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The Journal of the Bootmakers of Toronto Volume 32 Number 2 Winter 2009/10 Canadian Holmes is published by The Bootmakers of Toronto, the Sherlock Holmes Society of Canada.

Bootprints (editors) are Mark and JoAnn Alberstat, 46 Kingston Crescent, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B3A 2M2 Canada ([email protected]), to whom letters and editorial submissions should be addressed.

Subscription information and details of Bootmaker membership are available on the society’s web site, www.bootmakers.ca.

Business correspondence should be addressed to The Bootmakers of Toronto, PO Box 1157, TDC Postal Station, 77 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5K 1P2 Canada.

Copyright © 2010 The Bootmakers of Toronto. Copyright in all individual articles is hereby assigned to their respective authors.

Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement Number 40038614, The Bootmakers of Toronto, PO Box 1157, TDC Postal Station, 77 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5K 1P2 Canada. Return postage guaranteed.

ISSN 0319-4493. Printed in Canada.

Cover: A collage of the four major posters for the December 25, 2009, release of the movie Sherlock Holmes.

Canadian Holmes Volume 32 Number 2 Winter 2009/10 One hundred and twenty-second issue Contents Canadian Holmes Volume 32 Number 2

Renovating Holmes 2 A review of the movie Sherlock Holmes by Stephen Cooke

William Gillette – A model Holmes 5 A look at the life of actor William Gillette by Mark Alberstat

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong 11 A review of a book with a questionable title by Dr. Richard Brown

Letters from Lomax 14 A wrap up of some of the new items at the Toronto Library’s Arthur Conan Doyle Collection by Peggy Perdue

The Foundations of Sherlockian Scholarship 16 The first part of a short series of articles that examines a few of the early-seminal works that have shaped our Sherlockian world by Doug Wrigglesworth

Bootmaker’s Diary 19 A roundup of Bootmaker events by Donald Zaldin

RACES OF BOOTPRINTS

New Beginnings

January 2010. A new year, a new decade and, in some ways, a new beginning. This issue of Canadian Holmes finds two new editors at its helm. My wife, JoAnn, and I took on the challenge of editing this journal after enjoying it from the sidelines for many years and occasionally even being in it with either an article or our News Notes from Halifax. After perusing this journal from a safe distance we dive in the deep-end and hope to emerge with a scholarly and well-considered journal all Sherlockians will be happy with and proud to call their own. As I sit at home in Nova Scotia, I realize that the journal is truly Canadian. Articles and notes from across this country appear between its covers. No longer is the journal edited, formatted and printed solely in Ontario. At least two names appear in this issue that most will not be familiar with but are welcome additions. Stephen Cooke, who wrote the review of the new Sherlock Holmes movie, is an entertainment writer in Halifax and has had a long interest in Holmes. Dr. Richard Brown, who reviewed Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong, has been a member of The Spence Munro’s, Nova Scotia’s Sherlockian society, for over 20 years. In future editions we hope to introduce readers to even more new and emerging Sherlockian writers. They need not be young but will, we hope, have a fresh outlook and spur some new ideas and commentary. As with any publication, a new editorial team brings a new outlook. This journal has been known for quality and consistency in both its scholarship and production; we hope to carry on that tradition. However, we cannot do that without your help. Anyone reading these words has the ability to write an article for a future edition. The topics available to be discussed and analysed are endless. Don’t fear treading on territory that has already been examined. Each writer brings his or her own unique blend of knowledge and experience to the page. The recent publication of Doyle’s letters illustrates how a new light can be shone on the author and his work, allowing new details to emerge that had not been revealed before. As the leader of The Spence Munros, I have seen the membership increase only slightly over the last half-dozen years. With the release of Downey’s movie, a new generation of Sherlockians will be created and others will renew their interest. It is for all of us to reach out to these nascent Sherlockians and welcome them to the fold.

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 1 Renovating Holmes

A movie review by Stephen Cooke

Since the last bow of actor Jeremy Brett from what many feel was the definitive portrayal of Sherlock Holmes in the early '90s, there has been a certain amount of trepidation when it comes to presenting the great detective on the big and small screens. Aside from a string of TV movies with a miscast Matt Frewer (the actor formerly known as Max Headroom) and a pair of fair-to-middling BBC adaptations ― The Hound of the Baskervilles with Richard Roxburgh and The Case of the Silk Stocking with Rupert Everett ― there hasn't been much for fans of the cinematic Holmes to chew on. I haven't seen 2002's Sherlock: A Case of Evil, a Romanian-shot production with James D'Arcy battling Vincent D'Onofrio's Moriarty over the dawn of the heroin trade, but from what I've read of it, the less said the better. But now we have the dynamic duo of director Guy Ritchie and star Robert Downey Jr. rushing in to fill the gap and bring Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's creation back to theatres for the first time since 1988's Without a Clue, a clever spoof in which Ben Kingsley's Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Dr. Watson was the real genius Sherlock Holmes and Michael Caine's Holmes merely a dimwitted actor hired to play the part as described in the doctor's published accounts. Ritchie's version is obviously more faithful to the idea of Holmes than Without a Clue or its immediate predecessor, Young Sherlock Holmes, which featured a battle with a computer-animated stained glass knight, but it's also a far cry from the traditional portrayal of the Victorian crimestopper. With a mandate to deliver a big-budget action hero Holmes, with all the requisite hair-breadth escapes and CGI set pieces, Ritchie is certainly the right director to amplify the energy quotient, working with a script that passed through the hands of four writers: Lionel Wigram, Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg. My initial hope for Sherlock Holmes was that Ritchie would place the character in the same kind of complex London underworld milieu that he made his name with in films like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. The film isn't entirely bereft of that atmosphere, but the bulk of the film is spent dealing with a high-concept plot involving the sinister Lord Blackwood and his mystical Temple of the Four Orders in an attempt to take over England, and 2 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 ultimately the world. There's a subplot involving a shadowy "professor" (gee, who could that be?) who wants Blackwood's secrets and enlists "The Woman," Irene Adler, to turn Holmes into a pawn in a much larger game that will presumably continue in a sequel. Although not canon, it's still not the most original story, with the Temple coming from a fusing of the Egyptian death cult of Young Sherlock Holmes and the Freemasons from Bob Clark's admirable 1979 Holmes outing with Christopher Plummer, Murder By Decree. But this film isn't overly concerned with pleasing the hardcore Holmes fan, instead looking for converts with its emphasis on forward momentum and Downey's performance as a most eccentric detective. There's much to admire about his take on the role. Ritchie uses his cinematic elan to highlight Holmes's thought processes, whether he's analyzing a crime scene or quickly determining how to take down an opponent with a series of strategically placed blows, in zooms, Kelly Reilly as Mary Morstan and Jude flash cuts, slow motion and Law as Dr. John Watson instant replay. It seems to match Holmes's hyperactive mind, which sometimes works at a pace that drives him to distraction. His violin appears as merely something to pluck at as the wheels turn, and while he does enjoy his pipe ― amusingly keeping it lit while jumping into the Thames at one point ― the deerstalker and cape of old are nowhere to be seen. The best parts of the film come from the interplay of Holmes and Watson, ably played by Jude Law as an intelligent and capable cohort, as befitting his status as a doctor and his military past. Their verbal jousting arises naturally, out of Watson's desire to be more focused on his practice and upcoming marriage to Mary Morstan (the fetching and fiery Kelly Reilly). Holmes, of course, is self- centred and obsessed, but Downey takes him a bit further into the realm of manic depression, although there isn't time to follow that thread to the same extent that Brett did in his decade with the character. Strong, who played a likeable London hood in Ritchie's last outing RocknRolla, is suitably malicious as Blackwood, cheating the hangman at the outset to create a panic among the populace over dark forces at work. With his noble profile and hair combed back, Strong looks more like the part of Sherlock Holmes than Downey, who is generally disheveled and distracted in his portrayal of a man out of step with his time, eyes focused on the world of tomorrow. Sadly, on the matter of Irene Adler, the film is without a clue, redrafting Doyle's retired opera singer and "well-known adventuress" as an international jewel thief who comes under the thumb of "the professor," which would be more

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 3 bearable if she were played by an actress with more noble bearing than Rachel McAdams. She does get the upper hand on Holmes on more than one occasion but there is little about the character as written or performed that indicates a vivid intelligence on par with his. Then again, female characters were never Ritchie's strong suit. He's far more interested in what the lads are up to. More effort goes into presenting a vivid portrait of Victorian London, from squalid underground bareknuckle matches where Holmes hones his fighting skills, to polished corridors of power, where officials seek his insolent assistance, although his older, influential brother Mycroft is barely mentioned in passing. However, Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan) is given a fair share of involvement in the case, and Marsan sketches a version of the dogged Scotland Yard man that is among the better ones I've seen. My preference would have been to balance out this action ― packed Holmes with a little more emphasis on brain work and fewer drawn-out fight scenes, although his sparring with the massive hoodlum Dredger (played by New Brunswick wrestler Robert Maillet, who was actually there in person at the screening I attended) Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes and provides some of the film's Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler more exciting moments. The screenwriters seem intent on putting forth Holmes as an antecedent to James Bond and Batman ― he even has a sort of utility belt similar to the Dark Knight's ― but then fall into the trap of including the same cliches that plagued those pulp heroes, like evil masterminds out to rule the world and climactic fights at high altitudes. Given all this I still enjoyed Sherlock Holmes while it lasted, for its enervating thrills and the spirited show by its leads (well, most of them, anyway). Ritchie and Downey are fairly invested in the character while wanting to give him a fresh spin and, aside from Irene Adler, don't make any tragic missteps. For the definitive version, I'll still go back to Jeremy Brett (whose complete DVD compendium I just nabbed from amazon.co.uk for a ridiculously low 30 pounds), but as Hollywood Holmeses go ― remember Basil Rathbone out- sleuthing the Nazis? ― this latest incarnation is far from being a cinematic carbuncle.

