THE NEWSLETTER OF THE SHERLOCK HOLMES SOCIETY OF LONDON Roger Johnson, Mole End, 41 Sandford Road, Chelmsford CM2 6DE e-mail: [email protected]

no. 234 17 August 2003

To renew your subscription, send 12 stamped, self-addressed included), and others. There are errors too. Siciliano’s novel is envelopes or (overseas) send 12 International Reply Coupons or given as The Angel at the Opera , for instance. But The Alternative £6.00 or US$15.00 for 12 issues (dollar checks payable to Jean Sherlock Holmes is a magnificent achievement, and Messrs Watt Upton, sterling cheques to me). Dollar prices quoted without and Green have done a great service to all serious scholars of the qualification refer to US dollars. You can receive the DM world-wide phenomenon that is Sherlock Holmes. The fact that electronically free of charge, as a Word 97 attachment or as plain they like The Adventures of Creighton Holmes , which I remember text. Please contact me by e-mail (and note the different e-mail as really bad; suggests that maybe it’s time to give it another try. address). I give such addresses and prices as I have; if I don’t At any rate, their praise for my wife Jean’s delightful ‘archy & provide details of importers or agents, it’s because I don’t have mehitabel’ pastiches is fully justified. And the mention of my own those details. contribution to the apocrypha is a bonus. The Alternative Sherlock I’m delighted to tell those who don’t already know that our friends Holmes is published at £45.00 by Ashgate, Gower House, Croft Evelyn Herzog ASH BSI and John Baesch BSI will be married Road, Aldershot, Hants. GU11 3HR. next month. Our sincere felicitations! Alan Stockwell lives in the same village as our Merchandising Peter Blau has alerted me to the death on 15 July of one of the Officer, Lynne Godden. No doubt that’s coincidental to the fact DM’s earliest American subscribers, Syd Goldberg . To my regret that he’s written a collection of new Holmes stories called The we never met (though at one time Syd lived not far from my Singular Adventures of Mr Sherlock Holmes (UPSO Ltd, 5 Stirling mother-in-law), but his correspondence was always friendly and Road, Castleham Business Park, St Leonard’s-on-Sea, Sussex amusing. Peter notes that Syd has bequeathed his substantial TN38 9NW; £7.99). It’s an attractively produced 250-page collection to the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. paperback, which I shall review in the next DM. From Terri Haugen I learn of the death on 2 June of Carol Ute Germann reports that The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes by Darlington , less than a month after her husband Frank. Though Jamyang Norbu is due in April next year in a German edition, as not a native Sherlockian, Carol was a rock of support for Frank. Sherlock Holmes: Das Geheimis des Dalai Lama from Bastei Lubbe (Verlagsgruppe Lübbe GmbH & Co. KG, Bergisch Also from Peter Blau: at the White House on 23 July President Gladbach, Germany) at 7.90 Euros. Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom, the USA’s highest civilian honour, to eleven people, including Charlton Heston (Sherlock M C Black notes that the latest Bibliophile Books catalogue (5 Holmes on stage and screen in The Crucifer of Blood ) and Jacques Thomas Road, London E14 7BN; [email protected] ) Barzun (noted critic and scholar of crime fiction). includes The Doctor and the Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Daniel Stashower reduced to £8.00, and The There have been essays on the non-Canonical Holmes — Ellery Hound of the Baskervilles According to Spike Milligan reduced to Queen’s introduction to The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes in £2.00. If you order copies, please also quote reference 1045. [*I 1944, Jon Lellenberg’s Sherlock Holmes in Parody & Pastiche in think these are the paperback editions.*] 1978, my own ‘Romancing the Holmes’ in 2001 — but The Alternative Sherlock Holmes: Pastiches, Parodies and Copies by New from The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment (B Peter Ridgway Watt & Joseph Green is the first really substantial W Pugh, 20 Clare Road, Lewes, Sussex BN7 1PN) is Honouring a survey. The authors are unknown to me, but they’ve certainly done Great Man , the official video of the unveiling of the world’s first their homework, helped, I suspect, by Ronald De Waal’s public statue of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in both PAL and NTSC invaluable bibliography The Universal Sherlock Holmes . There’s a formats. It runs for about 70 minutes and includes the speeches at lot of stuff mentioned in these 368 pages that was new to me, and the statue and at the buffet, interviews, and footage of the Conan more that I know of but have never seen. (Have you read ‘Sherlock Doyle Collection, Windlesham, the golf club, the foundry where Holmes’ Great Canadian Adventure’ by Jack Batten & Michael the statue was made, and scenes in and around Crowborough. Cost Bliss, or ‘The