Jan 01 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The birthday festivities in New York began midweek with an ASH Wednesday supper at O'Casey's for dedicated enthusiasts seeking a truly long weekend, and continued on Thursday at the Williams Club, when Madeleine Stern (ac- companied by her partner Leona Rostenberg) was the Baker Street Irregulars' Distinguished Speaker, offering stories about Sherlock Holmes' rare books (and her talk will be published in the Baker Street Journal this year). The Hotel Algonquin was a nice venue for an informal Mrs. Hudson Breakfast on Friday morning, and more than 140 people were on hand for the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chelsea Seafood Restaurant, where Andrew Joffe and Paul Singleton offered a dramatic rendition of "The True Murderers of Sherlock Holmes". And Otto Penzler's traditional open house at the Myster- ious Bookshop provided the usual opportunities to browse and buy. There were more than 160 on hand for the annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars at the Union League Club, where Paul Herbert offered the toast to Sharon Novorksy as *the* Woman during the pre-dinner cocktail party (she then went on to dine at the Algonquin with other ladies who have received that honor). The dinner agenda was both scholarly and musical, including the usual traditions, recognition of George McCormack (attending his 43rd consecutive annual dinner), reminiscences of old Irregulars Elmer Davis (by Jon Lellenberg) and Nathan Bengis (by Andrew Fusco), and a spectacular "mu- sical tribute to the children of Baker Street": Eddy the Button (Paul Sing- leton), Julie the Wolf (Mary Ellen Rich), Tommy the Stick (Andrew Joffe), and Mikey (Richard Wein), with music and lyrics by Henry Boote. Mike Whelan (the BSI's "Wiggins") announced this year's Birthday Honours: the Two-Shilling Award ("for extraordinary devotion to the cause beyond the call of duty") to Donald K. Pollock, recognizing his fine work as editor of The Baker Street Journal; and Irregular Shillings and Investitures to An- drew L. Solberg ("Professor Coram"), Lloyd Rose ("George Sand"), Charles Foley ("Marlow Bates"), Julie A. McKuras ("The Duchess of Devonshire"), Daniel Stashower ("Thurston"), Marcus Geisser ("Rosenlaui"), and W. Scott Monty ("Corporal Henry Wood"). The Baskerville Bash also took place Friday evening, at the Manhattan Club and with more than 90 people on hand, and with entertainment that included a rousing toast by Chuck Kovacic (to The Hound of the Baskervilles) and a stirring performance by the Sherlettes and the Sherhunks of "Hello, Selden" (starring the Hound instead of Carol Channing). On Saturday morning the dealers room at the Algonquin was as usual crowded with sellers and buyers, and shortly after noon The Clients of Adrian Mull- iner commandeered the lobby for their now-traditional Junior Bloodstain. The BSI's Saturday-afternoon cocktail party attracted more than 250 people to the National Arts Club, where Bev Wolov introduced ladies who have been honored as *the* Woman over the years, and Al and Betsy Rosenblatt reported in verse on the events of the previous evening and the previous year (and you will be able to read that in the BSJ, too). And Ben Vizoskie was ap- plauded as the winner of the Morley-Montgomery Award (an attractive certi- Jan 01 #2 ficate and a check for $500) for the best contribution to The Baker Street Journal last year (his article on "Who Wrote the American Chapters of 'A Study in Scarlet'?" in the summer issue). And The Dr. John H. Watson Fund benefited from June Kinnee's energetic marketing of raffle tickets for Amy Frisbie's portrait of Sherlock Holmes (won by Dayna McCausland), as well as from the enthusiastic bidders in the traditional auction (which, untraditionally, included signing rights on Kate Karlson's leg cast). On Sunday locals and long-weekenders gathered at the Baker Street Pub and Restaurant for an excellent brunch that also was a surprise party celebrat- ing the 20th anniversary of Susan Rice and Mickey Fromkin. 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 Baker Street Journal, which is published quarterly and costs $21.00 a year ($23.50 outside the U.S.), and checks (credit-card payments accepted from foreign subscribers) can be sent to the BSJ at Box 465, Hano- ver, PA 17331. And the electronically-enabled can view photographs of the birthday festivities taken by Linda Anderson (and perhaps others) at a web- site at . Brad Keefauver offers some perspective on the BSI annual dinner (to which he returned after a twelve-year absence), and Brad and his wife Kathryn R. Carter provide a simultaneous account of the BSI dinner and the Bash in the January issue of The Holmes & Watson Report (which also has David Morrill's review of the 1977 television film "The Strange Case of the End of Civili- sation as We Know It" and James R. Webb's discussion of the manuscript of "The Dancing Men"). $16.00 a year for six issues (or $22.00 outside North America), or $3.00 for one issue, from Brad Keefauver (4009 North Chelsea Place, Peoria, IL 61614). And for those who want to mark their calendars for next year's festivities: the Baker Street Irregulars' annual dinner will be held on Jan. 11, 2002. The 20th annual Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle Symposium will be held on Mar. 9-11 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Fairborn, Ohio, with speakers and theatrics and other fun and games. Additional information is available from Cathy Gill, 4661 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45223 (513-681-5507) . Jean-Pierre Cagnat is a splendid French illustrator and political cartoon- ist, and he has been attending Sherlockian gatherings for 15 years, and of course rendering what he has seen in his unique style. His tour "around the world of Sherlock Holmes" is now available, in full color and with text in English, in IT IS ALWAYS A JOY...TO ME TO MEET AN AMERICAN, A BRITON, A JAPANESE, A CANADIAN, A SWISS... (Paris: Mycroft's Brother Editions, 2000; 160 pp., 485 francs), from the publisher (26 avenue de la Republique, 75011 Paris, France) . Shipping is extra: 67fr to the European Union and Switzerland, 75fr to the rest of Europe and Africa, 110fr to America, Asia, and Oceania. Credit-card orders welcome, as are checks in non-French currency (please leave the payee line blank). And if you would like an inscribed copy, please state to whom. Jan 01 #3 Wayne B. Swift ("The Giant Rat of Sumatra") died on Jan. 15. Wayne was an electrical engineer and a teacher, and a computer systems analyst, and in the early 1970s arrived in Washington, D.C., where he discovered the world of Sherlockians, and met and married his wife Fran- cine, and became one of the stalwarts of The Red Circle, for whom he wrote the continuing serial "Upstairs, Downstairs, All Around the Holmes". Wayne received his Investiture from The Baker Street Irregulars in 1978, and was our expert on race horses and horse racing; he identified Silver Blaze as the Duke of Westminster's Ormonde, and The Baker Street Journal's Christmas Annual for 2000 (which is appropriately bound in turf-green covers) was his carefully-researched "History of The Silver Blaze" (from the race recorded by Dr. Watson through its many successors to last year's race at Saratoga). Yuichi Hirayama's THE ANNOTATED JELLAND'S VOYAGE offers a reprint of Arthur Conan Doyle's only story set in Japan, with annotations and an interesting discussion of the historical and literary background of the story; the 20- page pamphlet costs $7.00 postpaid from the author, at 2-10-12 Kamirenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo 181-0012, Japan (US dollar checks are welcome, payable to Mel Hughes). Our new 10c stamp (for presorted bound printed material) honors the N.Y. Public Library and shows one of the two handsome lions that guard its entrance on 42nd Street; visitors to the Library should not neglect its Berg Collection, which owns a chapter of the manuscript of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", and a letter (written for Conan Doyle by his secretary Charles Terry) to B. Fletcher Robinson (with the text of the acknowledgement found in the first American edition); complete manuscripts of "The Norwood Builder", "The Blanched Soldier", "The Devil's Foot", and two Brigadier Gerard stor- ies; and a fascinating archive of material about "The Lost World". "A Dime Novelist's View of American History" is the title of a lecture that J. Randolph Cox will give at the New York Public Library on May 17, as one of five talks scheduled this spring on "Pulp Fictions: Reading, Collecting, and Preserving Popular Culture". Randy, billed in the announcement as "the preeminent scholar of the dime novel genre in the United States," wrote the essay on Arthur Conan Doyle in the DICTIONARY OF LITERARY BIOGRAPHY (1988), and has contributed to The Baker Street Journal and Baker Street Miscella- nea, including an article noting that some of Conan Doyle's works have been published here as dime novels. "Rebooted Any Good Books Lately?" asked the headline on Ian Austen's story in the N.Y. Times (Jan. 4), kindly forwarded by Dan Knight. The review of electronic-book readers included an illustration of the Franklin eBookMan displaying a passage from "The Three Students". THE ORIGINAL TEXT SOLAR PONS OMNIBUS EDITION is a new collection of all of August Derleth's Solar Pons stories, published last year by George A. Van- derburgh in two volumes (with a total of 826 pages), with an introduction by Peter Ruber, and text taken from book collections published by Derleth (an earlier omnibus published in 1982 had text edited by Basil Copper, who corrected "errors" he had perceived in Derleth's text). $138.00 postpaid from the August Derleth Society (Box 481, Sauk City, WI 53583). Jan 01 #4 There are paintings by two Canonical artists in the exhibition "Art for the Nation: Collecting for a New Century" at the Na- tional Gallery of Art in Washington, through Feb. 4: Jean-Baptiste Greuze's "The Well-Loved Mother" (1765) and Claude Joseph Vernet's "The Shipwreck" (1772). The electronically enabled also can see the paintings at the NGA web-site at and at . Thanks to Mary Burke for the URLs. A reminder (from Aug 00 #5): "Sherlock Holmes and the Clocktower Mystery" has been has been touring in England and the United States, and the exhibit will be on display in the Hall of Ideas at the Midland Center for the Arts in Midland, Mich., Jan. 20 to Apr. 23. Additional information is available from the museum (1001 West Saint Andrews, Midland, MI 48640) (571-631-5931 ext 1217) . The fifth issue of the new Strand Magazine offers editor Andrew F. Gulli's interesting interview with Sir John Gielgud, a Sherlockian pastiche by Guy N. Smith, an Inspector Ghote story by H. R. F. Keating, and much more; sub- scriptions (four issues) cost $24.95 (U.S./Canada) or $29.95 (elsewhere), from Box 1418, Birmingham, MI 48012 (800-300-6652) (800-961-280 in the UK) . Don Hardenbrook ("Huret, the Boulevard Assassin") died on Dec. 18. He was a teacher, of English and French, it showed in his Sherlockian scholarship and in the poetry he wrote in the guise of Gaston Huret III. He was one of the founders of The Trained Cormorants, in 1947, and was published in The Baker Street Journal in July 1948 and many times thereafter. Don received his Investiture from the Baker Street Irregulars in 1955, and was for dec- ades one of the shining lights among the west coast's Sherlockians. "Sherlock Holmes and the Jackson Street Terror" is the mystery that Holmes and Watson and participants in this year's "Sherlock Holmes Weekend" will try to solve this year, on Mar. 9-11 and Nov. 2-4 in Cape May. The weekend includes a tour of the town's Victorian homes, and additional information is available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204 (609-884-5404) (800-275-4278) . The third volume of Leslie S. Klinger's SHERLOCK HOLMES REFERENCE LIBRARY is A STUDY IN SCARLET, with an interesting introduction by Donald Pollock (Indianapolis: Gasogene Books, 2001; 150 pp., $19.95); the annotations are perceptive, and draw upon old and new Sherlockian scholarship, and there is intriguing speculation on whether the story had more than one author, and on who those authors might have been. $22.70 postpaid from the publisher (Box 68308, Indianapolis, IN 46260). And THE ILLUSTRIOUS CLIENTS' SECOND CASE-NOTES, edited by Steven T. Doyle and Mark Gagen (Indianapolis: Gasogene Books, 1999; 79 pp., $12.95), is the latest anthology of essays, poetry, and puzzles written by members of the society. Of particular note is a unique scholarly paper ("Whatever Remains Must Be the Truth") written by Paul D. Herbert in 1977 and presented that same year to John Bennett Shaw (who must have loved it), and only now (and at long last) in print. $15.70 postpaid from the publisher (as above). Jan 01 #5 Stephen Clarkson's THE CANONICAL COMPENDIUM (Ashcroft: Calabash Press, 1999; 429 pp., US$45.00/CA$60.00) is the product of more than 30 years of research (it started as a joint project with the late Bill Fleischauer), and the results of the research are both interesting and use- ful: there's a topical index of the Canon, with 80 categories and 144 sub- categories, and story indexes for each of the 60 tales, with page numbers noted for five different editions (Baring-Gould's ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES and the Doubleday, Heritage Press, John Murray, and Oxford Press editions), plus intriguing introductory notes and "miscellaneous" citations for each story. The book costs US$52.50 postpaid (to the U.S.) or CA$66.00 (to Can- ada) or L34.50/US$55.00 (elsewhere) from the Calabash Press (Box 1360, Ash- croft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada) ; credit- card orders welcome. Michael Williams died on Jan. 11. He began his acting career at the age of seven, as a toy soldier in an amateur play, and made his professional debut in repertory at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1959. He went on to star with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he met and married Judi Dench, appear- ing with her on television in the 1980s. In 1989 he played Dr. Watson (to Clive Merrison's Holmes) in "A Study in Scarlet" on BBC radio, and in 1998 became the first actor to portray Watson in all of the Canonical stories. Bert Coules, who worked with Williams on the series, has said that he was "a kindly, modest man and a most generous and versatile actor." The Filmoods Company (Box 475, Scarsdale, NY 10583) offers a sales-list of its pamphlets of Sherlockian and Victorian erotica ("these stories furnish provocative details of the lives and experiences of characters who appear in those adventures, but about whom we know much less than we might..."). Thanks to Michael Ross for last year's German stamp honoring Heinz Rhmann, who was Dr. Watson in "Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war" (1937). Hans Albers, who played Holmes in the film, was honored on a Ger- man stamp in 1991 (Feb 92 #2). The film is a comedy (released on videocassette by Ufa Universum Film in 1992, in German and without subtitles). "The Sign of Four" (the second two-hour television film to star Matt Frewer as Sherlock Holmes and Kenneth Welsh as Dr. Watson) is scheduled to air on the Odyssey network on Mar. 23. Their version of "The Hound of the Basker- villes" debuted on the network last October. "I have been reading a short but clear and interesting account of the old building, purchasable at the modest sum of one penny from the local tobacc- onist," said Sherlock Holmes (in "The Valley of Fear"). Paul Churchill has determined that the pamphlet in question was "The Story of Birlstone Manor House", by B. W. Shepherd-Welwyn; it