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)