Jan 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The weather for this year's birthday festivities was rather reasonable, it
would appear, since there were no reports of people marooned in airports by
the Friday snowstorm.  The weekend was launched informally in 1988, with
one far-flung collector arriving in late December in search of items that
might have been overlooked by locals, but the first formal event was, as
usual, the Martha Hudson Breakfast at the Hotel Algonquin on Friday, when
Bishop Rabe's campaign against simony yielded a pleasantly social, rather
than commercial, gathering.

Our visitors from distant shores included Dr. Tsukasa Kobayashi, president
of the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, and his wife Akane Higashiyama, authors
of the splendid A PICTORIAL RECORD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES'S LONDON (published
here in 1986 as SHERLOCK HOLMES'S LONDON).  They represented their society
on the 1987 and 1988 tours of Switzerland, and their contributions to our
literature in Japan now total 26 books of essays and translations of the
Canon and the Writings About the Writings.  The Japan Sherlock Holmes Club,
which was launched in 1977 with only two members (Dr. and Mrs. Kobayashi),
now has 1,200 members and is the largest Sherlockian society in the world.

The William Gillette Luncheon at the Old Homestead was well-attended, as
was Otto Penzler's open house at the Mysterious Bookshop, and the Algonquin
offered a safe haven in its lobby for Sherlockians whose conversations may
well have bewildered the few non-Sherlockians present.  The new management
of the Algonquin, obviously realizing that Benchley, Thurber, and Woollcott
will not be returning, ensured a warm welcome for the birthday celebrants,
and its hospitality may include a special rate for next year's weekend (we
will be celebrating Sherlock Holmes' 136th birthday on January 12, 1990).

The Baker Street Irregulars gathered for dinner at 24 Fifth Avenue, where
Karen L. Johnson was *The* Woman, toasted by Bob Thomalen at the pre-dinner
cocktail party (and by *The* Women at their annual dinner at the National
Arts Club).  The BSI dinner agenda included (non-traditionally) all of the
traditional toasts, Joe Fink's fervent defense of Tonga on behalf of the
DDL (the Dwarf Defense League), Al Rosenblatt's presentation of a special
"Murray Award" (for heroism under fire) to Bob Thomalen, Philip Shreffler's
illustrated series of "Lessons in Canonical Villainy", and Jon Lellenberg's
report on the current (and possibly future) Canonical content of the Oxford
English Dictionary.  Irregular Shillings were awarded to Andrew Joffe ("Sir
Charles Halle"), M. Kenneth McQuage ("The Plumstead Marshes"), Richard M.
Caplan ("Dr. Jackson"), Brad A. Keefauver ("Winwood Reade"), Alvin E. Rodin
("Palmer"), Jack D. Key ("Pritchard"), and Tsukasa Kobayashi ("Baritsu").

The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes gathered at Garvin's Restaurant to
celebrate their collective 21st birthday with toasts and presentations by
Cynthia Wein (on Canonical ladies), Nora Myers (on what her students knew,
or didn't know, about Sherlock Holmes), Delia Vargas (as the still-unknown
lady at Appledore Towers), and Ann Byerly (on some new examples of literary
osmosis).  The ASH were joined eventually by many of the BSI for the post-
dinner festivities scheduled at the Paradise (a basement disco), where the
noise level soon drove most of the Sherlockian celebrants back to the bar
at Garvin's.

Jan 89 #2   Saturday's cocktail party at 24 Fifth Avenue honored *The* Wom-
            en, and 15 of the 29 ladies were present for the formal toast
to those who had, as Sherlock Holmes once suggested, placed themselves in
the power of a band of rascals.  The Queen Victoria Medal was awarded to
Edith Meiser, the BSI's first Commissionaire's Award (a complete portfolio
of the original Sherlockian maps prepared by Julian Wolff) was presented to
Enola Stewart of Gravesend Books for her signal contributions to keeping
green the memory, and Susan Rice and Ezra Wolff offered their rhymed re-
ports on Friday's festivities.

Saturday evening there was a performance of two Sherlockian one-act plays
at the Prometheus Theatre, which had been booked in its entirety (40 seats)
for Sherlockians.  On Sunday, south-bound travelers dined in Philadelphia
with The Master's Class at the Franklin Inn Club, where Jean Upton reported
on "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" and on her visit with Jeremy Brett and
Edward Hardwicke in London.

For some Sherlockians the weekend offered an opportunity for a nostalgic
visit to Scribner's Book Store, scheduled to close on Jan. 22.  The ten-
story Scribner building, at 597 Fifth Avenue, is a designated New York City
landmark for its delightful Beaux Arts facade, and was the headquarters for
the publishing company from 1913 until 1984.  And the book store itself is
a Sherlockian landmark, since it was there that David A. Randall presided
over Scribner's Rare Book Department for twenty-one years and assisted many
of the very early collectors.  His 1943 catalog (D3732a), which offered (to
cite only a few of its treasures) five Canonical manuscripts and two copies
of Beeton's Christmas Annual, is the best-known though certainly not the
only example of how much so many owed to Scribner's.

Some of those attending the birthday celebrations were assisted by "John H.  
Watson", a carefully anonymous Sherlockian who presides over the John H.
Watson Fund, now in its second year and intended to offer financial aid to
Sherlockians (membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might
otherwise be unable to participate in the festivities.  Contributions to
the Fund can be made by check, payable to John H. Watson, and mailed to
him, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr. (34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648).

The souvenirs included fliers for Sherlockian illustrator/cartoonist Jeff
Decker's "Personal (But Slightly Irregular) Baker Street Canonizers" --
personalized full-color artwork per commission -- and you can request the
flier from Jeff at R.D. #1, Box 2175, Jonestown, PA 17038.

Another flier announced plans for SHERLOCK HOLMES BY GAS-LAMP: HIGHLIGHTS
FROM THE FIRST FORTY YEARS OF THE BAKER STREET JOURNAL, edited by Philip A. 
Shreffler.  The book is scheduled for March 1989 (425 pp., $22.50 plus
$1.50 shipping) and can be ordered now from the Fordham University Press,
Box 6525, Ithaca, NY 14850 (they take plastic).

I have revised the 11-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling
Awards, and *The* Women ($1.00 postpaid).  And the 50-page list of the 478
Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for 262 active societies
costs $3.00 postpaid.  Checks to Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119,
Washington, DC 20007.

Jan 89 #3   Umberto Eco's new novel FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, published in Italy
            in October, has already sold 400,000 hard-cover copies, and
will be published in an English translation by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
this fall.  According to an interview with Eco in the N.Y. Times (Dec. 13,
1988), forwarded by Ted Schulz, has no reference to Sherlock Holmes.  Eco's
THE NAME OF THE ROSE has now sold 9 million copies in 24 languages, and Eco
is not bothered a bit by the suggestion that most of those 9 million copies
have not been read.  "When someone speaks of G.U.B., great unread books,
I'm in great company," he said.  "Few people have entirely read 'The Magic
Mountain' or 'Finnegans Wake' or Proust."

Further to Jeremy Brett's statement (quoted Oct 88 #7) that
Daniel Day-Lewis might be "the next Sherlock Holmes," here is
a photograph (from Pattie R. Brunner) of the actor, as seen in
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being".

Charlotte Erickson (726 Sutter Street, Palo Alto, CA 94303)
has revised and expanded her 1985 checklist of SHERLOCK HOLMES
IN THE COMIC BOOKS; $8.00 postpaid.

Charlotte also reports that The Churchills ("Professional Muggers"), Box
327, Somerset, CA 95684, offer handcrafted clay caricature mugs of Holmes
(resembling Rathbone) and Watson (a cross between Bruce and Burke) for
$16.00 each (plus 10% handling).

At hand from Samuel E. Fry: a catalog from the J. Peterman Company (257
Midland Avenue, Lexington, KY 40507), offering "The Baker Street Coat"
(with military collar and removable shoulder cape) in 100% Melton wool,
navy or black or charcoal grey, with black satin lining, men's sizes 38
through 48, $520.00 including shipping.

"I particularly like to sit in the comfortable chair that was once owned by
Lewis Carroll . . .  and I have a chair that was Charles Dickens's, and a
fold-up desk that once belonged to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle . . . I got that
at a London auction, along with Conan Doyle's pipe, which--as a pipe smoker
--I can truly appreciate."  Irving Wallace, interviewed by Shirley Lee for
the Franklin Mint's magazine Almanac (Jan.-Feb. 1989).

Andrew G. Fusco (220 Pleasant Street, Morgantown, WV 26505) is disposing of
some of his Sherlockian duplicates, both early and late; write to him for
his 11-page sales list.

Cinderella philately: the Howard Local Post issued a "Sherlock Holmes Old
Radio" local stamp some years ago, and copies are still available for $0.25
(and an SASE) from Howard DuBose, River Runner's Emporium, 201 Albemarle
Street, Durham, NC 27701.

Gary K. Thaden sends news of a new play: "Sherlock Holmes and the Baker
Street Irregulars" (written by Thomas W. Olson) will be presented by the
Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis from Feb. 10 through Apr. 15.  
The Norwegian Explorers (Special Collections, Wilson Library, University of
Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455) are planning a theater party (no date
yet), or you can call the theater box office (612-874-0400).

Jan 89 #4   Admiration for Sherlockian costume is not universal, at least
            among those who have worn it while stalking deer or other non-
criminous quarry.  "Avoid however, the so-called deer-stalker's cap, which
is an abomination; its peaked brim giving no protection whatsoever to the
eyes when facing the sun quartering, a position in which many shots must be
taken."  Theodore Roosevelt, in the third paragraph of his appendix to THE
WILDERNESS HUNTERS (1893), reported by Richard D. Lesh.

LABYRINTHS OF REASON: PARADOX, PUZZLES AND THE FRAILTY OF KNOWLEDGE, by
William Poundstone (New York: Doubleday, 1988; 274 pp., $18.95), explores
the question of how we actually know that anything is true, using old and
new paradoxes to demonstrate just how frail that knowledge can be.  One
chapter of the book presents a series of puzzles, offered by Watson to
Holmes, by way of showing the relationship between puzzles and paradoxes.  
Poundstone quotes Sherlock Holmes' suggestion that "in solving a problem of
this sort, the grand thing is to be able to reason backward," but readers
of the book will soon discover why paradoxes have fascinated philosophers
for centuries: in a paradox, there is no tenable hypothesis that yields a
solution, and reasoning yields only contradictions.

Tyke Niver reports that a catalog from the House of Tyrol (Box 909, Gateway
Plaza, Cleveland, GA 30528) offers the Bosson wall plaques (Holmes, Watson,
and Moriarty) at $58.00 each (see Jun 88 #2 for an illustration of these
handsome items).

Gary Westmoreland has forwarded news of the Queen's birthday honors, which
included an award of the CBE (Companion of the Order of the British Empire)
to Michael Holroyd, the literary biographer, whose discussion of Hesketh
Pearson's biography of Conan Doyle for a 1977 BBC radio program was both
perceptive and annoying to Adrian.  Ian Richardson, who played Holmes in
two television films, also received the CBE, and the OBE (Officer of the
Order of the British Empire) was awarded to Peter Cushing, who has played
Holmes in films and on television, and to Penelope Keith, who was seen as
the receptionist at the massage parlour in the 1978 film "The Hound of the
Baskervilles".

Peter Marks' SKULLDUGGERY (Aug 87 #2) has been reprinted in paperback (New
York: Carroll & Graf, 1988; 284 pp., $4.50); this is an imaginative and
fictional solution to the Piltdown mystery, and Conan Doyle is portrayed
(with some sympathy, despite several elementary factual mistakes) as one of
the protagonists.

A newspaper survey of 100 film critics reports that "The Thin Blue Line"
appeared most often on their lists of ten best films in 1988, followed by
"Bull Durham" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".  More than 200 films received
at least one "best" vote, including "Without a Clue" (which appeared on the
list prepared by Chuck Davis of The Daily Oklahoman).

Does anyone know the name and address of the company that made (or sold) a
"Signature Collection" of commemorative plates with artwork by Mitchell
Hooks, with one plate showing Holmes and (possibly) another showing Watson?
Kyle Richeson (Box 1354, Calhoun, GA 30701) would like to find (and buy)
one of the plates showing Watson.

Jan 89 #5   THE WANDERINGS OF A SPIRITUALIST was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's
            account of his trip to Australia and New Zealand, with his wife
and children, first published in 1921 and reprinted in 1988 in a paperback
facsimile of the first American edition by Ronin Publishing Inc. (Box 1035,
Berkeley, CA 94701; 299 pp., $8.95).  Conan Doyle described his book as a
"go-as-you-please style of narrative," by way of warning readers who have
no interest in spiritualism, but it is an entertaining report on what he
saw and did, as well as on his beliefs.

