Jan 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The birthday festivities in New York suffered only a brief blizzard on Fri- day afternoon, and almost everyone traveling that day got to evening events almost on time. The weather was much nicer on Thursday both for the Chris- topher Morley Walk and for the BSI's Distinguished Speaker Lecture, which featured Owen Dudley Edwards, who both entertained and enlightened a large audience at the Williams Club with his talk on "Dr. Watson: Portrait of a Genius". And (for those up early enough on Friday) the first event was nationwide: Edward Lear reports that during the "Today" show on NBC-TV, Matt Lauer and Al Roker were outside with the audience, and Roker said that they wanted to announce a birthday of someone who was 145 years old today. With that they panned to Lauer, who was wearing a deerstalker and said it was the birthday of Sherlock Holmes. Lauer then had the camera turn to a man in the crowd who also was wearing a deerstalker (David R. McCallister, of The Pleasant Places of Florida, Wanda and Jeffery Dow note). The Hotel Algonquin provided a fine meal for the Mrs. Hudson Breakfast on Friday morning, and the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chelsea Sea- food Restaurant was as always a splendid event, with the Friends of Bogie's (aka Andrew Joffe, Sarah Montague Joffe, and Paul Singleton) presenting a tour of "Sister Wendy's World of Sherlock". 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 assembled at the Union League Club, which is a new venue, and a fine one indeed (and not just because it's closer to mid- town), and joined Otto Penzler in his toast to Deborah Fusco as *the* Woman during the pre-dinner cocktail party (Debbie went on to dine at the Algon- quin with many of the other ladies who have received that honor). The evening's entertainment featured the usual traditions, and presenta- tions that included a report by George Fletcher and Jon Lellenberg on the venues of past annual dinners, an explanation by John Linsenmeyer of why Charles Augustus Milverton should be Canonized, a frantic debate on the best and worst stories in the Canon (frantic because each side had to be both pro and con), and a tribute by Dan Posnansky to the late James Keddie (pŠre and fils, as they chose to be known in Boston and in the BSI). And there was enthusiastic applause for New York governor George Pataki, who had appointed Al Rosenblatt to the Court of Appeals, and on Jan. 5 had presided over Al's swearing-in ceremony, and was the first state governor to attend a BSI annual dinner (mention was made of the fact that New York governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been a Sherlockian and had gone on to serve as president of the United States, but the governor did not seize the opportunity to announce his future plans). Mike Whelan (the BSI's "Wiggins") awarded this year's Birthday Honours of Irregular Shillings and Investitures to Marilyn MacGregor ("V.V. 341"), Paul Jeffers ("Wilson Hargreave"), Bill Dorn ("The Newgate Calendar"), June Kinnee ("Miss Hatty Doran"), and Les Klinger ("The Abbey Grange"). Jan 99 #2 The Baskerville Bash also took place on Friday evening, again at La Belle Epoque and with a capacity crowd, and with enter- tainment by The Grimpen Mire Choir and the Sherlettes, Will Walsh explain- ing his Seventeen-Step Program for Recovering Sherlockians (you start by admitting that Sherlock Holmes is fictional), Elliott Black performing his mystifying mentalism act ("The Sherlock Holmes of Thought"), and presenta- tions by Rosemary Michaud and Brad Keefavuer. On Saturday morning the dealers' room (at the Algonquin) was as always full of dealers and a wide variety of Sherlockiana to delight eager browsers and collectors. And the Saturday-afternoon cocktail party at the National Arts Club featured Jay and Trish Pearlman's spectacular miniature recreation of the sitting-room at 221B Baker Street, displayed for the first time for a Sherlockian audience. Al Rosenblatt waxed poetic in his traditional report on the previous even- ing's events, and Mike Whelan announced that Jon Lellenberg was the winner of the Morley-Montgomery Award (an attractive certificate and a check for $500) for the best contribution to last year's Baker Street Journal (the BSJ's Christmas Annual history of the 1940 BSI annual dinner). And Beverly Wolov read her poem honoring *the* woman, commissioned as a new tradition at the previous evening's dinner at the Algonquin for *the* woman. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund benefited from June Kinnee's energetic market- ing of raffle tickets for an attractive portrait-in-oils of Sherlock Holmes that was painted by Franklin Moody in 1979 and kindly donated to the raffle by Ken Lanza and Altamont's Agents, and from the generosity of bidders in the auction, which included treasures such a sheet of the Sherlock Holmes stamps and the set of first day covers issued by Nicaragua in 1973, donated from Ted Schulz's collection by Vinnie Brosnan. 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, the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes had arranged a Sherlockian brunch at the Landmark Tavern. 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, $21.00 a year, and the address is Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331). The BSJ's Christmas Annual for 1998 still is available ($6.00 postpaid, from the same address); "Entertainment and Fantasy" is the title that Jon Lellenberg chose, and it is apt indeed for his appreciative and amusing look at what the Irregulars were up to way back when. 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 raffle and the auction are always welcome. If you have something you would like to donate to this worthy cause, you are cor- dially invited to write to Michael F. Whelan, Box 2189, Easton, MD 21601. Jan 99 #3 "What is your favorite occupation?" "Being an entertainer." "When and where were you happiest?" "Right now!" "What is your greatest regret?" "I could have been a contender." "What do you most value in your friends?" "Love." "Who is your favorite hero of fiction?" "Sherlock Holmes." Those were some of the questions and answers in Tony Bennett's "Proust Questionnaire" in Vanity Fair (Dec. 1998). "His broad black hat, his baggy trousers, his white tie, his sympathetic smile, and general look of peering and benevolent curiosity were such as Mr. John Hare alone could have equalled," Watson reported (in "A Scandal in Bohemia"). And this year the postal service celebrates the Year of the Hare. This year may be the year of "The Lost World" on television: "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" premiered on The Movie Network in Canada on Jan. 4 (the 93-minute television film was produced in Canada and is only, loosely based on Conan Doyle's book, set in Mongolia in 1934, directed by Bob Keen, and starring Patrick Bergin as Challenger); a different two-hour film has been completed by the Telescene Film Group (produced by John Lan- dis and directed by Richard Franklin, it is targeted for the Action Adven- ture Network, with plans for a spin-off series of twenty one-hour shows); and there was a report last year suggesting that the BBC is considering a production starring Brian Blessed as Challenger. The John Landis television film stars Peter McCauley as Challenger; he has been an actor at least since 1979, and had a supporting role in the televi-sion mini-series "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1987) that starred Michael Caine as Capt. Nemo, and the film was made in Australia and will be seen on DirecTV (that's a direct broadcast satellite service with 4.6 million sub-scribers); the film debuts on Feb. 1 and will be available through Mar. 10, and subscribers will pay $2.99 if they want to watch the film. It's really difficult to make a dinosaur film now, since Steven Spielberg has set a standard difficult to match; the Canadian film doesn't begin to do justice to Conan Doyle's story, and the actors aren't up to what story there is, and the dinosaurs aren't much better than the actors. The real problem, perhaps, is that producers don't understand, and thus ignore, the humor in Conan Doyle's tale. It was in 1979 that Sherlock Holmes went on display at the National Museum of Air and Space at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, and I'm glad to report that he's still there, in the exhibit on "Exploring the Planets" on the second floor of the museum, with Sidney Paget artwork and an appro- priate quote from the Canon. An interesting book for those who collect foreign-language Sherlockiana: MY DEAR WATSON, by Margaret Park Bridges; it won the second prize in Suntory's mystery-fiction competition in 1992 and it was translated into Japanese and published by Bungei Shunju, and as far as I know it is the only Sherlockian novel to have been written in English, and published in Japanese but not in English. Masamichi Higurashi reports that it's also unusual for a Sherlock Holmes pastiche to win a prize in the competition. Jan 99 #4 Spotted by Jerry Margolin: A STUDY IN SCARLET (1998), a graphic novel published by Thorby Comics ($6.95); it contains reprints of "The Singular Case of the Anemic Heir!" (artwork by Anton Caravana) from The Rook (Aug. 1981) and "A Study in Scarlet" (artwork by Noly Panaligan) from The Rook (Feb. 1982 and Apr. 1982) and Eerie (Jan. 1983), with strong new cover art by Mark Evans. Elic Denbo ("The Ferrers Documents") died on Mar. 9, 1998. He was an oph- thalmologist, and for many years a member of The Sons of the Copper Beeches (in which he held the rank of Master Copper Beechsmith). He received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1974. Lois McMaster Bujold was the guest of honor at the New England Science Fic- tion Association's annual convention in 1996, and one of Boskone's pleasant traditions is publishing a collection of the honoree's work. DREAMWEAVER'S DILEMMA (NESFA Press, 1995; 250 pp.) still is available in the trade paper- back edition ($14.00 postpaid), and it includes "The Adventure of the Lady on the Embankment" (kindly noted by Alexandra Haropulos); it's a Sherlock- ian pastiche, written after the author graduated from college and hitherto unpublished. The publisher's address is Box 809, Framingham, MA 01701 (and credit-card orders are welcome). The Pequod's poet laureate has begun the New Year with STIX & STONES, fea- turing poetic tributes to Tom Stix and perhaps (the poet hedges) a revised version of his own now-out-of-date epitaph; the cost is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Among my Christmas presents: THE MISSING NOSE FLUTE AND OTHER MYSTERIES OF LIFE, by Nick Bantock (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1991; $8.95); repro- ductions of 22 oversize antique postcards with bizarre captions supplied by Bantock (and one of them is Sherlockian, of course). And a canvas bookbag from Waldenbooks with the quote "It is a great thing to start life with ... really good books which are your very own," credited to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The quote is from his THROUGH THE MAGIC DOOR (1907), and the three dots replace "a small number of" (one can of course understand why Walden- books thought it best to leave that out). Susan Conant's THE BAKER STREET REGULARS (Feb 98 #4) is scheduled in a pap- erback reprint from Bantam Books in February ($5.99); amateur sleuth Holly Winter and her malamutes Rowdy and Kimi get involved with some Boston Sher- lockians, an animal psychic, and a murder. The latest issue of Scarlet Street offers the second part of David Stuart Davies' report on Edward R. Murrow's interview with Basil Rathbone on "Per- son to Person" on CBS-TV on Jan. 11, 1957, and as always coverage of other aspects of the mystery-and-horror genre. The magazine costs $35.00 a year (bimonthly); Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452, And there's a web-site at . Reported by Julie McKuras: Baker Street Pens ("our unique pewter pens are topped with finely crafted figurines depicting Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Professor Moriarty"), $39.95 each in the new spring catalog from What on Earth (2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087 (800-945-2552). Jan 99 #5 "Clinton Describes Terrorism Threat for 21st Century" was the headline on a story in the N.Y. Times (Jan. 22, 1999), report- ing on an Oval Office interview with reporters Judith Miller and William J. Broad the day before. And it's obvious that the President knows the Canon: "he hoped a major legacy of his Presidency would be to stave off unconven- tional attacks. He said he would be delighted if, decades later, Americans look back on any such threat as 'the dog that didn't bark.'" "I would never have overlooked such a cock pheasant as that," Holmes told Watson (in "The Three Garridebs"); our latest post- card-rate stamp shows a ring-necked pheasant (and we can use it for a while longer since that rate hasn't gone up). Don Hobbs reports THE 50 GREATEST MYSTERIES OF ALL TIME, edited by Otto Penzler (Los Angeles: Dove Books, 1998; 567 pp., $25.00); the con- tents include "The Red-Headed League" and Vincent Starrett's "The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet" (Otto says in his introduction that if it wasn't for a limit of one story per author, there would have been more Sherlock Holmes stories). Dr. Watson's Neglected Patients (the Sherlockian society in Denver) offer their sales-list of society collectibles: their handbook, lapel pin, book- marks, T-shirts, and sweatshirts. The sales list is available from Mark Langston (1143 South Monaco Parkway, Denver, CO 80224) or from Bill Dorn . Michael Pointer died on Dec. 26, 1998. He was one of earliest enthusiasts to investigate Sherlock Holmes on stage and screen, and contributed his ex- pertise to the catalog of the exhibition at Abbey House during the Festival of Britain in 1951, and gladly and quickly joined The Sherlock Holmes Soci- ety of London. His fine series of articles on "Which of You Is Holmes?" in The Sherlock Holmes Journal were expanded into THE PUBLIC LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1975) and THE SHERLOCK HOLMES FILE (1976), both delightful explora- tions of theatrical Sherlockiana, and he went on to expand his reach in THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1991), another excellent contribution to our literature. Spotted by Jim Suszynski: THE NATURALIST'S HANDBOOK: ACTIVITIES FOR YOUNG EXPLORERS, by Lynn Kuntz (Layton: Gibbs Smith, 1996; 64 pp., $14.95, but now $4.98 on the discount tables); Sherlockian artwork by Michael Moran on the cover and inside the book. "Sherlock Holmes & the League of Night" is the mystery that Holmes and Wat- son and participants in the next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" will attempt to solve on Mar. 12-14 in Cape May. The weekend includes a tour of the town's Victorian homes, and additional details are available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204 (609-884-5404) (800-275- 4278) . David R. McCallister's "Periodic Table of the Sherlock Holmes Adventures" is an amusing, artistic, and informative approach to organizing the Canon; it's 14 x 8.5 in., printed in six colors, and it's available for $6.00 post-paid from David at 8142 Quail Hollow Boulevard, Wesley Chapel, FL 33544. Jan 99 #6 One of the more interesting things about the Internet is the electronic auction ongoing at eBay , where Amy Brinkley noted the recent offer of a program from the Wyndham Theatre pro- duction of "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" signed by both Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke (accompanied by a letter of provenance and a photograph of the seller with Brett and Hardwicke). And the final price was $880 (demon- strating why some collectors like to get signatures on things). THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES 1998 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998; 343 pp., $27.50) is edited by Sue Grafton and Otto Penzler and contains 20 fine stories that were first published in 1997, one of them John T. Lescroart's pastiche "The Adventure of the Giant Rat of Sumatra" (reprinted from Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine). The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond is displaying 50 sketches and finished drawings of horses by Sherlock Holmes' great-granduncle. "Fiery Steeds: French Romantic Studies by Carle Vernet from the Ritzenberg Collec- tion" runs through Mar. 14, and the museum's at 2800 Grove Avenue (804-367- 0844) . Warren Randall created a new lapel pin for this year's (third annual) Baskerville Bash; it's shown here actual size, and it costs $15.00 postpaid (his address is 15 Fawn Lane West, South Setauket, NY 11720). Charles Prepolec has reported that K. C. Brown's two-act play "Sherlock's Veiled Secret" (1994) is being performed at the Pleiades Theatre in Calgary through Feb. 14; Sherlock Holmes comes out of retirement to solve a blackmail case. Box 2100, Station M #73, Calgary, AB T2P 2M5, Canada (403-221-3708). 