Jan 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Sherlockians and Holmesians from many nations and three separate continents gathered in New York to celebrate Sherlock Holmes' 155th birthday, and the festivities started with the traditional ASH Wednesday supper at O'Casey's, and continued with the Christopher Morley Walk led by Jim Cox and Dore Nash on Thursday morning (with lunch at McSorley's). The Baker Street Irregulars' Distinguished Speaker at the Williams Club on Thursday evening was author John Lescroart, who read his pastiche "The Ad- venture of the Giant Rat of Sumatra". The pastiche was first published in Mary Higgins Clark Mystery Magazine in 1997 and reprinted in THE BEST AMER- ICAN MYSTERY STORIES 1988. And can hear him read the story at the web-site . The Beacon Society held its annual meeting at the Algonquin on Friday morn- ing (the group's mission is to encourage and recognize programs that intro- duce young people to Holmes). The William Gillette Luncheon featured the The Friends of Bogie's at Baker Street (Paul Singleton, Sarah Montague, and Andrew Joffe) in alternate-universe versions of some of the Canonical stor- ies. And Otto Penzler's traditional Mysterious Bookshop open house offered the usual opportunities to browse and buy. The Irregulars and their guests gathered for the BSI's annual dinner at the Union League Club, honoring two ladies (Priscilla Juvelis and Sharon Kling- er as *The* Woman. The dinner featured the usual toasts and traditions, plus a thoroughly British debate between Nick Utechin and Guy Marriott on wheth- er Sherlock Holmes attend Oxford or Cambridge, David Stuart Davies' version of one of the old Bromo Quinine radio broadcasts, Jens Byskov Jensen's per- formance on violin of Sherlockian music, and Henry Boote's musical tribute to Old Irregular Bruce Montgomery. Mike Whelan (the BSI's "Wiggins") announced the Birthday Honours, awarding Irregular Shillings and Investitures to Bill Barnes ("The *Gloria Scott*"), Susan Dahlinger ("The Bruce-Partington Plans"), Robert Ellis ("The Illus- trious Client"), Walter Jaffee ("The Resident Patient"), Allan Devitt ("The Dancing Men"), Greg Darak ("The Engineer's Thumb"), Michael Pollak ("The Blue Carbuncle"), Sebastien Le Page ("The Six Napoleons"), Jens Byskov Jen- sen ("The Blanched Soldier"), Joel Schwartz ("The Three Students"), and Barbara Rusch ("The Mazarin Stone"). Mike also presented the BSI's Two-Shilling Award (for extraordinary devo- tion to the cause beyond the call of duty) to Daniel Posnansky, and the Ed- itor's Medal to Yuichi Hirayama, Doug Elliott, Bill Barnes, John Bergquist, Susan Rice, and Nicholas Utechin, in recognition of their services as edi- tors of books and Christmas Annuals published by the BSI. The Gaslight Gala, held at the Manhattan Club, celebrated "Disguises in the Canon", and the agenda featured performances of "Sherlock Holmes, M.D." (by Joanne Zahorsky-Reeves and Robert Reeves) and "Two English-Speaking Persons on Holiday in Switzerland, Discussing the Recent Death of Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective" (by Timothy Evers and Becky Robare), and other enter- tainment. Jan 09 #2 And while Sherlockians were celebrating in Manhattan on Jan. 9, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were in Brooklyn: Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were on location at the Marcy Street Armory being filmed for Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes". On Saturday morning the dealers room at the Algonquin welcomed (as usual) sellers and buyers, and at 10:30 The Clients of Adrian Mulliner (devotees of the works of both Wodehouse and Watson) gathered for their Junior Blood-stain, which featured a dramatic reading of John Sherwood's script for an episode of "Wooster, M.D." The BSI's Saturday-afternoon cocktail party was again at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, with entertainment in the auditorium, and wining, dining, and conversation in the reception room. Al and Betsy Ros- senblatt reported poetically on the events of the previous year and of the previous evening, and Mary Ann Bradley introduced ladies present who have been honored by the BSI as *The* Woman. Mattias Bostrom was announced as the winner of the Morley-Montgomery Award (an attractive certificate and a check for $500) for the best contribution to The Baker Street Journal last year: his article "The Humble Dr. Morimer: On the Real Swedish Pathological Society." And the Watson Fund benefited from energetic sales of raffle tickets by Sue Vizoskie, Elaine Coppola, and Carol Cavaluzzi for a prize donated by Maggie Schpak and the Curious Coll- ectors of Baker Street: a replica of the "Mazarin" stone in a handsome and appropriate Persian box. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund (administered by a carefully anonymous Dr. Wat- son) offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI is not required) who might otherwise be unable to participate in the birth- day festivities. The generous donors to this year's auction were Robert J. Stek (a box set of The Electronic Sherlock Holmes, issued in 1987 and the first computerized edition of the Canon), Andy Moursund (five posters show- ing Sherlockian and Doylean dust jackets), Bob Hess (two colorful posters designed by the late Steve Emmons), and Neil Gaiman (naming rights in one of his next books). One of the Saturday-evening events was the "Lost in New York with a Bunch of Sherlockians" dinner arranged by The Curious Collectors of Baker Street at O'Lunney's Restaurant, where a new Sherlockian society was founded: The O'Lunneys of Helston Asylum. There were two Sunday events this year, one being a brunch arranged by The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes at the Old- castle Pub & Restaurant, and the other a BSI "Knothole on Wheels" excursion by bus to Roslyn, Long Island, to visit the cabin where Christopher Morley wrote much of his work, and to lay a wreath on Morley's grave. And a final note, for those who are planning ahead: The Baker Street Irreg- ulars' next annual dinner will be held on Jan. 15, 2010. And the Sherlock Holmes Society of London's annual dinner will be on Jan. 9, 2010. I've not reported on everything, I hasten to add; if you want more details than I've provided here, there will be much more in The Baker Street Jour- nal, which is published quarterly and costs $26.50 a year ($29.00 outside Jan 09 #3 the U.S.), and checks (credit-card payments accepted from for- eign subscribers) should be sent to the BSJ (Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331); and there's an option offering a subscription to the BSJ and to the Christmas Annual for $36.50 (or $40.00 outside the U.S.). You can also subscribe at the BSJ web-site at , where there are interesting features such as some of the papers written by past winners of the Morley-Montgomery Awards, articles in recent issues of the BSJ, and information on the BSI's other publications. There was a video crew recording interviews and parts of the birthday fes- tivities for two one-hour shows that are expected to air on the Discovery Channel, shortly before the Guy Ritchie film is released later this year, and the shows also will be on the DVD of the film. The Norwegian Explorers' "Christmas Annual 2008" has Fred Levin's article on "Sherlock Holmes in Yiddish", Pj Doyle's history of the 1954 television series that starred Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford, and other schol- arship and entertainment; the 58-page booklet is available from John Berg- quist (3665 Ashbury Road, Eagan, MN 55122) for $8.00 postpaid (checks pay- able to The Norwegian Explorers, please). Jim Webb has reported a helpful resource for translating British into Amer- ican, at ; BBC America is the BBC's television channel in the U.S. "A Scandal in Bohemia" is a new two-act chamber opera written by Nathalie Anderson (libretto) and Thomas Whitman (music), and it will be performed in a concert version by Orchestra 2001 at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia at 8:00 pm on Feb. 6 and at the Lang Concert Hall at Swarthmore College at 7:30 pm on Feb. 8. Paola Amadesi's imaginative 14-minute two-part animation of Conan Doyle's story "The Silver Mirror" is available at ; run a search for [silver mirror doyle]. Watson's Tin Box will host their second "Scintillation of Scions" at Claret House in Clarksville, Md., on Aug. 15, with the intent of bringing together members of mid-Atlantic (and east-coast) Sherlockian societies for "an af- ternoon of fun, scholarship, and social time." Last year's gathering was entertaining, and this year's event will run from 1:00 to 7:00 pm. Addi- tional details are available from Jacquelynn Morris (3042 Old Channel Road, Laurel, MD 20724) . Two issues of Beaten's Christmas Annual have been published by The Sound of the Baskervilles in Seattle, both edited by Terri Haugen. The first is a 291-page book celebrating the society's first 25 years, offering the best of the society's scholarship, pastiches, parodies, as well as some histori- cal notes. The second is the 2008 issue, with 42 pages of fact, fiction, puzzles, and humor. The 2007 issue costs $24.95 postpaid to the U.S. (and $27.95 elsewhere); the 2008 issue costs $12.00 postpaid to the U.S. ($15.00 elsewhere); payments from overseas in U.S. dollars, please). Checks pay- able to The Sound of the Baskervilles should be sent to Terri Haugen (3606 Harborcrest Court NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98332). Jan 09 #4 David F. Morrill, who is described as having "a collection of a bazillion books and old movies, including many of a Sherlockian bent," is the author of The Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual for 2008 ("Reading the Signs: Some Observations and Apercus on Film and Television Adaptations of *The Sign of the Four*"), and he has done a wonderful job of describing and comparing seven screen and television versions of the story, discussing the casts and characters (including Toby), missing links, addi- tions and changes, and grand finales, with skill and humor. 64 pp., $11.00 postpaid ($12.00 outside the U.S.); you can order on-line at the BSJ's web- site or by mail (Michael H. Kean, 3040 Sloat Street, Pebble Beach, CA 93953); checks payable to The Baker Street Irregu- lars, please. The Baker Street Irregulars' international series has already made avail- able in English excellent Sherlockian scholarship from Japan and Scandina- via, and the third volume, edited by Doug Elliott and Bill Barnes, does the same for Australia. AUSTRALIA AND SHERLOCK HOLMES (2008) has two articles about Richard Hughes (distinguished for having had characters modeled after him in books by Ian Fleming and John le Carre, as well as having been a spy for both the British and the Soviets, simultaneously), Phil Cornell's sur- vey of Sherlockian films that never were (illustrated with his versions of the posters that might have promoted the films), and other interesting mat- erial, including Neil P. Hillcrop's demonstration of Australian writing be- fore translation into English. The 208-page book costs $43.90 postpaid to the U.S. ($52.90 elsewhere), from the BSJ (as above). The Bartitsu Society honors Edward William Barton-Wright, creator of a "new art of self-defense" that Watson may well have misheard or misspelled when he recorded what Holmes said about baritsu in "The Empty House". The soci- ety has a web-site at , and there also is an interesting article at with links to two videos about bartitsu. Thanks to Steph Dawson for the report. Baker Street Miscellanea was an interesting Sherlockian (and Doylean) jour- nal published from 1975 to 1993, and all 76 issues are now available in PDF format on a CD for $40.00 (postpaid) from Donald Pollock, 521 College Ave- nue, Niagara Falls, NY 14305; non-U.S. buyers are welcome to use PayPal and can contact Don at . Ricardo Montalban died on Jan. 14. He was a leading man in Mexican films, and moved to Hollywood in the 1940s. He also acted on film and television, perhaps best-remembered as Mr. Roarke in the series "Fantasy Island"; the episode "Save Sherlock Holmes" (1982) had Mr. Roarke welcoming Ron Ely (as a department store detective) to the island to fulfill a fantasy that had him saving Sherlock Holmes (played by Peter Lawford) from Professor Moriar- ty (Mel Ferrer). "The Remarkable Characters of Arthur Conan Doyle" is the title of a sympos- ium and exhibition at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Blooming- ton on Sept. 26. It's a day-long event with eight presenters, sponsored by The Friends of the Lilly Library and The Illustrious Clients of Indianapo- lis, and additional information is available from Lilly Library Conference, Calumet Court, Zionsville, IN 46077 . Jan 09 #5 The National Film Preservation Act of 1988 created a National Film Preservation Board in the Library of Congress, responsible for selecting no more than 25 films a year for the National Film Registry, "based on their historic, cultural, or aesthetic importance." The Registry includes "Sherlock, Jr." (1924), selected in 1991; "The Lost World" (1925), selected in 1998; and "The Invisible Man" (1933), added last year. And "The Invisible Man" *is* Sherlockian, in a way. Chris Steinbrunner de- lighted in this sort of connection, because his spectacular visual memory (as well as his love of old films) helped him recognize them. You may re- member the scene in Universal's "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror" (1944) in which unseen saboteurs move a railroad switch in order to derail a train; the studio took that footage from "The Invisible Man". Rafe McGregor's blog has frequent Sherlock- ian content, and a "free books" contest that closes on Feb. 26; the prize is a hamper of six books (S'ian and non-S'ian), signed by their authors and editor, and you appear to be able to win without knowing the answer to his question. Edward D. Cartier died on Dec. 25. He was a renowned artist from the Gold- en Age of science fiction; he started illustrating Walter B. Gibson's "The Shadow" novels in 1936, and went on to illustrate hundreds of stories for science-fiction magazines and books, and his striking portrait of Sherlock Hoka for Poul Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson's "The Adventure of the Mis- placed Hound" appeared in Universe Science Fiction in 1953 and in the coll- ection EARTHMAN'S BURDEN in 1957. Al Gregory offers (by e-mail only) his 2008 edition of "The ABC of the BSI" (an alphabetical listing of Investitures, with recipients, from "Abbey Grange" to "Young Stamford") and "The Florin Society" (couples in which both spouses have received Irregular Shillings). Pattie Tierney reports that there's a new restaurant in Cottleville, Mo.: Sherlock's Steak and Seafood; the web-site's at . Pattie is still making interesting jewelry, and some of it's Sherlockian, including an imaginative pin; she's at 229 Hereford Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63125 . If you've read all the pastiches and parodies, there's always the web-site ; a search for [sherlock holmes] brings up 396 records. David Timson has completed his reading of the Canon, making him the first to have recorded all of the stories. And he is an excellent reader, good with voices and accents of all sorts. His recordings are available on DVDs from Naxos Audiobooks (3 Wells Place, Redhill, Surrey RH1 3SL, England, or 416 Mary Lindsay Polk Drive #5089, Franklin, TN 37067); their web-site's at . The last set in the series is THE CASEBOOK OF SHERLOCK HOLMES II on 4 CDs ($28.98), with six stories ("The Veiled Lodg- er", The Illustrious Client", "The Three Gables", "The Retired Colourman", "The Lion's Mane", and "Shoscombe Old Place") and Timson's own imaginative pastiche "The Wonderful Toy". The Naxos catalog is well worth exploring; they have other interesting Sherlockian and Doylean recordings. Jan 09 #6 Felix Leiter: "I give up. I know the diamonds are in the body, but where?" James Bond: "Alimentary, my dear Leiter." That's from Ian Fleming's DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971), reported (and I don't re- call seeing this before) in a review of JOINED-UP THINKING: HOW TO CONNECT EVERYTHING TO EVERYTHING ELSE, by Stevyn Colgan (London: Macmillan, 2008). The exchange also is in the film, and scriptwriter Tom Mankiewicz tells a delightfully obscene story about it at ; just search for [alimentary]. Patrick McGoohan died on Jan. 13. He began his theatri- cal career as a stage manager in British repertory in the 1940s and went to act on stage, screen, and television. He was best known as Number Six in the television series "The Prisoner", and in 1968 appeared in Sherlockian cos- tume in the episode "The Girl Who Was Death". Wood from a tree in the garden of Conan Doyle's childhood home will be used to make a violin in tribute to Sherlock Holmes, according to stories at hand from the U.K. A 170-year-old sycamore at Liberton Bank House in Edinburgh has to be cut down due to disease, and the Dunedin special school, which now occupies the house where Conan Doyle lived when he was five to seven years old, has commissioned a local violin maker to use the wood to make a violin, honoring both Conan Doyle, who may have played in the tree, and Holmes, who enjoyed playing the violin. Joan Foulner, a history teacher at the school, said that "It's been here for so long and, with its connections with Arthur Conan Doyle, there was no way we could just knock it down and have it turned into woodchips." Students at the school will use the violin for music lessons, and it is hoped that wood from the tree can be carved into a giant pipe. On-line registration for "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: A Sesquicentennial Sympo- sium" at the Houghton Library at Harvard is now open, and you're advised to reserve for the event sooner rather than later, since space is limited. Go to for details. this will be one of the major celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Conan Doyle and the 75th anniversary of the founding of The Baker Street Irregulars. Gary Lovisi's SOUVENIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: COLLECTED ARTICLES ON THE CANON AND THE PASTICHES (New York: Gryphon Books, 2002; 122 pp., $15.00) reprints articles published in magazines and journals in the U.S. and Japan, on sub- jects that range from hard-cover pastiche first editions to Tauchnitz edi- tions to George MacDonald Fraser's FLASHMAN AND THE TIGER. It's available (along with other Sherlockiana and Doyleana, by Gary and others) from Gry- phon Books (Box 209, Brooklyn, NY 11228) . "The Cultural Afterlives of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes" is the title of a conference at the University of Hull on July 4, celebrating the 150th anniversary of Conan Doyle's birth; possible topics include Holmes as an icon of Englishness, feminist revisions of Holmes, and Holmes in cyber- space. Additional information about the conference is available from the Dept. of English, University of Hull, Kingston-upon-Hull, HU6 7RX, England . Jan 09 #7 Thanks to Stu Shiffman for the news that Project Gutenberg has three issues of The Strand Magazine in its on-line book cata- log: Apr. and May 1893, and Jan. 1894; the first two have Sherlockian con- tent, and the third has Inspector Maurice Moser's article about handcuffs. There are thousands of titles available at , including much of Conan Doyle's Sherlockian and non-Sherlockian work. Tristan Jones' pastiche "Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the *Mary Cel*- *este* was published in SAIL magazine more than twenty years ago; Jones was a devoted sailor and a prolific author, and the pastiche also was published in his collection YARNS (still in print from Sheridan House; $14.95). John Mortimer died on Jan. 16. He was a lawyer, and a specialist in free- speech issues (defending the publisher of Lawrence's LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOV- ER and the Sex Pistols), a playwright and screenwriter, and an author who created "Rumpole of the Bailey" for television in 1975. Mortimer enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes tales, and in 1995 he attended the annual dinner of The Speckled Band of Boston. In 1975 he was planning to write the book for the musical "Sherlock!" (with music and lyrics by Leslie Bricusse). Rex Harri- son was under consideration to play Holmes, but the project was shelved un- til 1988, when "Sherlock: The Musical" was produced in England with book, music, and lyrics by Bricusse. Apparently there's no end to new Sherlock Holmes films. Guy Ritchie's film starring Robert Downey Jr. is in production, and the BBC is underway with its pilot starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and Columbia hasn't announced it is cancelling its film starring Sacha Baron Cohen, and now the Daily Tele- graph has reported (Jan. 20) that Simon Wilson, Britain's deputy high comm- issioner in Calcutta is playing Holmes in an Indian remake of "The Sign of the Four". Directed by Ashoke Viswanathan, the film stars Victor Bannerjee as detective Prashant Saigal, who is investigating a series of murders but hits a dead end and "seeks inspiration from the iconic British detective," who "in true Bollywood fashion" emerges from a misty river, complete with cape and pipe, to come to Saigal's assistance. It's a cameo role for Wil- son, who saw an opportunity to "promote English literature and its ties to India," and Viswanathan praised Wilson as a fine actor who could handle a pipe and speak at the same time ("most Indian actors can't do that"). You can see Benedict Cumberbatch (who will be Sherlock Holmes in the pilot for a BBC television series) in the film "The Other Boleyn Girl" (2008); he played William Carey, husband of Mary Boleyn. is the URL for a "first draft revisions" script dated Mar. 14, 2008 for the Guy Ritchie film. Thanks to Bert Coules for the report. The Three Garridebs continue to celebrate their 35th anniversary (the cele- bration seems to have expanded to a second year), and their journal PRES- COTT'S PRESS offers a nice mix of history, scholarship, and humor, includ- ing Drew Thomas's amusing report on the Cafe Sherlock in Odessa (the cafe has made a strenuous attempt to ensure that its menu is Sherlockian). The journal (four issues) costs $14.00 to U.S. addresses (and $18.00 elsewhere) from Warren Randall (15 Fawn Lane West, South Setauket, NY 11720). Jan 09 #8 Donald E. Westlake died on Dec. 31. His first mystery was THE MERCENARIES (1960), launching a career that won him three Ed- gars and a Grand Master award from the Mystery Writers of America, and an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for "The Grifters" (1990). He employed many pseudonyms, and as Samuel Holt he wrote WHAT I TELL YOU THREE TIMES IS FALSE (1987) in which the sleuths (and suspects) included actors noted for playing Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, and Sherlock Holmes. Roberta Pearson reports an interesting article on "An Eminent British Ser- ies: 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' and the Stoll Film Company 1921- 1923", by Nathalie Morris, in the Journal of British Cinema and Television (May 2007). The full text may still be available from the University of Edinburgh at . "We are the Sherlock Holmes English Speaking Vernacular; Help Save Fu Man- chu, Moriarty, and Dracula." That's from Ray Davies' lyrics for "The Vill- age Green Preservation Society" recorded by The Kinks and included in the album "The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society" (1968). Cred- it for the report goes to Bjarne Rother Jensen, president of The Sherlock Holmes Klubben i Danmark and editor of its journal Sherlockiana. You can see and hear The Kinks perform the song at YouTube. Further to the report (Oct 08 #4) on the "One Book-One Edinburgh" reading campaign, the program isn't restricted to Edinburgh; many other cities will participate, and you can see the cover of the new edition of THE LOST WORLD (featuring Wallace & Gromit) at . The campaign was launched on Jan. 30, and Catherine Cooke has been invited by the Westmin- ster Libraries to lecture on the book on June 15. The actor Brian Blessed, who explored Mount Roraima in 1998 (Apr 00 #1) is helping to publicize the campaign, and 200,000 copies of the book will be distributed without charge in the U.K. this year. "CERTAIN RITES, AND ALSO CERTAIN DUTIES" continues Jon Lellenberg's explo- ration of the early history of The Baker Street Irregulars; he describes it as "a compendium of surprises about the origins, customs and rituals of The Baker Street Irregulars and the men who created them," and it's all of that and more: the topics include Christ Cella's speakeasy, the Friendly Sons of St. Vitus, Edgar W. Smith's early history, an amusing story about the con- tinuing battle between Adrian Conan Doyle and Doubleday, and other discov- eries. The book has 84 pp.; $14.00 postpaid to the U.S. ($15.00 to Canada, $19.50 elsewhere) from the author at Hazelbaker & Lellenberg, 211 East Del- aware Place #605, Chicago, IL 60611. Dennis Lesica reported on That Videogame Blog on Nov. 21 that Frogwares is planning to bring their Sherlock Holmes computer games to the Wii. Frog- wares has four games available, with a fifth due for release soon; more in- formation is available at . The Wii is a home video-game console invented by Nintendo that uses a wireless con- troller so that you can play games on your television set. The name's pro- nounced "we" (it's "for everyone," the company explains). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Feb 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The editor is solely responsible for the errors, omissions, outright false- hoods, misrepresentations, misattributions, occasional insights, inexcusab- le inaccuracies, fleeting moments of genius, failed witticisms, and calum- nies within. A wonderful disclaimer, cribbed from Peter L. Stern's recent catalog of New England writers and New England connections. The "Sherlock Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., on Mar. 20-22 will offer a new mystery ("Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Mistaken Identity") presented by Midsummer Night Productions, and a performance of Craig Wichman's drama- tization of "The Speckled Band" by the East Lynne Theater Company; the fes- tival web-site at has more information (the Sherlock Holmes weekends have been held in the spring and fall for many years. Sorry about that: one new member of The Baker Street Irregulars was omitted from last month's report (Jan 09 #1): Jeff Bradway ("A Case of Identity"). Discount book dealer Edward R. Hamilton also offers audio and video; among recent offers is a DVD ($7.95) with "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978) starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (one of the most unusual film versions of the story). Falls Village, CT 06031-5000 . "I am lost without my Boswell," Holmes said to Watson (in "A Scandal in Bo- hemia"). And "posterity has anointed Boswell Johnson's Watson," Leah Price wrote in the N.Y. Times Book Review (Feb. 1), in a review of two new bio- graphies of Samuel Johnson. Al Gregory noted the progress from Watson as Boswell to Boswell as Watson. Chris Redmond notes that on Jan. 15 the British Museum celebrated the 250th anniversary of its opening to the public; the British Museum actually was established in 1753, when parliament voted to accept a bequest by Sir Hans Sloane of his extensive collection. He is credited with the invention of milk chocolate, and Sloane Square in London is named in his honor; he also is mentioned in the Canon: Nathan Garrideb said that "I shall be the Hans Sloane of my age." The Sub-Librarians Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars in the American Li- brary Association will gather at noon on Sunday, July 12, at Blackie's Res- taurant in Chicago; Jon Lellenberg will be their featured speaker, and his topic will be "History Detective: Researching the BSI Archival Histories". Marsha Pollak (Sunnyvale Public Library, 665 West Olive Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086) will be happy to provide more infor- mation about the meeting. "Fifteen Weeks of Bees: A Laurie R. King Celebration" began on Feb. 1, by way of publicizing the new Mary Russell novel THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, with a wide range of special events: go to and click on the cover of the new book to see what a full-scale campaign looks like. "Lau- rie's Mutterings" are an interesting example of what can be done on the In- ternet: she has posted some of the corrected typescript pages, and some of the corrected proofs, showing how a story evolves. Feb 09 #2 Further to the item on the symposium on "The Remarkable Charac- ters of Arthur Conan Doyle" scheduled at the Lilly Library at Indiana University on Sept. 26 (Jan 09 #4), those who want more information and don't have e-mail should write to Lilly Library Symposium (attn: Steven Doyle), 9 Calumet Court, Zionsville, IN 46077. Darlene Cypser's dramatization of "The Six Napoleons" was performed for Dr. Watson's Neglected Patients in Denver last month, and her script is avail- on-line at . Lyndsay Faye's DUST AND SHADOW (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008; 225 pp., $25.00) is a well-written mystery about the pursuit of Jack the Ripper by Holmes and Watson; there's an excellent sense of time and atmosphere, and the dialogue and supporting cast of characters are nicely done. She has a web-site at . "If every man who owed his inspiration to Poe was to contrib- ute a tithe of his profits therefrom he would have a monument greater than the pyramids," Conan Doyle wrote (in OUR AMERICAN ADVENTURE), "and I for one would be among the builders." Our new postage stamp honors the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe. The striking portrait of Poe is by Michael J. Deas. "A Little Wodehouse on the Prairie" will be the theme the next convention of The Wodehouse Society in St. Paul on June 12-14, and there will be a Senior Bloodstain by The Friends of Adrian Mulliner (devotees of the works of both Wodehouse and Watson); more infor- mation about the convention is available from Kris Fowler, 1338 Wellesley Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105 . George A. Vanderburgh's "Battered Silicon Dispatch Box" now has a backlist with hundreds of titles, Sherlockian and otherwise, and you can explore it at his web-site at . Karen Murdock has forwarded a report from the Xinhua News Agency (Feb. 18) that in April VisitBritain [that's the new name for the old British Tourist Authority] will launch a L6.5 million campaign to attract visitors to Brit- ain this year. "Film tourism will play a sure part in the campaign especi- ally after the release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Sher- lock Holmes, as 40 percent of potential visitors to Britain are inspired by something they've seen in films or on TV." More movie news/rumors: "I had a few words with Guy. He could be offering me a role in his new 'Sherlock Holmes' movie," Paris Hilton said, according to various gossip blogs. And Steve Doyle reports that he had a chance to chat with Lionel Wigram, one of the producers of the movie, and author of the comic book on which the movie's based, and asked him to sign a copy of the script. Wigram wasn't aware that the script was available anywhere but was happy to sign Steve's copy, noting that the script is five versions out of date, and that "there are characters in the film now who aren't even in this draft." Availability of the "first draft revisions" script dated Mar. 14, 2008, on-line was publicized earlier this year (Jan 09 #7) Feb 09 #3 Bill Rabe's phonograph records VOICES FROM BAKER STREET (I, II, and III) offered a splendid opportunity to hear excerpts from the proceedings of Sherlockian societies such as The Baker Street Irregu- lars, The Hounds of the Baskerville [sic], The Maiwand Jezails, The Amateur Mendicant Society, and The Old Soldiers of Baker Street. The records were issued in 1961, 1965, and 1983, and are highly prized by people who still have phonographs (and some who don't), and it's nice indeed that the com- plete set now is available on two CDs, with an introduction, explanations, and postscript by Mark Gagen, from the Wessex Press. The earliest record- ing is from 1952, and the most recent from 1982, and can hear notables such as Vincent Starrett, Edgar W. Smith, Rex Stout, Jim Montgomery, William S. Baring-Gould, Julian Wolff, John Bennett Shaw, Nathan L. Bengis, and many more; highly recommended. VOICES FROM BAKER STREET costs $25.45 postpaid ($31.45 to Canada and $38.45 elsewhere) from the publisher (Box 68308, In- dianapolis, IN 46256) . Leslie S. Klinger has completed his SHERLOCK HOLMES REFERENCE LIBRARY with THE APOCRYPHA OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Indianapolis: Gasogene Books, 2009; 178 pp., $19.95); there's an introduction by Daniel Stashower, followed by an- notated presentations of eight of Conan Doyle's Sherlockian but non-Canon- ical stories and plays. As he did in past volumes of the series, Klinger plays the game that many Sherlockians enjoy: assuming that the world of the Canon (and the Apocrypha) is a real one. And it is nice indeed to have the non-Canonical material back in print in a convenient and interesting book. Available from the Wessex Press (postpaid prices as above). James Whitmore died on Feb. 6. He was an early stu- dent at the Actors Studio in New York in the early 1940s, and won a Tony Award for his performance in "Command Decision" on Broadway in 1949, and went on to a long career on stage, screen, and television; he was best known for his one-man shows portraying Will Rogers, Harry Truman, and Theodore Roosevelt, and he starred with Margorie Main in "Mrs. O'Malley and Mr. Malone" (1950), billed as "the wackiest pair of crime hunters you've ever met." The film was based on stories written by Stuart Palmer (a member of The Baker Street Irregulars) and Craig Rice about J. J. Malone and Hildegard Withers. Both stars were photographed wearing deerstalkers in a publicity still used to promote the film. THE PROBLEM OF THE NINE SAZERACS, by Donald B. Izban and Patricia Nowak Iz- ban, brings Holmes and Watson to New Orleans for a detailed discussion of Crescent City hotels, restaurants, bars, cuisine, and cocktails, and there is an added end-of-the-book two-page memoir by the publisher; the book has 78 pages and it costs $20.00 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh (Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1S0, Canada) . Ken Lanza spotted , which offers an interesting discussion of "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) and links that allow you watch the film on-line (courtesy of Hulu) and download a copy of the script. And a Sherlockian costume at ; search for [sherlock] to see a complete costume (coat, hat, pipe, and mag- nifying glass) for L49.99, or only the pipe and magnifying glass for L4.99. Feb 09 #4 Sarah Lyall's story "A Call to Action for Sherlock Holmes" ran in the International Herald Tribune on Jan. 23 and as "Is That You, Sherlock" in the N.Y. Times on Jan. 25, reporting on the up-coming Guy Ritchie film. And two letters were published in the N.Y. Times on Feb. 1, one from Peter Sokolowski noting that Jude Law, who stars as Watson, also appeared in Granada's "Sherlock Holmes" television series. And so he did, as Joe Barnes, in "Shoscombe Old Place" (1991). Debbie Clark has spotted a "Sherlock Magnifier Watch" (item ES581, $69.96) in a catalog from Herrington (3 Symmes Drive, Londonderry, NH 03053) (800- 903-2878) . The wristwatch has a flip-up magni- fying glass, a built-in LED emergency light, and other features that Holmes might have appreciated (if he ever wore a wristwatch). The Societe Sherlock Holmes de France reports that Monaco has issued a postage stamp honoring the 150th anniversary of Conan Doyle's birth. Monaco's postal service has a web- site at . And the SSHF has an inter- esting web-site at where you'll find reports on a new French comic book LES QUATRE DE BAKER STREET, Bob Garcia's new pastiche DUEL EN ENFER: SHERLOCK HOLMES CONTRE JACK L'EVENTREUR, Lucien-Jean Bord's DICTIONNAIRE SHERLOCK HOLMES, an attempt to determine Conan Doyle's height when he visited Paris and was photographed in front of the Hotel Regina (1.87 meters) (6 feet 1.6 inches), Pierre Veys and Nicolas Barral's BAKER STREET: LE CHEVAL QUI MUR- MURAIT A L'OREILLE DE SHERLOCK HOLMES [yes, that's THE HORSE THAT WHISPERED IN SHERLOCK HOLMES' EAR], and much more, including their wiki Encyclopedie Sherlock Holmes. There's still space available at "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: A Sesquicentenn- ial Symposium" at the Houghton Library at Harvard is now open; this will be one of the major celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Co- nan Doyle and the 75th anniversary of the founding of The Baker Street Ir- regulars. More information is available (and you can register on-line) at . "Fake" is a new play by Eric Simonson that was read at the Manhattan Thea- tre Club in New York in 2008 ("the Piltdown hoax is exposed by none other than Sherlock Holmes"), and it will be performed at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, Sept. 10 through Nov. 8, 2009 ("it's a time-traveling mystery drama revolving around a house party held by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"). The theater is at 1650 North Halstead Street, Chicago, IL 60614 (212-335-1650) . If you want a more sensible description, try "al- ternating between 1914 and 1953, journalists and scientists set out to un- cover who planted the Piltdown Man skull, and everyone's a suspect, includ- ing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." Jeff Falkingham's SHERLOCK HOLMES: IN SEARCH OF THE SOURCE (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2009; 132 pp., $29.99 hardcover, $19.99 softcover) brings Holmes to St. Paul in 1896, ten years after SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE COUNTY COURT- HOUSE CAPER (Dec 07 #5); there's a great deal of local history and color, and a mystery that isn't easy for Holmes to solve. The author's web-site at has more information about both books. Feb 09 #5 Christopher Roden and Cliff Goldfarb have noted that the late John Mortimer (Jan 09 #7) did not defend the publisher of Law- rence's LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER, despite frequent mentions in his obituar- ies. Valerie Grove, his authorized biographer, and Tony Lacey, his editor at Penguin, explained things after Mortimer died, but that was too late for most of the obituaries. But he did successfully defend Hubert Selby's LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN in 1969. Hugh Leonard died on Feb. 12. He was a prolific dramatist whose play "Da" won four Tony Awards in 1978 (Leonard described it as "pretty nearly total- ly autobiograpical") and a well-known acerbic columnist for the Sunday In- dependent. He dramatized "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Hound of the Bask- ervilles" for the 1968 BBC-1 television series that starred Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock, and wrote the play "The Mask of Moriarty", which was first performed during the Dublin Theatre Festival in 1985 with Tom Baker playing Sherlock Holmes. is the URL for the latest version of Paul Spiring's "B. Fletcher Robinson Bibliography" (which now lists 279 items that he authored, co-authored, or edited); it's an interesting demonstration of how wide Fletcher Robinson's interests ranged. "The Year of the Hound" is the theme of this year's "Gathering of Southern Sherlockians" at the Sheraton Read House in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Apr. 18- 19; the mailing list is maintained by Kent Ross (721 Hartford Road, Spring- field, OH 45503) (678-464-8321) . It's always nice to see Conan Doyle's non-Sherlockian work in print: there is a new edition of THE POISON BELT (London: Hesperus Press, 2008; 124 pp., L7.99), with an interesting introduction by Matthew Sweet; he suggests that the real value of the book "is not the efficacy of its crystal-gazing, but in its exploration of the mechanics of early twentieth-century despair." Sherlockian societies in southern cities (Atlanta, Nashville, Birmingham, and Greenville) will hold their Fifth Annual Gathering of Southern at the Sheraton Read House in Chattanooga, Tenn., on Apr. 18-19, 2009. The con- ference theme is "The Year of the Hound", and Kent Ross (721 Hartford Road, Springfield, OH 45503) (678-464-8321) is the contact. It's not Sherlockian or Doylean, but it's a delightful book: THE UNCOMMON READER, by Alan Bennett (2007, also available as a trade paperback and an audiobook); it's a fantasy about Queen Elizabeth II, full of philosophy and satire, and with a wonderful surprise at the end. Jean-Pierre Ohl's MR. DICK, OR THE TENTH BOOK (Sawtry: Dedalus Books, 2008; 220 pp., L9.99/$15.99) was first published in French as MONSIEUR DICK, OU LE DIXIEME LIVRE (2004), the book is a surrealistic exploration of Charles Dickens, the world of Dickensians, and THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD, with en- tertaining scholarship (real and otherwise), and it includes Arthur Conan Doyle's "My First Spiritist Seance", a report on a seance held in 1884 when Dickens spoke from beyond the veil (Conan Doyle did indeed write about hav- ing heard from Dickens at a seance, but many years later). Feb 09 #6 There's an interesting new collectible for Sherlockians to pur- sue. According to Tim Walker's story in the Daily Telegraph on Feb. 14 about Guy Ritchie's new film, "For one scene the stage hands had to help mock up the massive hull of a ship at Chatham Docks," whispers my man with the clapperboard. "It was a tough, dirty job involving a lot of black paint. When they'd finished the job, Guy arranged for everyone involved to get a fleece jacket thing emblazoned with the words Sherlock Holmes. There was a flat cap, too--just like Mr. Ritchie wears." George Vanderburgh now has a blog as well as a web-site , and he reports on his blog on recent activities, including his reprint of a poster stamp August Derleth created in the 1940s to celebrate his Sac Prairie Saga (with a nice photograph of Derleth). George will be happy to send one of the reprints (on request) as a premium with any book purchase, or to anyone who sends a self-addressed stamped envelope or $1.00; his address is Box 204, Shelburne, ON L0N 1SO, Canada. St. Martin's Minotaur Books has acquired its first non-fiction crime book: Dan Stashower's account of the plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln in Baltimore during his inaugural trip to Washington in 1861. The book is to be published in late 2010 (Lincoln was elected president on Nov. 6, 1860). Black Coat Press has discovered "La Mort de Herlock Sholmes, ou Bandits en habit noir", a play that was written by Pierre de Wattyne and Yorril Wal- ter and briefly produced in Brussels in 1914, and have published an English translation as SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. FANTOMAS (2009; 176 pp., $16.95). Fan- t“mas, one of the most popular anti-heroes in French crime fiction, was the creation of Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre in 1911, and still has many enthusiastic fans. The play's a fine example of what popular melodrama was like, all those years ago, and an excerpt from the play is available at the publisher's web-site at . Black Coat Press also has published TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN: THE VAMPIRES OF PARIS, edited by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier (2009; 309 pp., $22.95); the Shadowmen are the heroes and villains of French pulp fiction, and this is the fifth in a series of anthologies of pastiches involving characters such as Lecoq, Rouletabille, Arsene Lupin, Doctor Omega, Madame Atomos, and many others, In this volume the others include Sherlock Holmes, John H. Watson, Isadore Persano, and Professor Moriarty (not all in the same story); obvi- ously not all of the characters are taken from French pulp fiction. One of the more unusual stories is Stu Shiffman's "The Milkman Cometh", in which the supporting characters include Boris Badenov, Natasha, Ivan Dragomiloff, and Tevye Milkhiker. And there's an attractive set of tarot-card illustra- tions by Michelle Bigot, with Sherlock Holmes as XVIIII: Le Soleil. Brian Stableford's SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE VAMPIRES OF ETERNITY (Encino: Black Coat Press, 2009; 346 pp., $24.95) is a greatly expanded version of his THE HUNGER AND ECSTASY OF VAMPIRES (Mar 97 #3); the story is a fantasy, involv- ing time travel, space travel, and philosophy, and the major characters in- clude William Hope Hodgson, Oscar Wilde, Dracula, and a Great Detective who will be familiar to Sherlockians. Feb 09 #7 The Pondicherry Lodgers of West 44th Street, launched informal- ly five years ago, are now more formal, with a constitution and with Christopher and Barbara Roden as organizers; they meet for dinner at an Indian restaurant on the Saturday during the birthday festivities in New York. This year dined at the Jewel of India, where Richard Olken offered the toast to Jonathan Small's wooden leg. The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and the Old Court Radio Theatre Com- pany have extended their CD series of dramatizations by M. J. Elliott and Chris Drake, with Jim Crozier as Holmes, Dave Hawkes as Watson and a fine supporting cast. There are now five CDs ("The Yellow Face" and "The Three Students", "The Mazarin Stone" and "The Veiled Lodger", "The Beryl Coronet" and "The Speckled Band", "Shoscombe Old Place" and "The Five Orange Pips", and "The Gloria Scott" and "Wisteria Lodge"), and they're nicely done in- deed. Available from the Society (Mole End, Sandford Road, Chelmsford CM2 6DE, England) at L5.00 each postpaid to the U.K. (L6.00/E9.00 to Europe and L9.00/$12.00 elsewhere); sterling checks payable to Roger Johnson and doll- ar checks payable to Jean Upton (euros in currency, please). The December issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sher- lock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota offers Dick Sveum's "100 Years Ago" discussion of the special Sherlockian and Doylean issue of Collier's magazine published on Aug. 15, 1908, Tim Johnson's report on re- cent visitors, a letter from Georgina Doyle, and other news about the coll- ections. Copies of the newsletter can be requested from Richard J. Sveum (111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) . Shades of Sherlock and Baker Street Collecting were published by The Three Students Plus from 1966 through 1972, and Steve Rothman has discovered them on-line at Brad Kjell's web-site at . The web- site is a work in progress, Brad explains, and he calls the journals fan- magazines, but they're fine examples of what young Sherlockians were doing in those distant days of ditto and mimeograph machines. Taelen Thomas, an actor who has portrayed Jack London in one-man shows on the Monterey Peninsula, brought a special presentation of "Jack London on Conan Doyle" to a meeting of The Diogenes Club some years ago (Aug 93 #6), and the text was published was been published by the society as an 18-page pamphlet; Mike Kean has discovered a few copies of the original print run, and they're available for $7.50 postpaid (checks made payable to the Dio- genes Club, please). Mike's address is 3040 Sloat Road, Pebble Beach, CA 93953; he suggests that you ask him by e-mail be- fore sending checks. I confess to knowing very little about some (well, most) aspects of the In- ternet, including Facebook . Having heard from Steve and Linda Morris that they've created a group for The Red-Headed League of Jer- sey, I was intrigued to find five different Red-Headed Leagues there. And 199 Arthur Conan Doyle groups and more than 500 Sherlock Holmes groups, the most active Sherlock Holmes group being The Sherlock Holmes Museum in Lon- don, with (at the moment) 10,812 fans. Facebook describes itself as a "so- cial utility," and says it has more than 150 million active users. Feb 09 #8 Warren Randall's lapel pin (Dec 08 #3) was not the only souve- nir of the excursion to Christopher Morley's Knothole on Long Island on Jan. 11; Warren has also published an attractive 16-page pamphlet with color photographs and descriptions of the places visited, and extracts from the writings of Morley, Ely Liebow, and Arthur Guiterman. $5.75 post- paid from Randall (15 Fawn Lane, South Setaucket, NY 11728). The Sun, a British tabloid generally regarded as less than reliable as the National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids here, reported on Feb. 18 that Warner Bros. had told Guy Ritchie to reshoot five weeks of footage of his new "Sherlock Holmes" film because the studio bosses were unhappy with an early cut. And the news was spread rapidly across the Internet by peo- ple who likely also believe that Elvis has been discovered alive and well on the Moon. Warner Bros. quickly issued a statement noting that inserts and pickup shots, a standard part of film-making, were being completed this month, and the Hollywood Reporter ran that under the headline "No Reshoot, 'Sherlock'". Paul Spiring has discovered something of interest pertaining to the history of B. Fletcher Robinson's collaboration with Conan Doyle in the writing of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES: Fletcher Robinson's story "The Debt of Hein- rich Hermann" was reprinted in The Novel Magazine in July 1905 with an in- troduction in which he wrote about Conan Doyle: "It was from assisting him in 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' that I obtained my first lesson in the art of story construction." There's more about this at Spiring's web-site at ; click on [BFR Matters (Blog)] and then scroll down to [Fletcher Robinson & The Hound]. Fox's television series "House" continues to be popular, and Mike Kean has reported Henry Jacoby's HOUSE AND PHILOSOPHY: EVERYBODY LIES (Hoboken: John Wiley, 2009; 272 pp., $17.95) with Jerold J. Abrams's chapter on "The Logic of Guesswork in Sherlock Holmes and House". The second edition of Chris Redmond's QUOTATIONS FROM BAKER STREET, first published in 1994, is available from Chris (523 Westfield Drive, Waterloo, ON N2T 2E1, Canada); 52 pp., $10.00 postpaid (US or CA) and $12.00 (else- where). It's an uncommonplace book, offering a wide range of interesting, amusing, and occasionally outrageous quotations Sherlockians, Doyleans, and others. You get to choose your own favorites; one of them might be: "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" is an unusual Sherlock Holmes story in two ways: it contains no mystery, and it is drenched in sex. "I hear of Sherlock everywhere," as someone once said. That's also true of the Canon, of course, and some of the ways one hears of the Canon are quite intriguing. Chap O'Keefe's BLAST TO OBLIVION (London: Robert Hale, 2009; 160 pp., L12.25) opens with an epigraph from "The Valley of Fear", and with good reason: the book is a western, with plenty of color and atmosphere and violence, and a mystery that will not be a surprise to those who have read and remember Conan Doyle's story. The author also has discussed the book at www.blackhorsewesterns.com; look for [Blast from the Literary Past]. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Mar 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The Practical, But Limited, Geologists (aka The Friends of Sherlock Holmes) will honor the world's first forensic geologist at dinner at Dixon's Down- town Grill in Denver on June 10, when local Sherlockians will have a chance to meet geologists in town for the annual meeting of the American Associa- tion of Petroleum Geologists; if anyone would like to attend the festivi- ties, just let me know. The Smithsonian Associates have scheduled a Conan Doyle evening on June 17. Similar to their Edgar Allan Poe event earlier this year, the program will have Dan Stashower talking about Conan Doyle, and actor Scott Segar reading from Conan Doyle's work. The formal announcement should be in the Smith- sonian Associates schedule in April, by mail to their members and at their web-site ; the general public is welcome to attend (members receive a discount). There may be a reception at the end of the evening (the Poe reception featured a birthday cake, brandy, and a rose for everyone). Variety has reported (Mar. 10) that Central Partnership's proposed Sherlock Holmes television series (Jun 08 #6) has been delayed; shooting was to have started this summer, but has been postponed six months because of scripting problems and Russia's acute financial crisis. "I Like Mountain Music" was a 7-minute "Merrie Melodie" cartoon produced by Warner Bros. Pictures in 1933, with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson joining briefly in pursuit of a thief. Tyke Niver has reported that the cartoon is one of the special features on a DVD of "Flying Down to Rio" (1933) issued by Warner Home Video in 2006. It's also available (of course) at YouTube, at , but in very low fidelity. Lyndsay Faye's first book-signing for her new novel DUST AND SHADOW (Feb 09 #2) will be at Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop in New York on May 5; the book is excellent, and there will be tequila available at the signing, what with it also being Cinco de Mayo. Her web-site's at . "A drug addict chases a ghostly dog across the midnight moors" was the one- sentence description of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES in a list of 100 nov- els everyone should read in the Daily Telegraph (Jan. 17), kindly forwarded by John Baesch. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES was #41, well behind MIDDLE- MARCH (#1) and well ahead of THE LORD OF THE RINGS (#100). The latest issue of Carolyn and Joel Senter's The Sherlockian E-Times will be found at , with a report on and photographs from a meeting of The Noble Bachelors of St. Louis on Jan. 17, and offers of old and new Sherlockian merchandise. Natasha Richardson died on Mar. 18. She was the fourth generation of the famous Redgrave acting dynasty, and her first film role was as a flowergirl in a wedding scene in "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1968), which was directed by her father Tony Richardson and starred her mother Vanessa Red- grave. She went on to perform on stage and screen and television, and was a fine Violet Hunter in Granada's "The Copper Beeches" (1985). Mar 09 #2 Phil Bergem has researched two British trawlers that were named in honor of Conan Doyle (one of them, he reports, sank a German submarine during World War I). A web-site at offers more information, and a photograph; click on [vessels] and then on [side- winder]. Phil notes that both trawlers had engines built by Holmes, and he will gladly provide his article as a Word or PDF file . Jeffrey Marks has been nominated for an Agatha (best non-fiction) for his ANTHONY BOUCHER: A BIOBIBLIOGRAPHY (Mar 08 #1). The Agathas are awarded by vote of those attending Malice Domestic on May 1-3 in Arlington, Va. The convention's web-site is at . Philip Jose Farmer died on Feb. 25. He launched his writing career in 1952 with a story "The Lovers" that was rejected by two leading science-fiction editors because of his description of sex with an alien (the story won Far- mer his first Hugo award as the year's most promising new writer), and he went on to write more than 75 books. He wrote for Luther Norris' The Pon- tine Dossier, The Baker Street Journal, and Baker Street Miscellanea, and his book TARZAN ALIVE (1972) began his complicated Wold Newton series that included a long list of Canonical and non-Canonical characters; he present- ed a paper on "Sherlock Holmes and Sufism" at a meeting of The Mexborough Lodgers in El Paso in 1975, and wrote humorous pastiches for Fantasy & Sci- ence Fiction. He also was one of the founders of The Hansoms of John Clay- ton in Peoria, and there's much more about his life and career at the web- site . The photograph was taken in China, rather than Sumatra, but it's certainly a giant rat, displayed by a ratcatcher named Mr. Xian, who captured it in Fuzhou, a city on Chi- na's south coast. "Chinese bamboo rats are sold for meat in Chinese markets." The photograph was published in the Daily Telegraph (Feb. 18). Alistair Duncan offered an interesting examination of the Canon in ELIMINATE THE IMPOSSIBLE (Apr 08 #5), and he has now turned his attention to Sherlockian and Doylean geo- graphy in his new CLOSE TO HOLMES (London: MX Publishing, 2009; 203 pp., L9.99/$19.95): Duncan explores some of the neighborhoods in London of interest to admirers of Holmes and Conan Doyle, discussing his- tory and displaying contemporary and more modern photographs of buildings, streets, and notables (fictional and otherwise). Karen Murdock has reported Richard Davies' interesting article "Cheap, Eye- Catching & Victorian: Discover Yellowbacks" at ; click on [Rare Book Room]. It was in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" that Watson "lay upon the sofa and tried to interest myself in a yellow-backed novel." Merry Christmas: Daily Variety has reported (Feb. 26) that Warner Bros. has announced that it will delay the release of Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" until Dec. 25. The film was previously scheduled for Nov. 20, and it will now open the same day as Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" and Twentieth Century Fox's "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel" (unless, of course, the studios change their schedules again). Mar 09 #3 Ken Lanza has kindly forwarded a report that Sam Weller's Zion Bookstore in Salt Lake City has renamed its Nancy Drew Mystery Book Club; the Sherlock Holmes Mystery Book Club will meet monthly at the Beehive Tea Room, with light refreshments and discussion of Conan Doyle's works. The Zion is one of the few remaining old-time shops, with more than a million old and new books on its shelves (some of them from Ron De Waal's collection), and its web-site is at . "The murder of Sherlock Holmes didn't remain a mystery for long," Richard Abshire wrote in the Dallas Morning News (Feb. 5). Sherlock Holmes Sr., of Plano, Tex., was found beaten to death in his home on Jan. 29, and police have charged Ronald Steven Davis with the crime; in the days after the mur- der Davis was seen by several people with the victim's cellphone, and rec- ords showed that calls were made with that phone to several of Davis' rela- tives. Reported: "The Secret Policeman's Balls" is a three-DVD set released this year by Shout! Factory ($39.95); "The Secret Policeman's Ball" (1979) was the first in a series Amnesty International fund-raisers that featured mem- bers of Monty Python's Flying Circus and Beyond the Fringe, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie, and others, and completists might want to have the DVD of "The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball" (1989), which has Peter Cook appearing in a deerstalker in a non-Sherlockian skit with Dudley Moore. "Sherlock Holmes and the Golden Vampire" is one of the more unusual Sher- lockian films that were never produced; it was announced in 1975 with Frank R. Saletri as writer, producer, and director, and with Keith McConnell as Holmes and Alice Cooper as the Vampire. Script City (8033 Sunset Boulevard #1500, Hollywood, CA 90046) (800-676-2522) offers cop- ies of a first-draft screenplay ($14.99), and has many other S'ian scripts available (there's no shipping charge for e-mail delivery as a PDF file). David Grann's long article "The Lost City of Z" in the New Yorker (Oct 05 #8) is now an even longer book (New York: Doubleday, 2009; 352 pp., $27.50) in which Grann writes about his attempt to find traces of British explorer P. H. Fawcett, who spent years trying to uncover a lost civilization hidden in the Matto Grosso in Brazil. Fawcett vanished on his last expedition in 1925, never to be heard from again, and there's now a long list of explor- ers who have tried but failed to find Fawcett's lost city. Grann mentions Conan Doyle, who met Fawcett in 1910, and you can read more about them in THE ANNOTATED LOST WORLD, by Roy Pilot and Alvin Rodin (1996): they quote from Fawcett's memoirs EXPLORATION FAWCETT (eventually published in 1953). Fawcett was in London to lecture about his exploration of the Ricardo Fran- co Hills. "They stood like a lost world, forested to their tops," Fawcett wrote. "So thought Conan Doyle when later in London I spoke of these hills and showed photographs of them! He mentioned an idea for a novel on Cen- tral South America and asked for information, which I told him I should be glad to supply. The fruit of it was his 'Lost World'." Paramount bought the rights to the story last year, and Brad Pitts plans to produce and star in the film; in an interview available on-line at Amazon, Grann said they have hired a screenwriter and director and "seem to be moving forward at a good clip." Grann also said that he is a "huge Sherlock Holmes fan," and every few years reads the stories again. Mar 09 #4 Catalogs from Mark Hime at Biblioctopus are always interesting, and his catalog 39 ("Whims of Iron or, The Sins of Plagiarism, 1553-2000") offers two manuscripts ("The Disappearance of Lady Frances Car- fax" for $300,000, and "His Last Bow" for $125,000), a Sidney Paget origi- nal portrait of Holmes (for $45,000), and the signed limited edition of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (1953) (for $4,500). Biblioctopus is at 120 South Crescent Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 (310-271-2173). Thomson Gale's SHORT STORY CRITICISM series was launched in 1987, and they have now published 114 volumes; volume 83 (2006; 474 pp., $207.00) covers four authors (Arthur Conan Doyle, Gabriel Garcia M rquez, Toshio Mori, and Salman Rushdie), with 146 pages devoted to Conan Doyle. There are articles and essays reprinted from academic, scholarly, and literary journals from 1989 (Kate Karlson Redmond in the Baker Street Journal) to 2003 (Steven T. Doyle in the BSJ). Most of the material is taken from other journals, and an earlier survey of Conan Doyle was published in volume 12 (1993). Thanks to Andy Solberg for reporting volume 83 (which also has one of his articles from the BSJ). Thomson Gale's web-site is at . Harry Warren died on Feb. 21. According to his obituary in the Modesto Bee (Mar. 3) he began his radio career as a sound effects man on popular shows that included Basil Rathbone's "Sherlock Holmes"; he went on to work as an announcer, producer, and reporter, and retired in 1984. Publication of the magazine Scarlet Street ended with the illness and death of Richard Valley, but Kevin G. Shinnick has launched a successor, Scarlet: The Film Magazine. The first issue (spring 2008) has interesting articles about Edgar Allan Poe and the 1934 film "The Black Cat", and a few mentions of Sherlock Holmes, including discussion of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" in a review of Marcus Hearn and Alan Barnes' THE HAMMER STORY; the second issue has appeared, and a subscription to issues #2 through 4 costs $25.00. You can remit via PayPal to , or send a check (mention the special subscription rate) to the magazine (Box 2092, Cleona, PA 17042). Shinnick was interviewed about his plans for the Scarlet at the web-site . Forrest J Ackerman died last year (Dec 08 #2), and began collecting horror- film material in the days when studios would have thrown it away if Forry hadn't taken it off their hands. Some of his most spectacular items, one of them Bela Lugosi's "Dracula" ring, will be sold in a "Hollywood Memora- bilia" auction at Profiles in History on Apr. 30 and May 1, and their web- site's at ; they're still working on their cat- alog, and I don't know if the auction will include the model pterodactyls Willis H. O'Brien made for "The Lost World" (1925) and "King Kong" (1933). Bertram Fletcher Robinson, well known to Sherlockians for his assistance to Conan Doyle with the story of the Hound of the Baskervilles, was a prolific author who wrote articles, poems, and more than 50 short stories, most of which dealt with mystery, murder, and revenge. Paul Spiring has collected some of them, reprinted in facsimile from their first magazine appearances, in ASIDE ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: TWENTY ORIGINAL TALES (London: MX Publishing, 2009; 230 pp., L12.99/$22.95); there are endnotes for each of the stories, and a detailed bibliography of Fletcher Robinson's work. Mar 09 #5 More on Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes" film: "There's a fan- tastic sequence where we duel to the death on a half-built Lon- don Bridge," Mark Strong explained in an interviewer the Total Film, "It's a perfect way to end the movie, Robert and I hammering seven bells out of each other on top of this swinging bridge with Victorian London as a back- drop." Strong's character is the villain, Lord Blackwater, an occult-dabb- ling Satanist who (according to Strong) is based on Alastair Crowley. You can credit Peter Ashman for this report. Ken Lanza found "Dartman's World of Wonder" on the Internet, with an oppor- tunity to download "Rudyard Kipling: Selections the Jungle Books, Read by Basil Rathbone" at . Rathbone did much more than Sherlock Holmes, and did it all well; this is an LP record issued by Decca (DL-9109) in 1962. John Baesch spotted an unusual two-part pastiche in The Scottish Rite Jour- nal (Jan.-Feb. and Mar.- Apr.): Michael Halleran's "Bro. Brother's Journal: Ignorance Abroad" has Bro. Brother visiting Jabez Wilson's pawnshop, with attractive illustrations by Ted Bastien. Both parts are available on-line at , and you purchase both issues for $6.00 postpaid from the society (1733 16th Street NW, Washing- ton, DC 20009). The 28th annual Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle Symposium, to be held in Dayton, Ohio, on May 15-17, will have the theme "The Merry Wives of Watson: And All Things Watsononical", and registration is now open; Cathy Gill man- ages their mailing list (4661 Hamilton Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45223) (513- 681-5507) . Charles E. Lauterbach's BAKER STREET BALLADS was published in 1971, and his MORE BAKER STREET BALLADS in 1979, and the two collections were reprinted, along with LAST BAKER STREET BALLADS, by Gasogene Books in 2005 as THE COM- PLETE BAKER STREET BALLADS (129 pp., $16.95). The book is a nice reminder of the days when many Sherlockians were poets, and there's also a fine in- troduction by Edward and Karen Lauterbach and appropriate illustrations by Henry Lauritzen. The book is still available, for $25.45 postpaid ($31.45 to Canada and $38.45 elsewhere) from the publisher (Box 68308, Indianapo- lis, IN 46256) . The modern version of The Strand Magazine, published by Andrew Gulli, has an interesting web-site at , with on-line content that includes a pastiche by Barrie Roberts ("The Disappearance of Daniel Ques- tion"), a story by H. R. F. Keating ("Wistaria Lodge") that's not Sherlock- ian but has Canonical echoes, and an interesting interview with Christopher Lee. Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., performed Jeremy Paul's "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" in 2007, and they've announced that they will present a new version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (written by Steven Canny and John Nicholson) from Sept. 26 to Nov. 6 . According to their web-site, the play is "a Monty Python-like spoof in the best tra- dition of British beer hall comedy." If that sounds familiar, there's good reason: it's the play presented by Peepolykus on tour in England in 2007. Mar 09 #6 Donald Thomas' SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE KING'S EVIL (New York: Pegasus Books, 2009; 324 pp., $25.00) is the latest in his ser- ies of pastiches, with five stories that have Holmes involved with Arthur Saville (otherwise found in a story by Oscar Wilde), blackmail and forgery perpetrated by Charles Augustus Howell (who was an inspiration for Charles Augustus Milverton in Conan Doyle's story about the worst man in London), the siege of Sidney Street, and two other adventures. Tim Johnson, curator of the Special Collections at the University of Minne- sota, has reported in his blog on his trip to England (thanks to a staff development grant); he spent five days in Ports- mouth, much of the time devoted to research in the Richard Lancelyn Green Collection. And while you're connected to the Internet, you should visit and play the four-minute video that Stephen Fry (Patron of the Collection) as made about Richard and Conan Doyle and the Collection. Katie Forgette's play "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily" is scheduled at the Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, Minn., May 28 to June 23, 2010 . Dynamite Entertainment has announced a new comic-book series THE TRIAL OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, due in May, written by Leah Moore and John Reppion, with cover artist John Cassaday and interior artist Aaron Campbell. There's an interview with the writers at , and the publisher's web- site is at . THE CHILDREN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Ben F. Eller (Raleigh: Pendium, 2008; 243 pp., $14.95), is a vivid reminder that there was much more to Victorian London than is shown in the Canon: the children of the poor were exploited and mistreated, and that's depicted in often gruesome detail by Eller in a story that involved Holmes and Watson in an attempt to prevent some of the abuse. Further to the item (Feb 09 #7) about Taelen Thomas' "Jack London on Conan Doyle", his presentation has been reprinted in The Wolf--'09 (prepared for the Annual Jack London Birthday Banquet in Santa Rosa, Calif., on Jan. 17); available from David H. Schottmann (929 South Bay Road, Olympia, WA 98506) for $4.95 postpaid. Reported: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MORPHINE GAMBIT, a new pastiche by a new pasticheur, Jason Cooke, just published by Breese Books (185 pp., $18.95), available from Classic Specialties (Box 1958, Cincinnati, OH 45219) and at their web-site . The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh has announced its second "Arthur Conan Doyle: Edinburgh and Medicine Conference" on May 22-23. Owen Dudley Edwards and Andrew Lycett have been invited to speak, and the College has issued a call for papers (contact Dawn Kemp at ); for registration details, contact Emma Black at . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Apr 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Further to the earlier report (Oct 08 #7) that the Baker Street Irregulars' triennial running of The Silver Blaze will be combined with the 50th annual running of the Chicago Silver Blaze at Hawthorne Race Course on Oct. 31, if you haven't received detailed information and a registration from Susan Z. Diamond there may still be time to register (there's a limit of 60 people); Susan's address is 16W603 3rd Avenue, Bensenville, IL 60106) (630-227-9127) . SHERLOCK HOLMES IN AMERICA, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellen- berg, and Daniel Stashower (New York: Skyhorse, 2009; 378 pp., $24.95), is the latest in their series of anthologies of pastiches; most of them bring Sherlock Holmes to the U.S., and their authors include Lyndsay Faye, Lloyd Rose, and Paula Cohen (Harry Houdini is the detectives in Dan Stashower's story, Christopher Redmond has contributed an essay on Conan Doyle's first visit, and the anthology ends with Conan Doyle's own remarks about "The Ro- mance of America". Carl Heifetz reports two Sherlock Holmes 1000-piece mystery-solver jigsaw puzzles are available from The Paragon (Box 4068, Lawrenceburg, IN 47025) (866-752-3714) : "Case of the Fallen Actress" (#40097) "Watson's Inheritance" (#40098) cost $16.99 each or $24.99 for both. These are new versions of puzzles available ten years ago (Oct 99 #6). Al Gregory has reported "22 Cases of Sherlock Holmes in Science Fiction" at ; Alasdair Wilkins discusses some of the cross-over genre, and provides video of items such as "Bravestarr" and "Elementary, My Dear Turtle" (that's from "Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles"). The Easton Press (677 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06857) (800-243-5160) still offers their three-volume THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES; first issued in 1987, it's a handsome leather-bound reprint (with color frontispieces) of the Heritage Press edition that they published in 1952 and 1957; $59.00 per volume postpaid (item 0135). And the PROFESSOR CHALLENGER SERIES in three volumes in a similar format, with an introduc- tion by science-fiction author Robert Silverberg (2005); $65.00 per volume postpaid (item 1575). One hears of the dog in the night-time everywhere, but not quite like "the I.R.S. is a dog that doesn't have a bark." The quote's from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-IA), then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, reported in the N.Y. Times (Apr. 6, 1991), and more recently in Playboy (Apr. 2009) in an article about the current pursuit of Barry Bonds by the I.R.S. Bjarne Nielsen has a new catalog on-line at ; click on [Antiqvariat] and then on [Sherlockiana]. One of the items is particularly interesting: a copy of the first edition of T. S. Eliot's MURDER IN THE CA- THEDRAL (1935) together with a copy of the second printing of the John Mur- ray edition of SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES (1928) signed by Eliot; Bjarne suggests that this must have been the copy of the short stor- ies that Eliot used when he quoted from "The Musgrave Ritual" in MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL [sorry: the books no longer are available]. Apr 09 #2 E.J. Wagner's THE SCIENCE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: FROM BASKERVILLE HALL TO THE VALLEY OF FEAR: THE REAL FORENSICS BEHIND THE GREAT DETECTIVE'S GREATEST CASES (Jun 06 #2) is now available in Italian, Korean, German, Japanese, and Braille, with Russian due soon; details on the trans- lations are available at her web-site . And there's a Kindle edition, so you can read it on your iPhone or iPod. I recommended it once (Dec 05 #5), and am happy to do so again (I seldom recommend books twice, and sometimes don't recommend them once): IMAGINED LONDON: A TOUR OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST FICTIONAL CITY (Washington: Nation- al Geographic Society, 2004; 192 pp., $20.00) is Anna Quindlen's evocative tour of literary London: it's a personal essay, full of insight and humor (and of course Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes are mentioned). Further to the report about Liberton Bank House, where Conan Doyle lived as a child (Nov 07 #6), Phil Bergem has found a web-site that has photographs of the renovation of the derelict 18th-century house and its conversion in- to the Dunedin School . Barbapapa is the title character in a series of French children's books written in 1970s by Annette Tison and Talus Taylor, and the series has been translated into more than 30 languages. One of the characters is Barbabravo, who with deerstalker, magnifying glass, and the help of his faithful hound Lolita tries to act like a great detective. There are films and television shows, and toys and other merch- andise, and more information at , and (of course) video available at A proponent of intelligent design has cited Conan Doyle in a blog arguing against Darwinian evolution: go to and search for [deyes co- nan doyle] to find Richard Deyes' blog entry, which is based on the BBC-1 mini-series "The Lost World" (2001). Intelligent design is the most recent version of creationism. Further to the report (Jan 09 #8) on the Lost World Read 2009 campaign, all sorts of interesting things are available at , among them views of the covers of both new versions of THE LOST WORLD (a reprint with a new cover of the Oxford World's Classics edition, and the children's adaptation with a Wallace and Gromit cover), the text of the adaptation and a study guide, and a free download of the BBC's unabridged recording read by Matthew Rhys. OSCAR WILDE AND THE DEAD MAN'S SMILE, by Gyles Brandreth (London: John Mur- ray, 2009; 371 pp., L14.99) (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2009; 371 pp., $24.00 cloth, $14.00 paper), is the third in his series featuring Oscar Wilde as the detective in a new mystery set in London, Leadville, and Paris. This time Wilde's friend Arthur Conan Doyle is present only at the beginning and end of the story, but he has an important role to play in the real solution to the mystery. Brandreth is an excellent story-teller, with a special knack for cliff-hanger endings to many of his chapters and a sure hand in his portrayal of Wilde. The British edition is due in May, and the American edition in September, and Brandreth's web-site provides a fine in- troduction to the first two books . Apr 09 #3 I recently received a query from a professor who said that he had an Iranian student who wanted to read "The Greek Interpre- ter" in Farsi and wondered if there is such a translation. And the ques- tion was easy enough to answer, thanks to Don Hobbs' "The Galactic Sherlock Holmes"; his electronic bibliography of translations is a splendid example of what can be done in the world of bits and bytes. The CD is in PDF for- mat, now with 685 pages and 89 alphabets and languages, and with full-color illustrations of covers of many of the translations; a one-year subscrip- tion (with two to three up-dated CDs) costs $15.00 (to the U.S.) or $20.00 (elsewhere), from Don at 2100 Elm Creek Lane, Flower Mound, TX 75028. And yes, the story is available in a Farsi translation. "Sherlock Holmes, Lyon, et les debuts de la police scientifique" is the ti- tle of a conference scheduled by the Societe Sherlock Holmes de France on May 22-24. Details are available at the society's web-site . Bill Briggs notes that McMurdo's Camp has a series of "story info sheets" that may be useful to societies preparing for discussion of one of the stories (they have done about half the short stories so far). Another source of discussion points for the stories is a collection of posts to The Hounds of the Internet electronic mailing list, at . The Notorious Canary Trainers of Madison, Wis., celebrated their 40th anni- versary on Apr. 20, with a broadcast on "The Access Hour" on WORT-FM that featured interviews with members of the society; you can listen to the pro- gram on-line at . There's much more about the society at their web-site . Steven Dietz's "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure" will be performed at the Vertigo Theatre (115 9th Avenue SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0P5, Canada) (403- 221-3707) from Apr. 26 through May 17. Douglas Wilmer's STAGE WHISPERS: THE MEMOIRS (Tenbury Wells: Porter Press International, 2009; 232 pp., L19.99) is a delightful autobiography, with much about his appearance as Holmes on BBC television in the 1960s, and a bit about "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother" (1975), and he has written about his Canonical recordings, his friends in the world of Sherlock Holmes, and of course his other work and fellow actors. There is also a limited edition, signed and in a special binding (L45.00); P.O. Box 2, Tenbury Wells, WR15 8XX, England . The title of the story is "Reportage: le futur musee de la SSHF" (and if you scroll down the page you'll find a neat Google feature that translates the story into a variety of languages). Millard Kaufman died on Mar. 15. He was best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplays for "Take the High Ground" (1953) and "Bad Day at Black Rock" (1955), he also wrote the screenplay for "Ragtime Bear" (1949), the animat- ed film that introduced Mr. Magoo, a character he said was based on one of his uncles (Mr. Magoo appeared as Dr. Watson, assisting Sherlock Holmes, in a 30-minute television program in 1964). A statue of Castor Oyl in Sherlockian costume will be added to the "Popeye & Friends Character Trail" in Chester, Ill., this year, Michael McClure has re- ported. The Chester Baskerville Society is sponsor- ing the five-foot-high granite statue, which will be unveiled on Sept. 12. Elzie C. Segar, who created Popeye, was born in Chester; "Castor Oyl, the Detec- tive" appeared in a "Little Big Book" in 1937. If you would like to honor a friend (or yourself), con- tact Michael (618-826-5125) to contribute an engraved "brick" in the column ($150) or a larger site on the base ($500). "The Curious Case of a Birthday for Sherlock" was the headline on Jennifer 8. Lee's story in the N.Y. Times on Jan. 6. The story ran in their on-line City Room blog, and it's a fine example of what can be done on line: there are 18 links to other sites and stories, Sherlockian and otherwise, allow- ing readers to explore for more information. Go to and search for [birthday sherlock]. Laurie R. King has written a Mary Russell short story ("A Venomous Death") that has been published as a 14x20" broadside with a woodcut by Katie Wynne by the Lavendier Press, signed by the author and the artist ($38.00 for the numbered edition, or $125.00 for the lettered edition). You can e-mail to the publisher at . Laurie will hold a drawing on May 15 for a free broadside for people who purchase THE LANGUAGE OF BEES from an independent bookseller; send your receipt to Laurie at Box 1152, Free- dom, CA 95019, or a scan to . Additional details at . And her latest Mary Russell novel was published this month: THE LANGUAGE OF BEES (New York: Bantam Books, 2009; 433 pp., $25.00) opens in England after Russell and Holmes have returned from their adventures in San Francisco (as recorded in LOCKED ROOMS) and quickly receive a visit from Holmes' son Dam- ian. And Damian Adler (Irene was his mother) needs their assistance: his wife and daughter are missing. Soon Damian is missing as well, and Holmes and Russell (with help from Mycroft and hindrance from the official police) are hard at work solving a complicated mystery. Apr 09 #5 Bruce Holmes has continued his pursuit of Sherlockian philately philatelic Sherlockiana), and his MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: ILLUSTRATED WITH POSTAGE STAMPS displays the eleven stories represented by color illustrations of postage stamps and covers; the selection is as usual appropriate and imaginative, and there's a short monograph on the Vernets, with similar illustrations. 