (1922), three later watercolors of fairies made by Elsie, and a 1983 holograph letter by Elsie giving her version of events, the owner of the material, collector Geoffrey Crawley, rejected a L20,000 bid from Mel Gibson (whose company made the film "FairyTale: A True Story") and accepted instead L14,000 from a fund-raising campaign that will keep the archive at the National Museum of Film, Photography and Television in Bradford. "Dash it all, this is Britain!" Crawley told the Bradford Tele- graph and Argus, "I bought them originally to prevent them going to the U.S. so wasn't about to risk them going abroad again." Alfred Kazin died on June 5. He was an important scholar and teacher of American literature, and his book ON NATIVE GROUNDS: AN INTERPRETATION OF MODERN AMERICAN PROSE LITERATURE (1942) was a standard text in college courses for decades. It was on a freighter crossing the Atlantic in a World War Two convoy that he "compulsively reread" the Sherlock Holmes stories, he wrote in NEW YORK JEW (1978). "In Conan Doyle there was just one crime at a time, and everything else was suspended, all England held its, breath, until the Great Brain, outwardly asleep like Buddha in his total concentration on this one case, came through with a solution satis- fying and *loveable*." The 30-minute television series "Muppets Tonight!" (now in repeats on the Disney channel has (at least) two episodes with Sherlockians skits, one of the shows guest-starring Heather Locklear and the other Paula Abdul. And John Stephenson spotted a Golden Books coloring book GONZO'S SILLY SKITS & CLASSIC BITS (1997) with Nate Butler's two-page illustration of "Classic Theater of Whales Presents Sherlock Holmes" ($1.29). Jun 98 #3 Marsha Pollak reports that Bruce Taylor has purchased the late Dean Dickensheet's collection; it's still in boxes, but worth checking out if you're in the neighborhood of San Francisco Mystery Books, at 4175 24th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114) (415-282-7444). The shop is open Wed-Sun, 11:30-5:30. Sherlockian material continues to turn up on laserdisc: "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985, with Nicholas Rowe and Alan Cox) has been released by Pio- neer ($39.95), and the "Ship in a Bottle" episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1993, with Daniel Davis as Moriarty) is available from Para- mount/Pioneer ($34.98). According to Philip Jose Farmer, the Wold Newton family originated when a radioactive meteor landed in Wold Newton, England, in the year 1795. The radiation caused a genetic mutation in those present, which endowed many of their descendants with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good (or evil) deeds. And two of his literary biographies give the details: TARZAN ALIVE (1972) and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE (1973). The books still are fun to read; both Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, needless to say, are among the Wold Newton descendants, and, thanks to energetic fans who keep track of cross- overs, there is a long list of other fictional heroes and villains in the Wold Newton universe. The electronically enabled can see the results at a web-site at . What's the third (Kevin Baconish) connection between actors Eille Norwood and Jeremy Brett? Thanks to Carol Elaine Cyr, who noted that Isobel Elsom who played Mary Morstan in Eille Norwood's "The Sign of Four" (1923) and Jeremy Brett's mother Mrs. Eynsford-Hill in "My Fair Lady" (1964). Dame Catherine Cookson died on June 11. She wrote 100 books, and they have sold more than 100 million copies in 18 languages, and she is the most-read author in British libraries. The Public Lending Right Office, which tracks library borrowing and pays authors, reported that she headed their list in 1992 (Feb 93 #2), and she still does: in 1997 nine of the ten most-borrowed books were hers. She began writing in 1955, and insisted that "I am not a romantic writer. Those sloppy, silly stories. A strong, storytelling nov- ist is what I am." Paul Martin reports that a new catalog from the Britannia Collection (Box 64413, St. Paul, MN 55164) (800-778-7007) offers a Comoy's of London Sher- lock Holmes walking stick ($165.00), and a framed first day cover of last year's British stamp honoring the Hound of the Baskervilles, with a Jeremy Brett cachet, mounted and framed ($59.95). Greg Bear's DINOSAUR SUMMER (New York: Warner Books, 1998; 325 pp., $23.00) is delightful alternate history: Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Lost World" was a factual account of the Challenger expedition, but in 1947 nobody cares about dinosaurs; the last dinosaur circus in America is closing, and the National Geographic funds an expedition to return the surviving dinosaurs to their home in Venezuela. Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen are along for the fun and games, and the expedition is stranded on the plateau (of course), and there are some nice illustrations by Tony DiTerlizzi. Jun 98 #4 "Algonquin, at Wits' End, Retrofits" is the headline on a story in the Metro edition of the N.Y. Times (May 28), forwarded by Francine Kitts: renovation of the hotel has been completed, and Ian Lloyd- Jones, president of the Camberley Hotel Co. (which purchased the Algonquin last year for about $30 million and has spent $5.5 on renovating it), said that "We've created a palette for people when they come in their tweeds and brogues and Sherlock Holmes hats." Michael Kimmelman's review in the N.Y. Times (May 22) of the exhibition of "Police Pictures: The Photograph as Evidence" (at the Grey Art Gallery and Study Center at New York University in New York through July 18) notes that the show includes a copy of Cesare Lombroso's book CRIMINAL MEN. "Lombroso is one of those once-famous and immensely influential figures who flourish in Darwin's wake and are now mostly forgotten," Kimmelman writes. "A pio- neer of so-called criminal anthropology, he said that criminal behavior was biological, a hereditary trait identifiable in tell-tale physical features, which he called stigmata. They might include big jaws, long arms, dark skin or low brows." And, he continues, "Arthur Conan Doyle's criminals in the Holmes stories came straight out of Lombroso." Some of the Canonical criminals certainly looked criminal, but a study of how many did or didn't might make for an interesting paper, if someone's looking for something to write about. An alert for collectors of foreign translations: Don Hobbs notes that Pan- nonia Books (Box 716, Station P, Toronto, ON M5S 2Y4, Canada) offers copies of A BRIXTONI REJTELY, a Hungarian translation of A STUDY IN SCARLET (234 pp., paperback, with a photograph of Brett and Hardwicke on the cover) for US$13.57 postpaid. There's a web-site at . Dick Lesh spotted a Sherlock Ink fingerprint pad at a Denver supermarket (such pads are increasingly common at banks and other places that tend to get a lot of bogus checks); if you would like to have one of your own, the pads cost $6.00 each plus shipping. Their address is 43039 London Drive, Parker, CO 80138 . 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 that shows Holmes, Watson, and Mrs. Hudson in the sitting- room at 221B. $13.50 postpaid for ten cards (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 1AP, England. "Imagination Theatre" is the title of a weekly radio series written by Jim French: it's a one-hour show, with two mysteries each week, and two of them have been Sherlockian ("The Poet of Death" and "The Sealed Room"), and Jim has a third one ("The Blind Man") in the works. The series is syndicated by TransMedia in San Francisco, and you can ask them if a local station is carrying the series in your area (800-229-7234), or check their web-site at (where you can also hear some of the shows, if your tech is high enough). You can, of course, also encourage a local station to carry the series: it's always nice to be able to hear radio drama. Jun 98 #5 "Fallen angels, satanic manuals, and a passion for the works of Raphael Sabatini and Alexandre Dumas, among others--this is the stuff of Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte's engrossing novel," according to one review of THE CLUB DUMAS (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1997; 362 pp., $23.00) (New York: Vintage Books, 1998; 368 pp., $13.00). And one of the characters is named Irene Adler, who lives at 223 Baker Street, Pam Russell reports, but this is a minor homage, and a passing one at that. And there is a movie based on the book: "The Ninth Gate" now in pre-production, with Roman Polanski as director and starring Johnny Depp and Lena Olin. Well, it turns out that "Elementary, my dear Watson" was indeed spoken by Sherlock Holmes in one of A. Conan Doyle's stories. It really was. Which story is it? There are many reasons why the Sherlock Holmes stories continue to be so widely read and enjoyed, including the many things that Sherlockians do to ensure that children learn how enjoyable they are. Jim Webb goes to his local public elementary schools to read to students and answer their ques- tions, and there's no need to guess which stories he reads. It's the sort of thing that anyone can do anywhere: check with your local schools. Stella Luuk spotted a Sherlockian hamster on a flier for the Habitrail Fun Club at a pet show; there's a newsletter and oth- er neat hamster stuff, and you can write to Habitrail at Rolf C. Hagen Inc., 3225 Sartelon, St. Laurent, QC H4R 1E8, Canada. Or visit the web-site at . Rolf J. Canton reports that his new video "The Pipe Dream Con- tinues...." will be available at the end of June; the one-hour documentary (with dramatized segments) salutes the 50th anni- versary of The Norwegian Explorers. $62.95 postpaid from Rolf at 5562 Oak Glen Road, Edina, MN 55439. Otto Penzler is editing a series of "Sounds Like Murder" audiocassettes for Random House Audio ("short stories for short commutes" is their motto); one of them is THE CASE OF THE SCOTTISH TRAGEDY, a new story by June Thomson, read by Simon Jones ($12.95). Available in stores, or from the Mysterious Bookshop (800-352-2840) . Henry J. Arbour died on Apr. 29. He was an enthusiastic miniaturist, one of the few brave enough to take on the task of recreating the entire house at 221 Baker Street at his home in North Adams, Mass., and it was grand to be able to see some of his work on display at the Sherlockian conference in Bennington, Vt. in 1994. At last: a Sherlockian connection to Kenneth Starr's attempt to persuade the Supreme Court that the attorney/client privilege ends with the client's death. If, that is, you believe (as some pasticheurs have postulated) that Sherlock Holmes investigated the murder of Lizzie Borden's parents. Well, the law firm that represented Lizzie still has notes on the interviews that her lawyers had with Lizzie in the summer of 1892, guarded all these years, but now possibly (if the Supreme Court rules in Starr's favor) available to the local district attorney. Perhaps she mentioned a British investigator. Jun 98 #6 The Morgan Library (at 29 East 36th Street in New York) always is worth a visit, and now you can see a fascinating exhibition titled "a.k.a. Lewis Carroll" (though Aug. 30). The library has all sorts of material by and about Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, including a pamphlet he wrote about Oxford politics in 1865: there's no evidence that Arthur Conan Doyle ever saw the pamphlet ("The Dynamics of a Parti-cle, with an Excursus on the New Method of Evaluation, as Applied to pi"), but perhaps a mathema- tician who appears in the Canon was amused by the title. Anna Lou Ashby curated the exhibit, which also includes a photograph of Dodgson taken by Elliott & Fry in the 1860s in their studio at 55 Baker Street (where Conan Doyle also once had his picture taken). And the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes (and their guests) had a fine time at their annual spring dinner on June 19, when Priscilla Ridgway ("One of Poe's Sketches") became the newest member of the Adventuresses, and there were toasts and other festivities at St. Maggie's Cafe far down the island on Wall Street at South Street (which seemed appropriate for those who were Bermuda-bound the next day on the Fourth Occasional Sherlockian Cruise. Charles Dodgson and Arthur Conan Doyle do meet, however, in Roberta Rogow's THE PROBLEM OF THE MISSING MISS (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998; 261 pp, $22.95); it's August 1885, and Conan Doyle and his bride Touie are on their honeymoon in Brighton, where a liberal MP's daughter on her way for a holiday with Dodgson is kidnapped and in peril. Conan Doyle and Dodgson do manage to solve the mystery, of course, and rescue the girl, and foil all the villains and villainesses. Yes, Sherlock Holmes really did say "Elementary, my dear Watson" in one of A. Conan Doyle's stories, and you can credit (or blame) Jim Vogelsang for the discovery. The story is "The Adventure of the Red Widow" -- by Adrian Conan Doyle. Sherlock Homes has filed for bankruptcy in Buffalo, according to a report spotted by Ken Lanza in the June 2 issue of Business First. "The attorney general may initiate his own investigation into the matter independent of any complaints that may or may not have been received by this office," said Michael Zabel, area spokesman for Attorney General Dennis Vacco. But there is no need to worry: it's one of the many real estate firms using the name Sherlock Homes. David Scott's HOLMES REDUX: NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Vaughn: Red Apple Publishing, 1997; 90 pp., $9.95), offers four short-story pastiches; Holmes helps Mycroft, and Irene, and others. If you can't find it in your local bookstore, the publisher's address is Box 568, Vaughn, WA 98394 (800- 245-6595) . The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet for dinner in honor of the world's first forensic geologist at 7:00 pm on Oct. 28 at The Old Spaghetti Factory, 54 The Esplanade, in Toronto; the gathering will offer an opportu- nity for visitors attending the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America to mingle with local Sherlockians. More information will be avail- able (for the locals) from Philip Elliott (120 Perth Avenue #608, Toronto, ON M6OP 4E1, Canada (416-537-8936) . Jun 98 #7 Brad Keefauver's column "The Dissecting Room" has long graced the pages of Bob Burr's monthly Plugs & Dottles; Brad's latest (July) column notes (with credit to Janet Bensley) that Chemical & Engin- eering News has reported that the Rhone-Poulenc Foundation and the Archeo- logical Survey of India have begun work on a three-year restoration of two of India's major monuments: the Taj Mahal and the Agra Fort (where the red sandstone and lime and plaster will be treated with stone renovation tech- niques). Brad wonders whether they'll be putting the treasure back, too. HOLY SMOKE, by Guillermo Cabrera Infante's (1985) has been reprinted (Wood- stock: Overlook Press, 1997; 329 pp., $24.95); it's a fascinating, expert, and humorous discussion of the history of cigars (and cigarettes and pipes) with occasional references to the Canon. There are two versions of The Wigmore Street Post Office: electronic, on the Prodigy computer service, and ink-on-paper offering a selection of the best of the bits and bytes: issue #11 (spring 1998) has 44 pages that focus (subversively and otherwise) on "The Sign of the Four" and the cost $5.25 is postpaid, or you can subscribe for $10.00 a year (three issues). Write to Mel Hughes, 2664 Sam Hardwick Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL 32246 (back issues also are available). Phil Hartman died on May 27. He was a graphic designer who became a comed- ian in the 1970s, spending eight years on "Saturday Night Live" and starred on the series "NewsRadio". He was Dr. Watson in a six-minute skit on "Sat- urday Night Live" on Mar. 23, 1991, with Jeremy Irons as Holmes. Vinnie Brosnan's latest catalog is a "Special Ted Schulz Issue" and it's a delight. Vinnie is selling Ted's collection, and there more than 900 items in the 164-page catalog, which also offers reminiscenses by and photographs of Ted, and tributes from many of his friends, and a chance to see some of the many byways Ted has explored as a collector and as a Sherlockian. It's a collectible in itself, and it costs $3.00 postpaid from Sherlock in L.A., 1741 Via Allena, Oceanside, CA 92056. Reg Smythe died on June 13. He served in the British army and later worked as a clerk, sketching cartoons in his spare time. He created "Andy Capp" for the Daily Mirror's northern editions in 1957, and the strip eventually was syndicated to 1,700 newspapers in 48 countries. This one appeared in American papers on Apr. 13, 1974: Jun 98 #8 If you missed the earlier offer (Sep 96 #2), it's not too late. One of the most delightful of Sherlockian bibliohoaxes is THE PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BEE CULTURE: WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON THE SEGREGA- TION OF THE QUEEN, by Sherlock Holmes (London: Methuen & Co., 1911), which actually was 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 it's real: the title page was reproduced in the Sept. 1966 issue of The Baker Street Journal, the book is cited in THE UNIVERSAL SHER- HOLMES, and Julian Wolff's copy was sold by Enola Stewart in 1993. Enola, assisted by British bee-books specialists Betty and Karl Showler, was able to identify the source of Schenck's ingenious 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 still turn up, 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. And you'll receive a bonus: a copy of "His Last Bow" in the current Oxford Uni- versity Press edition. Warren Randall reports that he will be selling a lapel pin (red and black on white) and other ephemera at the conven- tion in Minneapolis in August; additional information is available from Warren (15 Fawn Lane West, South Setauket, NY 11720) . The Hound of the Baskervilles isn't the only phantom dog found in England, and England isn't the only country that has phantom dogs (there's even one on the eastern shore of Maryland), and there are blue dogs and white dogs and fairy hounds as well. And you can read about them in the spring 1998 issue of Strange Magazine ($5.95); Box 2246, Rockville, MD 20847 . Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine (formerly The Sherlock Holmes Gaz- ette) continues to offer a interesting mix of articles, reports, reviews, and essays, with an occasional look at other detectives. The editor is David Stuart Davies (who also provides a look at "Holmes of the Movies"), and other regular contributors include Michael Cox (on the Granada series) and Barbara Roden (on Conan Doyle's non-Sherlockian works). An annual sub- scription (six issues) costs L18.00 (U.K.)/L20.00 (continent)/$40.00 (U.S.) and the address is 49 Purfield Drive, Wargrave, Berks. RG10 8AR, England ; their U.S. representative is Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219) . Credit- card orders are welcome at both addresses, and back issues are available. Many of you have seen my Sherlockian tie-tack: a black-on-silver version of my calling card (1.1" wide). Well, I need a new one, and I can't remember the name and address of the company that made my old one, and I've not been able to find a company that does that sort of thing. Suggestions welcome. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jul 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press John McPhee's books are excellent, no matter what they're about, and he has written four of the very best books about geology. And you can read all of them now, reprinted in ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998; 695 pp.); it's in the first of the four (BASIN AND RANGE) that he notes that Sherlock Holmes was the first forensic geologist. IRONS IN THE FIRE (Apr 97 #1) includes McPhee's essay "The Gravel Page" in which he has much more to say about forensic geology. Martin Gardner's THE ANNOTATED INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN first appeared in 1987 (Jul 87 #4), and it is available again in a trade paperback reprint (New York: Dover, 1998; 274 pp., $9.95); Gardner notes that G. K. Chester- ton "was as careless with his details as Dr. Watson, and as many curious questions can be asked about the priest as about Holmes." Many of those questions are answered in Gardner's annotations, which do not neglect the Sherlockian aspects of the stories. The "In Memoriam" section of the Mystery Writers Annual distributed at the 1998 MWA awards dinner reported that Donald R. Bensen died in 1997. He was an editor and author, and three of his Sherlockian "criminalimericks" were published in issues of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine honoring the birth- day festivities; he wrote the novel based on the television film "Sherlock Holmes in New York" (1976), and his amusing IRENE, GOOD NIGHT was published by Targ Editions in 1982. W. O. G. Lofts also died in 1997. He was a splendid bibliographer, and his interests focused on stories for boys (of all ages), including Leslie Char- teris' stories about The Saint and Charles Hamilton's series about Herlock Sholmes; he collaborated with Jon L. Lellenberg on articles about Hamilton in the BSJ (June 1984) and about Dr. Patrick H. Watson (June 1980), who may have been a namesake for Dr. John H. Watson. John Stephenson and Jack Kerr each spotted a WISHBONE COLORING AND ACTIVITY BOOK: CANINE CLASSICS (New York: Modern Publishing, 1997; $1.30) with six pages devoted to Wishbone's investigation of the Hound of the Baskervilles. Carole Nelson Douglas will be one of the guest stars on a seven-day Murder Mystery Cruise sailing from Houston on the Norwegian Star Oct. 4 with stops in Calica, Cozumel, and Roatan. Dean James will lecture on the history of mystery fiction, and Mary Katherine Marion will stage a mystery murder, and more details are available from Cruises Cruises (800-245-9806) . Joseph A. Kestner's SHERLOCK'S MEN: MASCULINITY, CONAN DOYLE, AND CULTURE HISTORY (Brookfield: Ashgate, 1997; 250 pp., $72.95) is an academic exami- nation of the Canon's reflections of the sociology of Britain during the reigns of Victoria, Edward VII, and George V; Kestner concludes that "for readers of the *Strand* and above all for male readers, these nine volumes constructed, interrogated, debated and critiqued the construction of male gender in culture for 40 years, from 1887 to 1927." Ashgate Publishing, Old Post Road, Brookfield, VT 05036 (800-535-9544); or Gower House, Croft Road, Aldershot, Hants. GU11 3HR, England. Jul 98 #2 Nice news for old-time radio fans: Ken Greenwald reports that the Baker Street Associates will have a new series of Sherlock Holmes ready for release later this year; there will be at least six cass- ettes (more if sales go well), each with two programs from the 1947 season that starred John Stanley and Alfred Shirley, with Clipper Craft Clothes as the sponsor. The distributor will be Radio Spirits. Biker Sherlock competed in the X Games again this year in Mission Bay Park in San Diego. In 1997 he won three medals (two gold and one silver), more than anyone else in the Games, in the street luge, but this year won only one medal (gold, in the dual luge). His real name is Michael Sherlock. George Ault spotted a large (31 oz.) box of Kellogg's Frosted Flakes with Sherlockian artwork for a "Breakfast Detective Game" on the box (the orig- inal is in full color, of course, and seven inches wide, and is on the back of the box, but similar artwork will be found on the front, if your local store has this promotion. The 711 issues of The Strand Magazine published from Jan. 1891 to Mar. 1950 offer a wonderful picture of six decades of life and literature in Britain, and it's neither easy nor cheap to put together a complete run. An almost- complete run of 703 issues (87 bound six-issue volumes and the remainder in single issues) was sold at the Pacific Book Auction Galleries on Apr. 9 for $6,325 (including the 15% buyer's premium). "Murder, They Write: The Times 100 Masters of Crime" was the title of a 20- page supplement to the Apr. 18 issue of The Times, and it was nice indeed to find two masters were noted for their Sherlockian work: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Laurie King. Luci Zahray notes a new catalog from Cuisenaire/Dale Seymour Publications, Box 5026, White Plains, NY 10602 (800-237-0338) with Sher- lockian artwork on the covers of two books: Wade Hampton Sherard's LOGIC NUMBER PROBLEMS (for grades 4-8) and Kylie Dunn's THE SOUND SLEUTH (grades K-2); $10.95 each. Roy Rogers died on July 6. He was the singing "king of the cowboys" whose straight-shooting exploits in more than 90 movies and on radio and televis- ion made him a hero to generations of young fans. His films offer a fasci- nating look at how much tastes have changed; if you're going to watch only one of them, you might as well choose "San Fernando Valley" (1944); a herd of horses is rustled one dark evening, and Roy deduces that it must have been an inside job, because of the ranch dog: "If they'd a been strangers, he would've barked, and there wasn't a peep out of him." Will Walsh notes that the summer catalog from the Britannia Collection (Box 64413, St. Paul, MN 55164) (800-778-7007) has older Sherlockian items (Jun 98 #3), Holmes Bloodhound and Watson Beagle figurines ($69.95 each), and gold sovereigns from the reigns of Victoria ($269.00) and Edward ($289.00). Jul 98 #3 The May/June issue of the Toronto Reference Library News has a nice article about the new Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection and its activities. The Library had an exhibition from Mar. 1 to May 30 celebrating "A Grand Tradition: 150 Years of Giving to the Toron- to Public Library" showing items that have been given to the collections, including the manuscript of Conan Doyle's play "Angels of Darkness" and a drawing of Watson by Frederic Dorr Steele, and the catalog has a small rep- production of the Steele artwork. Both are available from Victoria Gill, Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada (the newsletter is free, but please send $1.00 if you want the catalog). Ed Lear spotted the Sherlockian "symbol of excellence" artwork on the shipping carton for grade A quality eggs at his local Kroger supermarket. The sixteenth annual "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held at the Tarrytown Hilton in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Oct. 31-Nov. 1, and the program will include the world premiere of "The H.M.S. Sign o' Four" (by Gilbert & Sullivan & Randall); more information is available from Robert E. Thomalen, Highview Drive, Carmel, NY 10512 . Further to the report (Oct 97 #4) about plans to renovate Gillette Castle (William Gillette's home, built largely with profits from his play "Sher- lock Holmes") in Hadlyme, Conn., the Castle will remain open seven days a week through Labor Day, but then it will be closed for 18 months while the roof and parapets are repaired. The state bought the castle and grounds from Gillette's estate in 1943 for $35,000; overall renovation costs will be about $4,000,000. Caleb Sampson died on June 8. He was a composer, and leader of an unusual three-man band called the Alloy Orchestra that used metallic junk such as bedpans and truck springs for percussion, and keyboard and synthesizer, and provided original music for silent films at international festivals. Scott Monty recalls a showing of "The Lost World" (1925) at the Coolidge Theatre in Brookline, Mass., in 1993, accompanied by the Alloy Orchestra playing a new score by Sampson. Joseph A. Coppola reports that The Mycroft Holmes Society Press plans to publish an anthology of items about Mycroft: papers, pastiches, cartoons, or anything else; if the material is previously published and not your own, please him know the name and address of the copyright owner. Joe's address is: 103 Kenny Street, Fayetteville, NY 13066 . Further to my query (Feb 98 #5) about the first actor to portray Sherlock Holmes with a calabash, Sean Wright notes that John Neville is seen with a calabash in the film "A Study in Terror" (1965). It's in the first scene with Sherlock Holmes, in which he deduces where his pipe is hidden: Watson must be sitting on it. The pipe certainly is a calabash, although with a silver rim rather than the now-traditional lipped meerschaum bowl. Holmes takes the pipe from Watson, and holds it. But he doesn't smoke it. You're welcome, of course, to track down an earlier actor than John Neville. Jul 98 #4 Thomas Narcejac died on June 7. His treatise on the detective novel (ESTHETIQUE DU ROMAN POLICIER) appeared in 1947, and he then collaborated with Pierre Boileau on a long series of short stories, novel, and plays, including the novels on which the films "Les Diaboliques" and "Vertigo" were based. Their Sherlockian pastiche "Le mystŠre de Night- ingale mansion" was collected in USUPATION D'IDENTITE (1980), and his UNE MACHINE A LIRE: LE ROMAN POLICIER (1975) has many references to the Canon. George Kreuzberger ("Archie Stamford, the Forger") died on Dec. 27, 1997. He was a partner with the accounting firm Coopers & Lybrandt, specializing as a consultant to health-care facilities. He was one of the founders of The Sons of the Copper Beeches, serving for many years as their Controller of the Kennel and assisting Bill Starr in arranging the Sons' meetings. He received his Investiture from The Baker Street Irregulars in 1956. Some books cost more than others. A first edition of Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES printed by William Caxton, the only one of a dozen surviving copies in private hands, was sold at auction at Christie's in London on July 8 for L4.6 million, making it the world's most expensive printed book. Printed around 1476, it was bought by the first Earl Fitzwilliam for L6 in 1776 and was sold this month by Lady Juliet Tadgell, daughter of the last Earl (she plans to use the money to create a trust that will protect the rest of the family's art collection); the book was bought by the London dealer Maggs Bros. acting for J. Paul Getty, Jr. The previous record sale was a Guten- berg Bible that brought L3.2 million at Christie's in New York in 1987. The June issue of The Baker Street Journal has much of interest, as always, including news of two new Baker Street Irregulars publishing projects: THE BSI/LIBRARY SERIES and THE BSI INTERNATIONAL SERIES, and (after many years) a BSJ Christmas annual that will focus on the BSI's annual dinner in 1940. The BSJ costs $18.95 a year (four issues) from Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331; the annual costs $6.00 and orders will be accepted until Sept. 30. The summer catalog from Mysteries by Mail (Box 8515, Ukiah, CA 95482 (800- 722-0726) has a wide selection of in-print books and audio, including a new (at least I don't recall seeing it before) Sher- lock Holmes stoneware coffee mug (item 936028, $14.95). The exhibition of "The Jewels of Lalique" at the Smithsonian Institution's International Gallery (through Aug. 16) is a spectacular show, offering a wonderful look at just how modern the late Victorians and Edwardians could be. Rene Lalique was born in 1860; he was apprenticed to a Parisian jewel- er and spent two years studying in London, and then opened his own workshop in 1886. He invented the Art Nouveau jewel, creating spectacular designs for patrons such as Sarah Bernhardt and Calouste Gulbenkian, and then went on to help define the Art Deco style. The exhibition will be at the Dallas Museum of Art from Sept. 13 to Jan. 10, and it's well worth a visit. Further to the report (Jun 98 #3) on the sale of Dean Dickensheet's collec- tion, Steven A. Stilwell reports that he participated in the purchase, and that a lot of material is in Steve's shop: Once Upon a Crime, at 604 West 26th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55405 (612-870-3785). Steve also offers lists of some of the better material available in Minneapolis and San Francisco. Jul 98 #5 The British four-part mini-series "Nightmare: The Birth of Vic- torian Horror" aired in Oct. 1996, and included an excellent program on "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (the other novels covered were "Frankenstein", "Dracula", and "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde"). Lee Shackleford notes that the series (200 minutes) is offered on two videocassettes (item AAE-61076) for $39.95, from A&E Home Video, Box 2284, South Burlington, VT 06407 (800-625-9000). WORMHOLES, by John Fowles (New York: Henry Holt, 1998; 404 pp., $25.00) is a collection of essays and other works, including a reprint of his Foreword and Afterword from the John Murray/Jonathan Cape edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1974). Robert A. W. Lowndes ("Langdale Pike") died on July 14. He was best-known as a science-fiction writer and editor (and once ranked fourth on a list of the Ten Most Prodigious Science Fiction Magazine Editors), but he enjoyed the world of Sherlock Holmes as well, as a member of The Scandalous Bohem- ians of New Jersey and The Praed Street Irregulars, and The Baker Street Irregulars, from whom he received his Investiture in 1973. Stephanie Plum is an unemployed discount-lingerie buyer in Trenton, N.J., who becomes an apprehension agent (bounty hunter) and stars in "delightfully funny" (says Bill Vande Water) mysteries written by Janet Evanovich, who has a web site at and a daughter (Alex), who has a pet hamster (Angus) who appears in a comic strip and in Sherlockian costume on a watch (men's and women's sizes) sold for $23.00 by Creative Promotions, 344 Cedar Avenue, Ridgewood, NJ 07450 (800-253-9861) . There were some interesting items at auction at Sotheby's in London on July 16, and there were some interesting prices paid: an inscribed copy of THE GREAT SHADOW (L520); the manuscript and corrected typescript of a 1927 ar- ticle by Conan Doyle on "Some Strange Psychic Experiences" (L1,700); a copy of THE COMING OF THE FAIRIES inscribed to Frances Griffiths, also signed by Elsie Wright (L7,800); Frances Griffiths' own prints of five of the fairy photographs (L7,000); and a copy of the first edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES in dust jacket (L72,000). A portrait of Holmes and Watson in Art Deco style by John Bulloch Souter failed to sell at L4,400. You should add 15% for the buyer's premium to see what the purchasers paid. "The Lost World" (1960) now is available on videocassette from Fox Video at $15.00 (this is the version starring Claude Rains, Fernando Lamas, Jill St. John, and Frosty the Poodle). The latest issue of Scarlet Street has the conclusion of David Stuart Dav- ies' interview with Ian Richardson, with some interesting background on his two Sherlockian films in the 