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 751 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for contacts for the 433 active societies, costs $4.20 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. For the electronically enabled, the 15-page list of Irregulars and others is available from me by e-mail (no charge), and both lists are available at Willis G. Frick's "Sherlocktron" web site at . Also available free on the Web are Linda Anderson's digital photographs of various and sundry celebrants at the birthday festi- vities, at . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Feb 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Further to the report (Jan 99 #3) on the latest version of "The Lost World" starring Peter McCauley as Challenger: after the broadcast on DirecTV from Feb. 1 to Mar. 10, the two-hour film will air on TNT cable on Apr. 11. The spin-off one-hour series (same actors) is in production, and will start on DirecTV in July, and will be available for syndication this fall. Spotted by Jim Suszynski: A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Dove Audio): "The Six Napoleons" and "The Crooked Man" read by Ben Kingsley on a single "sel- ect sound buys" cassette ($1.98); this was part of a four-cassette set that was first issued in 1988. Dove's toll-free number is 800-328-3683. TALES CALCULATED TO DRIVE YOU MAD is a new series, reprinting the earlier issues of Mad; Jack Kerr spotted #6 (spring 1999) with full-color reprints of original issues #16-18, including the classic "Shermlock Shomes in The Hound of the Basketballs" from the Oct. 1954 issue and a Sherlockian panel in "Julius Caesar!" from the Nov. 1954 issue; $3.99. Robert W. Hahn ("Colonel Ross") died on Feb. 4. He was a credit manager by profession, and a Sherlockian both by vocation and avocation: he lectured at conferences and taught courses in Sherlock Holmes, and he was a sparking plug in the S'ian world in Chicago (where he served nine terms as Sir Hugo in Hugo's Companions and founded their running of The Silver Blaze), con- tinuing his S'ian activities after he retired to Sheboygan, Wis., proudly playing the butler in the local community players' adaptation of William Gillette's play in 1987. He received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1963, and the BSI's Two-Shilling Award in 1981. Reported by Christopher Roden: MYSTERY & SUSPENSE WRITERS, edited by Robin Winks (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998; 1,296 pages, $225.00); two volumes of essays on past and present writers, including a 30-page essay on Arthur Conan Doyle by Owen Dudley Edwards. Barnes & Noble continues to reprint older books under its own imprint: Gas- ton Leroux's THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, with reprints of two articles about the Phantom's Sherlockian connections (David Rush's "Holmes and the Opera Ghost" and Barbara Goldfield's "Sherlock Holmes Meets the Living Corpse"), first published in 1988 (now $5.98); and Terry Jones' LADY COTTINGTON'S PRESSED FAIRY BOOK, with artwork by Brian Freud (these fairies definitely are not those photographed at Cottingley in 1917, but the book is delight- fully macabre), first published in 1997 (now $12.95). Sorry about that: the correct URL for Willis Frick's "Sherlocktron" website (Jan 99 #6), where the 15-page list of Irregulars and others, and the lists of the Sherlockian societies, can be viewed by the electronically-enabled is . Reported by Jon Lellenberg: MEMBRANES: METAPHORS OF INVASION IN NINETEENTH- CENTURY LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND POLITICS (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1999; 248 pp., $49.00); Otis "examines how the image of the biologi- cal cell became one of the reigning metaphors of the nineteenth century," and there's a chapter on "Arthur Conan Doyle: An Imperial Immune System". Feb 99 #2 Huntz Hall died on Jan. 30. He made his broadway debut at the age of three months, worked in vaudeville and radio serials in his boyhood, and went to Hollywood at the age of 16 to be one of the Dead End Kids, and then one of the Bowery Boys. He can be seen with deerstalker and calabash playing Sach Jones in "Hard Boiled Mahoney" (1947), "Private Eyes" (1953), and the last film in the series, "In the Money" (1958). Tur- ner Classic Movies has announced that it will salute Hall by broadcasting 48 Bowery Boys films beginning in June. The Playmates 9-inch "Star Trek" collector-series figure of Data in Sher- lockian costume (Mar 98 #3) is now scheduled for release in June, exclus- ively in Target stores, likely priced at $17.99. The list of Sherlockian pastiches mentioned in novels written by non-Sher- lockian authors is short indeed, but you can add John Sandford's THE NIGHT CREW (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1997) (Berkley, 1998). Andrew Blau spotted the mention: "Later that night, with Glass asleep in his bed, Creek sat in his cluttered living room reading SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RED DEMON. He turned the last page, sighed, put the book down and his feet up." Reported by Don Pollock: DETECTION AND ITS DESIGNS: NARRATIVE AND POWER IN 19TH CENTURY DETECTIVE FICTION, by Peter Thoms (Athens: Ohio Univ. Press, 1998; 160 pp., $32.95); the author uses Conan Doyle as one of several early detective-fiction authors, and devotes a chapter to "The Hound of the Bas- kervilles". Reported by George Schenk: THE MODERN SHERLOCK HOLMES: AN INTRODUCTION TO FORENSIC SCIENCE TODAY (London: Broadside Books, 1991), by Judy Williams; with Sherlockian artwork on the cover, and a Canonical quote and a Paget illustration with each chapter, the book is based on a BBC World Service radio series that brought up to date "the meticulous detection methods set down by Sherlock Holmes 100 years ago" (now discounted to $5.98 at Barnes & Noble). The Dec. issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has excellent articles about David L. Hammer and James Montgomery, and other news of what's going on at the Library. You can join the mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Plan well ahead: the Sunshine State Sherlockian Scion Symposium II will be held in St. Pete Beach on June 9-11, 2000. If you would like to be on the mailing list, write to Carl L. Heifetz (3693 Siena Lane, Palm Harbor, FL 34685) . William Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes" was first performed in 1899, and The Blustering Gales from the South-West will hold a conference on Mar. 27 at the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society Clubhouse in North Hollywood to honor the centenary. The day-long event will include guest speakers, two meals, and a performance of the play; additional information is available from Paula Salo (4421 Pacific Coast Highway, Torrance, CA 90505) and at the society's web-site at . Feb 99 #3 Caliber Comics has begun a new series called SHERLOCK HOLMES READER. The contents of the first issue ($3.95) include the first installment of "The Loch Ness Horror" (with story by Martin Powell and artwork by Seppo Makinen), and reprints of "A Case of Identity" and Barrie's "The Adventure of the Two Collaborators"; Caliber's at 225 North Sheldon Road, Plymouth, MI 48170 (888-222-6643) . Laurie R. King's THE MOOR (Jan 98 #6) is now in paperback (New York: Bantam Book, 1999; 369 pp., $5.99); it's the fourth novel about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, and Laurie has done a fine job with the time and place and characters, as well as with the mystery. Herman Herst, Jr. ("Colonel Emsworth, V.C.") died on Jan. 31. He began his as a stamp dealer in the 1930s and became the philatelic world's best-known dealers and collectors. Pat (he was born on St. Patrick's Day) was a fine writer and a delightful story-teller; his philatelic pastiche "Dirty Pool" Was published in the Baker Street Journal in June 1966, and he received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1968. He also found inter- esting philatelic connections for Arthur Conan Doyle, whose uncle Richard designed the first commercial Christmas greeting in 1840 (a caricature of the prepaid Mulready envelope), and whose father Charles was an artist for the Illustrated London Times at the trial of Madeleine Smith in Edinburgh in 1857 (a smudged postmark helped win a verdict of "not proven"). John Chaffin reports that "Another Evening with Sherlock Holmes" will open at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre on Aug. 31 and run through Oct. 23 (with dramatizations of "The Red-Headed League", "A Scandal in Bohemia", and "The Dancing Men"); 8204 Highway 100, Nashville, TN 73221) (615-646-9977) (800- 282-2276) . "Our noisy friend upon the sofa has assured me that it is from Franz Joseph's special cellar at the Schoenbrunn Palace," Sherlock Holmes said (in "His Last Bow"). Ben Wood spotted a new set of United Nations stamps honoring the Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens; the Palace was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996. The palace and gardens are open to the public, but the tour may not include the special cellar. Many hotel chains have magazines now, just like the airlines (although they probably aren't called in-bed magazines). Connie Steffan reports that the contents of the Dec. 1998 issue of Navigator (Holiday Inn Express) included Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Tale of the Gloria Scott". Francine Kitts reports that the Morgan Library (at 29 East 36th Street in New York) has an exhibit of "Detectives, Private Eyes, and Spies" through May 5; it includes a first edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, and at least one other Sherlockian book (with an accompanying mention of the Baker Street Irregulars in Christopher Morley's essay "On Belonging to Clubs"), and treasures such as the manuscript of Wilkie Collins' THE MOONSTONE. A "Murder at the Morgan" film series accompanying the exhibit includes "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) at 3:00 pm on Mar. 21. Feb 99 #4 John Addison died on Dec. 7, 1998. He began writing music for theater and film in the 1950s, scoring more than 70 films, and he won an Oscar for "Tom Jones" (1963) and an Emmy for the theme music for the "Murder, She Wrote" television series. His other credits included the "detective" theme music for Douglas Wilmer's "The Speckled Band" on BBC television (1964) and the score for "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976). Noted by Jim Suszynski: HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, MISS HILDY!, by Lois Gramb- ling, illustrated by Bridget Starr Taylor (New York: Random House, 1998; 32 pp., $3.99); a Step into Reading book for grades 1-3, with Miss Hildy as a senior-citizen detective in Sherlockian costume. Reported: Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE ICE PALACE MURDERS (the second of his novel-length pastiches), read by Simon Prebble on an abridged four-audiocassette set from Penguin Audio ($24.95). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet for dinner in honor of the world's first forensic geologist at 7:00 pm on Apr. 14 at Mi Tierra in San Antonio. If you'd like to join us for the festivities, please contact Ben Fairbank (Box 15075, San Antonio, TX 78212) (210-733-8738) or me (addresses at the end of the newsletter). The Sons of the Copper Beeches celebrated their 50th anniver- sary last fall, and published a 24-page collection of essays, poetry, artwork, and history in honor of the event. Copies are available for $8.00 postpaid from Scott P. Bond (519 East Allens Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19119. And the Sons' lapel pin (shown here actual size), which was designed by Scott and (of course) is decorated with a colorful copper beech tree, costs $12.00 post- paid and also is available from Scott (to whom checks should be made pay- able as well as sent). Tyrol International (Box 909, Cleveland, GA 30528) (800-241-5404) offers a miniature (5.5 in. high) Sherlock Holmes nutcracker hand-crafted in Canada by Norbert Zuber from a design by Bernd Nagy (item 78229) ($45.00) [it will make a nice pair with the similar full-size Steinbach nutcracker that was offered more than 20 years ago]. 221B: EN STUDIE I BAKER STREET, by Morgan Malm, offers a careful survey of Baker Street and the many suggested locations for 221B; the 36-page mono- graph (in Swedish) is available for $9.00 (in currency only, please) from Ystads Antikvariat, Box 165, 271 23 Ystad, Sweden. Ystads also offers KRONDIAMANTEN, ELLER EN KVŽLL MED SHERLOCK HOLMES; this is Conan Doyle's play "The Crown Diamond" (translated into Swedish by Ted Bergman) and with a foreword by Mattias Bostrom (also in Swedish) discuss- ing a production of the play in Malmo in 1994, and with photographs from the show. 28 pp., same price (or $16.00 for the two pamphlets). The exhibition of "Jellies: Phantoms of the Deep" at the National Aquarium in Baltimore in 1997-98 (Apr 87 #6) can be seen at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga (423-265-0695) (800-262-0695) through the end of 1999, Jack Kerr notes, and it's a fine (and safe) opportunity to see a lion's mane. Feb 99 #5 Noted by Matt Demakos: VISITORS FROM OZ: THE WILD ADVENTURES OF DOROTHY, THE SCARECROW, AND THE TIN WOODMAN, by Martin Gardner (New York: St. Martin's Press, 208 pp., $22.95); the intrepid trio travel to an alternate-universe Wonderland, where they are assisted by Sheerluck Brown (a large brown private-detective bear wearing a deerstalker), and to New York, where they appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Ezra A. Wolff ("Sir James Damery") died on Feb. 2. He was a surgeon, and was guided into the Sherlockian world by his brother Julian Wolff, and in 1969 Ezra began his delightful tradition of reporting in rhyme at the Sat- urday cocktail party on events at the annual dinner the night before. He read the last of his poems in 1988, noting that "It's nineteen years since I, a beginner, Came to my first BSI Dinner." Ezra received his Investiture in 1972, and the BSI's Two-Shilling Award in 1987, and the Irregulars still honor the tradition he started, thanks to Al Rosenblatt's judicial poetics. The Northern Musgraves offer a metal bookmark that shows Sherlock Holmes as drawn by Peter Cushing (it's the socie- ty's logo); the postpaid cost is L2.00 (Britain) or L3.00 (Europe) or $10.00 (elsewhere). Checks should be payable to The Northern Musgraves, and sent to Anne Jordan (Fair- bank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorks. BD16 3DN, England). Gary L. Heiselberg's PERSONAE DRAMATIS IN LUDIS SHERLOCIENSIBUS follows the trail blazed by Edgar W. Smith in his APPOINTMENT IN BAKER STREET, but Gary has cast his net more widely in offering capsule commentaries on the char- acters and animals named in the Canon. 