THE LADIES HOLMES COMPANION: A CALENDAR FOR 1989 was on view during the
birthday festivities.  This is the second calendar from Harpies Bizarre,
with new S'ian artwork and legible S'ian and non-S'ian daily notes.  $8.95
postpaid from P. Moran, Box 854, Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02142.









"The next I heard of Frank was that he was in Montana, and then he went
prospecting in Arizona." (Nobl)  Our newest commemorative honors the 100th
anniversary of statehood for Montana, with a painting by Charles M. Russell
that features the artist himself, and a new postal card in the "America the
Beautiful" series is based on Bart Forbes' original painting of the Sonora
Desert in Arizona.

Robert Newman died on Dec. 7.  He wrote for radio (he was in charge of the
radio portion of FDR's 1944 re-election campaign) and television (episodes
of "Search for Tomorrow" and "Peyton Place"), and then turned to books for
young readers.  THE CASE OF THE BAKER STREET IRREGULAR (D5095b) had as its
protagonist a 14-year-old boy who meets both the irregulars and Sherlock
Holmes in a well-written mystery that made excellent use of the Canonical
characters.

Paul D. Herbert reports that the Forbes Magazine Gallery at 60 Fifth Avenue
in New York (not far from the site of the BSI cocktail party, for future
reference) had (and may still have) a display of toy soldiers from the
Malcolm Forbes collection.  Part of the display is a military parade by a
village green, where Holmes and Watson are among the onlookers.

RED JACK, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh, and Frank D.  
McSherry, Jr. (New York: DAW Books, 1988; 333 pp., $3.95), is an anthology
of some of the better fiction about Jack the Ripper.  The contents include
a welcome reprint (in its entirety) of Ellery Queen's A STUDY IN TERROR
(D6065a); this is a novelization of the film, with an added ending and a
new solution.

At hand from Andrew G. Fusco: a mail-order flier from Sherlock's of Chapel
Hills (Chapel Hills Mall, 1710 Briargate Boulevard, Colorado Springs, CO
80920), offering a series of Sherlockian pipe-tobacco blends.

Jan 89 #6   Marc Lovell's THE SPY WHO FELL OFF THE BACK OF A BUS (New York:
            Doubleday, 1988; 181 pp., $12.95) is the twelfth in a series of
amusing mystery novels about British secret agent Appleton Porter, whose
six-foot-seven-inch height makes his spy missions a bit difficult.  In his
latest case he is sent to a book-collectors' convention in Cannes, to find,
authenticate, and suppress a document that threatens his nation's prestige:
a one-hundred-page holograph manuscript by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in which
he attacks the most famous Englishman of all time: Sherlock Holmes.

Peter J. Crupe reports that the Triton Gallery (323 West 45th Street, New
York, NY 10036) offers a poster (42x58") from the Royal Shakespeare Company
production of "Sherlock Holmes" for $45.00.  Also a poster (14x22") from
"Sherlock's Last Case" for $12.00.  Their number for credit-card orders is
800-626-6674.

At least one person attending the birthday festivities and staying at the
Shoreham Hotel was charged more than the rates reported here (Nov 88 #2),
apparently because those rates were neither requested nor confirmed when
the reservation was made.  It is quite unfortunate that many businesses,
including airlines and hotels, offer special rates, but only to those who
request those special rates, and it is always wise, when reservations are
made, to ask if there are special rates, and to confirm that you are going
to receive the rates you expect.  If there are others who had problems with
the Shoreham, I would suggest that you write to Gerry O'Connor, the hotel's
reservations manager, pointing out to her that you stayed at the hotel on a
weekend, and that you believe that you should have been charged only the
weekend rate.

EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE DUCK, by Gahan Wilson (New York: Mysterious Press,
1988; 202 pp., $15.95), is delightfully indescribable, but Wilson's way
with words is as antic as with his cartoonist's pen, and just as enjoyable.  
The book pits three thoroughly vicious villains, including the Professor
(yes, *that* Professor) against Enoch Bone and his assistant John Weston
(draw your own conclusions) in a modern-day adventure that is a tribute to
as well as a parody of the more picaresque pulps.  Recommended.

Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers a new
lapel pin, in full-color enamel with gold trim, of the "Sherlock Holmes"
cigarette card from the Turf cigarette series; $17.00 postpaid.  Bob also
offers a four-page sales list of collectibles (SASE appreciated), and an
illustrated flier for the Laboromnia collectibles from Britain, including
plates, mugs, statues, clocks, watches, thimbles, and neckties.

"The Return of Sherlock Holmes Tour" to Switzerland and England, led by
Scott Bond and Sherry Rose-Bond, is scheduled for June 10-24.  This is a
sequel to their 1987 "Final Problem Tour", and a detailed brochure (with
artwork by Scott Bond) is available from Geographics Travel & Tours, 21
South 5th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106.

Brian and Charlotte Erickson will go on-line with a new bulletin board for
computerized Sherlockians in the San Francisco Bay area on Feb. 1.  221BBS
operates from 6:30 to 9:30 pm PST, Sunday through Thursday, at 415-329-1703
(8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, 300/1200/2400 BAUD).

Jan 89 #7   NAMING THE ROSE: ESSAYS ON ECO'S THE NAME OF THE ROSE, edited
            by M. Thomas Inge (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi,
1988; 206 pp., $27.50), is a collection of scholarly essays intended as an
exploration of the cultural significance and literary contexts of Umberto
Eco's novel, whose English translation was a best-seller both in hardcover
(more than 500,000 copies) and in paperback (more than 1.3 million copies).  
The Sherlockian aspects of Eco's medieval mystery are not neglected, and
Eco's own comments (in his "Prelude to a Palimpsest") are of particular
interest for their warning to present and future interpreters of his work:
"In several of the essays in this book I found brilliant, possible readings
my novel," Eco notes, "readings I cannot absolutely challenge because they
are rooted in the text and of which I became aware only by reading the
readings of my readers."

The "Wonderworks" press release for "Young Charlie Chaplin" at hand from
Paul C. Merz.  This is a three-part series from Thames Television, to be
broadcast by PBS-TV on Feb. 11, 18, and 25, and the cast list has Shaughan
Seymour as Saintsbury, allowing inference that we will see Chaplin as Billy
(he first played the role in Saintsbury's touring production of the William
Gillette play, opening at the Pavilion Theatre in London in July 1903).

Reported: THE MACINTOSH HOLMES COMPANION (the Apple Macintosh version of
the MS-DOS computerized Canon), on five 800K disks, in MacWrite 5.0 format,
with public-domain software and shareware, for $59.95 plus $3.00 shipping. 
Details available from Baker Street Software, Box 2712, Santa Clara, CA
95055.  The Macintosh graphics capability provides the full-text version of
the Canon, including drawings, maps, and dancing men.






















New hand-painted sculptures available from Keith Chrimes (112 Cramlington
Road, Great Barr, Birmingham B42 2EG, England): metal figures (70mm) of
Holmes and Watson (L12.00 each), and a resin wall plaque (110mm) of Holmes
(L15.00).

Jan 89 #8   A pair of stories in the Lancashire Evening Post on Nov. 30,
            1988 (possibly published side-by-side to allow readers to draw
inferences that the paper didn't want to specify) reports on two traditions
at one of Conan Doyle's schools: Stonyhurst will admit girls to its sixth
form in this year, "after 400 years as an all-male preserve."  Stonyhurst,
however, has no plans to end its tradition of giving "six of the best to
bad-behaved pupils."  Stonyhurst head teacher Giles Mercer defended the
school's tradition, noting that "We do what we think is right and best for
our own circumstances."  Corporal punishment in state schools was abolished
by Parliament in 1987, but the law does not cover more than 550 independent
schools, of which 27 still cane their students.

The new mail-order catalog from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York,
NY 10011) offers Martin Gardner's THE ANNOTATED INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN
($6.95) and Richard Lancelyn Green's LETTERS TO SHERLOCK HOLMES ($2.98), so
we will likely also see these titles on the remainder tables.

Sherlock Hemlock is included in COOKIE MONSTER COLORING BOOK and BIG BIRD
COLORING BOOK, two oversize (15 by 20 inches) Golden Book coloring books
from Western Publishing Co.  Scout your local toy stores.

Forecast: THE LOST WORLD & THE POISON BELT (300 pp., $8.95) in June from
Chronicle Books (275 5th Street, San Francisco, CA 94103), according to a
catalog at hand from Allen Mackler.

Whitbread's new Sherlock Holmes pub (Dec 88 #1) is now open, in Summerhill
Road in Coseley, near Wolverhampton, which is about 13 miles northwest of
Birmingham in the West Midlands.  Brian Moriarty, trade-quality manager for
Whitbread's, was at the opening ceremonies.

Bill Majeski has written a sequel to THE VERY GREAT GRANDSON OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES (D4497b).  Sherwood Holmes is featured again in a new two-act
high-school comedy, SHERLOCK HOLMES' GREAT GRANDSON GOES HOLLYWOOD,
available for $3.95 (plus $1.25 shipping) from the Dramatic Publishing Co.,
Box 109, Woodstock, IL 60098.

Plans progress for "the ultimate Sherlockian seminar at sea" from New York
to Bermuda and back, July 23-28, 1989, arranged by Poor Little Rich Girl
Travels and Chandris Fantasy Cruises.  John Bennett Shaw reports that he
and Dorothy are recovering nicely from last year's doctoring, and expect to
be on board for the festivities.  Details on the cruise are available from
Mary Ellen Rich, 52 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019 (212-757-0881).

There are Canonical echoes in Phyllis Ann Karr's mystery story "Murder with
an Artist's Rag" (featuring Senior Sergeant Rosemary Lestrade, a police
detective in the late 21st century) in Space & Time #75 (winter 1989).  
Space & Time is a 120-page fanzine published by Gordon Linzner, 138 West
70th Street #4-B, New York, NY 10023; $5.00.

According to my records, my 1989 seasonal souvenir ("SARASATE PLAYS AT THE
ST. JAMES'S HALL THIS AFTERNOON..."), should have reached all subscribers,
either during the birthday festivities, or since, or with this mailing.  If
I missed someone, please let me know.

Feb 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

"The vogue for Sherlock Holmes . . . simply swept the country. . . . In
more recent years Sherlock Holmes has become the center of a cult, with a
considerable literature, clubs, and a serio-comic bibliophilic scholarship
of amazing proportions."  Frank Luther Mott, in GOLDEN MULTITUDES: THE
STORY OF BEST SELLERS IN THE UNITED STATES (New York: Macmillan, 1947),
noted by Gayle T. Harris.  Those proportions are far more amazing, of
course, more than forty years later.

In my discussion of the Queen's birthday honors (Jan 89 #4) I reported that
Michael Holroyd's discussion of Hesketh Pearson's biography of Conan Doyle
for a 1977 BBC radio program had annoyed Adrian -- who, as I neglected to
remember, died in 1970.  Holroyd's 1977 broadcast did report in some detail
on Adrian's battles with Pearson, who was asked by the BBC to give a radio
talk to celebrate the centenary of Conan Doyle's birth.  Adrian threatened
to retaliate against the BBC by withholding permission to broadcast any of
Conan Doyle's protected works, and the BBC surrendered.

A sales list at hand from Ilene and Corey Fauer (US 2, 563 Clinton Road,
Paramus, NJ 07652) announces their going-out-of-business sale and offers
discounts on their buttons, cards, bumper stickers, notepaper, T-shirts,
signs, and other Sherlockian material.

The Pequod Press, waiting impatiently for the next memoir of Turlock Loams,
has turned to its resident poet, who has prepared a new collection of S'ian
quatrains.  BAKER STREET BOUILLABAISSE is available from John Ruyle, 521
Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $29.50 in cloth or $14.50 in wrappers.

The Walt Disney animation of "The Wind in the Willows" is available on a
34-minute videocassette from Walt Disney Home Video.  First seen in 1949 as
part of the film "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad", "The Wind in the
Willows" is narrated by Basil Rathbone (who mentions Sherlock Holmes in his
introduction) and shows Ratty in a deerstalker and Mole in a bowler.

The Master's Class of Philadelphia are planning to combine their spring
meeting with the fourth annual "Dinner in Baker Street" Victorian buffet at
the Dickens Inn on Apr. 30.  Details available from Victoria M. Robinson,
299-B Summit House, 1450 West Chester Pike, West Chester, PA 19382.

Spotted by Samuel C. Fry in THE GENTLEMEN'S CLUBS OF LONDON, by Anthony
Lejeune and Malcolm Lewis (London: Macdonald and Jane's, 1979) (New York:
Dorset Press, 1984): the description of The American Club at 95 Piccadilly
includes Holmes' warmly Anglo-American comments from "The Noble Bachelor".
The book also includes, without comment, the Canon's description of the
Diogenes Club.