1980s: there were plans for a third film "The Napoleon of Crime" (which eventually was made as "Hands of a Murderer" with Edward Woodward as Holmes. There's also a possibility that Richardson will star in a film of the play "Sherlock's Last Case". Scarlet Street is pub- lished bimonthly, covering the mystery-and-horror genre, and costs $35.00 a year; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Jul 98 #6 The one-hour Sci-Fi channel television broadcast of "The Lost World" (by the "Alien Voices" company) on July 12 was thorough- ly enjoyable, and it's available on videocassette for $12.95 plus shipping from Rhino Direct, Box 60062, Tampa, FL 33660 (800-432-0020). Nat Segaloff and John de Lancie wrote the script; Armin Shimerman played Challenger and Dwight Schultz played Malone. Simon Jones does a nice job reading June Thomson's new pastiche THE CASE OF THE SCOTTISH TRAGEDY on a two-hour cassette from Random House; Holmes and Watson visit the Grice Patersons in Uffa. $12.95 in stores, and from the Mysterious Bookshop (800-352-2840) . Willis G. Frick reports an advertisement of interest to those who might be seeking an Inverness cape: Antony M. Mistofsky offers Inverness capes in two fabrics: waterproof (L30 plus shipping) and wool (L349 plus shipping). His address is 15 Cheviot Drive, Newton Mearns, Glasgow G77 5AT, Scotland . Antonio Iriarte discovered ENQUETE SUR SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Bernard Oudin (Paris: Decouvertes Gallimard, 1997; 96 pp., 64 FF); all in French, and an excellent survey of the Sherlockian world, with many interesting illustra- tions from the collection of Richard Lancelyn Green and other archives. Forecast: THE GAME'S AFOOT, MRS. HUDSON, by Sydney Hosier (from Avon Books in August, $5.99); the fourth in his series about Mrs. Hudson's detecting. BELLS, BUTLERS, & OTHERS (modestly subtitled as "Frolics by John Ruyle") is a new collection of Sherlockian poetry, hand-set and hand-printed as usual at the Pequod Press; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Oliver Sacks, in his New Yorker article "An Anthropologist on Mars" (and in his book with the same title) noted that Sherlock Holmes showed some of the symptoms of autism. And there may be something about this in the four-part mini-series "Oliver Sacks: The Mind Traveller" that will start on PBS-TV on Aug. 25; the segment on autism likely will air on Sept. 8. The Cottage Shop (Box 4836, Stamford, CT 06907) (800-695-7467) still offers their German hand-painted porcelain Sherlock Holmes stein (Feb 97 #5); item K1507, $130.00 plus $7.00 shipping. VICTORIAN FAIRY PAINTING, by Jeremy Maas and others (1997) offers an excel- lent view of the exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts last year (Nov 97 #6), with art by Richard and Charles Doyle (Arthur Conan Doyle's uncle and father); the exhibition's at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto now (un- til Sept. 13). The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection have made arrangements for a guided tour (and a talk by Barbara Rusch) on the evening of Sept. 9; $20.00, and details are available from the Friends at the Tor- onto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Aug 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The June issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has Jon Lellenberg's fine (and well illustrated) tribute to Norman Schatell, and an article by Andrew Malec about Frederic Dorr Steele (both artists are well represents in the collections). You can join the mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . And the "Founders' Footprints" conference in Minneapolis this month was an excellent celebration of a half-century of Sherlockian goings-on in Minnea- polis. E. W. McDiarmid, one of the founders, was able to attend the Satur- day-evening banquet, and there were fine talks by visitors and locals, and a reception at the Wilson Library, and time for a bit of sightseeing (Minn- eapolis proudly boasts the tallest waterfall on the Mississippi River). The conference also offered an chance to see Rolf J. Canton's one-hour vid- eocassette "The Pipe Dream Continues...." (a documentary saluting the 50th anniversary of The Norwegian Explorers). There are interviews with some of the founders, and those who have followed in their footsteps, and appearan- ces by Holmes and Watson. $62.95 postpaid from Rolf at 5562 Oak Glen Road, Edina, MN 55439. Bill Sawisch reports an amusing discovery in Naperville, Ill.: a hair salon called Shearlock Combs. He didn't need a haircut at the time, but plans to give it a try eventually. Phil Attwell reports that the Royal Theatre will tour Northamptonshire with Jeremy Paul's play "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" (originally commissioned by Jeremy Brett) from Sept. 15 through Oct. 10. Information about the tour is available from the Royal Theatre, Guildhall Road, Northampton NN1 1EA, England (01604-632533). We hear of Conan Doyle everywhere: the caption on a splendid center-spread photograph of the wild lands of California's White Mountains, in the August issue of Sports Afield (spotted by George Ault), is "Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature," credited to ACD but with- out identification as to the source. Audio Book Contractors (Box 40115, Washington, DC 20016) continue to offer a nice assortment of Sherlockian readings on audiocassettes, for rental or purchase. As well as some Arthur Conan Doyle ("The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard"), and Christopher Morley ("The Haunted Bookshop" and "Parnassus on Wheels"), and there's a lot more classic literature in their catalog. "The World of Sherlock Holmes" is the title of an illustrated evening lec- ture at the Smithsonian Institution on Oct. 27 by social historian Virginia W. Newmyer, focusing on the world of late-Victorian England; $10.00 to res- ident Smithsonian Associates, and $13.00 to others (Smithsonian Associates, Smithsonian Institution, Dept. 0603, Washington, DC 20073) (202-357-3030) . Virginia Newmyer was one of the lecturers in a Sher- lockian lecture series in 1994, and is both interesting and expert. Aug 98 #2 The next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., will be on Nov. 6-8; there will be a Sherlockian mystery to solve, a tour of eight Victorian homes, meals, and other fun and games. Additional information is available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204 (609-884-5404) (800-275-4278) . The Canadian television series "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" began on YTV cable in Feb. 1997, and the nice news for viewers south of the border is that the series started on the Family channel on Aug. 15 and 16 (and it surely will repeat); Meredith Henderson stars as a 12-year-old great grand- niece of Sherlock Holmes, the great grandniece of Sherlock Holmes (and like him, she is brilliant and eccentric and wants to become the world's great- est detective). There have been two seasons (13 episodes each) broadcast in Canada, with a third season in the works. The electronically enabled can visit a web-site at . Stephen Vincent Benet (1898-1943) has been honored in our series of "Literary Arts" stamps. He was a delight- ful writer and poet (and perhaps is best known now for his poem "John Brown's Body"); writing on "My Favorite Fiction Character" for The Bookman (Feb. 1926), he chose Dr. Watson: "As far as professional skill goes, one can- not rank him with the leaders, I fear--his practice was too subject to continual interruption," Benet suggested. "But his bedside manner must have been ideal. I would rather die some pleasantly fictional death with Watson in attendance "than recover under the aseptic hands of a modern practitioner." The three-page manuscript of Conan Doyle's poem "A Forgotten Tale" (which first appeared in Scribner's Magazine in Jan. 1895, reprinted in Current Literature in Mar. 1895, and in SONGS OF ACTION in 1898) is available for $4,500 from The History Store (Box 1829, Wells, ME 04090) (207-967-9790) . The latest issue of The Tonga Times is at hand from Carol Wenk (Box 770554, Lakewood, OH 44107), with ideas, recommendations, instructions, and news of interest to Sherlockian miniaturists. Membership in the Mini-Tonga Scion Society costs $7.00 a year ($8.00 to Canada, $12.00 elsewhere). And there's still another version of "The Lost World" in the works, accord- ing to an item in the Daily Telegraph (July 24) kindly forwarded by Wilfrid de Freitas. "Brian Blessed Survives Swamp Crash" was the headline, and the swamp was in Venezuela, where he was filming "The Lost World" for BBC tele- vision. "It was the worst experience of my life, an horrific experience," Blessed said when he returned to England. "I am still in shock and cannot stop shaking." The actor has become known as an explorer, the paper noted, and made an abortive attempt to climb Everest eight years ago. Forecast for November: Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ICE PALACE MURDERS, from Viking ($23.95) and as a Penguin Audiobook ($24.95); Holmes returns to Minnesota to solve a mystery during Saint Paul's annual Winter Carnival in 1896. See Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RED DEMON (1996) for details of Holmes' first visit to Minnesota. Aug 98 #3 Barbara Holmes has designed a set of ten Sherlockian notecards with pencil sketches of Jeremy Brett; a packet of ten cards and envelopes costs $3.95 postpaid. A sample card and a flier showing the art- work is offered in return for a self-addressed stamped envelope; Barbara's address is Box 446, Scottsville, VA 24590. And where in Conan Doyle's works do we find "Our ideas must be as broad as Nature if they are to interpret Nature"? For those of you who haven't yet found the source, it's in "A Study in Scarlet", spoken by Sherlock Holmes. Brad Keefauver has reported finding the "FairyTale: A True Story" film tie- in "Activity Center" CD-ROM disk discounted to $9.99 at a Target store. It was issued last year at $30.00 (Dec 97 #1), and it offers a fine demonstra- tion of just how much can be done with modern computers. There are puzzles and games, and things to explore, for children aged 7-11, as well as clips from the film (one of which shows Houdini performing for five-year-old Jean Conan Doyle), and it's all nicely done indeed. One hopes that this means that the film will soon be in the videoshops at a lower sell-through price. The latest stamp in our series honoring "Great Americans" shows Lila and DeWitt Wallace, founders of the Reader's Digest. Their magazine published Sherlockian articles by Vincent Starrett and Fletcher Pratt in the 1930s, a condensed version of "The Speck- led Band" in 1942, and many other Sherlockian items since then. The company also published a condensed GREAT CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES in 1966 in a series of "Best Loved Books for Young Read- ers" and five volumes of uncondensed (and well-illustrated) Canonical tales from 1986 to 1993 in a series of "The World's Best Reading". Fans of Laurie King's books about Mary Russell who aren't electronically- enabled may not know about the T-shirts: white, with a yellow honeycomb on the front and "After 1914 Holmes is ours" on the back (in sizes XLL/XL/L). $10.00 postpaid from Lianne E. Hanson (101 Broadway, Pembroke, NH 03275). Howard Engel, author of MR. DOYLE & DR. BELL: A VICTORIAN MYSTERY (Nov 97 #3), was interviewed on Canadian television, according to a report in the summer 1998 issue of Canadian Holmes, and said he plans to write another novel featuring Arthur Conan Doyle as the sleuth. The July-August issue of the Toronto Reference Library News marks the end of the newsletter, after 24 years (there will be a new publication covering events at all the city's public libraries); the last issue has a look-back section of photographs, one of which shows the inventors of the game "Triv- ial Pursuit" in the Arthur Conan Doyle Room in 1984, in search of answers for questions on Sherlock Holmes for the second edition of their game. You can request a copy of the newsletter from Victoria Gill, Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada; no charge. The Trifling Monographers, which meet during annual meetings of the Public Relations Society of America, plan to hold their twentieth annual meeting in Boston on Oct. 18, expecting a good turnout for an "Evening of Canonical Chat and Unmitigated Bleat". Graham Sudbury (Box 52062, Tulsa, OK 74152) (918-747-6565) will be happy to furnish additional information. Aug 98 #4 Ed. Lange's two-act play "Sherlock's Secret Life" premiered in Troy, N.Y., in March 1997, and there will be new productions this year: at the Fulton Opera House Sept. 15-27 (Box 1865, Lancaster, PA 17608) (717-397-7425); at the Queens Theatre in the Park, Oct. 8-11 (Box 520069, Flushing, NY 11352 (718-760-0064); and at the N.Y. Theatre Insti- tute, Oct. 21-25 (155 River Street, Troy, NY 12180) (518-274-3256). "Dr. W. G. Grace was a phenomenon," John Major notes in his review in the June 14 issue of The Sunday Times (at hand from John Baesch) of Simon Rae's W. G. GRACE: A LIFE (London: Faber & Faber, 1998; 548 pp., L20.00); "Almost single-handedly, he raised the game of cricket from a country-house amuse- ment to a national obsession." And Conan Doyle was proud to have competed against Grace, and wrote a warm appreciation of him when he died. The new "Legends of Hollywood" stamp honors Alfred Hitchcock, who started his filmmaking career in 1919, illustrating title cards for silent films in London, and directed his first film in 1925. His films "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) and "Shadow of a Doubt" (1943) had Sherlockian dialogue, and the television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" (which continued after his death in 1980) had an episode "My Dear Watson" (1989) that had a colorized introduction that showed Hitchcock wearing a deer- stalker and blowing bubbles from a calabash pipe. The BBC videocassette in PAL format with two of the 1964 "Sherlock Holmes" broadcasts starring Douglas Wilmer (Oct 96 #1) now is available in Malaysia for about RM39$ (about US $9.00), according to a report from Aziz Bin Adam; that's a sharp discount from the issue price in Britain (L14.99), and the BBC obviously has cleared out a warehouse somewhere. PAL-format cassettes won't play on American NTSC machines, unfortunately. I've no idea what the shipping charges might be, nor whether the cassette still is available in Britain, but the distributor is Vision Four Home Video, No. 28 Jalan Liku Bangsar, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia. William H. Preston died on July 10. He was 50 years old and working as a bookkeeper in Philadelphia when he became a professional actor, winning a part in "We Bombed in New Haven" (which closed after only a single perform- ance in New York). He played many other roles in the 27 years since then, including Rodgers (a comic old man) with Patrick Horgan as Holmes in "Sher- lock Holmes and the Speckled Band" in Philadelphia in 1990. "This narrative, told with restraint, should make you laugh, if it does not make you cry," is the way Dr. Fatso's literary agent describes the latest episode in the saga of Turlock Loams, hot off the Pequod Press. THE WET- HEADED LEAGUE costs $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkley, CA 94707. Eve Titus reports that Basil of Baker Street's cousin Anatole (hero of her other children's series) is due to appear on television, in one of six ani- mated series now being produced by the Canadian company Nelvana for CBS-TV. "Anatole" will air on Saturday mornings starting in September (he's a dig- nified French mouse who serves as an ambassador of the animal world to the human world). Eve much prefers Basil, of course. So do Sherlockians. Aug 98 #5 Sherlockians do manage to find a way to distinguish themselves from other Sherlockians: Robert Ennis, of Weston, Florida was struck by lightning this month. And survived. "It had been raining pretty heavily," he told a local reporter, and he noticed at one that there was a little trickle of water coming in one of the windows, and he walked out to his driveway to survey the roof. "The next thing I knew, I was flat on my face." He had just started his vacation, and now plans to do what he had originally planned: go to Disney World. With his grandchildren. Nick Scovell reports that the Dramatis Personae company will present "The Final Problem" at the Portsmouth Arts Centre in Southsea on Oct. 8-10; the box office telephone number is 01705-732236. This is the last episode in a trilogy of Sherlockian plays -- and a chance to see Sherlockian theater in the city where Arthur Conan Doyle first wrote about the Great Detective. Peter Lewis reported to the N.Y. Times (July 14) on the Macworld trade show in New York, where Apple displays what's new for Macintosh users. The new Mac OS 8.5 operating system (code-named Allegro, and due in September) will feature a powerful file-finding utility called Sherlock. "I hear of Sherlock everywhere," Mycroft Holmes said. And one of the more interesting places to look for Sherlockian echoes is in the works of James Joyce. Sherlockians and Joyceans have been doing that for close to fifty years (Hugh Kenner was the first in print, in 1949, and William D. Jenkins was the next, in 1969). Bill Jenkins loved to explore the connections be- tween Conan Doyle and