was published in 1888 and distributed by tobacconist L. V. Narramore, and copies of the pamphlet were distributed by Paul at the recent annual dinner of Watson's Tin Box in Eldersburg, Md. Three additional copies will be auctioned on the Internet: the web-site is , the auction begins on Feb. 4 and runs for one week, and the text keyword phrase will be "Birlstone Manor House" (or search for the item under the seller's ID "morse.hudson"). Jan 01 #6 The Montague Street Lodgers of Brooklyn have launched a series of irreverent, and occasionally incomprehensible, celebratory pamphlets, the most recent being THE VERY STRANGE HISTORY OF THE MONTAGUE LODGERS OF BROOKLYN (issued last year honoring their 15th anniversary); it was preceded by YOUGOTTABEKIDDING: THE UNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF DOROTHY D. STIX, and both pamphlets are available ($5.00 each postpaid) from Peter J. Crupe (1533 64th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219-5709). Phyllis White died on Dec. 22. She was a stalwart member of The Scowrers and Molly Maguires of San Francisco, and was honored as Member Number One at each meeting of Bouchercon, the annual mystery convention named for her husband Anthony Boucher. Her tales about the "Sherlock Holmes" radio days in the 1940s were delightful, and her poem "Prologue in Baker Street" was one of the birthday tributes published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (Jan. 1986). Reported: Colin Bruce's CONNED AGAIN, WATSON!: CAUTIONARY TALES OF LOGIC, MATH, AND PROBABILITY, from Perseus Books in December ($24.00); instruction from Sherlock Holmes, by the author of THE STRANGE CASE OF MRS. HUDSON'S CAT: AND OTHER SCIENCE MYSTERIES SOLVED BY SHERLOCK HOLMES (Jun 97 #4). H. Paul Jeffers' BLOODY BUSINESS: AN ANECDOTAL HISTORY OF SCOTLAND YARD was published in 1992 (Mar 93 #4), and it's available again in a 1999 Barnes & Noble reprint (278 pp., $6.98). The book is an interesting history of the Yard, with due attention to Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (who has his own chapter). Carolyn Wheat's TALES OUT OF SCHOOL (Norfolk: Crippen & Landru, 2000; 237 pp., $40.00 cloth/$16.00 paper), is a collection of the best of her mystery stories, and one of them is a Sherlockian pastiche: "The Adventure of the Angel's Trumpet" appeared earlier in HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1996). The cloth edition is signed and is accompanied by a pamphlet with an additional story not included in the paper-covers edition. The publisher's address is Box 9315, Norfolk, VA 23505) (toll free 877- 662-6656); credit-card orders welcome. The 2000 issue of Beeman's Christmas Annual, published by The Occupants of the Empty House and edited by Janet Bensley, is devoted to "Flora & Fauna in the Canon" (including an article by Brad Keefauver on "Innocent Flora, Evil Fauna" resulting from his speculation that wrongly-accused Flora Mill- er might have had an evil sister). The 28-page booklet costs $10.00 post- paid; checks (payable to O.E.H.) can be sent to Stan Tinsley, 105 Wilcox Street, Ziegler, IL 62999. Joseph Coppola was in Washington this month for the winter meeting of the American Library Association, and reported some discoveries in the vendors room: Chinese translations of the Sherlock Holmes stories, available from the New China Book Store (926 Archer Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107) (215- 627-4507), and Russian translations, from Russia Online (Box 558, Kensing- ton, MD 20895) (301-929-8981) . And a neck- tie, with a pattern of bookshelves with books and Sherlockiana; $29.95 from Stop Falling Productions (15009 Manchester Road #159, Ballwin, MO 63011) (800-362-9511) . Jan 01 #7 "Paul Singleton is the complete lecher!" At least that's what Paul Singleton claims in publicity for his upcoming performance in "The Complete Lecher" at the Kraine Theatre in New York, on Mondays at 7:00 pm from Feb. 12 through Mar. 19; the theater is at 85 East 4th Street (between 2nd and 3rd Avenues), and the box-office phone number is 212-414- 5259. Those who have seen him performing at Sherlockian events can expect somewhat different entertainment: "Paul Singleton is back to torment and tantalize Nicole Golden in an hour of hilarity, double entendres, law and disorder! Nicole is the do-right lawyer assigned to Paul's case of selling porn in the back of his station wagon; Paul uses his street sense of Legal- Sleaze to get Nicole in his dark corner. Nicole is no Ally McBeal, as she is fully aware of what is going on, and takes Paul on a little joy ride up the straight and narrow." Tickets cost $10.00, and the show was written and directed by Andrew Joffe. Steve Allen died on Oct. 30, 2000. He was a prolific song-writer, as well as a talented author and actor, and one of television's most versatile en- tertainers. He created the "Tonight" show for NBC-TV in 1953, and launched "The Steve Allen Show" in 1956 (and on July 1, 1956, featured Elvis Presley as the guest star, singing "You Ain't Nothin' But a Hound Dog" to a basset hound named Sherlock). His mystery novel THE TALK SHOW MURDERS (1982) had references to Sherlock Holmes and (unusual in mystery novels) a character who belonged to the Baker Street Irregulars. James Moss Cardwell's musical comedy "Mrs. Hudson?...MRS. HUDSON!!" had its world premiere as a dramatic reading performed for The Diogenes Club of the Monterey Peninsula in 1981; there was no music (and there still isn't), and the author died in 1990. But the script survived, and it's irreverent and amusing, and it was published last year with an interesting introduction by Michael H. Kean and colorful dust-jacket artwork by Jean-Pierre Cagnat; 136 pp., $39.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, ON LN0 1S0, Canada. READINGS: ESSAYS AND LITERARY ENTERTAINMENTS, by Michael Dirda (Blooming- ton: Indiana University Press, 2000; 216 pp., $24.95), is a collection of his essays published in the Washington Post's "Book World" section; those who heard his Sherlockian reminiscences during the birthday festivities in 2000 (and who read them in the summer 2000 issue of The Baker Street Jour- nal) will know how enthusiastic he is about reading, and how well he writes about what he has read. There are many Sherlockian and Doylean references in this book, but it would be well worth reading even if there weren't. Spotted by John Baesch: TROUBLESOME THINGS: A HISTORY OF FAIRIES AND FAIRY STORIES, by Diane Purkiss (London: Penguin Books, 2000; 368 pp., L20.00); includes discussion of the Cottingley fairies Reported by Doug Wrigglesworth: THE GREAT WAR OF WORDS: BRITISH, AMERICAN AND CANADIAN PROPAGANDA AND FICTION, 1914-1933, by Peter Buitenhuis (Van- couver: Univ. of British Columbia Press, 1987, 218 pp., $25.95); includes discussion of Conan Doyle's writing about the Boer War and the Great War. VICTORIAN QUEST ROMANCE: STEVENSON, HAGGARD, KIPLING AND CONAN DOYLE, by Robert Fraser (Jackson: Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1998; 93 pp., $19.00); relates "The Lost World" to contemporary "quest romances" by other authors. Jan 01 #8 Some attractive Sherlockian prints and posters are available on the World Wide Web: you select the design you want, and it is shipped printed on paper ($19.95) or canvas ($99.00 and up). You can see the images at Barnes & Noble at and at Amazon Z-shops at ; "Sherlock Holmes" is only one of many categories available. Forecast for May from St. Martin's Press (and reported by Fred Levin): Ro- berta Rogow's THE PROBLEM OF THE SURLY SERVANT ($23.95); the fourth in her series of mysteries starring Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dodgson. And (also from Saint Martin's) in July: Michael Kurland's new Moriarty pastiche THE GREAT GAME ($23.95), along with a one-volume trade paperback reprint of his first two pastiches THE INFERNAL DEVICE and DEATH BY GASLIGHT ($15.95). And Gerard Williams' DR. MORTIMER AND THE ALDGATE MYSTERY ($22.95); a new pastiche featuring Dr. James Mortimer. Some late-breaking news: Scott Monty has succeeded Ray Betzner as the cir- culation and advertising manager of the Baker Street Journal. Andrew G. Fusco prepares Sherlockian-era calendars for distribution during the birthday festivities in New York, carefully choosing a Sherlockian year that works for the current year; some of my readers will find enclosed the rare green variant that was not distributed in New York. Our postage rates have changed, and so have the subscription rates for my monthly newsletter, which now costs $9.30 a year for six or more pages of whatever gossip I find appropriate, much of it quite trivial, but most of it Sherlockian or Doylean; $12.40 a year to Canada; $15.00 a year overseas (the overseas rate is now 80c for the first ounce, rather than 60c for the first half-ounce and 40c for the next half-ounce) And a few commercials: a 15-page list of the Investitured Irregulars, the Two-Shilling Awards, *the* Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes costs $1.20 postpaid. An 80-page list of 781 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for contacts for 430 active societies, is $4.20 post- paid. A run of address labels for 360 individual contacts (recommended to avoid duplicate mailings to those who are contacts for more than one soci- ety) costs $10.40 postpaid (checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please). The list of irregulars and others also is available from me by e-mail (no charge), and both lists are available at Willis G. Frick's "Sherlocktron" home page at . Updating the item on the grand gourmet Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America on May 12 (Dec 00 #1): Al and Julie Rosenblatt report that the event is now fully-booked. If you would like to see how much fun a past CIA dinner was, copies of Al and Julie's 20-page souvenir menu for "An Evening in Scarlet" on May 16, 1987, handsomely devised, designed, and produced, with many illustrations, annotations, and explanations, are still available; $20.00 postpaid (checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Feb 01 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Last month I recommended Jean-Pierre Cagnat's IT IS ALWAYS A JOY...TO ME TO MEET AN AMERICAN, A BRITON, A JAPANESE, A CANADIAN, A SWISS... (Paris: My- croft's Brother Editions, 2000; 160 pp., 485 francs), and I'm happy to do so again, because there's much more to it than Jean-Pierre's excellent art: the accompanying text by Christilla Cagnat is delightful, as she explains what it is like to accompany a Sherlockian spouse, whether in pursuit of the Hound ("I hate Dartmoor!... Dartmoor makes you want to divorce and hate your husband") or between floors in a malfunctioning elevator ("There were nine of us. Nine foolish people who, on a cold Saturday night in New York, crowded into a tiny elevator meant for six"). It's recommended, and avail- able from the publisher (26 avenue de la Republique, 75011 Paris, France) ; shipping is extra: 67fr to the European Union and Switzerland, 75fr to the rest of Europe and Africa, 110fr to America, Asia, and Oceania. Credit-card orders welcome, as are checks in non-French currency (please leave the payee line blank). And if you would like an inscribed copy, please state to whom. Spotted by Ted Friedman: a colorful catalog from De La Concha Tobacconist (1390 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019) (One Civic Center Plaza, Hartford, CT 06103) , with a page for Peterson showing their Sherlock Holmes pipe tobacco, and a cover photograph showing a pipe resting on THE WORKS OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE published by the Longmeadow Press in 1985. Jacques Barzun's FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE: 500 YEARS OF CULTURAL TRIUMPH AND DEFEAT: 1500 TO THE PRESENT (Aug 00 #3) has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award; the winners will be announced on Mar. 15. Scott Monty reports that the Sherlockian societies in New England are plan- ning a Sherlockian evening at the Algonquin Club in Boston on Mar. 24. The agenda will include an interview with Sherlock Holmes (impersonated by Paul Singleton). Details are available from Scott (1836 Columbia Road #2, South Boston, MA 02127) (617-464-4153) . A bibliographic query: Les Moskowitz has noted an interesting typo in the Doubleday edition of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES published in 1960 (this was reset, and has 1122 pages). The error is on page 645: "Holmes's card sent in to the manager ensured instand attention..." And the error is of interest because it occurs in the two-volume edition, but not in all print- ings of the one-volume edition. There are printing codes in both editions, at the lower right of page 1122, indicating the year (by letter, beginning with A for 1959) and the week (by number). The earliest copy I know of is a copy of the two-volume edition (with a presentation label from the pub- lisher) with a printing code A41 (1959, 41st week). And there are copies of the one-volume edition with printing codes C10 (1961, 10th week) and Q16 that contain the typo, and a copy with printing code BB42 in which the typo has been corrected. It would be nice to know when the page was reset for the one-volume edition; please let me know if you have copies with printing codes between C10 and BB42, and whether they have the typo. But: do not be confused by later reprints; Book-of-the Month Club editions have different printing codes, such as MP3B (for the Maple Press, 3rd month, 1972). Feb 01 #2 The December issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minne- sota has John Bergquist's report on the gift to the collections by Jennie C. Paton of part of her Sherlockian video library (the 16-page catalog is "in tiny print with narrow margins"), with some stories about how Jennie started and maintains the library; a tribute to early Sherlockian Charles Honce; and other news. If you would like to be on their mailing list you can contact Richard J. Sveum (111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . David Stuart Davies reports that the eighth International Gilbert & Sulli- van Festival will be held in Derbyshire from July 28 to Aug. 19, and that the agenda will include some Sherlockian events: a presentation by David on Sherlock Holmes (Aug. 4) and two performances by Roger Llewellyn in David's play "Sherlock Holmes - The Last Act" (on Aug. 4 and 17) at the Paxton The- atre in Buxton. More information is available from Ian Smith, The Old Vic- arage, Haley Hill, Halifax NX3 6DR, England . It's the Year of the Snake, and the U.S. Postal Service reports that in Chinese astrology the snake symbolizes wisdom, intensity, and physical beauty. One wonders if that's what readers of the Canon think about when they read about the cobra, swamp adder, vipers, and serpents that are mentioned in various stories. "DK" is a well-known set of initials among those who enjoy Dorling Kinders- ley's travel guides and educational books, and the company has now begun a line of fiction classics that includes THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000; 64 pp., $14.95); the story is abridged for younger readers, and illustrated by Mark Oldroyd, and there are annotations and explanations (also illustrated). Further to the report (Apr 00 #1) that Abbey National was considering sell- ing off and then leasing back its freehold buildings, including the head office at 221B Baker Street, Scott Monty notes a new report that the bank is the target of two separate takeover bids. Abbey National has been nego- tiating with the Bank of Scotland, but Lloyds TSB Group has now offered $27 billion to acquire Abbey National. If successful, Lloyds TSB would become Britain's second-largest bank, and the takeover will require