3170 Joseph Howe Drive, Halifax, NS B3L 4G1, Canada; US$29.50 postpaid. Actors' memoirs can be interesting and amusing, and one that qualifies on both counts is Roger Moore's MY WORD IS MY BOND (New York: Collins, 2008; 336 pp., $27.95); there's a chapter titled "Elementary, Dr. Watson" (with only one page about "Sherlock Holmes in New York"), and elsewhere a story about why Oliver Reed refused to play Moriarty in the film. There's also a British edition from Michael O'Mara Books (L18.99). The Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot reported (Mar. 23) that Sher- locke Holmes "fancies himself an investigator and a business con- sultant," even though (as Evan F. Holmes) he has convictions for credit-card fraud, forgery, and uttering dating back more than 30 years. He spent more than 20 years in jails and prisons in Vir- ginia, and was last released in Oct. 2007. The Beacon Society (whose mission is "supporting and recognizing exemplary educational experiences that introduce young people to the Sherlock Holmes stories") has resurrected its web-site at ; you can see the sort of activities they carry out to achieve that goal, and learn about their new grant program. And there's a June 1 deadline for applica- tions for its pilot funding project, the Jan Stauber Grant (details avail- able at the web-site). It's an interesting concept: MYSTERY MUSES: 100 CLASSICS THAT INSPIRE TO- DAY'S MYSTERY WRITERS, edited by Jim Huang and Austin Lugar (Carmel: Crumb Creek Press, 2006; 224 pp., $15.00), is an anthology of essays, about and by good writers; David Thurlo praises "The Speckled Band", and Aaron Elkins THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES, and the coverage ranges from Edgar Allan Poe to Dennis Lehane. A bibliographic query: Edgar W. Smith and Lord Donegall published a facsi- mile edition of Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1960, and there are three var- iants: with a red-ink stamp on the title page (numbered copies sold in the U.S.), or a purple-ink stamp at the end of the publisher's note at the rear (numbered copies sold in the U.K.), or without any stamp (unnumbered copies sold after Smith died). It would be interesting to know how many copies of Smith's numbered edition were sold: if you have a copy numbered higher than 186, please let me know. THE FILE ON COLONEL MORAN: VOLUME ONE: THE LURE OF MORIARTY, by Vernon Mea- lor (Cardiff: Clyvedon Press, 2008; 81 pp., L10.00), focuses on Moran and Moriarty, offering Moran's account of his encounters with Sherlock Holmes (before, during, and after the Great Hiatus), and two stories about Moran's early adventures with Moriarty. The cost of shipping is L3.00 (to the UK and Europe) and L4.70 (elsewhere); 95 Maes-y-Sarn, Pentyrch, Cardiff CF15 9QR, Great Britain . Apr 09 #6 Spotted by Dave Morrill: SHERLOCK HOLMES & KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, is a new three-issue comic-book series ($3.99 for each issue) published by Moonstone Books (582 Torrence Avenue, Calumet City, IL 60409) ; the story was written by Joe Gentile, and is a spin-off from the television series starring Darren McGavin (1974) and Stuart Townsend (2005). Moonstone has also published DOMINO LADY: SEX AS A WEAPON, edited by Lori Gentile (222 pp., $16.95). The Domino Lady was a masked heroine who first appeared in the May 1936 issue of Saucy Romantic Adventures; there were six stories about her in pulp magazines that year. The new book is a collec- tion of eight new pulp-magazine-style stories, one of them Nancy Holder's "The Strange Case of the Domino Lady and Sherlock Holmes". For the completists: Robert Pohle's story "The Flowers of Utah" is included in SHERLOCK HOLMES IN AMERICA (Apr 09 #1); Pohle has written westerns, in- cluding THE FLEDGLING OUTLAW (1978), of which John Bennett Shaw once wrote to Pohle that he actually liked the book, but that "you do have everything in it except Bing Crosby as a drunken Irish priest!" One of the characters in the novel is described by Pohle as "a suspiciously Holmesian Pinkerton detective," but the novel is set too early to have true Sherlockian echoes. The June issue of Realm: Celebrating Britain's Rich Past and Historic Pres- ent has Vicky Sartain's nicely-illustrated full-color four-page article on "The Chronicles of Conan Doyle" (in the magazine's Great Britons series). Box 215, Landisburgh, PA 17040 ; $6.99. 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 the conclusion of an article on "Grant Allen & Arthur Conan Doyle: A Vic- torian Odd Couple" (by Peter Calamai), a report on "Arthur Conan Doyle in Winnipeg" (by Barbara Rusch), and other news from and about the collection; copies of the newsletter are available on request from Clifford S. Goldfarb (22 Markdale Avenue, Toronto, ON M6C, 1T1, Canada . CSA Word (formerly CSA Telltapes) offers two volumes of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES on CDs, each with six stories read by Edward Hardwicke (and read well) for L17.01/$31.95; these are reissues of the earlier audiocass- ette sets issued from 1993 to 2000). The company's address is 6a Archway Mews, London SW15 2PE, England . Hardwicke was a splen- did Watson in the Granada television series, and it's somehow comforting to hear Watson read aloud what he wrote. Further to the item (Dec 07 #6) on the campaign to upgrade the protection of Undershaw, the house where Conan Doyle lived from 1897 to 1907, there's a new effort to rescue the house: Hindhead Together has launched a campaign to preserve the house and use it as a Conan Doyle center welcoming visitors to the Heathlands of the Surrey Hills area. They have asked for pledges of support at . They've not yet appealed for funds, but the Surrey County Council estimates that acquisi- tion and restoration of Undershaw will cost about L3.5 million; The Nation- al Trust has said that it might be persuaded to develop an action plan "if there's any interest out there in taking the project on. Apr 09 #7 Macmillan's Children's Books has announced a three-book series of the adventures of the young Sherlock Holmes, to be written by Andy Lane, who has used Holmes, Watson, and other Canonical characters in the "Doctor Who" tie-in ALL CONSUMING FIRE (Jul 94 #4). This is Lane's first book for children, and the series begins "in the 1860s with the four- teen-year-old Sherlock sent to spend the summer with eccentric relatives as his soldier father heads for India; Sherlock is drawn into a sinister in- ternational plot with a brilliantly imagined villain at its heart." Charles Prepolec has reported that the German film "Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war" (1937) is now available on DVD with English subtitles (as "The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes"); released this year by Televista ($24.95) and available at Amazon and elsewhere. The film's imaginative and amusing, and it's nice that it's now accessible to people who don't understand German. Frogwares' latest Sherlockian adventure game for computers "Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper" will be released in May; you can see screen shots and much more at . The latest issue of Carolyn and Joel Senter's The Sherlockian E-Times will be found at ; the offers of Sher- lockian merchandise include some interesting "scrimshaw" items (carved from antlers rather than whalebone or whale's teeth), and there's discussion of Meiringen (and meringue) and British coinage. Reported by Dante Torrese: Beau Ties Ltd. of Vermont (69 Industrial Avenue, Middlebury, VT 05753 (800-488-8437) offers "Watson" bow ties ($45.00) and neckties ($55.00) honoring Conan Doyle, Holmes, and Watson in a "handsome black, brown, and tan woven silk plaid." Players Press/Empire Publishing Service (Box 1344, Studio City, CA 91614) (818-784-8918) offers a long list of Sherlockian and Doylean pastiches, novels, and plays, and Jack Tracy's THE ULTIMATE SHER- LOCK HOLMES ENCYCLOPEDIA (including many books published by Jack Tracy from his Gaslight Publications). Douglas Fairbanks played Coke Enneyday (in Sherlockian costume) in the si- lent film "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" (1916); it has been available on VHS cassette, and was included on the DVD "The Gaucho" by Kino Video in 2001 ($29.95). Greg Darak notes that "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" al- so is available in "Douglas Fairbanks: A Modern Musketeer" (2008), a five- DVD set with 11 Fairbanks films, issued by Flicker Alley ($89.99). Greg also reported a two-DVD set "Discovering Cinema" (2003), released by Flicker Alley ($29.99); the DVDs are "Learning to Talk" and "Movies Dream in Color", and the first DVD includes the Fox-Case Movietone newsreel in- terview "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" (1929). Reported: Tracy Barrett's THE SHERLOCK FILES (for readers aged 9-12) is now a series of two books: THE 100-YEAR-OLD SECRET (New York: Henry Holt, 2008; 160 pp., $15.95) and THE BEAST OF BLACKSLOPE (2009; 176 pp., $15.99) have Xena and Xander Holmes, descendants of Sherlock Holmes, pursue solutions to cases that their famous ancestor couldn't solve. Apr 09 #8 Sherlockian programs continue to show up on animated television series for children: Holmes and Watson appear in "Trials of the Demon!" in the series "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" on the Cartoon Net- work and at their web-site . And Candace and Stacy are seen in Sherlockian costume in "Elementary, My Dear Stacy" in the series "Phineas and Ferb" on the Disney Channel. Martha McCormack died on Apr. 11. Martha was the wife of George McCormack ("Hosmer Angel") and they would have celebrated their 50th anniversary in June; she was honored by The Baker Street Irregulars as The Woman (2004). IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN 2!: MORE NEW STORIES OF OLD-TIME RADIO, edited by Jim Harmon (Albany: BearManor Media, 2000; 224 pp., $15.00), is an anthology of stories about the heroes and villains who had so many fans in days gone by. There are stories by various authors about Vic and Sade, Baby Snooks, The Great Gildersleeve, Red Ryder, and Harmon's "Sherlock Holmes and the Adven- ture of the Duplicate Daughter". BearManor's address is Box 71426, Albany, GA 31708 . Mentorn Media is planning to produce a television series called "John Ser- geant's Tourist Trail" (about tourism to the United Kingdom) to be broad- cast on ITV and then distributed worldwide. They want to interview Sher- lockians from the U.S. and Italy who will be in the U.K. between May 18 and July 13; if you are going to visit, and would like to be filmed, you should contact Lindsay Walsh at . Postage rates are going up (again) in May, and the cost of the envelopes, and the cost of printing, so subscriptions to the ink-on-paper version of this newsletter will cost more as well: $11.55 (to the U.S.), $15.30 (to Canada), and $18.05 (elsewhere). The main reason why postage rates are going up is that the U.S. Postal Ser- vice's income continues to decline while its costs don't. The USPS has es- timated that it moved 213 billion pieces of mail in 2006, and expects that number to fall to 180 billion in 2009, a drop of more than 15%. While some of that drop is due to lower telephone costs (many companies are now offer- ing a flat monthly rate for unlimited calls anywhere in the country), the Internet has had a far greater impact (many people now pay their bills on- line, and of course use e-mail rather than mail letters). The circulation of this newsletter offers a fine example of this: 321 cop- ies were printed in Jan. 1998, and 166 copies in Jan. 2009. Readership has not declined, of course, since the text of the newsletter is available free on two electronic mailing lists and at Willis Frick's "Sherlocktron" web- site at . I hasten to note that the decline in paid circulation has had no effect on profits, since the cost of the newsletter is calculated on a break-even ba- sis. That seems to be the goal of most rational Sherlockians who produce things for sale: don't lose money. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) May 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: A Sesquicentennial Symposium" at the Houghton Li- brary at Harvard (Feb 09 #4) was a delightful gathering, with more than 100 people on hand for papers (scholarly and otherwise), a film showing, dinner and entertainment, and an exhibition of treasures from the Houghton's coll- ections. The URLs and offer two articles about the symposium. The exhibition will run through Aug. 8. "SO PAINFUL A SCANDAL" unveiled at the symposium, is the latest volume in The Baker Street Irregulars' Manuscript Series; there's a facsimile of the manuscript of "The Adventure of the Three Students", and commentary on the manuscript and the story by Sherlockian scholars, all edited by John Berg- quist. There's an attractive full-color dust-jacket showing a previously- unpublished Frederic Dorr Steele drawing for the story, and the cost of the book is $35.00 ($38.95 postpaid to North America and $49.50 elsewhere) from The Baker Street Irregulars (3040 Sloat Road, Pebble Beach, CA 93953); you can also order on-line at . The presentations at the symposium will be published as PAPERS AT AN EXHI- BITION (not yet available, but it will cost $35.00 plus shipping (as above) and you can pre-order from the BSI. There will also be a limited-edition boxed set in three volumes, that will include SO PAINFUL A SCANDAL and PAP- ERS AT AN EXHIBITION in a uniform Harvard crimson cloth binding stamped in gold, and EVER WESTWARD: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND AMERICAN CULTURE, the anno- tated catalog of the exhibition, in a special soft-cover binding; you can pre-order now (the set won't be published until October), and only by mail, by sending checks ($203.95 to North America and $229.50 elsewhere) to the BSI (address as above). is the URL for Scott Monty's informative blog about goings-on at the sym- posium at Harvard. "The Spirit of Sherlock Holmes" is the title of the conference planned by The Norwegian Explorers in Minneapolis on July 30-Aug. 1, 2010. More in- formation on the conference will be available later this year, and you can enroll on their mailing list by contacting Gary Thaden (2301 Aldrich Ave- nue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404) . The con- ferences have been held every three years, with interesting events and good attendance. Catherine Cooke notes that the Westminster Libraries has a "Gateway" web- site at , with much of possible interest to Sherlockians, including "Old London Maps" and "Proceedings of the Old Bailey". "Sherlaw Kombs and the Odd Impersonators" is the title of Andrew Lycett's article in The Times (May 22) about Sherlockian pastiches and parodies. He notes that at Sherlock Holmes ranks among the top 20; Harry Potter leads with more than 400,000 examples, and Holmes had 1,517. There are many other fan-fiction web-sites, of course. May 09 #2 Registration has now opened for the symposium and exhibition on "The Remarkable Characters of Arthur Conan Doyle" at the Lilly Library at Indiana University in Bloomington on Sept. 26 (Jan 09 #4); their web-site's at ; or you can write to Mary Ann Bradley, 7938 Mill Stream Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278. Conan Doyle's sound-on-film news-reel interview is widely available, as is the phonograph recording he made for The Gramophone Company in 1930. Who was the first Conan Doyle to make a radio broadcast? And when and where? The March issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has two tributes to Wayne and Francine Swift (their Sherlockian collection is now in Minneapolis), a "100 Years Ago" discussion of Conan Doyle's contribution to THE PRESS ALBUM (by Christy Allen and Julie McKuras), a "50 Years Ago" examination of the anthology LEAVES FROM THE COPPER BEECHES (by John Bergquist), and news from and about the collections; copies of the newsletter can be requested from Richard J. Sveum (111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, Univ. of Minnesota, Minne- apolis, MN 55455) . Catherine Cooke spotted an interesting zippered tote bag created by Quotable (they offer other quotes from other authors) available for ($22.95) ; their affiliated at has the same quotations on flat magnets ($4.95); both sites offer store locaters for those who want to save shipping costs. The quote, in case you haven't got the Canon mem- orized, is from "A Case of Identity". Paul Spiring's continuing research into the life and car- eer of B. Fletcher Robinson has resulted in THE WORLD OF VANITY FAIR, BY B. FLETCHER ROBINSON (London: MX Publish- ing, 2009; 300 pp., L75.00, $145.00). Fletcher Robinson edited Vanity Fair from 1904 to 1907, and wrote 15 arti- cles titled "Chronicles in Cartoon" for The Windsor Maga- zine from 1905 to 1907, discussing many of the delightful caricatures that had appeared in Vanity Fair; some of the subjects of the caricatures are mentioned in the Canon, but his selections unfortunately do not include the magazine's caricature of William Gillette (Spiring reports that Fletcher Robinson planned five additional articles, and that the series would have concluded with "The Stage" (but the series ended when he died in 1907). The articles (and the caricatures) are repro- duced in full color, and he has many stories to tell about the people who appeared in the series. The manuscript of "The Creeping Man" has been delivered to the Arthur Con- an Doyle Collection in Portsmouth. Dame Jean Conan Doyle owned three Sher- lock Holmes manuscripts (the others were "The Illustrious Client" and "The Retired Colourman"); she died in 1997 and bequeathed the three manuscripts to the British Library, a museum in Edinburgh, and a museum in Portsmouth or Southsea (to be chosen by her trustees). "The Illustrious Client" went to the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, and "The Retired Colour- man" to the British Library. May 09 #3 Faithful readers may recall the famous (perhaps infamous) Sher- lock Holmes "tent joke" being voted (temporarily) the funniest joke in the world in a "Laughlab" experiment (Oct 02 #1); the joke came in second in the final voting. British psychologist Richard Wisemen explains his contest in a 5-minute video at and tells the winning joke. So: who was the first Conan Doyle to make a radio broadcast? It was Lady Doyle, in April 1923 in New York. In OUR SECOND AMERICAN ADVENTURE, Conan Doyle wrote that "My wife was asked to send out a broadcast wireless mess- age, upon spirit-teaching whilst we were at New York, and she did so from the Westinghouse Instalment on the top of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. To me it was very impressive." And he reprints the text of her message. You can still visit the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York, at 50 Central Park South, but (alas) it's not the same hotel. The one he visited was on the west side of Madison Avenue between 46th to 47th Street, and it was in its kitchens that Louis Diat is credited with inventing vichyssoise. Warner Bros. has contracted with Gameloft to develop a mobile game for the new Guy Ritchie film "Sherlock Holmes" (still scheduled for release on Dec. 25). A mobile game is (apparently) a video game played on a mobile phone, smartphone, PDA, hand-held computer, or portable media player. This seems to be just the thing for those who don't have anything to tweet about. And there's a new 2-minute trailer for the film, likely showing in theaters now. And if it's still available, you can also watch the trailer on-line at YouTube at . The Camden House web-site at is an interest- ing web-site maintained by Rachel Wilcox, Julia Huggins, and Oliver Mundy, with a "Pinotheca Holmesiana" section for artwork, an "Epistolary" section for Sherlockian scholarship, and much more. John Patrick Bray's "Hound" (2005), will be presented off-off-Broadway dur- ing the Planet Connections Festivity, with 6 performances from June 17 to June 25 at the Robert Moss Theater Space (440 Theaters, Astor Place and La- fayette) (212-352-3101) ; it's his 90- minute dramatization of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES. An article in the Daily Telegraph (May 13) reports that "a deadly peril is creeping up on the wisterias of Old England: the wisteria scale insect." Wisteria has long suggested respectable Victoria villas, such as Wisteria Lodge in the Sherlock Holmes story, according to the writer, who notes that ordinary remedies have failed to thwart the villain, and yearns for the aid of "'the most indispensable man in the country,' Sherlock's more brilliant brother, Mycroft. Wisteria hath need of him." Michael Cox died on Mar. 31. He wrote a well-received biography of M. R. James before joining Oxford University Press as an editor, and he included Conan Doyle stories in many of his anthologies, including VICTORIAN GHOST STORIES (1992), VICTORIAN TALES OF MYSTERY AND DETECTION (1992), VICTORIAN DETECTIVE STORIES (1994), and THE OXFORD BOOK OF HISTORICAL STORIES (1995). May 09 #4 YouTube has a seven-minute video of appropriate British land- scape, with Laurie R. King reading from THE BEEKEEPER'S APPREN- TICE, at . She continues on tour to promote THE LANGUAGE OF BEES; she appeared at the Westport Public Library on May 2, and there is a one-hour recording of her presentation available at . And Rick Kleffel's "The Ag- ony Column" offers an interesting one-hour audio interview with Laurie at . And THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, read unabridged by Jenny Sterlin, had been issued by Recorded Books on CDs ($34.99); it's also available as a download ($7.49) at . Laurie's next book, an immediate sequel to THE LAN- GUAGE OF BEES, is tentatively titled THE GREEN MAN. The 29th annual Sherlock Holmes/Arthur Conan Doyle Symposium, to be held in Dayton, Ohio, on May 14-16, will have the theme "Investigating the Ameri- Canon"; Cathy Gill manages their mailing list (4661 Hamilton Avenue, Cin- cinnati, OH 45223) (513-681-5507) . If you haven't been able to see Steven Dietz's play "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure" (2006), you can read the acting-edition script, published by the Dramatists Play Service in 2007; $7.50. They also offer an acting- edition script of Dennis Rosa's play "Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of the Four" (1975); $7.50. 440 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016 (212-683-8960) . "Privatdetectiv Arthur Conan Doyle" is the title of a 55-minute program on WDR3 (Deutschlandfunk) that was broadcast on May 16, about the George Edal- ji and Oscar Slater cases. It was presented by Christian Blees, who inter- viewed Michael Ross, Thomas Toughill, and Andrew Lycett. It was almost all in German, and you can listen to it on-line at ; click on "Downloads" and the Passwort (case-sensitive) is [Berlin]. You can also listen to a three-hour program "Watson, die Jagd beginnt!" broadcast by WDR on May 23, also presented by Blees, who interviewed Ross, Toughill, Lycett, Alistair Duncan, Marcus Geisser, and Paul Spiring. "It was twenty-five to eight as we passed Big Ben, and eight struck as we tore down the Brixton Road," Watson wrote (in "Lady Frances Carfax"); Dar- lene Cypser has reported a recording of Big Ben (striking three) on the In- ternet at . Joseph Fink ("The Martyrdom of Man") died on May 8. He was a chemist and a professor of marketing and management at Fairleigh Dickenson University, president of Plastodent, and an enthusiastic member of many Sherlockian so- cieties whose members enjoyed Joe's delightful sense of humor. He received his Investiture from The Baker Street Irregulars in 1986, and was "Tonga" in the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes. Jerry Margolin has reported that in the new film "Star Trek" (released this month) Spock (played by Zachary Quinto) quotes Holmes: "When you have elim- inated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth!" This is an echo from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" (1991), in which Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) said, "an ancestor of mine maintained that . . ." May 09 #5 BBC Radio Scotland has broadcast three new 30-minute programs to celebrate Conan Doyle's birthday; one hopes they'll be re- peated. "In the Footsteps...of Conan Doyle" (May 18) featured Val McDermid touring Sir Arthur's Edinburgh (with assistance from Owen Dudley Edwards). "Vote for Conan Doyle!" (May 22), written by Bert Coules, dramatized Conan Doyle's campaign for Parliament in 1900 (John Sessions played Conan Doyle). And "The Lost World of Arthur Conan Doyle" (May 29) had Louise Welsh inves- tigating how he became an apostle of Spiritualism. Further to the item (Jan 09 #6) about plans to use wood from a 170-year-old sycamore at Liberton Bank House in Edinburgh to make a violin that would hon- or Conan Doyle and Holmes, The Times has reported (May 19) that Steve Burnett has completed work on the violin, and believes that Holmes "would appre- ciate the fine Italian tone and the look of the in- strument." Burnett played the violin on May 22 at a concert at the Dunedin School, and hopes to raise funding to carve a string quartet (two violins, a cello, and a viola to be played by a Conan Doyle Quartet. Brian W. Pugh's A CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (London: MX Publishing, 2009; 202 pp., L13.99/$22.95) offers a splendid collection of information about Conan Doyle: the chronology is based on books and ar- ticles by and about him, and public records, and where there are contradic- tions Pugh has noted them. All of his sources are cited, and there's also a chronological listing of first and early appearances of his work, as well as lists of his residences, burial sites of family and friends, and statues and plaques dedicated to Conan Doyle, Holmes, and others. The publisher is at 335 Princess Park Manor, Royal Drive, London N11 3GX, England, and their web-site's at . SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THREE POISONED PAWNS, edited by Anthony J. Richards (Cambridge: Breese Books, 2008; 204 pp., L7.50/$18.50), contains three new pastiches: Emanuel E. Garcia, who is an Oxfordian, presents Holmes solving a mystery in the text of "Hamlet"; Roger Jaynes has Holmes investigating a mysterious death and a case of blackmail; and Eddie Maguire involves Holmes with the Kaiser some years before World War I. The publisher's web-site is at . Reported: Thomas Bruce Wheeler's THE NEW FINDING SHERLOCK'S LONDON: TRAVEL GUIDE TO OVER 300 SHERLOCK HOLMES SITES IN LONDON (iUniverse.com, 2009; 328 pp., $22.95); a new and expanded edition of his FINDING SHERLOCK'S LONDON (Mar 03 #4). "Finding Feisty Fungi" is the title of an article in Smithsonian magazine (May) about the discovery that fungal decay is affecting the three wooden huts built during attempts to reach the South Pole between 1901 and 1915. The article is illustrated with a photograph of the hut that was built at Cape Evans 1910 by Robert Falcon Scott, when he launched his ill-fated ex- pedition (all five members of his team died). The hut still contains the world's southernmost copy of a book by Arthur Conan Doyle: THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR AND SPORT, brought there by Scott and left behind when he began his last attempt to reach the Pole. May 09 #6 Scott Brown's "The Giant Nerds of Sumatra" (with an attractive illustration by Alexis Rom) discusses Sherlockians, and some of the strange things they do, in Wired (May); it's the "mystery" issue of the magazine, and there are many interesting articles, including an interview with Teller (the silent partner of Penn and Teller). John Bergquist notes a nice summary of Conan Doyle's career (with a link to Brown's article) at Wired's web-site . For the completists: the nine volumes of THE OXFORD SHER- LOCK HOLMES, first published in 1993, were revised and re- printed as a World's Classic (1994) and then as an Oxford World's Classic (1998); they're available again in the Ox- ford World's Classics series with slightly different cov- ers, still displaying Frederic Dorr Steele artwork. The new edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES was chosen for the monthly "Readers' Review" book club on "The Diane Rehm Show" broadcast by WAMU-FM (Washington) on May 20; the panel consisted of Carla Coupe, Daniel Stashower, and Peter Blau, and the broadcast's archived at . is the URL for an interesting (and well-illustrated) article by Richard Davies about "Arthur Conan Doyle's Life Beyond Sherlock Holmes" spotted by Ken Lanza at the AbeBooks web-site; if you scroll to the bottom of the page to find informative "More to Investigate" links. Plan well ahead: "Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scandal" is the title of the next conference in Toronto, scheduled by The Friends of the Arthur Con- an Doyle Collection, the Toronto Public Library, and The Bootmakers of Tor- onto on Oct. 13-16, 2011; the Canadians arrange excellent conferences, and more information will be available at . Barbara Rusch maintains the conference's mailing list (36 Macauley Drive, Thornhill, ON L3T 5S5, Canada) . "Happy New Year," Raymond Chandler wrote to his agent H. N. Swanson on Jan. 2, 1952, "and many thanks to you for the tie with the Sherlock Holmeses and the bloody footprints on it. I intend to wear this sometime to a post mor- tem." The letter will be offered at auction at Bonhams in New York on June 10, estimated at $1,000-$1,500 (sale 17109, lot 3204). Alas, the tie does not accompany the letter, and I'm not aware of any Sherlockian necktie that matches this description. Also to be auctioned at Bonhams, in Los Angeles on June 14: two capes worn by Steve Allen on various television shows, with a letter written by Allen explaining that "the plaid cape/coat was one in one instance when I played Sherlock Holmes on one of my comedy shows." (sale 17018, lot 6157, estimat- ed at $500-$700). And at Knightsbridge on June 16: two waistcoats worn by Christopher Lee, one of them as Sherlock Holmes (sale 16808, lot 247, esti- mated at L100-L150. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Jun 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Fans of Mary Russell will want to read MARY RUSSELL: MY STORY, which first appeared in 15 weekly installments on her MySpace blog; it's an amusing 16- page account of how and why Laurie R. King was chosen to receive Russell's manuscripts and you can read it at . Laurie hopes to publish the story eventually, and you may see it in the February issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine next year. And then there's a special-edition booklet of Holmes' PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF BEE CULTURE (considerably fancier than the booklet Laurie provided for the annual-dinner packets in January), available to those who donate to Heifer International (one of Laurie's favorite charities); additional information is available at . , by the way, offers a handy method of providing web-site links that are too long to fit on one printed line. It's free, and doesn't expire. The National Aquarium in Baltimore had an exhibition of "Jellies: Phantoms of the Deep" from 1996 to 1998, and they have just opened a new exhibition "Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out of Balance"; up to nine species are on dis- play, including the Lion's Mane, and you can read more about the exhibit at . London mayor Boris Johnson has proposed that Scotland Yard's "Black Museum" be opened to the public; a new "Blue Light Museum" would showcase exhibits from the crime museum along with artifacts from the city's fire and ambu- lance services. Scotland Yard now offers only restricted access to the mu- seum, for training new police officers and as an attraction for important visitors to the Yard, Over the years those important visitors are reported to have included Edward VII (as Prince of Wales), Laurel and Hardy, Gilbert and Sullivan, Harry Houdini, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The above news from the June issue of Ripperologist, an electronic journal available at ; this issue also has editor Eduardo Zinna's detailed (and enthusiastic) review of Lyndsay Faye's new Sherlock Holmes novel DUST AND SHADOW. Sorry about that: is the correct URL for The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection; they'll have more information on the symposium scheduled for Toronto on Oct. 13-16, 2011. Cliff Goldfarb reports that the Canadian television series "Murdoch Myster- ies" has been acquired by American Public Television. APT is an American company that syndicates programs to public television and has started its own Create TV channel. "Murdoch Mysteries" will be available to local sta- tions beginning June 30; the one-hour series aired in Canada in 2008 and is based on Maureen Jennings' mystery novels and three television films, with Yannick Bisson starring as a detective in Toronto in the 1890s. There are two episodes ("Elementary, My Dear Murdoch" and "Belly Speaker") that fea- ture Geraint Wyn Davies as Arthur Conan Doyle, and both are included in the Season One set of 4 DVDs available from Acorn Media ($59.99). Jun 09 #2 The Sub-Librarians Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars in the American Library Association will gather at 12:00 pm on Sunday, July 12, at Blackie's in Chicago; the luncheon will cost $24.00 (send your checks quickly to Marsha Pollak (Sunnyvale Public Library, 665 West Olive Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94086). The featured speaker will be Jon L. Lellen- berg, discussing "History Detective: Researching to BSI Archival Histories" (explaining the detective work behind some of his most interesting discov- eries about the BSI's origins and early decades). Additional information is available from Marsha at . Paul Spiring's campaign for a memorial to Bertram Fletcher Robinson in Ipp- lepen (where Fletcher Robinson lived) has been successful: the parish coun- cil has installed a memorial bench (with a plaque) in the village, outside Caunter's Close. You can see photographs at ; search for [memorial]. And just so this issue will have something about the new Guy Ritchie film, Anna Pickard had an amusing review of the trailer (and with a link to the trailer, in case you haven't seen it) in The Guardian (June 2); here's the convenient TinyURL: . You can also see two imagin- ative posters (one for Holmes and one for Watson) promoting the film in the U.K. at , If you've been wondering what happened to the "Sherlock Holmes" film star- ring Sasha Baron Cohen as Holmes and Will Ferrell as Watson, you can listen to a one-minute interview with Ferrell at the Hollywood Outbreak web-site . Ferrell said that they have a script, and they're still talking about the film, but realize that Guy Ritchie's film is likely to be a hit, and might start a franchise, and they don't want to appear to be copying the film. A reminder about the next meeting of The Sub-Librarians Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars in the American Library Association, at noon on Sunday, July 12, at Blackie's Restaurant in Chicago; Jon Lellenberg will be their featured speaker, and his topic will be "History Detective: Researching the BSI Archival Histories". If you've not reserved already, and still want to attend, get in touch with Marsha Pollak . Further to the item (Apr 09 #7) on Hindhead Together's campaign to protect Undershaw, the house where Conan Doyle lived from 1897 to 1907, there's an Internet petition at . E.J. Wagner reports that Blitzwarez, apparently a file-sharing web-site at , offers free downloads of Sherlockian books and games, including her book THE SCIENCE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and she warns that this may be a web-site that attempts to spread viruses with downloads; neither she nor her publisher has authorized the web-site to distribute her book. Many of the Sherlock Holmes stories were syndicated to newspapers not long after first appearances periodicals. One of the newspapers was Philadel- phia's Evening Bulletin, and it was interesting to discover that the paper began serializing A STUDY IN SCARLET on May 26 at their web-site. The URL is ; click on "Arts" and then "Literary Excerpts". Jun 09 #3 Jon Lellenberg has forwarded a report that the first season of the British television series "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" (1971) is scheduled for release by Acorn Media this summer as a set of four DVDs ($59.99). The series was based on anthologies edited by Hugh Greene, and the programs starred fine actors such as John Neville (Dr. John Thorn- dyke), Robert Stephens (Max Carrados), and Roy Dotrice (Simon Carne). Michael Robertson's THE BAKER STREET LETTERS (New York: Minotaur, 2009; 277 pp., $24.95) offers an interesting approach to letters written to Sherlock Holmes: Reggie Heath is a London lawyer who has offices in the building at 221B Baker Street, and a lease that requires him to answer Sherlock Holmes' mail. Heath's brother Nigel, assigned to respond to the letters, discovers a 20-year-old mystery in one of them and goes to Los Angeles to invesiti- gate; Reggie, after his clerk is murdered, follows and does some detecting on his own. It's an interesting pursuit, and Warner Bros. has bought the television rights. The new Pixar/Disney animation "Up" is a delightful film ("by tying thous- ands of balloons to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to ful- fill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America, according to one synopsis). And there's a visual homage to "The Lost World": Fredricksen's goal is Paradise Falls, which flows down the side of a plateau that has an isolated separate pinnacle, just as in the book and the films based on it. Edward S. Lauterbach ("Thorneycroft Huxtable, M.A., Ph.D., etc.") died on June 3. He was a professor in the English Department at Purdue University for 34 years, and a long-time member of The Illustrious Clients of Indiana- polis. He was a scholar (Sherlockian and otherwise), and a fine poet (he was hailed at the poet laureate of the Baker Street Irregulars); his BAKER STREET BALLADS (1971) offers a fine selection of his work. Ed received his Investiture from the BSI in 1965. Mike Kean reports that a special-clearance offer will be launched on July 1 at with a discount on the Baker Street Irregu- lars' manuscript-series volume of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Feb 02 #1) discounted to $25.00). Click on "Items for Sale" and then on "Deal Table"; the offer's limited-time-only, so if you don't have this volume, act quick- ly (details on the book are available at the web-site). "Inspector Hector makes brushing fun!" (according to the Vi-Jon web-site at ; they offer a pre-brush rinse and a fluoride rinse. Thanks to Paul Herbert, who noted an advertisement in the Sunday-newspaper inserts. I've mentioned the John Wayne film "The Quiet Man" (1952) be- fore (May 04 #8): Francis Ford, who played Sherlock Holmes in the film "A Study in Scarlet" (1914) played Dan Tobin (the old man with the grand white beard), and when the locals arrived at the newlyweds' cottage, they sang "Mush, Mush" (the music's now used by Sherlockians when they sing "We Never Mention Aunt Clara"). The movie was inspired by one of the stor- ies in Maurice Walsh's delightful collection GREEN RUSHES (1335), which has been reprinted as THE QUIET MAN AND OTHER STORIES (1992); I recommend read- ing the book from the beginning, so that you'll know who's who. Jun 09 #4 Amanda J. Field's ENGLAND'S SECRET WEAPON: THE WARTIME FILMS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (London: Middlesex University Press, 2009; 250 pp., L11.99) is far more than a review of the Rathbone/Bruce films (and for the British, the Twentieth Century-Fox films also were wartime films); the author sets the films in context, and she writes about them well. There is new and interesting information about the production of the films, and the studios' negotiations with Denis and Adrian Conan Doyle; it's fascinating to imagine films that Edith Meiser might have written (two to four a year, according to a proposal by one of Denis' agents in 1940). Field's sources include studio archives at UCLA, and the Richard Lancelyn Green collection at Portsmouth, and there's much to be learned from her enjoyable book. The Practical, But Limited, Geologists (aka The Friends of Sherlock Holmes) honored the world's first forensic geologist with drinks and dinner at Dix- on's Downtown Grill in Denver on June 10, when the visiting geologists were welcomed by members of Dr. Watson's Neglected Patients. Our next meetings will be in Portland on Oct. 21, and in New Orleans on Apr. 14. Gray Thaden spotted a photograph of Rounder's Ar- thur Conan Doyle, an American Staffordshire Terr- ier, at the Pedigree Database; their web-site's at . Rounder's Kennels is in Texas . "The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton" is an 85-minute television film that was broadcast in Britain by the BBC in 2006, and the U.S. by PBS-TV on "Mast- erpiece Theatre" in 2007; it's available on a DVD ($24.95) from Video Collection (Box 1380, Ottawa, IL 61350 (800-538-5856) . It was Isabella Beeton who created the famous "Book of Household Management" (the book that gave Maude Crosse consider- able concern in A DUET: WITH AN OCCASIONAL CHORUS); she died in 1865, well before her husband began publishing Beeton's Christmas Annual (in which "A Study in Scarlet" appeared in 1887). Video Collection also offers "The Life and Crimes of William Palmer" on two DVDs ($34.95); the two-part mini-series was broadcast in Britain by ITV and in the U.S. by PBS-TV on "Mystery!" in 1998. Holmes said that "Palmer and Pritchard were among the heads of the profession" (in "The Speckled Band"); he also noted that "When a doctor does go wrong he is the first of crimi- nals," and the mini-series shows just what he meant. One hears of Sherlock everywhere: in this case Sherlock Holms. Naomi Tana- ka reports that the Hotel New Otani Plaza Chateau in Osaka has a Sherlock Holms Boutique; the boutique sells Persian rugs, original women's wear, ac- cessories, shawls, handbags, and shoes; you can see more about the boutique at . The recent edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET, with spectacular illustrations by Nis Jessen (Jul 05 #6) is still available, in the standard edition (E39.00) and a special deluxe edition, signed and numbered in a slip-case (E78.00); posters, postcards, and stickers also are available, and you can see some of his artwork at . Jun 09 #5 Edwin V. King, Jr. ("Captain Arthur Morstan") died on Apr. 11. He was a chemical engineer when he joined the Army at the start of World War II (and he served on Eisenhower's staff in the European thea- ter), and after the war had a long career with Union Carbide. Early in his Army years he discovered that he shared an interest in Sherlock Holmes with fellow-officer Robert Keith Leavitt, who gladly arranged an invitation for his friend to attend the 1943 annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars. He also attended the 1946 annual dinner, and lost contact with the BSI but found the society again in the 1990s and reminisceed about the early years for Jon L. Lellenberg's BSI archival histories of the early and mid 1940s. He received his Investiture in 1991. Jezail Bulletin is the quarterly journal of Circulo Holmes (the Sherlockian society in Barcelona), and the latest issue (#33) includes an interesting a report on the Sherlock Holmes pub in Valencia. The pub seems not to have its own web-site, but there are quite a few hits with a Google search. The society's web-site is at . Discount book dealer Edward R. Hamilton has some interesting items in his latest discount catalog: "Sherlock Holmes Collection" of six films on two black-and-white DVDs ($9.95); the Peter Cook/Dudley Moore "The Hound of the Baskervilles" on DVD (Feb 09 #1) ($7.95); Donald Thomas' THE EXECUTION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Oct 08 #1) ($9.95); Martin H. Greenberg's SHERLOCK HOLMES IN AMERICA (Apr 09 #1); and Pierre Bayard's SHERLOCK HOLMES WAS WRONG: RE- OPENING THE CASE OF THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Sep 08 #7) ($13.95); his address is: Falls Village, CT 06031-5000 . Ev Herzog discovered Cinni-Mini Crunch at her local supermarket, it's a private brand from SuperValu, which is the third-largest food-retailng company in the U.S., so the Richfood label isn't the only one. Thomas Bruce Wheeler's THE NEW FINDING SHERLOCK'S LONDON: TRAVEL GUIDE TO OVER 300 SHERLOCK HOLMES SITES IN LONDON (Bloomington: iUniverse.com, 2009; 302 pp., $22.95) is a new and greatly expanded edi- tion of his FINDING SHERLOCK'S LONDON (Mar 03 #4). The book offers discussion of each story, and the London locations mentioned in them; listings of lo- cations near each underground and railway station, and along each underground line; as well as a few short walking tours. It's an excellent guide for people who want to explore the London of Sherlock Holmes. If you know someone who is vision-impaired, there's a fascinating new prod- uct available from K-NFB Reading Technology (a joint venture between Kurz- weil Technology and the National Federation for the Blind); a special Nokia cell phone is used for print-to-speech reading, and there's a translation feature as well. A real god-send for reading menus in restaurants and fig- uring out the denomination of currency, and of course for reading the Canon or anything else away from home. The company's at Box 620128, Newton Lower Falls, MA 02462 (877-547-1500) . Jun 09 #6 The summer issue of The Serpentine Muse has news from, about, and by The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, including Dana S. Richards' Spooneristic toast given at the 2009 annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars, and Gayle Lange Puhl's amusing pastiche "The Case of the Curious Culprit". It's published quarterly and costs $10.00 a year (checks payable to the Adventuresses, please) from Evelyn A. Herzog (31 Warren Ave- nue #203, Baltimore, MD 21230). Greg Darak reports that Kino International (333 West 39th Street #503, New York, NY 10018) (8000-562-3330) has issued "The John Barrymore Collection" on four DVDs ($59.95); Barrymore's "Sherlock Holmes" (1922) is one of the films, and it's also available separately ($24.95). On Oct. 8 the Royal Mail will issue a set of stamps honoring ten Eminent Britons: Fred Perry (lawn tennis champion), Mary Wollstonecraft (pioneering feminist), Henry Purcell (compos- er and musician), Donald Campbell (water speed record broken 1959), William Gladstone (statesman and prime minister), Sir Matt Busby (footballer and football manager), Samuel Johnson (lexicographer, critic, and poet), Judy Fryd (campaigner and founder of Mencap), Sir Martin Ryle (radio survey of the un- iverse 1959), and [of course] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (writer and creator of Sherlock Holmes). It can't be seen in the image, but the background of the Conan Doyle stamp shows a manuscript. The Royal Mail will also offer a set of stamp cards, an official first day cover (from Edinburgh), and a presen- tation pack. Michael Chisholm died on June 27. He was a member of the Australian Public Service, working the Department of Veterans Affairs, and according to Steve Duke a keen amateur actor, crossword puzzle enthusiast, scrabble champion, founding member of The Sherlock Holmes Society of Victoria (aka The Elemen- tary Victorians), and Chief Canard of The Dark Rumours of Moriarty. The Alley Theatre in Houston will produce Paul Giovanni's "Sherlock Holmes and the Crucifer of Blood" from July 15 to Aug. 16. Their box office is at 615 Texas Avenue, Houston, TX 77002 (713-220-5700) . The Harvard Film Archive will screen three Sherlockian double features on July 25-27, and on Aug. 2 "The Lost World" (1925), and Dick Olken reports that "all friends of Sherlock Holmes" are invited to Harvard on July 25 for "an afternoon of good company, Doylean scholarship, and Sherlockian fun." From 4:00 to 5:00 pm there will be "a casual lemonade/sherry reception" at the Houghton Library, with a tour of the Houghton's exhibition "'Ever West- ward': Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in American Culture", followed by dinner on Harvard Square (Dutch treat) and the film program at 7:00 pm ($8.00); the two films shown will be "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with Basil Rathbone (1939) and Peter Cushing (1959). Dick requests that you respond as soon as possible (617-482-9995) . The Archives' web-site at offers details on it's "Sherlock Holmes and Friends" series. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Jul 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The Baker Street Irregulars will celebrate the centenary of Ronald Knox's ground-breaking essay "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes" (his parody of biblical higher criticism that gave rise to the grand game that Sherlockian scholars play). Christopher Morley, the BSI's founder, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and recalled hearing Knox read when Morley called a "new frolic in criticism." The international competition is open to all Sherlockians not already members of the BSI, and it calls for essays that "demonstrate originality in approaching unanswered Canonical questions or in resolving those issues that have been unsatisfactorily addressed hereto- fore." The deadline for papers is Oct. 1, 2010, and the winner of the com- petition will be invited to deliver his or her paper as a guest of the BSI at the annual dinner in Jan. 2011. Details on the contest (and a link to a PDF copy of Knox's paper) are at ; just click on "Essay Contest". Further to the item (Jun 09 #6) about the Royal Mail's plans to honor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on a stamp to be issued on Oct. 8, the manuscript shown in the background is "The Maracot Deep". You can see the photograph at the Corbis web-site as [search for DWF15-456300]; it was taken on Oct. 16, 2003, and shows Christie's manuscript specialist Thomas Venning examining the manuscript. The Pub Sign Store at offers an imaginative Sherlock Holmes Personalized Pub Sign (item 3252) for $95.95; use the coup- on code [spermaceti] to get a 10% discount. Ray Betzner has reported video at YouTube showing Robert Downey Jr. at Com- ic-Con International talking about the new "Sherlock Holmes" film, and ap- pearing on a along panel with producers Susan Downey, Joel Silver, and Lio- nel Wigram, and co-star Rachel McAdams. The URL is ; you can search for [comic-con sherlock]. This year's Queen's Birthday Honours list included a knighthood for Chris- topher Lee, for services to drama and charity. His dramatic roles have in- cluded Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Sir Henry Baskerville, and he has made audio recordings of some of the Canonical tales. Edward Starr ("The Bogus Laundry Affair") died on June 21. He taught pub- lic relations at Hofstra University, served as manager of public relations at NBC-TV, and was executive vice president of Hill & Knowlton. He was a co-founder with Bill Rabe of The Old Soldiers of Baker Street, attended an- nual dinners of The Baker Street Irregulars in the 1950s, and received his Investiture from the BSI in 1959. His Sherlockian specialty (according to Bill Rabe) was the role of facial hair in the Canon, with unpublished pap- ers that included "Those Whiskers Weren't False" and "Why Sherlock Holmes Never Used an Electric Razor". The latest issue of Carolyn and Joel Senter's The Sherlockian E-Times will be found at ; there's a nicely il- lustrated report on Vin Mariani, an offer of attractive "Holmes and Irene" dolls created by Marcy Mahle, and other interesting Sherlockiana. Jul 09 #2 The Occupants of the Empty House have been publishing The Cam- den House Journal monthly for more than 30 years, and have pre- sented many of the interesting papers delivered at their meetings. Now THE CAMDEN HOUSE JOURNAL 1979-2008: AN INDEX TO THE MONTHLY MUSING lists each issue by editor and publication date, by author, and by subject. The cost is $20.95 postpaid ($22.95 outside the U.S.), from the Occupants (c/o Stan Tinsley, Box 21, Zeigler, IL 62999. They also offer THE CAMDEN HOUSE COOK- BOOK 3: RECIPES FROM THE EMPTY HOUSE; $11.00 postpaid ($12.00 outside the U.S.) from the same address. Forecast for November: Roger Straughan's A STUDY IN SURVIVAL: CONAN DOYLE SOLVES THE FINAL PROBLEM (O Books); "Here is dramatic new evidence for the survival of our individual personalities after death. Providing this is an astonishing series of recent communications from a man who died in 1930 and whose mission, when alive, was to bring just such evidence to the notice of the widest possible audience: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle." I don't recall ever seeing a report on a set of six Royal Doulton miniature character jugs showing Sher- lock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Mrs. Hudson, Prof. Moriarty, Inspector Lestrade, and Jefferson Hope; designed by William Harper, the set was issued in 1995 in a lim- ited edition of 2500 that's now advertised on the In- ternet for $450 (it's also called the Sherlock Holmes Tinies Collection). You can see a better picture at if you search for [sher- lock]. They also show a Royal Doulton Sherlock Holmes book-end, designed by Martyn Aylcock and issued 1996-2001, that sells for about $150. Sher- lockian themes have been popular with Royal Doulton for many years, start- with "The Sleuth" in 1972 and continuing with "The Detective" in 1976. Barnes & Noble no longer offers its "Green Quote Tote Bag" with "25 quota- tions from timeless novels" printed on it (Dec 05 #5), but the stores still offer a similar (free) plastic bag for carrying your books away; one of the quotations is "Exactly, my dear Watson," which is indeed taken from a Sher- lock Holmes novel. Which one? Karen Ballard has reported that Mark Churchill has donated his father's de- lightful "evidence boxes" to Watson's Tin Box; it's grand that Paul's elab- orate creations, one for each of the Canonical tales, will be preserved and displayed at meetings of the society, and (eventually) elsewhere. "Las Casos Misteriosas de Charlotte Holmes" (from East West Entertainment) is a Spanish-dubbed version of the British videocassette "Sherlock and Me" (distributed by Portland Films in 2002), which had two episodes of a Japan- ese animated series plus live introductions that feature Michael Evans as Holmes and Bernard Fox as Watson, and with Charlotte said to be the niece of Sherlock Holmes. The Japanese series, "Jouo Heika no Petite Ange", was produced by Nippon Animation, with 26 25-minute episodes broadcast in 1977 and 1978); Charlotte is a plucky young detective who assists Scotland Yard, but she's not said to be related to Sherlock Holmes. Jennie Paton reports that she found the new DVD at a Dollar Store; it's likely available at oth- er discount outlets. Jul 09 #3 is the URL for an interesting (and colorfully-illustrated) article in Le Figaro (July 10) about Thierry Saint-Joanis titled "Les extravagants: Le francais qui se prent pour Sherlock Holmes"; Thierry was recently in England to be taped for an episode of a mini-series "John Sergeant's Tourist Trail" that is scheduled for ITV. "Exactly, my dear Watson," will be found in "The Valley of Fear" (as well as "The Missing Three-Quarter" and "Wisteria Lodge"). "Five minutes had not passed before we were flying in a hansom down Baker Street," Watson reported (in "Lady Frances Carfax"). "But even so it was twenty-five to eight as we passed Big Ben, and eight struck as we tore down the Brixton Road." Big Ben's 150th birthday was celebrated this month; the bell first pealed on July 11, 1859, only a few weeks after the clock in the tower above the Houses of Parliament began keeping time. "Big Ben" is the nickname for the Great Bell, but many people now refer to the bell, clock, and tower as Big Ben. Steven Dietz's "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure" will be performed at the Phipps Center for the Arts (109 Locust Street, Hudson, WI 54106) (715- 386-2305) , Sept. 17-27. Paul Spiring's BOBBLES & PLUM: FOUR SATIRICAL PLAYLETS BY BERTRAM FLETCHER ROBINSON AND P.G. WODEHOUSE (London: MX Publishing, 2009; 108 pp., L9.99/ $16.95) is the result of the discovery of an interesting collaboration; the playlets were published in the Daily Express (1903), Vanity Fair (1904 and 1905), and the World (1907), and the political satires have been reprinted in facsimile from the original sources, with a foreward and introduction by three Wodehouseans (Hilary Bruce, Norman Murphy, and Tony Ring), and comm- entary and