Dr. De Lamar Gibbons uses Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to present some of
the logical deductions in THEIR SECRETS: WHY THE NAVAHO INDIANS NEVER GET
CANCER.  His conclusion is that "the Navahos do not get cancer because they
ignorantly obey some very fundamental health rules that most of us have
ignorantly disobeyed," and his book (124 pp., $10.00 postpaid) is available
from the Academy of Health, Box 497, Lava Hot Springs, ID 83246.

Feb 89 #2   Lawrence Garland's THE AFFAIR OF THE UNPRINCIPLED PUBLISHER is
            still available from Oak Knoll Books (414 Delaware Street, New
Castle, DE 19720) at $30.00 (plus $2.50 shipping).  This pastiche account
of an encounter between Thomas J. Wise and Sherlock Holmes was Oak Knoll's
fine-press Christmas book for 1983; 22 pp. in stiff wrappers.

The Land Press (South Lodge, East Heath Road, London NW3 1BL, England) has
announced a new limited edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, with
all of the Sidney Paget illustrations from The Strand Magazine, a hitherto
unpublished full-page frontispiece portrait of Holmes by Paget, and custom
leather binding with four different designs available.  The cost is $2,000
a copy, and the publisher offers a full-color prospectus with illustrations
of the handsome designs for the binding and of the Paget frontispiece.

The winter 1989 issue of The Armchair Detective has a "Report from 221B
Baker Street" by Sherry Rose-Bond and Scott Bond, scattered Sherlockian
reviews and other references, and an fine article by G. Michael Doogan on
Dashiell Hammett's army service in Alaska during World War II, with (page
88) a photograph showing Hammett and the staff of the base newspaper The
Adakian, including (at lower left) Luther L. Norris.

Sir William Stephenson, who was involved with the Baker Street Irregulars
during World War II, died on Jan. 31.  His wartime career in British secret
intelligence was described (with great verve and some mistakes) in William
Stevenson's A MAN CALLED INTREPID: THE SECRET WAR (D3600b).  Stephenson's
Baker Street Irregulars were the Special Operations Executive, which was
headquartered in Baker Street and had two functions: training people for
sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines, and supervising the liaison
between Britain's war effort and the underground resistance movements in
enemy-occupied countries.  Bickam Sweet-Escott's BAKER STREET IRREGULAR
(London: Methuen, 1965) is a good source for information about the SOE.

Basil Rathbone's autobiography IN AND OUT OF CHARACTER, published in 1962
and long out-of-print, has been reissued as a trade-paperback (New York:
Limelight Editions, 1989; 278 pp., $10.95).  Rathbone suggested in the
Preface that he was a frustrated writer, but his book needed no apology,
and the new edition will be welcomed by a new generation of Sherlockians,
as well as by older generations frustrated by the difficulty of finding a
copy of the first edition in book-dealers' catalogs.  That scarcity is, of
course, one indication of the quality of the book (people who have copies
tend to keep them), and new readers will quickly learn that Rathbone was a
fine writer.  He discusses his Sherlockians films, and the radio series,
and his play, with honesty and humor, and those qualities also apply to his
comments on his many friends and fellow actors, and on his long career on
stage and screen.  Recommended.

RICHARD DOYLE AND HIS FAMILY was the 76-page catalog for an exhibition at
the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1983-84, with many illustrations (some in
full color) of paintings and drawings by many members of the family, which
included Richard's brother (Charles Altamont Doyle) and nephew (Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle).  And it was spotted by readers (more eagle eyed than I) in a
recent catalog of discount/remainder books offered by Edward J. Hamilton,
Falls Village, CT 06031; item 536067, $4.95.

Feb 89 #3   One of the nice things about living in a big city is the chance
            to see 70mm films with six-track Dolby sound, such as the newly
restored 216-minute version of "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962).  The film was
(and now is again) splendid.  One can find S'ian connections for almost any
film, of course, but this cast includes an actor who has played Watson: at
the end of the film, in Damascus, the angry British medical officer is H.
Marion Crawford, who was Watson to Ronald Howard's 1954 television Holmes.

One of the souvenirs distributed during the birthday festivities was Glenn
Shea's list of French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish editions of
the Canon and other Sherlockian books available from Schoenhof's Foreign
Books, 76-A Mount Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.  Write to Schoenhof's
for a copy of the list.

The film may not have lasted long in the theaters, but the music survives:
Andrew Jay Peck reports a performance of Bruce Broughton's score for "Young
Sherlock Holmes" by the Greensboro (N.C.) Symphony Orchestra on Jan. 29.

Reported: a third audio cassette from Simon and Schuster, with two more of
the Rathbone/Bruce radio shows: "The April Fool's Adventure" (Apr. 1, 1946)
and "The Uneasy Easy Chair" (Apr. 13, 1946).

The Mar. 1989 issue of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact may still be on
the newsstands: Harry Turtledove's story "Nothing in the Night-Time" has
some pleasant Canonical echoes.

Historian Barbara Tuchman died on Feb. 6.  In 1985 she reported that as a
teenager her favorite reading was historical novels, including Alexandre
Dumas and Conan Doyle's THE WHITE COMPANY, "whose central figure did not
equal the Musketeers, but the events carried the story, especially the
dramatic siege of the castle by the fierce rebellious peasants--a scene I
have never forgotten."  And it was in 1985 that she re-read THE HOUND OF
THE BASKERVILLES, noting that it "astonishing how this old and worn-out
story, which I must have first read more than 50 years ago, gripped my
attention and held it in suspense until I reached the last page."  Story is
the source and the bloodstream of literature, she suggested, adding that
"with seeming ease Conan Doyle could achieve the goal of every writer's
desire--to enthrall the reader by the written word."

Further to my recommendation of Gahan Wilson's EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE DUCK
(Jan 89 #6), Otto Penzler offers the first edition, inscribed (or simply
signed, if you prefer) with an original Sherlockian cartoon by the author,
on copies ordered through The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street,
New York, NY 10019); $15.95 plus $3.00 shipping.  Otto also reports that
ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE MURDERS, a new collection edited by Thomas Godfrey
for The Mysterious Press ($17.95), includes "The Abbey Grange" and James
Miles' new S'ian story (written for the collection) "The Worcester Enigma".

Michael Hardwick's THE REVENGE OF THE HOUND is now available in paperback
(New York: Pinnacle Books, 1989; 347 pp., $3.95); a gigantic and ferocious
hound appears on Hampstead Heath, and Holmes and Watson investigate a case
that involves Oliver Cromwell and King Edward, with a climax at Highgate
Cemetery.

Feb 89 #4   Check the discount tables for HOUND DUNNIT, edited by Isaac
            Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh (New
York: Carroll & Graf, 1987); it's a collection of mysteries that involve
dogs, including "Silver Blaze", Barry Perowne's "Raffles on the Trail of
the Hound", and Rex Stout's "A Dog in the Daytime".

THE QUEST FOR SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: THIRTEEN BIOGRAPHERS IN SEARCH OF A
LIFE, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg (Nov 87 #4) is available through Apr. 30
from the Southern Illinois University Press for $14.62 plus $3.00 shipping;
#1384 in the current catalog, they take plastic, and the telephone number
for credit-card orders is 800-444-8525 ext 950.  The book is a fine guide
to the many, and frequently unreliable, biographies.

Videotaper alert (for Jeremy Brett fans): "My Fair Lady" will be broadcast
on cable by The Movie Channel at 4:00 pm on March 26.

It is possible that one of Michael Harrison's most important virtues is the
eloquence that he inspires in others: the 1988 issue of Beeman's Christmas
Annual contains six tributes from Sherlockians he met on his tours of the
United States.  The 24-page pamphlet is available from William R. Cochran,
517 North Vine Street, DuQuoin, IL 62832; $5.00 postpaid.

THE CHRISTMAS MURDERS, edited by Jonathan Goodman (London: Sphere Books,
1988; 208 pp., L2.99), is an anthology of accounts of murders committed
during the Christmas season (murders of "the old-fashioned sort," suggests
the editor nostalgically, because "most present-day murderers give murder a
bad name"); the contents include Conan Doyle's report on "The Case of Oscar
Slater" (1912).

Research proceeds on the Souvenir Edition of THE SIGN OF FOUR, for a report
similar to the one on A STUDY IN SCARLET in the summer 1987 issue of BSM.  
Owners of copies of THE SIGN OF FOUR bound in green or blue cloth with the
attractive Egyptian-motif design are invited to request a copy of my
one-page questionnaire listing the points of interest identifying the
variants.

"Facts . . . how facts obscure the truth.  I may be silly--in fact, I'm off
my head--but I never could believe in that man--what's his name, in those
capital stories?--Sherlock Holmes."  Basil Grant is the Mycroftian figure
in G. K. Chesterton's story "The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown", and
Grant's younger brother Rupert is in many respects a parody of Sherlock
Holmes, in that story and five more, collected in THE CLUB OF QUEER TRADES
(1905) and now available in a welcome trade-paperback reprint (New York:
Dover Publications, 1987; 146 pp., $4.95).  The reprint also offers all of
Chesterton's artful illustrations (not included in the first American ed.),
and a perceptive introduction by Martin Gardner.

Thayer Cumings ("His Last Bow") died on Feb. 19.  A senior executive in the
advertising world (vice president and director of Batten Barton Durstine &
Osborne) and a member of The Five Orange Pips as well as the BSI, his many
contributions to our literature appeared in the BSJ from 1946 to 1958, in
THE BEST OF THE PIPS (1955), and in his own collection SEVEN ON SHERLOCK
(1968).

Feb 89 #5   Fans of Margery Allingham's books can look forward to seeing
            "Campion" on "Mystery!" this autumn; Peter Davison will play
Albert Campion, and Brian Glover will play his ex-con cockney manservant
Magersfontein Lugg.  Vincent Price will end his long tenure as the host of
"Mystery!" at the end of this season.  Pacific Arts Video has dropped the
price of its videocassettes of the four Australian animations (with Peter
O'Toole as Holmes) to $19.95 each.  All this news from the fifth issue of
Anglofile (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033; $12.00 a year).

News from Britain: Jeremy Brett has told an interviewer that "The Secret of
Sherlock Holmes" will run at Wyndham's Theatre until September, when the
play will move to Birmingham and then to Manchester, and while they are in
the North, Granada will begin work on the next Sherlock Holmes series.

Sherlockians on tour in Britain should not neglect the Brambletye Hotel in
Forest Row, Surrey.  The hotel honors its appearance in the Canon with a
wall display of Sherlockian theater posters, and the hotel's bar is named
in honor of Black Peter.

"Young Charlie Chaplin" (on "Wonderworks" on PBS-TV) did show Chaplin as
Billy in H. A. Saintsbury's touring company of the Gillette play, in the
second episode, broadcast on Feb. 18.  But the time sequence in the series
was compressed: Chaplin's father did die in 1901, but Chaplin first played
with Saintsbury in July 1903 (in "Jim, A Romance of Cockayne" and then in
the Gillette play).  Chaplin was hired by Gillette to play Billy in Oct.
1905 (in "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes" and then in "Sherlock
Holmes"), and that's when he first met Marie Doro.  Chaplin's mother was
institutionalized twice, first in May 1903 and again in Mar. 1905.  The
best biography of Charlie Chaplin (well-written and reliable) is CHAPLIN:
HIS LIFE AND ART, by David Robinson (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985).

"The Hound of the Baskervilles, by A Collie Dog" (a soft vinyl dog toy in
the shape of a book) is still to be found in some pet shops.  It is made by
Vo-Toys Inc., Harrison, NJ 07029 (item 491) but they sell only wholesale;
you could ask a neighborhood pet shop to find out who the local distributor
for Vo-Toys is, and order for you.

Bill Nadel reports hearing of the recent death of Frank Giacoia, who drew
the fine Sherlock Holmes comic strip that ran in the N.Y. Herald Tribune
from 1954 through 1956 (D6196a and D5818b).

Videotaper alert: "An Appointment with Sherlock Holmes" will be broadcast
in syndication in April, generally on independent television stations, on
different dates in different cities.  Marketed by Multimedia Entertainment,
the three-hour program has colorized versions of two Rathbone/Bruce films
("Secret Weapon" and "Woman in Green").  A second program (with "Dressed to
Kill" and "Terror by Night") will be available in the fall.

Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers copies
of Charles Hall's book THE SHERLOCK HOLMES COLLECTION: THE GREAT DETECTIVE
AND HIS CREATOR (Jan 88 #3) at $27.00 postpaid.  It's a 100-page gathering
of pictorial material, mostly British but also including unusual items such
as stills from Danish, German and Czech films, and Soviet television.