Joyce, but he died in 1993 with his *magnum opus* not yet published. Now you can see just how much fun he had, in THE ADVENTURE OF THE DETECTED DETECTIVE: SHERLOCK HOLMES IN JAMES JOYCE'S FINNEGANS WAKE (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1998; 149 pp., $45.00). Joyce's book is "the most perplexing whodunit ever written," Bill suggests, and he certainly en- joyed trying to solve at least some of the puzzles Joyce created. "Who Chopped Chang" is the theme for this year's "Sherlock Holmes Night" (a free event for the public) to be presented by the Honolulu Police Dept. on Sept. 11, 1998, Pam Verrey reports. If you'd like to participate, contact the HPD's Informational Resources Section, 801 South Beretania Street, Hon- olulu, HI 96813 (808-529-3351). Michael Williams starred as Watson in this year's BBC Radio 4 broadcast of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and his wife Judi Dench played Mrs. Hudson. Try your hand at identifying other married couples who acted together in a Sherlockian production (there are at least two more). Answers next month. E. G. Marshall died on Aug. 24. His acting career began on radio in the 1930s, and continued in film and on television and the stage. In 1981 he was the host on the "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" series, introducing their Sherlockian and other mystery broadcasts. The "Sherlock Holmes Festival" on Nov. 7 in Tryon, N.C., will be a tribute to William Gillette; they'll have a film festival, a "Search for Sherlock- ian Clues" contest, a radio-play performance ("Silver Blaze"), and other events; additional information is available from the Polk County Travel & Tourism Council, 401 North Trade Street, Tryon, NC 28782 (800-440-7848). Aug 98 #6 "Tainted Blood" is a three-act "drawing-room comedy with teeth" written by Tom Jacobson, with Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Bram Stoker as young unknowns who encounter a vampire during a weekend at Wilde's country estate in Ireland. The play was first performed in 1990 in Houston, and Christopher Roden reports that there will be a new produc- tion from Oct. 2 to Nov. 22 at the Road Theatre (5108 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood, CA 91601 (818-761-8838). Dave Galerstein has decided to sell his Sherlockian collection, as one lot, to an individual or consortium, and estimates that it's worth from $11,000 to $12,000. If you would like to visit to inspect the collection and make an offer, you can contact Dave at 44 Center Drive, New Hyde Park, NY 11040 (516-248-6210) . "Scruffy Is Badge of Pride, But Some Physicists Long for Cool" is the head- line on Malcolm W. Browne's essay in the N.Y. Times (July 21) on the public image of scientists. And Browne noted that Conan Doyle endowed one of his characters in "The Lost World" with a "stereotypical image that still reso- nates," writing of Prof. Summerlee that "among his minor peculiarities are that he is careless as to his attire" and "unclean in his person." The new catalog from Bits & Pieces, 1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481 (800-544-7297) has two new mystery jigsaw puzzles in "The Continuing Adven- tures of Sherlock Holmes" (the puzzle pictures help solve the crimes); "The Kent Chapel Murder" and "Sins of the Father" are $10.95 each (or $17.95 for the pair). Doug Wrigglesworth reports that he and other visitors enjoyed the produc- tion of Conan Doyle's "Waterloo" during the Shaw Festival in Ontario, and copies of WATERLOO: A CASE-BOOK ON SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S HISTORICAL PLAY are now available. David Skene-Melvin edited the 76-page book, which has the texts of the play and of the story on which it was based, and essays by Clifford Goldfarb, Doug Elliott, and others; the postpaid cost is CA$38.50 (CA$33.50 to members of the Friends) from the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection (Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada); credit-card orders welcome. The play continues in reper- tory though Sept. 19; the box-office is at: Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0, Canada (800-267-4759) . The Conclave of Richmond Pipe Smokers' annual Exposition & Celebration fea- tured Sherlock Holmes in 1997; this year's event won't be Sherlockian, but there will lots of pipes and tobacco and smoking, at the Holiday Inn Select on Oct. 9-11; details are available from the Conclave (Box 34023, Richmond, VA 23234) (804-342-0761) . Forecast: THE ADVENTURES OF INSPECTOR LESTRADE, by M. J. Trow (from Regnery Gateway in Sept., $22.95); a reprint of the amusing pastiche published in 1985 (it was the first of a long series, and Regnery plans to publish more of them). EMBASSY ROW, by Quinn Fawcett (from Forge in Oct., $24.95); a sequel to the Mycroft pastiche AGAINST THE BROTHERHOOD published in 1997. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Sep 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Thomas L. Stix, Jr. ("The Norwood Builder") died on Sept. 9. He was proud of the three generations of Sherlockians in his family (his father Thomas L. Stix, his son Stephen, and his wife Dorothy are all members of the BSI); his father helped start, and Tom and Stephen continued for many years, the traditional running of The Silver Blaze at race tracks near New York. Tom received his Investiture in 1961, and the BSI's Two-Shilling Award in 1982, and in 1986 he succeeded Julian Wolff as head of the BSI, inaugurating the title of "Wiggins". In 1991 Tom welcomed women to full membership in the BSI, and in 1997, after a carefully-orchestrated roast by family, friends, and former friends (since roastees are not permitted to disown family), he announced that he had led the BSI for eleven years, one more than he had planned, and handed over the gavel to Mike Whelan, who then presented Tom with a special crystal plaque from the BSI recognizing his long service and many contributions to the cause. It was a century ago that Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his splendid short story "The Lost Special" (and it was in Sept. 1898 that readers in the U.S. found the tale in the American edition of The Strand Magazine); the tale has long been regarded as apocryphal (almost, that is, part of the Canon) because it includes mention of "an amateur reasoner of some celebrity" who "attempted to deal with the matter in a critical and semi-scientific manner." It may be that Conan Doyle omitted the name of that amateur reasoner because the amateur reasoning turned out to be wrong, and it's nice to be able to cele- brate the centenary of something both Doylean and Sherlockian. The Baker Street Irregulars have always honored Sir Arthur for the world he created for us: you can see Christopher Morley's admiration for Conan Doyle in the introduction to THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES, and over many years in the pages of The Baker Street Journal, from Morley and Edgar W. Smith and many others who at the same time greatly enjoyed following the trail blazed by Ronald Knox, pretending that the world of Sherlock Holmes is a real one. And our "Wiggins" Mike Whelan certainly agrees: at the BSI's annual dinner last January he said that "It is my opinion that the Great Game of viewing Dr. Watson as the creator of the Canon and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the literary agent reached full flower as the American equivalent of the rasp- berry to Adrian Conan Doyle (sometimes referred to as 'The Viper'). I'm hardly suggesting restrictions on this form of fun, but I do believe Doyle should receive the proper credit he deserves for making all this possible." "Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of the profession," Holmes noted (in "The Speckled Band"); "The Life and Crimes of William Palmer" will air on "Mystery!" on PBS-TV on Nov. 12 and 19. "When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of criminals," Holmes also suggested, and the mini-series will show just what he meant. William Neblett's SHERLOCK'S LOGIC, first published in 1985, is now avail- able in Barnes & Noble reprint ($7.98); Holmes' grandson attempts to solve a murder mystery in the first third of the book, with the rest of the book devoted to an exposition of elementary logic. Barnes & Noble also has THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES (in cloth) discounted at $4.98 per volume. Sep 98 #2 Last month's challenge asked for married couples who have acted together in a Sherlockian production (other than Michael Will- iams and Judi Dench in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" on BBC Radio 4 this year). John Cleese and Connie Booth acted in the British television film "The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation as We Know It" (1977). David Morrill offered Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon, who toured in Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" (1902-1904 and 1907). Beryl E. Cooper died on Aug. 28. She was an enthusiastic member of the My- croft Holmes Society of Syracuse and of the The Bootmakers of Toronto, and co-author with her husband Tom created two collections of SHERLOCKIAN JUM- BLES in 1987 and 1997. Further to the item (Apr 98 #3) about the Essex police testing the prowess of bloodhounds named Sherlock and Morse, John McGowan has forwarded a new report from The Times (Sept. 3): "Police forces are to be told that if they really want to get their man, they should abandon German shepherd dogs and replace them with bloodhounds." The six-month trial has proved that "their tracking abilities are out of this world," according to dog-handling expert PC Malcolm Fish. If you'd like to know more about Douglas Wilmer's tour earlier this year, there are excellent reports in the September issue of The Holmes & Watson Report, by John Baesch and Scott Monty and Dave Morrill, and much more of interest; $14.00 a year for six issues, from Brad Keefauver, 4009 North Chelsea Place, Peoria, IL 61614. Johnathon Schaech will play the title role in "Believe: The Houdini Story" (scheduled on TNT cable on Dec. 6). Limited information at Internet Movie Database does not list any writers, so the movie may or may not be based on the book BELIEVE., which was written by William Shatner and Michael Tobias (Jul 92 #5); there is no cast listing for anyone as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The director is Pen Densham, who directed Jeremy Brett's last film, "Moll Flanders" (1996). The digital video disk (DVD) is slowly finding a market, but I'm not sure just how large the market is. In any case, there's now a Sherlockian DVD available: "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976, with Nicol Williamson and Robert Duvall) has been released by Image Entertainment ($23.95). Hugo's Companions will celebrate their 50th anniversary in April, at which time they will publish a guided tour through the history of the society. The first hard-cover edition will be sold by subscription only, and avail- able in April, but pre-publication orders are being accepted until Dec. 31 at $50.00 postpaid (the price will be $65.00 postpaid next year). Checks payable to Hugo's Companions, please, and sent to Grosse Point Lighthouse, 2535 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60201. Further to the item about "Imagination Theatre" (Jan 98 #4), the first two of Jim French's Sherlock Holmes radio programs ("The Poet of Death" is #114 and "The Sealed Room" is #121) are now available (along with lots of other shows) on CD or cassette at $7.99 each postpaid from TransMedia, 719 Batt- ery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 (800-227-7234) . Sep 98 #3 More news from the Sherlockian conference in Minneapolis last month: Wilson's Basement Dwellers unveiled two of the continu- ing adventures of Hamhock Holmes, written by Billy Joe-Bob "Bubba" Watson and edited by John "Blue Tick" Atkins and C. Bryan "Bird Dawg" Gassner (who at least in Minneapolis, didn't talk the way the they write). "The Adven- ture of the Wild Turkey" (24 pp.) and "The Red-Necked League" (39 pp.) cost $4.00 each (add $1.20 shipping for one or two booklets) from C. Bryan Gass- ner, P.O. Drawer G, Corrales, NM 87048. Turlock Loams recovers a legendary rarity to gratify the collecting mania of Myron R. "Whizzer" Oz, the wealthy Sprocket King, in THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLUE GARFUNKEL, the latest story from Dr. Fatso and the Pequod Press. Available from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). John continues his pursuit of Vernet namesakes, having noted Lloyd Vernet Bridges II, who died earlier this year (Mar 98 #3). There is both acting and art in the blood, it seems: John now reports that Beau Bridges' real name is Lloyd Vernet Bridges III. T. A. Waters died on Aug. 7. In an obituary in The New Yorker, Ricky Jay described Waters as a remarkable man, a classic autodidact, and the world's foremost expert in mentalism (the term magicians use to describe magic of the mind: the simulation of clairvoyance, telepathy, and precognition). He had been the librarian at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, and was the author of the landmark ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MAGIC AND MAGICIANS (1988), and also wrote science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and gothic novels. His THE PROBABILITY PAD (1970) involved Waters and Michael Kurland and Chester Anderson in a series of time-travel adventures and included an encounter with Holmes and Watson and Count Dracula in Transylvania. Tyco, the company that makes Sesame Street Beans (bean-bag toys) has kindly reported that they have just shipped Sherlock Hemlock, and he will be found in Kmart, Walmart, and Target stores ($4.99 recommended retail). "Use the word horticulture in a sentence." "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think." No matter: you can start looking for flow- ers with the names of Canonical tales. Vic Lahti, of the Afghanistan Per- ceivers of Tulsa, notes in their newsletter that there is a day-lily named "Study in Scarlet" (described as "blood red self with a green throat"); it received a Junior Citation from the American Hemerocallis (Daylily) Society in 1986, and an Honorable Mention in 1990. Doug Elliott reports that Jo Soares' A SAMBA FOR SHERLOCK (Dec 97 #4) will be reprinted as a trade paperback by Vintage in November ($13.00); the book is a thriller, and a parody of Holmes and Brazil and Brazilians, with broad humor that's often vulgar, and sometimes quite dark. The excellent recreation of the sitting-room at 221B that delighted Sher- lockians and other tourists for many years at S. Holmes, Esq. in San Fran- cisco still seeks a new location in a pub, hotel, or theme restaurant; the rental is $3,000 a year, and enquiries can be directed to 2700 19th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (456-616-3116) . Sep 98 #4 "Rodger Baskerville's Lonely Hound from Hell" is a two-act rock opera, with lyrics by Wanda and Jeffery Dow, performed by the Willie Nelson Oratorio Society (aka Wanda and Jeffery) to the music of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band (aka John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison) during the Sunshine State Sherlockian Scion Symposium in Florida in May. And the lyrics, with an introduction by Tom Stix and some amusing production notes, are now available from the Dows at 1737 Santa Anna Drive, Dunedin, FL 34698; $6.00 (to North America) or $8.00 (elsewhere). Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets (with 15 differ- ent stamps for each decade) have reached the 1930s, and the new sheet includes a stamp that honors Franklin Delano Roos- evelt, the first president of the United States to be a mem- ber of The Baker Street Irregulars. Other designs show Life magazine (which published many Sherlockian items) and Bobby Jones playing golf (a sport not unknown to Sherlock Holmes). Paul Kessel and John Fiske perform (in English) in Sweden, and one of their shows is "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (they perform all the roles, some- times arguing about it); they'll be in Ume† in October, Aalborg (Denmark) in November, Stockholm in February, and Helsingborg and Malmo in April. If you would like more information, you can write to Kesselofski & Fiske, Box 2066, 750 02 Uppsala, Sweden . Syd Goldberg reports that the videocassette of "FairyTale: A True Story" will be go on sale in videostores on Oct. 6 at the sell-through price of $14.95; this is the film that starred Peter O'Toole as Arthur Conan Doyle and Harvey Keitel as Harry Houdini. Gael Stahl recommends "An Evening with Sherlock Holmes" at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre (8204 Highway 100, Nashville, TN 73221) (615-646-9977) (800- 282-2276) ; the show opened on Sept. 1 and will run through Oct. 24, and offers John Chaffin's dramatizations of three stories ("The Speckled Band", "The Crooked Man", and "The Second Stain"). John Baesch reports that the Criterion, far fancier now than when Watson stood drinking at its bar, was praised by A. A. Gill in The Sunday Times (June 14) as one of the most beautiful restaurants on the south side of Piccadilly: "It looks like the mother-in-law's entrance to a well-stocked harem. Loathed by gossip-column girlies because, whatever you forget to war, nobody is going to notice." Reported by Don Hobbs: CLASSIC MYSTERIES: A COLLECTION OF MIND-BENDING MAS- TERPIECES, edited by Molly Cooper, illustrated by Barbara Kiwak (from RGA Publishing Group/Lowell House in 1996; $5.99); contents include "The Veiled Lodger". David McCallister reports that The Pleasant Places of Florida enjoyed their summer visit to the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is honored there as an early evangelist, and David suggests that visitors con- sider staying at the nearby Clauser's Bed & Breakfast (201 East Kicklighter Road, Lake Helen, FL 32744) (800-220-0310), where guests can gather at the end of the day in Clauser's pub, which is called Sherlock's. Sep 98 #5 Tome Press (Caliber Comics) has published a new comic book DR. JEKYLL & MR. HOLMES ($2.95), written by Steven Philip Jones and drawn by Seppo Makinen. If you can't find the comic book in a local shop, the publisher's address is 225 North Sheldon Road, Plymouth, MI 48170 (888- 222-6642) . Caliber also offers back issues of other Sherlockian comic books, and has announced a new SHER- LOCK HOLMES READER SERIES ("adaptations of classic stories, as well as all-new Holmes tales set in the world of Doyle"). Mona Morstein notes that the film "Zero Effect" (Mar 98 #1) is now in the videoshops, with Bill Pullman as the world's best private detective, who is utterly brilliant, a deductive genius, emotionally unstable, and uses dis- guises, and Ben Stiller as his steady, reliable aide who eventually leaves him for a wife. Stu Shiffman spotted WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES #629 (Oct. 1998) from Gladstone ($6.95), with Police Chief Ratz incognito in Sherlockian costume on the cover and in one panel in a new story ("Donald Duck: Scandal on the Epoch Express"). And Detective "Burlap-Bones" is seen in Sherlockian cos- tume with an early calabash pipe in one panel in "Mr. Slicker and the Egg- Robbers" reprinted from daily strips published in 1930. There's a web-site at . A new catalog from femmes fatales offers some intriguing new Sherlockiana, including a checkbook cover ($14.95), earrings ($24.95), and neckties (two designs, $24.95 each), and some interesting non-Sherlockian items as well). The address is Box 4457, Lakewood, CA 90712 (800-596-3323) . Readers of this newsletter qualify for a 10% discount (the magic word is "Scuttlebutt"). Sorry about that: the earlier mention (Aug 98 #3) of Sherlockian notecards with Barbara Holmes' pencil sketches of Jeremy Brett didn't make clear that there are different designs offered; she will be happy to send you a sample card and an illustrated flier in return for a self-addressed stamped enve- lope (Box 446, Scottsville, VA 24590). Joe Eckrich offers a third sales-list of Sherlockiana from his collection, by e-mail on request to , or you can send a #10 SASE to him at 914 Oakmoor Drive, Fenton, MO 63026 (if outside the United States, please send two IRCs or $1.00 in currency). You don't need to live in Cottingley to have fairies in your garden: Mary Beth Myles reports that the mail-order catalog from Past Times offers nice Victorian items, including three different rust-proof powder-coated steel "Flower Fairy Silhouettes" (7201 Intermodal Drive, Louisville, KY 40258) (800-242-1020) . The summer issue of The Wigmore Street Post Office has 40 pages of amusing and interesting material taken from the electronic cauldron that bubbles and seethes at the Prodigy computer service (and the contest for the worst original one-paragraph opening for a Watsonian pastiche is still open, with a Nov. 1 deadline). $5.25 postpaid, or $10.00 a year (three issues) from Mel Hughes, 2664 Sam Hardwick Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL 32246. Sep 98 #6 "The Magic Door" is the newsletter of The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library, and the first (summer) issue is nicely done, edited by Chris Redmond and with interesting articles about the collection and some of its treasures; copies are available from Doug Wrigglesworth, 16 Sunset Street, Holland Landing, ON L9N 1H4, Canada . Jeffrey Moss died on Sept. 24. He was a co-founder of "Sesame Street" in 1969, and was head writer for the series when Sherlock Hemlock arrived on the show in 1971. He also wrote the hit song "Rubber Duckie" and invented Cookie Monster, and was nominated for an Oscar for his lyrics for the film "The Muppets Take Manhattan". "Ms. Lewinsky testified that she gave the President a number of additional gifts.(181)" "(181). These included a Sherlock Holmes game sometime after Christmas 1996." From the second part of the Referral to the United States House of Representatives, Submitted by the Office of the Independent Coun- sel, Sept. 9, 1998 (noted by Jon Lellenberg, who surely deserves an award for reading all of the footnotes). The Armchair Detective has suspended publication due to physical and finan- cial problems of its publisher, Judi Vause, according to a report from the magazine's editor-in-chief Elizabeth Foxwell in August. Vause is seeking for a buyer for the magazine; her address is 459 Park Avenue #252, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076. The most recent issue appears to have been vol. 30, no. 3 (1997). Sherlock Holmes encounters both Jack the Ripper and Professor Moriarty in Colin R. Grimes' new play "Exit Sherlock Holmes", which will premiere at the Performance Space Orlando on Oct. 9 and runs weekends through Oct. 31; tickets cost $12.00, and the theater is at 1707-A North Mills Avenue, Or- lando, FL 32803 (407-896-5717). Julie Rosenblatt, one of the speakers at the conference in Minneapolis in August, told of Arthur Conan Doyle's skiing exploits in Switzerland (his route from Davos to Arosa is graded now as suitable only for experienced skiers, who are warned of the frequent danger of avalanche); Julie now re- ports that Dave Goodman, a very experienced back-country skier, skied the route recently and will report on his trip in an article in the Feb. 1999 issue of Skiing. Geoff Jeffery notes that the Sherlock Holmes nesting dolls (Sep 93 #4) are offered at $12.95 in a catalog from Bits & Pieces (1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481 (800-544-7287); also Tom Bullimore's BAKER STREET PUZZLES (Nov 94 #1) and another puzzle book by Falcon Travis with S'ian artwork on the cover ($9.95 for the set of two). Rupert Books has published THE JEREMY BRETT-LINDA PRITCHARD STORY: ON THE WINGS OF PARADISE; Linda Pritchard was Jeremy Brett's companion during the last seven years of his life, and offers her personal account of their time together. 146 pp., L20.00 or $32.00 plus shipping (credit-card orders wel- come); 58/59 Stonefield, Bar Hill, Cambridge CB3 8TE, England . Sep 98 #7 Olaf Maurer reports that the Deutscher-Sherlock-Holmes-Club is planning a Sherlock Holmes exhibition next year, and would like to have a display of Sherlockian emblems, stationery, and publications to show how interesting and world-wide interest in Sherlock Holmes is. If you would like to contribute something to the display, his address is P.O. Box 150314, D-67028 Ludwigshafen, Germany. Applewood Books published a facsimile of the first authorized cloth-bound separate edition of THE SIGN OF FOUR, published by Lippincott in 1893 (Dec 94 #4), with a foreword by James H. Billington and an introduction by John Y. Cole, and it's still available for $24.95 (128 The Great Road, Bedford, MA 01730) (800-277-5312) . And on Nov. 7, Applewood will be- gin publishing facsimiles of Harper's Weekly, beginning with the Nov. 10, 1860, Lincoln election issue ($125.00 per year by mail, $35.00 by e-mail); it will be a long wait, however, for the first issue with anything Doylean ("A Straggler of '15" appeared on Mar. 21, 1891) or Sherlockian ("The Card- board Box" was published in the Jan. 14, 1893, issue). Our new sheet of 20 stamps honoring "Four Centuries of Amer- ican Art" shows Sherlockiana such as a plover, a geranium, a bison, and the Missouri, and Frederick Edwin Church's splen- did painting of "Niagara" (1857). Plan ahead: Christopher Lee, who has played Sir Henry Bas- kerville, Sherlock Holmes, and Mycroft Holmes, will be one of the superstar guests at "Monster Rally '99" (on Aug. 6-8, 1999, at the Crystal City Hyatt in Arlington, Va.) where he will be signing the new Midnight Marquee Press edition (redesigned and with additional photographs) of his 1977 autobiography TALL, DARK AND GRUESOME. There will be other guests, and a Forry Ackerman impersonation contest, and more information is available From FANEX (John Stell, 12118 Little Patuxant Parkway #J, Columbia, MD 21044) . Forecast: MIDNIGHT LOUIE'S PET DETECTIVES, edited by Carole Nelson Douglas, from Forge in October ($23.95); includes her new story "A Baker Street Ir- regular" (Midnight Louie meets Irene Adler). Quinn Fawcett's AGAINST THE BROTHERHOOD: A MYCROFT HOLMES NOVEL (May 98 #4), from Tor in October in a paperback reprint ($6.99). Shelby Peck reported to the Mary Russell fans on a lecture on "A Short His- tory of the Mystery" by Ron Goulart, who, during a discussion of American detective novels, mentioned his new book GROUCHO MARX, MASTER DETECTIVE, and his next book GROUCHO MARX, PRIVATE EYE due in 1999, and in the year 2000, ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR GROUCHO, which involves Groucho in a murder that takes place during the filming of a (fictitious) Sherlock Holmes movie in the late 1930s. M. J. Trow's series of amusing pastiches about Inspector Sholto Lestrade, published since 1985 in Britain, now has an American publisher: Regnery Publishing (Gateway Mysteries) will publish all sixteen titles, starting with THE ADVENTURES OF INSPECTOR LESTRADE (224 pp., $19.95) in October. Trow offers a new and more sympathetic look at the oft-maligned detective portrayed in the Canon, writing with humor and ingenuity. Sep 98 #8 Franklin W. Dixon has been writing the "Hardy Boys" series for more than 70 years, and he finally has got round to doing some- thing Sherlockian (and yes, I know that it's really a house name, and that he doesn't exist). His THE GIANT RAT OF SUMATRA (New York: Minstrel/Pocket Books, 1997; 152 pp., $3.99) is #143 in the series; Franklin and Joe Hardy are involved in the production of a new musical version of the unrecorded case. "There's singing! There's dancing! And there's sabotage!" More than one movie-going reader has reported that the trailer for "A Rugrats Movie" (an animation, to be re- leased on Nov. 25) shows Angelica in a deerstalker, and you can see her in full color at web-sites at and . And elsewhere, since this will be a heavily merchandized movie: there's a doll ($21.99) on p. 513 of the J.C. Penney Christmas catalog (spotted by Sonia Fetherston), and the book RUGRATS AND THE ZOM- BIES written by Sarah Willson and illustrated by Barry Goldberg ($3.25 from Simon & Schuster) that shows Angel- ica watching the television series "Shirleylock Holmes" (noted by Jim Vogelsang), and she's on the lid of Mott's Apple Sauce and Mott's Fruitsations (reported by Tim O'Connor), and on the band of the Mott's Adventure Watch you can buy for $3.99 with nine Rugrats points (you get three points for each $2.39 package of six 4-ounce jars). No word yet on an Angelica toy at a fast-food chain, but surely there's one on the way. I don't think that we can (or should) complain about anything that ensures that pre-schoolers see (and enjoy) the Sherlockian symbols. More dolls: Sonia Fetherston reports that oversized stuffed-animal prizes for games of "skill" on the midway at the Oregon State Fair included huge Scooby Doo dolls dressed in Sherlockian costume. No one has reported them in stores, but the next time you're at a fair you might ask where they get their prizes from. And John Farrell has reported seeing a similar (but of course smaller) prize in an amusement-arcade claw machine. Reported: THE MYSTERIES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1996; 218 pp., $14.95); nine of the stories, illustrated by Paul Bachem. Five sets of Douglas Wilmer's splendid readings of Sherlock Holmes stories have been issued on audiocassettes by Penguin in Britain (not all have yet been issued in the United States), and they were available during his tour, and limited quantities are offered now: FOUR ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Spec/Devi/Musg/Chas); BLACK PETER AND OTHER SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES (Blue/ Resi/Blac/Lady); THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: VOL. 1 (Scan/Iden/RedH/ Bosc); THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: VOL. 2 (Five/Twis/Blue/Spec); and THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: VOL. 3 (Engr/Nobl/Bery/Copp). And yes, two of the tales are duplicated. $15.00 per set, plus $2.00 per order for one or two sets (or $3.00 per order for three to seven sets) for shipping by surface post to any address. US dollar or UK sterling checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please, and sent to the address below. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Oct 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Francie Monaghan happily notes that SHERLOCK HOLMES BY GAS-LAMP: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST FOUR DECADES OF THE BAKER STREET JOURNAL (New York: Fordham University Press, 1989; 423 pp., $22.50) is still in print, and that's nice news indeed for those who don't have it. Edited by Philip A. Shreffler, it offers splendid examples of the wit and intelligence and devotion that have been and still are found in the Sherlockian world. John Sherwood reports that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson will visit The Victorian Villa Inn in Union City, Mich., to participate in "The Adventure of the Maniac Murders" on Nov. 6-8 and Nov. 13-15. Additional information is available from the Inn (601 North Broadway, Union City, MI 49094) (800- 348-4552) . Elliott M. Black reports that The Criterion Bar Association enjoyed a per- formance of "Villains" at their meeting on Sept. 12. Commissioned by the society and performed by Charles Picard, the production presents "The Red- Headed League" and "The Norwood Builder" from the villains' point of view; if your society would be interested in hiring Picard to put on his show in your area, or doing it on your own, you can contact Elliott at 2511 Windsor Lane, Northfield, IL 60062 . Noted by Don Hobbs: CLASSIC ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1998; 216 pages, $4.98); seven stories (RedH/Iden/Bosc/Bery/Copp/ Scan/Spec), in their Children's Classics series. Reported by Willis Frick: HOLMES, CHEMISTRY AND THE ROYAL INSTITUTION, by Antony Richards and Bryson Gore, in collaboration with The Sherlock Holmes Society of London; essays assessing Holmes' chemical work and his relation- ship with the Royal Institution of Great Britain. The 168-page book costs L13.50 from the Irregular Special Railway Company, 170 Woodland Road, Saws- ton, Cambridge CB2 4DX, England. Carolyn and Joel Senter offer the 1998-1999 issue of The Sherlockian Times (their 20-page catalog/journal/newsletter); Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 . The catalog has lots of new (and interesting) Sherlockiana, as well as news of goings-on in the Sherlockian world. Dorothy K. Stix has decided to sell her husband Tom's collection to Sher- lockians in multiple catalogs; if you would like to receive a catalog, you should send your requests to her at (34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648) (fax 201-768-5843) or by e-mail to Carl Stix . If you've wondered about those foot marks of some small animal ("five well- marked footpads, an indication of long nails, and the whole print might be nearly as large as a dessert-spoon," Watson tells us in "The Crooked Man"), George Vanderburgh happily recommends this year's sheet of Christmas seals from Zimbabwe, which shows 15 small carnivores of Zimbabwe (including three different mongooses) and comes with a pamphlet of explanatory notes showing their footprints. George suggests a donation of at least $5.00 (currency, please), to RAPT National Headquarters, P.O. Box 2166, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Oct 98 #2 Marius Goring died on Sept. 30. He studied theater at the Old Vic dramatic school, and during World War II provided the voice of Hitler in an anti-Nazi radio serial "The Shadow of the Swastika" (and he then acted in so many World War II movies that he was able to claim to have played every rank in the German army from private to field marshal). Other films roles included the young composer Julian Craster in "The Red Shoes" (1948) and a South American wastrel in "The Barefoot Contessa" (1954), and he starred as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on radio for the BBC Home Service in Michael and Mollie Hardwick's "The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes" in 1963. There are many foxes mentioned in the Canon, and the design of our new one-dollar stamp features a red fox, perhaps honoring "Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face" ("The Devil's Foot"). Sorry about that (I had the phone number wrong): the excellent recreation of the sitting-room at 221B that delighted Sherlock- ians and other tourists for many years at S. Holmes, Esq. in San Francisco still seeks a new location in a pub, hotel, or theme restaurant; the rental is $3,000 a year, and enquiries can be directed to Willy Werby at 2700 19th Street San Francisco, CA 94110 (415-616-3116) . Robert Lewis Taylor