October 2013 Volume 17 Number 3 March 2009 D S O F N Volume 13 Number 1 E T 50 Years Ago...Continued from Page 3 I H R E bottle of Courvoisier plus one fifth of the history of the scion mentioned earlier, The physical book is an interesting F New Jersey cognac, with the note: ‘Tell Thomas Hart reports that a publication artifact in itself, featuring quarter bind- the bartender to serve the Courvoisier fund was established as early as 1952 ing with textured morocco-colored first. Then by the time the Sons get to (with the princely sum of $4.00.) Hart, as endpapers of the same stock as the the New Jersey cognac, they may not treasurer of the Publication Committee, covers. spot the difference’” (250). Today, goes on to apologize to the membership Lellenberg says of Starr, “I’m convinced for “his many exhortations for funds, and Leaves from The Copper Beeches was fol- Sherlock Holmes that Julian Wolff [who took over leader- many stern admonitions against failure, lowed up by a second volume, More ship of the Baker Street Irregulars under made at meetings” over the years. Leaves from The Copper Beeches, in COLLECTIONS the title “Commissionaire” after Smith’s 1976. The Sons are still flourishing as untimely death in 1960] would have an active scion society; perhaps some- “Your merits should be publicly recognized” (STUD) retired as Commissionaire sooner than he day we will be able to look forward to did if Bill Starr had not died at a some- a third volume. what early age in 1976 and had been C o n t e n t s around in the early ’80s to take over.” John Bergquist, BSI Francine and Wayne Swift By Peter E. Blau, ASH, BSI Leaves from The Copper Beeches was par- Francine and Wayne Swift tially financed by contributions from Illustration by H.W. Starr, captioned “The appeal t has been said that marriages between two Sherlockians are the most permanent. members of the Sons, who are listed in for the Publication Fund,” printed in Jon 1 Many Sherlockians have found it easy enough to persuade a spouse to enjoy the Lellenberg’s Irregular Crises of the Late ’Forties the acknowledgments. In his memoir of Sherlockian world, but when two people who already are Sherlockians marry they (New York, 1999) 100 Years Ago I will sooner or later merge their collections, as well as their lives. And there is no custody battle, whether over the car, the house, the pets, or the children, that can possi- 2 bly match the difficulty of dividing a collection that has no duplicates. 50 Years Ago So for two Sherlockians it’s a matter only of the better, and never the worse. That cer- 3 tainly was true of Wayne B. Swift and Francine Morris, who were Sherlockians when An Update From The Collections they met for the first time. Francine started her Sherlockian life in Texas, where she was Remembrances a librarian; she founded The Sub-Librarians Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars in the From the President American Library Association, and In supporting the Sherlock Holmes Collections, many donors have made 4 was one of the founders of The contributions either in honor or in memory of special persons. Practical, But Limited, Geologists at an informal luncheon in the Zodiac In Honor Of From Musings Room at Nieman Marcus in Dallas. Peter Blau Arthur E.F. Wiese Jr. 4 When she moved to Washington she Fred Levin Cliff Goldfarb quickly became a member of The Red Circle, and was one of the ring- In Memory Of From An Update from leaders in planning the society’s full- Paul Churchill John Baesch and Evelyn Herzog For any inquiries contact: the Collections fledged costume party at the Paul Churchill Thomas Drucker Timothy J. Johnson, Curator 5 National Press Club. Paul Churchill Warren Randall 612-624-3552 or Wayne was from Nebraska, an elec- Joseph Gillies Michael Kean [email protected] Photo courtesy of The Sherlock Holmes Collections Allen Mackler Patricia Nelson Recent Acquisitions Wayne and Francine Swift trical engineer and a teacher, and an Allen Mackler Once Upon A Crime Mystery Bookstore Sherlock Holmes Collections 5 early convert to the world of com- Allen Mackler Philip Swiggum Suite 111, Elmer L. Andersen Library puters. When he moved to Washington he decided to take an adult-education course in Beatrice McCaffrie John Lockwood University of Minnesota Sherlock Holmes at a local community college and soon attended his first Sherlockian E.W. McDiarmid Michael Brahmey 222 21st Ave. S. To the Editor function, a running of The Silver Blaze (Southern Division) at Pimlico Race Track in E.W. McDiarmid Jim DeLeo Minneapolis, MN 55455 6 Maryland, where he and Francine quickly discovered they shared more than an interest E.W. McDiarmid Jeffrey Klaus Telephone: 612-626-9166 in Sherlock Holmes. They courted , and wed, and had many happy years together, shar- E. W. McDiarmid Peter Klaus FAX: 612-625-5525 ing a multitude of interests, Sherlockian and otherwise. Robert Pattrick Vincent Brosnan A Beacon of the Future Mailing list corrections requested— Wayne became a member of The Baker Street Irregulars in 1978 (as “The Giant Rat of Jan Stauber Alexian Gregory Because of the high cost of returned newsletters, 6 Jan Stauber Francine and Richard Kitts we would appreciate being informed of changes Sumatra”). Francine became a member of The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes in Tom Stix Karen Anderson of address or other corrections. 