Villars-Manningham Papers’ by Jay Shakley?) The is: UK £16.50; elsewhere £20.70 or $34.00 or 27.00 Euros. Please book is divided into chapters covering a) pastiche based on allow 8 - 9 weeks for delivery. Prices include postage. Sterling Watson’s unchronicled cases, b) pastiche set in the Canonical cheques should be payable to The ACD Memorial Fund. US time-frame, c) pastiche set before or after that period, c) pastiche dollars and Euros in cash only, please. centred on a character other than Holmes, d) ‘parodies and The fourth volume in the Baker Street Irregulars Manuscript impostors’, and e) ‘copies and rivals’. Solar Pons is classed with Series, to be published in January, will be The Six Napoleons , parodies and impostors, despite his creator’s firm statement that edited by William J Hyder. parody was not intended. You could call him an impostor, I Those interested in such things should also look at Randall Stock’s suppose, but a tribute would be more accurate. At any rate, he Conan Doyle Manuscripts: A Checklist of Facsimiles of the receives respectful coverage, though there’s no mention of the Sherlock Holmes Stories at http://members.aol.com/shbest/ref/ posthumous Derleth collection The Final Adventures of Solar Pons rfmsalph.htm . or The Original Text Solar Pons Omnibus . Nor of the fact that several of Pons’s best adventures derive from Holmes’s There have been attempts to ‘prove’ that Sherlock Holmes was unchronicled exploits. implacably opposed to the Freemasons and attempts to ‘prove’ that he was himself a Mason. That must remain a moot point, but it is a Inevitably there are omissions. Gerald Frow’s two Young Sherlock fact that from 1887 until 1911 his creator was a Mason. Issue no. 6 novels, Watkin Jones’s The Case of the Scarlet Woman , Sydney of MQ , the official magazine of the United Grand Lodge of Hosier’s Elementary, Mrs Hudson and its sequels, Nicholas England, includes ‘Elementary, My Dear Brother’, a very nicely Meyer’s The Canary Trainer (though Sam Siciliano’s presented five-page article by Yasha Beresiner on the Masonic simultaneous take on the same theme, The Angel of the Opera , is career of Arthur Conan Doyle. MQ is published by MDA discuss ‘The Cardboard Box’ on 20 September (Steven Doyle at Communications, Southbank House, Black Prince Road, 540 W Sycamore Street, Zionsville, IN 4607, USA). The Red London.SE1 7SJ. Circle will hold a Lodge on 19 September at the National Press On 12 October Roger Llewellyn will be at the Palace Theatre in Club in Washington, DC, when ‘The Final Problem’ will be the Westcliff-on-Sea with David Stuart Davies’s admirable play Adventure of the Evening (Peter E Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW Sherlock Holmes — The Last Act! (box office 01702 351135). And #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830; [email protected] ). in December the play will be in the West End! For seven nights, Periodicals received. The Baker Street Journal , Summer 2003 from 1 to 7 December, it will be at the Jermyn Theatre in Jermyn (Steven Rothman, 220, West Rittenhouse Square, #15-D, Street, near Piccadilly Circus, at 8 o’clock nightly with a 4.00 pm Philadelphia, PA 19103, USA; subscriptions, PO Box 465, matinée on Saturday. Check the theatre’s website for details (it’s a Hanover, PA 17331, USA; correspondence for The Baker Street small theatre, so don’t miss out). Irregulars should go to Michael Whelan, 7938 Mill Stream Members of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London taking part Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278, USA) [*Douglas G Greene on in the ‘Lend Me Your Ears’ weekend visit to Merseyside next female sleuths, Stu Shiffman and Burt Wolder on Mycroft and his month should be aware that in the past couple of weeks the estuary offspring, David W Merrell and Ralph E Edwards each with a new has been subject to an invasion of Lion’s Mane jellyfish — our old explanation of ‘James’ in ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’ — and friend cyanea capillata . According to the BBC news. ‘Experts say much more, all of it good*]. 3 Pipe Problem Plugs and Dottles , those stung should pour vinegar on the affected area, which kills August 2003 ( The Nashville Scholars of the Three Pipe off the stinging cells. For really bad cases medical attention is Problem , Davice Sharpe, 110 Gay Street, Apt 1108, Nashville, advised.’ [*The vinegar doesn’t sound as comforting as J G TN 37219, USA) [*a new regular media alert by Dean Wood’s brandy.