183 pp., $28.00 postpaid (cloth) or $19.00 (paper) from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada (or you can special-order at Borders bookstores). David McCallister spotted the "leather book collection" in the current cat- alog from the Home Decorators Collection (8920 Pershall Road, Hazelwood, MO 63042) (800-245-2217): furniture featuring multi-colored book facades that include fake "Sherlock Holmes" volumes. A coffee table with two accent ta- bles costs $199.00, and a four-panel screen costs $299.00. Reported: a new Dover Thrift Series edition of A. A. Milne's THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY, with an introduction by Douglas G. Greene (Mineola: Dover, 1998; 156 pp., $2.00); two of the characters assume the roles of Holmes and Wat- son to solve the mystery. The 18th annual Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes Symposium will be held on Mar. 12-14 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Fairborn, Ohio, with speakers and theatrics and other fun and games. Additional information is available from Greg Sullivan, 39 Sherwood Avenue, Danvers, MA 01923 . A new catalog from femmes fatales offers some intriguing new Sherlockiana, including deerstalker wine stopper, napkin rings, swizzle sticks, and place cards, and Sherlockian bottle openers and corkscrews, and older items, and some interesting non-Sherlockian material. Box 4457, Lakewood, CA 90712 (800-596-3323) . Readers of this newsletter qualify for a 10% discount (the magic word is "Scuttlebutt"). Feb 99 #6 Tangled Web #7 is a 28-page magazine with an article about the Cottingley fairies by Chris Willis, reviews of British myster- ies, and a nice tribute to A. E. W. Mason by Philip L. Scowcroft; available from Andrew Osmond (69 Holm Oak Park, Watford, Herts. WD1 8TH, England) for L2.95 (U.K.) or $6.00 (elsewhere: currency only, please). The Pequod Press' second book of the year is BAKER STREET BAZAAR, with more Sherlockian poetry; the cost is $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Sorry about that: the correct title of the new paperback edition of Susan Conant's mystery novel about amateur sleuth Holly Winter and her malamutes Rowdy and Kimi (Jan 99 #4) is THE BARKER STREET REGULARS (New York: Bantam Books, 1999; 272 pp., $5.99). "The Sign of Four" (directed and adapted by Bart Lovins) will be performed by Expanded Arts from May 16 to June 1; the theater is at 85 Ludlow Street, New York, NY 10002 (between Broome and Delancey) and the box-office phone number is (212-253-1813). The company's production of "A Study in Scarlet" last year won praise in a review in The Three Garridebs' newsletter. Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets have reached the 1940s, and the new sheet includes a stamp honoring the film "Citizen Kane" and Orson Welles, one of the few actors who have played both Sherlock Holmes and Prof. Moriarty. Other stamps show Harry S. Truman (who was a member of the Baker Street Irregulars), and a World War II poster drawn by N. C. Wyeth, who also illustrated some of Conan Doyle's stories. The Sherlock Holmes Society of Australia's lapel pin, first sold more than ten years ago (Apr 88 #6), shows a silhouette of Holmes superimposed on an outline map of Australia, and is available again from Alan C. Olding, P.O. Box 13, Stirling, S.A. 5152, Australia; $15.00 postpaid (personal checks are welcome). "My wife and the other furniture will arrive shortly," Dr. Watson said, in "The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes" (1935). An addition to the list of memor- able lines from Sherlockian movies, spotted by Jane Langston of The Afghan- istan Perceivers of Tulsa. Planning for the unveiling of the statue of Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street this fall continues, with an informal schedule that starts with a tour of Tower Bridge on Sept. 21 and ends with a visit to sculptor John Doubleday's studio in Essex on Sept. 26. And Barbara Herbert has begun work on a pack- age (plane and hotel) for Americans who might participate; you can write or call her at Wayfarer Travel Service (7140 Miami Avenue #100, Cincinnati, OH 45243) (513-271-4637) (800-638-5351) . The electronically-enabled can find a few more details about the festivities at , which is the web-site of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and I hope to have more information here next month. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Mar 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "Pinkerton Inc., the legendary American detective agency that guarded Abra- ham Lincoln, chased Jesse James, and gave rise to the term 'private eye', is being bought by a Swedish security company," according to a story in the Boston Globe (Feb. 23), spotted by Scott Monty. Securitas AB has agreed to pay $384 million for Pinkerton, which will keep its name, management, and worldwide staff. "We're not losing an icon," Pinkerton's president said. "Pinkerton will remain Pinkerton. We're just trading shareholders." And it's a nice coincidence, of course, that Ettie Shafter was Swedish, at least in The Strand Magazine and in the first British edition of THE VALLEY OF FEAR. In the first American edition, and in the manuscript, Ettie was German; it is likely that the change from German to Swedish was an editori- al decision: Conan Doyle's prophetic story "Danger!" (about Britain's weak- ness if an enemy were to impose a submarine blockade) appeared in the July 1914 issue of the Strand, two months before "The Valley of Fear" began in the magazine. Plan ahead: the third annual Sherlock Holmes Festival on Nov. 5-6 in Tryon, N.C. will again pay tribute to William Gillette; the events will include a performance of his play "Sherlock Holmes", and additional information will be available from the Polk County Travel & Tourism Council, 401 North Trade Street, Tryon, NC 28782 (800-440-7848). Laurie R. King's won an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for her first novel, A GRAVE TALENT, and of course copies of the first printing are serious collectibles now, and even more collectible if they're signed. So it was a surprise to Laurie when at a recent book-signing, she was asked to sign a faked copy of the first printing. The faker had photocopied both sides of a proper title page, removed the title page from a later printing, and carefully glued in the photocopy; Laurie might not have detected the forgery, except that the original paper was of better quality than the pho- tocopy paper. And the dedication page (where she was about to sign), has a line of Hebrew, which in the first printing is upside down. Edward Rote and Karen Page offer a wristwatch with a Sherlockian silhouette on the face; $75.00. You can request an illustrated flier from A Sherlock Holmes Occasion, Box 1079, Agoura Hills, CA 91376), or visit their web-site at . Lenny Gray spotted a new comic-book mini-series THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN from America's Best Comics, with story by Alan Moore and striking artwork by Kevin O'Neill. The first issue is dated March ($2.95) and gath- ers Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, and C. Auguste Dupin into a league that has been organized by an off-stage Mycroft Holmes. THE WORLD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Martin Fido (London: Carlton Books, 1998; 144 pp., L14.99), is subtitled "the facts and fiction behind the world's greatest detective," and it's a handsome book indeed, packed with colorful illustrations and offering interesting two-page summaries of the stories, aspects of their author's life, and the world of Sherlock Holmes and Sher- lockians. The books is discounted here at $20.00 by the Adams Media Corp. Mar 99 #2 Michael Avallone died on Feb. 26. He wrote more than 200 books (about half of them using pseudonyms), and was best-known for his "Ed Noon" series. He liked being known as "the fastest typewriter in the east," and once suggested that "a professional writer should be able to write anything from a garden seed catalogue to the Bible." In 1973 he told a reporter for the Daily Express that "I've been writing ever since I dis- covered pencils," and that he was considering writing a thriller that would identify Jack the Ripper as Arthur Conan Doyle. Pam Verrey spotted the "Children of the World" shirts and jackets and tops and totes and mini paks in a cata- log from S.C.R.U.B.S. (8555 Argent Street, Santee, CA 90271) (800-231-5965); $23.00 to $44.00, and one of the children is in Sherlockian costume. Moshe Nalick notes that Ohr Somayach, a Jerusalem-based yeshiva, publishes a weekly newsletter on the Internet, in which Sherlox Holmes and Watstein solve problems in commentary on the Torah. The URL is . Sorry about that: the correct Caliber Comics toll-free number is 888-222-6642. They have launched the series SHERLOCK HOLMES READER (Feb 99 #3), and have back iss- ues of other Sherlockian comics, and there's a web-site at . Dr. Watson was "deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea-stories" (in "The Five Orange Pips"), and David Pearson notes that one of the stories is in print as a paperback: THE WRECK OF THE GROSVENOR, by William Clark Russell (McBooks Press, 1998, 320 pp.); $11.16 from Barnes & Noble (One Pond Road, Rockleigh, NJ 07647) (800-843-2665) and presumably elsewhere. The English Channel offers Sherlockian chess sets ($897.00), bottlestoppers ($17.00), and matchbox covers ($16.00 or $19.00); and you can write for an illustrated sales list (Vine House, 16 New Street, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 2DX, England) or visit their web-site . Bob Burr reports that in THE FLINTSTONES AND THE JETSONS (from DC Comics, Apr. 1999), Fred Flintstone reads so many Sherock Stones books that he be- comes the character himself. Lynn Willis died on Mar. 7. She was an early member of The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes (as "Laura Lyons"), and an enthusiastic participant in Sherlockian affairs in the New York, including planning for the Baskerville Bashes. "Hot on the Trail of Sherlock Holmes" is the title of David Goodman's arti- cle in Ski Magazine (Mar.-Apr. 1999), but it was Arthur Conan Doyle who did the skiing, in 1894, crossing the Maienfelder Furka from Davos to Arosa, as did Goodman almost exactly 104 years later. The magazine's address is Box 55533, Boulder, CO 80322 (800-678-0817) ; $3.99. Mar 99 #3 MEMBRANES: METAPHORS OF INVASION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERA- TURE, SCIENCE, AND POLITICS, by Laura Otis (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1999; 210 pp., $49.00), uses the century's attitudes toward the spread and prevention of disease as an analogy for colonial pol- itics, with a chapter on "Arthur Conan Doyle: An Imperial Immune System". Dennis France is trying to assemble an archive of all 56 of the stories as broadcast by Carlton Hobbs and Norman Shelley, and lacks only four ("A Case of Identity", The Cardboard Box", "The Illustrious Client", and "The Three Students"); anyone who has any or all of the missing four is invited to get in touch with Dennis (8546 North Kedvale Avenue, Skokie, IL 60076). John L. Goldwater died on Feb. 26. He is survived by Archie, Jughead, Betty, and Veronica, in River- dale, the N.Y. Times noted in its obituary. Gold- man and artist Bob Montana created Archie in 1941, and the strip once ran in 750 newspapers. Archie Andrews and his friends are still in their teens, although now exchanging e-mail, and Archie Comics publishes more than 30 comic books. This panel is from a strip that ran on June 13, 1965, with Jug- head and Archie rehearsing for a "Sheerluck Homes" play at their school. William F. B. Vodrey has written an interesting one-act radio play about "The Adventure of the Grice Patersons" (it will take 35-40 minutes to per- form); copies of the script (with permission for a single performance) cost $15.00 postpaid from the author (3785 Hillbrook Road, University Heights, OH 44118). Alvin E. Rodin ("Palmer) died on Mar. 18. He was for many years a profess- or in the departments of pathology and postgraduate medicine and continuing education at Wright State University's School of Medicine, and combined vo- cation and avocation in careful research and excellent writing about Arthur Conan Doyle's life and career, published in The Baker Street Journal, Baker Street Miscellanea, and other journals. With Jack D. Key he wrote MEDICAL CASEBOOK OF DOCTOR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: FROM PRACTITIONER TO SHERLOCK HOLMES AND BEYOND (1984), offering a fascinating assessment of Sir Arthur's career and the medical aspects of all of his writings, and Al's interest in Conan Doyle continued through many other books, culminating in THE ANNOTATED LOST WORLD (1996), which he wrote with Roy E. Pilot. Al received his membership in The Baker Street Irregulars in 1989. The next Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes Symposium (Mar. 10-12, 2000 in Fairborn, Ohio), will have tributes to Al, who founded the symposium many years ago; if you have thoughts or reminiscences for publication in a book- let that will honor Al, please send them to Greg Sullivan (39 Sherwood Ave- nue, Danvers, MA 01923) . Reported: DINOSAUR SUMMER, by Greg Baer (Jun 93 #3), in a paperback reprint (Aspect, $6.99); it's delightful alternate history, about an expedition to return the survivors of America's last dinosaur circus to the Lost World, Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen along for the fun and games. Mar 99 #4 Les Klinger spotted reviews of two books that may be of inter- est: A MAN'S PLACE: MASCULINITY AND THE MIDDLE-CLASS HOME IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND, by John Tosh (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1999; 288 pp, $30.00); the book considers the decline of the cult of domesticity in late- Victorian times but describes this as a "change in atmosphere" rather than a "full-blown crisis." LILLIE LANGTRY: MANNERS, MASKS AND MORALS, by Laura Beatty (London: Chatto and Windus, 1999; 288 pp., L20.00); recommended by Antonia Fraser as "irresistibly enjoyable" and revealing that Langtry was tutored in Greek and Latin by Oscar Wilde. It certainly isn't the palimpsest that Holmes was studying (in "The Golden Pince-Nez"), but Mary Burke notes that you can see one at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore in an exhibit that opens on June 20. The "Archimedes Palimpsest" is the oldest surviving manuscript of any of his mathematical works; it was written in Greek in the 10th century in Constantinople, and washed by a monk in the Holy Land in the 12th century (so that the parch- ment could be used for something more important), and it was bought for $2 million at an auction last year by a private buyer who has loaned it to the Walters. Both of the texts can now be seen, thanks to modern conservation methods, and the palimpsest already is on display on the World Wide Web at . Leon Falk died on Mar. 13. Better known as Lee Falk, he created the "Mandrake the Magician" comic strip in 1934, and "The Phantom" in 1936 (this panel is from a "Phantom" strip that ran on Mar. 18, 1982). My trial took only seven days, and it was quite inter- esting: the charges involved possession of cocaine and marijuana with intent to distribute, and possession of drug paraphernalia, and the trial was in D.C. Superior Court, and I was on the jury, for the first time ever (in the District of Columbia you are called every two or three years, and you need to spend only one day at the courthouse unless you're selected for a jury), and this was the first time I've ever gotten through the selection process (in the past I've always been unselected, for unstated reasons), and I suspect it was because they were really desperate to get a jury (the jury included two lawyers and two journalists, which is quite unusual). There were four defendants; charges against one were dismissed, and we voted not guilty on one, and couldn't get unanimous votes for guilty on the remaining two. And jury duty is an experience I recommend to everyone, if only because you get to see that real life isn't at all like television or the movies. The March issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has arrived, with inter- esting articles, and some truly important news: the launch of Ronald B. De Waal's THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES online at the university's web-site . It is a work-in-progress at the moment (only the first two volumes are available now), but it's a fine taste of things to come. You can join the mailing list for the newsletter by writing to Richard J. Sveum at: 466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Mar 99 #5 Ray Russell died on Mar. 15. He was a prolific horror and fan- tasy writer, and his novella "Sardonicus" (1960) was praised by Stephen King as "perhaps the finest example of the modern Gothic ever writ- ten." He joined Playboy magazine as an associate editor in 1954, served as executive editor from 1955 to 1960, and continued as a contributing editor into the 1970s. His satirical pastiche "The Murder of Conan Doyle" (with Foames, Squatson, and Goryarty) appeared in Playboy in Apr. 1955. Roger Moore, who has portrayed Sherlock Holmes (in the 1976 television film "Sherlock Holmes in New York"), as well as Simon Templar and James Bond, is now a Commander of the British Empire, in the latest Queen's honours list. Welcome news for those who have been searching for a copy of A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A. CONAN DOYLE, by Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson, which was published by the Oxford University Press in 1980: Richard has been hard at work on corrections and additions for a revised edition to be published soon by Otto Penzler. There won't be room for all of the additions Richard would like to include, he reports sadly, but the bibliography was and will continue to be the very best reference volume for anyone who collects or is interested what Conan Doyle wrote. The Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers will celebrate their 25th anniversary on July 24 at the Westin William Penn (where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stayed in 1923, when it wasn't part of the Westin chain), with a British high tea at noon, presentations and games, and dinner; details are available from Lynda Conway (2330 Bensonia Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15216) (412-563-6985) <76241. 3027@compuserve.com>. Bill Barnes reports that a contest among members of The Sydney Passengers to nominate actors for a new Sherlock Holmes film or television series pro- duced 23 suggestions for the role of Holmes, including Michael Palin, John Waters, and Maggie Smith. And the society's resident artist Philip Cornell has created a group portrait of all the nominees, available for $15.00 or L10.00 or CA$23.00 postpaid from Bill (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) (currency or checks welcome). The Irregular Special Railway Company offers their 1999 prospectus (avail- able from Antony J. Richards, 170 Woodland Road, Sawston, Cambridge CB2 4DX, England), with information about the society and its activities, and their publications and guidebooks and philatelic items and other items such as souvenirs from the Venice-Simplon Orient Express. Sherlock Holmes died on Mar. 19. He lived in Baltimore, according to the death notice spotted by Steve Clarkson in the Baltimore Sun. One of the nice things about the World Wide Web is access to electronic telephone dir- ectories (there are least four of them, and some may have listings that the others don't), and a quick check reveals listings for twelve people named Sherlock Holmes, in Arizona, Arkansas, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Texas. Another quick check, for Garridebs, turned up only Nathan (in Missouri) and John (in New York), both of whom are Sherlockians masquerading as Garridebs. The Mormons' data base, which is the largest genealogical resource in the world, has no one named Garri- deb, and the name remains a unique invention by Arthur Conan Doyle. Mar 99 #6 Interesting material continues to turn up at eBay (the Internet auction site), including a complete 18-hole portable miniature golf course, used for only three years. Each of the holes features a life- size movie characters on exterior plywood, including Humphrey Bogart, the Three Stooges, Humphrey Bogart, the Terminator, Jason, and Sherlock Holmes. It cost more than $32,000 new, and the high bid of $510 was lower (quite a bit lower, one might assume) than the reserve. The Canadian National Railway Police were the first organization reported to be using lapel pins with this mustached portrait of Sherlock Holmes with a pipe (Sep 89 #4), which then was copied by other police operations in Canada. Four different pins (for the Canadian National Railway Police, the Canadian Pacific Rail- way Police, the British Columbia Railway Police, and the Coordi- nated Law Enforcement Unit) are available from Paul D. Roy (3874 Winlake Crescent, Burnaby, BC V5A 2G5, Canada) for US$10.00 each postpaid. The CLEU was created in 1974 in British Columbia, combining the "best and brightest" of Royal Canadian Mounted Police and municipal forces to fight drug-smuggling and other organized crime. The design was used in 1989 by HOLMES (the Home Office Large Major Enquiry System used for comput- erized case-management in Britain and acquired by the police in Toronto), but that pin is not included among those now available. Donald J. Grant died on Feb. 7. His career with the state of Connecticut began in 1967, and for many years he was the Department of Environmental Protection Park Supervisor at Gillette Castle State Park in Hadlyme, where he offered hospitality and assistance to local and visiting Sherlockians. If you've seen and enjoyed the sound-film newsreel footage of William Gill- ette showing off his railroad, you're indebted to Don, who found the film and shipped it off to the Library of Congress for preservation. Fred Levin reports some nice news for collectors of foreign translations: you can add Vietnamese to the list of languages, since he has received THAM TU SHERLOCK HOLMES (Ho Chi Minh City: Nha Xuat Ban-Van Nghe TP, 1998) from a kind friend; there are two volumes, and they don't include all 60 stories (so there may be at least one more volume). MYSTERY & SUSPENSE WRITERS, edited by Robin Winks and including a 30-page essay on Arthur Conan Doyle by Owen Dudley Edwards (Feb 99 #1), has been nominated for an Edgar (best critical/biographical work) from the Mystery Writers of America. The Napoleon of Crime is in the news again: Phil Attwell has noted a report by Clive King in The Times (Mar. 13) that Robert Redford's company Wildwood Enterprises has purchased the film rights to Ben Macintyre's 1997 biography of Adam Worth, whose life and crimes contributed to Conan Doyle's portrait of Prof. Moriarty; the book had been optioned earlier by Steven Spielberg's company DreamWorks SKG (Dec 96 #1). King suggested that "for the 62-year- old heart-throb, the movie marks a long overdue return to the lovable-rogue territory of 'The Sting', or 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'." The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Apr 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "And yet I live and keep bees upon the South Downs," said Sherlock Holmes (in "His Last Bow"). And while it's old news in England, I don't recall that it's been reported here: the Countryside Commission decided against national Park status for the South Downs. According to an article in The Times (Apr. 24, 1998), at hand from Chris Redmond, the commission decided that the Downs, from Eastbourne in East Sussex to Winchester in Hampshire, could be best protected by enhancing their existing status as an area of outstanding natural beauty. The commission also welcomed a proposal to give the New Forest a status equivalent to that of National Parks through special legislation. It was Watson, of course, who "yearned for the glades of the New Forest" (in "The Cardboard Box"). Kirk Alyn died on Mar. 14. He began his show-business career as a chorus boy on Broadway and as an entertainer in vaudeville, and launched his film career in 1934; in 1948 he became the first actor to play Superman on film, in serial that ran through 1950, and one of his last film roles was an ap- pearance as young Lois Lane's father in "Superman" (1978). He worked with Jim Harmon on a script written by Ron Haydock for "Curley Bradley's Trail of Mystery" (a radio western series) playing Jonathan Frazier, an actor who played Sherlock Holmes on stage at the Strand Theatre in Grant, Utah, where Moriarty was committing foul play during the town's annual Sherlock Holmes Celebration; unfortunately the episode never aired. Alyn also was to star in an unproduced film "Sherlock Holmes and the Golden Vampire" (planned in 1976 by writer-producer-director Frank R. Saletri, with Keith McConnell as Sherlock Holmes and Alice Cooper as the Vampire). "The Rugrats Movie" (1998) was released on videocassette ($26.95) on Mar. 30 (discounted to $16.95 at Safeway and likely elsewhere); Angelica Pickles appears in the film in a deerstalker (and was seen thus in a wide variety of tie-in merchandise last year). Enrico Solito reports that there will be an exposition on Sherlock Holmes in the Imperial Gardens in Rome from July 10 to Aug. 10, and that his soci- ety (Uno Studio in Holmes) hold a seminar there on July 24-25. More infor- mation is available from Enrico at Via Lazzerini 56, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino F1, Italy , and on the World Wide Web at . John Ruyle has reported that Dr. Fatso has recorded another case of Turlock Loams for the Pequod Press: THE ADVENTURE OF THE FIERY POOL costs $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper) from John, at 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. The Canadian television series "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" aired on the Fox Family Channel last year (Aug 98 #2), but was suspended after a few weeks. Repeats are now airing sporadically, at 2:00 pm on some Saturdays and Sundays. Meredith Henderson stars as the 12-year-old great grand-niece of Sherlock Holmes (and like him, she is brilliant and eccentric and wants to become the world's greatest detective). Apr 99 #2 Further to last month's note that Robert Redford has bought the film rights to Ben Macintyre's THE NAPOLEON OF CRIME: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ADAM WORTH, MASTER THIEF (Mar 99 #6), BBC News reported that Redford wants Paul Newman to play Worth's nemesis, Allan Pinkerton. This may require a bit of artistic license in the film: Allan Pinkerton died in 1884, and it was to his son William that Worth surrendered Gainborough's portrait of The Duchess of Devonshire in 1901. The Berkshire Theatre Festival's summer season will include Paul Giovanni's "The Crucifer of Blood" from June 24 through July 10. The box office is at Box 797, Stockbridge, MA 01262 (413-298-5536) . And there's more theater ahead: the Village Players plan to produce William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" from Mar. 17 through Apr. 1, 2000; the address of the box-office is Box 712, Birmingham, MI 48012, and the web-site is at . It's "the duelling dinosaurs" (or something like that), and if people were confused when Michael Crichton used "The Lost World" as a title for a book, they'll be even more confused now, since two different two-hour television films about "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World" have aired this year (Jan 99 #3 and Feb 99 #1). Patrick Bergin starred as Professor Challenger in the first film, broadcast on The Movie Network in Canada in January, and Peter McCauley was Challenger in the second film, which aired on DirecTV in February and on TNT cable in April (when TV Guide and the Washington Post announced the Bergin version). The McCauley film is a pilot for a spin-off one-hour series, announced to start on DirecTV in July. Our new sheet of stamps showing the fauna and flora of the Sonoran Desert includes at least three stamps with Canonical connections, one of them being the "venomous lizard or gila" (mentioned in "The Sussex Vampire"). A mail-order catalog from Signals offers a John Cleese video trio: "The Strange Case of the End of Civiliza- tion as We Know It", "Romance with a Double Bass", and "How to Irritate People" on three cassettes ($39.95). Box 64428, St. Paul, MN 55164 (800-669-9696). "The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It" aired on television in Britain in 1977, with Cleese as Arthur Sherlock-Holmes and Arthur Lowe as Dr. William Watson. Lola Troy Fiur offers an imaginative series of mystery-theme photographic note-cards; two of them are Sherlockian (and one of the S'ian photos also is available on a T-shirt). For an illustrated flier, contact LTF Studios, 360 East 65th Street #17-A, New York, NY 10021 . There's still plenty of time to register for Bouchercon (the World Mystery Convention), which will be held in Milwaukee on Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 1999 (Box 341218, Milwaukee, WI 53234) . Next year Bouchercon will be in Denver on Sept. 7-10 (Box 17910, Boulder, CO 90308) . And then Bouchercon will move to Washington, on Nov. 1-4, 2001 (Box 11700, Washington, DC 20008) . Apr 99 #3 The weekly syndicated radio series "Imagination Theater" con- tinues to air 22-minute Sherlock Holmes programs written by Jim French (Jun 98 #4 and Sep 98 #2). Seven S'ian programs have aired so far, and they are available (along with many other shows) on CD or cassette (at $7.99 each postpaid) from TransMedia, 719 Battery Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 (800-227-7234) (credit-card orders welcome). "The Golden Era of the Movies" is a 35 x 14.5 in. print with portraits of more than 120 stars of the 1930s and 1940s by the late George I. Parrish, Jr., who included Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes; the print costs $92.00 postpaid from Bar- wick Publishing (Box 5355, Maryville, TN 37802). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met at Mi Tierra in San Antonio on Apr. 14, during the annual meeting of the Am- erican Association of Petroleum Geologists, for a dinner hon- oring the world's first forensic geologist. We were welcomed by the local Sherlockians (The Strange Old Book Collectors), and of course approved of the AAPG's journalism award to Sarah Andrews for her four mys- tery novels about Emily Hansen, a petroleum geologist who doubles as a de- tective. We will dine next in October in Denver during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. John McPhee won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction for ANNALS OF THE FORMER WORLD (Jul 98 #1); it's a collection of his four fine books about geology, including BASIN AND RANGE, in which he notes that Sherlock Holmes was the first forensic geologist. "Australian Farmer Breeds Blue Sheep" was the headline a on report from the Associated Press (Apr. 20), spotted by Scott Monty, who notes that Sherlock Holmes could now wear a blue dressing gown made with undyed wool. Nancy Follett, who owns a sheep farm at Sleaford Bay in South Australia, said she 25 years ago with a Sussex-type of ram that had a black face and legs and a dark blue body, and now has bred 100 sheep with fleece ranging from light blue to navy blue. "Some people have accused me of dying the sheep," she said. "That's absolutely not true. I'm not up to chasing sheep around and dipping them into dye." Bill Barnes (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) offers copies of THE HOUNDS' COLLECTION: VOLUME 4, with 80 pages of pastiche, humour and serious writing by members of The Hounds of the Internet; most of the mate- rial is new, but a few items have appeared elsewhere. $12.00 or CA$17.00 or L8.00 postpaid by airmail; or $8.00/CA$11.00/L5.00 postpaid by surface mail. Payment by personal checks or currency is welcome. "Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries" is a new videocassette ($12.99) with four non-Sherlockian episodes from the 1970s animated television series "Scooby- Doo, Where Are You" (and a brief view of the cover of the book "The Hound of Beastville" in one of the short "behind the scenes" segments); the cass- ette box shows Scooby in Sherlockian costume, and is packaged with a photo frame that also shows Scooby in S'ian costume. And completists will want to visit a Dairy Queen: the paper bag for their "Kids Pick-nic!" has S'ian artwork on a coupon for a $2.00 discount when you buy the videocassette. Apr 99 #4 Reported: THE CROWDED BOX-ROOM: A CHECKLIST OF SHERLOCKIAN PUB- LICATIONS AND THEIR PUBLISHERS, by Don Hobbs. 214 pp. in plas- tic comb binding, with the names and dates of more than 420 publications, and the names of associated societies and editors, plus notes, appendices, and an index; available from the author (2100 Elm Creek Lane, Flower Mound, TX 75028) for $31.95 plus shipping costs. John Pforr offers the lapel pin honoring the 50th anniversary of the Six Napoleons of Baltimore; designed by Jeff Decker, the pin is one inch in diameter, and in three colors on a red back- ground, and costs $6.00 postpaid from John (6 Salthill Court, Timonium, MD 21093). Ernie Wise died on Mar. 21. Wise was one of Britain's greatest comedians, best known for his work with Eric Morecambe; they began performing together in 1941, and "The Morecambe and Wise Show" was one of the most popular ser- ies on British television. In 1982 the show features a skit with Morecambe (Holmes) and Wise (Watson) solving a murder mystery with Nigel Hawthorne as the butler (who did do it). Kent State University is not distinguished only for providing an electronic home for The Hounds of the Internet: Bruce Southworth notes that its libra- ries house the Borowitz True Crime Collection, to which Albert and Helen Borowitz continue to donate interesting items, most recently their Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, which features inscribed copies of "The Sign of the Four" in Lippincott's Magazine and of THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and a copy of THE CAPTAIN OF THE POLE-STAR AND OTHER TALES (1890) with holograph corrections by Conan Doyle. The last item is of particular interest, since Conan Doyle seldom edited his work after publication. The university is in Kent, Ohio. Mary Ann Madden's "New York Magazine Competition" (Apr. 19) invited compet- itors to sully by anagram one familiar name of fact or fiction and provide for it a brief description similarly altered by a one-word jumble. The ex- amples she offered included: "Sherlock Sholem--Israeli detective in relent- less pursuit of his nemesis, Professor Yom Tirra." Further to the report (Dec 98 #2) on plans to create The Undershaw Club in Arthur Conan Doyle's home in Surrey, Scott Lucy reports that the adjacent property has become available, adding greater scope for the project, which now is targeted for completion by the end of 2000. Additional details are available from Lucy at The Undershaw Club, c/o Grannom House, Gasden Lane, Witley, Surrey GU8 5QB, England . I've lived this long because I didn't die," Dirk Struik told the Associated Press when interviewed for a story on centenarians published in the Boston Globe on Apr. 20 and noted by Scott Monty. "I have good friends," Struik said. "I'm healthy. Above all, I'm active." Struik, now 104, was born in the Netherlands, and began teaching mathematics at the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology in 1926; his article on "The Real Watson" was published in The Baker Street Journal in Jan. 1947, and one of his activities now is attending the annual dinners of The Friends of Irene Adler in Cambridge, where each year he toasts his fellow mathematician, Professor Moriarty. Apr 99 #5 The New York Public Library celebrated its centennial with a display of one hundred "Books of the Century" (1895-1995), and one of them was THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Jan 96 #8), which also was included in a set of 48 "Books of the Century Knowledge Cards" ($9.95) pro- duced by Pomegranate Publications (Box 6099, Rohnert Park, CA 94927) and available at the Library. The card notes that "This full-length novel is considered one of Conan Doyle's most literary and best-written works." "Meanwhile, patrons of alt.comp.virus, a newsgroup where virus writers and hunters hang out, morphed into virtual Baker Street irregulars," noted the story in Time (Apr. 12) about the successful search for the author of the Melissa macro virus that attacked computers recently. Thanks to Syd Gold- berg for spotting the story. There still are Sherlockians who discovered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in John Dickson Carr's THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE; that's something rather different from discovering Sherlock Holmes, of course, and it's nice indeed that fifty years later there is a new biography that will help readers old and new learn just how much more there was to Conan Doyle than the stories he wrote about Sherlock Holmes. Daniel Stashower is a fine writer, and his experience as a magician and warm sympathy for Conan Doyle's religious be- lief in spiritualism offers real insight into an area that has quite often been ignored or derided by other biographers. TELLER OF TALES: THE LIFE OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (New York: Henry Holt, 1999; 472 pp., $32.50) shows well just how interesting a man Conan Doyle was, and how much he did (as well as how much fun he had doing it); surely that's what a good biography ought to do. Recommended. Carole Nelson Douglas' GOOD NIGHT, MR. HOLMES (1990) now is available read (and read well indeed) unabridged by Virginia Leishman and Patrick Tull on nine audiocassettes, from Recorded Books, 270 Skipjack Road, Prince Freder- ick, MD 20678 (800-638-1304) , for $67.50 (purchase) or $15,75 (rental); credit-card orders welcome. Laurie R. King's four Mary Russell novels also are available, read by Jenny Sterlin; as well as THE POISON BELT and THE LOST WORLD, and six Canonical books, by other readers. Carol Barnett's "Plotting a Sherlockian Garden" (spotted by Mike Bragg in the June issue of Victorian Homes) is a nicely illustrated and interesting exploration for S'ian botanists; 265 South Anita Drive #120, Orange, CA 92868 (800-999-9718) The U.S. postal service has continued its annual tributes to the stars of Warner Bros. cartoons, this year honoring Daffy Duck, who appeared in "Deduce, You Say!" (1956) as Dorlock Homes (with Porky Pig as Dr. Watkins). The Andaman Islands continue to attract attention: Kathryn Piffat notes an article by Sita Venkateswar on the history of the Andaman Islanders in the May 1999 issue of Scientific American (with a mention of "The Sign of the Four"), and John Clark has forwarded a report from The Times (Apr. 13) that DNA analysis of hair samples taken from Andaman tribesmen by a British an- thropologist in 1907 suggests that the islanders may be descended from the first humans to leave man's African birthplace, 100,000 years ago. Apr 99 #6 Laurie R. King's O JERUSALEM (New York: Bantam Books, 1999; 367 pp., $23.95) is her fifth novel about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, set in early 1919 (just after A BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE) in the Holy Land, with Russell and Holmes in pursuit of a villain who is trying to undo the British conquest. It's nicely done, with some delightful touches, one involving Holmes, in disguise as a Bedouin in an Arab village, listening to someone translate a Sherlock Holmes story from The Strand Magazine. And in an interview with the Internet bookseller Amazon.com, Laurie reports that she has a sixth Mary Russell novel planned, set in England in 1923 and 1924. And that an English producer is interested in a Mary Russell film, but "won't touch anything until the copyright on the Holmes stuff expires in 2001." Laurie will be on a book-signing tour for O JERUSALEM in June; here's the tentative schedule: 1 or 2 Sebastopol, CA, Copperfield's (time not set); 1 or 2 Capitola, CA, Capitola Bookcafe, 7:30 (unconfirmed); 3 Scottsdale, AZ, Poisoned Pen, 12:00; 4 Houston, TX, Murder by the Book, 6:00; 5 Dallas, TX, Mystery Bookstore, 2:00; 6 Louisville, KY, Hawley-Cooke, 2:00; 7 Bethesda, MD, Mystery Bookshop, 6:30-8:00; 8 Washington, DC, MysteryBooks 6:00-7:00; 9 New York, NY, Mysterious Bookshop (time not set). A new set of United National stamps calls attention to endangered species, and one of the stamps shows the long-tailed chinchilla. And, yes, there's an Canonical allusion (in "The Engineer's Thumb"): "The newcomers were Colonel Lysander Stark and a short thick man with a chinchilla beard growing out of the creases of his double chin, who was introduced to me as Mr. Ferguson." The Mysterious Book Shop has issued a 38-page Sherlock Holmes Catalog with 551 items (and that's just A-J); available from the shop, at 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (800-352-2840) . "Murder in the City: The Classical Detective Story in New York" is sched- uled at the New York Historical Society on May 22-23, with an agenda that feature panels and speakers (including B.J. Rahn and Otto Penzler), a play- reading, and walking tours. Additional details are available from the New York Festival of Mystery, c/o Mercantile Library, 17 East 47th Street, New York, NY 10017 (212-755-5610) . Roger Llewellen first played Sherlock Holmes in Christopher Martin's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in Newcastle-under-Lyme in 1997, and he'll be Holmes again in a tour of David Stuart Davies' new one-man play "Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act" (opening at the Salisbury Playhouse in Salisbury on May 18-22). The play then tours the provinces, and it will be performed during the Edinburgh Festival on Aug. 6-29, and in London on Sept. 10-Oct. 10. "In the elegant hands of Roger Llewellyn," the Sunday Express noted, "this is Holmes as you've always imagined him: tall, angular and precise, but with a cutting sense of humor." The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) May 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The spring issue of The Magic Door (the newsletter of The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library) has Cameron Hollyer's article about the collection's letters and postcards written by Conan Doyle to Strand editor Greenhough Smith, and Victoria Gill's report on family spiritualism material, purchased from Denis Conan Doyle's estate and from other sources; copies are available from Doug Wrigglesworth, 16 Sunset Street, Holland Landing, ON L9N 1H4, Canada . And (for the electronically enabled), the collection's web-site is at . Plan ahead: "A Saturday with Sherlock Holmes" will be the 20th annual pre- sentation by The Six Napoleons, The Carlton Club, and Watson's Tin Box, at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore from 10:00 am to 1:30 pm on Nov. 20; the festivities begin with a coffee hour in the Edgar Allan Poe Room, followed by talks by eight members of the societies, and a quiz based on talks. The library is at 400 Cathedral Street, and there's no admission charge for the event, and additional information is available from William Hyder (5488 Cedar Lane #C-3, Columbia, MD 21044) (410-997-9114). Oliver Reed died on May 2. He was a fine actor, with 53 films to his cred- it, among them "The Three Musketeers" (1973), "The Four Musketeers" (1974), and "The Return of the Musketeers" (1989), directed by Richard Lester and written by George MacDonald Fraser, as well as many television roles. Ini- tial publicity for the 1990s television mini-series "The Lost World" and "Return to the Lost World" had Reed cast as Challenger (with Donald Pleas- sance as Summerlee); the films eventually were made with John Rhys-Davies as Challenger (and David Warner as Summerlee), and went directly to video stores, and it is interesting to consider what Reed might have been able to do as Challenger. A POETIC TRIBUTE TO BAKER STREET is a delightful audiocassette recorded by Philip Brogdon, who reads and comments on some of the best works by Sher- lockian poets, from T. S. Eliot to Vincent Starrett to Kenneth Fearing to E. V. Knox, with many others possibly less well-known but no less poetic. The cassette (53-minutes) costs $16.