Stephen Cooke is an entertainment reporter in Halifax and a long time fan of Holmes on the big and small screen. All photos used in this article are courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.

4 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 William Gillette – A Model Holmes By Mark Alberstat, MBT

f you are ever in another country, don’t speak the language and want to purchase a Sherlock Holmes book, simply have a picture with you of the I famous deerstalker, pipe and magnifying glass. When you say “Sherlock Holmes,” or “detective,” chances are the staff will know what you are looking for, thanks to William Gillette. We owe a debt of gratitude to Gillette for helping make Holmes a universal image. Actor, playwright, inventor, builder are all adjectives that can be used to describe William Hooker Gillette. The American not only brought Englishman Sherlock Holmes to life on stage, but also brought him to thousands of people who may not have read his exploits. Gillette became the definitive Holmes by playing him on the stage more than 1,300 times during a 30-year span, starred in a silent movie based on his play Sherlock Holmes, and also put a voice to Holmes in the early days of radio, not once, but twice. Gillette was born on July 24, 1853, in Hartford, Connecticut, to a privileged and noted family. His father was Francis Gillette, a former senator who fought for the abolition of slavery and advocated for public education and temperance. His mother was Elizabeth Daggett Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, a Puritan leader who founded the Colony of Connecticut, which later became the state. William grew up with three brothers and a sister. His parents had one other daughter who died as a small child. By the time William was 10 his oldest brother, Frank, had died of tuberculosis in California. The next eldest brother, Robert, was killed in a powder magazine explosion at Fort Fisher, North Carolina, at the end of the Civil War. His two remaining siblings, Edward and Elisabeth, both left home in 1863. Edward moved to Iowa and Elisabeth married and left home. By the age of 20, William Gillette knew he wanted to be an actor and began an apprenticeship, first in New Orleans and then in Boston. In 1875, he landed a part in Mark Twain’s The Guilded Age after a recommendation from the author himself, a family friend and neighbour. For the next six years, Gillette moved from play to play in New York, Boston and throughout the U.S. Midwest. Acting apprenticeships during this time were unpaid and to survive through this period, William received an allowance from his father.

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 5 In 1881, Gustave and Daniel Frohman, well-known theatre producers, hired Gillette as a playwright, director and actor. The first production from this new collaboration was The Professor, which lasted 151 performances in New York’s Madison Square Theatre. In 1882, Gillette married Helen Nichols. Six years later she died from peritonitis, the result of a ruptured appendix. Gillette was hit hard by the loss, so much so he left the stage for six years and never remarried. It was through his association with the Frohmans that Gillette met Charles Frohman ― a relationship that would last decades and put Gillette in the spotlight on both sides of the Atlantic. Charles Frohman had made a name for himself in theatre circles by taking successful stage productions in the U.K. and producing them in the U.S. and vice versa. In 1897, Frohman took Gillette’s play Secret Service, which Gillette wrote and stared in, to London. The play was a critical and popular success. In 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle felt he was well and truly finished with Sherlock Holmes. He had thrown the detective over the Reichenbach Falls, suffered the public’s outcry and moved on with his life. A year later, however, he wrote a five-act play featuring Holmes and Moriarty in their younger days. By this time, Holmes’ fame had reached the stage when Charles Brookfield and Seymour Hicks wrote Under the Clock. This one-act play had 92 performances from November 25, 1893, to March 3, 1894, at the Court Theatre in London. Also in 1894, Charles Rogers wrote Sherlock Holmes, starring John Webb. Doyle originally offered his play to Henry Irving and Beerhom Tree. Irving turned down the offer and Tree asked for some changes to the play that Doyle wouldn’t accept, thus ending that avenue of production. In 1897, the play landed with Charles Frohman, who met Doyle and suggested that he let Gillette adapt the play. Doyle agreed and Gillette began reworking the play while on tour with Secret Service in San Francisco. During this period, Gillette wired Doyle “May I marry Holmes?” Doyle’s now famous reply was: “You may marry him, murder him, or do anything you like to him.” Within a few weeks, the first draft of the play was completed and with Gillette’s secretary, who was staying at San Francisco’s Baldwin Hotel. The hotel caught fire and although the secretary escaped with his life, the manuscript was lost. Undaunted, Gillette rewrote the play. Gillette headed to England in May 1898 with his new play in hand to receive Doyle’s approval. Doyle met Gillette as the American got off the train at the station near Undershaw, Doyle’s home at the time. Dressed in a deerstalker, an ulster and carrying a silver-topped walking cane, Gillette strode over to an astonished Doyle, pulled out a magnifying glass, examined Doyle and proclaimed, “Unquestionably, an author.” Charles Higham in The Adventures of Conan Doyle wrote that Doyle laughed at the display, shook Gillette’s hand and brought him home to a no-doubt surprised family. Although Doyle made a few minor changes to Gillette’s play, it was accepted by Holmes’ creator. The four-act play draws primarily from A Scandal in Bohemia and The Final Problem but elements are also borrowed from A Study

6 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Boscombe Valley and The Greek Interpreter. After meeting Gillette and reading over the play, Doyle wrote to his son Innes in June 1899: “Sherlock Holmes” is going to be grand. I talked it all over with Gillette. Two of his acts are simply grand. There lies the trump card in our fairly good hand. It will appear in America in October.” The next day, Doyle wrote to his daughter, Mary, stating that he believed “there is a fortune in the other – Sherlock Holmes. Gillette has made a great play out of it, and he is a great actor, and bar some unforeseen event before October, when it will be produced in America, I am sure that it is destined for success.” In the play, Gillette wore the famous deerstalker, first seen in Sidney Paget’s illustrations. He also introduced the cloak and curved pipe. Together, this trio became icons for which Sherlock Holmes is forever known. The play also featured the line, “Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow.” These few words were shortened in Clive Brooks’ movie version of Holmes to “Elementary, my dear Watson.” On October 23, 1899, at the Star Theatre in Buffalo, N.Y., Sherlock Holmes premiered. A few weeks later, on November 6, the play opened in New York City at the Garrick Theatre. One New York critic said that “Sherlock Holmes’ triumph on the stage will equal if not fairly surpass his triumph in the circulating libraries.” Another New York city newspaper, The Herald, said the play produced a “most interesting and exciting evening, a dramatic triumph both as author and actor for William Gillette, who gave the most natural, self-contained, and Gillette Castle – East Haddam, Conn. impressive performance I have ever seen in modern realistic drama.” In a letter to Mary on November 8, 1899, Conan Doyle wrote that he had a “wire from my theatrical agent yesterday night. Splendid success with press and public New York last night. Herald acclaims it as dramatic triumph. Gillette scored success of his career.” The rest, as they say, is theatre history. Gillette went on to play Holmes more than 1,300 times and had box-office receipts of more than $1.5 million. The