Feb 89 #6   THE LITERATURE OF CRIME AND DETECTION: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
            FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT, by Waltraud Woeller and Bruce
Cassiday (New York: Ungar, 1988; 215 pp., $24.50), was first published in
Germany in 1984.  The revised American edition offers an extended survey,
from the 5th century BC (Aeschylus and Sophocles) to the 1980s (Joe Gores
and Elmore Leonard); Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle are not neglected, but
the real strength of the book is in its coverage of the genre in countries
such as Switzerland, Germany, France, Czechoslovakia, Japan, Sweden, and
the Soviet Union.

Four words in the English language end in "gry".  Two are angry and hungry. 
What are the other two?  I'm not sure why anyone would pose that question
to Ann Landers, or why she would run it in her syndicated advice column,
but one of her readers recommended that she consult "the best authority on
words in the United States," which turned out to be George H. Scheetz, head
of the public library in Sioux City, Iowa -- and one of the founders of The
Hansoms of John Clayton as well as the first editor of the scion's journal
Wheelwrightings.  George offered a list of 48 words ending in "gry", almost
all of which Ann Landers rejected as being too obscure or too foreign, as
well as not being included in any of the seven dictionaries she uses.  But
she reported (Jan. 31) that there are five acceptable candidates in the
Oxford English Dictionary, the other three being aggry, meagry, and puggry.

"Then the buckboards," said Sherlock Holmes, commenting on the rather
unusual assortment of agricultural machinery advertised by Howard Garrideb.  
The U.S. Postal Service reports that a buckboard can be seen in Wendell
Minor's design for our new commemorative honoring the 100th anniversary of
North Dakota statehood.  According to sharp-eyed philatelists, it's a farm
wagon, not a buckboard (a proper philatelic buckboard is shown in the BSJ,
Sept. 1985, p. 189).  But Howard Garrideb's advertisement also mentioned
farmers' carts, so you can take your pick and still be Canonical.







Two more philatelic items, from Canada, show a red fox and a grizzly bear.  
There are many mentions of foxes in the Sherlock Holmes stories, including
the description of Lady Frances Carfax as "a stray chicken in a world of
foxes" and of "Mortimer Tregennis, with the foxy face," but there is only
one mention of a grizzly bear ("The clumsy grizzly bear lumbers through the
dark ravines" in "A Study in Scarlet").

Check to see if your doctor gets MD magazine, and is willing to surrender
the Feb. 1989 issue, which has an article on "Doctoring the Evidence", by
William B. Ober.  The article is a Canonically illustrated revision of his
classic investigation of "The Dying Detective" (D2365a).

Reported by Vivian Heisler: Jeremy Brett played the title role in "Macbeth"
on stage in Los Angeles in 1981 (with Pipe Laurie as Lady Macbeth), and
there is a videocassette available.  Brett fans can check the local shops.

Mar 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The third audio cassette with two 1946 Rathbone/Bruce broadcasts "The April
Fool's Day Adventure" and "The Uneasy Easy Chair") with introductions and
comments by Mary Green (the wife of Denis Green, who shared writing credit
with Anthony Boucher) has been released ($9.95).  Fans frustrated by poor
distribution of the cassettes will welcome the news that the sales campaign
through American Express is underway, with 26 cassettes in the series.  The
first two cassettes are offered free (with a $2.95 charge for shipping and
handling), and then they will ship three cassettes every two months ($29.95
plus $2.95).

Videotaper alert: Betty Pierce reports that Granada's "The Final Problem"
and "The Empty House" will be broadcast by the Disney Channel on Apr. 2, by
way of beginning their run of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes".

And some more information on "An Appointment with Sherlock Holmes" (the
three-hour package due in syndication on independent television stations in
April).  It's open for broadcast in a four-week window (Apr. 3 through Apr.  
30), and will have 18 two-minute commercial breaks (it's a barter package,
with your local stations allowed to sell one minute in each of the breaks).  
The program will have colorized versions of "Secret Weapon" and "Woman in
Green" (with Eli Wallach as host); I've seen a promotional cassette, and
the colorization is, I fear, pretty much the washed-out standard for such
work.  A second program will be open for broadcast later this year (Nov. 24
through Dec. 23), with "Dressed to Kill" and "Terror by Night".

Richard Armour, the splendid poet and satirist, died on Feb. 28.  He wrote
more than 6,000 items of humorous poetry and prose, including the poems "On
Last Looking into Watson's Holmes" (BSJ, Apr. 1946) and "Ban: Hungary Has
Banned Sherlock Holmes" (The New Leader, Mar. 9, 1953; and BSJ, Jan. 1954).

National Pipesmokers' Week was celebrated on March 12-19, and Rick Hacker
(the author of THE ULTIMATE PIPE BOOK) reports that participating Tinder
Box International shops had (and may well still have) Sherlockian buttons,
offered free to any Sherlockian who asks for one.  A poster may also be
available.  While in London in January, Rick presented Jeremy Brett with
the British Pipesmoker of the Year Award.

Herb Tinning reports a new and imaginatively named business in New Jersey:














Mar 89 #2   Sherlockians seeking centenaries to celebrate in 1989 can, of
            course, turn to the Canon: it was a busy year for Holmes, with
Baring-Gould dating six of the recorded cases in 1889, as well as several
of the unrecorded cases and other important events such as the marriage of
John H. Watson to Mary Morstan.  But there are also some significant 50th
anniversaries to be celebrated this year.  It was in 1939 that "The Hound
of the Baskervilles" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" were released
by Twentieth Century-Fox, and Edith Meiser's radio series "The Adventures
of Sherlock Holmes" began, all with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in roles
that provided them with an opportunity that all too few actors have had: to
create an archetype.  They were not the first actors to portray Holmes and
Watson, certainly, but they were the first to do so in an age when modern
technology made their films and radio broadcasts so widely available that
their characters became accepted standards.  The fact that those standards
were not necessarily accurate, especially in the case of Nigel Bruce (who
nevertheless did a splendid job with the role that was written for him),
does not diminish the effect that their portrayals had on their audiences.

This year's running of The Silver Blaze at Belmont in New York will be held
on Saturday, Sept. 23.  If you would like to be on the mailing list, write
to Stephen L. Stix, Route 1, Box 452, Markleville, IN 46056.

A CASE OF BLIND FEAR #1 (Jan. 1989) is now in the comic-book shops.  This
is the first issue of Eternity's four-part sequel to SCARLET IN GASLIGHT,
and has Sherlock Holmes involved in tracking down The Invisible Man.  And
SHERLOCK HOLMES #7 (Jan. 1989) is also available, continuing Eternity's
reprints of the Meiser/Giacoia newspaper comic strips; the series has now
run through their pastiches, and is doing Canonical stories, starting with
"A Scandal in Bohemia".  CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #14 (July 1988) seems to
have been the last issue from Renegade.

Further to the report (Feb 89 #6) from Ann Landers that George H. Scheetz
is "the best authority on words in the United States," Bob Burr reports
that George has issued a clarification, suggesting that he is rather only
the best authority on words ending in "gry".  So there's no need to send
George questions such as: how many words are there in English that contain
all of the vowels, in correct order?

Forecast for April: Julian Symons' A THREE-PIPE PROBLEM, a trade-paperback
reprint by Penguin, $4.95.  Also: Eve Titus' BASIL AND THE LOST COLONY, a
trade-paperback reprint by Minstrel/Pocket Books, $2.50.

It would appear that the curse of the Baskervilles has not yet been laid to
rest.  At hand from Mel Ruiz is a report that Peter Cushing is now in the
hospital for treatment of a fractured leg.  He was cycling last month near
his home at Whitstable in Kent, and was knocked off his bicycle by a pack
of hounds.

Beth Kalikoff's MURDER AND MORAL DECAY IN VICTORIAN POPULAR LITERATURE (Aug
87 #3) has been reissued by the UMI Research Press in paperback (193 pp.,
$19.95); it's a scholarly discussion of the portrayal of murder during the
Victorian age, from the street literature of 1830 to the fiction of 1900
(including the Sherlock Holmes stories).

Mar 89 #3   1989 is also the 50th anniversary of the film "The Wizard of
            Oz".  There have been four Oz pastiches involving The Great
Detective published in the magazine Oziana, but there is a much earlier
connection between the creator of Oz and Sherlock Holmes, in "The King of
Gee-Whiz" (a three-act "musical extravaganza"), written by L. Frank Baum
and Emerson Hough, registered for copyright in 1905 but apparently never
produced.  At the end of the play, Willie Cook, a fat missionary, emerges
from a cannibal kettle to declare that he is none other than Sherlock
Holmes.  See Anthony Boucher's article in the BSJ (July 1959) for more
details on the show.

Fred Stone and David Montgomery starred in the musical version of "The
Wizard of Oz" in 1902, and in 1906 they appeared in Victor Herbert's "The
Red Mill" as Con Kidder and Kid Conner, impersonating Holmes and Watson,
and "The Red Mill" included the earliest known use of the line, "Quick,
Watson, the needle."  William Gillette is reported to have told Stone,
after Gillette saw "The Red Mill", that he would probably have to learn to
dance for his next portrayal of Holmes.  Richard R. Rutter has reported on
this at greater length in Shadows of the Gnomon (July 1981), as has Daniel
P. Mannix in The Baum Bugle (summer 1981 and autumn 1981).

             "An Abraham Lincoln keyed to base uses instead of high ones
             would give some idea of the man," reads the description of J.
             Neil Gibson in "Thor Bridge".  Abraham Lincoln is shown on a
             90-cent stamp issued in 1869 and reprinted on a commemorative
             honoring the World Stamp Expo (to be held in Washington later
             this year).

             Viewers of "The Last Place on Earth" on PBS-TV last year (Jun
             88 #4) will recall the huge tonnage of supplies that Capt.
             Scott took with him on his ill-fated attempt to be the first
             man to reach the South Pole.  The hut on Cape Evans, from
which Scott staged his expedition, was preserved and can still be visited,
as it was recently by Paul Brown, who reported in The Guardian (Feb. 15,
1989) that "by Scott's bunk was THE GREEN FLAG AND OTHER STORIES OF WAR AND
SPORT by A. Conan Doyle, labelled inside the flyleaf 'British Antarctic
Expedition 1910'."

Herb Tinning reports a variant edition of "The Hound of the Baskervilles by
A Collie Dog" (Feb 89 #5).  His copy, acquired in London, has a "Good Boy
Press" publisher's imprint on the spine and a sales tag noting that it was
"made specially for Armitages in Taiwan" (there's no publisher's imprint on
the spine of mine, which was "made in U.S.A.").  Compulsive collectors can
write to Armitage Bros., Colwick, Nottingham, England.

It doesn't take long for most movies to appear in the video shops: Andrew
Jay Peck reports an advertisement from Orion Home Video announcing May 25
as the "street date" for "Without a Clue".  The price will be $89.95.

Mark W. Erdrich (49 Kings Lacey Way, Fairport, NY 14450) is interested in
the use of Sherlockian artwork or themes in advertisements for computers
and other electronic wonders.  Please send him photocopies if you encounter
such items.

Mar 89 #4   Leslie Bricusse's "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" (with Ron
            Moody as Holmes) had a one-month run in Exeter last year (Dec
88 #1), and will open at the Cambridge Theatre in London on April 24.  The
Daily Mail reported (Feb. 25) that Michael Caine and "top Hollywood mogul"
Aaron Spelling are two of the backers of the L1.25 million production.

Julian Symons' A THREE-PIPE PROBLEM (D5202b) has been reissued by Penguin
in their trade-paperback "classic crime" series (192 pp., $4.95).

                            Georgia was one of the "different parts of the
                            country" in which the Ku Klux Klan formed local
                            branches ("The Five Orange Pips").  Georgia's
                            Okefenokee Swamp is shown in the painting by
                            Bart Forbes used on the new postal card in the
                            "America the Beautiful" series.

                            "Rosenblatt Back on the Bench," according to
                            the headline on an article in the New York Law
Journal, at hand from Andy Peck.  Our congratulations to Al Rosenblatt, who
was appointed by Governor Cuomo to be a justice of the appellate division.  
Al has been serving as the chief administrative judge, and will now "turn
his attention from case-disposition statistics, computer networks, and
fencing with the legislature over court budgets, back to the search-and-
seizure issues, contract interpretation and state constitutional arguments
he left behind nearly two years ago."

An older item to watch for (discovered by John B. Taylor): THE CASE OF THE
FELON'S FIDDLE: A MCGURK MYSTERY, by E. W. Hildick (New York: Macmillan,
1982); one of a series for younger readers, with McGurk imagining that he
is Sherlock Holmes as he and his friends attempt to solve a mystery.