died on Sept. 30. He was a journalist, biographer, and novelist, and in 1958 won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for THE TRAVELS OF JAMIE MCPHEETERS. He joined the staff of The New Yorker in 1939, and wrote many splendid profiles for the magazine, including a two-part article ("Two Authors in an Attic") in 1951 about John Dickson Carr, with many fine tales about the author, his imaginative mysteries, and his work on his biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Further to the report (Sep 98 #8) of Scooby Doo dolls dressed in Sherlock- ian costume, Jim Vogelsang notes that they were offered for sale (in five different sizes: small, medium, large, jumbo, and life-size) at a Six Flags amusement park, and that he has seen them at pet-supply stores. "Large" is about 21 inches high, and costs $26.99. Christopher Sliwa would be delighted to hear from Sherlockians in Poland (and from Sherlockians who aren't in Poland, but would like to correspond with a Sherlockian there): Krzysztof Sliwa, ul. Wegierska 10d/2, 73-110 Stargard, Poland . Christopher Roden reports that Simon Jones (who played Arthur Dent in "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" and read June Thompson's "The Case of the Scottish Tragedy" on the recently-issued audiocassette) will play the title role in The Actors Company Theatre production of William Gillette's "Sher- lock Holmes" at the Theatre at the New York Historical Society (2 West 77th Street at Central Park West) on Nov. 13 and 16 (7:30 pm) and Nov. 15 (2:00 pm); tickets cost $15.00, and the box office phone number is 212-645-8228. MIDNIGHT LOUIE'S PET DETECTIVES, edited by Carole Nelson Douglas (New York: Forge/Tom Doherty, 1998; 350 pp., $23.95), offers an interesting collection of short stories (almost all of the new) by authors who include Anne Perry, Carolyn Wheat, Barbara Paul, and Douglas herself, whose tale allows her own cat detective Midnight Louie to solve a mystery for Sherlock Holmes. Oct 98 #3 A Common Reader (141 Tompkins Avenue, Pleasantville, NY 10570 (800-832-7323) continues to issue its delightful catalogs, with interesting descriptions of books not often seen in other catalogs, such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's THE COMPLETE BRIGADIER GERARD STORIES ($15.95), Ben Macintyre's THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME ($12.95), Umberto Eco's THE NAME OF THE ROSE ($13.00), and Michael Dibdin's THE LAST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORY ($10.00). Ben Wood (9840 Sucia Circle, Parrish, FL 34219) offer his compact Sherlock- ian calendar for 1999; it's 5.5 x 4 in. unopened and costs $2.50 postpaid. Yuichi Hirayama has published the eighth volume of The Shoso-in Bulletin, with 248 pages, articles from contributors in Asia, Australia, Europe, and the United States, and papers presented at the international convention in Japan last spring, all in English and nicely done as always. $12.00 post- paid from Mel Hughes, 2664 Sam Hardwick Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL 32246. Gerald F. O'Hara died on Oct. 11. He was an energetic member of The C.P.R. Stockholders of Edmonton, and edited and published his own Sherlock Holmes Information Exchange Newsletter, and was keenly interested in Arthur Conan Doyle and his visits to Canada; some of Gerry's research was published in "Doyle's Visit to Jasper" (Canadian Holmes, summer 1987) and in his 20-page pamphlet TRAVEL ALBERTA WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES (1988), and much more in his newsletter. THE CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS FUDGE has Turlock Loams linking a prosaic ship- ment of odd fudge to the bizarre machinations of the evil fast-food empire which seeks to control the world, Dr. Fatso's literary agent reports. The latest (hand-set and hand-printed) Pequod Pressing costs $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Jim Vogelsang reports that Amelia Watson continues to solve mysteries, now in San Francisco, where she has accompanied her husband John on a lecture tour. Michael Mallory's "The Adventure of the Japanese Sword" is in Mur- derous Intent (summer/fall 1998); Box 5947, Vancouver, WA 98668 ($5.95). Jim also reports still more appearances of Angelica in a deerstalker: in THE RUGRATS MOVIE STICKER BOOK and THE RUGRATS MOVIE SUPER COLORING AND ACTIVITY BOOK ($1.49 each), as a Rugrats Movie Soft Pal 5-inch-high doll ($4.99), and as an Angelica Safari Mini Plush 6-inch-high doll ($6.99). "Victorian Fairy Painting" (at the Frick Collection, at 5th Avenue at East 70th Street in New York through Jan. 17) offers 34 paintings selected from the exhibition organized by the Royal Academy in London in 1997, and it is an interesting show: there are three paintings by Richard Doyle and one by Charles Doyle (Arthur Conan Doyle's uncle and father). Visitors can also see three fine paintings by Jean-Baptiste Greuze displayed in the Frick's permanent collection. Mark Alberstat's 1999 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. Oct 98 #4 There weren't any Sherlockian sessions or panels at Bouchercon (the world mystery convention) in Philadelphia on Oct. 1-4, but of course there were Sherlockian authors on hand, including Carole Nelson Douglas, who reported that her four Irene Adler novels have been bought by Recorded Books for release as unabridged recordings on cassette (there's no word yet on who will do the reading); the same company has issued three of Laurie R. King's Mary Russell novels, read well by Jenny Sterlin. Future Bouchercons will be held in Milwaukee on Sept. 30-Oct 3, 1999 (Box 341218, Milwaukee, WI 53234) and in Denver on Sept. 7-10, 2000 (Box 17910, Boulder, CO 90308) . Douglas G. Greene continues to publish fine short-story collections from his Crippen & Landru Press, the latest being Bill Pronzini's CARPENTER AND QUINCANNON: PROFESSIONAL DETECTIVE SERVICES and Peter Robinson's NOT SAFE AFTER DARK; each $40.00 (cloth) or $16.00 (paper). Non-Sherlockian, but he can still provide copies of Edward D. Hoch's DIAGNOSIS: IMPOSSIBLE (Mar 96 #1) and THE RIPPER OF STORYVILLE (Oct 97 #6). Box 9315, Norfolk, VA 23505 (toll-free 877-622-6656) . The Mycroft Holmes Society of Syracuse offers its new lapel pin (black on silver); $7.00 postpaid, and checks should be sent to Joseph A. Coppola (103 Kenny Street, Fayetteville, NY 13066). The latest issue of Scarlet Street has David Stuart Davies' wishful report on "My Interview with Basil Rathbone" (wish- ful because David never met Rathbone, but then neither did Tony Howlett, and David explains why), but the next issue of the magazine will have David's report on Edward R. Murrow's interview with Rathbone on "Person to Person" on CBS-TV on Jan. 11, 1957. Scarlet Street is published bimonthly, with coverage of the mystery-and-horror genre, and costs $35.00 a year; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Bill Mason's DEEPER SHADES offers an interesting analysis of "the dressing- gowns of Sherlock Holmes, and the psychology of color" in a 44-page booklet available (for $8.00 postpaid) from Bill (5805 Post Corners Trail #K, Cen- treville, VA 20120). Scott Price (The World of Sherlock Holmes Mystery Shop, 3957-A Grahamdale Circle, Memphis, TN 38122) (toll-free 888-355-6877 2:00pm-10:00pm CST) has a new illustrated mail-order catalog with a wide variety of Sherlockiana. Spotted by Ev Herzog: ALBERT'S HALLOWEEN: THE CASE OF THE STOLEN PUMPKINS, by Leslie Tryon (New York: Atheneum, 1998; 40 pp., $16.00); Chief Inspector Albert Duck leads Miss Maple, Sam Slade, and Shamrock Homes (a monkey) on a quest to find some missing pumpkins (the latest in a series for children). "A character suffers from the fear that he will become boring to the auth- or, who will simply let him drop, without so much as a terminal illness or a dramatic tumble down the Reichenbach Falls in the arms of Professor Mori- arty." John Updike, in BECH AT BAY: A QUASI-NOVEL (New York: Knopf, 1998). Oct 98 #5 Sherlock Holmes' 145th birthday will be celebrated on Friday, Jan. 8, 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 lunch at McSorley's; Allen's address is 324 2nd Street NE, Osseo, MN 55369 (612-424-8889) , and from Jan. 5, Allen will be at the Doubletree Guest Suites (212-719-1600). On Thursday afternoon The Morley-Montgomery Reception (by invitation only) will honor past winners and this year's recipient of the award for the best paper published in The Baker Street Journal each year, and recent contribu- tors to the BSJ. The BSI Distinguished Speaker Lecture begins at 6:15 pm on the 6th floor of the Williams Club at 24 East 39th Street (between Madi- son and Park Avenues); the speaker will be Owen Dudley Edwards, biographer of Arthur Conan Doyle and the general editor of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES ($10.00; seating is limited, and you are advised to reserve early; details below). Then there's time for supper and theater, or maybe the Aunt Clara Sing-Along at a site to be named later (since Hugh O'Lunney is frantically seeking another site for his pub). 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 hotel provides its guests with a continental breakfast, and others are welcome to attend each day (and pay about $15.00; details below). The William Gillette Mem- orial Luncheon starts at noon, at Moran's Chelsea Seafood 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 Book- shop (129 West 56th Street) is from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, and 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 the Union League Club at 38 East 37th Street, and The Baskerville Bash (open to all Sherlockians and their friends) will include drinks, dinner, and entertainment at 6:30 pm at La Belle Epoque at 827 Broadway (at 12th Street); $45.00 (Maribeau Briggs, 46 East 29th Street #2-R, New York, NY 10016). Early reservations are advised for the William Gillette luncheon and the Baskerville Bash. On Saturday a wide variety of Sherlockiana will be available in a dealers room on the 2nd floor of the Hotel Algonquin at 59 West 44th Street, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm; information about vendor tables is available from Don- ald B. Izban, 213 Ivy Court, Streamwood, IL 60107 (630-483-3497). The BSI annual reception, open to all Sherlockians and their friends, will be held on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:30, at the National Arts Club at 15 Gramercy Park South (on 20th Street between Park and Third Avenues); there will be an open bar and hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, and the cost is $35.00 (details below) or $45.00 at the door. The Baker Street Irregulars are a tax-exempt organization, and Mike Whelan has arranged with the Hotel Algonquin for single or double rooms at $190.00 a night (Wednesday through Saturday); this is the total cost, since no tax is due on reservations arranged by the BSI (the special rate is the equiva- lent of $166.00 plus tax). Other charges (room service, telephone calls, Oct 98 #6 meals, drinks, etc.) are not covered. The offer is available to all Sherlockians; contact the Algonquin directly (and don't delay), and ask for the Baker Street Irregulars rate (212-840-6800). And here are the details: you can request a reservation form for BSI events (including the lecture on Thursday, the Martha Hudson breakfast on Friday, and the reception on Saturday) from Michael F. Whelan, 414 N. Park Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46202; the forms will be mailed to you by mid-November. Mary Ellen Rich has 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. You should for weekend specials, or winter promotional rates, and if you plan to arrive on Thursday, you should confirm the rates, and that the weekend rates include Thursday. Portland Square (132 West 47th St.): $99 (single) $109 (double) (212-382-0600); Gershwin (7 East 27th St.): $99/$119 (212-545-8000); New Yorker (481 8th Ave.): $119 (212-971-0101); Hampshire (157 West 47th St.): $119 (dollars and sense rate) (212-768-3700); St. Mor- itz (under renovation) (50 Central Park South): $125 (212-752-7760); Chel- sea Savoy (204 West 23rd St.): $125/$145 (212-929-9353); Quality Fifth Ave. (3 East 40th St.): $129 (212-447-1500). The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI is not required) who might otherwise not be able to participate in the weekend's festivities. A carefully pseudonymous John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes contributions, which can be made by check payable to John H. Watson and sent (without return address on the envelope) to Dr. Watson, c/o The Baker Street Irregulars, at 414 N. Park Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46202; the checks will be forwarded unopened and Dr. Watson will acknowledge your generosity. Requests for assistance can also be mailed to Dr. Watson at the same address. Forecast: HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg, and Carol-Lynn Waugh, from Berkley in November in a paperback reprint ($13.00); 14 pastiches, all with a seasonal theme, written by Anne Perry, Barbara Paul, Carolyn Wheat, Carole Nelson Douglas, Edward D. Hoch, and others (first published in 1996). Plan ahead: the next Sherlock Holmes Festival in Crowborough will be held on July 3-10, 1999; there will be Doylean and Sherlockian events, and more information is available from P.O. Box 17, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 1WU, England . Joseph Cates died on Oct. 10. He was a Broadway and television producer, a creator of the television game show "The $64,000 Question", and helped make television specials into regular network features, writing, producing, and directing more than a thousand of them. He was executive producer for the special "Timex Presents Sherlock Holmes", planned by NBC-TV for spring 1976 with Robert Shaw as Holmes and Donald Pleasance as Watson, but the project was shelved because of Shaw's commitments after his hit movie "Jaws". The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Nov 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Francine Kitts notes that the current catalog from the Britannia Collection (Box 64413, St. Paul, MN 55164) (800-778-7007) offers an Irish deerstalker in Donegal tweed ($49.95); a dozen of the Gielgud/Richardson radio programs on audio cassette ($26.95); and six of the Brett/Hardwicke television shows ($19.98 each). Adventures in Cassettes (5353 Nathan Lane North, Plymouth, MN 55422) (800-328-0108) offers 16 of the Gielgud/Richardson shows ($29.98) and many of the Rathbone/Bruce and Conway/Bruce programs. Wilfrid de Freitas happily reports that he has found the Priory School: it is an independent co-educational English School (Kindergarten to Grade 6), founded in 1947 and located in Montreal. James Goldman died on Oct. 28. He was the author of the play "The Lion in Winter" (and won an Academy Award for his screenplay for the film) and the book for Stephen Sondheim's musical "Follies", he also wrote the script for the play "They Might Be Giants" (1961), which was made into a film in 1971 starring George C. Scott as a psychotic judge who believes that he is Sher- lock Holmes, and Joanne Woodward as his psychiatrist Dr. Watson. Ben Wood notes that the new catalog from Russell's For Men offers a Holmes- and-Watson set of two meerschaum pipes carved by M. Aydogu (item SMS-126); the cost is $195.00, and the address is 1705 North Thompson Street, Spring- dale, AR 72764 (800-255-9034) . The Practical, But Limited Geologists met at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Toronto on Oct. 28, for a dinner honoring the world's first forensic geolo- gist, during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. The Bootmakers of Toronto offered a warm welcome, the traditional toasts were drunk (along with some untraditional toasts), and many of the visiting geo- logists remembered that one of the nice things about Canada is that Cuban cigars are both available and legal (although not inexpensive). Our next dinners will be in San Antonio in April, and in Denver in October. Those who have enjoyed the Canonical Convocation and Caper in Door County, Wis., in years past will welcome the news that the fun and games will con- tinue, since plans are afoot for a Sherlockian Equinoctial Experience there in Sept. 1999. If you would like to be on the mailing list, write to Jane Richardson (3427 East Exchange Road, Crete, IL 60417). Tom O'Day reports that the Book-of-the-Month Club set THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (Mar 94 #3) has been remaindered to Crown (and perhaps other) stores at $3.99 a volume. The nine-volume uniform hard-cover set sold for $44.95 in 1994; A STUDY IN SCARLET and THE SIGN OF THE FOUR seem to have been cop- ied from a pirated edition first published by Orange Judd in 1907, and the other seven volumes were copied from the first American editions. If you missed the "Victorian Holmes Weekend" in Cape May on Nov. 6-8, there is plenty of time to plan to attend the next one, on Mar. 12-14, 1999. You get a tour of eight Victorian homes, meals, and a mystery to solve; details are available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204 (609-884-5404) (800-275-4278) . Nov 98 #2 The Cambridge Stamp Centre celebrated the 40th anniversary of the making the Hammer Films version of "The Hound of the Bas- kervilles" on Oct. 31 (when principal photography for the film ended) with a series of commemorative