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 7 play also popularized the gradual fade-out, or darkening, of the stage before the final curtain, a commonplace theatric device today. In September 1901, Gillette took his play to England. It opened in Liverpool on September 2 and then on the 9th in London at the Lyceum Theatre. Andrew Lycette chronicles that for Christmas that year, Gillette sent Doyle “an illustrated card which read, ‘Mr Sherlock Holmes at the Lyceum Theatre, London, presents his Compliments and Best Wishes of the Season.’ He added a personal message, ‘Did you ever imagine that Sherlock Holmes would be sending his compliments to his maker! Good wishes, dear Doyle.’ ” The play became such a success that on February 1, 1902, Gillette presented a special performance for King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Through their association with Sherlock Holmes, Gillette and Doyle became friends. Gillette sometimes visited Doyle while in England. In March 1908, Conan Doyle wrote to Mary stating that Gillette visited him at his home, Windlesham, and seemed to enjoy himself, and that Gillette and Jean “took to each other.” This friendship came in handy for Gillette in the early days of the First World War. A map of the British embassy in Paris being used as a stage prop for Victorien Sardou’s play Diplomacy was found among Gillette’s belongings when his room was searched by British detectives. British security forces were watching Gillette as a possible spy. To secure his freedom, Gillette had Conan Doyle vouch for him. Lycette reports that Gillette stayed with Doyle, then living in Crowborough, during the early days of the war, as the American was unable to return to New York as planned. Sherlock Holmes and the play had made Gillette famous. Then, as today, no one in the spot light can escape the comedian’s parody. One of the most successful was Sheerluck Jones: or Why D’Gillette Him Off? by Malcom Watson. This play premiered at Terry’s Theatre, The Strand, London, on October 29, 1901, and ran 138 performances. Other parodies of the play popped up on both sides of the Atlantic. No doubt adding to Gillette’s fame in America as Sherlock Holmes was the appearance of the Holmes stories in Collier’s Weekly, illustrated by Frederic Dorr Steele. The American illustrator used Gillette as a model for his illustrations. In May 1922, Goldwyn Pictures released, Sherlock Holmes (released in England with the title Moriarity), starring John Barrymore. In September of that year Goldwyn Corporation, along with Gillette and producer Daniel Frohman launched a lawsuit against Oswald Stoll Company for a series of short Holmes films starring Eillie Norwood over the perceived film rights to Sherlock Holmes. Daniel Frohman, launched the suit with Gillette as Daniel’s brother Charles, whom Gillette was originally associated with, drowned during the sinking of the Lusitania. Goldwyn’s case hinged on the claim that Doyle had signed over the rights to Holmes when he entered into his original agreement with Gillette to produce a stage version of his famous detective. This agreement was in direct conflict with one between Doyle and the Stoll Company, signed in March 1920,

8 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 to adapt the Holmes stories for the screen. The New York Supreme Court heard the case and in November 1922 sided for Stoll Company on a variety of grounds. In 1929, at the age of 76, Gillette started his farewell tour, a series of performances that lasted three years. This tour opened in Springfield, Massachusetts, on November 15, 1929. Letters of congratulations on a long and noted career poured in. Doyle wrote to his American friend stating: “Your return in “Sherlock Holmes” is, of course, a source of personal gratification, my only complaint being that you make the poor hero of the anemic printed page a very limp object as compared with the glamour of your own personality.” Gillette’s final performance in the role of Sherlock Holmes was on March 19, 1932, in Wilmington, Delaware. On October 20, 1930, Gillette appeared as Sherlock Holmes on WEAF radio in New York. A reviewer in The New York Times said: “Sherlock Holmes underwent his third transformation when William Gillette who gave him flesh and blood on the stage, breathed his voice over the radio last Monday night.” The story chosen for this radio dramatization was The Adventure of the Speckled Band. The role of Holmes, and Gillette’s other plays, had made him a wealthy man. It is estimated that his lifetime earnings from the theatre, as writer and actor, were in excess of $3 million in a era before income tax. In the decade from

Gillette Castle Library – All books are Gillette’s own collection

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 9 1900 to 1910, Gillette’s average income was $200,000/year. Gillette enjoyed his wealth and with a fair bit of it built a residence near his childhood home in Connecticut now known as Gillette Castle. In 1912, Gillette bought 115 acres of land along the Connecticut River, near the small village of Hadlyme. In fact, what Gillette bought was most of a hill overlooking the river. Construction of the home began in 1914 but before any work could begin the site had to be cleared and roads built to access the remote hilltop. Five years later the house that Gillette called “Seventh Sister,” named after the seven hills in the surrounding countryside, was ready. The estimated cost of the 24-room mansion was $1 million. The castle, which was completely designed by its owner, is a tribute to Gillette’s active mind and engineering knowledge. The 47 doors in the house all have puzzle locks, no two of which are alike. The house’s main entertaining room features a complex mirror system that Gillette Castle allowed Gillette to observe his guests from his bedroom, tucked away on the second floor, without being seen. The great actor once explained this feature as being there “to make great entrances in the opportune moment.” In addition to the fanciful house, complete with turrets and a stone fascade, the property featured a small railway. The line had three miles of track, crossed several bridges and ran through one tunnel on the property. Today, visitors can tour Gillette Castle and wander the property, which was purchased by the state in 1943. A major renovation project to the grounds and residence was completed in 2003 at a cost of $10 million. This project included a modern visitor centre, the centerpiece of which is one of Gillette’s two miniature railway engines. This new centre has a small gift shop featuring a number of items that bear the famous Sherlock Holmes silhouette on it ― that familiar deerstalker and pipe image made famous by the former owner of the castle just a few feet away.

Mark Alberstat is the editor of Canadian Holmes and has now switched his shaving regimen from Bic to Gillette.

10 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong

Perish the thought. But before you do, read this book review

By Richard Brown

ierre Bayard is a professor of French Literature at the University of Paris VIII and a psychoanalyst. In this book, he takes an analytical and P psychoanalytical approach to the relationship between fiction and reality, the relationship between Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, the relationship between the reader and Sherlock Holmes, and the solution of the mystery of the murders of two people in The Hound of the Baskervilles and the attempted murder of a third person. Were they murders or not? And, if so, who was murdered and who was the murderer? The book is divided into six sections. The first (the Devonshire Moors: Dartmoor) is a short chapter and gives the backstory of Hugo Baskerville, who kidnapped a farm girl and locked her in the upper chamber of Baskerville Hall. When she escaped onto the moor, he chased her until she died of exhaustion. A giant hound then attacked and killed Baskerville. Section 2 (Investigation) summarizes, in four chapters, Doyle’s tale of Sherlock Holmes’ investigation of the recent death of Sir Charles Baskerville at Baskerville Hall, the events surrounding his death, and the denouement on those same moors, published as The Hound of the Baskervilles. This section discusses Holmes’ methods for solving crimes: observation and deduction, with examples from many of his cases. The fourth chapter examines the failures of Holmes' methods, with examples of cases where his methods led him to the wrong conclusions. “There are two kinds of mistakes — either Holmes is wrong — in his actions or in his reasoning — or he doesn’t arrive at the solution” (p. 45). Bayard points out three flaws in Holmes’ methods which lead him to erroneous conclusions: the way that clues are collected, the way that the clues are interpreted, and the failure of Holmes to grasp “the factor of individual psychology,” “the place of the subject in the overall interpretation of the case” (p. 51). Section 3 (Counter-Investigation) examines the nature of “detective criticism” and points out that Holmes has overlooked many salient features of the social interactions among the people involved in the events around Baskerville Hall. Detective criticism, a field created by the author, and first employed in his book “Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?”, a reanalysis of Agatha Christie’s most famous mystery, is defined “to be more rigorous than even the detectives in the literature and the writers who create them, and thus to work out solutions that are more satisfying to the soul” (p. 57).

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 11 Detective criticism is based on the principle that “the world that the literary text produces is an incomplete world” (p. 65). Much as a photograph shows only a portion of a scene, a novel describes only a portion of the physical and social features of the setting, the characters and the plot. The reader must fill in the details. According to Bayard, “written descriptions, compared to figurative painting and cinema, leave much more room for the inventiveness of the reader” (p. 65). He then turns to the fact that the story of The Hound of the Baskervilles is told as perceived by Dr. Watson, who often makes errors of interpretation when asked by Holmes to examine clues, as evidenced by his analysis of Dr. Mortimer’s cane. Thus, many clues at Baskerville Hall may have been missed or misinterpreted by Watson in his communications to Holmes. The story hinges on the hound, which is supposed to have committed two murders, those of Charles Baskerville and the criminal Seldon, and then attacks Sir Henry Baskerville. But are these really murders, and did the dog commit them? Bayard suggests that the dog may have been wrongly accused. And was Stapleton really the serial criminal with murderous intentions that he is described as in the narrative? Thus, while Holmes is certain that Stapleton is behind the death of Charles Baskerville and has masterminded the attempted murder of Sir Henry, Bayard suggests an alternative interpretation of his behaviour. In the fourth section (Fantasy), Bayard investigates the eternal triangle between the author and creator of a fictional character: the fictional character himself, who can take on a life independent of his creator, and the reader, who often comes to believe that the fictional character is, in fact, real. What, for example, was Conan Doyle’s relationship to Sherlock Holmes, a character that he had created and then killed off, and then reluctantly brought back to life? Conan Doyle wrote that he had to kill Holmes “before he killed me” (p. 129). Yet the readers of the Holmes stories insisted that he be brought back to life. And so he was in The Hound of the Baskervilles, a story that occurred before the events at the Reichenbach Falls, but was reported only after the disappearance of Holmes. The relationship between Sherlock Holmes and the readers of his adventures is clear. He is their hero, their alter ego, and for many, he is a real person who can help them solve mysteries in their own lives — as indicated in the many letters written to Sherlock Holmes and received by the offices at 221 Baker St. Sherlock Holmes has become more famous than his creator. He has come alive, and, even after his death, the readers of his adventures demanded that he be resurrected. Thus, according to Bayard, Conan Doyle, in resurrecting Holmes,

