December 2006 D S O F N Volume 10 Number 4 E T I H R E F Sherlock Holmes COLLECTIONS “Your merits should be publicly recognized” (STUD) Contents A Game of Billy Bones By Julie McKuras, ASH, BSI remember him as if it were yesterday, as he came plodding to the inn door, A Game of Billy Bones his sea-chest following behind him in a hand-barrow – a tall, strong, heavy, 1 nut-brown man, his tarry pigtail falling over the shoulder of his soiled blue “I coat, his hands ragged and scarred, with black, broken nails, and the sabre cut across one cheek, a dirty, livid white. I remember him looking round the cover and whistling to himself as he did so, and then breaking out in that old sea-song 100 Years Ago that he sang so often afterwards: 2 ‘Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest – Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!’” 50 Years Ago That quotation from Chapter One of Treasure Island, written by Robert Louis Stevenson 3 (1850-1894), introduced the world to the fierce, drunken character of Billy Bones. The silent, “brown old sea- man” took up lodging at Acquisitons the Admiral Benbow Inn. Despite the dread 4 he instilled in others, he kept a fearful watch for the “seafaring man with From the President one leg” and the “black spot,” but the appear- 4 ance of the blind beggar Pew caused him to be “struck dead by thun- Musings dering apoplexy.” 4 Most of us read Treasure Island while in school An Update from and learned of Billy Bones, who served in the Collections the crew of pirate Long 5 John Silver. A number of films have been made of the novel, beginning Remembrances in 1912. The actors por- Image courtesy of Timothy Johnson Image courtesy of Timothy 8 Continued on page 6 The illustration for "Billy Bones" from The Strand Magazine Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections 1 right adjective and the phrase, could somewhat loosely on E. W. Hornung’s make a scene spring more vividly to characters in The Amateur Cracksman the eye of the reader. The Raffles sto- (New York: Simon and Schuster). ries are, of course, conspicuous exam- 100 ples of this and one could not find R. Holmes & Co. Being the Remarkable YEARS AGO any better examples of clever plot and Adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., terse admirable narrative. But in a way Detective and Amateur Cracksman by they harmed Hornung, for they got Birth by John Kendrick Bangs was century ago Sherlock Holmes between the public and his better published in 1906 in New York by was momentarily eclipsed in work.” Harper & Brothers. It was illustrated the popular imagination by by Sydney Adamson and dedicated, the gentleman-thief A. J. Image courtesy of Timothy Johnson A “With Apologies to Sir Arthur Conan Raffles. Collier’s Weekly ran an adver- Doyle and Mr. E. W. Hornung.” Bangs tisement, “Exit Sherlock Holmes, had previously written several books Enter Raffles,” as The Return of featuring Sherlock Holmes, starting Sherlock Holmes series had concluded with The Pursuit of the House-Boat in the previous year and a new series of 1897 and Mrs. Raffles: Being the Raffles stories began. In 1906 a stage Adventures of An Amateur Crackswoman version of Raffles premiered in in 1905. R. Holmes & Co. was repub- London, the stories appeared in a lished in 1994 as the fifth book in new edition, and a pastiche that fea- Otto Penzler’s Sherlock Holmes tured Raffles Holmes, son of Sherlock Library. Otto Penzler has an extensive Holmes and grandson of A.J. Raffles, collection of Raffles books and manu- was published in New York. The scripts and wrote the introduction to many connections between charac- Raffles Revisited: New Adventures of a ters, actors and authors make a fasci- Famous Gentleman Crook by Barry nating story. Perowne (New York: Harper & Row, 1974). Barry Perowne is the pen name Ernest William Hornung (1866-1921) of Philip Atkey (1908-1985) who was created the character of Arthur J. invited in 1931 by the Hornung Estate Raffles in 1898. “Willie” Hornung was to revive the Raffles character. His born in Middlesbrough, England of Raffles, more like the character The Hungarian parents and was educated The letter from Hornung found within the book Saint, was modernized in the 1930s. at Uppingham. An asthma sufferer, he In the 1950s, Ellery Queen invited lived in Australia from 1884-1886 and On May 12, 1906 the London pre- Perowne to write Raffles in the style of married Arthur Conan Doyle’s sister miere of the play Raffles, The Amateur the original Amateur Cracksman. Constance (Connie) Doyle in 1893. Cracksman was at the Comedy They had one son, Arthur Oscar Theatre. The four-act play was a col- The last 1906 connection is a book Hornung, who died at Ypres in the laboration between E. W. Hornung found in The Sherlock Holmes First World War. The relationship and Eugene Presbrey. It ran for 351 Collections, Raffles: The Amateur between the two authors and brother- performances and starred Gerald du Cracksman by E. W. Hornung pub- in-laws is an interesting story. The Maurier. Du Maurier was the 33 year- lished in London by Eveleigh Nash. entire Spring 1984 issue of Baker Street old son of artist and author (Trilby) This unique association copy has two Miscellanea was devoted to the George du Maurier, and he would overlapping bookplates in the front Sherlockian associations of E. W. later be known as the father of author endpaper with a handwritten letter by Hornung’s Raffles. The Amateur Daphne (Rebecca). 