*] Richardson, with the wonderful title ‘Shinwell Before Using’, and a nice concise account by Davice Sharpe of Queen Mary’s Doll’s There may be a few places left at the symposium, From Gillette to House*] . Tonga Times , Summer 2003 ( The Mini-Tonga Society , Brett: Sherlock Holmes on Stage, Screen and Radio , to be held at Trish & Jay Pearlman, 1656 E 19th Street #2-E, Brooklyn, NY the Omni Indianapolis North Hotel (8181 N Shadeland Avenue, 11229, USA; [email protected] ) [*the first part of an Indianapolis, IN) on 8 & 9 November. Speakers include Gordon excellent article by Sherry Rose-Bond on ‘Creating an Authentic Kelley (author of Sherlock Holmes: Screen & Sound Guide ), 221B’; photographs of a splendid miniature 221B created by David Stuart Davies ( Starring Sherlock Holmes); Chris Gullo Oksana Korolenko of Perm, Russia; much else of interest to (Peter Cushing’s biographer); Paul Herbert (Sherlockian scholar) miniaturists and other Sherlockians*]. and Susan Dahlinger (William Gillette scholar). Special guests are Edward Hardwicke and Nicholas Meyer . The cost, excluding Grimpen Mire Gazette , April 2003 ( Hugo’s Companions , Fred accommodation, is $99.00. Send checks, payable to Wessex Press, Anderson, 920 West Wilson Avenue #338, Chicago, IL 60640, to Steven Doyle, 540 W Sycamore Street, Zionsville, IN 46077, USA) [*I think this reached me by courtesy of long-time USA. Companion John Brousch, who was honoured in January with a Sherlockian ‘This Is Your Life’; there are also reports of more Michael Whelan — ‘Wiggins’ of The Baker Street Irregulars regular meetings and a copy of the programme for the opening of (7938 Mill Stream Circle, Indianapolis, IN 46278, USA) — has the exhibition ‘Arthur Conan Doyle — Beyond Sherlock Holmes’ announced that the BSI’s 70th anniversary dinner, celebrating the recently staged at the Newberry Library in Chicago*]. The 150th birthday of Sherlock Holmes, will be held at the Union Sherlock Holmes Journal , Summer 2003 ( The Sherlock Holmes League Club in New York on Friday 16 January 2004. The Society of London , Nicholas Utechin, Highfield Farmhouse, 23 weekend’s events will begin with the seventh Distinguished Highfield Avenue, Headington, Oxford OX3 7LR) [*four pages of Speaker Lecture, delivered the previous evening at the Williams well-merited tributes to the late Geoffrey Stavert; an excellent Club by John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good survey by Wladimir Bogomoletz of the Fort of Agra and the Indian and Evil , and a Holmes devotee. Mutiny; Dana Richards on Holmes’s puzzle-solving and Nino The BSI’s dinner is invitation only, of course, but there are Cirone on Holmes’s purpose in life; Anna Smyth’s nice summary Sherlockians who prefer the more relaxed (raucous?) atmosphere of the year 1903*]. of The Baskerville Bash , which will be held on the same evening The Parallelogram , July 2003 ( The Parallel Case of St Louis, at the Manhattan Club. The BBC (Baskerville Bash Committee) is Joseph J Eckrich, 914 Oakmoor, Fenton, MO 63026, USA) already accepting reservations: send a check for $70.00, payable to [*interesting and amusing brief looks at ‘The Blue Carbuncle’ and Maribeau Briggs Shrawder, to P J Perry (346 East 87th Street #4- ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’, a summary of published A, New York, NY 10238, USA). comments on ‘The Speckled Band’, and devastating reviews of the A reminder that The Rashers’ Table meets every Friday at 7.00 films A Case of Evil (aka Sherlock ) and The Adventures of am [*yes, breakfast time*] at assorted Nashville eateries. If you’re Gerard *]. The Crier , Summer 2003 ( The Criterion Bar in the area and would like to join in, contact Davice Sharpe (110 Association , Brenda Rossini, 550 Sheridan Road, Winnetka, IL Gay Street, Apt 1108, Nashville, TN 37219, USA; 60093, USA) [*a nice report on the Conan Doyle exhibition at the [email protected] ). Newberry Library in Chicago, the dinner that launched it, and the Watsonian Weekend, plus a review of The Sign of Four at the In September, The Poor Folk Upon The Moors intend to visit Apple Tree Theater*]. Ineffable Twaddle , August 2003 (The Paris for a weekend, at the invitation of La Société Sherlock Sound of the Baskervilles , Terri Haugen, 3606 Harborcrest Court Holmes de France (details from Vosper Arthur, Spynishlake, NW, Gig Harbor, WA 98332-8981, USA) [*Lloyd R Hedburg Doddiscombsleigh, Exeter EX6 7PR; [email protected] ). The considers Holmes’s logic; Stu Shiffman reviews Clive Nolan & Sound of the Baskervilles will meet at T S McHugh’s on 8 Oliver Wakeman’s CD The Hound of the Baskervilles (see DM September (David Haugen, 3606 Harborcrest Court NW, Gig 219)*] . Harbor, WA 98332-8981, USA). The Russian expedition of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company will leave London on 12 And of course Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press , July 2003 September and return on 20 September (Philip Weller, 6 Bramham (Peter E Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hants. PO14 3RU; e-mail fmhc@acd- 20007-4830, USA; [email protected] ). 221b.info ). Also on 12 September, The Occupants of the Empty House will meet at Alongi’s Restaurant in Du Quoin (Debbie Tinsley, PO Box 21, Zeigler, IL 62999, USA). Roger Johnson The Diogenes Club of the Monterey Peninsula will meet the following day (Michael H Kean, 2040 Sloat Road, Pebble Beach, CA 93953, USA; [email protected] ). The Illustrious Clients will