12 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 showed him to be incompetent and easily duped by an Irene Adler — like women in The Hound of the Baskervilles. Holmes is back, but he is not the infallible hero that his readers want him to be. His giant brain drives him like a locomotive along the tracks to the solution of the mystery, but they are the wrong tracks and he reaches the wrong destination. Sherlock Holmes was wrong. The fifth section of the book (Reality) re-examines the social milieu of Baskerville Hall from a different perspective, that of the emotions and passions between characters, for both emotional and financial gain, and comes to a very different conclusion about the behaviour of Stapleton and the hound and a very different conclusion about the real villain of the story. The sixth and final section (The Hound of the Baskervilles) imagines the result of the undetected murder and the future social, emotional and material success of the murderer, who has succeeded in duping the world’s greatest detective into: believing that a murder occurred, when there was none; blaming a dog that was innocent; determining that Stapleton was the criminal mastermind behind the plot when he was innocent; and completely overlooking the real criminal and his or her reasons for conjuring up the entire charade for the benefit of Holmes, who, in fact, becomes an accomplice in committing the murder of the intended victim. Whether you agree with Bayard or not, the reading of the Canon of Sherlock Holmes stories, other mystery stories and even all other novels takes on a new meaning after reading this book.

Dr. Richard Brown is a Sherlockian living in Halifax. When he isn’t reading mystery books he lectures at Dalhousie University in the Psychology Department.

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 13 Letters from Lomax

Musing and comments from Peggy Perdue at the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection of the Toronto Reference Library

isitors to the ACD Room are sometimes surprised to hear that we are continuing to add to the collection. Perhaps this reaction is to be V expected, since we have, to a certain extent, intentionally created the illusion of a place where time stands still. Look beyond that initial impression of antique furniture and vintage books, however, and you will see a collection which is constantly growing and changing. In addition to acquiring rare items and manuscript materials whenever possible, each year we bring in an eclectic mix of new publications that you may have read about in Canadian Holmes or other Sherlockian journals and newsletters. The New Books shelf is particularly full at the moment so let’s take a look at what’s there. There are some nice new editions of the Canon by Vintage Classics, Penguin and Prion, as well as a rather exciting new graphic novel version of The Hound of the Baskervilles (adapted by Ian Edginton, Illus. by I.N.J. Culbard. NY: Sterling, 2009). At least three more Holmes story adaptations are planned for this series. There are also plenty of new pastiches on our shelves, including Sherlock Holmes: the Montana Chronicles by John S. Fitzpatrick (Riverbend Publishing: Helena, Montana, 2008), The Children of Sherlock Holmes by Dr. Ben F. Eller (Raleigh, NC: Pendium, 2008), Sherlock Holmes and the Vampires of Eternity by Brian Stableford (Black Coat Press: Encino, 2009), The Merchant of Death by June Dixon and Donald Monat (Lincoln: iUniverse, 2008), The Exploits of the Second Mrs. Watson by Michael Mallory (Dallas: Top Publications, 2008) and, if these aren’t unusual enough for you, there’s also The Unusual Sherlock Holmes by Jerry “B-P” Riggs. (West Conshocken, PA: Infinity, 2007). Some pastiches inevitably generate more mainstream interest than others, and this year Bootmakers will be hearing about Lyndsay Faye’s Ripper tale Dust and Shadow (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2009) and The Baker Street Letters by Michael Robertson (NY: Minotaur, 2009). The latter is not, in fact, another compilation of actual letters to Baker Street but a tale about two lawyer brothers who rent an office at 221B Baker Street. Pastiche collections worth a read include Sherlock Holmes in America (New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2009), edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L. Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower, a team of editors who have individually added many good volumes to the Sherlockian’s bookshelf. The stories are all new and include a submission from our former Bootprint, Christopher Redmond. There’s plenty of Canadian content in Gaslight Grimoire: Fantastic Tales of Sherlock Holmes (edited by 14 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 J.R. Campbell and Charles Prepolec. Calgary: Edge, 2008), including stories from Peter Calamai and another former Bootprint, Barbara Roden. From the other side of the world comes Sherlock Holmes in Russia (edited and translated by Alex Auswaks. London: Robert Hale, 2008). The book includes an introduction by George Piliev that relates the intriguing tale of how the Canon and subsequent pastiches have been received in Russia. There are several new volumes of Doylean interest on the New Books shelf. The Fate of Fenella was an experimental work when it was first published in 1892. It was a mystery thriller in 24 chapters, each written by a prominent late Victorian author, including ACD, Bram Stoker and many whose names will be less familiar. The new edition by Valencourt Books (2008) includes mini bios of the authors, which may be the most interesting part of the book. Another new addition that delves into the world of Sir Arthur and his associates is A Jew in the Public Arena: the Career of Israel Zangwill (Detroit: Wayne State U. Press, 2008); many thanks to Bootmaker Lillian Falk for this donation. Both ACD and his illustrator George Hutchinson are mentioned in this tale of the life of the writer/activist who coined the term “melting pot.” This may be a result of the new-movie buzz, but there seems to be a good selection of Arthur Conan Doyle’s “other works” available this year. Skyhorse publishing has published a new edition of some of Arthur Conan Doyle’s lesser- known tales in Vampire Stories (NY: Skyhorse, 2009). Canadian Holmes readers with a Doylean bent are probably wondering if ACD wrote enough vampire stories for a whole collection. He did in the opinion of editors Robert Eighteen-Bisang and Martin H. Greenberg, who have included such works as “The Ring of Thoth” and “The Parasite” in the mix. Whether ACD ever intended these tales as vampiric or not, this interpretation is a good ploy for a market in which vampires are hot, hot, hot. Conan Doyle’s historic novels are also represented on the New Books shelf. Never ones to be afraid of largely forgotten classics, Dover has put out a new edition of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sir Nigel, complete with the original illustrations by Arthur Twidle (Mineola, NY: Dover, 2009). Finally, and shockingly, we have acquired a book called Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong: Reopening the Case of the Hound of the Baskervilles (NY: Bloomsbury, 2008) by Pierre Bayard, the author of How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read. The first objection to this work springs almost too easily to mind—was Holmes really wrong or is Mr. Bayard once again talking about a book he hasn’t actually read? [ed. note: please see review of this book on pg. 12] As always, Canadian Holmes readers are welcome to investigate any of the above books in the Arthur Conan Doyle Room at the Toronto Reference Library.

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 15 The Foundations of Sherlockian Scholarship

By Doug Wrigglesworth

It is my analysis of the documents found in the Coptic monasteries of Syria and Egypt, a work which will cut deep at the very foundation of revealed religion. - Professor Coram to Holmes in The Golden Pince-Nez

here can be no doubt that the Sherlockian World is indeed a literary one, and one whose foundation rests upon the shoulders of some true giants of T erudition and wit. While we continue to enjoy the products of a new generation of contributors to the field, it is wise to remember those who have come before. Very early contributions to the scholarly examinations of Watson’s stories may be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century, with seminal works such as Msgr. Ronald Knox’s Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes. Soon the richest trove of early material was being produced in two rather disparate locations – the shining spires of Oxbridge and the lively literary communities across the Atlantic in New York and Chicago. The 1930s saw a rich output of Holmesian thought from such pioneers as Sir Sydney Roberts of Cambridge and Dorothy Sayers of Oxford. Perhaps the most prolific of the British was the redoubtable Michael Harrison, whose works provide those wonderful links between the world of the Sherlockian tales and the Victorian England of history. In the United States, the first major contribution to the field of Sherlockian scholarship is usually considered to be The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1933 by Vincent Starrett. This was followed over the next two decades by a flood of wonderful wit and erudition by such luminaries as Christopher Morley, H. W. Bell, W. S. Baring-Gould, Edgar W. Smith, Anthony Boucher and Ellery Queen, among many others. Much of this was inspired by the formation of the Baker Street Irregulars in 1934 by Christopher Morley. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, many of these seminal writings are difficult and/or expensive to acquire and are only available in such treasure houses as our own Arthur Conan Doyle Collection in Toronto and similar library collections. As new generations of enthusiasts join those who ‘keep the memory of the Master green,’ it is important that they are given an opportunity to become familiar with the works of those who have gone before. It is with this in mind that I hope to begin a short series of reviews of some of these writings in Canadian Holmes, with the kind permission of the Bootprint(s).