covers with a special pictorial postmark on the 1997 British stamp honoring the Hound, illustrated with the film's poster, and signed by Christopher Lee and actors who have performed in the Granada television series. Additional information is available from the company (attn: Keith Astell), at 9 Sussex Street, Cambridge CB1 1PA, England. The Mac OS 8.5 operating system was released with great fanfare about Sherlock (described as "your personal search detective"), and with a nice logo that also appears on free T-shirts given to those who were among the first to buy the new upgrade. Some of the nicest things about book catalogs are the surprises one finds in them, including occa- sional quotes: "Gentlemen, you must not mistake me. I admit that he is the sworn foe of our na- tion, and, if you will, of the whole human race. But Gentlemen, we must be just to our enemy. We must not forget that he once shot a bookseller." Thomas Campbell, on Napoleon, quoted in a catalog from Buddenbrooks (31 Newbury Street, Boston, MA 02116) . Norman L. Rosenbaum's collection of Conan Doyle books and manuscripts will be sold at auction at Sotheby's in London on Dec. 17, in 218 lots, one of them being twelve minutes of home movies of Conan Doyle and his family). The catalog is available from Sotheby's (attn: Peter Selley, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA, England) and on their web-site . The October catalog from the J. Peterman Company (1318 Russell Cave Road, Lexington, KY 40505 (800-231-7341) is devoted to "holi- day attire" (and Scott Monty notes that quite a bit of it echoes stylish attire from late-19th-century England and America). The Sept. issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota reports on the Founders' Footprints Conference held at the Wilson Library this summer, with reports on the festivities, and by new curator of special collections Timothy John- son on his background and plans for the future. You can join the mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . There was quite a bit of publicity for the unveiling of the skeleton of a new spinosaur *Suchomimus tenerensis* at the National Geographic Society in Washington this month (it was as large a *Tyrannosaurus rex* but preferred a diet of fish, and there were a lot of fish available 100 million years ago in what's now central Niger). There aren't all that many spinosaurs known, but one of them is *Irritator challengeri*, found in Brazil and named after Professor George Edward Challenger, of the Lost World (Feb 96 #1). Nov 98 #3 Bob Kane died on Nov. 3. He was the creator of Batman and Rob- in, and the Penguin and Catwoman and the Joker, for DC Comics in 1939, and (as might be expected) the comic books had Sherlockian refer- ences over the years, the first of them being appearances by Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred in a deerstalker in the 1940s). Kane gave artistic control over the series to DC Comics early in Batman's history, but retained (and profited from) the copyright, and continued to be involved in the series, and worked as a consultant right through the most recent feature films. Dan Knight reports that the current catalog from The Mind's Eye (Box 6549, Chelmsford, MA 01824 (800-949-333) offers wool deerstalkers (S/M/L/XL) for $24.95; a Sherlock Holmes pipe from Peterson of Dublin for $249.00; and six audiocassettes each with two of the Gielgud/Richardson radio broadcasts for $35.95. Greg Darak reports that a Celebrity Play Reading Series at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theater will include Charles Edward Pogue's 1987 play "The Ebony Ape" on Jan. 25, 1999, with Michael York (Sherlock Holmes) and Simon James (Dr. Watson). Tickets cost $15.00 or $10.00 ($5.00 for stud- ents), and the series benefits the continuing renovation and restoration of the theater; 1850 Elm Street, Stratford, CT 06497 (203-381-9518). Reported: new double-audiocassette sets from CSA Telltapes (101 Chamber- layne Road, London NW10 3ND, England): THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EPISODE 3, read by Edward Hardwicke (Suss/Cree/Spec); and CLASSIC SCI FI STORIES, read by Nicky Henson (includes Conan Doyle's "The Disintegration Machine"). L8.99 each postpaid in Britain; L9.99 each to other addresses. Decorative eggs have long been a holiday tradition in Europe and in some parts of the United States, and Ramute Plioplys has produced a series of attractive Sherlockian eggs, to hang on your Christmas tree or elsewhere. The eggs are decorated in the Lithuanian tradition (using heated beeswax and multiple dye baths) and feature dancing men and various mottos; they cost $20.00 each plus shipping, and you can request an illustrated flier from Ramute (7212 South Talman Avenue, Chicago, IL 60629). The Mysterious Bookshop's fall-winter catalog includes three pages of new and old Sherlockiana (and lots of other books); 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (800-352-2840); 8763 Beverly Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90048 (800-821-9017); or 82 Marylebone High Street, London W1M 3DE, Eng- land. And there's a web-site at . Ted Friedman continues his exploration of Sherlockian philately in a well- illustrated two-page article on the "Music of Sherlock Holmes" in Topical Time (Nov.-Dec. 1998). The issue costs $5.00 postpaid, from the American Topical Association, Box 50820, Albuquerque, NM 87181. Anglofile reports a new treasure trove for trivia fans: the "RADIO TIMES" GUIDE TO TV COMEDY, by Mark Lewisohn (London: BBC Worldwide, 1998; 736 pp., L19.99); the book offers details on 2,600 comedy programs, from sitcoms to sketch shows, series to specials, broadcast on British television over the last 54 years. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment; Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033 ($15.00 a year). Nov 98 #4 Bill Dorn's Sherlock Holmes Calendar for 1999 shows the dates for 54 of the case (Bill has used the Zeisler and Christ chron- ologies, and omits the six cases that Zeisler and Christ did not date), and the founding dates for 65 Sherlockian societies, and birth and death dates for Sherlockian notables; $9.95 postpaid (or $11.95 outside the U.S.) from William S. Dorn, 2045 South Monroe Street, Denver, CO 80210. The Library of Congress has added "The Lost World" (1925) to the National Film Registry, as one of 25 films selected this year "based on their his- toric, cultural, or aesthetic importance." The Registry was created by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, and 25 films are chosen each year; Buster Keaton's "Sherlock, Jr." (1924) was honored in 1991. Plan ahead: there will be another spring-break "221Beach" Sherlockian gath- ering at Spring Lake, N.J., on Apr. 23-25, 1999; details are available from Al Gregory and Jan Stauber, at 118 South Prospect Street, Verona, NJ 07044 . The Library of Congress exhibition "Freud: Conflict and Culture" (through Jan. 16) is accompanied by a film series in Mary Pickford Theater in the Madison Building, and Brian Taves notes that "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" is scheduled for 7:00 pm on Dec. 15; there's no charge, but there are only 64 seats in the theater, and you should call 202-707-5677 for reservations starting Dec. 8. Jim Suszynski spotted Holmes and Watson on the cover of WEATHER TRACKER (a supplement in the special school edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer that helps students in grades 4-8 understand how weather makes news), and Pooh in a deerstalker on the cover of HUNTING FOR HONEY: SPECIAL EDITION COLOR- ING BOOK from Golden Books. Hugh Scullion reports from Britain that Douglas Moreton died in September. He worked for many years as a salesman for a printing company, and wrote two collections of amusing pastiches: THE PAPER IN THE CASE (1997) and THE UNRELATED ADVENTURES OF CLEWLOW HOLMES (1998). Jennie Paton notes that SMITHSONIAN HISTORICAL PERFORMANCES: THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES from Radio Spirits is now in stores; $24.98 on four au- diocassettes or $39.98 on four CDs, with twelve of the John Stanley/Alfred Shirley radio programs from the 1947-48 season. The new releases were pro- duced by Ken Greenwald and 221 Baker Street Associates (and almost all of them were not previously available). Carl Heifetz reports that Tim Kelly's dramatization of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" will be produced by the St. Petersburg Little Theatre, Jan. 7-17, 1999. The theater's address is 4025 31st Street South, St. Peters- burg, FL 33712 (813-866-1973). Noted by Ralph Hall: NATE THE GREAT AND ME: THE CASE OF THE FLEEING FANG, by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (New York, Delacorte, 1998, $9.95); the latest title in the continuing series featuring Nate in Sherlockian costume. AUNT EATER'S MYSTERY HALLOWEEN, by Doug Cushman (Harper Collins, 1998, $14.95); with Aunt Eater in S'ian costume on the cover and throughout the book. Nov 98 #5 T. J. Mullin's dramatization of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" played at the Heritage Square Music Hall in Golden, and it was quite funny, according to John Stephenson. The show will be revived from Jan. 22 to Feb. 28, 1999; the address is: 18301 West Colfax Avenue #D-103, Golden, CO 80401, and the box-office telephone number is 303-279-7800. David L. Hammer continues his Sherlockian explorations of philately with a pastiche about "Victor Lynch, the Forger" in The American Philatelist, Nov. 1998; Box 8000, State College, PA 16803 ($3.95). Reported: BRIGADE: THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF INSPECTOR LESTRADE, by M. J. Trow (Washington: Regnery/Gateway, 1998; 208 pp., $19.95); the second in the continuing series, with humor that's broad and occasionally slapstick, and a cast of cameo characters that extends from Kaiser Wilhelm to an in- fant Basil Rathbone. Robert S. Gellerstedt, Jr., (1035 Wedgewood Drive, Fayetteville, GA 30214) has tucked away in his computer a combined index to 20 Sherlockian antholo- gies, and to the obituaries published in The Baker Street Journal, and to the recorded cases, all included in the 27 pages of the latest edition of THE SHERLOCKIAN ANTHOLOGIES INDEX; $6.00 postpaid to the U.S. and Canada. Bob's "The Irregular News" (his four-page Christmas newsletter, this year with reprints of two Sherlockian essays by A. A. Milne) is available with- out charge. Scott Monty has forwarded a report from the N.Y. Times (Nov. 18) that the latest Stradivarius to go to auction brought $884,000 at Christie's, quite a bit more than the 55 shillings Sherlock Holmes said he paid for his, and rather less than the $1.58 million a different Stradivarius brought earlier this year (May 98 #3). THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL is the ninth Pequod Press pressing this year, and it's a volume of verse (primarily Canonical, the poet reports). The book- let costs $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper), from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Michael and Lynette Yencho exhibited a handsome bronze sculpture of Sher- lock Holmes "On Grimpen Mire" in Minneapolis earlier this year, and copies still are available ($600 plus shipping). You can write for an illustrated brochure (Garden Studio, 931 Portland Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104) or see it on the Web . Ratana Ngin reports that Ty (the company that makes Beanie Babies) also has a line of plush dolls, one of them a basset hound named Sherlock, about 12" long, that sells for about $10.00. The electronically-enabled can see him at (look in the Dog House). A television adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Cats" was broad- cast on "Great Performances" on PBS-TV on Nov. 2 (and perhaps a bit earlier in Britain), and the program is available on a videocassette (from Polygram Video) for $18.99; it's nicely done, and the cast includes Bryn Walters as Macavity: the Mystery Cat, who is just as Canonical in the musical as he is in the poem in T. S. Eliot's OLD POSSUM'S BOOK OF PRACTICAL CATS. Nov 98 #6 Noted by Bill Mason: THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF MOVIE DETECTIVES AND SCREEN CRIMES, edited by Peter Haining (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998; 416 pp., $10.95); it's an anthology of stories that have been dramatized, and of scripts that include Thomas R. Hutchinson's "The Three Garridebs" (broadcast by NBC-TV on Nov. 28, 1937). Reported: THE MURILLO MURDER MYSTERY, by Michael Jorgensen, with illustra- tions by the author; a mystery involving the cast of an Australian tour of "The Speckled Band" in 1911. A brochure is available from the Black Jack Press, 392 Station Street, Carlton North, Vic. 3054, Australia, or you can order the book itself for $29.00 postpaid (or $110 postpaid for a limited edition with additional illustrations). If you've postponed reserving for events during the birthday festivities in January, you may be too late for some of them, but at least there's still time to send souvenirs for the Baskerville Bash to Francine Kitts at 35 Van Cortlandt Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301; her deadline is Dec. 20, and you can send her 120 copies of your souvenir. The Mycroft Holmes Society of Syracuse is planning a Fall Sherlockian Week- end at Minnowbrook in Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y., on Oct. 15-17, 1999. More information is available from Carol Cavalluzzi (108 Marvin Road, Syracuse, NY 13207) . The resort also has a web-site, at . Hugh Leonard's play "The Mask of Moriarty" (1985) opened at the Blackfriars Theatre in Rochester on Nov. 27 and runs through Dec. 31; the box office is at 248 East Avenue, Rochester, NY 14604 (716-454-1260). The play also will be produced at Seattle's Village Theatre-Mainstage from Jan. 21 to Mar. 28, 1999; 303 Front Street North, Issaquah, WA 98207 (425-392-2202) . William A. Berner ("Aloysius Doran, Esq., of San Francisco, Cal.") died in 1997. Bill was a member of The Scowrers and Molly Maguires, and edited The Vermissa Herald in the 1960s and 1970s, and he was a helpful book dealer to Sherlockians in a time when there weren't that many dealers who specialized in Sherlockiana. He received his Investiture in 1983. Robert B. Frier ("Colonel Upwood") died on Apr. 8. He was one of the first members of The Scowrers and Molly Maguires, and was awarded his Investiture in 1960; he was editor of the Pacific Goldsmith, and loved Gilbert & Sulli- van as well as Sherlock Holmes. Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ICE PALACE MURDERS (New York: Vik- ing, 1998; 322 pp., $23.95) brings Holmes and Watson back to Minnesota in 1896 to solve a grisly murder during Saint Paul's famous Winter Carnival; as in his SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RED DEMON (Sep 96 #5), Millett makes good use of local history, color, and characters. And at the Norwegian Explor- ers' conference last summer, he reported that Holmes paid a third visit to Minnesota, to be covered in a third novel now underway. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Dec 98 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press It's great fun to hear good stories read by fine actors, and audiocassettes offer just that opportunity: Nicky Henson reads Conan Doyle's "Disintegra- tion Machine" and five stories by other authors on CLASSIC SCI FI STORIES, and Edward Hardwick reads three stories ("The Sussex Vampire"/"The Creeping Man"/"The Speckled Band") on THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, EPISODE 3. Both are two-cassette sets; L8.99 each postpaid in Britain, or L9.99 each to other addresses, from CSA Telltapes Ltd., 101 Chamberlayne Road, London NW10 3ND, England. The Easton Press (47 Richards Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06875) (800-211-1308) is still offering THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES in three volumes; first issued in 1987, it's a handsome leather-bound reprint (with color frontispieces) of the Heritage Press edition published in 1952 and 1957; $49.75 per volume postpaid. Eric Ambler died on Oct. 22. He was hailed as the father of the modern spy thriller, famous for novels such as EPITAPH FOR A SPY (1938) and A COFFIN FOR DIMITRIOS (1939), and for his screenplays for films that included "The Cruel Sea" (1953) and "A Night to Remember" (1958). In his introduction to the Murray/Cape edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1974) Ambler recalled his first encounter with the Canon: "For the boy of twelve these stories were more than an entertainment; they opened doors to rooms about which he might not otherwise have known so soon," and noted that they still gave him pleasure. Plan ahead: John Comstock notes that the Shaw Festival in Ontario will pro- duce Arthur Conan Doyle's "Waterloo" from June 5 to July 25, 1999. This is their second production of the play, which was well-received in repertory last summer. The box-office address is: Box 774, Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON L0S 1J0, Canada (800-267-4759) . Patrick Horgan began his Sherlockian career playing Captain Gregg in the musical "Baker Street" in 1964, and went on to play Sherlock Holmes in the William Gillette play, and in "The Speckled Band" and in a television com- mercial, and to play William Gillette (in Kenneth Ludwig's play "Dramatic License"). And he has done much more, recording six of the nine books of the Canon (work is underway on the remaining three) and his book of S'ian scholarship THE DETECTION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, for a company called Audio Concepts; some of the recordings are available (and more will be soon) to those who can download them from an Internet web-site at (use the link to "audio books"). There's no charge for the recordings or the software, but you will need to be running Windows on a reasonably powerful computer. There are hopes that the scholarship can be published as a book, and that the recordings can be issued on audiocassettes, sooner rather than later. THE EINSTEIN PARADOX AND OTHER SCIENCE MYSTERIES SOLVED BY SHERLOCK HOLMES (Reading: Helix/Perseus, 1998; 254 pp., $12.00) is the new title used for the paperback edition of Colin Bruce's THE STRANGE CASE OF MRS. HUDSON'S CAT (Jun 97 #4); explanations of the more important paradoxes of classical and modern physics, with a cast of Sherlockian and Doylean characters. Dec 98 #2 Plan ahead: Cox & Co. of New England and The Bull Terriers of Boston will hold an anniversary weekend gathering at Windsor Castle on May 15-16, 1999. Windsor Castle is perhaps better known locally as the Sheraton Tara (even though a photograph of the hotel shows that it looks more like a castle than a southern mansion). Additional details are available from David House, 498 Hanover Street #1-D, Manchester, NH 03104. "Houdini" was interesting on TNT cable in December, with David Warner in a short scene as Conan Doyle. It was Warner's second association with Sher- lock Holmes, for those who like trivia questions. Bjarne Nielsen (Antikvariat Pinkerton, Algade 3, DK-4500 Nykobing Sjael- land, Denmark) continues to issue interesting sales lists of Sherlockiana, in English and Danish, some from the collection of A. D. Henriksen, and the books and pamphlets that he has published himself; the current catalog also has a photograph of Bjarne's Sherlock Holmes Museum, which is well worth a visit when you're visiting Denmark. Flip Wilson died on Nov. 25. He was the first successful black host of a television variety show, winning Emmy awards for performing and writing on "The Flip Wilson Show" in 1971. In one of the many skits on the series he portrayed Hemlock Jones, on Dec. 3, 1970, with Johnny Brown as Dr. Dotson and Connie Stevens as Prof. Doriarty. Scott Lucy has reported that plans are afoot to create The Undershaw Club in Arthur Conan Doyle's home in Surrey. Plans call for a major refurbish- ment of the house (to be completed early in Dec. 1999), and the club will then be open to members, offering accommodations, meals, and entertainment. The management company (ACD Holdings) plans to raise L1.5 million, of which L200,000 will be used to acquire Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes material. The company also plans to raise L600,000 to form a production company (ACD Productions) to produce a feature-length documentary of Conan Doyle's life. The initial joining fee for club will be L500 (waived for founding members who join before Jan. 2000) and the annual fee will be L365 (U.K. members) or L200 (overseas members) or L50 (associate members who visit the club no more than three times a year). Additional information is available from Lucy at The Undershaw Club, c/o Grannom House, Gasden Lane, Witley, Surrey GU8 5QB, England . Plan ahead: the STUD Sherlockian Society will hold their next Annual Dinner and Weekend on Mar. 5-6, 1999, in and near Schiller Park, Ill. Details are available from Allan Devitt (16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106. Barbara Roscoe reports that Holmes Under the Arch (a group of Sherlockian societies in Missouri and Illinois) are planning a "Weekend at Baskerville Hall" in St. Louis on Sept. 10-11, 1999. Additional information is avail- able from Holmes Under the Arch, 7101 Mardel Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63109 . A new flier from Carolyn and Joel Senter (Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219) offers souvenirs (the pin, poster, and medallion) from the recent William Gillette festival in Tryon, N.C., and Bill Dorn's Sherlockian calendar for 1999. Dec 98 #3 Syd Goldberg has kindly forwarded Thomas J. Brady's review (in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 1) of Paul Theroux's new book about V. S. Naipaul, SIR VIDIA'S SHADOW (Houghton Mifflin, $25.00); Brady reports that Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and Hawaii, and in Hawaii raises bees, "inspired by Sherlock Holmes, who reputedly survived his supposed death leap with Professor Moriarty at Reichenbach Falls and went on to raise bees in retirement in Sussex." Reported by Steve Rothman: ONE MAN'S CHORUS, by Anthony Burgess (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998; 368 pp., $26.00); a posthumous collection of essays that include "Our Eternal Holmes" (his "Immortal Crusader" reprinted from the May 14, 1989, issue of The Mail on Sunday). And yes, that was a trivia question: what was David Warner's first associa- tion with Sherlock Holmes? In the film "Time After Time" (1979), directed by Nicholas Meyer, with Malcolm McDowell as H. G. Wells and David Warner as John Leslie Stevenson (who is Jack the Ripper). Stevenson uses Wells' time machine to escape to modern-day San Francisco, where Wells tracks him down at the Hyatt Regency, where Stevenson says with admiration, "You're a regu- lar Sherlock Holmes." Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine celebrates Sherlock Holmes' birthday in its Feb. issue, with cover art by Kevin Hauff and nice poetry by Peter Lovesey. Congratulations to Al Rosenblatt ("Inspector Bradstreet" in the BSI), who Who has been nominated by New York governor George Pataki to the Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state. "Rosenblatt is a longtime Sher- lock Holmes buff," the Albany Times Union noted, "in fact, the fictional sleuth sometimes finds his way into Rosenblatt's decisions." And the N.Y. Law Journal reported, "We had a long talk and most of it was about Sherlock Holmes", Judge Rosenblatt said, noting that both he and the governor are aficionados. The state senate is likely to confirm the nomination early next year. Joe Eckrich has nice news for those who have been seeking a copy of Arthur Wontner's "The Sign of Four" (1932): Vintage Entertainment offers a video- cassette for $13.95 postpaid. Checks payable to (and sent to) Nothing's New, 23 Bayhill Shopping Center, San Bruno, CA 94066. Steve Rothman reports that George R. Allen died on Nov. 20. He was a fine bookseller (at William H. Allen in Philadelphia), and in 1945 was assigned to counter-intelligence with the 101st Airborne and was among the first of the Allied troops to enter Berchtesgaden, where in Adolph Hitler's private film library he found a copy of "Der Hund von Baskerville" (1937); he wrote about this to Christopher Morley in 1947, and Edgar W. Smith published the report in The Baker Street Journal in Apr. 1948. Maurice Tanner (180 Whitehorse Road, West Croydon, Surrey CD0 2LA, England) offers a pair of cacheted covers cancelled on Oct. 31 with a "Hound of the Baskervilles" pictorial postmark, one honoring the 1939 film (L13.99 to the U.K., L14.99 elsewhere), and the other the 1959 film (L11.99/L12.99); cred- it-card orders welcome (L0.30 surcharge) or you can pay in sterling. You can also send him $1.00 for an illustrated flier. Dec 98 #4 Laurie R. King will tour to promote her new (non-Mary Russell) book A DARKER PLACE in February, for those who would like to meet her and get books signed, and perhaps ask for a hint or two about the next book in the Russell series (which is O JERUSALEM, scheduled for June 1999). The dates and places are: 5: Capitola Book Cafe (Capitola, CA); 6: M Is for Mystery (San Mateo); 8: Kepler's (Palo Alto); 9: Bonanza Street Books (Walnut Creek); 10: 23rd Avenue Books (Portland, OR); 11: Park Place Books (Seattle, WA); 12: University Bookstore (Seattle); 14: The Poisoned Pen (Scottsdale, AZ); 15: Rue Morgue (Boulder, CO); 18: Mysterious Bookshop (Los Angeles, CA); 19: Small World Mystery Annex (Los Angeles); 20: Book Carnival (Los Angeles); 21: Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego); 23: Reader's Books (Sonoma). The Radio Spirits set SMITHSONIAN HISTORICAL PERFORMANCES: THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Nov 98 #4) is now being discounted widely: Richard Wein reports that it costs $18.88 on four audiocassettes or $29.88 on four CDs, from Collectors' Choice Music (Box 838, Itasca, IL 60143) (800-923-1122). This is the set with 12 of the John Stanley/Alfred Shirley radio programs from the 1947-48 season. Richard also spotted new "Sherlock Holmes Pub" T-shirts ($14.95) and sweat- shirts ($24.95) with a design from a pub in Sheffield, England, in the hol- iday 1998 catalog from What on Earth, 2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twins- burg, OH 44087 (800-945-2552). Michael L. Higgs' ON THE RACK WITH CONAN DOYLE, AND OTHER JOURNEYS (Vancou- ver: Hansom Press, 1998; 105 pp.), is a collection of essays that have been published earlier in the newsletter of the Stormy Petrels of British Colum- bia, and it is a nice collection indeed; Higgs has traveled widely, and to some unusual places, and he has written about them (and about their Doylean and Sherlockian connections) with insight and enjoyment. The booklet costs $15.00 or CA$20.00 or L10.00 (postpaid) from the publisher (1026 West Keith Road, North Vancouver, BC V7P 3C6, Canada). Bits & Pieces (1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481) (800-544-7297) are discounting the four mystery jigsaw puzzles in "The Continuing Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (the puzzle pictures help solve the crimes); $8.95 each or $29.95 for all four. And there's a new (and different) Sherlockian jigsaw puzzle, reported by Richard Wein: "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" ($19.95) in a catalog from the Spilsbury Puzzle Company (Box 8922, Madison, WI 53708) (800-772- 1760); 1,000 pieces, and it's item A3266-03. The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library will offer a discussion of "Conan Doyle Among the Spirits" at the library on the afternoon of Jan. 31: Joe Nickell (Senior Research Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) will discuss the Spiritualism movement, and Victoria Gill (Curator of the ACD Collection) will display and describe some of the collection's material related to Conan Doyle's participation in the movement. $8.00 at the door (free to members of the Friends); rsvp to Doug Wrigglesworth at 16 Sunset Street, Holland Landing, ON L9N 1H4, Canada . Dec 98 #5 A press release at hand from Bjarne Nielsen notes the founding of The Great Greenland Expedition Society, whose members have discovered that the island of Uffa actually is the island of M†geoen. The society (using the mothership S/S Perikles) occupied the island on July 17, and declared it free of all unions and nuclear activities, on behalf of all Sherlockians worldwide. The island is located at 55 degrees 53.46 minutes N and 11 degrees 40.15 E, not far from Nykobing Sjaelland in Denmark, and conveniently near Bjarne's home. The society's statutes state that its aim is the final charting of navigable regions in Isefjorden and Roskilde Fjord with due attention to accessibility of anchorage, and local availability of beer, pot-luck, and snooker. The Oxford Popular Fiction edition of THE LOST WORLD, with an Introduction by Ian Duncan (Oct 95 #6) has been joined by an Oxford World Classics Edi- tion (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998; 224 pp., $8.95); the new edition is a reissue, now uniform with THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES. Norman L. Rosenbaum's collection of Arthur Conan Doyle material was sold at auction at Sotheby's in London on Dec. 17, and some of the highlights (with hammer prices not including the 15% buyer's premium) were: a first edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET (L11,000), a first separate American edition of THE SIGN OF THE FOUR in Collier's Once a Week Library (L8,000), an inscribed first edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (L15,000), a first edi- tion of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES in superb condition (L5,000), the 21- page manuscript of "How the Brigadier Rode to Minsk" (L12,000), an Indian silver cornucopia given by Rudyard Kipling to Conan Doyle as a Christmas present (L10,000), a one-page letter from Conan Doyle in the early 1890s in which he wrote that Holmes' "reasonings & deductions (which are the whole point of the character) would become an intolerable bore upon the stage" (L5,000), an unpublished ink-and-wash portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget, signed and dated 1904 (L18,000), and 12 minutes of home movies of Sir Arthur and his family (L2,000). An inscribed copy of the first Ameri- can edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET sent to auction by another owner brought L20,000. Maureen O'Sullivan died on June 23. She made more than 60 films, and was best-known as Jane (with Johnny Weismuller as Tarzan) in "Tarzan, the Ape Man" (1932) and five sequels. She also played Lady Doyle in the television film "The Great Houdinis" (1976), with Peter Cushing as Conan Doyle. THE HISTORY OF THE NORWEGIAN EXPLORERS, a 32-page booklet prepared by Julie McKuras and Richard J. Sveum for the society's 50th-anniversary dinner this month, is a nicely-researched review of both earlier and more recent Sher- lockian events in Minnesota and Switzerland; copies are available for $7.00 postpaid from Julie McKuras (13512 Granada Avenue, Apple Valley, MN 55124). Reported by Jim Vogelsang: Peterson of Dublin offers pipe tobacco as well as a series of Sherlockian briar pipes; their "Sherlock Holmes" is an "old 19th century blend of orange and red smoking leaf, Brazilian and Mysore In- dian tobacco" packed in a 50-gram tin with a S'ian silhouette on the label, which also carries a blunt warning that "tobacco seriously damages health" as required by an EC Council Directive (it's not just our Surgeon General who discourages smoking nowadays); about $10.00 in tobacco stores. Dec 98 #6 Joe Eckrich has some really nice news for those who have long been wanting to see John Barrymore's "Sherlock Holmes" (1922): it's now available on videocassette for $19.95 (plus $4.00 shipping) from Videobrary, Inc. (5812 Wish Avenue, Encino, CA 91316) (818-881-2640) (fax 213-660-5571) , and credit-card orders are welcome. The quality is quite good, the length is 103 minutes, there's new organ music, and it's grand indeed to see the Barrymore version of the Gillette play, with a cast that includes Hedda Hopper and William H. Powell. This is the print that was restored in 1970 (with help from the film's director Albert Parker) from separate and out-of-sequence scenes discovered at George East- man House in Rochester, and while it isn't complete it still offers a fine look at what people saw when they went to the movies all those years ago. John Hall's SIDELIGHTS ON HOLMES (Ashcroft: Calabash Press, 1998; 190 pp.) explores each of the Canonical stories, offering commentary and questions (and plausible answers for many of those questions); it's a fine example of the enjoyment to be found in considering the contradictions and confusions and nooks and crannies of the Canon. $21.00/CA$39.00/L13.50 plus shipping ($3.75 to U.S. or CA$5.30 to Canada or $7.05/$4.15 air/surface elsewhere) (credit-card orders welcome) from the Calabash Press, Box 1360, Ashcroft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada . Calabash also has published THE SCROLL OF THE DEAD, by David Stuart Davies (1998; 147 pp.); the pastiche is a nicely-plotted mystery that has Holmes and Watson involved in pursuing and thwarting a villain who hopes to find the secret of immortality. $30.00 or CA$40.00 or L19.00 (cloth); $19.50 or CA$23.50 or L12.50 (paper); plus shipping as above. Dick Wright spotted Matthew Stevenson's article on "Russian Rublette" in The American Spectator (Dec. 1998), about current economics in Russia, and about the proliferation of small regional banks. "I have visited many of these new banks," he writes, "including one in Ufa, nears the Urals, with potatoes for sale in its lobby." No mention of any nearby island, alas. Bill Thornton reports that Rockport Shoes offer a Baskerville collection of men's casual shoes, with styles that include Watson and Moriarty; Rockport shoes are available in a mail-order catalog from Marks Athletic (4028 S.W. 57th Avenue, Miami, FL 33155) (800-666-6222). Keith E. Webb's SHERLOCK HOLMES IN JAPAN (Apr 98 #6) now is available in an expanded 97-page edition; Keith has lived in Japan since 1991 and does well with explanations (in English) of the Sherlockian references in the Canon, and of the history of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockians in Japan. The cost is $10.00 postpaid, and you can send checks or currency to Keith at 15104 SE 22nd Street, Bellevue, WA 98007. As subscribers in the United States likely are aware, our domestic postage rates are going to increase in January, and so will the subscription rate for this newsletter, to $9.10 a year; postage rates to other countries are unchanged for the moment, but will be increased later in 1999. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808)