approval from Britain's Office of Fair Trading. Spotted by David Morrill: THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES [Scan/RedH/Iden /Bosc/Five/Twis/Bery/Copp] read (abridged) by John Whitaker on four audio- cassettes; and THE HOUNDS OF THE BASKERVILLES read (abridged) by Michael J. Bennett on four audiocassettes (Englewood Cliffs: Media Books, 1999; $12.99 each). Gordon R. Dickson died on Feb. 1. He was one of the great science-fiction writers, and with Poul Anderson created the Hokas, and one of the very best cross-over stories: "The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound" (first published in Universe Science Fiction, Dec. 1953) was collected in EARTHMAN'S BURDEN (1957) and reprinted in THE SCIENCE-FICTIONAL SHERLOCK HOLMES (1960). All of the Hoka stories are great fun, and this one especially so. Feb 01 #3 The Feb. 2001 sales-list from Peter L. Stern (55 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111) offers interesting Sherlock- iana and Doyleana, including a holograph manuscript of the poem "The Song of the Bowmen" with a signed letter from his niece Claire noting that the poem was written out by Sir Arthur for his sister Caroline (Claire's moth- er), offered at $6,000. Caroline was his sister Lottie, and the poem was first published in THE WHITE COMPANY (as "The Song of the Bow"). The British Royal Mint has issued a new Victorian anni- versary crown with the reverse showing a young Victoria (based on the William Wyon portrait used on the world's first postage stamps), and a backdrop representing the ironwork of the famed Crystal Palace. The cost of the coin in a presentation folder is $16.50 (plus $4.95 per order for shipping), and there are some toll-free phone numbers: 800-221-1215 (U.S.), 800-563-5943 (Canada), and 01443-623322 (U.K.). And a URL: . "Songs like '30 Seconds Over Tokyo' and 'Final Solution' (a reference not to Nazism, Mr. Thomas says, but to a Sherlock Holmes mystery) evoked an ex- istential dread that somehow tore through itself to become beautiful," Ann Powers wrote in the N.Y. Times (Oct. 19), in a review (noted by Greg Darak) of the 25th-anniversary performance by David Thomas and the punk rock band Pere Ubu. Do any Sherlockian punk rockers know if the piece is available on a recording? Reported by Catherine Cooke: Conan Doyle's OUR AFRICAN WINTER, scheduled from Duckworth in London in May (L14.99) in their series of reprints of classic travel books; it's an interesting account of the family's tour of eastern and southern Africa in 1928-1929. Dale Evans died on Feb. 7. Her first movie with Roy Rogers was "The Cowboy and the Senorita" (1944), and they married in 1947, performing together in 28 films and then on television. One of their early films was "San Fernan- do Valley" (1944): a herd of horses is rustled one dark evening, and Rogers deduces that it must have been an inside job, because of the ranch dog: "If they'd a been strangers," Rogers explained, "he would've barked, and there wasn't a peep out of him." And yes, a crown now is worth five pounds, rather than five shillings as in Sherlockian days. The five-shilling coin went out of circulation when the British decimalized their money (and didn't issue a circulating 25np coin); it was in 1990 that the Royal Mint began describing five-pound coins issued for collectors as crowns. Some late-breaking news about the grand gourmet Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America: Al and Julie Rosenblatt have confirmed that the Rhinebeck Volunteer Fire Department will again offer their Firehouse Breakfast on Sunday, May 13. It's an easy walk from the Beekman Arms, but there's no guarantee that there will be a fire. The first such event, many years ago, was indeed interrupted by an alarm: the firefighter cooks roared off to fight the fire, and returned after a few minutes to report that it was a false alarm. All in honor of Irene Adler, of course. Feb 01 #4 "We must hurry up, for I want to go to Halle's concert to hear Norman Neruda this afternoon," said Sherlock Holmes (during "A Study in Scarlet"). Here's another quote from an admirer of the lady: "I stayed with Halle in Manchester. Madame Norman Neruda came to the concert; I like her very much, and I think you would too. Her playing is more to my taste than that of any other contemporary--unspoilt, pure and musical. The poor lady has been travel travelling about since October, playing in public in the provinces nearly every day and she will continue to do so until the end of March, but then she will make L1800 clear profit." In a letter from violinist Joseph Joachim to his wife, written in February 1870, spotted by Gayle Harris in LETTERS FROM AND TO JOSEPH JOACHIM (New York: Vienna House, 1914; reprinted 1974). Larry Ashley (an addictions counselor with the department of counseling at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas) is finding the Canon helpful: he'll lecture on "Sherlock Holmes and His World of Drug Use" on Apr. 26 (focusing on the historical context of drug use in the Victorian era). Sorry about that: is the correct URL for Willis Frick's "Sherlocktron" home page, where he has kindly provided space for the list of the Investitured Irregulars, the Two- Shilling Awards, the Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes; and the lists of the Sherlockian societies, and many other items of interest. Our new sheet of "American Il- lustrators" stamps celebrates three artists of interest (one Sherlockian and two Doylean). Robert Fawcett (1903-1967) "is best remembered for recreating detailed illustrations to ac- company a series of Sherlock Holmes stories in Collier's magazine" (as the postal ser- vice notes on the back of the sheet); he illustrated Arthur Whitaker's pas- tiche "The Case of the Man Who Was Wanted" in Cosmopolitan in 1948, and the pastiches by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr in Collier's in 1953. Howard Pyle (1853-1911) illustrated "The Parasite" in Harper's Weekly in 1894 and "A Forgotten Tale" in Scribner's Magazine in 1895; and N. C. Wyeth (1881-1945) illustrated "The Coming of the Huns", "The First Cargo", and "The Red Star" in Scribner's Magazine in 1910-1911, and a later edition of THE WHITE COMPANY in 1922. Joe Eckrich offers a 13-page sales-list of Doyleana and Sherlockiana, with books, records, and videocassettes, and some nice non-Sherlockian material by Vincent Starrett and Michael Harrison; his address is 914 Oakmoor Drive, Fenton, MO 63026 . The centenary of the publication of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" will be celebrated in Australia on Sept. 29-Oct. 1, when The Sydney Passengers are sponsoring a Victorian-costume weekend at Bishopthorpe Manor at Goulburn, near Sydney. For more information, contact Sally Cornell (24 Byron Street, Croydon, NSW 2132, Australia) . Feb 01 #5 LITTLE SHERLOCK BEAR is a new 34-minute videocassette from Par- amount/Viacom ($6.99 in toy stores), with four animations based on the books written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak. The box shows Little Bear with deerstalker and magnifying glass, and the contents include "Detective Little Bear" (length 8 minutes); Little Bear appears in deerstalker and magnifying glass investigating the mystery of his grandfather's missing pocket watch. "The traditional stationmaster, a pillar of the community and ready to help even the most awkward customer, is set to return," according to a newspaper story at had from John Baesch. The Great North Eastern Railway is changing it customer service delivery managers into stationmasters, equipped with mobile phones and pagers, to make trains friendlier, more efficient, and faster. Stationmasters, one of them Prof. Moriarty's younger brother, are mentioned in five stories in the Canon. Ian Henry Publications (20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England) has a new (autumn 2000) sales list of their Sherlockian books (including mono- graphs, pastiches, plays, and television and film scripts). And Ian Henry has just launched a series of paperback reprints of M. J. Trow's pastiches about Insp. Sholto Lestrade (L9.99 each). Further to the item (May 00 #8) about BBC plans to produce a new television version of "The Lost World" (co-producer Tim Haines said then that the nov- el, while not a classic, was a "rollicking good story"), Nancy Beiman notes a story in the Hollywood Reporter (Feb. 13) that reported that Bob Hoskins will star as Challenger, with Tom Ward (Lord Roxton), James Fox (Prof. Leo Summerlee), Matthew Rhys (Edward Malone), Elaine Cassidy (Agnes Kerr), and Peter Falk (the Rev. Theo Kerr). Executive producer Jane Tranter said last year that a new female character would be introduced to spice up the plot ("a load of sweaty men would be a bit dull"). Tim Haining was responsible for the BBC's acclaimed "Walking with Dinosaurs" (which was on the Discov- ery channel here), so we can expect some excellent digital dinosaurs. Reported by Jeff Bradway: Christopher Hitchens' UNACKNOWLEDGED LEGISLATION: WRITERS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE (New York: Verso, 2001; 320 pp., $25.00) has a chapter on "The Case of Arthur Conan Doyle"; it's his long review of Daniel Stashower's biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle TELLER OF TALES, reprinted from the N.Y. Review of Books (Nov. 4, 1999). Further to the report that the Crowborough Town Council had provided funds for the life-size statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle sculpted by David Cor- nell (Jan 00 #6), Brian Pugh reports that the statue will be unveiled in Crowborough on Apr. 14. More information is available from the Council (The Town Hall, The Broadway, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 1DA, England . David Musto reports that Yale University's 20th annual Sherlock Holmes Lec- ture will be held on June 28, at 8:00 pm at the Davies Auditorium, Becton Center, 15 Prospect Street on the Yale Campus. Murray Biggs (an Associate Professor of English and Theater Studies at Yale) will discuss the ways in which Holmes illustrated Conan Doyle's attitudes toward society. And the event will include a Rathbone/Bruce film. Feb 01 #6 Dan Stashower has noted a report in The Independent (Feb. 16) about Cottingley fairies material coming to auction on Mar. 13 at Bonhams & Brooks (attn: Carole Park, Montpelier Street, London SW7 1HH, England) (44-20-7393-3829) . It's sale 28534, lot 396: a collection of glass plates and other negatives originally owned by Edward Gardner (the theosophist who first showed the photographs to Arthur Conan Doyle); the archive includes photographs of the fairies, and unpub- lished pictures of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths and their relatives, and the lot is estimated at L3,000-4,000. News from Fred Levin: June Thomson's HOLMES AND WATSON, published in Brit- ain in 1995, now has an American edition from Carroll & Graf ($24.00). And Gerard Williams' DR. MORTIMER AND THE BARKING MAN MYSTERY (his second pas- tiche starring Dr. Mortimer) is due from Carroll & Graf in April ($24.00). Mary Burke reports that there are photographs of Andaman islanders and of Agra on display in the exhibition "India Through the Lens: 1840-1911" at the Smithsonian Institution's Sackler Gallery in Washington through Mar. 25. There's a web-site at . The multicolor BASH 2001 lapel pin (honoring this year's Bas- kerville Bash during the birthday festivities in New York) is available ($12.50 postpaid to North America, and $13.50 else- where) from Warren Randall, 15 Fawn Lane West, South Setauket, NY 11720-1346. Further to the report (Oct 00 #5) on "2001: A New Sherlockian Odyssey: A Journey Through the Shaw 100" in Minneapolis on June 29-July 1, the conference brochure (with details on the speakers, banquet, and other events) and registration materials are now available from Richard J. Sveum (111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Reported by Ed Collins: a dinner-theater production of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (newly dramatized by director Jeremy Tow) at the Chemainus Theatre on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, from Feb. 23 through Apr. 14; Box 1205, Chemainus, BC V0R 1K0, Canada (800-565-7738), and there's a web-site at . Christopher Morley was a splendid writer as well as the founder of The Ba- ker Street Irregulars, and Jim Hawkins reports that Bartleby ("Great Books Online") offers a sample of Morley's work on the World Wide Web: there's a brief biography of Morley at and the complete text of MODERN ESSAYS (1921) with a preface by Morley at . Travelman Publishing has installed three vending machines in the South Ken- sington Station on the London Underground, offering short stories in a map- fold format (L1.00 each) for readers who want something more interesting than the daily paper. And Sherlock Holmes is among the stories available. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Mar 01 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "The Sign of Four" (with Matt Frewer as Sherlock Holmes) aired on Odyssey cable in March, and Charles Prepolec has reported that Muse Entertainment has confirmed that their next two-hour television film will be "A Scandal in Bohemia" (combining that story with "The Bruce-Partington Plans"). And The electronically enabled will find graphics and more information about "The Sign of Four" at web-sites at and . A HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM TAVERN IN BLOOMSBURY, by John N. Henderson (London: Blemund's books, 1989), traces the history of the tavern from 1723 (when it was the Dog and Duck) to the present day, and it does not neglect the fact that Sherlockian scholars have identified it as the Alpha Inn (in "The Blue Carbuncle"); John Baesch notes that the 32-page booklet still is available at the pub (L1.00). Further to the report (Jan 01 #3) that promotion for the Franklin eBookMan shows the electronic-book reader displaying a passage from the Canon, Rich- ard Wein notes that there's a similar illustration (this time showing the beginning of "The Empty House") in the early-spring catalog of "tools for serious readers" from Levenger (420 South Congress Avenue, Delray Beach, FL 33445 (800-544-0880) . Robert S. Gellerstedt, Jr., died on Nov. 23, 2000. Bob worked for General Electric in the late 1940s (designing the gas turbine engine) and in 1951 moved to Lockheed Aircraft Corp. where he was instrumental in designing the Jetstar plane. He collected trains, and was a member of The Confederates of Wisteria Lodge in Atlanta, and in 1985 he brought his trusty Macintosh into Sherlockian service, compiling and publishing lists and indexes and 17 issues of his Christmas newsletter The Irregular News, and helping George Vanderburgh scan the entries in the first two volumes of Ron De Waal's bib- liographies for use in THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES. CONNED AGAIN, WATSON!: CAUTIONARY TALES OF LOGIC, MATH, AND PROBABILITY, by Colin Bruce (Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2000; 290 pp., $24.00), employs Holmes and Watson to explain scams, game theory, and statistics, and does a good job of making it all sound easy; Bruce's earlier THE EINSTEIN PARADOX AND OTHER SCIENCE MYSTERIES SOLVED BY SHERLOCK HOLMES (Dec 98 #1) used a similar approach for scientific paradoxes. And the author has a web-site at . Fans of Ross Macdonald's work will welcome the announcement that his bio- grapher, Tom Nolan, has discovered some unpublished material in Macdonald's papers: one short story and two novelettes featuring Macdonald's private eye Lew Archer, all now available in STRANGERS IN TOWN (Norfolk: Crippen & Landru, 2001). $15.00 (paper) or $37.00 (cloth, signed by Nolan and with some additional material); Box 