16 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett. First published in 1933 by Macmillan with many editions and reprints, most notably: New revised and expanded edition in 1961 by the University of Chicago Press175th Anniversary Edition, edited by Ray Betzner in 2008 by Gasogene Books2

Happily, this historic book is more readily available than most, thanks to the many reprints, and the excellent new edition released to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the

first edition is a particular delight. Toronto-born Vincent Starrett moved with his family to Chicago at an early age, but returned to Toronto frequently for summer holidays, which he spent with his loving aunts. His autobiography, Born in a Bookshop, describes his hours surrounded by books in his grandfather’s bookstore. The Upper Canada Bible and Tract Society was located at 100 Yonge Street ― a building now housing a shoe store ― strangely one with no products of Meyers’ workshop on display. Starrett’s career in Chicago as a journalist and critic allowed him opportunities to explore the Sherlockian world, beginning with a lively and frequent exchange of letters with Dr. Gray Chandler Briggs of St. Louis.3 When The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes appeared in 1933, it was an immediate success. The title of Starrett’s biography, The Last Bookman,4 demonstrates his own passion for books ― and is perhaps symbolic of the many other ‘bookmen’ (and women) who followed. All Sherlockians are perhaps most familiar with Starrett’s other seminal work, the sonnet 221b, often referred to as “The Sherlockian Hymn.” Written at the height of the Second World War, it is really a work that evokes the memories of an England before both world conflicts and expresses a certain hope that “England is still England yet, for all our fears – . . . here though the world explode, these two survive.” The Private Life provides a most skilful blending the three main themes of Sherlockian writing: an analysis of the Sherlockian Canon; an analysis of Arthur Conan Doyle as author (and as Watson’s agent); and an analysis of the Victorian

1 This edition also includes “The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet,” first published privately by Vincent Starrett in 1920. It is one of the earliest true pastiches and is considered by some, such as Ellery Queen, to be best. 2 Gasogene Books is an imprint of Wessex Press www.wessexpress.com 3 Lellenberg, John (ed). Dear Starrett – Dear Briggs. 1989. Baker Street Irregulars. Fordham University Press. 4 Ruber, Peter. The Last Bookman 1968. New York. The Candlelight Press. Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 17 and Edwardian eras depicted in the Canon. Yes, this fountainhead of American Sherlockiana does recognize the role of Arthur Conan Doyle in creating Sherlock Holmes but skilfully includes Watson as chronicler of the tales. Readers will enjoy the author’s deft turn of phrase as he introduces us to the world of Sherlock Holmes and his companion, Watson. The opening chapter is titled “Enter Mr. Sherlock Holmes” and leads us through the London “season” of 1886, the London theatre and literary scene, the life of an impoverished doctor in Southsea, his inspirations for writing, and the pivotal meeting of Holmes and Watson at St. Bart’s in early 1881. This light-hearted but carefully researched and considered story continues as we learn of Holmes’ habits and methods, of his relationships with Watson and his clients, and find, for perhaps the first time in print, all those small bits of information scattered through the Canon that may be connected to give us a more complete picture of Holmes and Watson. Included in this volume are two very challenging “Examination Papers” to encourage further study of the Canon and sharpen the curiosity of even the most learned students of the Canon. Also included is an epilogue that challenges the list of the seven most- interesting streets of the world compiled by Robert Ripley (of “Believe it or Not” fame). Ripley’s list does not include Baker Street and Starrett strongly suggests: For surely it is Baker Street in London, the erstwhile home of Sherlock and his Watson? A drab street - cold and inhospitable; a street of ghosts. A London fog done over into brick and stone. Wherein stalk the spirits of those two departed great ones of the earth. And since there is nothing quite so real as the unreal, perhaps these ghosts walk there with more persuasive tread than any of those other ghosts we call the living. Who is the ragged urchin offering his papers of an evening, at the Marylebone crossing, when the crowds are scurrying homeward from the Baker Street station of the Tube? May he not be that veritable Wiggins who was the leader of the “Baker Street Irregulars”? And the tall man, sharp of feature, with the eagle glance, attended by the square-set, moustached military surgeon – who is he? If there be one yet living who doubts the reality of these wraiths, let him write to the Central Post Office, in London, and ascertain how many hundreds of letters have been received, during the last quarter of a century, addressed to Mr. Sherlock Holmes, at 221B Baker Street — a man who never lived and a house that never existed. I heartily recommend The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes as an engaging and enlightening place to begin to explore “The Foundations of Sherlockian Scholarship.”

18 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10

OOTMAKERS’ DIARY

The Bootmaker’s Diary is written and compiled by Donny Zaldin (with contributions by Trevor Raymond). Please submit diary entries to: [email protected]

Saturday, September 26, 2009 ― Story Meeting: The Golden Pince-Nez Meyers 2009 Trevor Raymond welcomes forty-plus Bootmakers and guests for the year’s third story meeting, The Golden Pince-Nez, to historic Campbell House, on the northwest corner of Queen Street West and University Avenue. Docent Kathryn Oledzki gives us a history lesson and guided tour of this precious legacy of Canadian heritage and architecture built in 1822 for William Campbell, the then Chief Justice of Upper Canada, who was later knighted. The building is now the oldest remaining brick home from the Town of York (founded in 1793), as the City of Toronto (incorporated in 1834) was first known. After it was moved in 1973 from its original location on Adelaide Street, the house was restored and officially opened to the public by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in 1974 and its rooms are all open for our visit and tour this evening. Right Shoehorn Doug Wrigglesworth introduces the story (which he titles “Nihilism meets Sherlock Holmes”) in a PowerPoint presentation by examining the puzzling dying words of the late Willoughby Smith, secretary to the distinguished Professor Coram (aka Sergius) of Yoxley Old Place, Kent, and the significance of the expensive eyeware that the dead man was clutching in hand, according to various sources of scholarship (Universal, Dakin, Oxford, Klinger, BSJ, etc.). In his capacity as Meyers 2010, Doug releases the schedule for the upcoming year’s events, beginning with the Blue Carbuncle Dinner (formerly the Banquet and Awards Dinner) at the Royal Military Institute on January 30th at a cost of $60, with reservations required. The five story meetings are scheduled for February 27th, April 24th, September 11th, October 23rd and December 4th. The 7th annual Falls and Rise of Sherlock Holmes (also known as Pub Night) and celebration of the birthday of “a certain gracious lady” will be held on May 23rd and the date of the 23rd annual Silver Blaze Event at Woodbine Race Course will be announced in the new year. Doug extends our gratitude and indebtedness to Chris Redmond for his very fine work as interim Bootprint, and informs us that Canadian Holmes will be returning to its quarterly publishing schedule with our new editing team, Master Bootmaker Mark Alberstat and his wife, JoAnn Alberstat, with the Bootmakers’ Diary compiled and written by their Toronto correspondent, Donny Zaldin. Meyers offers up a comment about the Granada version of the story, which had added to it a sub-plot about suffragettes, perhaps to fill its allotted television time – but which, of course, retained the mystery of the murder victim’s final words, “The professor – it was she.” Dayna Nuhn updates and reprises her scholarly and witty paper presented years Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 19 ago on “dying words,” of which there number four occasions in the Canon in which such a clue was puzzled over by all but solved only by Holmes. The others: the “band” in The Speckled Band, the “rat” in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, and the “Lion’s Mane” in the story of the same name. Meyers draws to the attention of Sherlockians present some recent and noteworthy publications by Bootmakers. The current (i.e. Summer and Autumn 2009) issue of The Passengers’ Log, a great publication by The Sydney Passengers of Australia, contains a lengthy piece by former Meyers (1989) Doug Elliott, who has been transported Down Under. Titled, “The Prophet: Conan Doyle in Sydney”, it is a very detailed day-by-day account of a 1920 visit to the Australian metropolis by The Literary Agent. Another former Meyers (1986), Kate Karlson, is co-author (with Rafe McGregor) of an intriguing and, sadly, topical paper titled, “John H. Watson, MD, Late of the Army Medical Department: Survivor of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” in the Summer 2009 issue of The Sherlock Holmes Journal, published by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. And there are two papers about our story for this evening in the Summer 2009 edition of The Baker Street Journal. One, “Cheese It, the Copts: Notes on the Work of Professor Coram” is by our own Chris Redmond. Yet another former Meyers (1974-75), Hartley Nathan, has an astonishing Show and Tell item: a very special “Penang lawyer” discovered in an unusual shop in London. The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana defines such an item as: “a walking-stick, usually with a bulbous head, made of palm-wood and imported from Penang, a British-owned island off the west coast of Malaya, or from Singapore.” Fitzroy Simpson in Silver Blaze had one, the whereabouts of which is, sadly, unknown. But Hartley is the proud owner of another one, which he shares with us – to the sheer delight and amazement of all of us present. This must be, surely, one of the great treasures of Sherlockiana: a beautiful, sturdy and almost threatening Penang lawyer, clearly engraved with the words: “To James Mortimer, M.R.C.S. from his friends of the C.C.H. 1884.” Hartley is careful (and well-advised) not to take his eyes (or hands) off his prize, which he has brought to share with all of us. It is now showtime for our popular musical duo, now unofficially named after one of Conan Doyle’s lesser-known books, A Duet with an Occasional Chorus. Karen Campbell has two clever and entertaining musical takes on tonight’s story, and is accompanied by Craig Brtnik at the keyboard. Both numbers are sung to the tunes of well-known theme songs from two classic James Bond movies. Craig concludes the musical segment of our evening with a reprise of his ever-so-clever song inspired by The Adventure of the Second Stain. The first part of our evening ends with the distribution of a quiz on tonight’s story by our Quizzards, Barbara Rusch and Donny Zaldin, adhering to their mission statement to test the crime- or problem-solving process (of turning clues into deductions) and the connections to other stories. Meyers then invites us to take a 25-minute break to explore Campbell House, visit with old friends and newcomers, and enjoy food from a table bounteously laid by Mrs. Hudson (Sue McInnes), and wash it down with liquid refreshment provided by Mrs. and Mr. Turner (Dayna Nuhn and Donny Zaldin). After our interval, Barbara and Donny take up the quiz, with the night’s three winners selecting prizes from Sherlockian books and items available for that purpose. A special prize (for the bonus question) goes to Sue McInnes for her knowledge of the Archimedes palimpsest, a manuscript page of the great Syracusan mathematician and reasoner (a là Holmes), copied onto parchment in the tenth century and overwritten by a liturgical text in the twelfth century.