Reported by Dana Richards: GARDNER'S WHYS & WHEREFORES, by Martin Gardner
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989); a collection of Gardner's
recent writings.  "Did Sherlock Holmes Meet Father Brown?" is a review of
Bayer's SOME NOTES ON A MEETING AT CHISHAM, reprinted from BSM (winter
1984) with a new postscript.

And there's a Sherlockian cover on the Mar.-Apr. 1898 "special edition" of
Games (marked for newsstand display until Apr. 25).

Poor Little Rich Girl Travels and Chandris Fantasy Cruises report that the
demand for deluxe cabins on the S.S. Galileo for "the ultimate Sherlockian
seminar at sea" from New York to Bermuda and back, July 23-28, 1989, has
exhausted the supply, and that the remaining standard accomodations are
selling briskly.  The deadline for reservations is Apr. 23, and details on
the cruise are available from Mary Ellen Rich, 52 West 56th Street, New
York, NY 10019 (212-757-0881).

A two-cassette set from the BBC Audio Collection is being marketed here by
The Mind's Eye (Box 6727, San Francisco, CA 94101) and available in some
stores at $14.95.  "Sherlock Holmes: Vol. 1" has four of the Hobbs/Shelley
programs ("Spec", "Chas", Scan", and RedH").  The Mind's Eye charges $3.50
for shipping and handling, and their toll-free number is 800-227-2020.

Mar 89 #5   We try to avoid vague reports, but vague is all there is on
            this one: The BBC World Service has made, and will broadcast
(sometime) a long interview with Jeremy Brett about Sherlock Holmes and the
television series and the play.  Their monthly magazine London Calling may
(or may not) be helpful in providing a more specific warning.

Catalog at hand from Gary Lovisi (Gryphon Publications, Box 209, Brooklyn,
NY 11228), announcing a new printing of his pamphlet (52 pp., $4.00) RELICS
OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (BSJ Sep 87) and his new bibliography SHERLOCK HOLMES:
THE GREAT DETECTIVE IN PAPERBACK; the latter title will be a revised and
expanded edition (100+ pp., $19.95 cloth or $9.95 paper) of his SHERLOCK
HOLMES: 50 YEARS OF THE GREAT DETECTIVE IN PAPERBACK (BSJ Mar 84).

Another mail-order source for audio cassettes (S'ian and otherwise): Audio
Editions (Box 6930, Auburn, CA 95604) offers the first two of the "221A"
Rathbone/Bruce reissues ($9.95 each); three two-cassette packages read by
Robert Hardy (each with four stories, $16.95); three more with long stories
("Houn", "Sign", "Stud") read by Hugh Burden or Tony Britton (each $16.95).  
They take plastic, and their phone number is 800-231-4261.

The 13-hour dramatization of Len Deighton's "Game, Set and Match" has begun
on "Mystery!" on PBS-TV, and there may well be Sherlockian references in
the series: in the books, KGB colonel Lenin was an admirer of the Sherlock
Holmes stories.  Mel Martin, who plays Fiona Samson, was Alice Faulkner in
the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in
Washington and New York in 1974 and 1975.

The latest mail-order catalog from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10011) offers (item 1262336) the Galley Press edition of THE CONAN
DOYLE STORIES ($9.95) and (item 1546977) the Doubleday one-volume edition
of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES ($12.95).  Both are bargains, and
THE CONAN DOYLE STORIES is especially recommended: it's a collection of 76
fine examples of ACD's skills as a teller of tales, reprinted from the 1956
John Murray edition (the stories are non-S'ian, except for the apocryphal
"The Lost Special" and "The Man with the Watches").

Brian MacDonald reports: THE MYSTERIOUS PROWLER and THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE,
by Francis Carfi Matranga, published by Victor Books and featuring Nina,
also known as "Lady Sherlock Holmes" ($5.00 each from Heavenly Blessings,
210 North Jefferson, Martinsville, IN 46151).

Also from Brian: "The Case of the Colorful Disappearing Eggs: An Intriguing
Egg Decorating Kit" (an 8-inch-square box) with Harelock Holmes and Dr.  
Wabbitson on the cover and inside (where they are joined by Bunny-Arity).  
$1.79 at discount and drugstores, and possibly still available (item #1724)
from the manufacturer (Easter Unlimited, Carle Place, NY 11514).

The British government has suggested that Britain's six largest brewers be
required to sell many of their "tied pubs" -- one of which is Whitbread's
"The Sherlock Holmes" in London.  There are about 45,000 "tied pubs" in
Britain (and about 37,000 "free houses"), and the government has proposed
that no brewer be allowed to own more than 2,000 pubs.  If the proposal is
adopted, Whitbread would be required to sell more than 4,000 of its pubs.

Mar 89 #6   The Jan. 1989 issue of the August Derleth Society Newsletter
            reprints Peter Ruber's "A Weekend with August Derleth" (his
introduction to the 1965 Candlelight Press edition of PRAED STREET PAPERS),
with some additional comment.  Membership in the society includes their
quarterly newsletter, and costs $5.00 a year.  The society also has just
published REMEMBERING DERLETH, a 112-page booklet of Derlethiana (including
two pages about The Praed Street Irregulars) at $7.00 postpaid.  Membership
dues and orders for the booklet (membership is not required) can be sent to
the society, c/o Herb Attix, 3333 Westview Lane, Madison, WI 53713.

Reported by John Bennett Shaw: TAUCHNITZ INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS IN ENGLISH
1841-1955, by William B. Todd and Ann Bowden (New York: Bibliographical
Society of America, 1988; $75.00), with discussion (pp. 412, 919, 941) of
John's library and his four Tauchnitz editions of the Canon once owned by
the Czarina.  And listings of the many Tauchnitz editions of ACD's works.

Star Trek: The Official Fan Club Magazine #65 has a color cover and other
photographs of Brent Spiner playing Lt. Cdr. Data playing Sherlock Holmes,
as seen on "Elementary, Dear Data" on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in
Dec. 1988.  The magazine costs $3.00 postpaid from Star Trek: The Official
Fan Club, Box 11100, Aurora, CO 80011.

It appears that the markets for videocassettes differ in Britain and the
U.S., if prices for new releases are any indication.  Granada's "Houn" and
"Sign" are available in Britain at a suggested retail price of L9.99 each
(that's $16.88).  It might be that the rental market in Britain is so small
that companies ignore that segment, concentrating instead on direct sales.  
But it is also possible that cassettes of television programs are priced
low because so many people have already recorded the programs off-the-air. 

Those who carefully examined Jeff Decker's fine cartoon in the BSJ (Dec 88)
will have noticed the Adventuress asking, "How many B.S.I.'s does it take
to screw in a lightbulb?"  We will be happy to publish the best suggestions
for a response to this question.

For those who are not familiar with this sort of exchange, the format goes:
How many folk singers does it take to screw in a light bulb?  Two: one to
change the bulb and one to write a song about how good the old light bulb
was.  Or: how many consultants does it take to change a light bulb?  I'll
have an estimate for you a week from Monday.

Brian and Charlotte Erickson (726 Sutter Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303) have
announced a new edition of THE INVENTORY OF 221B BAKER STREET (Oct 87 #5);
this is a booklet of text and photographs describing the recreation of the
sitting-room in San Francisco, and the cost is $8.00 postpaid.

Illustrated sales list at hand from Chuck Kovacic (18307 Burbank Boulevard
#49, Tarzana, CA 91356), offering full-color reproductions of Sherlockiana
such as a lobby card for the Rathbone/Bruce "The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes", the "Spy" caricature of William Gillette for Vanity Fair, the Turf
cigarette cards from Boguslavski, and the 1914 advertisement for Postum.
Chuck also offers a handsome new four-color lapel pin honoring The Hound of
the Baskervilles.

Apr 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

It's not all that easy to find "The Hound of the Baskervilles, by A. Collie
Dog" (a soft vinyl dog toy in the shape of a book), without worrying about
the fact that there are at least three variants.  Tom Stix reports that you
can order from Plaza Pet World, 91 Closter Plaza, Closter, NJ 07624 ($6.00
postpaid); this is the "made in Spain" variant.

It wasn't all that long ago that the Motion Picture Association of America
was campaigning hard against the VCR, because it was such a threat to the
movie business, but MPAA president Jack Valenti has changed his mind.  "The
more a person watches movies on a VCR, the more that person is drawn to
view a movie in a theater," Valenti has concluded, based on studies that
show that movie attendance has increased along with VCR sales.  In 1971,
movie attendance was 800 million admissions, and in 1988 admissions neared
1.1 billion, with box-office revenues at an all-time high of $4.4 billion.

               Dame Ngaio Marsh, shown on a stamp in a set issued this year
               to honor New Zealand authors, wrote a fine series of mystery
               novels about Inspector (and later Superintendent) Roderick
               Alleyn, and echoed the Canon from time to time, as in GRAVE
               MISTAKE (1978).

               Joseph J. Eckrich (7793 Keswick Place, St. Louis, MO 63119)
               offers a seven-page sales list of Sherlockian books.

               Andrea (formerly Mrs. Sheldon) Reynolds is planning to marry
in July -- but her new husband won't be Claus von Bulow.  According to the
[London] Daily Mail (Mar. 13), Andrea will marry Shaun Plunket, heir to a
title dating from the early nineteenth century, when one of his ancestors
was Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

More news from Hollywood: "Without a Clue" had a box-office gross of more
than $8 million, as of Dec. 20, 1988 -- far less than the cost of the film,
which thus is a commercial failure so far.

The new edition of THE INVENTORY OF 221B BAKER STREET (Oct 87 #5) has 21
pages and is available for $8.00 postpaid from Brian and Charlotte Erickson
(726 Sutter Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303); this is a booklet of text and
photographs describing the recreation of the sitting-room in San Francisco.

"Sherlock Holmes and the Weather", by Randall S. Cerveny and Sandra W. 
Brazel, is the lead article in the Apr. 1989 issue of Weatherwise (4000
Albemarle Street NW, Washington, DC 20016; $3.50).  The article deals with
Holmes and an observer and forecaster of the weather, and there's a fine
color cover by Ron Blalock.

THE BEST HORROR STORIES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, edited by Frank D. McSherry,
Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh (Chicago: Academy Chicago, 1989;
294 pp., $6.95), has an Introduction by McSherry and 13 of Conan Doyle's
fine tales in this genre.  Many of the stories will be familiar, but one of
them ("The Silver Hatchet") was first published in 1883 and has, I believe,
been reprinted only twice before in this century.

Apr 89 #2   Frank Morley, in LITERARY BRITAIN: A READER'S GUIDE TO ITS
            WRITERS AND LANDMARKS (New York: Harper & Row, 1980, p. 31),
suggests that "it was on that footway of Hungerford Bridge, on the black
rain-drenched equinoctial night in September 1887, that Sherlock Holmes
allowed the young John Openshaw to be intercepted and lured to death on the
Embankment, as five orange pips had fatefully foretold."  In the Canon it
is the Waterloo Bridge.  Does anyone know of any discussion, by Morley or
others, on why it would have been the Hungerford Bridge?

Charles Higham, author of THE ADVENTURES OF CONAN DOYLE, has written a new
biography.  In CARY GRANT: THE LONELY HEART (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1989; 358 pp., $18.95), Higham and co-author Roy Moseley claim that Grant
had homosexual affairs with Randolph Scott and Howard Hughes.

"Many thanks for the remarks in which I am sure that you are quite right,"
Conan Doyle wrote to Captain Charles Low from Undershaw.  "I stupidly mixed
up Vernon with Venables.  If there is ever a reprint I shall see to that."
Conan Doyle lived at Undershaw from 1897 to 1907.  There is no Vernon or
Venables in the Canon: can anyone suggest a non-Canonical reference?

David L. Hammer (Gasogene Press, Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004) offers a new
sales-list for Gasogene's in-print and upcoming titles.

British news from Roger Johnson: Peterson of Dublin introduced a "Sherlock
Holmes" briar pipe in 1987 (seen selling for $100 to $125 in a New York
pipe shop in Jan. 1988), and is now offering a "Baskerville" pipe; there
will be others in the series, to be issued at six-month intervals.  And a
list of Granada-related Sherlockiana is available from Judith M. Naylor,
Merchandise Manager, Granada Studio Tours, Manchester, M60 9EA, England).

Christopher Roden (Grasmere, 35 Penfold Way, Dodleston, Chester CH4 9ML,
England) is preparing for the official launching of The Arthur Conan Doyle
Society on May 22 (Sir Arthur's birthday).  He plans to publish a journal
twice a year, supplemented by a regular newsletter, and you can write to
him for a copy of his publicity flier.  Membership outside the U.K. will
cost L10.00 a year (plus L4.50 a year if airmail is desired).