annotations by Spiring. Ed. Lange's "Sherlock's Secret Life" is being performed at the Coaster The- atre Playhouse through Sept. 19; 108 North Hemlock Street, Cannon Beach, OR 97110 (503-426-1242) . "Finkelstein's Castle" is described as "a(nother) one-man operatic thrill- er" and "an epic, tongue-in-cheek, Sherlock Holmes 'whodunnit' that takes us from deserted castles in Scotland to a sinister hydro-demolition opera- ting in New York via the half-submerged town of Gallumphing-on-Twee." The play was written and composed by Pete M. Wyer and is performed by cellist Matthew Sharp; it's scheduled at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Aug. 7-31) and the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth (Oct. 23); you'll find more infor- mation about the show at . The June issue of the quarterly newsletter of The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota has Tim Johnson's report on his visit to London and Portsmouth, Julie McKuras' "100 Years Ago" dis- cussion of Robin E. Dunbar and THE DETECTIVE BUSINESS, and Dick Sveum's "50 Years Ago" essay on Evelyn Waugh and Ronald Knox, plus other news about the collections; copies of the newsletter are available from Richard J. Sveum (111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, Univ. of Minnesota, Minne-apolis, MN 55455) . Jul 09 #4 Further to the item (Apr 08 #3) on Edinburgh's new tram line, the bronze statue of Sherlock Holmes in Picardy Place has been moved into storage for two years; the statue will return in 2011, although not in the same place. But there's more to the story: workmen moving the statue found a time capsule underneath the statue, installed by the Federa- ation of Master Builders, who funded the statue in 1991; the Federation's officials have refused to reveal what's in the time capsule, which will be stored in a vault and buried again when work is completed. Articles about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes turn up in inter- esting magazines, such as mental_floss; the July-August issue contains Ran- som Riggs' "The Surreal Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. To see what else the magazine does, look for it on newsstands or in bookstores, or at their web-site . "FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman", a 30-minute children's program that's produced by WGBH-TV (Boston) and broadcast by PBS-TV, is getting ready for its fifth season, which will include a segment about a visit by contestants Emmie and Marco (in Sherlockian costume) to the Museum of Natural History at Amherst College. There's a report on the visit (with photographs of Emmie and Mar- co) at . The N.Y. Times web-site's section on obituaries has a "From the Archives" feature that each month links to past obituaries published each month, and in July they had "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Creator of Sherlock Holmes, Dies at 71 (July 7, 1930). It was a long tribute, and you can read it on-line at . "Clues Beyond Sherlock Holmes: The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at Michi- gan" is the title of an exhibition at the University of Michigan's Special Collections Library in Ann Arbor, through Aug. 31. The exhibition opened on Apr. 27, and there was a special celebration on May 17 that honored Dr. Philip Parker, who donated the collection; the celebration included a re- ception featuring foods mentioned in Conan Doyle's books. Thanks to Chris- tie Allen, who reported the announcement of the celebration. The "Sherlock Holmes and Friends" film series at the Harvard Film Archive (Jun 09 #6) was promoted with a long article in the Boston Globe (July 19), and the paper had an amusing "who played Holmes" quiz (with photographs) at its web-site at . Variety reported on July 15 that the BBC has approved production of three 90-minute episodes of a "comic reworking of Sherlock Holmes" co-created by mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman as Holmes and Watson; Cumberbatch played detective Luke Fitzwilliam in the recent PBS-TV broadcast of "Miss Marple: Murder Is Easy". It's commonly believed that frequent fliers don't watch the instructional videos the airlines use to explain safety and such, but Al Gregory, return- ing to the U.S. from France on a Continental flight, both saw and observed an in-flight video explaining how to fill out a U.S. Customs form. The in- structions started out with filling in your name and address, and the ad- dress used was "221b Baker Street, Brooklyn, NY". Jul 09 #5 Nancy Springer's series about Enola Holmes has now reached five novels, all imaginative and entertaining. Enola, 14 years old, is the younger sister of Mycroft and Sherlock, hiding from them in London and solving mysteries on her own. The series is published by Philomel (a division of the Penguin Young Readers Group), and THE CASE OF THE PECULIAR PINK FAN (2008) and THE CASE OF THE CRYPTIC CRINOLINE (2009) are the most recent titles. The Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto is a grand old (and carefully restored) movie theater that opened in 1925; they had a Sherlock Holmes and British Classics film program in 2001, and this year they're celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first Basil Rathbone films, screening "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" as a double bill on Aug. 25-27. The theater's address is 221 University Avenue (650-324-3700) and their web-site's at ; Randall Stock's web-site at has more information about the theater's Sherlockian history. The Chautauqua Silent Film Series is held each year in Boulder, Colo., at the Chautauqua Concert Hall, which was built in 1898 as part of the nation- wide Chautauqua movement; this year's series will include "The Lost World" (1925) on Aug. 26, and there's more information and a complete film sched- ule at . "A Gallery of Rogues" is the theme for this year's "Saturday with Sherlock Holmes" (sponsored by the local Sherlockian societies) at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore on Nov. 7; the festivities will begin with morn- ing coffee in the Edgar Allan Poe Room at 10:00 am, and end at 1:00 pm. As in the past, there's no charge; the library is at 400 Cathedral Street in Baltimore. "The Beach Invasion with a Sting in the Tail" was the headline on a story in the Sunday Telegraph (June 14), spotted by John Baesch: blooms of jelly- fish covering 62 square miles have been spotted off the coast of Wales, and among them were the lion's mane. The number of jellyfish in British waters has increased sharply in recent years, according to experts, possibly as a result of warming seas linked to climate change. John has also noted a story headlined "Pupils Expelled After Tryst in Dor- mitory" in the Daily Telegraph (June 13): two pupils who were caught in bed together at Stonyhurst College have been asked to leave the school; the boy and girl were caught together in bed by a member of staff. Stonyhurst now charges L22,000 a year, rather more than when Conan Doyle attended (and the article mentioned that he was a former pupil). Needless to say, the school wasn't coeducational in those long-ago days. Stephen Clarkson's THE CANONICAL COMPENDIUM (Jan 01 #5) started as a joint project with the late Bill Fleischauer, and the results of their research are both interesting and useful, with citations for five different editions of the Canon; long out of print, it's now available from Christopher Roden as a PDF file for $5.00 (electronic download) or $13.50 postpaid (CD). You can pay by credit card, PayPal, or personal check; Christopher Roden (Box 1360, Ashcroft, BC V0K 1A0, Canada) . Jul 09 #6 Doug Greene reports that Crippen & Landru have added THE CASE- BOOK OF GREGORY HOOD (258 pp., $29.00 cloth or $20.00 paper) to their "Lost Classics" series; the book is a collection of 14 previously un- published scripts written by Anthony Boucher and Denis Green. And there's a tenuous Sherlockian connection: "The Casebook of Gregory Hood" began on the Mutual Broadcasting System on June 3, 1946, as a replacement for "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (also written by Boucher and Green) when Basil Rathbone left that series. "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" debuted as a new series on WJZ/ABC on Oct. 12, 1946, starring Tom Conway as Holmes and with scripts by Green and Boucher. Crippen & Landru' address is Box 9315, Norfolk, VA 23505 (877-622-6656) . Forecast: "The Private Wife of Sherlock Holmes", a new Irene Adler novella by Carole Nelson Douglas, in SEX, LIES, AND PRIVATE EYES (from Moonstone). Her debut novel in the Irene Adler series, GOOD NIGHT, MR. HOLMES (1991), will be reissued by Tor as a trade paperback with a new cover in November. The July-August issue of Dollhouse Miniatures magazine has a photograph of an attractive lady in Edwardian costume that was created by Cindy Gates for Deb Weissler's Sherlock Holmes roombox. The magazine is the successor to Nutshell News, to which the late Dee Snyder was a contributing editor; the issue costs $6.95, and the address is 68132 250th Avenue, Kasson, MN 55944 (866-606-6587) . The cape that Christopher Lee wore as Dracula sold for L26,400 (including the buyer's premium at an auction at Bonham's in Knightsbridge on June 16; The same sale (May 09 #6) includes two waistcoats worn by Lee, one of them as Sherlock Holmes, estimated at L100-L150, sold for L360. Another auction lot, at Bonhams in Los Angeles on June 14, had two capes worn by Steve All- en on various television shows, one of them as Sherlock Holmes, estimated at $500-$700, sold for $122. The letter Raymond Chandler wrote in 1952 to thank his agent for a Sherlockian tie, at auction at Bonhams in New York on June 10, estimated at $1,000-$1,500, did not sell. The Sept. issue of British Heritage has Sian Ellis' well-illustrated arti- cle "On the Trail of Sherlock Holmes", as well as a quote from the Canon in "A Commonplace Book" at the end of the magazine. And there's a brief item noting that the South Downs has been designated as a National Park; there's a good map at , and the park extends from Winchester on the west to Eastbourne on the east. It's not clear whether the South Downs National Park includes the site of Sherlock Holmes' retirement cottage. The city of Portsmouth recently completed restoration of the bells in the Guildhall Clock Tower, and held a contest to choose names for four of the bells (the largest bell already is inscribed in honor of Queen Victoria). Conan Doyle made the short list, but came in eighth in the voting, well be- hind John Pounds (a founding member of the Ragged Schools movement), Harry Redknapp (he led the local football club to its first FA Cup final victory in 69 years in 2008, Victory (the ship best known for her role in the Batt- le of Trafalgar), and Lord Nelson (the victor at that battle). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Aug 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Sherlockians (and there are many of them) who have wondered about the first edition of the "Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D." (the only mention of which being the announcement that "A Study in Scarlet" in Beeton's Christ- mas Annual was a reprint) will surely be interested in M. J. Morris' arti- cle about his discovery of a copy of Watson's ECHOES FROM INDIA AND AFGHAN- ISTAN (privately printed in Calcutta in 1883) published in the spring 2006 issue of The Private Library, the quarterly journal of the Private Librar- ies Association. The author notes sadly that his copy was destroyed in a fire in his flat in 2002, but he was able to rescue his descriptive biblio- graphy and a photocopy of the title page (the pseudonymous author is Paul W. Nash). Copies of the issue still are available and cost $5.00 to mem- bers of the PLA ($10.00 to non-members), plus shipping ($2.50 by sea-mail or $4.50 by air); checks payable to the Private Libraries Association can be sent to W. A. Klutts (145 East Jackson, Box 289, Ripley, TN 38063) with a note asking him send an e-mail message with your name and address to Da- vid Chambers at . Sorry about that: Christopher Lee's (Jul 09 #1) roles have included Sher- lock Holmes, Mycroft Holmes, and Sir Henry Baskerville, but not Dr. Watson. And: to find the Pub Sign Store's imaginative Sherlock Holmes Personalized Pub Sign (item 3252), the URL is ; search for [sher- lock] and use the coupon code [spermaceti] to get a 10% discount. It's commonly believed that frequent fliers don't watch the instructional videos the airlines use to explain safety and such, but Al Gregory, return- ing to the U.S. from France on a Continental flight, both saw and observed an in-flight video explaining how to fill out a U.S. Customs form. The in- structions started out with filling in your name and address, and the ad- dress used was "221b Baker Street, Brooklyn, NY". Otto Penzler's Mysterious Bookshop has a fine web-site, and a monthly news- letter (now in its 17th year), and a weekly update, and advice and informa- tion, and much more, all at . Otto always has interesting Sherlockiana available. Harry Towb died on July 24. He had a long career as an actor in supporting roles on stage, screen, and television; credited as Harris Towb he appeared in three episodes of the "Sherlock Holmes" television series that starred Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford in 1954, and he played John Forman in the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of William Gillette's play in Lon- don and New York in 1974 and 1975. The "Sherlock Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., on Nov. 6-8 will offer a new mystery ("Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Mistaken Identity") presented by Midsummer Night Productions, and a performance of Craig Wichman's drama- tization of "The Blue Carbuncle" by the East Lynne Theater Company; their web-site at has more information (the Sherlock Holmes weekends have been held in the spring and fall for many years). You can also contact the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (1048 Washington Street, Cape May, NJ 08204 (800-275-4278). Aug 09 #2 Ronald Knox created the grand game that many Sherlockians like to play, but he was best known during his lifetime as a scholar who translated the Bible for the Catholic church and fervently defended his faith. David Rooney, in his THE WINE OF CERTITUDE: A LITERARY BIOGRAPHY OF RONALD KNOX (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009; 427 pp., $17.95), has ex- amined all of Knox's work, emphasizing his religious scholarship, and the book is an interesting companion to Evelyn Waugh's RONALD KNOX (1959) and Penelope Fitzgerald's THE KNOX BROTHERS (1977). "Biography: Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective" (1995) was an excellent one-hour program broadcast by A&E cable; it includes a dozen members of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London at dinner at The Sherlock Holmes pub with Dr. Watson (portrayed by David Burke), and it's available from A&E Enter- tainment on a DVD ($24.95). Further to the item about the exhibition "Clues Beyond Sherlock Holmes: The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at Michigan" (Jul 09 #4), the special collec- tions has published an interesting 32-page catalog, which is available on request as a PDF file from . Harry Alan Towers died on Aug. 2. He was a child actor in Britain, and a radio writer with the Royal Air Force during WW2, and after the war became a radio producer (his credits included the BBC's "Sherlock Holmes" series that starred John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson in 1954). Towers went on to produce and write many films, sometimes as Peter Welbeck: he produced "In- cident at Victoria Falls" and "The Leading Lady" for Harmony Gold in 1992 (starring Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee), and wrote and produced "The Lost World" and "Return to the Lost World" for Harmony Gold in 1994 (with John Rhys-Davies as Challenger). Further to the item about Continental's in-flight safety video (Jul 09 #4), Scott Monty has reported an Air New Zealand in-flight safety video that's non-Sherlockian but interesting . THE CRACK IN THE LENS, by Steve Hockensmith (New York: Minotaur, 2009; 307 pp., $24.99) is the fourth novel in his "Holmes on the Range" series about Old Red and Big Red Amlingmeyer, Montana cowboys who are enjoying the Sher- lock Holmes stories as they appear in the 1890s, and solving mysteries on their own; Big Red says that his brother is a Sherlockitarian, or perhaps a Holmesodist, and they're now in Texas, trying to solve a five-year-old mur- der and avoid being lynched. It's a fast moving story, well told. Hocken- smith's excellent web-site (which offers an attention-grabbing excerpt from THE CRACK IN THE LENS) is at . Diversicon is an annual convention for fans of speculative fiction (that's science fiction and fantasy) held each year in Minneapolis or St. Paul, and Ruth Berman has reported that this year's posthumous honorees were Sir Ar- thur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe, and the convention slogan was "When you eliminate the impossible, what's left is Diversicon." Panels devoted to Conan Doyle included "Lost Worlds--Who Needs Them", "Starring Sherlock Holmes" (on film versions), and "Return to the Lost World" (a role-playing game); Ruth was one of the panelists for "Eliminating the Impossible" (on Conan Doyle's detective, fantasy, science fiction, and historical work). Aug 09 #3 "The Beginning of the Presumed End" is the title of a Sherlock- ian outing scheduled for Sept. 27 in Lucerne, celebrating the revival of The Reichenbach Irregulars. The event will included a cruise in a historical paddle steamer on the Lake of Lucerne, a discussion of Conan Doyle's visit to Lucerne, and a visit to the H“tel de l'Europe where Conan Doyle stayed. Markus Geisser will be happy to provide more information on request by e-mail . The new catalog from Collectables Direct offers a new and expanded edition of Alan Barnes' SHERLOCK HOLMES ON SCREEN: THE COMPLETE FILM AND TV HISTORY ($27.95) and Christopher Plummer's "Murder by Decree" on DVD ($22.89); Box 385, Lewiston, NY 14092 (800-268-3891) . The TD Bank Financial Group, the Toronto Public Library, and Archives Canada are sponsoring "Agent 009 (TD Summer Reading Club)" with attractive artwork by Werner Zimmerman. You can see it in full color at . Steve Leadley's SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CIRCLE OF BLOOD (En- cino: Black Coat Press, 2009; 249 pp., $20.95/œ12.99) offers three pastiches: "The Circle of Blood" was first published as "Sherlock Holmes in Cape May" in 2006 and has much about the history and architecture of the town, and the two new stories are "The Highland Intrigue" (a bizarre mystery set in Dundee) and "The Medium Problem" (involving Spiritualism in London). Conan Doyle's delightful stories about the pirate Captain Sharkey, collect- ed in THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR AND SPORT (1900), are back in print, available from Amazon as a Kindle edition and as one of 13 non-Sher- lockian titles digitized and published as books by the Cornell University Library Digital Collections . The Daily Telegraph reports (May 27) that Banco Santander, the Spanish bank that bought Abbey National Bank in 2004, has decided to rebrand its banks in the U.K., and "the Abbey name will disappear from the high street." Has anyone recently received a reply to a letter to Sherlock Holmes at 221b Ba- ker Street? I've been told that the Sherlock Holmes Museum now answers his mail. The Practical, But Limited, Geologists (aka The Friends of Sherlock Holmes) will honor the world's first forensic geologist at dinner in Portland, at Gracie's at the Hotel deLuxe on Oct. 21, when local Sherlockians will have a chance to meet geologists in town for the annual meeting of the Geologi- cal Society of America; if you anyone would like to attend the festivities, just let me know. Some years ago Bill Sawisch reported (Aug 98 #1) a hair salon called Shear- lock Combs in Naperville, Ill. Now Al Gregory has noted a news report in a suburban Chicago newspaper about an accident on Conan Doyle Road in Naper- ville. This isn't the only Conan Doyle Road: there's another one in Sykes- ville, Md., in a development called Sherlock Holmes Estates, which also has Sherlock Holmes Street, Watson Court, Baskerville Drive, Elementary Drive, Silver Blaze Drive, Hudson Drive, Mycroft Street, and Silver Blaze Drive. Aug 09 #4 "I have always liked Boucher's stuff. He writes like an edu- cated man, and the Seven Sneezes starts as if it were going to be superb. Did you ever read a Sherlock Holmes pastiche of his -- I forget the title? Darn good." P. G. Wodehouse, in a letter written in 1967 that was advertised by David Schulson Autographs in 2007. The reference is to Anthony Boucher's THE CASE OF THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS (1940). Dr. William R. Hanson has created a Sherlockian society for philatelists: the Sherlock Holmes Philatelic Society will have its first meeting on Sept. 26 in Albany, N.Y., during StampExpo 400 (Sept. 25-27) on the concourse of the Empire State Plaza. The show's web-site is at ; information about the new society (and plans for a special pictorial post- mark, cacheted cover, and exhibits) is available from Dr. Hanson (78 West Notre Dame, Glens Falls, NY 12801) (518-798-9592) . Lurid covers on Canonical books are not a new phe- nomenon: Bantam issued a paperback edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES in 1949 showing a buxom lady in an off-the-shoulder dress tied to a post. Now there's another: Hard Case Crime specializes in hardboiled crime fiction, and they'll publish THE VALLEY OF FEAR in December, explaining that "Years ago, a PI out of Chicago brought justice to a dirty town. Now he's going to pay." The cover artist is Glen Orbik, and his work can be seen in full color at . "Brad Pitt to Star as Sherlock Holmes' Arch Enemy in Guy Ritchie Film," according to a report on the Daily Mirror web-site (Aug. 17). The tabloid re- ported that studio execs had ordered Ritchie to in- clude Moriarty in the film, and that there would be filming in London and on location at Clivedon House (the backdrop for Moriarty's home). The story was quickly picked up by Us magazine, and Warner Bros. immediately responded, saying that "the report is completely inaccurate," and that any additional filming would be for in- serts and pick-up shots, standard film-making practice. And E! Online re- ported "No Pitt, Sherlock!" It wasn't all that long ago (Feb 09 #8) that the Sun announced that the studio had ordered Guy Ritchie to reshoot five weeks of footage because studio bosses were unhappy with an early cut. Ex- citing tabloid reporting certainly keeps things from getting dull, and of course gives hand-wringers something to talk and write about (especially if they don't observe that the breath-taking report originated in a tabloid). On the other hand, Adam Rosenberg reported on on Aug. 19 that Guy Ritchie has said that Moriarty will make an appearance in the film. Ritchie told MTV's Josh Horowitz that "some kind of an appear- ance is probably the best way to describe it." When pressed, and asked if an actor is credited as Moriarty, Ritchie replied "I believe not," adding that "I don't know how to answer that other than to say there is some kind of appearance." "All will be revealed," he promised. "I'm afraid I have to be slightly ambiguous about this but you'll understand what I'm talking about when you see the movie." Aug 09 #5 Masamichi Higurashi is continuing to make Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockiana available to Japanese readers: he has translated E.J. Wagner's THE SCIENCE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Kawade Shobo Shinsha, 2009), Michael Hardwick's SHERLOCK HOLMES: MY LIFE AND CRIMES (Hara Shobo, 2009), Steve Hockensmith's ON THE WRONG TRACK (Hayakawa, 2009), and Mike Ashley's anthology THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW SHERLOCK HOLMES ADVENTURES (Hara Shobo, 2009). He has also edited SHERLOCK HOLMES IRREGULARS: CATALOG OF THE CASES NOT MADE PUBLIC (Enterbrain, 2008), with essays and articles by Mitch, Yui- chi Hirayama, Minoru Harada, and many others, and has written an article on the birthday festivities ("From N.Y. to Washington") for Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine (Aug. 2009). Finally, he reports BOOK MANGA: CARTOONS WITH BOOKS AS THEIR SUBJECT, illustrated by Makoto Wada (Mainichi Shinbum Sha, 2009), with a Sherlockian cartoon. THE WORLD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Peter Brimacombe (Andover: Pitkin Publish- ing, 2009; 32 pp., œ4.99), is an attractive and well-illustrated addition to the wide-ranging Pitkin Guide series; the publisher has an informative web-site at . "I Am Joe's Chapter 11 Reorganization Plan" was Paul Farhi's suggestion in the Washington Post (Aug. 18) for the title of an article that might appear in the Reader's Digest. The Reader's Digest Association, which was bought by an investor's group in 2007 has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for its U.S. holdings, slashing its debt to $550 million (from $2.2 billion); ear- lier this year the company announced in would cut circulation of the maga- zine, publish 10 times a year rather than 12, and focus the magazine on so- cially conservative values. The Reader's Digest published a condensed ver- sion of "The Speckled Band" (July 1942), and many Sherlockian articles over the years, and the company published five volumes of Canonical tales (with excellent new illustrations) in the 1980s and 1990s. The delightful Sherlockian dolls made by Martha Heller ("Martha-My-Dear") in the 1980s can now be seen in action, so to speak, in two amusing videos ("The Case of the Missing Afikomen" and "The Darkened Room") created by Amy Mantell; visit her web-site . Walter Young reports that he has found an article by W. J. Johnston titled "Detective Fiction Defies the Law" in the British journal The Empire Review (Oct. 1927); the article discusses problems that might arise were some of the villains in the Canon represented were by competent lawyers if actually brought to trial in British courts. The article is available as a DOC file . "Baltimore Gives Edgar Allan Poe the Funeral He Should Have Had," on Oct. 11 (almost exactly 160 years after he died on Oct. 7, 1849), according to Jeff Jerome (curator of the Poe House and Museum). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle will be among the featured speakers at the event, which will take place at Westminster Hall (519 West Fayette Street). There will be two services, at 12:30 pm and 4:30 pm, and tickets cost $35.00 each ($40.00 at the door, but it's likely the services will sell out early). Checks (payable to Director of Finance) can be sent to CHAP/POE (8th floor), 417 East Fayette Street, Baltimore, MD 21202; your checks will be returned if the event's sold out. There's more information at . Aug 09 #6 Lee A. Matthias' THE PANDORA PLAGUE, first published by Leisure Books (Apr 81 #4) and (considerably shortened) by Unicorn-Star Press in 1984, is back available again in a revised and expanded third edi- tion (Charleston: BookSurge, 2009; 309 pp., $16.99); the pastiche involves Holmes and Watson with Harry and Bess Houdini, anarchists, Mycroft Holmes, and the Curies in a battle to thwart an attempt to bring down governments world-wide. Matthias' interesting web-site is at . Plan ahead: The Pleasant Places of Florida will celebrate the 20th anniver- sary of the Wessex Cup with a "Wessex Weekend" on Feb. 12-14, 2010. Infor- mation about the event will be available from Carl L. Heifetz (1220 Winding Willow Drive, New Port Richey, FL 34655 . Cliff Goldfarb has reported an interesting article by Alan M. Petrillo in Antique Trader (May 6) about Conan Doyle, the Arthur Conan Doyle Society, and the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection in Toronto; the URL is . Michael Viner died on Aug. 8. He was a music and television producer who launched Dove Books-on-Tape in 1985 and went on to produce a wide range of high-brow and low-brow audiocassettes that included Bennett Cohen's noveli- zation of the film WITHOUT A CLUE (read by Ben Kinglsey), THE TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (also read by Kingsley), Mark Frost's THE LIST OF 7 (read by Rene Auberjonois) and THE SIX MESSIAHS (read by David Warner), and an- thologies that included Sherlockian stories by Vincent Starrett, Ed Hoch, and Andrew Joffe. Al Gregory found "character posters" for Guy Ritchie's up-coming "Sherlock Holmes" showing Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes and Jude Law as Watson at eBay ; they're printed on both sides, with everything lighter and in reverse on the backs. Jason Kirkfield reports that he has visited the Baker Street Pub & Grill in Boulder, Colo. Sherlock's Pub Co. owns a chain of 20 such establishments (some named Sherlock's Baker Street Pub or Watson's House of Ales) in Col- orado, Oklahoma, and Texas; see their web-site at . MR. HOLMES & DR. WATSON: THEIR STRANGEST CASES (Canton: Transfuzion, 2009; 135 pp., $17.99) offers four of the grand comic strips that were written by Edith Meiser and drawn by Frank Giacoia for the N.Y. Herald Tribune syndi- cate in 1954 and 1955; Mark Ellis, in his Foreward, notes that Gil Kane and Mike Sekowsky were the primary artists for almost all of the stories in the comic strip (they worked for Giacoia and received no credit), and the book also has Ron Haydock's "Sherlock Holmes and the True Legend of the Hound of the Baskervilles" (reprinted from E-GO Col-lectors Series, 1975). Another title published by Transfuzion is SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE CASES OF THE TWISTED MINDS (106 pp., $14.99), with three stories first published by Cal- iber/Tome in the 1990s: "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Holmes (story by Steven Philip Jones and art by Seppo Makinen), "The Adventure of the Op- era Ghost" (story by Steven Philip Jones and art by Aldin Baroza), and "The Amazing Mr. Holmes" (story by Gary Reed and art by Wayne Reid). Specializ- ing in graphic novels, the company has a web-site at . Aug 09 #7 Thierry Saint-Joanis has reported on the discovery in Poland of a copy of the last Sherlock Holmes silent film: "Der Hund von Baskerville" (1929); starring Carlyle Blackwell (Holmes) and Georges Seroff (Watson), the film was released on Aug. 28, 1929, only a few weeks before the release on Oct. 18 of the first Sherlock Holmes sound film ("The Return of Sherlock Holmes" starring Clive Brook and H. Reeves-Smith). The film is now at the Polish National Film Archive in Warsaw, undergoing cleaning and conservation. You can read more (in French or English) at the web-site of the Soci‚t‚ Sherlock Holmes de France at . "Famous guests include Vincent Van Gogh, Charles Dickens, Sherlock Holmes, George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Disraeli, and William Gladstone," according to the history of a famous restaurant in London. Bill Briggs has reported the web-site: . Irene's Cabinet is an annual anthology edited by Beth Austin for Watson's Tin Box, and this year's issue (46 pp.) continues the society's tradition of offering interesting articles, toasts, and poetry, this year including Dana Richards' appreciative history of Petri Wine, and Joyce Ludwig's re- port on her imaginative "Silver Blaze" stained-glass window. $18.00 post- paid from Beth Austin (9455 Chadburn Place, Gaithersburg, MD 20886); copies of annuals from 2004 through 2008 also are available ($15.00 postpaid). Laurie R. King will be on tour in England promoting THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, Sept. 9-21, with appearances in Newcastle upon Tyne, Reading, London, Lut- on, Oxford, and Cambridge; details at . Aziz Bin Adam reports that there's a new Malay (Bahasa Malasia) translation of Sherlock Holmes stories: SHERLOCK HOLMES: WIRA KOTA LONDON, available at the web-site . The title translates as SHERLOCK HOLMES: HERO OF THE CITY OF LONDON" and the book's cover uses art- work from promotion for the new Guy Ritchie film. Cliff Goldfarb notes that the Quality Paperback Book Club continues to off- er Sherlockiana in discounted softcover editions. The Club has web-sites at and (for Canadians) , and its current titles include ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: A LIFE IN LETTERS ($9.99), THE SHERLOCK HOLMES NOVELS ($9.99), John R. King's THE SHADOW OF REICHENBACH FALLS, Leslie S. Klinger's THE NEW ANNOTATED DRACULA ($22.99), Russell Miller's THE ADVEN- TURES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE ($15.99), and John Gardner's MORIARTY ($14.99). Steven Dietz's "Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure" will be performed at the Wayside Theatre (7853 Main Street, Middletown, VA 22645) (540-869-1776) from Oct. 10 through Nov. 7. And there will be a production at the Cider Mill Playhouse (2 South Nanticoke Avenue, Endicott, NY 13760 (607-748-7363) from Apr. 15 through May 2, 2010. And another at the Phipps Center for the Arts. Will Thomas' THE BLACK HAND has been nominated for a Shamus Award (best pa- perback original) from the Private Eye Writers of America; the winners will be announced on Oct. 16, during the PWA banquet at Bouchercon in Indianapo- lis. It's the fifth in Will's Victorian mystery series that features Cyrus Barker (an homage to Holmes' rival in "The Retired Colourman") (Aug 08 #4). Aug 09 #8 A reminder: "From Out of That Shadow", the exhibition that was on view at the University of Virginia earlier this year, will open at the Ransom Center at the University of Texas in Austin on Sept. 8 and run through Jan. 4, honoring the bicentennial of Edgar Allan Poe. Ex- hibition highlights will include Poe's writing desk, records of his student days, a brooch containing his hair, Arthur Rackham's original artwork for TALES OF MYSTERY & IMAGINATION, manuscripts and letters, and the typescript of Robert Barr's "A Chat with Conan Doyle" (first published in The Idler, Oct. 1894) in which Conan Doyle acknowledges his debt to Poe. The exhibi- tion's "Poe Mania" web-site will (as of Sept. 4) have digital imagery, including the typescript. Robert Crichton is featured in Milk Bottle Production's "The Complete Ad- ventures of Sherlock Holmes" at the Quay Theatre in Sudbury (Suffolk); the series of weekly readings began on Sept. 16. Crichton will read 15 stories this year, and the remainder of the Canon next year; there are photographs of Crichton in Sherlockian costume at . There are now two titles in the SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE BAKER STREET IRREG- ULARS series by Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin published by Orchard Books/ Scholastic Press for readers ages 9-12. THE FALL OF THE AMAZING ZALINDAS (2006, 255 pp., $6.99) involves Wiggins and the irregulars (and Holmes and Watson) in an investigation that involved murder and the theft of a royal treasure, and THE MYSTERY OF CONJURED MAN (2009, 195 pp., $6.99) deals with the pursuit of a malevolent gang of swindlers. The books are well-written and nicely appropriate for their target audience. The U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp this year honoring Bob Hope. There's a caricature of Bob "Sherlock" Hope at his offi- cial web-site at , where you can click on the image and listen to him telling jokes. He's shown in Sherlockian costume in advertising for the film "My Favorite Brunette" (1947), although there's no S'ian costume in the film itself. And it would be nice indeed if someone could find vid- eo of his reported appearance in a skit on the "Donny and Marie Show" (1977) as Inspector Wonderful, with Jay Osmond as Doctor Watson. The long-running controversy over the spelling of wisteria/wistaria seems to have been resolved, at least as far as The Times is concerned, accord- ing to an opinion piece (June 5) forwarded by Evy Herzog and John Baesch. The plant was named by eminent British botanist Thomas Nuttall in honor of Caspar Wistar, but Nuttall spelled it wisteria. THE TIMES STYLE GUIDE has for many years insisted on the spelling wistaria, but the venerable news- paper has now decided that "wisteria rules." This by no means is the first time The Times has made changes: in 1966 the paper began printing news on its front page, and Rupert Murdoch bought the company in 1981; it has been a tabloid since 2004. Today's Times is considerably different from what it was when Holmes and Watson and others consulted it (the paper is mentioned in six of the Sherlock Holmes stories). The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Sep 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Nicholas Meyer is touring to promote his new THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE: MEM- ORIES FROM STAR TREK AND A LIFE IN HOLLYWOOD (New York: Viking, 2009; 272 pp., $25.95), and on Aug. 28 he was interviewed by John Rabe for "Off-Ramp" on KPCC-FM (Los Angeles). You can listen to (and download) the entire 45- minute interview at . Both the interview and the book, of course, have Sherlockian content; Meyer wrote THE SEVEN-PER-CENT SOLUTION (1974) and two other pastiches. Barnes & Noble's reprint (1992) of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (with the introduction by Christopher Morley) available for some time in an edition in "genuine bonded leather with ribbon marker" and with gilt edges, nicely suitable for gifts (Jul 06 #1) was out of print for a while, but it's now available again in a new edition (2009), with a new introduction by Chris- topher and Barbara Roden. The covers, front and back, are highly decorat- ed with a Sherlockian motif, and the price still is $19.98. And it really is a new edition: the type has been reset, with a new pagination; I've not checked to see whether any of the errors in the Doubleday edition have been corrected. Further to the report on Sherlock Holmes Estates in Sykesville, Md. (Aug 09 #3), Les Moskowitz reports that the list of Canonical street names was in- complete; there are Conan Doyle Way, Sherlock Holmes Street, Watson Court, Mycroft Street, Hudson Drive, Moriarty Court, Baskerville Drive, Elementary Drive, Silver Blaze Drive, Mycroft Street, Baskerville Drive, Silver Blaze Drive, Elementary Drive, and Musgrave Ritual Drive. Sorry about that: The Times (Aug 09 #8) is mentioned in seven of the Sher- lock Holmes stories. That's more often than any other newspaper named in the Canon. Karen Murdock noted a press release about Tod Leavitt's performance of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" for "contrabass and characters" at a faculty re- cital at Valdosta State University on Aug. 28. It was the first scene of a concert version of "The Speckled Band" that Leavitt has commissioned from Jon Deak. It's not Deak's first Sherlockian work: he was commissioned by Richard Hartshorne to create a concert version of "The Hound of the Basker- villes" for contrabass and six voices (Oct 89 #5 and Jan 98 #3). THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by John Joseph Adams (San Francisco: Night Shade Books, 2009; 454 pp., $15.95), is a wide-rang- ing anthology. A few of the stories are published for the first time, with many reprints and a short Sherlockian Primer by Christopher Roden; many of the reprints are from anthologies of Sherlockian pastiches, but Adams has cast his net widely to include pastiches from the BBC Cult homepage and the webzine ; some of the authors are well known (An- thony Burgess, Stephen King, Anne Perry, Neil Gaiman), while others will be less familiar. You'll find mystery, fantasy, science fiction, parody, and good writing. And is the URL for the book's web-site, which offers interviews with some of the authors, a chance to read some of the stories on-line without charge, and a free "ebook sampler" download. Sep 09 #2 Further to the item (Apr 09 #6) on the campaign to upgrade the protection of Undershaw, the house where Conan Doyle lived from 1897 to 1907, the BBC reported (Aug. 25) that the house likely will be con- verted into flats. Waverly Borough Council chairman Matthew Evan said that there had been talks with the National Trust and the Youth Hostel Associa- tion to determine whether plans could be drawn up for community use of the house, but "the reality is that those don't seem to be viable options." He also said that the developer who owns the house is now proposing to knock down an extension that was built in the 1930s and convert the property into 11 flats, and that the new plans are "much more sensitive to the character of Undershaw." Karen Murdoch reports a Sherlock Holmes chess set available from Glen Call International (4 Balgedie Court, Glenlomond, Kinross-shire KY13 9HF, Great Britain) ; pieces only (natural cream and brown finish) L80.54, pieces only (hand decorated) L135.67, recommended board L62.77. Lenny Picker has reported that Synergy Entertainment will release SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE ARCHIVE COLLECTION in October ($24.95); three DVDs with a long list of interesting films: "The Copper Beeches" (1912), "The Man with the Twisted Lip" (1921), "The Limejuice Mystery" (1930), "Sherlock Holmes' Fa- tal Hour" (1931), "Lost in Limehouse" (1933), "The Strange Case of Hennes- sy" (1933), "The Screaming Bishop" (1944), "The Speckled Band" (1949), "The Man Who Disappeared" (1951), "A Case of Hypnosis" (1952), and "The Sting of Death" (1955), plus bonus features. Some of these are first-time-on-DVD, and a few are first-time-ever. Philip K. Jones has compiled an interesting spread-sheet data base of Sher- lockian pastiches with (at the moment) more than 7,900 entries, and it is available for inspection (or download) at the web-site of the Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis . "Discover the Real Sherlock Holmes" is the invitation from the Royal Socie- ty of Medicine and the Royal Society of Surgeons of Edinburgh to an exhibi- tion that opened at the RSM's Library on Sept. 1 and will run through Jan. 29. The focus of the exhibition is on Joseph Bell and Arthur Conan Doyle, and on Oct. 29 there will be a free public afternoon meeting on "Sherlock Holmes: Forensic Medicine and Fictional Crime Fighters". M.C. Black also provides a link . Bob Mangler spotted a real bargain: the Quality Paperback Book Club edition of the first two volumes of Les Klinger's THE NEW ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES for $19.98. The Club's address is Box 6000, Columbia, MD 21045 (800-396- 2665) . David Haugen reports that John Longenbaugh's play "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol" will have it's world premiere at the Taproot Theatre in Seattle, Nov. 20 through Dec. 30. 204 North 85th Street, Seat- tle, WA 98103 (206-781-9707) . "After being pre- sumed dead for three years, a hardened Sherlock Holmes resurfaces, turning his back on the people who need him most. Three unexpected callers arrive on Christmas Eve uncovering clues from the detective's past, present, and future. Can they save Holmes and his world from a dire end?" Sep 09 #3 The Scotsman reported (Aug. 30) that Robin Harper, chairman of the Scottish Parliament's arts advisory group, has launched a campaign to move the Richard Lancelyn Green collection from Portsmouth to Edinburgh. Harper said that "it is clear that Portsmouth is having a very difficult time handling this collection," noting cataloguing has not been completed, and that Portsmouth has not created a special museum to display the collection. Lee Hunt, the Portsmouth city councillor responsible for culture, responded that the collection is the central point of the city's bid to become a European City of Culture and was also being used to try to get the city included in England's football World Cup bid. "I think there is as much wind in this idea . . . as there is in your Scottish bagpipes," Hunt said, adding that "basically, the collection belongs to us and if Ed- inburgh thinks it's going to get it, it's not going to happen." There's a Baker Street in Amsterdam, spotted by Samantha Wolov on a recent visit. "Kosher Version of Sherlock Holmes Released" was the headline on a story that Al Gregory spotted at ; the The Israeli branch of the Bilson publishing company has released a version of the Canon "adapted for the religious public." Accord- ing to the publisher, hareidi-religious rab- bis approved the content and vouched that "it doesn't contradict the spirit of Judaism (Hareidi Judaism is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism). Intended to teach English to Israeli students, the book is accompanied by a CD recorded by American narrators to help Israeli stu- dents grasp American-accented English. It's "in development" (which means that someone's thinking about it): "It's based on these stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Sherlock Holmes guy, that were written whatever, 100 some years ago, they're just really funny," Mike Judge told the Los Angeles Times (Sept. 3). Judge's film is "Briga- dier Gerard" and John Altschuler and David Kinsky are working on a script. Variety reported last year that Steve Carrell is "attached" to play Gerard (Oct 08 #3). Karen Murdock discovered costumes for Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson at the Dallas Vintage Shop . You can see lots of other costumes if you click on "Home Page". Further to the forecast of Eric Simonson's play "Fake" at the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago (Feb 09 #4), it will run through Nov. 8. Their web-site has "Watch & Listen" audios, videos, photo galleries, and podcasts about the play, which features Francis Guinan as Conan Doyle. A reminder: Eric Simonson's new play "Fake" (Feb 09 #4) opened at the Step- penwolf Theater in Chicago on Sept. 10, and runs through Nov. 8; the play begins in 1914, when Conan Doyle invites four guests to his English country home," and the play investigates how the Piltdown Hoax "rattled assumptions about evolution, faith, and science." The theater's at 1650 North Halstead Street, Chicago, IL 60614 (212-335-1650) . Sep 09 #4 Forecast for October: the first four titles from Titan Books in their new series "The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (at L7.99 each) will be reprints of David Stuart Davies' pastiches THE SCROLL OF THE DEAD (1998) and THE VEILED DETECTIVE (2004), Daniel Stashower's THE ECTOPLASMIC MAN (1985), and Wade Wellman and Manly Wade Wellman's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1975); Titan's web-site is at . Further to the forecast of The Pleasant Places of Florida's "Wessex Week- end" on Feb. 12-14, 2010, Carl L. Heifetz is at (a new e-mail address). Randall Stock notes that the typescript for "A Chat with Conan Doyle" (Aug 09 #8) is now on-line, and it turns out not to be the typescript for Robert Barr's "A Chat with Conan Doyle" but rather the typescript for the record- ing that Conan Doyle made for His Master's Voice on May 14, 1930; the HMV recording was issued in 1930 as "Conan Doyle Speaking". The first page of the transcript is titled (apparently in Conan Doyle's handwriting) "A Chat 'with' Conan Doyle" and you can see it at . Sorry about that: to find the Pub Sign Store's imaginative Sherlock Holmes Personalized Pub Sign (item 3252), go to ; use the coupon code [spermaceti] to get a 10% discount. Reported: Partha Basu's THE CURIOUS CASE OF 221B: THE SECRET NOTEBOOKS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Noida: HarperCollins India; 288 pp., Rs299.00); "In this brilliant retelling that turns the Holmesian canon on its head, Partha Basu brings back a host of characters who have captivated generations of read- ers, except that they are no longer what we had made them out to be." Michael Lawrence is selling his collection of Sherlockian books: they are mostly modern, and mostly pastiches; if you want to fill gaps in your own collection you can request his sales list . Mark Alberstat's 2010 Sherlock Holmes Calendar is illustrated with artwork from The Strand Magazine, and displays important Sherlockian birthdays and William S. Baring-Gould's dates for the cases. The calendar costs US$14.00 postpaid, and his address is: 46 Kingston Crescent, Dartmouth, NS B3A 2M2, Canada. F. Andrew Leslie's 1978 play "The Hound of the Baskervilles" opened at the Repertory East Playhouse in Newhall, Calif., on Sept. 18, and it will run through Oct. 17. 24266 San Fernando Road, Newhall, CA 91321 (661-288-0000) . Richard M. Lackritz died on Sept. 5. He was an obstetrician and fertility specialist, and an enthusiastic collector; "find a book you like, you get it in paperback," he told a reporter in 2002, "and then you say, 'that book was so good, I'll get it in hardcover,' and then you say, 'a first edition would be great,' and then a different dust jacket or one signed by the au- thor." His collection was sold at Christie's in 2002 and 2003, and he had some nice material, including an inscribed "Starrett copy" of "The Adven- ture of the Unique Hamlet", and (something he didn't send to auction) the manuscript of "The Three Garridebs". Sep 09 #5 Jamyang Norbu's pastiche THE MANDALA OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1999), which was published in the U.S. as SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE MISSING YEARS, has been translated into seven languages (Dutch, French, German, It- alian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish), according to an interesting in- terview with Norbu in the Latse Library Newsletter (fall 2004). The Latse Contemporary Tibetan Culture Library is in New York and the newsletter is available on-line at . An interesting Sherlock Holmes trompe l'oeil painting (described as Ameri- can School, 20th Century) went to auction at Skinner Auctioneers in Marl- borough (Mass.) on Sept. 11; estimated at $400-600, it sold for $830. You can see an image in full color at . Dynamite Entertainment's comic-book mini-series SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE TRIAL OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Mar 09 #6) has now reached the fourth (of five) issues, and a hardcover collection is due in October: SHERLOCK HOLMES VOL. 1: THE TRIAL OF SHERLOCK HOLMES ($24.95) will include bonus material such as anno- tations, script pages, and a complete Sherlock Holmes story with new illus- trations. Dynamite's web-site is at . Thad Holt has reported that a great deal of material in The Strand Magazine has been scanned and is available at Google ; enter [editions:LCCN09034301] in the search field. Full text of the magazine is available for 1891-1908, and other volumes as "snippet" views. Fans of Mary Russell (heroine of Laurie R. King's continuing series) have a Yahoo group, and two different designs on a variety of merchandise (shirts, buttons, caps, mugs, coasters, mousepads, totebags, ornaments) available at . The Yahoo group has lots of fanfic, and you can sign up at . There's a tentative publication date (June 2010) for the next book in the Mary Russ- ell series, which will not, after all, be called THE GREEN MAN (since her publisher didn't like it, and has persuaded Laurie to change it); the new title is THE GOD OF THE HIVE). And there's a new way to promote books: a book trailer; Two Rock Media created an interesting one for THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, and you can view it on-line at . Donald Thomas' new play "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" had its premiere at the Manor Pavilion Theatre in Sidmouth on Sept. 24-30. He has written many pastiches, the most recent collection being SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE KING'S EVIL (Mar 09 #6); the play is a dramatization of his "The Case of the Phan- tom Chambermaid", which was published in THE EXECUTION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Oct 08 #1). Richard S. Warner ("High Tor") died on Sept. 19. Dick was a historian, an avid researcher, and an energetic Sherlockian. He was one of the founders of The Afghanistan Perceivers of Tulsa, and responsible for the naming of Holmes Peak, the first and still the only geographic feature in the United States named in honor of Sherlock Holmes and officially recognized by the Interior Department's U.S. Board of Geographic Names. Dick published a de- lightful GUIDEBOOK AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE ASCENT OF HOLMES PEAK in 1985, and received his thoroughly appropriate Investiture from The Baker Street Irregulars in 1987. Sep 09 #6 Charterhouse Auctions had some interesting Conan Doyle material on offer on Sept. 25: a black-and-white photograph, inscribed by A. Conan Doyle, and a sword with hilt inscribed "P. Leckie Forbes, from his uncle A. Conan Doyle, 1915". According to Charterhouse, Forbes served with the Middlesex Regiment, attached to the RAF during WW1, and the sword was sent to auction by his grandson. Forbes's father was married to Jean Leckie's sister Sara, according to an article by Philip Bergem in the News- letter of the Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections (Dec. 2007). Es- timated at L1,000-1500, the lot sold for L2,300. Patrick Leckie Forbes' father was Patrick Forbes, a friend of Conan Doyle who worked with him on THE LOST WORLD and is acknowledged by Conan Doyle in his foreword to the book. Forbes appears twice (as both Summerlee and Rox- ton) in the photograph of "the members of the exploring party" (with Conan Doyle impersonating Challenger); the story of the photograph is told in Ap- pendix B in THE ANNOTATED LOST WORLD, by Roy Pilot and Alvin Roden (1996). The summer issue of The Magic Door (the newsletter published by The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library) has Barbara Rusch's report on Michael Dirda's 2009 "Cameron Hollyer Lecture", Cliff Goldfarb's interesting account of Peggy Perdue's inspired sleuthing that identified a poster advertising one of the "Brigadier Gerard" stories, and other news from and about the collection; copies of the newsletter are available on request from Clifford S. Goldfarb (22 Markdale Avenue, Toron- to, ON M6C, 1T1, Canada . Ken Rozek has reported that San Marino issued a postage stamp honoring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on June 16, one of three stamps in a set paying homage to writers (the oth- ers being Edgar Allan Poe and Raymond Chandler); you can see them in full color at . Conan Doyle's is the E0.85 stamp, with an image of a bloodhound follow- ing footprints, and you can purchase singles, sheets of 20 stamps with a descriptive strip, and first day covers (Conan Doyle's is the 0.85E stamp, with a bloodhound following footprints); if the web-site "cart" doesn't work, you can order by e-mail at ; ship- ping costs E7.00. The latest issue of Carolyn and Joel Senter's The Sherlockian E-Times will be found at , with offers of in- teresting Sherlockiana, old and new. The previous issue has an amusing and "really terrifying image of an incredibly vicious Hound" that you can view at . Here a rat, there a rat, everywhere a giant rat. They've been turning up almost everywhere, in southeast Asia, at least. It was more than 25 years ago that Guy G. Musser and Cameron Newcomb published "Malaysian Murids and the Giant Rat of Sumatra" in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History (Dec 83 #4), and explorers have been encountering them ever since. Most recently in Papua New Guinea, where the BBC Natural History Unit paid a visit to Mount Bosavi, a dormant volcano, and found at least 30 new spe- cies, including the Bosavi woolly rat, which measures more than 32 inches from nose to tail and weighs more than three pounds. Sep 09 #7 There's more on the Guy Ritchie film "Sherlock Holmes" (Aug 09 #4): on Sept. 21 the Hollywood Reporter