20 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 Donny Zaldin introduces our special guests, Don Hobbs from Flower Mound, Texas, and Dean Clark from Tulsa, Oklahoma, who entertain us with a special presentation: a 30-minute DVD of their “Great Whimsical Sherlockian Tour of Oklahoma and Texas” – the Quixotic 2005 Sherlockian Odyssey, which chronicles the week-long automobile journey of five middle-aged men wearing matching canary yellow T-shirts seeking (and finding) arguably tenuous Sherlockian connections and associations in Watson, Oklahoma, and Sherlock, Texas. Don is a world-renowned modern-day Sherlockian explorer who has travelled more extensively than Sigerson. He is known internationally as the "Maniac Collector" of all things Sherlockian, is the world’s foremost expert on Sherlockian foreign-language editions and the proud owner of the most extensive privately owned library in the world of foreign editions of Sherlock Holmes and related writings. Dean met Sherlock Holmes in a “Classic Comic” version of A Study in Scarlet in 1956 and has been a devoted fan ever since. He is a co-founder of the Afghanistan Perceivers of Oklahoma in 1974, an author of nine Sherlockian pastiches and, inexplicably, the only Sherlockian to visit Watson, Oklahoma, twice. He lives in Tulsa and in his spare time, edits a journal published by The Society of Exploration Geophysicists. Meyers then thanks Don and Dean for their amusing and unusual entertainment and presents each of them with mementos of our visit to this historic Toronto building: a Campbell House coffee mug. In addition, The Bootmakers have a special thank-you for our Texan guest: a special gift that might prove useful on future excursions – a walking stick, custom-made by a Guelph craftsman from a piece of Bebb’s Willow selected by the woodworker during a walk he made with Meyers along the banks of the Eramosa River a waterway designated as a Canadian Heritage River. The walking stick has a small wooden whistle attached, a metal tip and on its top under clear plastic, is the logo of The Bootmakers of Toronto, on whose behalf Meyers makes the presentation. A metal plate

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 21 attached to the stick is engraved, “Presented to Don Hobbs from The Bootmakers of Toronto, 26 September 2009.” It remains only for Meyers to sincerely and graciously thank the many people who made this evening a memorable one: Liz Driver, the curator of Campbell House, who, unfortunately, could not be in attendance this evening, for her invaluable help in organizing the evening; our hostess and tour guide for the evening, Kathryn Oledzki; our front-entrance greeters; Peggy Perdue, Jan Raymond and Stephanie Thomas; Doug Wrigglesworth for his always-able assistance with technical matters, and Stephanie, who saved us by dashing home for a vital electronic component. And, of course, we would have had no meeting without those who spoke and presented and performed. The visit of our special Southwestern American guests, Texan Don Hobbs and Oklahoman Dean Clark, for both of whom this was their first time in Toronto, was arranged by Donny Zaldin and Barbara Rusch, who also billeted, fed, entertained and transported them to local Sherlockian and non-Sherlockian events and points of interest during their visit north of the 49th parallel.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 Club 48, an organization of retired educators, holds its monthly meeting this afternoon at the University Women’s Club in downtown Toronto. After tea and biscuits and visiting, guest speaker Doug Wrigglesworth entertains and informs the audience with an engrossing illustrated address on the lives and work of Sir Arthur Conan. Afterward, he responds to a variety of questions and comments and makes available “A Highly Selective Conan Doyle Bibliography” as well as information about the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection and the Bootmakers of Toronto. Among the retired educators present are Jan and Trevor Raymond.

Monday, October 19, 2009 Seven members of the Bootmaker Birthday Club: Karen Campbell, Dave Sanders, Noreen Crifo, Kathy Burns, Philip Elliott, Barbara Rusch and newbie Donny Zaldin meet for Chinese food at the Mandarin Restaurant for a sumptuous buffet birthday dinner to celebrate the birthdays of Noreen (November 5) and Dave (November 6).

Saturday, October 24, 2009 ― Story Meeting: The Three Students Forty-odd (figuratively- and literally-speaking) Bootmakers heed the summons of former educator Trevor Raymond to the year’s fourth story meeting, The Three Students. The meeting notice cleverly announces the replacement of the previously scheduled examination on Thucydides, prepared by Mr. Hilton Soames, tutor and lecturer at the College of St. Luke’s, by Meyers’s curriculum, due to an unfortunate incident at one of England’s great university towns, in (you guessed it) 1895. The story was previously examined in 1981 at the Enoch Turner School House and at the Toronto Reference Library in 1991, at which time and place Chris Redmond précised the moral of the story as “Cheaters never prosper but they get good colonial jobs” and in 1986 decried the locked-room format of the story (in which Holmes must choose one of precisely three suspects in a carefully confined area) as just a little too pat, too artificial (“It isn’t Papa Bear, and it isn’t Mama Bear, so it must be door number 3”). In an insightful PowerPoint review of the usual suspects of sources (Universal, Oxford, Dakin, Klinger and BSJ, plus Blakeney and Sayers), Doug Wrigglesworth introduces the story as one of the first gold mines for higher or scholarly criticism. Issues include the Oxford-Cambridge debate, exam security, academic malfeasance, the Fortescue