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada. Ron Kritter reports that the 18th Annual Midwest Chesterton Conference at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul on June 10-12 will include a Sat- urday-morning debate on "Sherlock Holmes vs. Father Brown" (with Pasquale Accardo on behalf of Holmes and Steve Miller on behalf of Brown). There's no charge for the conference sessions, and additional information is avail- able from The American Chesterton Society (4117 Pebblebrook Circle, Minnea- polis, MN 55437) . The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery offers Conan Doyle's signed three-page con- tract with Eveleigh Nash and Grayson for their 1926 edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (the book sold for 2s6d, with a 3d royalty to the author, who received an advance of L100, so they expected to sell more than 8,000 copies); the Gallery's address is 989 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021 (800-376-1776), and they're asking $15,000 for the contract. May 99 #2 The manuscripts of "The Dying Detective" and "The Lion's Mane" were loaned to the Marylebone Library in London in 1990 by the son of the late Alfred T. Miller (who bought them at Christie's in 1960); Catherine Cooke reports that the owner has retrieved the manuscripts, and will be putting them up for sale. Both manuscripts have been published in facsimile (Sep 91 #7 and Sep 92 #6), and copies of both still are available from Christopher and Barbara Roden (Calabash Press, Box 1360, Ashcroft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada ; postpaid prices are $31.50 (to the U.S.) or CA $40.00 (Canada) or $37.00/L11.60 (elsewhere by airmail) ($32.00 /L20.00 by surface post) (credit-card orders welcome). Hyman Shrand died on Apr. 21. He was an artist and poet, and doctor, and retired as chief of pediatrics at Mount Auburn Hospital in Boston in 1983. In retirement in Truro he founded the Truro School Irregulars at the North Central Truro School, and (according to his obituary in the Boston Globe) "was known for his entertaining storytelling, especially his rendition of Sherlock Holmes mysteries." The Interact Theatre Company's production of Nick Olcott's "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Purloined 'Patience'" delighted Washington audiences in 1997 (and it won the Charles MacArthur award for outstanding new play that year). Tim Brierly starred as Sherlock Holmes, and he will return as Sher- lock Holmes, acting as chairman (master of ceremonies) and performing in "The Very Model of a Major Merry Music Hall" at Arena Stage in Washington from June 9 to Sept. 5; the show will include Gilbert & Sullivan favorites as well as songs and sketches from the hey-day of British music hall. The box-office address is 1221 Mottrom Drive, McLean, VA 22101 (703-218-6500). The AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, but now officially known as the AARP, because they don't care whether you're retired or working) has a nice booklet YOUR THREE-STEP PLAN TO FIGHT MEDICARE FRAUD (available in English or Spanish), with amusing Sherlockian artwork; the AARP address is 601 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20049. The RE/MAX network of realtors (it's a franchise with 3,200 offices in 27 countries) now is running a major television advertising campaign that has been underway since last December. Holmes and Watson are featured in 15-second and 30-second commercials that ran on many network and cable stations this spring; the commercials will repeat on cable this summer, and we may see Holmes and Watson again on net- work television this fall. Stephen Davies spotted Ray Greene's article about "The Making of Star Wars" (on the "Return of the Force: Behind the Scenes, Part 2") on a web-page at . According to Green, the "Star Wars" production notes began with a quotation from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "To the boy who's half a man/ Or the man who's half a boy." After the film was released, Lucas said that "It's been a long time since people have been able to go to the movies and see a sort of straight- forward, wholesome, fun adventure." Which, of course, also is a fine way to describe "The Lost World" (the source of the quotation). May 99 #3 John Ruyle reports that the fourth Sherlockian book this year from the Pequod Press will be THE ADVENTURE OF THE BLANCHED SHOULDER, in which Turlock Loams, assisted by Inspector S. Lespade and the ubiquitous Dr. Fatso, investigates the notorious acrobatic Lox Brothers. 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). Sherlock Holmes made his 100th (and final) visit to the Victorian Villa in Union City, Mich., for an English beer and ale dinner on May 7, John Sher- wood reports. His next appearance (perhaps accompanied by Mrs. Norton) is to be on or about July 21, at the Sherlock Holmes Museum in Baker Street, when John and his wife Katari will be on holiday in London. The 22-page manuscript of "The Adventure of the Worst man in London" (Conan Doyle's original title for "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton") will go to auction at Christie's in New York on June 9, accompanied by the original artwork for Frederic Dorr Steele's portrait of Milverton (the lot is estimated at $75,000-95,000); previous owners of the manuscript have in- cluded William Randolph Hearst (who bought the manuscript at auction in New York in 1923 for $70), Edgar W. Smith (Buttons-cum-Commissionaire of The Baker Street Irregulars and editor of The Baker Street Journal), and Carl H. Anderson (one of the founders of The Sons of the Copper Beeches of Phil- delphia). The auction also will include Sidney Paget's original artwork showing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in "The Norwood Builder" (estimated at $10,000-15,000) and a first edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ($1,000-1,500). Christie's is at 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020 (800-395-6300), and the catalog costs $40.00 postpaid. Syd Goldberg notes that Ronald Howard's "The Case of Lady Beryl" (1954) is one of 24 programs in a six-cassette collection of RADIO TO TV ("comedies, dramas, and adventures sagas that made the transition" from radio to tele- vision) available for $59.95 from The Video Catalog (1000 Westgate Drive, Saint Paul, MN 55114 (800-733-6656); item 64842. Whatever happened to ... Guy Henry? Star of the British television series "Young Sherlock" (1982) about 17-year-old Sherlock's investigations of var- ious strange goings-on at his ancestral manor-house home on the edge of the Lancashire fells, Henry has won a Helen Hayes Award in Washington as the best supporting performer in a non-resident production for his appearance as the villainous Cloten in "Cymbeline" with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Kennedy Center last year. The May issue of Natural History, published by the American Museum of Natu- ral History in New York, is devoted to flowers, and one of the articles is Richard Milner's "Mystery of the Red Rose" (which starts and ends with ref- erences to the Canon, and is illustrated with an appropriate photograph of Jeremy Brett from the Granada series). The Holmes & Watson report celebrated Mother's Day in its May issue with a collection of essays about Sherlock Holmes' mother, plus some interesting reviews of older Sherlockian films by David Morrill and Jennie Paton (and Sherlock Holmes' father will be honored in the next issue); subscriptions cost $16.00 a year for six issues ($22.00 outside North America), from Brad Keefauver, 4009 North Chelsea Place, Peoria, IL 61614. May 99 #4 Dell's Yearling Books has launched "The Adventures of Shirley Holmes" as a paperback series based on the Canadian television series starring Meredith Henderson as the 12-year-old great grand-niece of Sherlock Holmes (it also is seen sporadically on the Fox Family Channel). The first two titles are THE CASE OF THE BURNING BUILDING AND THE CASE OF THE RUBY RING and THE CASE OF THE BLAZING STAR AND THE CASE OF THE KING OF HEARTS, written by Judie Angell (each 112 pp., and $3.99). The flier is now available for "Holmes Under the Arch: Weekend at Basker- ville Hall" on Sept. 10-12 at the Westport Sheraton Hotel in St. Louis; the speakers will include Bill Cochran, David Hammer, and Jennie Paton. Write to Holmes Under the Arch, 7101 Mardel Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63109 . Classic Images has been covering old films since the 1960s, when (as The 8mm Collector) it published the working script for "The Lost World" (1925); the May issue has William M. Apple's article on "The Twentieth Century-Fox Sherlock Holmes Films" and a report about film memorabilia (including Basil Rathbone material) at Boston University. Classic Images usually has 80 to 92 pp., and is published monthly ($32.00 a year); single issues cost $4.00 (301 East Third Street, Muscadine, IA 52761) . It's been many years since Michael B. Druxman's excellent filmography BASIL RATHBONE was published in 1975, and since then he has been writing non-fic- tion and stage and screenplays; Druxman's first novel is NOBODY DROWNS IN MINERAL LAKE (Westlake Village: Center Press, 1999; 240 pp., $12.95). It's a mystery, set in the state of Washington in the 1970s, and it includes an echo of one of Rathbone's Sherlockian films. Autographed copies cost only $12.95 postpaid from the publisher (30961 West Agoura Road #223-B, Westlake Village, CA 91361) ; credit-card orders are welcome. Mike Whelan spotted a new advertising use of Sherlock Holmes: by the Leak Investigation Unit of the Indianapolis Water Company: May 99 #5 Susan Dahlinger notes that there's a William Gillette Exhibit at the Harriett Beecher Stowe Center through July 5; the Center (formerly known as the Stowe-Day Foundation) is at 77 Forest Street, Hart- ford, CT 06105 (860-522-9258). The Center's quarterly newsletter reports that Harold and Teddie Niver, dressed in period costume, gave a presenta- tation about William Gillette at the Center's annual meeting on May 11. Rex Pinson, Jr. ("Inspector G. Lestrade") died on May 6. Rex grew up in Tulsa across the street from John Bennett Shaw, and by the time he retired as a vice president of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals he was a regular at the ann- ual dinners of The Baker Street Irregulars and at the Sherlockian dinners at the Culinary Institute of America; he received his Investiture from the BSI in 1973. Rex also loved wine, Jon Lellenberg notes, and had the best private wine cellar of anyone Jon has known (which is high praise indeed). John Stephenson has reported a packet of Stickopotamus binder stickers with a mystery theme, and (of course) one of them is a portrait of Sherlock Holmes; it's item SP-CB-13, and their address is Box 86, Carlstadt, NY 07072. Nancy Beiman reports that Walt Disney will reissue "The Great Mouse Detective" on videocassette on Aug. 31; it will be nice indeed to have Basil of Baker Street back. When you visit the Antarctic (and you certainly can, even as a tourist) you might want to visit Cape Evans, where you can see the world's southernmost copy of a book by Arthur Conan Doyle: THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR AND SPORT, which was brought there by Robert Falcon Scott in 1910, in the small hut from which Scott set off on an ill-fated attempt to reach the South Pole. Scott had led an earlier expedition to the Antarctic, in 1901- 04, and his third lieutenant then was Ernest Shackleton (who, fortunately for Shackleton, was not a member of Scott's second expedition). But Shack- leton did return to the Antarctic, and in 1914-16 he led an expedition that is the subject of one of the greatest stories of exploration ever told. That story's at the heart of the American Museum of Natural History's exhi- bition about "The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition" (through Oct. 11) that is well worth seeing if you're in or visiting N.Y. And John Rabe (son of the late Bill Rabe) has produced for Minnesota Public Radio a delightful one-hour program "Walking Out of History" about the ex- pedition. The electronically-enabled can visit a web-site at ; Minnesota Public Radio is planning to distribute "Walking Out of History" nationally in a month or so, and John (needless to say) would be delighted if you could ask your local PBS radio station to broadcast the program. The May issue of The Dispatch (edited by Vic Lahti for the Afghanistan Per- ceivers of Tulsa) has a report on a rebroadcast of an episode the "Kentucky Derby Bet" episode (May 7, 1939) from "The Jack Benny Show": after exchang- ing their opening jokes and wisecracks, the regulars went "on stage" to be- gin the formal show, and Benny called out to his dog, "Come on Baskerville, it's time to go." Followed by the yipping of a small dog (the Basil Rath- bone film had opened on Mar. 24, so presumable everyone got the joke). May 99 #6 Bill Dunning notes that Edmund L. Hartmann has been honored by the Santa Fe Film Critics Circle with their Golden Chile Award for Lifetime Achievement. Hartmann, who retired to Santa Fe in 1990 after a long Hollywood career as a screenwriter for Universal and Paramount, had among his many credits two of Basil Rathbone's films: "Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon" (1943) and "The Scarlet Claw" (1944). The Golden Chile is a serious award, Bill says (it takes its name from the one to four red peppers that a local paper uses to rate movies in reviews). Until 1988 it cost exactly the same to mail a first-class letter from the United States to Canada as to an address within the U.S. But then Canada imposed an extra charge on letters mailed from Canada to the U.S., and the U.S. post office responded by charging 30c (instead of 25c) for letters to Canada. And it still costs more to mail a letter from Vancouver to Seattle than from Vancouver to Montreal (and more to mail a letter from Seattle to Vancouver than from Seattle to Boston), and it got worse at the end of May: one ounce from the U.S. to Canada now costs 55c (up from 52c). And (alas) the cost of this newsletter to Canadian subscribers goes up too (as you'll learn when you next hear from our circulation department). Laura Sifurova spotted a Russian translation of Arthur Conan Doyle's THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM (1926) published by Global Books in St. Petersburg (1998), with additional illustrations by Polina Goryntseva (two of which are shown here). It was in 1929 that the Soviet government banned Conan Doyle's works, because of his interest in occultism and spiritualism, and almost nothing of Conan Doyle's was published in the USSR until World War Two, when some of the Sherlock Holmes stories were translated into Russian for distribution to the Soviet Army. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jun 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "Last Words of Killer Gave Life to Sherlock Holmes" was the headline on a story by Nicholas Hellen in The Sunday Times (May 16) about BBC plans for a feature film and a television series about Dr. Joseph Bell. "Blood Line: The Dark Beginning of Sherlock Holmes" (the title of the first adaptation) is to deal with the trial, conviction, and execution of Eugene Chantrell in 1878, when Bell was working with Dr. Henry Littlejohn as forensic experts for the Crown. Jonathan Pryce (who played the villain in the James Bond film "Tomorrow Never Dies") was announced to play the lead in the series. Our "Celebrate the Century" souvenir sheets (with 15 differ- ent stamps for each decade) have now reached the 1950s. The latest sheet includes a stamp honoring the "shot heard round world" (the home run with which Bobby Thompson won the 1951 World Series for the N.Y. Giants). The Giants defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in that game, as they did in 1922, when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was on hand (and rooting for the Giants). According to Ely Liebow's DR. JOE BELL: MODEL FOR SHERLOCK HOLMES (1982), Littlejohn was present when Chantrelle was went to the scaffold: just be- fore being pinioned, Chantrelle took off his hat, took a last puff on his cigar, and waving his hand to the police physician, cried out, "Bye-bye, Littlejohn. Don't forget to give my compliments to Joe Bell. You both did a good job in bringing me to the scaffold." It was only a few months later that Arthur Conan Doyle became Joe Bell's student in Edinburgh. Michael W. Homer has long been interested in (and has written about) Arthur Conan Doyle and spiritualism, and his newest book is LO SPIRITISMO (Torino: Elledici, 1999; 96 pp., 10,000 lira), offering (in Italian) an overview of spiritualism, with discussion of Conan Doyle's life and beliefs in many of the chapters. Noted by Tom Dandrew: VICTORIAN QUEST ROMANCE: STEVENSON, HAGGARD, KIPLING AND CONAN DOYLE, by Robert Fraser (Northcote House, 1998; 108 pp., L8.99); one of the chapter ("Arthur Conan Doyle and the 'Missing Link'") focuses on "The Lost World". Stephen Kendrick's HOLY CLUES: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SHERLOCK HOLMES (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999; 192 pp., $21.00) is an interesting discussion of the faith, reason, mystery, and philosophy one can find in the Sherlock Holmes stories, especially with an