1906 also saw an E. W. Hornung. Vincent Starrett’s Cracksman (London: Methuen and unauthorized play with Raffles and Sherlockian bookplate is partially cov- New York: Scribner’s) 1899 is dedicat- Sherlock Holmes titled “The Burglar ered by a second bookplate belonging ed, “TO A.C.D. THIS FORM OF and the Lady,” a popular success that to Howard Haycraft, who included ref- FLATTERY”. In 1923, two years after starred James J. Corbett, former erences to Raffles and Hornung in Hornung’s death, Conan Doyle’s pref- heavyweight boxing champion. Even both Murder for Pleasure and The Art of ace to Old Offenders and a Few Old Graham Greene wrote a play in 1975 the Mystery Story. A.J. Raffles made his Scores by Hornung (London: Murray) titled The Return of A. J. Raffles: An first serial appearance in 1898 in noted , “At his best there is no modern Edwardian Comedy in Three Acts based Cassell’s Magazine, and the first eight author who, by the sudden use of the Continued on page 7 2 Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections had been negotiating about his latest “hit”: for me to recognize in you a gentleman of “The Hound of the Baskervilles”. The the press – a deduction which was further famous author of detective novels had confirmed when, a moment ago, I saw the introduced me to the authority of his way you were greeted by two actors out- equally famous Sherlock Holmes stories ... side on the porch. Actors only bow that respectfully to newspaper-men!” In this English translation published in 50 1956 by The Baker Street Irregulars, it is not The reader is hardly surprised when the YEARS AGO quite clear why Muusmann wished to peaceful charm of the vacation is interrupt- “negotiate” with Conan Doyle about The ed by the appearance of a mystery. A visi- “Sherlock Holmes på Marienlyst” Hound of the Baskervilles. However, in the tor to the area, the gorgeous Countess by Jens Byskov Jensen original Danish text it is said that Lucia Montajada, wishes to employ Muusmann talked to Doyle about the Sherlock Holmes in finding the person modern writer faces a difficult task rights for turning The Hound into a play. In who stole her priceless jewellery, which is in writing a Sherlock Holmes pas- Denmark, Muusmann was very well popularly known as “Mylady’s Diamonds.” tiche. It is hard for anyone today known in theatrical circles, and his greatest Characteristically, Holmes listens to the Ato write in the language of a Victorian Countess’s case “He closed his eyes and hobbies were the theater and the circus. Londoner, and it is even harder still to Therefore, it made perfect sense for the pressed his fingertips together, thus pre- invent a plot or a cast of characters that is Danish reader to connect Muusmann with senting a picture of deep concentration.” both plausible and historically correct. As the theatrical world. Still, it is made clear in you may have guessed, I am not much of a both the Danish text and in the translation In her youth, the Countess Montajada had pastiche reader. I find the “Sacred Writings” that Dr. Watson is the authority of the been a world-famous singer with engage- just that. Sacred. Sherlock Holmes stories, if anyone should ments from London to Mexico and Brazil. question that. However, she has a very dramatic relation- However, excellent pastiches have been ship with her current husband, who written in the past and they can almost be Other important points of interest, which counts gambling among his vices. Now, a treat from the Gods. One of the earliest are determined by Muusmann, are that Dr. she fears that he has stolen her precious pastiches was written by the Danish jour- Watson graduated from Oxford in 1878 jewels to pay off his gambling debts. nalist Mr. Carl Muusmann. It was titled after having taken a rather long time over “Sherlock Holmes på Marienlyst” and was his studies, and concerning the doctor’s An intense investigation follows during one of six short stories in the volume wounds Muusmann states, “...at the fatal which Sherlock Holmes displays his usual Beridernes Konge og andre Fortællinger pub- battle of Maiwand his collar-bone was shat- methods concerning crime scene investiga- lished by A.