Return Postage Guaranteed The Bootmakers of Toronto PO Box 1157 T.D.C. Postal Station The Journal of the Bootmakers of Toronto 77 King Street West Volume 33 Number 1 Toronto, ON M5K 1P2 Fall 2010 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, to whom letters and editorial submissions should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected] Membership and subscription Rates Canadian Individual - Cdn$35.00 Canadian Joint (One copy of CH per household) - Cdn$45.00 Canadian Student (Full-time student 16+) - Cdn$25.00 U.S. Individual - US$35.00 U.S. Associate - US$30.00 International - US$35.00 Past Issues of Canadian Holmes, including postage - Cdn$12.00 per copy Further Subscription information and details 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 variety of Strand covers, courtesy of Phil Bergem. Canadian Holmes Volume 33 Number 1 Fall 2010 One hundred and twenty-fifth issue Contents Canadian Holmes Volume 32 Number 4 Traces of Bootprints 1 by Mark Alberstat Duet with An Occasional Chorus 2 A song parody by Karen Campbell and Craig Brtnik ACD and The Strand Magazine 3 A feature article on The Strand Magazine by Phil Bergem A Toast to the Society 9 by Carol Abramson “To Norraway, to Norraway…” 11 An examination of The Adventure of Black Peter by Peter Wood The Transcendent Holmes 16 A book review by Dallas K. Miller Sherlock Holmes Joins the crowded list for Dummies 19 A book review by Morley Wills Photos from The Silver Blaze event – July 17, 2010 21 Photos courtesy of Bruce Aikin The Foundations of Sherlockian Scholarship – Part IV 22 by Doug Wrigglesworth Letters from Lomax 26 Musings from Peggy Perdue A toast to The Woman 27 by Marie Burrows News Notes 28 A roundup of Canadian Sherlockian events Bootmakers’ Diary 30 A roundup of Bootmaker events RACES OF BOOTPRINTS Kon nichi wa, Sherlockian o create a memorable evening, start with Sherlock Holmes, add many plates of sushi and stir in a healthy helping of Japanese hospitality. TWeeks before a recent visit to Tokyo, I e-mailed the local group and Yuichi Hirayama, a BSI, Bootmaker and club-founder, replied and arranged to meet us on our first evening. When we arrived in our hotel lobby, we found not only Yuichi but also two other local Sherlockians and discovered that another two were on their way. Tokyo is a huge city, so finding a small hotel on the other side of town shows a commitment to hospitality that truly touched our hearts. After some introductions, we walked to a nearby seafood restaurant for what would turn out to be the most memorable evening of our month-long trek through China and Japan. We chatted about our respective clubs in Halifax and Japan, comparing membership levels and meeting formats. We digressed into a discussion about sports ranging from sumo wrestling to baseball and other literary topics such as Anne of Green Gables . The locals who attended were kind enough to bring us many gifts. I now have almost a full run of the Shoso-in Bulletin to read through this winter; a special 30th-anniversary publication from The Men with the Twisted Konjo, as the society is known, (given to me by Masamichi Higurashi, another of the club’s BSI); two lovely, detailed Sherlockian lapel pins; a Sherlockian magazine in Japanese; several Sherlockian postcards with images taken by Hiroko Nakashima, one of our new friends, and a few Snoopy Sherlockian keychains. Our evening ended after many dishes of sushi, sashimi and yakatori, and a couple of pints of beer. The friendliness and comraderie offered by these Sherlockians is an encouraging sign about the long-term future of our hobby. Dohmo arigatoh — Thank you very much, to our new-found Mark and five of Tokyo's many friends. Sherlockians. Canadian Holmes Fall 2010 1 Duet with An Occasional Chorus The following song parody for The Adventure of Black Peter was written Karen Campbell and Craig Brtnik and performed for the Bootmakers on February 27, 2010. The Ballad of Black Peter (sung to the traditional Sea Chanty, The Drunken Sailor ) What shall we do with the drunken sailor? What shall we do with the drunken sailor? What shall we do with the drunken sailor Early in the morning. Chorus: Way, hey, and up he rises Way, hey, and up he rises Way, hey and up he rises Early in the morning. Skewer his belly with a rusty harpoon (3 times) Early in the morning! Give him a sniff of Devil’s Foot Root (3 times) Early in the morning! Put him in the bed of Julia Stoner (3 times) Early in the morning! Give his boot to the hound of Dartmoor (3 times) Early in the morning! Let him play darts with little Tonga (3 times) Early in the morning! 