1977 (as “Hatty Doran”) and was honored by the BSI as The Woman in 1983, and Much of our work with social media Dr. Richard Sturtz William Sturtz Remembrances awarded her Irregular Shilling and Investiture in 1994 (as “The Wigmore Street Post Timothy J. Johnson, Curator chool has begun, and with it to take advantage of these new tools 8 Continued on page 6 8 Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections 1 the hustle and bustle of the and avenues for exposing our collec- comes through the good help and fall season. Like many of you, tions to use and sharing news about consultation with Mark Engebretson, S I shake my head in wonder, what is happening here in Andersen the Director of Communications for surprised at a summer so quickly Library. I was pleased to play a small the Libraries. Those of you at the passed. Thankfully, I collected many role in this with the development of an conference may have met Mark as he memories from those summer months. “app” for the conference. In the same took photographs of the conference At, or near the top, is the remem- vein, I was delighted to see Mary Lov- (including a group portrait of attend- Sherlock Holmes brance of seeing so many of you at our ing, a member of our conference plan- ees). Mark also facilitated a recorded COLLECTION S August conference, “Sherlock Holmes ning committee, using both Twitter interview with Leslie Klinger prior to Through Time and Place.” Equally and Facebook during the conference to the conference. My interview with Les “Your merits should be publicly recognized” (STUD) pleasing was the opportunity provided communicate information from various has been posted online through the by the conference to meet new friends. sessions and events. Because of Mary University’s YouTube channel. Many It was quite exciting (and humbling) and the conference, I finally signed up thanks to Mark for helping organize C o n t e n t s to see so many hands raised during for a Twitter account in order to follow this interview, advertising the confer- A Curious Collection By Alexian Gregory, BSI, ASH one of the early sessions in response all the “tweets” from the conference ence, and for the many “pitches” he to a question about this being a first and communicate with friends about made to local media. Those pitches attendance to a Holmes conference at the collections through social media. resulted in a newspaper story and a A Curious Collection hat do you call a collection of 156 Sherlockians gathered together on an Andersen Library. I was excited be- I have no idea how often I will tweet short segment on the local CBS televi- 1 August weekend in Minneapolis? A darned good time! cause those raised hands gave evidence items of interest from the Collections, sion station. By All Accounts, Our to potential new friends, new possibili- but invite you to follow me on Twit- W The triennial conference featured a wide variety of topics presented ties for making connections between a ter; my “handle” is @UMBookworm. Finally, allow me to thank the con- Conference Was a Success under the umbrella of “Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Place.” Evidencing the love of all things Sherlockian and our Twitter allows me 140 characters, a ference committee for all their hard 2 trans-global reach of the 126-year-old Sherlockian phenomenon, the conference featured amazing collections. At the same time length not always conducive to longer work and for their invitation to give a speakers from Canada, Britain, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden. Three of the Ameri- I was humbled by a thought of how thoughts, so I will continue to share toast to our dearly beloved and absent Sherlock Holmes Through can speakers sported the foreign accents of the former Yugoslavia, Tennessee and Texas. much more we could do to make the longer posts about the Collections friend, Fred Levin. It was a joy to work Time and Place collections even more accessible to a through my blog, “Special & Rare with them in developing the confer- 3 Friday started with an opportunity to view the conference exhibit, which contained new group interested in Holmes.