22 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 Scholarship (real or fake – which question Trevor answers later in the meeting), English Charters and Holmes’s attitude towards Watson. Margot French, who is involved in her other life with examination security at the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, presents a history of examination and scholarship in England, focuses on the “breach of security” which took place on Mr. Soames’ watch and then cites and compares examination security and invigilation then in England versus now in Ontario. Margot canvasses two differing assessments of the incident; by Holmes, as the problem of the nervous tutor, the careless servant and three enterprising students; and by modern Sherlockian annotator extraordinaire Les Klinger, as a crime regarding a student who cheats on an exam. In either case, Holmes clears up the problem without the involvement of the official police and avoids a scandal by sweeping the matter under the rug (until Watson brings it up by publishing the story), reprising his role as the final court of appeal by allowing Gilchrist to pursue his career and destiny in Rhodesia to see, in the future, how high he can rise. Playwright Ray Rawlings directs his Bootmaker Players (Dave Drennan as Holmes, Dave Sanders as Professor Soames, David Harris as James Gilchrist, Ray Rawlings as Raffles and Deanna Moreira as Helen Bradshaw, with Marmey Rawlings as Prompter) in a dramatic interpretation of the story. The audience mingles and enjoys the excellent repast prepared and presented by Mrs. Hudson (Sue McInnes) and Mrs. Turner (Dayna Nuhn). After the break, Quizzards Barbara Rusch and Donny Zaldin test our knowledge with a challenging quiz about how Holmes solves the mystery and how the story connects to the other stories. The bonus question, entitled “A Numbers Game,” explores the Canonical significance of the numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 17. The night’s three winners, Bruce Aikin, Karen Campbell and Garth Hazlett, select Sherlockian books or items as their prizes and good sport David Earle earns the “dunce cap” for answering all the questions and achieving the lowest score. We are reminded and urged to attend the upcoming free November 7, 2009, afternoon program conceived and organized by Dayna Nuhn and presented by the Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society and the Toronto Public Library, entitled “Arthur Conan Doyle Among the Fairies.” Attention is directed to the facsimile manuscript of “The Three Students” (which is held at the Houghton Library at Harvard University) entitled “So Painful a Scandal,” a transcription with extensive annotation, edited by John Bergquist of The Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota. For “Show and Tell,” Gary Marnoch delivers an interesting and informative presentation on the history of pencils and U.K. and U.S. pencil manufacturers Faber and Castell, and proves false Holmes’s deduction about the length of the pencil used by the offending student (based on the wrong assumption that the initials “NN” were from the name “JOHANN,” placed a particular distance from the end). We are entertained to a musical treatise by A Duet with an Occasional Chorus, Karen Campbell on vocals and Craig Brtnik at the keyboard, who write and perform two clever numbers: Gilchrist’s Song, sung to the tune of “Wonderful World” by Sam Cooke (which starts, “Don’t know much about Thucydides / Don’t know much about Euripedes / Don’t know much about Socrates / Guess these guys are all Greek to me”) and “Let’s Sleuth at School,” sung to the tune of “Be True to Your School” by the Beach Boys. In his paper “Open Channel D,” Dave Sanders uncovers a Sherlockian connection to the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The Agency’s Chief nemesis, T.H.R.U.S.H. (The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity), whose aim was to rule the world in an all-pervasive

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 23 dictatorship of mind and body reminiscent of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, was founded in 1895 by the survivors of an unnamed criminal organization founded by a professor of mathematics and crime who died in 1891 in a fall at the Reichenbach in Switzerland. In anticipation of Halloween in exactly one week’s time, Dave Dunn delivers a presentation on Conan Doyle’s friend Harry Houdini. Doyle and Houdini had an unlikely relationship, which was destroyed in 1922 because of their differing views on Spiritualism and a disputed séance conducted in Atlantic City by Lady Conan Doyle at which she claimed to have reached Houdini’s mother on “the other side.” Finally, ACD Collection Curator Peggy Perdue shows us different books and ephemera from the Collection and invites us all to visit and use the available resources.

Saturday, November 7, 2009: Fairy Day Over fifty people, the majority of them members of The Bootmakers of Toronto, fill the Beeton Auditorium at the Toronto Reference Library for a free public afternoon program jointly sponsored by The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection and the Toronto Public Library. The event is organized by Dayna Nuhn to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The topic was chosen to illustrate a non-Sherlockian interest of ACD, a genuine Renaissance man, with a varied width and breadth of literary and other interests. Barbara Rusch reprises her 1998 presentation at the Art Gallery of Ontario, titled, “A Family Obsession: Arthur Conan Doyle and the Fairies.” She explains that the Victorians embraced an enchanting fairy culture in literature, theatre and art fuelled, in part, by the ethos of alienation and cynicism of the new Industrial Age. In a sense, ACD was a product of that yearning to return to a mythical, more innocent time. He may also have been influenced by his uncle, Dicky Doyle, a celebrated painter of fairies and other elemental creatures, and by his own father, Charles Altamont Doyle, whose fairy paintings Frances Griffiths with the fairies. Photo were acclaimed, though he spent his later taken by Elsie Wright in July 1917. years in an asylum, haunted by sinister, menacing creatures, the reflection of his own dark and disturbed psyche. Possibly propelled by some genetic imperative, Conan Doyle took up the torch and promoted the claims of two young cousins, 9-year old Frances Griffiths and 16-year old Elsie Wright, who claimed to have taken photographs of fairies at the bottom of their garden in 1917, in what came to be known as the case of the Cottingley Fairies. It was more than sixty years later that the two confessed to a playful bit of fun that had gotten out of hand. Barbara has recently made contact with the daughter of the younger of the girls, who has recently completed and published her mother’s memoirs. The Bootmakers and the FACD look forward to hearing more on this fascinating, if somewhat embarrassing, chapter in the life of ACD. Guest speaker Deb Scorsone delivers a presentation she calls “Fairies 101,” an introductory discussion of fairies and their impact in historical and modern-day culture.

24 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 Their portrayal in the art of Gusav Doré and Arthur Rackham and the literature of Shakespeare, Walter Scott, Kipling, C.S. Lewis and J.M. Barrie invaded popular culture. These mythological beings, legendary creatures or forms of spirits are not always as adorable as the fairy Tinkerbell from Peter Pan; often their charm belies their demonic nature and the danger they pose to the unwary. Fairies inhabit inverted or liminal spaces (i.e. below conscious awareness), being barely perceptible and relating to a sensory threshold or an intermediate state. They exist between discernible boundaries, especially unknown and dark ones, and their variable disposition toward humans means that they can be either benevolent or malevolent. In Ireland in 1895, Bridget Cleary was killed by her husband, who unsuccessfully claimed that she was a fairy changeling. This belief that she had been replaced by an evil fairy was not as uncommon as might be supposed. The program concludes with the showing of Fairy Tale: A True Story, the 1997 movie from Paramount Pictures (starring Peter O’Toole as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), based on the story of the Cottingley Fairies, contrasting the different beliefs in the existence of fairies and the use of scientific advancements to shed light on this disputed issue.

Monday, November 23, 2009 Jan and Meyers Trevor Raymond are met at their Montreal hotel this evening by Wilfrid de Freitas of The Bimetallic Question of Montreal and enjoy a pleasant evening of dinner and conversation with Wilfrid and his wife, Susan, at their lovely home, where Trevor admires some of Wilfrid’s Sherlockian treasures with a tinge of envy. Later, Wilfrid takes Trevor and Jan on a late-evening drive around Westmount, including a stop at a scenic overlook from which they view the splendid island city of the St. Lawrence and pause briefly in front of The Priory School. Meyers is unable to see Patrick Campbell because he is undergoing medical tests but the two have a lengthy telephone chat during which Trevor wishes Patrick well on behalf of all of his fellow Bootmakers.

Wednesday, December, 2, 2009: A Special Bootmaker Birthday Christmas Day, 2009 marks the 90th birthday of long-time Bootmaker Les Shemilt, Order of Canada. Meyers Trevor Raymond, on behalf of The Bootmakers of Toronto, and Doug Wrigglesworth, on behalf of The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection (of which Les has been a generous supporter since its inception), are among 65 of Les’s colleagues and friends who attend a reception at the Faculty Club of McMaster University in Hamilton this afternoon to celebrate the first nine decades of his life. Greetings are read from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London and both Trevor and Doug are honoured to speak at the event. Les presented his first paper at a Bootmaker meeting in February 1978 (which earned Les the True Davidson Award the following January) and his most recent paper appeared in Canadian Holmes, vol. 26 no. 1 (Michaelemas 2002). Meyers has the great honour of elevating Les to the rank of Master Bootmaker this day (to the delight of the recipient), in recognition of his longstanding association with the Society and enthusiasm in helping keep green the memory of the world’s most famous consulting detective. At its conclusion, the event is

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 25 highlighted by a ceremonial cutting of a magnificent three-tier birthday cake decorated with icing of Sherlockian memorabilia and topped by an edible deerstalker.