9315, Norfolk, VA 23505 (toll-free 877-622- 6656) ; credit-card orders welcome. There's nothing Sherlockian about the new book, as far as I know, but Macdonald's real name was Kenneth Millar, and his first published story was "The South Sea Soup Co." in The Grumbler (Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School, 1931); it's a parody featuring Herlock Sholmes and Sotwum. Mar 01 #2 "Violin Won't Go for a Song" was the headline on a story in the [London] Evening Standard (Mar. 14), at hand from John Baesch, about a Stradivarius up for auction at Sotheby's, where it was expected to bring up to L450,000. That's rather more than the 55 shillings that Sher- lock Holmes said he paid for his, but much less than the $1.58 million paid for the Kreutzer Stradivarius in 1998 (May 98 #3). Another Strad sent to auction that year in New York sold for $884,000 (Nov 98 #5). Terry Manners' biography THE MAN WHO BECAME SHERLOCK HOLMES; THE TORMENT OF JEREMY BRETT, first published in 1997, has been reissued as a trade paper- back (London: Virgin, 2001; 244 pp., L12.99); according to a recent review, "Brett's manic depression and his disastrous submersion in his most famous role are well described in a book that avoids the luvvie banalties of most theatre biographies." E. W. Ziebarth died on Feb. 27. He arrived at the University of Minnesota in 1937 to pursue a doctorate in speech communication, and in 1948 was one of the founding members of The Norwegian Explorers. He was a radio corres- pondent, and won two Peabody Awards for distinguished achievement in broad- casting, and served as dean of the university's College of Liberal Arts and as the university's interim president. And he wrote a fine article about "The Master and the Mass Media" in EXPLORING SHERLOCK HOLMES (published by the Norwegian Explorers in 1957). There are many Internet web-sites devoted to news/gossip/rumor about films, including Ananova , which reported this month that Catherine Zeta-Jones "is considering" making a film loosely based on "The Sign of Four" that also focuses on a secret love affair between Holmes and married member of the aristocracy. Alan Rickman "is tipped" as Holmes, and Gabriel Byrne as Watson. The script is currently "being developed," with a view to start filming next spring. Cynicism alert: when you see words and phrases such as "considering" and "tipped" and "being developed" in reports from the film industry, it is reasonably safe to assume that you're reading hype rather than news. Forecast for May: A PICTORIAL TRIBUTE TO JEREMY BRETT: THE DEFINITIVE SHER- LOCK HOLMES, by Linda Pritchard (his companion for the last few years of his life), with 100 photographs covering his entire career, and a foreword by Granada Television chairman Charles L. Allen; due from Paradise Books in London, 120 pp. Price not yet known, but expected to be $28.00 to $32.00; you can reserve copies now from Ashland Books, 132 Seventh Street, Ashland, OR 97520 (541-201-0271) . "A Music Reference Goes Electronic, Finally," was the headline in the N.Y. Times (Feb. 15) on Allan Kozinn's article about the new on-line edition of the NEW GROVE DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS, which is regarded by many as the best-ever reference work for musicians and musicologists, as well as music fans. The 29-volume ink-on-paper set costs $4,850, and you can sub- scribe to the on-line version at rates ranging from $295 a year to $30 for ten 24-hour sessions. And electronically-enabled Sherlockians who want to see what Grove has to say about Lassus or Sarasate or Chopin or others who are mentioned in the Canon may wish to take advantage of the free 24-hour trial offer at the web-site . Mar 01 #3 The spring 2001 issue of The Serpentine Muse offers Kate Karl- son's thoughts on "Holmes the Gambler; or A Few Trifling Obser- vations on The Master's Income Sources", the late Wayne Swift's delightful toast to "The Queen Empress", and much more. The Muse is a quarterly pub- lished by The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, and it costs $10.00 a year (make your checks payable to the Adventuresses, please) from Evelyn A. Her- zog (360 West 21st Street #5-A, New York, NY 10011). Sorry about that: my report (Oct 00 #3) that Morton Lowry died on Aug. 22, 2000, was wrong: Lowry, who played John Stapleton in "The Hound of the Bas- kervilles" (1939 and the steward Sanford in "Pursuit to Algiers" (1945) ac- tually died on Nov. 26, 1987. The erroneous information turned up on the Internet Movie Data Base last year (and their mini-biography of Lowry has not been corrected, although his correct dates are now in the main entry). Further to the item (Jul 99 #6) about the renovation of Gillette Castle in Hadlyme, Conn., the work has taken longer than expected, and the park will be closed to the public on May 1, and the park and the castle are expected to be open again on Memorial Day in 2002. The cost will be about $10 mill- ion, and "it's money well spent," according to state parks director Pamela Adams. Visitors will be able to see the steam and electric trains that ran on track installed by William Gillette (the trains were purchased years ago by an amusement park in Bristol, and recently returned to the park for re- pair and restoration); they will be on exhibit as a static display, but it may be possible to lay a small loop of track so that the trains can run on special occasions in the summertime. You can see what the train and track looked like in the 1930s on the Fox Movietone interview with Gillette that is available on various videocassettes. Andy Fusco notes an advertisement in the spring issue of Pipes magazine for six pewter pipe tampers (each with a different character from the Sherlock Holmes tales) offered by the Catnip Hill Trading Company (2201 Catnip Hill Road, Nicholasville, KY 40356 (958-887-5737) ; $124.95 for the boxed set. Carol Wenk died on Mar. 9. She was an ardent and energetic member of the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts, and created and sold minia- ture blank books in the 1970s (her miniature SHERLOCK HOLMES was offered in 1980). In 1993 she succeeded Dee Snyder as leader of The Mini-Tonga Scion Society and editor of the Tonga Times; she greatly enjoyed the Sherlockian world, and was of much help to its miniaturists. Issue #41 of Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine offers an assortment of Sherlockian and non-Sherlockian material, including an interesting ess- ay by Bert Coules on Arthur Conan Doyle as a literary stylist, a discussion by Paul M. Chapman of the literary background for "The Hound of the Basker- villes", and an article by David Stuart Davies on the making of Granada's "The Three Gables". An annual subscription (six issues) costs L20.00 (in the (U.K.)/L22.00 (continent)/$40.00 (elsewhere); Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 8HD, England . Class- ic Specialties is the agent in the U.S. (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219) (toll-free 877-233-3823) , and cred- it-card orders are welcome at both addresses; back issues are available. Mar 01 #4 Elmer Davis was honored in Jon Lellenberg's tribute during the Baker Street Irregulars' annual dinner in New York in January, and that reminded me of a question I planned to ask some time ago. Elmer Davis played himself in the movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951), and Richard Shull appeared in many films. Is there any other Investitured Irregular who has appeared in a film as an actor? A search of the Internet Movie Data Base reveals that Elmer Davis also is an author who has had books made into films. Christopher Morley and Vin- cent Starrett are two more Investitured Irregulars whose books have been made into films. Are there any others? Bob Coghill has kindly forwarded a losing ticket (he wisely kept all his winning tickets) from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation's "Mystery Cash" game. A caricature of Sherlock Holmes ap- pears on every ticket, and a calabash pipe and a deerstalker are among the game symbols (you need to uncover three of any symbol in order to win). Marcus Geisser reports that he has arrived in My- anmar [Burma], and that he is enjoying both the country and his work there for the International Committee of the Red Cross (for whom he worked in the Congo). Myanmar borders the Andaman Sea, but it's not all that close to the islands (noth- ing is all that close to the Andaman Islands, of course). He doesn't have e-mail, but his postal address is: c/o CICR/Myanmar/Mawlamyline, 19 Ave- nue de la Paix, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland. William Hanna died on Mar. 22. He was a pioneer in the field of animation, and collaborated with Joseph Barbera for more than 50 years, creating film and television classics that included "Tom and Jerry", "The Jetsons", "The Flintstones", "Yogi Bear", and "Scooby-Doo". Hanna-Barbera shows of- ten had Sherlockian allusions, including "The Hound of the Scoobyvilles at Baskerville Hall" (1984) and "Scooby-Doo Mysteries: Sherlock Doo" (1985). Reported: Quinn Fawcett's Mycroft Holmes pastiches AGAINST THE BROTHERHOOD and EMBASSY ROW are available from Recorded Books, read unabridged by Simon Prebble. AGAINST THE BROTHERHOOD costs $71.00 on cassettes and $94.00 on CDs (or $16.50 rental); EMBASSY ROW costs $82.00 on cassettes ($17.50 rent- al). Their address is: 270 Skipjack Road, Prince Frederick, MD 20678 (800- 638-1304) ; credit-card orders welcome. Further to the item (Feb 01 #6) on the auction of a collection of Cotting- ley fairies material at auction at Bonhams & Brooks in London on Mar. 13, the estimate was L3,000-4000, and the winning bid (by "an unnamed collec- tor") was L6,000; the lot included glass plates and other negatives origi- nally owned by Edward Gardner (the theosophist who first showed the photo- graphs to Arthur Conan Doyle), with photographs of the fairies, and unpub- lished pictures of Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths and their relatives. Mar 01 #5 The winter 2001 issue of the Tonga Times has arrived from Trish and Jay Pearlman, and it is nicely done indeed, with ten pages, color illustrations, and a miniature copy of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. They would like to hear from anyone who collects, constructs, or is inter- ested in Sherlockian miniatures, and membership in The Mini-Tonga Scion So- ciety costs $10.00 a year (or $11.00 to Canada, or $13.00 elsewhere); their address is 1656 East 19th Street #2-E, Brooklyn, NY 11229, and they have a web-site at . John Baesch has reported a review in the Tatler (Apr. 2001) of Ciaran Car- son's SHAMROCK TEA (Granta, L14.99): "The latest novel from this acclaimed Belfast writer is an absorbing fantasy centred round a van Eyck painting. Shamrock tea allows its drinker to pass through the painting into another world. The narrator meets Ludwig Wittgenstein and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and enters a magical universe where time is suspended. A fairytale for ad-ults, which contains a miscellany of facts." John also notes that the epidemic of foot-and-mouth disease has had an im- pact on at least one Sherlockian site: nearly 400 square miles of Dartmoor were closed to the public in order to protect hundreds of cattle and sheep that graze on common land on the moor. "Dartmoor Pubs Deserted by All But Their Ghosts" said a headline in The Times (Mar. 5); "the hordes of hikers, bird-watchers, canoeists, and geology students who normally populate one of Britain's last unspoilt open spaces have evaporated faster than yesterday's snow in the spring sunshine." The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes will hold their spring dinner on Apr. 21, at Bill's Gay 90's Restaurant in New York; details are available from Evelyn A. Herzog, 360 West 21st Street #5-A, New York, NY 10011. "Ladies and gentlemen will be welcomed" at this gathering of the Adventuresses and their friends (the fall dinner is open to members and female guests), and there are plans for an informal brunch on Apr. 22. John Doubleday's life-size statue of a seated Sherlock Holmes was unveiled in Meiringen in 1988, inscribed with 60 cryptic clues, each clue referring to one of the Canonical tales, and a 1:10 scale model of the sculpture was offered as a prize to anyone who identifies all the clues and stories. And no one has claimed the prize, according to Gavin Bell's story in the Daily Telegraph (Mar. 24): so far the highest score is 58. Regnery continues to publish American editions of M. J. Trow's delightful series about Inspector Sholto Lestrade; the 16 novels offer name-dropping, bawdy humor, and puns, as well as interesting mysteries. LESTRADE AND THE MIRROR OF MURDER (Washington: Regnery, 2000; 240 pp., $19.95) is available (it's #14 in the series). And the publisher is starting to issue the ser- ies in trade paperback: the first two titles (THE ADVENTURES OF INSPECTOR LESTRADE and BRIGADE) are available at $9.95. Sherlock Holmes (impersonated by John Sherwood) will return to Union City, Mich., on May 4 and 5 to host dinner events at the Victorian Villa Inn in honor of the centenary of the death of Queen Victoria. Additional details are available from the inn (601 North Broadway, Union City, MI 49094) (800- 348-4552) . Mar 01 #6 Reported: THE CONFESSIONS OF MYCROFT HOLMES: A PAPER CHASE, by Marcel Theroux (New York: Harcourt, 2001; 216 pp., $23.00), has had two reviews in the N.Y. Times (Mar. 13 in the daily paper, and Mar. 25 in the N.Y. Times Book Review). It's the second novel by the son of Paul Theroux, and according to one reviewer the novel focuses on family rivalry, and a mystery that involves a manuscript with the same title as the book. The book isn't Sherlockian, but the reviewers like its style and energy. The Bibliotheque Cantonale et Universitaire de Lausanne has an interesting archive of photographs of Arthur Conan Doyle, and in 1999 Sylvie Steinmann, as part of her work for a diploma, prepared a CD-ROM disk with 250 photo- graphs selected from the archives, accompanied by biographical and genealo- gical information. The disk is in French, and requires FileMaker 4.0 soft- ware and it is available from Michael Meer for $49.00 postpaid in currency, or $56.00 postpaid for checks and money orders (to cover bank charges). But: FileMaker is a data-base applications program, and the current version is 5.0, and it costs $249.00 from the company (with discounts available in computer stores), and the disk can be read only with the FileMaker program. The company web-site does allow you to download a trial version of 5.0 (as a 9-MB zipped file, and I have no idea how large it unzips to), and then you can run version 5.0 to convert the version 4.0 database on the CD-ROM disk to your hard disk, and you'll likely need 4-GB to convert the entire CD-ROM disk. Of course it might be possible to find someone who'll sell you a cheap copy of the FileMaker 4.0 software now that version 5.0 is available. Bookubes are an imaginative device: eight small cubes connected to form one larger cube that you unfold and refold to show various pictures or designs. The Sherlock Holmes Bookube of Quotations nicely displays full-color Paget artwork and Canonical quotations, and it costs L3.99 plus shipping (L2.99 to the U.S.) from Crime in Store (14 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9HE, Eng- land) (0207-379-3795) . The Musgrave Papers 2000 is the 13th annual published by The Northern Mus- graves, and as usual it's nicely done indeed, with 126 pages devoted to the stories in THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Kathryn White suggests that "The Second Stain" is a tale of "sex, lies, and red tape," and Auberon Redfearn offers amusing extracts from the diary of Col. Sebastian Moran). Informa- tion on membership in the society and on its publications is available from Anne Jordan, Fairbank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorks. BD16 4DN, England . The current annual from the society also is the last to be edited by David Stuart Davies and Kathryn White, who report that Roger Johnson already is hard at work on the next one (which is to be devoted to THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES). David also reports that a computer crash has damaged his address files: any American contributors who have not received their auth- ors' copies should write to David at: Overdale, 69 Greenhead Road, Hudders- field HD1 4ER, England . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Apr 01 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Further to my query (Mar 01 #4) about Investitured Irregulars who have ap- peared in movies as actors (in addition to Elmer Davis), Bill Ward was a child actor, from the age of three in "The Amazing Mrs. Holliday" (1943) to the age of seven in "The Foxes of Harrow" (1947), and John E. Pforr had a bit part (as an extra) in Barry Levinson's "Liberty Heights" (1999). And Investitured Irregulars who have had books made into films (in addition to Christopher Morley and Vincent Starrett) include Poul Anderson, Isaac Asi- mov, John Ball, Frederic Dannay (as Ellery Queen), Robert L. Fish, Stuart Palmer, Rex Stout, and Eve Titus. If you include books made into televis- ion series, add Michael Harrison to the list. Jon Lellenberg (who supplied many of the authors listed) also notes that Henry C. Potter, the only mem- ber of The Baker Street Irregulars who has a star on Hollywood Boulevard, directed many films. "Granada to Revive Sherlock Holmes" was the headline on a story in the Mar. 31 issue of Broadcast magazine, reported by Bill Barnes. "Granada is to revive its successful drama series 'Sherlock Holmes' on ITV, The programme is currently being cast by Granada controller of drama and comedy Andy Har- ries. It will show a much grittier interpretation of Victorian London and will follow Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson during an earlier period of their partnership, when the men were in their early 30s. Granada produced 39 ep- isodes of the original series, which ran between 1984 and 1994 and garnered viewing figures of up to 14 million for the network. No transmission date has been revealed." And there's more, in a story in the Mirror (Apr. 2), forwarded by David M. Scott, which says that Robson Green and Jerome Flynn "are being lined up" to star as Holmes and Watson, with Sean Benn as Moriarty and Geraldine Som- erville as Holmes' girlfriend, in a series of 12 one-hour programs. Note: as with many such projects, Sherlockian and otherwise, initial publicity is quite often intended to help generate interest and funding. It remains to be seen whether Granada actually starts production. Forecast for May: SHERLOCK IN LOVE, by Sena Jeter Naslund, first published in 1993, in a trade-paperback reprint (New York: HarperPerennial, 2001; 240 pp., $13.00); the book opens in 1922 with Watson having decided to write a biography of Sherlock Holmes, and quickly encountering a series of myster- ies, current and past, that involve a mysterious violinist named Sigerson, an attempt to rescue Mad King Ludwig of Bavaria, and much more. The style and voice are consistent with the Canon, and the narrative is cinematic, as is often the case with modern pastiches. The Mystery Writers of America will hold their 56th annual banquet on May 3 in New York; the nominees for Edgar awards include Martin Booth's THE DOC- TOR AND THE DETECTIVE: A BIOGRAPHY OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (for best cri- tical/biographical work) and David Pirie's "Murder Rooms: The Dark Origins of Sherlock Holmes" (for best TV feature/miniseries). Ed Hoch, whose work includes both Sherlockian and Doylean stories, will be honored as a Grand Master of the MWA, and Douglas G. Greene (the proprietor of Crippen & Lan- dru) will receive the Ellery Queen Award (for writing teams, editors, and publishers who have made an outstanding contribution to the mystery genre). Apr 01 #2 Further to the previous report (Sep 00 #3) about the continuing battle over Liberton Bank House (where Arthur Conan Doyle once lived), McDonald's has now scaled down its plans: the [Edinburgh] Scotsman reported (Mar. 19), that the company now proposed to build a 75-seat rest- aurant, painted white and without the world-famous golden M, farther away from the derelict house. But opponents note that the new plan blocks the original driveway to the house and make access impossible except through a shopping center, possibly deterring potential buyers who might want to re- store the house. Owen Dudley Edwards said in the South Edinburgh News last month that Conan Doyle "first learned to read and write" while he lived in the house, and that "It was here that the first impressions of human life came to him on the printed page which he would later make his battleground of endless triumphs." Our new stamp commemorates the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Nobel Prize, and by implication the only known Sherlockian to have won one: Prize: Philip S. Hench (1896-1965), winner of a prize for medicine in 1950. His collection (with four copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887), now is owned by the University of Minnesota. Further to the item (Feb 01 #5) about the BBC's new television version of "The Lost World", the production company, filming in New Zealand, has lost a famous capuchin monkey, Tuku, named in honor of the nation's first prime minister, according to a story in the Evening Standard (Mar. 27), at hand from John Baesch. A local observer noted that Tuku was part of the back- ground action, and its owner had assured the film crew that if it was taken off its lead it wouldn't disappear. "It did immediately, and no one could retrieve it." A BBC spokesman explained that they were in negotiation with the owner, "and we can't comment further about the monkey until the situa- tion is resolved." The Mysterious Bookshop Newsletter continues to appear monthly, offering a wide variety of titles, old and new, and there's always a section of Sher- lockiana (also old and new); 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (212- 765-0900) . The International League of Antiquarian Booksellers has a new web-site with offers by about 2,000 dealers worldwide, including (early this month) 450- 500 items listed for Arthur Conan Doyle; some items are rare and expensive (there are three non-Sherlockian manuscripts), and others are less rare and reasonably priced. The search engine is helpful, and one of the nice fea- tures of the new web-site is that you can use foreign-language characters in searches. The URL is . Nyree Dawn Porter died on Apr. 9. She was a fine actress, best known for her portrayal of Irene Forsyte in the BBC's late-1960s television series "The Forsyte Saga" (a role for which she won an award as best actress from the Society of Film and Television Arts, and was honored as an officer of the Order of the British Empire); the series was for many American admirers of Irene Adler an education on the British pronunciation of her given name (eye-REEN-ee). Miss Porter also was Lady Brackenstall in the Douglas Wil- mer version of "The Abbey Grange" on BBC television in 1965. Apr 01 #3 "In the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the Army," Dr. Watson wrote (in "A Study in Scarlet"). John Baesch has forwarded a review from the Evening Standard (Apr. 4) of Philip Hoare's new SPIKE ISLAND: THE MEMORY OF A MILITARY HOS- PITAL (Fourth Estate, L17.99); Hoare grew up near Netley, and his book cov- ers far more than the history of the hospital. "In more fertile spots the observer would have come to the con- clusion that one of those great herds of bisons which graze upon the prairie land was approaching him," Conan Doyle wrote (in "A Study in Scarlet"). Our new 21c stamp shows the silhouette of a bison; American do call them buffalo, but the buffalo mentioned in the Canon surely were South African Cape buffalo. Further to the item (Feb 01 #5) on plans for the unveiling of the life-size statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Crowborough, the Daily Telegraph ran a story on Apr. 12 on protests by former mayor Steve Isted and others against the cost of the unveiling ceremony, but the statue, sculpted by David Cor- nell, was unveiled on Apr. 14 without a hitch (or protest). Georgina Doyle (widow of Sir Arthur's nephew Brigadier John Doyle) was the guest of honor, and spoke about how pleasant it was to see a statue of the creator rather than the creation; other members of Conan Doyle's extended family present were Richard Doyle, Catherine Beggs, Robert and Shirley Foley, and Charles Foley. Will Walsh (23 Powder Horn Road, Cortlandt Manor, NY 10567) offers a set of six postcards showing his watercolors of Canonical ships; $5.50 postpaid. Some of his original artwork also is available, and you can contact him by mail or e-mail . The tenth annual Watsonian Weekend on July 27-29 will feature Chuck Kovacic as guest speaker at the Regimental Dinner in Schiller Park, the 42nd annual running of The Silver Blaze at Arlington Race Track, the Fortescue Honours Brunch in Des Plaines, and a tour of Graceland (the cemetery where Vincent Starrett and other famous locals are buried) led by Don Izban; more infor- mation is available from Susan Z. Diamond (16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106) . "He's almost magical in his abilities," Morgan Freeman said in an interview with Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times (Apr. 15), talking about Dr. Alex Cross (the forensic psychologist Freeman plays in the new film "Along Came a Spider"). "He's very like Sherlock Holmes," Freeman continued. "One of my joys was Jeremy Brett doing Sherlock Holmes. I'm drawn to that sort of cerebral detective." Michael Chabon, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for his novel THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & CLAY (New York: Random House, 2000), was interviewed on "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS-TV on Apr. 19, and he talked about how he started getting interested in writing. He said he was ten years old when he first wrong something long, in English class: a 12- page story about Sherlock Holmes meeting Captain Nemo, trying to write in Conan Doyle's style. His teacher gave him an A. Apr 01 #4 Derham Groves, recently lecturing about architecture in Vietnam, found the Canon in print there, in small and inexpensive paperbacks. And no, that's not Sherlock Holmes in the cover artwork; the story is "A Study in Scarlet" and the cover shows Jefferson Hope, and the booklet was published in Hanoi in 1998. Another publisher, in Ho Chi Minh [Saigon], has a series of 12 paperbacks with translations from the French OEUVRES COMPLETES published by Robert Laffont in Paris in the 1960s. Apr 01 #5 Jack Haley Jr. died on Apr. 21. He was born into show business (his father played the Tin Man in "The Wizard of Oz" in 1939), and he had a long career as a film and television director and producer; his Sherlockian credits include executive producer for a Sherlock Holmes episode of "That's Hollywood!" (1976) and executive in charge of production for the Roger Moore television film "Sherlock Holmes in New York" (1976). Original artwork by Robert Fawcett will be included in an auction on May 5 at Illustration House (96 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012 (212-966-9444) . His artwork for "The Adventure of the Wax Gamblers" (by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr) in Collier's on Jun 20, 1953, shows Watson taking cards from the hands of the wax gamblers, and is estimated at $5,000-7,000. Fawcett's artwork for Agatha Christie's "Hickory Dickory Dock" in Collier's on Oct. 28, 1955, shows Hercule Poirot, and is estimated at $2,000-$3,000 (suggesting, perhaps, that Watson is more desirable than Poirot when it comes to original art by the same artist). A new sales-list of Sherlockiana, and an extensive one, with more than 500 items (List G), is offered by Michael S. Greenbaum (Janus Books, Box 40787, Tucson, AZ 85717) (800-986-1165) . Further to the report (Sep 00 #1) on plans to publish a complete run of The Baker Street Journal on a CD-ROM disk, in PDF format that can be read with Adobe Acrobat software (included) for Windows and Macintosh systems, there are four CD-ROM disks, and the set now is ready for shipping; it costs $105 postpaid (to North America) or $110 postpaid (elsewhere), and checks should be sent to The Baker Street Irregulars, 2029 Century Park East #3290, Los Angeles, CA 90067. The first issue of the BSJ appeared in 1946, when its editor, Edgar W. Smith, said that it was "dedicated to the proposition that there is still infinitely much to be said about the scene in Baker Street." That's still true, of course, and the archive on the BSJ disks illustrates just what is meant when we say that Sherlockians have "contributed to our literature." Mike Whelan (the current "Wiggins" of The Baker Street Irreg- ulars) suggested to the BSI at an annual dinner that the Irregulars should be a literary society rather than a fan club, and you'll be able to see on the disks just how literary, and how much fun, the BSJ has been for so many years, and still is. Tom Armstrong's "Marvin" comic strip used a Sherlockian motif to celebrate Easter in a continuing story, Apr. 2-7 and 9-14; thanks to Carl Heifetz for pursuing the mystery through the pages of the St. Petersburg Times. Apr 01 #6 Martin Gardner's imaginative THE ANNOTATED CASEY AT THE BAT: A COLLECTION OF BALLADS ABOUT THE MIGHTY CASEY (according to John Bennett Shaw, it has "the only accurate account of where Moorville (3Gar) was, and what happened to it") appeared in 1967, with a second edition in 1984, and there's a third edition (Mineola: Dover Publications, 1995: 231 pp., $8.95) with additional Sherlockian material: a one-paragraph summary of Charles Michael Carroll's poem "Sherlock at the Bat" (first published in Wheelwrightings in 1991). "Hooked: Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way" is a four-hour mini-ser- ies broadcast by the History channel on Apr. 22; the third one-hour program ("Cocaine: The Third Scourge") included a one-minute segment about Sherlock Holmes, with a photograph of Basil Rathbone, a quote from "The Sign of the Four" (misidentified as "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution"), and commentary by David F. Musto of Yale University (and The Baker Street Irregulars). Laurie R. King will be on tour promoting her new (non-Mary Russell) novel FOLLY, and signing her books. The preliminary schedule: May 7 (Amsterdam); May 8 (joint event with Val McDermid and Manda Scott at Waterstones, Emer- son Chambers, Newcastle); May 9 (similar joint event at Waterstones, West End Branch, Edinburgh); May 10 (signings in London at Crime in Stone and Murder One, and perhaps at Silver Moon and Harrods, and a joint event with Andrew Taylor at Heffers, Cambridge); May 11 (joint event with Val McDermid and Waterstones, Deansgate, Manchester). More information may be available at Laurie's web-site at . Reported by Stu Shiffman: VILLAINS VICTORIOUS, edited by Martin H. Green- berg and John Helfers (New York: DAW Books, 2001; 320 pp., $6.99); an an- thology of 14 original stories, including a Sherlockian pastiche by Peter Tremayne, about Holmes' first encounter with Moriarty, in Ireland, where Colonel James Phillimore disappeared from his estate in Kerry. The museum exhibit "Sherlock Holmes and the Clocktower Mystery" has been on display in the United States (Jan 