The seventh annual "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held at Bear Mountain,
N.Y., on Oct. 7-8, 1989.  Robert E. Thomalen (69 Glen Road, Eastchester, NY
10709) will be happy to send you a copy of this year's flier.

"A Tourist Guide to the London of Sherlock Holmes" (D1889b), a collection
of Charles O. Merriman's fine articles in the SHJ, has been reprinted by
The Sherlock Holmes Society of London; $6.50 postpaid (checks payable to
the Society) from Capt. W. R. Michell, The Old Crown Inn, Lopen, South
Petherton, Somerset TA13 5JX, England.

"They Might Be Giants" is the title of an album of rock music recorded by
"They Might Be Giants" and issued by Bar-None Records in 1986 (and still
available on tape and records).  There's nothing S'ian about the recording,
except for the title of the group, which was taken by John Flansburgh and
John Linnell (who *are* "They Might Be Giants") from the name of the George
C. Scott film.

Apr 89 #3   A clipping from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, at hand from Tom
            and Ruthann Stetak, reveals that there is a Cleveland Club of
Washington, founded in 1957, with membership requirements as strict as
those of some S'ian societies.  "To join, a prospective member has to have
been born in Cleveland, raised in Cleveland, graduated from a Cleveland
university, lived in Cleveland, flown over Cleveland in an airplane, know
how to spell Cleveland, or generally agree to the principles of the club
(which have never been spelled out)."

Tom and Ruthann also report that there is a minor Sherlockian connection
for the new film "Major League": the deerstalkers that Tom and Ruthann wore
in the stadium when the long-shots were taken of the 65,000 spectators.

American Express has shipped the first two cassettes in its subscription
series (Mar 89 #1) covering the 26 cassettes to be issued by 221A Baker
Street Associates (each with two programs from the Rathbone/Bruce radio
series).  The two cassettes are the same as those already available in
stores (though with different packaging).  Tom Galbo has had a letter from
Ken Greenwald of 221 "A" Baker Street Associates, explaining some of the
problems they have had with distribution through the Waldenbooks and B.  
Dalton chains, and noting that the chains are gearing up to do better (in
June Waldenbooks will have a special counter display of the first four
cassettes), but the chains will have one new cassette every three months.  
American Express, however, will be releasing three new cassettes every two
months; their subscription series is available only to card-holders, but if
you (or a friend) are a card-holder, the toll-free number for orders is
800-528-8000.  Ken Greenwald also notes that the contents of the first
cassette (with "The Unfortunate Tobacconist" and "The Paradol Chamber") are
not exactly the same as on the LP record album: one of the commercials has
been deleted from the cassette, and Ben Wright's introduction is shorter
(this was done to preserve the collector's-item status of the LP album).

THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE is one of four titles in a series of "Nina Christina
Mysteries" by Frances Carfi Matranga (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1986); Nina is
a modern twelve-year-old, known to her friends and family as "Lady Sherlock
Holmes" as she solves a pleasant suburban mystery.

Adela Holzer, who was one of the producers of the New York production of
the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in
1974, seems to be unable to stay out of jail.  In 1979 she was convicted of
swindling a group of investors out of $2.3 million, and served two years in
the women's state prison at Bedford Hills.  Now she's in a cell on Rikers
Island, unable to raise $1 million in bail, while awaiting trial on charges
of cheating a new set of investors out of more than $7 million.

The Society's summer tour will be a visit to Cambridge, and the guidebook
will be available to those who cannot join the tour; $17.50 postpaid (and
checks again payable to the Society) from Jonathan McCafferty, 5 Jonathan
Court, Windmill Road, Chiswick, London W4 1SA, England.

Travelers to London might wish to request a copy of the brochure offered by
City Walks of London (9/11 Kensington High Street, London W8 5HP, England);
their walking tours include "The Sherlock Holmes Trail of Mystery".

Apr 89 #4   Eternity Comics has published SHERLOCK HOLMES CASEBOOK #1 and
            #2 (both dated Mar. 1989), reprinting the 1961 comic books NEW
ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (D6189a and D6190a), omitting the page about
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that appeared inside the back cover of D6189a and
adding a new page on "Sherlock Holmes' London Haunts" that I don't recall
seeing before.  How times change: the 1961 comic books (all in color) cost
15 cents each on the stands, while the 1989 comic books (in black and white
except for the cover) cost $2.25 each at your local comic-book shop.

John Woolford's long article on "Sherlock Holmes" in the Apr. 1989 issue of
the Scott Stamp Monthly is well illustrated (photographs show the 1984 set
from Turks & Caicos Islands and covers from two of the recent British stamp
booklets).  Box 828, Sidney, OH 45365; $3.00.

Frances Steloff died on Apr. 15, at the age of 101.  In 1920 she founded
the Gotham Book Mart in New York and made her store a gathering place for
authors and their readers.  "Wise men fish here" was the slogan she chose
for her bookshop, and one of those wise men was Christopher Morley, who
discovered the shop in 1931, and spent many hours helping with publicity
and other business matters (such as writing a set of dunning verses to be
sent to delinquent customers).  When Frances Steloff was arrested in 1935,
charged with selling obscene literature (the Random House edition of Andre
Gide's autobiography), Morley came to her defense, in his "Bowling Green"
column in the Saturday Review of Literature, and Morley's column was quoted
by the judge when he dismissed the case.  The Gotham Book Mart continues in
business (at 41 West 47th Street), and is well worth a visit.

THE ANNOTATED INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN, edited by Martin Gardner, was a
delightful exploration of the first collection of Chesterton's stories
about the "little priest" (and the annotations do not neglect the S'ian
aspects of the stories).  First published at $18.95 (Jul 87 #4), the book
is now discounted at $4.95 (item 839825) in the April catalog from Edward
R. Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031).

Reported by Michael McClure: the comic book WEB OF SPIDERMAN (#50, May
1989) has (page 40) a panel in which Spidey explains how he used "an old
Sherlock Holmes story" to solve a mystery.

Sheldon Wesson's THE SHERLOCKIAN TRIVIALITY INDEX is an ingenious analysis
of the Canon, proposed to The Red Circle in 1983 and privately published in
1985, and now available as an attractive miniature book (2.0 by 2.3 inches)
from The Press of Ward Schori, 2716 Noyes Street, Evanston, IL 60201.  The
volume is a fine small-press production, bound in suede, and costs $30.00
postpaid.

Further to the paragraph (Mar 89 #5) on the adaptation of Len Deighton's
"Game, Set & Match" on "Mystery!" on PBS, Mike Kean has reminded me of his
article on "Deighton's Spies and Sherlock" in Wheelwrightings (Jan. 1987).  
It was KGB colonel Stinnes who admired the Sherlock Holmes stories, and
Samson called him Lenin.  The actor who played Stinnes in the television
series didn't look at all like Lenin, and the Sherlockian exchange was
omitted from the television script.  There was a lesser S'ian exchange in
the book MEXICO SET, but the series will probably skip that, too.

Apr 89 #5   The Basil Rathbone Collection" is a 101-minute videocassette
            with some interesting older television material not otherwise
available: "A Christmas Carol" (with Rathbone as Ebenezer Scrooge), "The
Christopher Program" (a religious talk show with Rathbone as guest), "I the
Leader" (with Rathbone as the leader of a gang of criminals), "The Stones
Began to Move" (with Rathbone as a scientist who helps to solve the riddle
of the pyramids), and a two-and-a-half-minute commercial Rathbone made for
the Prudential Insurance Co.  There are also theatrical previews for three
of Rathbone's films, including "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (this is
the only S'ian item in the collection, but it's an international version
without dialog, allowing voice-overs to be added in other languages).  The
cassette (VHS only, on TDK High Standard tape) can be ordered from George
Stover, Cinemacabre Video, Box 10005, Baltimore, MD 21285 ($24.95 plus a
$2.00 shipping charge).  TDK Extra High Grade tape is available on request,
for an additional $2.00.

Renegade's comic-book series has resumed after a hiatus: CASES OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES #15 (Sept. 1988) is on the stands, with "The Adventure of Charles
Augustus Milverton" (and "The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist" announced
for the next issue).

The Pequod Press is "relentlessly moving on" with plans to complete Dr.  
Fatso's memoirs of Mr. Turlock Loams, and announces THE ADVENTURE OF THE
CARDBOARD LOX, available from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA
94707; $29.50 cloth or $14.50 paper.

Reported by Bob Burr: the 1888 first edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET offered
for sale by a dealer at last month's New York Antiquarian Book Fair, priced
at $40,000.  I don't know whether it was sold, but that's the highest price
I know of for any item of published Sherlockiana (and only one manuscript
has ever changed hands at a price higher than $40,000).

Alert readers of the television schedules were the only ones to have any
advance warning of the new Sherlockian episode in the "Alfred Hitchcock
Presents" series broadcast on cable by the USA Network on Apr. 22, since
there seems to have been no advance warning.  "My Dear Watson" (filmed in
Toronto in Oct. 1989) featured Brian Bedford (Sherlock Holmes) and Patrick
Monckton (Dr. Watson) in a 30-minute story marred by ridiculous casting,
costumes, sets, and script.  The best part of the show was the introduction
by Alfred Hitchcock, colorized, wearing a deerstalker, and blowing bubbles
from his calabash pipe.

Hitchcock's introduction was obviously taken from one of the old black-and-
white shows in the original "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" series.  But which
one?  There's no mention of a Sherlockian introduction in the series in my
notes, but surely some Sherlockian was watching back in the old days.

The New Playwrights' Network (35 Sandringham Road, Macclesfield, Cheshire
SK10 1QB, England) has published two new Sherlockian scripts.  THE SHERLOCK
HOLMES SOLUTION (L4.40 postpaid) is a two-act drama by Peter Hartley that
was performed on tour in England by the Spare Parts Theatre Company in the
summer of 1986.  THE PRIVATE LIVES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (L1.75 postpaid) is a
one-act comedy by Michael Lambe.

Apr 89 #6   April having only three weeks this year (I was in San Antonio
            one week of the month for a geology convention and the spring
dinner of The Practical, But Limited, Geologists), there is a shortage of
news, allowing room to reprint of one of the more unusual S'ian advertise-
ments, noted by Eileen Katz in the June 1988 issue of Female Patient.

















































May 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

The new "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical" has opened at the Cambridge Theatre
in London.  The two reviews seen so far are decidedly unenthusiastic, with
suggestions that "one reels away aghast from this Kamikaze concoction of
misdirected endeavour" (Jack Tinker, in the Daily Mail), and that Ron Moody
as Holmes "is never concerned with understatement and his obvious contempt
for Inspector Lestrade and even his bovine Watson eventually makes one long
for another Reichenbach Falls into which he can be pushed" (Milton Shulman,
in the Evening Standard).

Jerry Margolin reports that his new address (as of June 16) will be 10007
S.W. Quail Post Road, Portland, OR 97219-6368.

Jennie C. Paton (206 Loblolly Lane, Statesboro, GA 30458) would appreciate
hearing from anyone who sees Sherlockian television commercials, so that
she can try to obtain copies for her television archives.  The information
she needs is the name of the company doing the advertising, the date and
time the commercial was broadcast, and the name (or channel) and address of
the television station.

Reported by Connie Steffan: a Nerds coloring book (from Marvel Books) with
"Case of the Fading Nerds" and Nerdslock Combs and his friend Dr. Whatsit.  
Nerdslock Combs appears in Sherlockian costume in full color on the cover,
and you (or your kids) get to do your own coloring on the inside pages.

A new comic book reported by Tim O'Connor: BAKER STREET #1 (Mar. 1989) from
Caliber Press (31162 West Warren, Westland, MI 48135; $1.95); a punk-rocker
Sherlockian adventure (without Holmes and Watson) set in an alternate but
still present-day London.  And a mention (possibly a forecast) of SHERLOCK
HOLMES: STUDY IN SCARLET from Innovation (no address; $5.95).

Further to the mention of Frances Carfi Matranga's THE FORGOTTEN TREASURE
(Apr 89 #3), the suggested retail price is $4.50, and I am advised by the
publisher that they will be discontinuing the book soon.  The publisher is
Victor Books, 1825 College Avenue, Wheaton, IL 60187.

The May 1 issue of New York magazine was their special issue "The New Guide
to Living in New York" with one of the articles giving brief notes on "Buff
Groups", which included the Baker Street Irregulars, listed after the Mark
Twain Association of New York and before the Count Dracula Fan Club.

Paulette Greene (140 Princeton Road, Rockville Centre, NY 11570) is plans
to retire from the book business, and wants to sell her entire stock as one
lot: about 4,000 mystery and detective books and reference works, and about
600 Sherlockian books, including her own three privately-published titles.  
Contact Paulette for details.