announced that Warner Bros. is developing a sequel, with Brad Pitt in talks to play Moriarty in the next film. And there's a real possibility that Pitt will have an un- credited cameo in the first film: the story notes that Moriarty is in the first film, but in shadow and unrecognizable. Warner Bros. has firmly de- nied rumors that Pitt will be in the first film, but of course if they were to confirm the rumors that would spoil any planned surprise. There's plenty of precedent for uncredited cameos, including "FairyTale: A True Story" (1997), which starred Peter O'Toole as Conan Doyle; at the end of the film there's a brief scene with Frances Griffith's father, played by Mel Gibson (who's president of the company that co-produced the film). And at the end of Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (1991) there is an appearance by King Richard, played by Sean Connery. Karen Murdock discovered , which has 18 Sherlockian designs available on address labels, ID name tags, note cards, magnets, and other merchandise; roll over "Site Map" and look for the category "Sherlock Holmes". The September issue of The Mysterious Bookshop Newsletter is now available; go to and click on "Newsletter" in the column at the left. All sort of signed editions, plus a section of Sherlockiana, and news of THE VAMPIRE ARCHIVES: THE MOST COMPLETE VOLUME OF VAMPIRE TALES EVER PUBLISHED, edited by Otto Penzler and due from Vintage in Oct. (1,056 pp., $25.00); there's a preface by Neil Gaiman, and stories by a long list of fine writers in the genre, including Conan Doyle ("The Sussex Vampire" and "The Parasite"). The Chester Theatre Group will present Tim Kelly's play "The Hound of the Baskervilles" from Oct. 9 through Oct. 24 at the Black River Playhouse in Chester, N.J. The address for the box office address is Box 38, Chester, NJ 07930 (908-879-7304) . Les Klinger is described as "today's foremost expert on society's fascina- tion with bloodsuckers" in the "Playbill" in the October issue of Playboy. And the cover proclaims: "Vampire Love: Bloodlust! Why the Undead Are Hot Again!" Les' essay accompanies a pictorial on "Love Bites: Vampire Lovers Turn Fear into Fantasy". Peter Abrahams' DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE: AN ECHO FALLS MYSTERY (Apr 05 #1) won an Agatha (childrens/young adults fiction) at Malice Domestic, and the ser- ies continued with BEHIND THE CURTAIN (New York: Laura Geringer/HarperColl- ins, 2006; 346 pp., $15.99) and INTO THE DARK (2008; 300 pp., $16.99); the heroine is Ingrid Levin-Hill, eighth-grade Sherlock Holmes fan and amateur actress, who is involved in seriously-adult problems and mysteries that are well written, with interesting characters and plenty of suspense. Stephen King gave BEHIND THE CURTAIN an enthusiastic blurb (saying that "Nancy Drew was never like this; it's the real deal"), and he was correct indeed. The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669) Oct 09 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "The Sherlock Holmes Effect: How the Arthur Conan Doyle Classics Influence Contemporary Mysteries" is the title of a symposium that will be presented by the New York chapter of the Mystery Writers of America at 6:3 pm on Jan. 26 at the Mid-Manhattan Library at 4th Street and 5th Avenue in New York; it will be open to the public at no charge, and the moderator will be E.J. Wagner, who will be assisted by Lyndsay Faye, Jonathan Maberry, Reggie Na- delson, and Andrew Jay Peck. There's an illustrated flier with more infor- mation at . E.J. has a new Sherlockian blog at . Paramount Home Video has released a new DVD "Alvin and the Chipmunks Go to the Movies: Star Wreck" ($16.99) with three episodes from the series, one of them "Elementary, My Dear Simon" (30 minutes, 1988); "Simon introduces this special mystery episode and then stars in it as monocled ace detective Sherlock Holmes," with Theodore as Watson and Alvin as Moriarty. Legacy Interactive is preparing to issue a sequel to its computer game "The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes" (May 08 #4). Vol. 2 will be available on- line in December and in retail shops early next year. Six screenshots can be seen now . William Safire died on Sept. 27. He was a speechwriter for President Nix- on, a Pulitzer Prize-winner political columnist for the N.Y. Times, a pun- dit, and an excellent writer. His column "On Language" ran for 30 years in N.Y. Times Magazine, with assistance from correspondents he called his Lex- icographic Irregulars, and he mentioned Sherlock Holmes often in his col- umns in the N.Y. Times and his books; it was in SAFIRE'S POLITICAL DICTION- ARY (1978) that he credited a Sherlock Holmes story as the inspiration for phrase "smoking gun" that became so popular during the Watergate era. Forecast from MX Publishing in 2010: THE NORWOOD AUTHOR: ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND THE NORWOOD YEARS (1891-1894), by Alistair Duncan. Duncan's the author of ELIMINATE THE IMPOSSIBLE (Apr 08 #5) and CLOSE TO HOLMES (Mar 09 #2). Peter L. Stern's catalogs always are interesting: his fall 2009 catalog has a copy of the first edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES inscribed "I perambulated Dartmoor before I wrote this book. A. Conan Doyle." ($85,000) and an original wash drawing by Frederic Dorr Steele that was described by a New York bookshop in 1962 as an unpublished drawing of Sherlock Holmes, and it's attractive even though it's not Holmes ($750). Peter's address is 15 Court Square, Boston, MA 02108 (617-542-3263). Forecast for March: David Grann's THE DEVIL AND SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES OF MURDER, MADNESS, AND OBSESSION (Doubleday, $25.95); presumably including his New Yorker article about Richard Lancelyn Green (Jan 05 #7). Further to the report (Aug 09 #8) about the long-running controversy over the long-running controversy over the spelling of wisteria/wistaria, Karen Ellery notes that there is also a long-running controversy over the pronun- ciation of the word wisteria; and you can read an interesting discussion at . Oct 09 #2 It's not Sherlockian, but it's highly recommended: the Folger Shakespeare Theatre in Washington had a new production of "Mac- beth" last year, directed by Teller (as in Penn &) and Aaron Posner, with fine actors and astounding magic devised by Teller; it's now available on a DVD with a new Folger edition of the play with a foreword by the directors (they describe the play as "a supernatural horror thriller"). The DVD has the play, and 50 minutes of interesting special features, and the book+DVD is published by Simon & Schuster ($16.00 and well worth it). John Longenbaugh's new play "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol" will be produced in the Tap Root Theatre in Seattle, Nov. 20 through Dec. 30; the box-office address is 204 North 85th Street, Seattle, WA 98103 (206-781-9707) . Chronicling America is a searchable digital data base of American newspaper pages from 1880 to 1922; it's sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress, and it now has more than a million pages. The URL is , and a recent search for [sherlock holmes] turned up 352 hits; a search for [conan doyle] yielded 303 hits. Nis Jessen reports that there's a new web-site displaying handsome artwork, including his work on an illustrated edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET (Jul 05 #5): . Andy Solberg notes that 'It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown" (1974), with Snoopy as the Sherlockian detective, is one of six 30-minute television specials in a new two-DVD set PEANUTS 1970'S COLLECTION, VOLUME 1 (from Warner Home Video, $29.98). VICTIMS & VILLAINS: BARBIE AND KEN MEET SHERLOCK HOLMES (Vancleave: Ramble House, 2009; 169 pp., $17.99) is the latest book by Derham Groves, who con- tinues to offer interesting Sherlockian challenges to his architecture stu- dents at the University of Melbourne: this time they each read a Sherlock Holmes story and portrayed a victim or villain in the story by changing the appearance of a Barbie or Ken doll, and Derham notes that they produced "a horrifying collection of dolls that had been bludgeoned, garroted, hanged, mauled, poisoned, scared, shot, stabbed, and strangled," and the students obviously had fun with the project. The book has photographs of the dolls, and discussion of the exhibition "Murderous Melbourne" that was on display at the University last year. You can also view a podcast about the exhibi- tion at ; there's an interview with Derham, and views of the exhibition, all in the second half of the 5-minute podcast. Further to the report (Jan 09 #4) on THE COMPLETE BAKER STREET MISCELLANEA on CD, Randall Stock has provided an excellent in-depth review of the CD at , including helpful tips on using the CD; the CD is available for $40.00 (postpaid) from Donald Pollock, 521 College Avenue, Niagara Falls, NY 14305; non-U.S. buyers are welcome to use PayPal and should contact Don at . Randall also offers an informative look at "The e-World of Sherlock Holmes" at . Oct 09 #3 Profiles in History (26901 Agoura Road #150, Calabasas Hills, CA 81391 (310-859-7701) is offering three interesting letters: one (non-Doylean) by Joseph Bell; one written by Conan Doyle to the actor O. P. Heggie, who in 1911 was appearing as Holmes in "The Speckled Band"; and one written by Harry Houdini to Conan Doyle in 1922, after the famous seance in Atlantic City. You can see them on-line; go to the web-site and search for [conan doyle]. In 2004 Nicholas Utechin recorded new introductions for the BBC Digital Ra- dio 7 series "Sherlock Holmes with Carlton Hobbs" (12 of the stories that the BBC broadcast in 1959, starring Carlton Hobbs and Norman Shelley), and BBC Audio plans to release the 12 programs in "The Carlton Hobbs Sherlock Holmes Collection" on three CDs in January (L30.00). Sorry about that: to find The Strand Magazine at you search for [editions:LCCN09034341] to get the various scanned issues of the magazine. James Barry's play "Sherlock Holmes' Excellent Adventure" will be performed at the Coronado Playhouse, Oct. 30 through Nov. 29 (1835 Strand Way, Coro- nado, CA 92118) (619-435-4856) ; "this delight- ful parody uses visual and theatrical jokes, wordplay, and audience parti- cipation to skewer Holmesian traditions." The script for the play can be read (and purchased) on-line from Lazy Bee Scripts , and there are other Sherlockian scripts available: "The Double-Headed Penny-Farthing" (by Robert Black), "Sherlock Holmes & the Emerald of Alcazar" (by Geoff Bamber), "The Death of Sherlock Holmes" (by Richard James), "Sherlock Holmes and the Pirates of the Horn" (by Vithal Rajan), "Sherlock Holmes' Last Case" (by Charlie Cook), "Sher- lock Holmes and the Mystery of Mallen Hall" (by Richard James), "Sherlock Holmes--The Panto" (by Jenny Gilbert), "The Sinister Mrs. Eaves" (by Robert Black), and "The Man Who Died Twice" (by Robert Black). Forecast: SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S SHERLOCK HOLMES, from A&E Home Video in December, on 2 DVDs ($29.95); the five surviving broadcasts from the 1968 BBC television series starring Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock ("The Hound of the Baskervilles" in two parts, "A Study in Scarlet", "The Sign of Four", "The Blue Carbuncle", and "The Valley Mystery"). There's always something new: a Sherlockian comic book that's available on- ly on the Internet: John Arcudi's MENS INIURIA IN CORPORE SANO: A PANGOLIN CLASSIC at . It's issue #26 in a series from Dark Horse, and they'll publish it next year in an ink-on-paper collection. Thanks to Les Klinger for reporting this. Forecast for November: VICTORIAN UNDEAD, from Wildstorm; the first issue of six in comic book mini-series written by Ian Edginton ("the undead are re- turning to life, hungry for flesh and threatening all of Victorian London," and Holmes and Watson face "the most extraordinary case of their career"). Also: GASLIGHT GROTESQUE: NIGHTMARE TALES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by J. R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec, from Edge in November; it's a follow-up to their GASLIGHT GRIMOIRE (Dec 08 #2). Oct 09 #4 Ken Lanza spotted a story in the North Wales Daily Post (Oct. 1) about location work in Caernarfon on a new Sherlock Holmes that will star Ben Snyder as Holmes and David Gareth-Lloyd as Watson; the film is expected to be available on DVD in January. The production company explains that "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective faces the ultimate challenge when enormous monsters attack London." It's not quite "Conan Doyle slept here," but a house he's said to have vis- ited is for sale: Green Lane in Dalston in Cumbria, was built in the early 1700s and has been home to seven generations of the Trimble family and is now on the market for L1.3 million. Ron Trimble, the current owner, told the Cumberland News (Oct. 11) that Conan Doyle was a "not-infrequent visi- tor" to Green Lane because his sister Angel had married the local curate, and they lived at Whitesmiths at the top of the Green Lane drive. Presum- ably that was Conan Doyle's sister Dodo, who married Charles Cyril Angell. Jerry Margolin is selling Sherlockian artist Jeff Decker's portrait in oils of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. You can request an image and price from Jerry (10007 S.W. Quail Post Road, Portland, OR 97219) <221bee@comcast.net>. If you would like to be among the first to see Guy Ritchie's new "Sherlock Holmes" film, plan to be in Hong Kong or Malaysia on Dec. 24, which is the release date posted at the Internet Movie Data Base. And the film will be in theaters on Dec. 25 in Singapore and five countries in Europe (they're a few hours ahead of the U.S.). There is a new trailer for the film (you get to see Mrs. Hudson, and Dr. Watson's bull pup), and it may still be avail- able at . Stuart M. Kaminksy died on Oct. 9. He was a prolific writer who won an Ed- gar from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Novel (1989), and the MWA Grand Master award in 2006. His novel THE HOWARD HUGHES AFFAIR (1979) fea- tured hard-boiled Los Angeles detective Toby Peters and amateur Sherlockian detective Basil Rathbone, and HE DONE HER WRONG (1983) had Peters appearing as guest speaker at a monthly meeting of The Engineer's Thumbs. He wrote a pastiche "The Final Toast" (1987) and dramatized it for performance at the International Mystery Writers' Festival in 2008. Reported (new pastiches): THE MERCHANT OF DEATH, by June Dixon and Donald Monat (from iUniverse); SHERLOCK HOLMES: REPORTS FROM THE DARK SIDE, by Tom Cavenagh (from iUniverse); THE VANISHING GIRL, by Shane Peacock (the third in his series about "the boy Sherlock Holmes, from Tundra) Karen Murdock spotted the debut album titled "Theories to Suit Facts" from the Bristol-based indie/electronica band JetKing; the album features Conan Doyle on the cover. It was in "A Scandal in Bohemia" that Sherlock Holmes told Watson that "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." The band has a web-site at , and the al- bum is available as a CD (L7.99) or as an MP3 file (L6.99). Vaughn Atkin- son (guitars and programme) explains that the band really liked the thought behind the quotation, and examples of that kind of thinking are still very much evident today, and that once the album was in place it seemed logical to feature Conan Doyle on the cover. Oct 09 #5 Ransom Riggs' article on "The Surreal Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" was published earlier this year in the magazine mental_ floss (Jul 09 #4), and his new book THE SHERLOCK HOLMES HANDBOOK (Philadel- phia: Quirk Books, 2009; 221 pp., $16.95) offers an interesting and some- times off-beat look at "the methods and mysteries of the world's greatest detective" (with helpful hints on "How to Outwit a Criminal Mastermind" and "How to Survive a Plunge Over a Waterfall"). There's a "look inside" fea- ture, with a sample of Eugene Smith's artwork, at . Jennie Paton spotted two deeply-discounted offers from Daedalus Books (800- 395-2665) : DVDs with "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970/Robert Stephens and Colin Blakely) and "The Hound of the Bas- kervilles" (1978/Peter Cook and Dudley Moore) at $6.98 each. Sean Wright has reported that TCM (Turner Classic Movies) will broadcast a "Sherlock Holmes Orgy" Dec. 25-27: "Sherlock Holmes" (1922/John Barrymore), "Sherlock Holmes' Fatal Hour" (1931/Arthur Wontner), almost all of the Bas- il Rathbone, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959/Peter Cushing), "A Study in Terror" (1965/John Neville), and "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970/Robert Stephens). Peter H. Wood has donated his reference collection of Sherlockian and Doyl- ean books and journals to the Rare Books Library at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia; he is the author of the pastiche THE WINGED WHEEL (1995) and a long-time member of The Bootmakers of Toronto (from whom he received a Master Bootmaker Award in 1983). Reported: POWERLESS, by Matthew Cody (New York: Knopf Books for Young Read- ers, 2009; 288 pp., $16.99); "superhero kids meet comic-book mystery" (12- year-old Daniel has a sharp mind and is fond of Sherlock Holmes stories). Milton Supman died on Oct 22. He began his television career in the 1950s and became the star of the widely-syndicated television program "The Soupy Sales Show" in the 1960s; he developed pie-throwing into an art form, and claimed that he and his guests had been hit by pies more than 20,000 times during his career. He also had puppets on his show, including White Fang ("the meanest dog in the U.S.A."), whose howl was taken from a radio broad- cast of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (Sales got his start in entertain- ment in the Navy, broadcasting over a ship's radio station, where he found, and kept, a recording of the story that had been distributed Armed Forces). Andy Peck has noted that the Mystery Guild is offering book-club editions of THE IMPROBABLE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by John Joseph Ad- ams (Sep 09 #1) for $12.99 (order no. 25-8783), and THE LANGUAGE OF BEES, by Laurie R. King (Apr 09 #4) for $14.99 (77-8398); Box 6325, Indianapolis, IN 46206 . Further to the forecast (Aug 09 #1) of the "Sherlock Holmes Weekend" com- ing up in Cape May, N.J., on Nov. 6-8, the next weekend celebration will be held on Mar. 19-21, with a repeat of the mystery "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Mistaken Identity"; you can contact the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts (1048 Washington Street, Cape May, NJ 08204) (800-275-4278) or visit the web-site . Oct 09 #6 Sherlock Holmes' 156th birthday will be celebrated on Friday, Jan. 15, with the traditional festivities in New York, but the first formal event will be The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes' ASH Wed- nesday dinner starting at 6:00 pm at O'Casey's (22 East 41st Street); at- tendees pay their own checks, but you should let Susan Rice (125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY 10014 know if you're com- ing to the event. The Christopher Morley Walk, led by Jim Cox and Dore Nash, will leave from the Algonquin Hotel (59 West 44th Street) at 9:30 am on Thursday, followed by lunch at McSorley's at about 1:30 pm; those planning to participate are asked to get in touch with Jim (2240 15th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94116) , and of course are advised to dress appropriately for the weather. The Baker Street Irregulars' Distinguished Speaker Lecture begins at 6:15 pm on the 6th floor of the Williams Club (24 East 39th Street, between Madison and Park Avenues); the speaker will be Joan Winterkorn, an internationally- recognized appraiser and archivist who evaluated the seven-generation John Murray & Sons archives; she will talk about Holmes, Conan Doyle, and other Murray authors' archival adventures. The lecture will cost $11.00; seating is limited, and you should reserve early (details below). Tickets will not be sold at the door. The Beacon Society's annual meeting will be held at 10:00 am on Friday on the second floor of the Algonquin to present Annual Beacon Award recogniz- ing efforts of individuals to introduce Sherlock Holmes to young people. Otto Penzler will hold his traditional open house from 11:00 to 5:00 at the Mysterious Bookshop, at 58 Warren Street (between West Broadway and Church Street) in Tribeca; the 1, 2, and 3 trains stop at the Chambers Street sta- tion (one block from the shop). If you get lost, the bookshop's telephone number is 212-587-1011. The William Gillette Memorial Luncheon starts at noon, at Moran's Chelsea Seafood Restaurant at 146 Tenth Avenue at 19th Street; the cost is $45.00 for chicken or salmon ($50.00 for prime rib). Susan Rice (125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY 10014) is the contact for a formal announcement. The Baker Street Irregulars will gather at 6:00 pm at the Yale Club at 50 Vanderbilt Avenue (across the street and just north of Grand Central Sta- tion); attendance is by invitation only. The Gaslight Gala (which is open to all Sherlockians and their friends) will provide dinner and entertain- ment at 6:30 pm at the Manhattan Club (201 West 52nd Street between Broad- way and Seventh Avenue); $75.00 (checks payable to Will Walsh can be sent to Carol Fish at Box 4, Circleville, NY 10919/phone 845-361-4320). Please include your e-mail address and primary Sherlockian society affiliation. Space is limited at the William Gillette Luncheon and the Gaslight Gala, and early reservations are advised. Those who wish to have seasonal souvenirs included in the various dinner Oct 09 #7 packets can send 170 copies (for the BSI) to James B. Saunders (3011 47th Street, Astoria, NY 11103), and 100 copies (for the Gala) to Francine Kitts (35 Van Cortlandt Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10301), and 20 copies (for The Women) to Mary Ann Bradley, 7938 Mill Stream Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278); your material should arrive by Dec. 15. On Saturday a wide variety of Sherlockiana will be available in the deal- ers' room (Covent Garden West) on the second floor of the Algonquin Hotel (59 West 44th Street) from 9:00 am to noon; for information about dealers' tables, contact Ralph Hall (2906 Wallingford Court, Louisville, KY 40218) (502-491-3148) . And the Clients of Adrian Mulliner (devotees of the writings of both John H. Watson and P. G. Wodehouse) will convene for a Junior Bloodstain (a considerably less than totally reverent event) in the lobby of the Algonquin Hotel at 10:30 am; if you're planning to attend, please contact Anne Cotton (12 Hollywood Street, South Hadley, MA 01075) . The Baker Street Irregulars' annual reception, open to all Sherlockians and their friends, will be held from 1:00 to 4:30 at the New York City Bar As- sociation (42 West 44th Street); there will be hors d'oeuvres (adequate but not replacing lunch or dinner) and an open bar (wine, beer, juice, and soft drinks). The cost is $79.00 (details below) or $89.00 after Nov. 25 or at the door. The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes will hold an informal buffet brunch on Sunday, from 11:15 am to 2:30 pm at the Oldcastle Pub & Restaurant at 160 West 64th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues) (and yes, 6th Avenue is the Avenue of the Americas), and the cost will be $20.00 including tax and tip. It's open to all, but space is limited and reservations will be important; please send your checks to Lyndsay Faye (450 West 162nd Street #25-E, New York, NY 10032). Guests from overseas can reserve by e-mail and pay at the door; her e-mail address is . The Algonquin Hotel has been the weekend home for the birthday festivities for more than 50 years, and rooms may be available (details below). And here are the details: if you've not already received Mike Whelan's an- nouncement and reservation form (including prices) for the Algonquin Hotel, the Thursday lecture, and the Saturday reception, you can visit the Baker Street Journal web-site and click on BSI Week- end, or contact Mary Ann Bradley . Mary Ellen Rich kindly continues to advise about hotels that offer reason- able (as defined by New York landlords) rates, but it's a mark of the 21st century that the best offers are to be found on the Internet, at web-sites such as , , , , , and ; you would be wise then to check the hotel's web-site and ask for the best rate (and you should not forget about non-optional extras such as almost 18% in state and city taxes). The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI is not required) who might otherwise not be able to Oct 09 #8 participate in the weekend's festivities. A carefully pseudon- ymous John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes con- tributions, which can be made by check payable to John H. Watson and sent (without return address on the envelope) to Dr. Watson, care of The Baker Street Irregulars, at 7938 Mill Stream Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278; your letters are forwarded unopened, and Dr. Watson will acknowledge your gener- osity. Requests for assistance should also be mailed (quickly) to Dr. Wat- son at the same address. And if you can't remember where you put your copy of all of this, detailed information about the birthday festivities is available on the Internet at and . News of additional events will be found in this newsletter, and at the web-sites. Vic Mizzy died on Oct. 17. He had a long career as a composer for film and television, and was best known for his "Addams Family" theme (unless you're a fan of "Green Acres"); Dave Morrill notes that much of Mizzy's score for William Castle's "The Night Walker" (1964) was used again in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1972, with Stewart Granger). Reported: tales of a "bloodsucking plant, a heat-draining Eskimo vampire, and a fang-bearing femme fatale" in THE VAMPIRE TALES OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, edited by Robert Eighteen-Bisang, with an introduction by Martin H. Greenberg (from Skyhorse, $14.95). There's a new special-clearance offer at for a "six pack" of BSJ Christmas Annuals. You should click on "Items for Sale" and then on "Deal Table"; the offer's limited-time-only. Christopher Morley called H. F. Heard's A TASTE FOR HONEY (1941) "the most original and enchanting crime story of the year," and it is grand to have the book back in print (Nevada City: Blue Dolphin, 2009; 180 pp., $16.96) as the first in "The Mr. Mycroft Commemorative Series". The book is about a "Mr. Mycroft" (many have suspected is really an elderly and retired Sher- lock Holmes); the book was adapted for television as "The Sting of Death" (1955) with Boris Karloff as Mr. Mycroft (kinescopes survive, but are not available commercially), and the film "The Deadly Bees" (1967) was based on the book, with a script by Robert Bloch (who was so annoyed when a British writer removed the Mr. Mycroft character and "juiced up the script" that Bloch never saw what he called his "deformed offspring"). The new edition has an informative foreword by Stacy Gillis, and an interesting afterword by John Roger Barrie, who addresses the question, "Who Is Mr. Mycroft?" An accidental discovery on Wikipedia: "The Menagerie" (described as a dark fantasy-novel series written by Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski) has four titles published by Ace Books: THE NIMBLE MAN (2004), TEARS OF THE FURIES (2005), STONES UNTURNED (2006), and CRASHING PARADISE (2007), all of them featuring Arthur Conan Doyle as a major character named Mr. Doyle, who is the second most powerful sorcerer in the world, according the Golden's web-site . The Spermaceti Press: Peter E. Blau, 7103 Endicott Court, Bethesda, MD 20817-4401 (301-229-5669)