expert guide. Kendrick is a Unitarian minister, and widely read (one doesn't often find Henry David Thoreau and Woody Allen quoted in the same book), and he has written with imagination and style. And I don't recall being told before that when Holmes said to Watson, "You see, but you do not observe," he was alluding to passages in both the Old Testament (Isaiah) and New (Matthew). The Crowborough Conan Doyle Trust is continuing its fund-raising for the life-size bronze statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle planned for Crowborough; British sculptor David Cornell designed the statue, and the Town Council has contributed and will maintain the site. More information is available from Brian Pugh (20 Clare Road, Lewes BN7 7PN, England). Jun 99 #2 Hillary Brooke died on May 25. She began a long film career in "New Faces of 1937" and went on to act with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and with many other major stars, including Charles Laughton (in 1952 in "Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd"), and had a recurring role in the 1950s television series "My Little Margie". She appeared as Jill Grandis in "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" (1942), as Sally Mus- grave in "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death" (1943), and as Lydia Marlowe in "The Woman in Green" (1945). She told some fine stories about her fellow-actors and her career in an interview in the winter 1996 issue of Scarlet Street. Geoff Jeffery reports a Three Stooges necktie showing Moe, Larry, and Curly in Sherlockian costume (item SGTX30, $16.99) in a recent mail-order catalog from Soitenly Stooges (Box 10666, Glendale, CA 91209) (800-378-6643). David L. Hammer's THE VITAL ESSENCE: BEING THE FURTHER ANNALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Gasogene Press, 1999; 131 pp., $12.95) is his second collection of hitherto-unreported cases hidden away by Dr. Watson. David notes that he has said several times that he would "never demean the Canon by insinuating a pastiche into commerce," adding unapologetically that he has found it to be great fun, and so it is. $15.45 postpaid ($16.45 outside the U.S.) from the publisher (Box 68308, Indianapolis, IN 46077). The Mysterious Book Shop's second Sherlock Holmes Catalog (J-Z) brings the total of its Sherlockian offers to 1017 items of old and new material; the catalogs are available from the shop, at 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (800-352-2840) . The Three Garridebs of Westchester County offer a Sherlock Holmes wrist-watch, with a Sherlockian profile on the face, in men's and women's sizes, for $27.00 postpaid; orders can be sent to Dante Torrese, 11 Chestnut Street, Ardsley, NY 10502. P. N. Elrod (better known in Sherlockian circles as Patti Nead Elrod, creator of the "Baker Street Irragulars") began her book series THE VAMPIRE FILES series in 1990 with BLOODLIST and LIFEBLOOD (Jun 90 #3), about Jack Fleming (once a reporter and now a vampire) and his private-de- tective friend Charles Escott (whose name is not the only S'ian echo in the series, which is set in gangland Chicago in the 1930s). The series gradua- ted to hardcover in 1998 with A CHILL IN THE BLOOD, and the eighth title is THE DARK SLEEP (New York: Ace Books, 1999; 368 pp., $21.95). "Yo, Sherlock" was the headline on a brief item in the Baltimore Sun (May 23), spotted by John Pforr. "In the seventh inning of a game May 7 between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Mets, the opposing pitchers were Holmes (Darr- en) and Watson (Allen)." The STUD Sherlockian Society will hold a Founder's Day Festival on July 10 in Chicago, with a Depression-era breakfast, a Rache Road Rally, a tour of Graceland Cemetery (resting place of Vincent Starrett, Alan Pinkerton, and others) conducted by Donald B. Izban, and luncheon at the Ridgmoor Country Club. Details are available from Bill Sawisch (418 Galahad, Bolingbrook, IL 60440) or Allan Devitt (630-227-9127) . Jun 99 #3 Frank Spencer died on May 30. After beginning his scientific career as a medical microbiologist he became an anthropologist, and was editor of THE HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY and chairman of the Anthopology Department at Queens College. It was in 1976 that he became interested in the Piltdown Hoax, and in his PILTDOWN: A SCIENTIFIC FORGERY (1990) he documented his belief that Sir Arthur Keith was the culprit. He discussed, and dismissed, other suspects, including Arthur Conan Doyle, and published for the first time an amusing discovery in Keith's papers: the postcard portrait photograph of Conan Doyle that he sent to Keith, with an invitation to dinner, after they debated spiritualism in a series of arti- cles in the [London] Morning Post in 1925. On the back of the postcard Sir Arthur mentions the "Great 3rd round exhibition contest between the Crow- borough Kid and Battling Arty of Lincolns Inn Fields." [Dec 90 #3] M&Ms are marketed world-wide, and there are collectibles not seen in the U.S.: six different snap-together plastic toys, one of which is a detective (2.5 in. high assembled); they're marketed by Mars (BP 36, 67501 Haguenau, France), and widely available in Europe (there are eleven languages on the small "not suitable for children under three years" warning). "Sherlock Holmes was a sarcastic loner who played his cards close to his vest and left the business details of life to his faithful Dr. Watson," according to a Reuters dispatch in the Baltimore Sun (May 28) now at hand from John Pforr, about the British government's advertising for a new head of Scotland Yard, who will need to meet "demanding strategic busi- ness objectives" and must have "strong leadership, organizational ability, and communications skills," to command the 44,000-strong force. "Sherlock Holmes-types need not apply," the story noted. "Obviously the work of we-know-who!" notes Richard Shull on a report in the N.Y. Times (June 1) about the Maritime Museum at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris, where a dilapidated roof and a weekend rainstorm resulted in damage to several paintings by Joseph Vernet (Sherlock Holmes' great-great-grand- uncle). Malice Domestic XII will be held on May 5-7, 2000, at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, with Simon Brett as the guest of honor, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as ghost of honor. Celebrating a ghost of honor has long been a tra- dition at Malice Domestic (John Dickson Carr was honored this year), and we can expect some interesting Doylean (and Sherlockian) discussions, events, and panels next year. If you would like to be on the mailing list, write to Malice Domestic (Box 31137, Bethesda, MD 20824); there's a web-site at . "Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century" (a 30-minute animated series with 26 episodes, created by DIC Entertainment and Scottish Television) began air- ing on ITV in Britain on May 6, and the series also is scheduled to run on the Fox network (probably on Monday mornings) this fall. Holmes, who died of old age and was preserved in honey, is revived and rejuvenated by Insp. Lestrade (well, an attractive woman who, like her ancestor, works for Scot- land Yard, and has a robot assistant she calls Watson), and does a fine job of battling crime and criminals in the 2100s. Jun 99 #4 Fred Levin notes that Nakladatelstvi Books (s.r.o., Star18/20, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic) is a good source for Czech trans- lations, including the complete Canon in eight volumes, Larry Millett's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DEMON and Donald Thomas' THE SECRET CASES OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES (about $6.00 per volume). Hunga Libri Kiado (Budapest Print, Fogarasi ut 17/b, 1149 Budapest, Hungary) offers two paperbacks in Hungar- ian: A SATAN KUTYAJA [The Hound of the Baskervilles] and A SUSSEXI VAMPIR [The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes] (about $2.00 each). "Black Shag" is the first in a "221B Series" of pipe tobaccos from the McClelland Tobacco Co. ($6.50 sug- gested retail for a 50g tin); if you can't find it at your local tobacconist, you can ask McClelland for the name of a nearby dealer (Box 7005, Country Club Station, Kansas City, MO 64113) (888-213-8207). Tom Amorosi and Richard Valley interviewed Bert Coules for an interesting account of the "Sherlock Holmes" BBC radio series in the latest issue of Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror (well illustrated with photographs, including one of Dame Judi Dench playing Mrs. Hudson with her husband Michael Williams as Watson); $6.95, or $35.00 a year for six issues (Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452). And Forry Ackerman's column in the same issue offers a $500 reward for in- formation leading to the return of a treasure stolen from his collection: a little metallic figure on a thin metal support of the pterodactyl from film "The Lost World" (1925); his address is 2495 Glendower Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90027 (323-666-6326). "Hip-Hop Raps to the Top" was the headline on an article in the [Atlantic City] Press (May 2), noted by Francine Kitts. And one of the people happy about the popularity of the genre is Sure Rock Holmes. He's a hip-hop disc jockey at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey radio station WLFR-FM. Lynette Yencho's new bronze Sherlockian sculpture "The Three Pipe Problem" is available ($600 plus shipping), and her earlier "The Grimpen Mire" (Nov 98 #5) still is available at the same price. Both sculptures also are off- erred in resin as bookends ($250 for the pair). You can write for an illu- strated flier (Garden Studio, 931 Portland Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104), or see her work the Web . The first two Sherlock Holmes jigsaw puzzles in "The Continuing Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" ("The Adventures of the Fellow Lodgers" and "The Phan- tom of Sorrel House"), now three years old (Mar 96 #3), are discounted at $6.95 in the new catalog from Bits & Pieces (1 Puzzle Place, Stevens Point, WI 54481) (800-544-7297) . The August issue of American History has two articles of interest, one by Daniel Stashower on "The Medium & the Magician" (about the contest between Mina "Margery" Crandon and Harry Houdini), and the other by Joseph H. Bloom on "Undermining the Molly Maguires" (about the originals of the Scowrers), and editor Tom Huntington's "thoughts on history" about Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. $3.99; 6405 Flank Drive, Harrisburg, PA 17112. Jun 99 #5 The 22-page manuscript of "Charles Augustus Milverton" (accom- panied by Frederic Dorr Steele's original artwork for his por- trait of Milverton) set a new auction record for a Sherlockian short-story manuscript at Christie's on June 9: $255,000 (including a 15% buyer's pre- mium. The previous record ($97,750 including the premium) was held by "The Three Garridebs" (sold at auction in 1995. And the fortunate new owner of "Charles Augustus Milverton" is Constantine Rossakis. Sidney Paget's original artwork showing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in "The Norwood Builder" brought $18,400 (also including the premium) in the same sale, and Jerry Wachs reports that he is delighted to be the new own- er. The underbidder was Richard Sveum, who is president of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota as well as a doctor specializing in asthma (which handily explains his special interest in an illustration showing John Hector McFarlane meeting Holmes and Watson: McFarlane was an asthmatic). Great Britain is issuing a series of stamps celebrating the millennium, and one of them honors "Chaplin's Geni- us" with a portrait of Charlie Chaplin by Ralph Steadman (Chaplin played Billy on stage with William Gillette). Clifton Fadiman died on June 20. "He learned to read when he was four," Richard Severo wrote in an obituary in the N.Y. Times, "and he never got over it." Genera- tions of readers benefited from his expertise, which was wide indeed. He helped to establish the Book of the Month Club and served on its editorial board for more than 50 years, in 1938 he was asked to moderate a new radio program "Information Please" and quickly gained an audience of nine million listeners, and he was a delightful anthologist and essayist. And he was a Sherlockian: listed as a member of the Baker Street Irregulars in the early 1940s, and a guest speaker at the "Trilogy Dinner" in Mar. 1944 (according to one newspaper report, he "elevated Sherlock Holmes to the position of a myth"). And in 1963 he contributed an afterword to a collection of TALES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES; "I hope this volume of excellent selections will make you want to read all the stories," he wrote. "I know men who have spent part of a lifetime poring over them, with never-failing delight." "Sherlock Holmes has been done so many times," Roberta Klaeser said, "so I decided to make a scene with this man who just wants to be like him." And her "Sherlock Holmes Wannabe" is one of the delightful rooms photographed for Kristen M. Scheuing's article on "Secrets of a Top Collector" in Doll- house Miniatures (July 1999), at hand from Kelly Blau. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187; $4.50. The June issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has arrived, with Julie McKuras' article about Christopher Morley's brother Felix Morley, whose son Anthony J. Morley has donated to the collections his father's Sherlockian books; and an essay by Bruce Southworth about Conan Doyle's A DUET: WITH AN OCCASIONAL CHORUS; and other news. You can join the newsletter's mailing list by writing to Richard J. Sveum (466 O. M. Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Jun 99 #6 Sotheby's will offer 80 lots of Conan Doyle material in an auc- tion in London on July 15; some of the material is left over from the sale of Norman L. Rosenbaum's collection last year (Nov 98 #2 and Dec 98 #5), and some is new. The catalog's available from Sotheby's (attn: Peter Selley, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA, England) and at their web-site . Plan ahead: the Millennium Congress of Holmesian Societies will be held in May 2000 in Switzerland, sponsored by three French and Swiss societies. To enroll on the mailing list for additional details, write to Michael A. Meer (Morgenstrasse 70, CH-3018 Bern, Switzerland) . The seventeenth annual "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held at the Tarry- town Hilton in Tarrytown, N.Y., on Oct. 30-31, with an agenda full of Sher- lockian doings and undoings. More information is available from Robert E. Thomalen, Highview Drive, Carmel, NY 10512 . MYSTERY & SUSPENSE WRITERS, edited by Robin Winks and including a 30-page essay on Arthur Conan Doyle by Owen Dudley Edwards (Feb 99 #1), was an Ed- gar-winner (best critical/biographical work) at this spring's annual dinner of the Mystery Writers of America. John Ruyle reports that TIDEWAITERS & YEGGMEN will be the fifth Sherlockian book this year from the Pequod Press, offering whimsical verse dealing with Canonical occupations and personages. John's address is 521 Vincente Ave- nue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). Margaret Scott died on May 30, She was a journalist, and with her husband Ken attended the first meeting of the Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis, in 1947, and was an enthusiastic member of the Clients for many years. Fred Holt reports that an exhibition called "Sherlock Holmes and the Clock- tower Mystery" opened at the Fresno Metropolitan Museum in Fresno, Calif., on June 20; it will run through Sept. 12. The exhibition was first seen in Croydon in England (Oct 95 #2), and has visited Des Moines, Iowa (where it was seen by 31,000 people). It's an interactive show, with an actor play- ing Holmes), and the museum is located at 1515 Van Ness Avenue, Fresno, CA 93721 (559-441-1444) . Laurie R. King's O JERUSALEM (her latest book about Mary Russell and Sher- lock Holmes) is one of the Mystery Guild's featured summer selections, and (for the electronically enabled) there's an interesting interview with her at their web-site . The eighth annual Watsonian Weekend will begin with the Royal Berkshires/ Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers Regimental Dinner in Elmhurst, Ill., on July 23; continues with the fortieth annual running of The Silver Blaze at Haw- thorne Race Track on July 24; and concludes with a Fortescue Honours Brunch in Des Plaines on July 25. Additional information is available from Susan Z. Diamond (16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106 . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jul 99 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Detailed information about the Sherlock Holmes Society of London's festival on Sept. 21-26 honoring the unveiling of the statue of Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street were mailed and posted from London on July 21; if you've not already heard directly from them, you need to act quickly, and the fastest way to get information is at their web-site at or (for those who have text-only browsers) at , or ask an electronically-enabled friend to do it for you. News from Moscow (noted by Yuichi Hirayama): on June 9 the Russian General Prosecutor's Office rehabilitated four Grand Dukes who had been executed by the Communists in Jan. 1919 after the attempted assassination of Lenin (Em- peror Nicholas II and his family had been executed in July 1918); the deci- sion to rehabilitate the Grand Dukes was based on their not having received due process, or having been convicted of anything. And one of the four was Pavel Alexandrovich, a son of Emperor Alexander II and an uncle of Emperor Nicholas II. According to an article by Yuichi in the 1997 volume of The Shoso-In Bulletin, Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich is "the most believable candidate for the King of Bohemia." Lora Sifurova has reported that Russian translations of all of the Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger stories now are available on the World Wide Web at and . Further to the report (Jan 99 #5) of the anthology THE 50 GREATEST MYSTER- IES OF ALL TIME, Otto Penzler also edited a four-audiocassette collection MORE OF THE GREATEST MYSTERIES OF ALL TIME (Los Angeles: Dove Audio, 1997; $24.95); the eight stories include Vincent Starrett's "The Unique Hamlet" (read by David Warner). The July issue of In Britain has Pat Moore's article "The Greatest Detect- tive" about the annual Sherlock Holmes festival in Crowborough, and local associations with Conan Doyle. British Tourist Authority, Thames Tower, Blacks Road, London W6 9EL, England; L2.75/$6.25. It's time for one of my infrequent irregular challenges: Sherlock Holmes says (in "The Abbey Grange"), "Come, Watson, come, the game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!" Of course this wasn't the first time the famous phrase was used in literature; it also is found in one of Will- iam Shakespeare's plays. In which of Shakespeare's plays does someone say "the game is afoot"? Who says it? The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has approved the latest list of people to be added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame; sponsors pay $15,000 to have a star installed in the sidewalk, and (with the exception of posthumous stars) the celebrities must promise to appear for installation ceremony, according to an Associated Press dispatch forwarded by Scott Monty. The latest list in- includes Don Knotts, who appeared in Sherlockian costume as Inspector Win- ship in "The Private Eyes" (1980), and Peter O'Toole, who did the voice of Sherlock Holmes in animations of the four long stories (1985) and played Arthur Conan Doyle in "FairyTale: A True Story" (1997). Jul 99 #2 Roberta Rogow's THE PROBLEM OF THE SPITEFUL SPIRITUALIST (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999; 282 pp., $23.95) is a sequel to her THE PROBLEM OF THE MISSING MISS (Jun 98 #6); Charles Dodgson comes to Southsea in Oct. 1885 to visit Arthur Conan Doyle, and they once again are involved in an interesting mystery (with some intriguing hints about Conan Doyle's future writings). Her first book now also has a British edition (as THE PROBLEM OF THE MISSING HOYDEN) from Robert Hale (256 pp., L16.99). Rogow has finished writing the third book in her Dodgson/Conan Doyle series (THE PROBLEM OF THE EVIL EDITOR) and is at work on the fourth (THE PROBLEM OF THE SURLY SERVANT). Plan ahead: the Sunshine State Sherlockian Scion Symposium II will be held at the Dolphin Beach Resort in St. Pete Beach, Fla., on June 9-11, 2000; the Pleasant Places of Florida have a full agenda scheduled, and additional information is available from Carl Heifetz (3693 Siena Lane, Palm Harbor, FL 34685) . Francine Kitts notes the "novelkeys" in the current mail-order catalog from the book-seller Bas Bleu (515 Means Street NW, Atlanta, GA 30318) (800-433- 1155) ; they're book-shaped keychains ($10.00 each), with the name of an author on the front and a quote on the back, and Conan Doyle is represented by "It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence." Our new 48c stamp shows Niagara Falls, and appropriately pays the postage on half-ounce letters posted to Canada. Niagara Falls is mentioned in two Sherlock Holmes stor- ies, and one of them ("The Crooked Man") has "I seem to have all Niagara whizzing and buzzing in my ears." In 1991 I wondered how much whizzing and buzzing can actu- ally be heard at Niagara Falls, and Don Pollock noted a comment by Richard Burton, who visited the Falls in 1860: "I well remember not being able to sleep within ear-shot of Niagara, whose mighty orchestra, during the stillness of the night, seemed to run through a repertoire of oratorios and operas." Further to the item about the Annual Midwest Chesterton Conference (May 99 #1), Phil Bergem reports that the "Sherlock Holmes vs. Father Brown" debate was well-done and interesting, and that an audiocassette is available from the American Chesterton Society (4117 Pebblebrook Circle, Minneapolis, MN, 55437); $6.00 postpaid. In which of Shakespeare's plays does someone say "the game is afoot"? Who says it? If your answer was "Henry V" and Henry V . . . you were wrong. This year's Christmas card from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London will have another attractive watercolor by Douglas West, showing Holmes and Wat- son inspecting the statue of Holmes in Baker Street; the title is straight from the Canon: "It really is rather like me is it not?" $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 can be sent to Cdr. G. S. Stav- ert, 22 Home Heights, Clarence Parade, Southsea, Hants. PO5 3NN, England. Note: you can order now, but the cards will not be shipped until September. Jul 99 #3 Lorraine Daly's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE LUSITANIA (Romford: Ian Henry, 1999; 188 pp., L15.99) extends Holmes' career beyond his capture of Von Bork, and involves Holmes and Watson in an investigation of the sinking of the *Lusitania* and in a battle against German saboteurs. The publisher's address is 20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England, and a summer 1998 catalog of additional Sherlockian books also is available. Vinnie Brosnan has issued a supplement to his catalog of Ted Schulz's coll- ection (Jun 98 #7); the supplement offers 772 items, including "a curious collection" of 11 items of "adult material which may offend some Victorian sensibilities". Available from Sherlock in L.A., 1741 Via Allena, Ocean- side, CA 92056. That's right, you were wrong. Henry V says in "Henry V" (III, i, 32) that "the game's afoot" (not "the game is afoot"). Try again, please. Biker Sherlock competed in the street luge in the X Games again this year in San Francisco. In 1997 he won three medals (two gold and one silver), more than anyone else in the Games, but last year took home only one medal (gold). This year he won two silver medals (dual downhill and super mass). His real name is Michael Sherlock. Wanda and Jeffery Dow report a Sherlockian "Detective Little Bear" as one of five different toys offered with kids' meals at Subway shops; the toy is 3 in. high, wearing a deerstalker and holding a magnifying glass. "Little Bear" (created by Maurice Sendak) also stars on two videocassettes ("Little Bear: Friends" and "Little Bear: Summertime Tales") that costs $9.95 retail (but no one has yet reported S'ian artwork on the cassettes). Also noted by the Dows: a toy with Wishbone as Holmes advertised by Dairy Queen. The Fortescue Honours Brunch was one of the events held dur- ing the annual Watsonian Weekend (Jun 99 #6), and there's a commemorative lapel pin in five colors (1" high) available ($12.00 postpaid) from Susan Z. Diamond (16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106). "I have some knowledge," Sherlock Holmes explained to Watson (in "The Empty House"), "of baritsu, or the Japanese system of wrestling, which has more than once been very useful to me." That's what Watson wrote, and possibly what he heard, but it's likely that what Holmes said was "bartitsu" (note the minor difference). Graham Noble's interesting article "An Introduction to W. Barton-Wright (1860-1951) and the Ecclectic Art of Bartitsu" in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts (1999), reported by Jim Webb, notes that Bar- ton-Wright wrote about "The New Art of Self Defence" in Pearson's Magazine (Mar. 1899 and Apr. 1899), and suggests that he "deserves his niche in mar- tial arts history." The issue costs $10.00 from the Via Media Publishing Co., 821 West 24th Street, Erie, PA 16502 (800-455-9517). The Mycroft Holmes Society of Syracuse has a full schedule planned for its Fall Sherlockian Weekend at Minnowbrook (an Adirondack Camp) in Blue Moun- tain 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 . Jul 99 #4 Stanton O. Berg's first contribution to the Writings About the Writings was his article on "Sherlock Holmes: Father of Scien- tific Crime Detection" in the Sept. 1970 issue of the Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science (Sept. 1970); he's a forensic firearms consultant, and his two-part illustrated lecture on "The Firearms-Safeties of Sherlockian-Victorian London" at the 1997 and 1998 annual conferences of the Association of Firearm and Tool Mark Examiners has now been published in the spring and fall 1998 issues of the AFTE Journal, with expert discus- sion of the Canon as well as the conclusions of earlier authors. Sorry about that: Costa Rossakis ("a Yankees fan and a native New Yorker") notes that the "short heard round the world" (Jun 99 #1) was the home run with which Bobby Thompson won the 1951 pennant for the Giants. The Yankees (of course) beat the Giants to win the 1951 World Series. And the manuscript of "Charles Augustus Milverton" (accompanied by Frederic Dorr Steele's original artwork for his portrait of Milverton) sold at auc- tion at Christie's (Jun 99 #5) for $244,500 (including the buyer's premium, which drops to 10% above $50,000). In which of Shakespeare's play does someone say "the game is afoot"? The play is "Henry IV, Part I" (I, iii, 276) and it's said by Northumberland. Next question: "The Abbey Grange" isn't the only Sherlock Holmes story in which the game was afoot. What's the other story? Who said that the game was afoot? Paul S. Newman died on May 30. He began writing comic book stories in the late 1940s, and wound up listed by the Guinness Book of World Records for more than 4,100 published stories in more than 360 comic-book titles (and about 5,000 stories that were rejected). According to Greg Metcalf's arti- cle "If You Read It, I Wrote It: The Anonymous Career of Comic Book Writer Paul S. Newman" in the Journal of Popular Culture (summer 1995), Newman's work included the stories for "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (two issues illustrated by Frank Giacoia, published by Dell in 1961 and 1962). The National Crime Prevention Council has been using its "Take a Bite Out of Crime" symbol for more than ten years: according to an article in Smithsonian (Apr 88 #5), the dog's name was selected in a contest in which the most frequent suggestion was "Shure-lock Bones" (but "McGruff" was the winner). The Council now has a sales-list for its McGruff reflective Halloween bags (1 Prospect Street, Amsterdam, NY 12010) (800-995-5121). Len and Elsa Haffenden created "The Adventure of the Evil Apparition" as a three-act puppet show, based on the brief scenario found in Conan Doyle's papers by Hesketh Pearson (and reported by Pearson in his 1943 biography of Conan Doyle); the play (accompanied by a puppet-show dramatization of Conan Doyle's pastiche "How Watson Turned the Trick") were first performed at a meeting of The Stormy Petrels of British Columbia in July 1993. And both scripts (suitable for performance by live actors) have just been published by the Hansom Press in Ellay Aitchison's THE ADVENTURE OF THE AWFUL APPARI- TION; the 52-page booklet costs $10.00 or CA$14.95 or L7.00 (postpaid) from the publisher (1026 West Keith Road, North Vancouver, BC V7P 3C6, Canada). Jul 99 #5 Jay Windsor (who is Charles Marowitz's personal manager) offers a copy of the prompt-script for Marowitz's play SHERLOCK'S LAST CASE (the two-act version performed on Broadway in 1987 by Frank Langella), fully annotated and inscribed to the buyer by Marowitz, for $450.00. Also available are copies of Marowitz's THE SHERLOCK LOG, an unpublished diary- record of the show, covering rehearsals, the Washington try-out, and the Broadway production itself, inscribed by Marowitz; $350.00 each. Windsor's address is: Mail Boxes Etc., 23852 Pacific Coast Highway, Box 172, Malibu, CA 90265 . And he reports that a revival of the play in London's West End is projected for November. What's the other Canonical story in which the game was afoot? It's "Wis- teria Lodge" -- and that's exactly what Watson said: "the game was afoot." Dorlock Homes and Dr. Watkins are on display on Fifth Avenue in New York, in a bas-relief on the War- ner Brothers store (at East 57th Street), in a scene from "Deduce You Say!" (1956). Thanks to Jay Pearlman for the photograph of a prominent tribute to Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. John Ruyle reports that BAKER STREET GALORE! will be the sixth Sherlockian book this year from the Pequod Press, offering more verse (some new, some expanded and revised from previous collections). $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper); John's address is 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Bob Robinson reports that "Towards the end of May, I felt a twinge of some- thing akin to nostalgia or at least deja vu when my physician telephoned me to state, 'You have an aortic aneurism.'" Much of Bob's aorta now consists of Dacron, and he's still recovering from the procedure, and he has founded a correspondence society called The Companions of Jefferson Hope for those who share (or shared) that ailment with Hope. Prospective members are in- vited to write to Robert E. Robinson, 6117 Lakeshore