Wilfrid de Freitas reports that the Grosvenor Resort at Disney World is
offering "Sherlock Holmes Mystery Weekends" on Sept. 2-4 and Nov. 17-19.  
The cost is $299 per person and covers meals, rooms, a day at Epcot center,
two cocktail parties (one with Watson and the other with Holmes).  Call
800-624-4109 for additional information.

May 89 #2   The Northeast Victorian Studies Association will hold its 16th
            annual conference at Princeton University on Apr. 20-22, 1990,
and the topic will be "Disguises, Dreams, and Deceptions".  If you'd like
to submit a paper, write to Dr. L. M. Shires, English Department, Syracuse
University, Syracuse, NY 13210.  If you'd like to attend the conference,
contact Prof. Earl E. Stevens, Rhode Island College, Providence, RI 02908.

A new catalog at hand showing production cels, cartoon artwork, and special
editions offered by Gallery Lainzberg (200 Guaranty Building, Cedar Rapids,
IA 52401) (800-5533-9995).  "Sleuthing II" is a new Friz Freleng limited
edition (FF-38) with Inspector Clouseau and a deerstalkered Pink Panther
($395.00).

The BSI's chaplain is publishing again: The Bohemian Scandal Sheet is his
new newsletter, "published periodically and edited irregularly," and the
first issue is now available.  There is no charge for the newsletter: all
you need do is write to Ben Wood (Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222) and ask for
a subscription, and then write to him again at least once a year.

The March 1989 issue of Philatelie Quebec has an intriguing article (in
French) by Bruce Holmes, showing postage stamps keyed to the 21 Canonical
references to saints (including references to the Virgin Mary, the Angel
Gabriel, and the Devil).  Editions Phibec, 4545 avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin,
Montreal, Quebec H1V 3R2, Canada; (CA)$3.00.


























Penny Fabb (4 Oldacres, Maidenhead, Berks., SL6 1XJ, England) offers a
matched pair of 90-mm. hand-painted metal figurines of Sherlock Holmes and
Dr. Watson for L44.00 postpaid (or L40.00 if payment is made in sterling).

May 89 #3   George F. Burrows ("Dr. Grimesby Roylott") died on Apr. 10, and
            his Associated Press obituary noted that he "was described as a
talented oddball whose passions ranged from social justice to Sherlock
Holmes."  He was a member of The Speckled Band of Boston for many years,
serving as its Herpeton, and he received his Investiture in 1964.  He was a
founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, an early president
of the Community Church of Boston (the first church to demand a fair trial
for Sacco and Vanzetti), and a New Deal Democrat.  He was also a university
policeman at Harvard for twenty years, and during a riot in the 1960s was
bitten on the leg by a Radcliffe student.  "I'm lucky she wasn't taller,"
he later remarked.

Further to the news (Dec 88 #3) of the reopening of the Sherlock Holmes
Society of London's membership list, the Society has now switched to a
two-tier entry system: new applicants will start as associate members
($15.00 a year) who will receive the SHJ and who can attend meetings as
guests of full members.  As vacancies occur, associate members will be
promoted to full membership ($20.00 a year), receiving also announcements
of meetings and other activities.  Applications should be sent to the
Society's honorary secretary, Cdr. Geoffrey S. Stavert, 3 Outram Road,
Southsea, Hants. PO5 1QP, England.

Forecast for July: THE BOOK OF THE DEAD, by Robert Richardson (St. Martin's
Press, $14.95).  "When the owner of an unpublished Sherlock Holmes manu-
script by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is murdered, Augustus Maltravers turns to
the only expert who can solve this crime--Holmes himself."

Ames Johnston ("The Missing Three-Quarter") died on April 17.  In 1947 he
was one of the founders of The Sons of the Copper Beeches, and in 1959 he
was one of the editors of the society's anthology LEAVES FROM THE COPPER
BEECHES, to which he contributed a nostalgic description of "The London of
the Canon".

Planning by Deen and Jay Kogan continues for Bouchercon XX in Philadelphia
on Oct. 6-9: there will be "only" three panel tracks, beginning on Friday
morning, and the dealers' room will open at noon on Friday.  The guest of
honor will be Simon Brett, creator of the actor-sleuth Charles Paris, and
the program is expected to give some emphasis to "performance" mystery.  
Advance registration reached 600 last month, it is reported, and it thus
seems likely that (as happened last year in San Diego), registration will
close before the convention opens.  Registration costs $40.00 (Bouchercon
XX, Box 59345, Philadelphia, PA 19102).

Bouchercon XXI will be in London, at King's College, on Sept. 21-23, 1990,
arranged by Marion and Robin Richmond, owners of Ming Books UK (1 Penrose
Avenue, Carpenders Park, Watford, Herts. WD1 5AE, England).  This will be
the first Bouchercon to be held outside the U.S., and the Richmonds note
that the World Science Convention will be held in the Hague, Sept. 7-9, and
the Agatha Christie Festival in Torbay, Devon, Sept. 14-16, 1990.  Details
on registration, hotels, an airline package, European and British tours,
and a play competition (the best play submitted will be awarded L1,000 and
performed at the convention) will be available later this year, but you can
write to the Richmonds now to get on their mailing list.

May 89 #4   Garry James' article on "Sherlock Holmes' Snubby" is a detailed
            discussion (with many illustrations) of the Webley Metropolitan
Police revolver, in the Guns & Ammo Complete Guide to Pocket Pistols, Apr.
1989 (8490 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90069; $2.95).  Also still
available is the 1986 Guns & Ammo Annual ($6.95), which includes "The Guns
of Sherlock Holmes", by Garry James and Scott McMillan; this is a revised
version, also well-illustrated, of their earlier article (D2529b).

Pattie R. Brunner (3019 Fire Weed Court, Florissant, MO 63031) would like
to hear from anyone who knows of currently available Sherlockian needlework
patterns or counted cross-stitch charts (and from anyone willing to share
copies of patterns or charts that aren't currently available).

Reported by Joe Eckrich: THEY NEVER SAID IT, by Paul F. Boller, Jr., and
John George (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989; 159 pp., $15.95),
notes (p. 47) that "Elementary, my dear Watson" doesn't appear in the
Sherlock Holmes stories.  They attribute the quote to Basil Rathbone; can
anyone identify an earlier appearance?

Thom Utecht notes a magazine advertisement for "Little Sherlock" ("a clever
little boy who thinks he's the world's greatest sleuth"): an 11-inch
hand-crafted bisque porcelain doll by artist Kathy Barry-Hippensteel, in a
new "Born to be Famous" collection, for $87.00 (plus $2.44 shipping plus
state sales tax).  Details available from The Ashton-Drake Galleries, 212
West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610, with a June 30 deadline for
orders.

Reported by Emory Lee: the May-June 1989 issue of Philip Morris Magazine
(120 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017) has a two-page article by Raymond
Schuessler on "Tobacco Stamps: Quite a Collection" with color illustrations
including the Nicaraguan issue showing Sherlock Holmes with his pipe.  And
a U.S. commemorative showing Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a member of the
BSI as well as a cigarette-smoker.

Emory also reports some Sherlockian items discounted at B. Dalton (and thus
probably available at other chains): THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, with
the fine Frederick Dorr Steele artwork (Mysterious Press, $9.98); THE BAKER
STREET DOZEN, ed. by Pj Doyle and E. W. McDiarmid (Congden & Weed, $8.98);
and SHERLOCKIAN LIMERICKS, by Isaac Asimov (Mysterious Press, $2.98); and
THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (Doubleday, $12.95).

SCARLET IN GASLIGHT: AN ADVENTURE IN TERROR (Newbury Park: Eternity Comics,
1988; $7.95) is a trade-paperback one-volume collection of the four comic
books written by Martin Powell and drawn by Seppo Makinen; the book also
contains a Foreword by Powell, an Afterword by Makinen, and eight pages of
Makinen's preliminary sketches.  Eternity also reports that their SHERLOCK
HOLMES series will run for 23 issues, reprinting all of the Giacoia strips;
they will also issue six-issue collections as trade paperbacks, with the
first one due in July.  Their SHERLOCK HOLMES CASEBOOK series had only two
issues (since there were only two in the original series from Dell).  And
they are working on a new one-volume collection, tentatively scheduled for
December, of a Sherlock Holmes strip from the 1930s (presumably the strip
by Leo O'Mealia).

May 89 #5   More excerpts from reviews of "Sherlock Holmes: The Musical":
            "Unpretentious, modest, often very funny, *Holmes* could bring
considerable pleasure to audiences seeking refuge from the pomposity of
contemporary musicals" (Mark Steyn, in the Independent).  And: "a vacuous
evening of unrelenting jollity and the kind of showbiz cliches everyone
hoped had gone out of fashion 20 years ago" (Charles Spencer, in the Daily
Telegraph).  And: "This is an elaborate production, starting well with the
exciting battle of the Reichenbach Falls, enjoyably staged.  But I fear it
may meet the fate of *Edwin Drood*.  The thrills fade and it turns into a
corny parody of Conan Doyle -- who has surely been parodied enough" (D.A.N.  
Jones, in the Sunday Telegraph).

The Players, for many years the gathering place for Sherlockians attending
The Silver Blaze in New York, celebrated its 100th anniversary last month,
according to a wire-service report, and welcomed the club's first female
members (Helen Hayes, Mary Tyler Moore, and Lauren Bacall were among those
honored).

"What sounds like a good buy is the first English edition of *The Hound of
the Baskervilles* (1902) listed at $3 by Norman Alexander Hall, 67 Union
St., Newton Center, Mass." (as reported by P. E. G. Quercus in his "Trade
Winds" column in The Saturday Review, Mar. 4, 1939).  Fifty years ago
Christopher Morley could include this sort of item in his column, which
also noted: "It amused sardonic Old Q. to learn from the Argus Bookshop,
Chicago, that there is now a 'Variorum Edition' of Mark Twain's *1601*,
edited by Franklin J. Meine.  Old Ben Abramson, equally sardonic, remarks
in his circular that 'for purity of text, this volume is unapproachable.'"

And more comic-book news: Renegade's CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #15, now in
the shops, will be the last issue from Renegade, because the comic book is
going to another company.  Renegade will send refunds to its subscribers,
and information on the other company when it's available.  The new company
is Northstar, based in Blue Island, Ill., and they intend to have #16 in
print in August.  We will report again when there's more information.

Jennie Paton has discovered a source for rental of some of the older S'ian
films, which is pleasant news for societies that are too large to gather
around a VCR and a television set.  The Em Gee Film Library (6924 Canby
Avenue #103, Reseda, CA 91335) offers "The Copper Beeches" (1912), "The
Dying Detective" (1921), "The Devil's Foot" (1921), and "The Man with the
Twisted Lip" (1921) for $8.50 each; "Sure-Locked Homes" (1926) and "Slick
Sleuth" (1926) for $5.00 each; "The Mystery of the Leaping Fish" (1916) for
$12.50; "Burstup Homes Murder Case" (1913) for $10.00; "Biograph Primitives
#1 (with the 1900 "Sherlock Holmes Baffled") and "The Case of the Screaming
Bishop" (1944) for $6.00 each; and "The Sleuth" (1925) for $7.50.

Jennie has also found a source for a videocassette ($24.95) of "Sherlock
Jr." (1924): Facets Video, 1517 West Fullerton Avenue, Chicago, IL 60614
(800-331-6197).  This is a Buster Keaton film, and it's a fine one, even
though it is S'ian almost only by title: Keaton plays a projectionist who
falls asleep and dreams that he has walked into the film being shown in the
theater; he plays a brilliant sleuth, and there are some truly splendid
special effects in the film.

May 89 #6   Mohamed Bazzi, president of The Young Sherlockians of Jackson
            Heights (a society founded last year at the Joseph Pulitzer
Intermediate School), plans to publish The Sherlockian Tabloid, beginning
in October and featuring the work of the scion's members.  The magazine
will cost $3.00 an issue, and can be ordered from Mohamed Bazzi, 80-08 35th
Avenue #5-F, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 (checks payable to I.S. 145 Queens).

"Frank here and I met in '84, in McQuire's
Camp, near the Rockies, where pa was working a
claim," Hattie Doran Moulton explained.  The
new postal card in the "America the Beautiful"
series shows Bart Forbes' original painting of
the Rocky Mountains.

River Oaks Travel (800-223-7174) is offering a
series of one-week tours (leaving every Sunday
from July 16 to Aug. 20) called "The Pub Package" tied to Malcolm Cooper's
series of miniature sculptures of "Great British Pubs" (one of which is The
Sherlock Holmes).  Texans and Canadians can call 713-526-1960.  The cover
of their brochure shows The Sherlock Holmes.