01 #4), and now it's moving to Canada: it will open at the Vancouver Museum on June 11 and run through the end of the year. More information is available from the museum (1100 Chestnut Street, Vancouver, BC V6J 3J9, Canada) (604-736-4431) and (by the end of the month) at their web-site . The annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe often includes new Sherlockian drama, and this year's play will be Edward Viney's new dramatization of "The Hound of the Baskervilles", at the Stage by Stage Edinburgh Academy in Henderson Row on Aug. 5-19. The box office (0131-557-1155) and the company web-site will open on June 1. After the Festival ends the play will also be produced in Exeter. According to company publicity, the production focuses on the supernatural dimensions of the story and the atmosphere created by a lone man of reason entering a close-knit, fright- ened community. Sir Hugo makes more than one appearance, and the audiences will get to see the Hound. "The tone of the piece is gothic and suspense- driven, rather than comic or camp, as some adaptations can be." The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) May 01 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press It was nice to see a mention of the creator of our grand Sherlockian game in conservative columnist George F. Will's op-ed piece in the Washington Post (Apr. 29): "Ronald Knox, the learned Catholic priest whose elegantly medieval mind converted a number of Oxford undergraduates in the 1920s and '30s, believed that airplanes, telephones and such gadgets were overrated and that the last good invention was the toast rack for the breakfast tab- le. Now, *that* was a conservative." Willis Frick spotted a report of a new play, scheduled at the South Coast Repertory's Second Stage in Costa Mesa, Oct. 30-Dec. 2. "Nostalgia" (writ- ten by Lucinda Coxon) is set on a farm in South Wales, where "two brothers hear an echo of hypnotic songs sung by sirens. There is a foreboding about the surrounding woods. Perhaps the strange woman across the river, who is loved from afar by one brother and scorned by the other, knows why. When Sherlock Holmes' creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle arrives, he gets the chance to put his literary insights to a real test as he attempts to untangle both the emotional and ethereal enigmas." The theater address is Box 2197, Cos- ta Mesa, CA 92628 (714-708-5555) . One of the events during the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars in 1960 was a quiz presented by Irving Fenton, for which the first prize was a copy of LEAVES FROM THE COPPER BEECHES supplied by Bill Starr and Tom Hart by way of giving the volume some publicity. And Julian Wolff won the quiz. Julian's prize volume possibly was inscribed by Edgar W. Smith, and may also have been signed by some of those who attended the dinner; and I wonder if one of my readers acquired this copy when Julian's collection was dispersed some years ago. "Try Canadian Pacific Railway," was Sherlock Holmes' suggestion (in "Black Peter"), and John Baesch notes that it's as strong an investment now as it was then. The chairman of Canadian Pacific Ltd. told the company's share- holders on Apr. 26 that the time is right to split CP into five companies, one of which will be Canadian Pacific Railway. The company opened in 1881 as a "ribbon of steel" built to tie Canada together coast-to-coast, and it will again be a "pure play railway company" (CP's ships, petroleum, hotels, resorts, etc., will be owned by the other new companies). There's an addition to the list of three Investitured Irregulars who have appeared in movies as actors (Apr 01 #1), thanks to Roy Pilot: add Richard B. Shull, who was a professional actor on stage, screen, and television. "The Royal Arsenal at Woolwich is a real blast from the past," Chris Whar- ton wrote in The Sunday Telegraph (Apr. 22), in an article kindly forwarded by John Baesch. The Royal Ordnance Factory closed in 1967, and the London Development Agency bought the 76-acre site from the Ministry of Defence in 1997 for L1, and then spent L48.8 million to decontaminate the area. Some of the buildings now are being converted, one into a museum and others for housing, with apartments that will be priced from L105,000 (one bedroom) to L250,000 (three bedrooms). One hopes, of course, that someone will arrange for a plaque that will commemorate the services of Arthur Cadogan West, who was a clerk at the Woolwich Arsenal ("The Bruce-Partington Plans"). May 01 #2 The Sherlock Holmes Gazette was launched ten years ago as a 24- page journal edited by Elizabeth Wiggins, with a "Reichenbach Centenary Edition" on May 4, 1991; it has grown and prospered, and it was retitled Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine in 1997, and it is edited now by David Stuart Davies, and the decade's 40 issues (through 2000) are now available on a CD-ROM disk. The disk costs L39.95 or $60.00 postpaid from PHM Publications, PO Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 8HD, Eng- land (you should specify PC or Mac); credit-card orders welcome. "This case deserves to be a classic," is the quote from the Canon noted by Joe Coppola in a new catalog from Reading Etc. (3201 SW 15th Street, Deer- field, FL 33442 (877-909-7323) , introducing a collection of handsome desk accessories that aren't themselves Sherlockian. The electronically-enabled will wish to visit Steve Trusell's splendid "De- tectives on Stamps" web-site at ; it was there that I discovered a report of the latest postage stamp honoring Arthur Conan Doyle: South Africa issued (Oct. 25, 2000) two stamps hon- oring Anglo-Boer/South African War Writers, showing portraits of Sol Plaatie and Johanna Brandt on one stamp, and Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston Churchill on the other stamp. The mint set, and an official first day cover, still are available from Philatel- ic Services, Private Bag X505, Pretoria 0001, South Africa ; the cost is R5.70 for the stamps and R7.70 for the cover, and credit-card orders are welcome. Bridget Byrne reported (in the Washington Post on May 8) on the cast of the new film "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" (due in theaters on Nov. 16), and the film will feature two actors who have played Sherlock Holmes: John Cleese will be Nearly Headless Nick (a "ghost who 4 years ago wasn't quite beheaded"), and Alan Rickman will be Severus Snape ("cold-eyed, pale- skinned, sarcastic Slytherin housemaster and potions professor"). Cleese played Holmes on television in "Elementary, My Dear Watson" in 1973, and Rickman played the title role in William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" on stage in Birmingham in 1976. Issue #42 of Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine offers a first (as far as I know): Peter Guttridge's "Sound Alibi" is a pastiche with Basil Rath- bone and Nigel Bruce, in the midst of filming for Universal, assisting the police in solving a double murder perpetrated on the film set. And there's much more, non-Sherlockian and Sherlockian, including David Stuart Davies' article about the making of Granada's "The Dying Detective", and Denis Nor- den's quote from the first Sherlockian sketch that he and Frank Muir wrote for BBC radio in 1949. Annual subscriptions (six issues) cost L20.00 (in the U.K.)/L22.00 (continent)/$40.00 (elsewhere); Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 8HD, England . Class- ic Specialties is the agent in the U.S. (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219) (toll-free 877-233-3823) , and credit- card orders are welcome at both addresses; back issues are available. May 01 #3 A&E cable debuted it's "Nero Wolfe" mystery series last year with "The Golden Spiders" (Sep 00 #5), starring Maury Chaykin as Wolfe and Tim Hutton as Archie Goodwin, with a view of the portrait of Sherlock Holmes on the wall over Archie's desk. The series continues this year ("The Doorbell Rang", "Champagne for One", and "Prisoner's Base" have aired so far), and Holmes' portrait seems to have vanished, but there now are views of the picture of waterfall (which hides the secret panel through which people can see what's going on in the office); it is widely assumed that the waterfall is the Reichenbach, although this is not stated in any of the stories (and as seen in the series it doesn't look like the Reichen- bach). The series offers excellent atmosphere and production values, and Hutton is delightful as Archie Goodwin. Further to the item (Aug 96 #5) about how much the Conan Doyles liked Mercedes-Benz cars: the Wall Street Journal had a front-page article by Jonathan Welsh on May 8, about a 1955 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing Coupe, ordered from the factory by Adrian Conan Doyle and now owned by Alfred Barbour, who purchased it for $165,000. The car then spent two years in a restoration shop, and after two years of work and an estimated bill of $300,000 the car resides in Barbour's garage in Mars, Pa. But he doesn't plan to drive it: "Sometimes I'll come down alone, pull up a chair and just sit and look at," he said. And he thinks the car is well worth what he's spent on it: "Some people have beautiful paintings or sculptures, and they have no trouble justifying it. My work of art just happens to be in the garage." Actually, the Mercedes was driven by Adrian's wife Anna Conan Doyle; according to Charles Foley, Adrian's own car was a Ferrari 250 GTO. Further to the report (Apr 01 #5) of original artwork by Robert Fawcett at auction in New York on May 5, his illustration for "The Adventure of the Wax Gamblers" (by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr) in Collier's, showing Watson but not Holmes (estimated at $5,000-7,000), brought $7,150 (including the 10% buyer's premium). Fawcett's artwork for Agatha Chris- tie's "Hickory Dickory Dock", showing Hercule Poirot (estimated at $2,000- 3,000) brought $3,080. Bill Barnes (19 Malvern Avenue, Manly, NSW 2095, Australia) notes that THE HOUNDS' COLLECTION: VOLUME 6 now is available; there are 98 pages of pas- tiche, humor, serious writing, and artwork by members of The Hounds of the Internet. Most of the material is new, but a few items have appeared else- where; the cost is $12.00/CA$18.00/L8.00/AU$14.75 postpaid by air (payment in currency preferred, but checks are acceptable), and PayPal can be used to . The latest issue of The Cormorant's Ring is a delightful tribute to Marga- ret and Don Hardenbrook: Don was one of the founders of The Trained Cormor- ants in 1947, and their wedding in 1957 was nicely Sherlockian (both the reverend and the best man were members of the Cormorants), and their marr- iage was a happy one in every way, as you will see in the reminiscences and reprints in the society's journal. It's available for $5.00 postpaid from Jim Coffin, 6570 East Paseo Alcazaa, Anaheim Hills, CA 92807. May 01 #4 Britain's second largest mortgage lender Abbey National contin- ues to sell bonds backed by residential mortgages, and "Holmes Four" (due in June) will be worth L2.6 billion, the largest such bond issue in European history. There's already a Holmes One, Holmes Two, and Holmes Three, and yes, the name is carefully chosen. According to a Reuters dis- patch (May 10), at hand from Ray Betzner, "The Holmes vehicle is named af- ter Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes who lived at Abbey's headquarters address on Baker Street in London." The June-July issue of British Heritage is devoted to "The Age of Empire: Victorian Britain", with information on the best sites for tourists inter- ested in the era, and (of course) mention of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 645 Flank Drive, Harrisburg, PA 17112 (800-358-6327); $6.00. The spring issue of The Magic Door (the newsletter published by The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library) has David Kotin's review of the Toronto Public Library's special collections, and Victoria Gill's article about one of the Conan Doyle family photographs (of Arctic explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson, publisher H. M. McClure, detec- tive William J. Burns, Capitol Theatre owner Edward Bowes, and Sir Arthur, taken by Lady Doyle in 1913 at Windlesham, where they discussed the possi- bility of "a play combining a detective of fact with the greatest detective of fiction." The newsletter is available from Doug Wrigglesworth (16 Sun- set Street, Holland Landing, ON L9N 1H4, Canada) . And the Friends have a web-site at . There's a new lapel pin, for The Goose Club of the Alpha Inn; and the cost is $8.50 postpaid, from Jeanette Pyle, 16 Browe Court, Burlington, VT 05401. There were 180 people at the Culinary Institute of America on May 12 to enjoy "Sir Hugo Baskerville's Feast", which included delicacies such as spit-roasted boar, stuffed pheasant eggs, neat's tongue, warm venison pate, roast hind of oxen, cowcumber and dill sallet, and many other dishes known from the time of the Great Rebellion (1642-1652). The agenda also featured a performance by the Friends of Bogie (Andrew Joffe, Paul Singleton, and Sarah Montague Joffe) of a scene that didn't make it into last year's film "Best in Show" (involving the Hound, of course), and many toasts, one of which was Mike Whelan's warm tribute to "The Economic Sherlock Holmes" (Mike noted in passing that consideration is being given to reducing the cost of the annual birthday festivities by moving the Baker Street Irregulars' annual dinner to a centrally-located McDonald's located in Peoria, Ill.). The irregularly quinquennial Sherlockian dinners have been held at the CIA since 1973, masterminded always by Fritz Sonnenschmidt and Al and Julie Ro- senblatt, who were honored this year by Mike Whelan with a presentation of three Waterford toasting goblets, each inscribed as a Culinary Innovation Award. The weekend also included the traditional Sunday-morning pancake breakfast at the Rhinebeck Fire Department, and opportunities to tour the historic sites and sights of the Hudson Valley, one of which is the Presi- dential Library of BSI member Franklin Delano Roosevelt, whose Sherlockian memorabilia have been carefully preserved in his archives. May 01 #5 Otto Penzler's pamphlet series of pastiches and parodies (Jun 00 #5) has a new title: Montgomery Carmichael's ON THE THRESH- HOLD OF THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS (which was first published in The Illustra- ted Sporting and Dramatic News, Oct 27, 1894). The 16-page pamphlet costs $10.00, from The Mysterious Bookshop, 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019) (800-352-2840) Isabella Beeton's classic MRS. BEETON'S BOOK OF HOUSEHOLD MANAGEMENT was first published in 1861, and it was a valuable guide for those who managed households in the days of Sherlock Holmes; she died in 1865 at the age of 28, but the book "spawned what we today would call a brand-name publishing empire," according to an article by Maryann Haggerty in the Washington Post (May 17). "Mrs. Beeton's name was slapped on just about any book that had anything to do with house-wifery. Think Martha Stewart, without the qual- ity control." A new edition of the book, edited by Nicola Humble for the Oxford World's Classics last year (672 pp., $13.95), offers an interesting look at how households were managed in those long-ago days. The Borough of St. Marylebone's contribution to the Festival of Britain in 1951 was an "Exhibition on Sherlock Holmes" at Abbey House in Baker Street that opened to the public on May 22; it ran until Sept. 22 and was visited by more than 50,000 people, and it attracted considerable publicity in the world press with a carefully-researched reproduction of the sitting-room at 221b, as well as displays of manuscripts, first