2 Canadian Holmes Fall 2010 ACD and The Strand Magazine By Phil Bergem Phil Bergem lives in Minnesota and is a member of the Norwegian Explorers. His obsession with Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle has resulted in him visiting locations no rational person would otherwise go to. Two of the more reasonable trips have been to Toronto and a walk on the Athabasca Trail in Jasper National Park. rthur Conan Doyle was associated with The Strand Magazine through its entire existence, from an advertisement in the very first issue dated AJanuary 1891 to an article titled Holmesiana in the last issue of March 1950. The fortunes of Doyle and The Strand Magazine were closely linked through the 40 years from 1891 until his death in 1930. More than half of the 480 issues during that time period had something written by Doyle or about him or Holmes. In the decades straddling the transition from the 19th to the 20th centuries, The Strand Magazine established its reputation as a national institution and Doyle became one of the most-popular and highest-paid writers of the day. Doyle (1859-1930) had been selling stories to magazines since 1879 but by 1890 he had not yet sufficiently established himself that he could give up his fledgling medical practice. Some time in the summer of 1890, Doyle began a relationship with Alexander Pollock Watt (1834-1914), the foremost literary agent in England, if not the world. The relationship with Watt and his firm would last the rest of Doyle’s life. At the end of 1890, Doyle had decided to quit his practice in Southsea and study as an eye specialist in Vienna. He and his wife Louise busied themselves by letting out their residence, placing furniture in storage and arranging for their two children to stay with her mother. Doyle was still conducting some literary sales by himself and arranged to write A Straggler of ’15 for the magazine Answers . It was to Watt that Doyle Canadian Holmes Fall 2010 3 entrusted a story titled The Voice of Science. Watt sold the story in January 1891 and it appeared in The Strand Magazine in the March issue, the first of many Doyle stories to come. Arthur and Louise arrived in Vienna on January 5, 1891, and returned to London on March 24, shortly after the March issue made its appearance. In spite of the limited amount of specialized training he received, Conan Doyle set himself up as an eye specialist in London. He had the opportunity, between his few consultations, to write and expanded upon his Sherlock Holmes tales, this time setting them in short-story form. He lost no time in working on the stories. Watt had received A Scandal of Bohemia (the manuscript read “of”, not “in” and this is how it appeared in a number of newspapers in the United States) by March 31, 1891, and delivered it to The Strand Magazine on April 6. The next four stories were given to Watt in quick succession over the next five weeks and were eagerly accepted by the magazine. These started appearing in The Strand in July 1891. The story writing was delayed when Doyle contracted influenza in May of that year. It was during his recovery that he decided to give up his medical aspirations and make a living by writing. By 1884, his third year in Southsea, Doyle was earning about £300 per year and it is doubtful that his medical earnings ever rose much above that. The wages were not terrible in an economy where a general labourer typically earned £1 per week, but not up to the potential of what a doctor could earn with some effort. Watt helped to negotiate a rate of £4 per 1000 words for the British serial rights and Conan Doyle received £36 each for A Scandal in Bohemia and The Red-headed League . (Presumably this included printing in the US edition of The Strand Magazine .) Even after Watt’s fees and other expenses, it was clear that Doyle had found his calling. The Sherlock Holmes stories proved to be very popular with the public.