Saturday, December 5, 2009 ― Story Meeting: The Solitary Cyclist Meyers Trevor Raymond welcomes more than fifty Bootmakers and guests to the year’s fourth story meeting, The Solitary Cyclist, at the Toronto Reference Library. After a review of the year’s events, Trevor makes a special announcement: Warner Bros. has extended an invitation to the Bootmakers (thanks in part to Les Klinger) to an advance showing of the much-awaited film Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law. The advance showing is scheduled for December 21st, four days before the movie’s general release. As well, Warner Bros. has kindly donated promotional material such as posters, drinking cups and key chains – some of which will be awarded as quiz prizes later in the programme. In his usual self-effacing manner, Trevor welcomes everyone in attendance and thanks all those who have contributed, are presently contributing, or may in future contribute to a Bootmaker event. Right Shoehorn Doug Wrigglesworth reviews his sources of scholarship (Universal, Dakin, Oxford, Klinger, BSJ, Baker Street Miscellanea and CH Index) and introduces the story, which he titles, “Another Violet in Peril,” in an interesting and thorough PowerPoint presentation. Themes canvassed are the seeming corruption of English adventurers whilst abroad in the Empire and the role bicycles played in the liberation of Victorian women. But where was Violet Hunter’s fiancé throughout this adventure? And who knew that the Raleigh bicycle owned and operated by Ms. Smith in 1895 survived and was shown at the Sherlock Holmes Exhibition in London in 1951? Trevor lists the three Violets in the Canon who retain Holmes to solve a crime or mystery: Violet Turner in The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Violet Hunter in The Copper Beeches, and Violet Smith in The Solitary Cyclist, and two other Violets, Violet Westbury, fiancée of Arthur Cadogan West in The Bruce-Partington Plans, and Violet de Merville in The Illustrious Client. Trevor then recognizes the Society of the Three Violets (3VIO): founded by Barbara Rusch (“her word is inviolate,” exclaimed the King of Bohemia about Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia), Dayna Nuhn (“the violet rim of the German ocean,” describing the singular countryside of Ridley Thorpe Manor in “The Dancing Men”), and Peggy Perdue (“a lovely violet growing upon one of those black slag-heaps of the mines” in The Valley of Fear). Identical twin Donny Zaldin (“Violet Stoner”) is an honourary member of the society. Helen Stoner’s twin sister is Julia in the Canonical story but is Violet in ACD’s play The Speckled Band (originally titled The Stonor Case), which premiered at the Adelphi Theatre, London, on June 4, 1910, with H.A. Saintsbury as Sherlock Holmes. In 2004, the typescript of TSC and TSB each sold for £23,900 at Christie’s in London. Kathy Burns relates “The Curious Case” which she experienced first-hand from serving on the 2007 Derrick Murdoch Award Committee with Philip Elliott, Marylee Berdit and Noreen Crifo, and disclosed to the public for the first time (à laWatson) the diplomacy and intrigue which took place in January 1998 to prevent the late Mary Campbell from learning that she had in fact won the award (“the winner – it was she”). Peggy Perdue, Curator of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection, tells us about some treasures from the Collection related to sports. ACD had a well-deserved reputation as a sportsman who enjoyed cycling, tennis, football, golf, cricket, boxing, skiing and car racing. Peggy also announces the Library’s latest edition of “Sherlock Holmes at the Movies” – a free showing of the vintage 1946 film, Terror by Night, in black and white, featuring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Watson, at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, December 16th in the Beeton Auditorium.

26 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 Although she cannot sing and she is not a Sherlock Holmes fan, guest speaker Jan Hook presents “The Contralto,” which is the voice range of Irene Adler in A Scandal in Bohemia. Contraltos typically sing low, are rare, can also be men and don’t usually get starring operatic roles. In Victorian England, gender roles were strictly defined, yet Holmes’ nemesis was a crossover in more than voice range and dress, who seizes opportunities when life presents them. She has “the face of the most beautiful of women,” “a soul of steel” and “the mind of the most resolute of men.” As the King of Bohemia points out, she is not of the same level as he is; indeed, she is “the Woman.” Author Chris Redmond discusses his newly released book, the Sherlock Holmes Handbook – 2nd edition, published by Dundurn Press, which he wrote to answer questions which Sherlockians and non-Sherlockians are wont to ask (eg. Who first attributed to Holmes the line, “Elementary, my dear Watson”?) and because “it was time.” The book has been described by some critics as an “essential” reference book and as “the one Sherlockian book you should buy if you could only own one.” At the mid-meeting interval, we are treated to a selection of fine fare by tonight’s Mrs. Hudson, Margot French, and Mrs. Turner, Philip Elliott. Quizzards Barbara Rusch and Donny Zaldin challenge our knowledge and recall of Holmes’ methods in solving the mystery of The Solitary Cyclist and its place and connection with other Canonical tales. Karen Campbell wins the first prize (with 355 points out of 500), with Bruce Aikin (312.5 points) and Ken Smockler (300 points) taking the prizes for second and third place. Tonight is the debut of the “secret word” (borrowed from Groucho Marx’s 1950s television show, “You Bet Your Life” – not to be confused with Johnny Carson’s first TV game show, “Do You Trust Your Wife?” – where, if a contestant said the “secret word,” a duck would drop from the ceiling and quack and the contestant would win a special prize). Philip Elliott wins the inaugural prize of 100 bonus points, plus a rubber duck, for his answer to the bonus question, “Name five other types of cycle, other than the bicycle.” The Quizzards present Zeljko Bibic with a Sherlock Holmes watch from the Sherlock Holmes Museum for winning a previous contest at the Silver Blaze event. Songstress Karen Campbell and accompanist Craig Brtnik (A Duet with an Occasional Chorus) entertain us with two witty songs based on tonight’s story, created by adapting their own lyrics to popular music: “Pretty Woman” (“Pretty woman / Riding down the road / Pretty woman / You take the modern mode / Pretty woman / I don’t believe you / You’re not the truth / No one can go as fast as you / Mercy!”), and “Violet Smith’s Ride” to the western tune “Rawhide.” Bruce Aikin presents “Who was the ‘real’ Violet Smith?”, a story with autobiographical elements. After sifting through the trappings of creative licence and an April 1882 letter ACD wrote to his sister Lottie, Bruce uncovers a woman who is intelligent, determined, articulate, graceful and queenly, yet poor – though through no fault of her own – which describes Conan Doyle’s mother, Mary Foley Doyle, who was as devoted and faithful to her institutionalized husband as Violet Smith was to her long- absent fiancé, Cyril Morton. Donny Zaldin identifies the five stories in the Canon in which the bicycle plays a role: The Solitary Cyclist, (in which Bob Carruthers follows Violet Hunter), The Priory School, (in which the German Master, Heidegger pursues Lord Saltire), The Missing Three-Quarter, (in which Godfrey Staunton engages one), The Valley of Fear (in which Inspector MacDonald and Mr. White Mason pursue a suspect), and The Five Orange Pips (in which Joseph Openshaw, father of pips victim John Openshaw, had patented the Openshaw unbreakable tire), and two stories in which a cycle is mentioned: The Creeping Man (in which Professor Presbury imbibes his monkey potion on a nine-day “cycle”),

Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10 27 and The Bruce-Partington Plans (in which Sherlock’s brother, Mycroft, has his rails and runs on them, his Pall Mall lodgings, the Diogenes Club, Whitehall – that is his “cycle.”) Donny Zaldin introduces his and Barbara’s very good friend, our special guest speaker, Lorne Shields, who has been an avid collector and researcher of early cycling history for over forty years and is a longstanding member of the national ephemera societies of the U.K. and Canada. Portions of his collection have been on display at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, the Canada Science & Technology Museum, Ottawa, and the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. His specialty and passion is historic cycling photo- graphy but his collection includes virtually every aspect of early cycling ephemera and memorabilia ― plus the cycles themselves. He has made presentations on early cycling at various museums, universities and symposia in Europe, the U.S. and Canada. With thanks to computer techie Doug Wrigglesworth, Lorne reprises his recent 3-D presentation given at the International Cycle History Conference at Freehold, New Jersey, titled Victorian Cycling in 3-D: An Alternative Dimension in Photography, comprising about fifty three-dimensional cycling images he created using the principles of Victorian and 21st-century stereoscopic technology. The audience, bespectacled in red and blue 3-D glasses, is enthralled. The meeting concludes with Philip Elliott leading us in a rendition of “A Bicycle Built for Two:” “Daisy, Daisy / Give me your answer do! / I'm half crazy / All for the love of you! / It won't be a stylish marriage / I can't afford a carriage / But you'll look sweet upon the seat / Of a bicycle made for two.”

Monday, December 21, 2009: Advanced showing of Sherlock Holmes In his last official act of 2009, Meyers Trevor Raymond successfully co-ordinates the Warner Bros. invitation to the Bootmakers (extended in large part due to Les Klinger) to the advance Toronto showing of the eagerly anticipated film, Sherlock Holmes, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law (four days before the general release date of December 25, 2009). Over 100 Bootmaker members and guests come at once if convenient and if inconvenient come all the same to the preview at the downtown AMC Theatres, some dressed to-the-nines for the occasion, as members of the Victorian upper crust (as Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Irene Adler, the official constabulary, and various lords and ladies) and others as members of those other Victorians, including the working class, both male and female. Mr. Downey Jr. and Mr. Law honour us with their presence (although only in cardboard cut-outs and not in person) and are each seen in the company of the BOT’s real-life version of the evening of their co-star, Irene Adler (Barbara Rusch).

28 Canadian Holmes ™ Winter 2009/10

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