editions, and memorabilia of Canonical cases. The Westminster Libraries have launched a web-site at to celebrate the 50th anni- versary of the exhibition, and it's nicely done indeed. The web-site will be updated, and next year it will honor the exhibition's visit to New York in 1952; Catherine Cooke would be glad to hear from anyone who saw it (or knows someone who saw it) and can offer reminiscences that can be added to the web-site. Her address is: Marylebone Library, Marylebone Road, London NW1 5PS, England . Linda Pritchard's A PICTORIAL TRIBUTE TO JEREMY BRETT: THE DEFINITIVE YEARS (London: Paradise Books, 2001; 120 pp., L15.00) offers a brief biography, tributes to the actor and his work, lists of his appearances on stage and screen and television, and a splendid selection of photographs covering his entire career. Available for $29.95 postpaid from Ashland Books, 132 Sev- enth Street, Ashland, OR 97520 . Jan Meredith died on May 10. She was an actress on stage, radio, and tele- vision, and in recent years a member of the Asheville Community Theater in North Carolina. In the 1980s she played Mrs. Hudson in Joseph Bevilaqua's parody radio series "The Mis-Adventures of Sherlock Holmes". Further to the reports (Apr 01 #1) that Granada is planning to revive their Sherlock Holmes series, David Stuart Davies has learned that the company is in the very early development stages of a new series, with the idea of pre- senting a younger Holmes and Watson. But there is no producer in charge of the project, nor any writers involved, and no decisions on casting. On the other hand, the Jeremy Brett series was the most successful financially of all the series Granada has ever made, and one might assume that something Sherlockian will appear from Granada in the next 18 to 24 months. May 01 #6 Kate Karlson traveled to Paris for the annual meeting of La So- ciete Sherlock Holmes de France in Paris in May (they "really rock," Kate reports), and the locals and the visitor enjoyed a tour of Pere Lachaise cemetery, where one will find the tombs of Oscar Wilde, Alphonse Bertillon, Honore de Balzac, Frederic Chopin, a Sir Charles Doyle (showing the correct family coat of arms), and a black marble tomb decorated with an enigmatic "SH" in gold below a cross; when asked by a passing tourist whose tomb it was, Phillipe Roland Nicholas (the society's youngest member) had a quick response: "C'est Sherlock Holmes." Further to the item (Mar 01 #1) about plans for Muse Entertainment's third two-hour television film starring Matt Frewer and Kenneth Welsh, it's now in production in Canada, according to a story in the Ottawa Citizen, kindly noted by Les Klinger. The working title is "The Royal Scandal" (based on "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Naval Treaty"). In their next film, Frewer and Welsh will play a cross-dressing hockey player and her coach: "Helga: A True Story" will feature Frewer in two roles: as Helga, who becomes an NHL star while disguised as a man, and her murderous twin sister Sonya. Welsh will be Helga's coach, confidante, and paramour. More investitured members of The Baker Street Irregulars in films: Philip Shreffler appeared as an extra in the Huck Finn episode of "Mark Twain: Be- neath the Laughter" (1980). Donald Pollock also was an extra (one of the zombies) in "Dawn of the Dead" (1978). And his car was filmed in the air- port parking lot in "Airport" (1970). Barnes & Noble still offers handsome Sherlockian prints and posters (Nov 99 #5: you select the design you want, and it's shipped to you printed on paper ($19.95) or canvas ($99.00 and up). You can also see the artwork (and Sherlock Holmes is only one of many categories available) at Barnes & Noble stores. And yes, this end-of-May issue of my newsletter is being published somewhat late, but I have a reasonable excuse: hepatitis A, which is an infection of the liver caused by a virus, and you get it from eating raw or undercooked shellfish that came from contaminated water, or (more likely) anything pre- pared by someone who hasn't paid attention to the signs one sees in restau- rant restrooms ("employees must wash their hands before leaving"). Hepati- tis A is the one you recover from (with hepatitis B you never get to drink alcohol again, and with hepatitis C you just get in line for a liver trans- plant), and there's no medicine to take: you just get plenty of rest, and drink lots of liquid, and eventually you get your appetite and energy back, and your skin and eyes aren't yellow any more. So I'm back to normal (when I say that to people, the response occasionally is, "when were you ever normal?"), and I'm not contagious any more, which will be nice news to those planning to attend the Sherlockian conference in Minneapolis at the end of June, since I plan to be there. As for the next issue of my newsletter, I'm not sure I'll have six whole pages of gossip by the end of June, but I expect to be back on schedule by the end of July. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jun 01 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Bits & Pieces (One Puzzle Place, B8016, Stevens Point, WI 54481) (800-544- 7297) continues to offer "The Continuing Ad- ventures of Sherlock Holmes" puzzles ("read the enclosed story booklet and assemble the 550-piece jigsaw to solve each original murder mystery"): "The Fellow Lodgers" and "The Phantom of Sorrel House" (originally $10.95 each) are now discounted at $6.95 each. The Strand bookstore in New York has been open for business since 1927, and now boasts more than 12 miles of books for sale; Paul Singleton spotted an interview with the store's owner Fred Bass and his daughter Nancy, in Time Out New York (summer 2001), that reports that the store is "named after the famous London publishing street and after the magazine in which Arthur Con- an Doyle published the first Sherlock Holmes stories." The store is at 848 Broadway (at 12th Street), and is well worth a visit by every collector. Further to the item (Mar 01 #5) about Ciaran Carson's SHAMROCK TEA (London: Granta Books, 2001; 308 pp., L14.99), pursuit of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle in literature occasionally leads to discoveries of strange and wondrous writing, and the book certainly qualifies: it's an assembly of 101 short, interconnected, and colorful chapters tied to Jan van Eyck's paint- ing "The Arnolfini Portrait", the lives of the saints (both well-known and obscure), and much more. And yes, Carson pays tribute to both Conan Doyle and Holmes. Angela Browne died on June 20. She began her acting career on stage in the mid-1950s, and also had great success in film and on television; she played Mrs. Toller in Granada's "The Copper Beeches" (1985). The French have a long-standing tradition of baking epiphany cakes with a bean in them (whoever gets the slice with the bean gets good luck as well), but more recently small porcelain figurines are used instead of beans. And there's a set of ten "feves" (1" high) each with a character from the film "The Great Mouse Detective" available for $43.50 postpaid (if there are any left) from KinderMagic, 848 West Lantana Road, Lantana, FL 33462 (toll-free 877-875-4633) . If the supply is exhausted, they may be able to get more, so you can enroll on a waiting list. John Baesch has reported that the Queen's birthday honours included a CBE [Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire] for Christo- pher Lee, who played Sir Henry in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959), Sherlock Holmes in "Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes" (1963), My- croft in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970), and Sherlock Holmes in the television films "Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady" and "Inci- dent at Victoria Falls" (1992), and he read "The Valley of Fear" for a set of audiocassettes in 1991. Dudley Moore, who also received a CBE, played Dr. Watson in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978). And Leslie Bricusse, who received an OBE [making him an Officer of the Order], wrote the book, music, and lyrics for "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" (1988), which included some of his work for MGM (the company hired him to write a new score for their planned-but-never-produced film of the musical "Baker Street"). Jun 01 #2 This year's Christmas card from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London will celebrate the society's 50th anniversary, with the society's logo and appropriate wording, on a special white card embossed in gold. $13.00 postpaid for ten cards (L5.50 to the U.K., L6.00 to Europe, L7.00 elsewhere); checks payable to the Society, please, and orders should be sent to Cdr. G. S. Stavert, 22 Homeheights, Clarence Parade, Southsea, Hants. PO5 3NN, England. Note: you can order now, but the cards will not be shipped until September. Lise McClendon has noted a new bookshop: Sherlock's Home, owned by John and Jane Hooper, at 7 North Missouri Street, Liberty, MO 64068 (816-792-0499) . Further to the report of THE CONFESSIONS OF MYCROFT HOLMES: A PAPER CHASE, by Marcel Theroux (New York: Harcourt, 2001; 216 pp., $23.00), it's an in- teresting novel, full of twists and turns and surprises, and although it's not Sherlockian ("The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes" are stories written by the narrator's uncle), it's an intriguing mystery. Norman Schatell was a delightful artist whose Sherlockian work appeared in Sherlockian (and other) journals, and informally on the envelopes in which he enclosed his letters to his friends. THE SCION OF SCHATELL: ART IN THE BLOOD (New York: Magico Magazine, 2001; 50 pp., $10.00 postpaid) offers a spiral-bound collection of Norman's work, assembled by Dave Galerstein and with an enthusiastic introduction by Irving Kamil, and it's a fine opportu- nity to see just how much artistic fun Norm (and his friends) had. Magico Magazine's address is: Box 156, New York, NY 10002. While it's true that The Baker Street Irregulars were born and nourished in the pages of the Saturday Review of Literature, it's also a fact that the pages of the Chicago Tribune offered its readers a splendid opportunity to discover just how much fun Sherlockians have. Vincent Starrett wrote for the paper for many years, of course, but there was another stalwart Sher- lockian on its staff: Charles Collins, who for more than two decades edited and wrote a daily column called "A Line o' Type or Two" and provided a for- um for his fellow enthusiasts. And you can now see just how much they all had, thanks to the late John Nieminski, who discovered more than 300 sepa- rate items of interest in the Collins' column, and assembled and annotated them for a book that was not published while he lived; and thanks to Ely Liebow, who has contributed two informative and enthusiastic introductions, about John Nieminski and Charles Collins, and who presided over publication of SHERLOCK IN THE TRIB (New York: Magico Magazine, 2000; 242 pp., $31.95 postpaid, publisher's address as above). Edgar W. Smith, in his BAKER STREET AND BEYOND (1940), was the first Sher- lockian to offer an annotated list of the place names that constitute the geography of the Canon, and others followed in his footsteps in encyclope- dias and similar guides. A SHERLOCKIAN GAZETTEER, by Virginia Powell (New York: Magico Magazine, 1997; 157 pp., $27.00 postpaid, publisher's address as above), offers some added value: her comprehensive list of place names, annotated from the Canon and often from the 11th edition of the ENCYCLOPED- IA BRITANNICA, also includes identifications by previous scholars of many of the place names disguised by Dr. Watson. Jun 01 #3 Mary Burke has returned from London to report on her visit to the British Museum, where the British Library's former reading room has been restored and opened to the public. Near the front chairs is a placard that states: "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle refers to Sherlock Holmes' researches in the Reading Room, and a later writer describes an imaginary meeting between Holmes and Karl Marx." And in a glassed bookcase against the wall there are 18 books by Conan Doyle, and another card with the quote from "The Musgrave Ritual" about Holmes' use of the British Museum: "There I waited, filling in my too abundant leisure time by studying all those branches of science which might make me more efficient." That "later writer" (Jon Lellenberg reports) was William S. Baring-Gould: his SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BAKER STREET: A LIFE OF THE WORLD'S FIRST CONSULTING DETECTIVE (1962) describes such a meeting (at which, it is amusing to note, Holmes never learned Marx's name). Lewis Feuer, in THE CASE OF THE REVOLU- TIONIST'S DAUGHTER: SHERLOCK HOLMES MEETS KARL MARX (1983) has Holmes meet- ting Marx, but at Marx's home in Maitland Park Road. And Michael Hardwick, in SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE AND CRIMES (1984), has Holmes recalling his use of the Reading Room: Holmes says of Marx that "I saw him there often," but not that he actually met him. Mary Burke also visited the Dulwich Picture Gallery, where one can see two paintings by Sherlock Holmes' great-great-grand-uncle Claude-Joseph Vernet: "An Italianate Harbour Scene" and "Italian Landscape". The gallery has an "adopt an old master" program that raises funds for conservation (adoption allows the use of the image of the artwork free of charge); "An Italianate Harbour Scene" needs urgent work, according to the gallery's head of devel- opment Lottie Cole, and it is up for adoption for L4,000. More information is available from Miss Cole (Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, Dulwich Village, London, SE21 7AD, England) . Noted by Denny Dobry: William R. Hanson's pastiche "Sherlock Holmes and the Hawaiian Treasure" in the American Philatelist (July); one of the illustra- tions is a photograph of Denny's carefully-detailed recreation (in Reading, Pa.) of the sitting-room at 221B. If you can't find the issue locally, the magazine's address is: Box 8000, State College, PA 16803; $3.95. And their web-site is at . The U.S. Postal Service has honored "Peanuts" with a re- cent stamp that portrays Snoopy, not in the Sherlockian costume that we know so well, but rather in his far more widely-recognized guise as the fierce (and famous) World War I fighter pilot. Charles Schulz, who created Snoopy and the rest of the "Peanuts" characters, died last year (Feb 00 #6), and was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda on June 7. Cullen Murphy, managing editor of The Atlantic Monthly, has a column called "Innocent Bystander" in each issue; the columns are always interesting, and sometimes have mentions of Sherlock Holmes and of Sherlockians, as with the June issue, which is about attempts by today's doctors to diagnose the ail- ments of literary characters. The column also is available on-line at the magazine's web-site . Jun 01 #4 Further to the report (Apr 01 #3) on the unveiling of the life- size statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Crowborough on Apr. 14, less than a month later the statue was vandalized, and Sir Arthur's hat was stolen. It's nice to note that modern detective methods were used to solve the case: Takeshi Shimizu spotted an Associated Press story (May 17) that reported that a police closed-circuit television camera recorded a 17- year-old youth climbing the statue; he managed to break off the hat before fleeing the scene of the crime, but he was later arrested and "interviewed about the theft" and then "cautioned but released without charge." There's been a lot of publicity for the publication of Mark Twain's "A Mur- der, a Mystery, and a Marriage" in The Atlantic Monthly (July-Aug. 2001), 125 years after he wrote the novelette for the magazine. And it's nice to learn that two members of The Baker Street Irregulars helped preserve the manuscript: according to the magazine's editor, Michael Kelly, who was in- terviewed on "The Newshour with Jim Lehrer" on June 25, the manuscript was discovered in the estate of the widow of a British bookseller in 1943 and purchased by Lew David Feldman, who sold it to Ellery Queen (Frederic Dan- nay), whose collection eventually was acquired by the University of Texas. Each issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine offers a last-page look at "Curiosities": out-of-print and long-neglected books that deserve attention from today's readers. The August issue has an enthusiastic recommendation by Paul Di Filippo's that begins: "Imagine Potocki's grimly fantastic THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT (1804) comically rewritten by William Goldman in the manner of THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1973), or perhaps infused with the spirit of Monty Python, and you'll have some idea of the giddy, fizzy buzz supplied by [his] first novel, a historical fantasia spanning the years 1483 to the author's present, and revolving around a magical bottled draught from the Fountain of Youth." There's more, including mention of Peter Ruber's sug- gestion that the book is "one of the great under-appreciated fantasies of this century," and the book they're raving about is Vincent Starrett's SEA- PORTS IN THE MOON (1928). Hank Ketcham died on May 31. He worked as an animator for Walter Lantz and then for Walt Disney, and after World War II as a freelance cartoonist, and "Dennis the Menace" was launched in 1951, syndicated in 16 papers. Ketcham recalled in an interview this year that when the cartoon started one editor offered a warning: "I don't see how it can last. There's only so much you can say about a 5-year-old-kid." Dennis has never changed, and now is syn- dicated in more than 1,000 papers. Here's the opening of the Sunday strip that ran on Aug. 20, 1995: Jun 01 #5 Laurie R. King reports that her next Mary Russell book, JUSTICE HALL, will be published next February. Laurie also is one of the thirteen women mystery writers who have written chapters for the serial novel NAKED CAME THE PHOENIX, edited by Marcia Talley (New York: St. Mart- in's, 2001; 320 pp., $24.95); the scheme is the same as in the 1996 serial novel NAKED CAME THE MANATEE (and there's no Mary Russell content). An of- ficial web-site at offers lots of information about Laurie and her books. Many television quiz shows have Sherlockian questions, and Laura Kuhn pro- vided the first report of one on "The Weakest Link" on NBC-TV, on July 2: "What literary detective first appeared in the 1887 novel A STUDY IN SCAR- LET?" "Sherlock Holmes." "That is the correct answer." It's nice to know that the program offers contestants at least a few easy questions. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES has been reissued in a new Penguin Classics edition (L4.99), edited by Christopher Frayling, who noted in an article in The Independent (July 1) that the book has finally "been promoted from the ghetto of Penguin Crime/Mystery to the pantheon of Penguin Classics." Another new edition of the story is THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES: HUNTING THE DARTMOOR LEGEND (Tiverton: Halsgrove House, 2001; 240 pp., L24.95); ac- cording to the publisher's publicity, the book includes the full text from The Strand Magazine, and a major new study by Philip Weller of the histori- cal, geographical, and literary background to the story, illustrated with 100 historic and contemporary photographs, and a foreword by Edward Hard- wicke. The publisher's address is Halsgrove House, Lower Moor Way, Tiver- ton, Devon EX16 6SS, England (44-1884-243242) . Dorothy L. Sayers was one of the earliest and best of those who and played the grand game of Sherlockian scholarship, and it is nice indeed that all of her essays on Sherlock Holmes will soon be in print again, together with (and available for the first time) the script she wrote for Lord Peter Wim- sey's comments for the centenary birthday tribute to Holmes that was broad- cast by BBC radio on Jan. 8, 1954. SAYERS ON HOLMES: ESSAYS AND FICTION ON SHERLOCK HOLMES will also have an informative introduction by Alzina Stone Dale; the 53-page book will be published in August by The Mythopoeic Soci- ety; $9.50 postpaid, and checks (payable to the Society, please) should be sent to Joan Marie Verba, Box 1363, Minnetonka, MN 55345. Bibliography can be a puzzling pursuit. There is a copy of George Bernard Shaw's first published play WIDOWERS' HOUSES (1893) inscribed by the author on the half-title for a charity auction a statement that, though the volume had, as he recalled, been issued originally in "a green colored cloth case of the shade called citrine," here was a copy bound in blue cloth. "I nev- er saw or heard of any blue copies," write Shaw. "Consequently, though I am actually writing these words in a blue copy I deny its existence." From a lecture by Dan H. Laurence at the Library of Congress in 1982 in which he discussed his work on his two-volume bibliography of Shaw (published by the Oxford University Press in 1983). Laurence's lecture was published by the Library of Congress' Center for the Book as A PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AS A BIBLIOGRAPHY in 1983. The inscription, it should be noted, was Shaw's in- ventive (and false) response to the pursuit of binding variants. Jun 01 #6 The Norwegian Explorers did a splendid job with "2001: A Sher- lockian Odyssey: A Journey Among the Shaw 100" in Minneapolis in June, and it was especially nice to be able to tour the new underground storage facility of the University of Minnesota's new library, where the collections of John Bennett Shaw and many others are now preserved. Par- ticipants in the conference were taken on guided tours of the stacks, and had a chance to browse through the collection, which includes such things as John's favorite bolo tie, and a box labeled "bust of Sherlock Holmes and two handguns". The presentations, scholarly and otherwise, ran from Friday afternoon through lunch on Sunday, and there were about 120 people on hand for the festivities, and Julie McKuras, who with Dick Sveum presided over the event, ended the conference by suggesting that another one can be ex- pected in 2004. The June issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota offers eight pages of ar- ticles about past and present aspects of the collection, and a report from curator of special collections Tim Johnson, who also gave a delightful talk at the conference on what he collects (conflict of interest concerns ensure that he can't compete with the special collections, but he still has great fun collecting). If you would like to be on the Friends' mailing list you can contact Richard J. Sveum (111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Clarkson N. Potter died on June 24. He was a publisher, writer, and liter- ary agent who began his publishing career in 1950 as an editor at Doubleday and Co. In 1959 he founded his own imprint, and published many cornerstone Sherlockian titles, including William S. Baring-Gould's SHERLOCK HOLMES OF BAKER STREET (1962) and THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES (1967), the American edition of Michael and Mollie Hardwick's SHERLOCK HOLMES COMPANION (1977), and a Bramhall House reprint edition of Ronald B. De Waal's THE WORLD BIB- LIOGRAPHY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES AND DR. WATSON (1977). A badger, a bison, a goose, and a grouse appear on our new Great Plains Prairie sheet of stamps, and all are mentioned in the Canon, but of the four only the bison is specifically American: "Those great herds of bisons which graze upon the prairie land" are mentioned in "A Study in Scarlet". Arlene Francis died on May 31. She acted on Broadway, with Orson Welles' Mercury Theater company, and in film and on radio and television, where she was a panelist on "What's My Line" for 25 years. In 1962 she joined Zacherley to introduce Chris Steinbrun- ner's broadcast of "The Valley of Fear" on Fordham University's WFUV-FM. And yes, it's some days past the end of June, but my newsletter is edging back toward being on schedule again. I seem to have recovered from my bout with hepatitis A, except for not yet being allowed to drink alcohol, but my doctor suggests that I may be able to fall off the wagon by mid-July. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 (telephone: 202-338-1808) Jul 01 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press T. R. Reid reported to the Washington Post (May 18) that former president Bill Clinton, on a visit to Poland, was hit on the sleeve by an egg appar- ently thrown by an anti-globalization protestor; Clinton laughed, and said that "It's good for young people to be angry about something." It was a bit different in London, where a heckler egged deputy prime minister John Prescott, who retaliated with a "powerful left to the egg-thrower's jaw." Anne Billman, in a letter to the Daily Telegraph (May 19), was reminded of Sidney Paget's illustration for "The Solitary Cyclist" (the newspaper help- fully reprinted the artwork) and mentioned Holmes' "straight left against a slogging ruffian." Scott Monty has launched a "Calender of Sherlockian Events" at a web-site at , so that people can post (and read) information about up-coming events. You must register with Yahoo, and obtain a Yahoo ID, in order to access the calendar. Among the things you must tell Yahoo: your birthday, preferred language, ZIP code, gender, occupation, and industry. Yahoo will use the information "to cus- tomize the advertising and content you see, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to contact you about specials and new products," according to their privacy policy, and you can opt out of the third category. "Pipe and cigar smoking is salubrious," Marty Pulvers told a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. "It relaxes you. "it's healthful in the same way the ritual is in religion. It causes you to pause and reflect." But Pulvers, the owner of the tobacco shop Sherlock's Haven, is concerned about declin- ing sales of cigars since California has banned smoking in bars and restau- rants, and because many former customers are placing out-of-state orders on the Internet to avoid California's high taxes on tobacco, and he is hoping to increase sales of his shop's pipes, according to an article, kindly for- warded by Emory Lee, in the San Francisco Chronicle (July 1). Further to the report (Apr 01 #2) about the continuing battle over Liberton Bank House (where Arthur Conan Doyle once lived as a child), planning offi- cers of the Edinburgh city council have recommended rejection of a proposal by McDonald's to build a restaurant near the cottage, noting that the com- pany had failed to consider restoration of the building. "We will be tak- ing legal advice," a spokesman for McDonald's said on May 30, adding that "At this stage we are likely to look at an appeal by public inquiry." Issue #43 of Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine offers a report (with photographs) on the Georgina Doyle's unveiling of the statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at Crowborough in April; the third of four installments of Dav- id Stuart Davies' "Flickering Phantoms" (his discussion of the many film versions of "The Hound of the Baskervilles") and much more (Sherlockian and non-Sherlockian). Annual subscriptions (six issues) cost L20.00 (in the U.K.)/L22.00 (continent)/$40.00 (elsewhere); Box 100, Chichester, West Sus- sex PO18 8HD, England . Classic Specialties is their agent in the U.S. (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219) (toll-free 877-233-3823) , and credit-card orders are welcome at both addresses; back issues are available. Jul 01 #2 The Practical, But Limited, Geologists, met for dinner at the University Club in Denver on June 6, during the annual meeting of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, to honor the world's first forensic geologist. Oklahoma state geologist Charles J. Mankin pre- sided over the festivities, and continuing to insist that Sherlock Holmes had visited Oklahoma rather than New York (New York state geologist Robert H. Fakundiny was not on hand to present his traditional rebuttal). The so- ciety will meet next in Boston in November, and in Houston in March. New York magazine offers a weekly two-page spread called "Gotham" which has a weekly quote about New York. On July 19 the quote was "The city of envy, office work, and hustle--Christopher Morley." Reported: William F. Nolan's DOWN THE LONG NIGHT (Five Star, $21.95) is a collection of his short stories, including "Sungrab" (which was first pub- lished in 1980 in AFTER THE FALL, a paperback anthology edited by Robert Sheckley; Mars-based private eye Sam Space, aided by robots named Holmes and Watson, pursues a new manifestation of the Baskerville curse. Also: MURDER MOST POSTAL: HOMICIDAL TALES THAT DELIVER A MESSAGE, edited by Mar- tin H. Greenberg (Nashville: Cumberland House, 2001; 307 pp., $14.95), in- cludes August Derleth's "Solar Pons" pastiche "The Adventure of the Penny Magenta". The Ritual is the semi-annual journal published by The Northern Musgraves; the spring issue has 68 pages of scholarship, news, and reviews, including Patrick Michael's interesting article on the early stage career of Charlie Chaplin, who went from appearing with H. A. Saintsbury in "Jim: The Romance of a Cockayne" and on tour in William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes", to act- ing with Gillette himself in "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes" and "Sherlock Holmes". Information on membership in the society and on its publications is available from Anne Jordan, Fairbank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorks. BD16 4DN, England . The New York-New Jersey "metro area" Sherlockian societies have issued a joint lapel pin, available for $9.00 postpaid from Warren Randall (15 Fawn Lane West, South Setauket, NY 11720). The pin is 2" in diameter, and (for those who can't read the fine print), the societies are: The Mini-Tonga So- ciety, The Three Garridebs of Westchester County, Watson's Tin Dispatchers of Staten Island, The Priory Scholars of New York, Mrs. Hudson's Cliffdwellers of Cliffside Park, The Long Island Cave Dwellers, The Epilogues of Sherlock Holmes, and The Montague Street Lodgers of Brooklyn. And that's the Statue of Liberty inside the silhouette. "Mystery!" has been one of the best of the series broadcast by PBS-TV for many years, funded by Mobil until last year, but WGBH-TV has announced that the series schedule has been trimmed: PBS-TV will show repeats at 10:00 pm on Thursdays from October through December 2001, when the series will shut down until it is revived with twelve weeks of new shows from July to Sep- tember 2002, and again in 2003. But mystery fans who have access to cable can still see fine shows, including the "Nero Wolfe" series now airing on A&E; Maury Chaykin is excellent as Nero Wolfe, and Timothy Hutton even bet- ter as Archie Goodwin, and the production values are splendid. Jul 01 #3 It has been three years since the last Sherlockian conference in Minneapolis, where Nils Nordberg presented a fine paper on "Sherlock Holmes in the Claws of Confidence Men; or, The Misadventures of a World Detective", noting that Holmes appeared in a long series of dime nov- els (well, 20-pfennige novels) published in Germany beginning in 1905, and in many other countries, and in a series of short Danish films. His paper is now