Judy Wolfsohn (9554 S.W. 82nd Street, Miami, FL 33173) offers the first
volume of her SHERLOCK HOLMES WORDSEARCH PUZZLES, with 25 puzzles, and
answers ($9.50 postpaid).

Reported by Michael McClure: Spiderman continues to show that he reads the
Canon.  The comic book WEB OF SPIDERMAN (#53, Aug. 1989) has (page 16) a
passing reference to a deerstalkered detective.

Film posters seem to have become the new target for speculative collecting.
"What's new is that doctors and lawyers are buying big-ticket items to put
in a portfolio," according to dealer Edwin Neal, quoted in the N.Y. Times
(May 22).  "They say, 'I want to spend $25,000.  You tell me what to buy.'"
At a recent auction in New York, a poster for "The Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes" (1939) sold for $4,000.  The same auction included a jockey shirt
worn by James Cagney in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" ($4,500) and a copy of GONE
WITH THE WIND signed by most of the cast ($20,000).

Reported by John Ruyle: THE MUMMY, OR RAMSES THE DAMNED, by Anne Rice (New
York: Ballantine Books, 1989, 436 pp., $11.95 in paper covers) is dedicated
to Arthur Conan Doyle (among others).  Anne Rice wrote THE VAMPIRE LESTAT
and INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, and her new book is dedicated to ACD "for
his great mummy stories 'Lot No. 249' and 'The Ring of Thoth'."  She has
also written (as A. N. Roquelaure) three volumes of erotica, and although
there's nothing unusual about a mainstream author working in that genre,
she's the first I've seen to list such books on the "also by" page.

Henry Brandon, Washington correspondent for The Sunday Times, was one of
the earliest journalists to use a Sherlockian motif in reporting on the
Watergate break-in (D2284b), so early, in fact, that he (among many others)
still thought of it as a minor event with no political significance.  He
mentions his Sherlockian column in the Watergate chapter in his memoirs:
SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS (New York: Atheneum, 1989; 436 pp., $24.95).

Jun 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

THE BAKER STREET DOZEN, edited by Pj Doyle and E. W. McDiarmid, has been
reissued as a trade paperback (New York: Contemporary Books/Congdon & Weed,
1989; 354 pp., $9.95).  Originally published in 1987 (Oct 87 #1), the book
contains ACD's favorite Sherlock Holmes stories, plus essays by Sherlockian
scholars and an afterword by Dame Jean Conan Doyle.  The paperback actually
is a collectible new edition, with an new page of acknowledgements and new
commentary on "The Priory School" by the editors in place of the earlier
contribution by George Fletcher.

There are six "Inspector Puzzle Mini-Mysteries" in a series of children's
puzzle books written by Patricia Lakin Koenigsberg and illustrated by Marc
Nadel, with Inspector Puzzle in S'ian costume (Mahwah: Watermill Press,
1988; 32 pp., $1.50 each).  Titles: THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING DINOSAURS,
THE MYSTERIOUS SPACE CHASE, THE GREAT JUNGLE BUNGLE, THE CASE OF THE RUN-
AWAY TIME MACHINE, THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING MICROCHIP, and THE SECRET OF
THE SINISTER SEA VILLAIN.

Brian and Charlotte Erickson are adding a file of National Holmesian Events
for Traveling Sherlockians to their computerized bulletin board, and anyone
planning a trip can call the bulletin board to see what's happening where.  
And societies are, of course, encouraged to send advance notice of meetings
to the Ericksons, either by mail (725 Sutter Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94303)
or directly to the bulletin board (415-329-1703).  Information needed: date
and time and place of the meeting, society name, and contact name, address,
and telephone number.

When discussing whether movies such as "Young Sherlock Holmes" and "Without
a Clue" were successful at the box office (each grossed about $16 million
in eight weeks), it can be instructive to see how real success is measured:
"Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" did $5.6 million on its first day in
the theaters, and $46.9 million in its first six days.














Cartoonist Dik Browne died on June 6, after a long career as an advertising
artist (he created the Bird's Eye bird and Chiquita Banana, and redesigned
the Campbell Soup kids) and as a cartoonist ("Hi and Lois" and "Hagar the
Horrible").  He was the only cartoonist ever to have received the National
Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award for two different comic strips.  This
Sherlockian "Hi and Lois" cartoon was first published on Jan. 17, 1985.

Jun 89 #2   The second shipment of Rathbone/Bruce audio cassettes has been
            shipped by American Express: three cassettes, with a shelf box
that will hold thirteen cassettes.  The programs are "The April Fool's Day
Adventure" and "The Uneasy Easy Chair" (duplicating the cassette already in
bookstores), "The Headless Monk" and "The Demon Barber" (with comments by
Ben Wright), and "The Amateur Mendicant Society" and "The Vanishing White
Elephant" (with comments by Ben Wright).  The subscription series is only
available to American Express card-holders (and surely you know someone who
is a card-holder, if you aren't), the cost is reasonable ($2.95 shipping
for the first two cassettes, and $29.95 plus $2.95 shipping for the next
three cassettes, with a new shipment every two months), and the toll-free
number for orders is 800-528-8000.

If you are a card-holder and didn't receive a promotional flier, there's a
reason: I have heard that American Express did a test mailing, to only one
million card-holders, to see what the response would be.  They were hoping
for a one-percent response (10,000 subscriptions to the series), but they
are reported to have received only 2,000 orders, and to be considering not
continuing the subscription series.  If you are at all interested in these
cassettes, you would be wise to subscribe, no matter how long the series
actually runs, considering how difficult it is to find the cassettes in the
chain bookstores.

And there is an alternative to the American Express subscription series and
to buying the cassettes in bookstores: you can buy direct from Simon and
Schuster (800-678-2677).  The price is $9.95 per cassette, plus $2.95 per
order for shipping, so the overall cost is higher, and it would appear that
cassettes will be available only at the bookstore schedule (one cassette
every three months).

A CASE OF BLIND FEAR #2 (Apr 89) has been published by Eternity Comics: the
comic-book series has Sherlock Holmes in pursuit of the Invisible Man, with
Irene Adler and Prof. Challenger involved in the battle.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was one of five Arctic explorers
honored by the U.S. Postal Service three years ago (Jun
86 #1), and he has now been honored by Canada with a
stamp showing Stefansson on the Arctic ice (the rather
modernistic design is by Frederick Hagan).  Stefansson
knew and admired ACD.  "In his home Conan Doyle is not
merely a sturdier Watson and a kinder Holmes," Stefans-
son wrote in 1922 (D2051b).  "He is also a gentler Sir Nigel and a mellow
blend of all the host of his nobler characters."

Further to Jennie Paton's report (May 89 #5) that "Sherlock Jr." (1924) is
available from Facets Video, the company has returned her check, because "a
current rights dispute has removed the tape from distribution."

Reported from Britain: MURDER WILL OUT: THE DETECTIVE IN FICTION FROM POE
TO THE PRESENT, by T. J. Binyon (Oxford University Press, 192 pp., L15.00);
"illustrates how the character of the detective has often overshadowed its
creator."  And a paperback reprint of Michael Dibdin's THE LAST SHERLOCK
HOLMES STORY [D4891b] (Faber, 192 pp., L3.99).

Jun 89 #3   Another plug for the mail-order catalog from Signals (Box
            70870, St. Paul, MN 55170): this is a subsidiary of WGBH in
Boston, and they offer video-cassettes of six programs from the Granada
series, the recording of music from the series, and the well-illustrated
book SHERLOCK HOLMES: A CENTENARY CELEBRATION, as well as many other items
tied to public television.

Scott Bond reports that registration for Bouchercon XX in Philadelphia is
now closed, having reached its limit of 1,000.  Those who were wise enough
to have registered already can plan to attend the Sherlockian session on
Saturday afternoon.

Gary Lovisi's RELICS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Feb 87 #4) is now available in an
expanded second edition (56 pp.), concentrating on mostly recent ephemera,
with brief comments on newspaper, magazine, and fanzine articles, as well
as reproductions of advertising artwork, magazine covers, theater programs,
and cartoons.  Order from Gryphon Books, Box 209, Brooklyn, NY 11228; $4.00
postpaid.  Gary also reports that his PAPERBACK PARADE #8 (also $4.00) has
an article on "The Non-Sherlockian Paperbacks of Arthur Conan Doyle" by Roy
G. James (six pages, with reproductions of some of the covers).

                              "The whole story concerning the politician,
                              the lighthouse, and the trained sea gulls" is
                              not exactly the theme of Bart Forbes' design
                              for the new "seashore" postal card, but it
                              shows Cape Hatteras Light in North Carolina.  
                              North Carolina is also mentioned in the Canon
                              as the locale of the Anderson murders, and
                              the K.K.K. had branches in the Carolinas.

The latest issue of Anglofile at hand, with a report that Granada's "The
Devil's Foot" won an Edgar for best episode in a television series at the
1989 annual dinner of the Mystery Writers of America ("The Musgrave Ritual"
won a similar Edgar last year).  In Anglofile's own British Entertainment
Awards, Jeremy Brett was voted the best television actor, and "The Return
of Sherlock Holmes" tied for best television series (with "All Creatures
Great and Small").  Anglofile covers British television, stage, film, and
video, and is published bi-monthly by the Goody Press, Box 33515, Decatur,
GA 30033 ($10.00 a year).

Travelers to Edinburgh who seek out the Conan Doyle pub will find that it
has been renamed: it is now the Cafe a la Ronde.  We do not know whether
the pub's rather scanty Doylean decorations have been retained.

But Conan Doyle *is* remembered in Edinburgh.  There is a plaque on the
wall of a hotel near Conan Doyle's birthplace at 11 Picardy Place, and an-
other at 23 George Square, where he lived from 1876 to 1880.  Nothing came
of the plans to commission sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi to design a memorial
to Conan Doyle in the center of the traffic circle where 11 Picardy Place
once stood (Sep 87 #5), but the Edinburgh Evening News now reports that the
Edinburgh branch of the Federation of Master Builders want to commemorate
their 50th anniversary (in 1991) by donating a statue of Sherlock Holmes to
the city.  The bronze statue is expected to cost L35,000.

Jun 89 #4   "The Agent must keep on Sh'lockin'," reports the proprietor of
            the Pequod Press, announcing a new episode from the memoirs of
Turlock Loams.  THE NAPA VALLEY MYSTERY offers Dr. Fatso's revelation of
the malefic consequences of the sinister researches of Victor Gravenstein,
a young botanist from Calistoga, and the book is available from John Ruyle,
521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $29.50 cloth, $14.50 paper.

Johns Hopkins (1795-1873) was a 19th-century merchant, banker
and investor, and philanthropist, who gave $7 million to fund a
hospital, university, and medical school in Baltimore, and there
has been a proposal for a Canonical connection.  "But all have
wondered just what Holmes was doing between the time he left the
university and his taking rooms in Montague Street," Christopher
Morley suggested in his essay "Was Sherlock Holmes an American?" (Saturday
Review of Literature, July 21, 1934).  "My own thought is that the opening
of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1876, and the extraordinary
and informal opportunities offered there for graduate study, tempted him
across the water."  Bradbury Thompson designed our new $1.00 regular issue.

A report from the 1989 convention of the American Booksellers Association
(never again to be held in Washington, unless a new convention center is
built, because the one we have now is too small): the next twelve months
are unlikely to be considered "The Year of the Book" by Sherlockians, since
L. B. Greenwood's new pastiche SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THISTLE OF SCOTLAND
(due in October from Simon and Schuster) appears to be the only new book
planned by a commercial publisher.

We are, however, entering the age of audio: according to one publisher's
statistics, more than three million portable audio-cassette players are
used by consumers today in the United States, and more than 70% of all new
cars sold in the United States in 1988 came equipped with audio-cassette
players.  In S'ian audio, Simon and Schuster are pleased with sales of
their continuing series of Rathbone-Bruce radio shows from the 1940s, Dove
Books on Tape is releasing A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: A COLLECTION OF
SEVEN GREAT STORIES read by Ben Kingsley on four cassettes, Great American
Audio Corp. has THE BEST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES VOL. II with four stories read
(by an unidentified reader) on four cassettes, and Dercum Press is ready to
issue THE SIGN OF THE FOUR read by William Barker on four cassettes.

Caedmon has nothing new planned, but will repackage earlier audio material
(Basil Rathbone's SHERLOCK HOLMES SOUNDBOOK, Nicol Williamson's THE HOUND
OF THE BASKERVILLES, and John Wood's SHERLOCK HOLMES' ADVENTURES.  Academy
Chicago is preparing the third volume in their series of trade-paperback
reprints of Basil Copper's Solar Pons pastiches.  Troll Associates will
release four video cassettes with SHERLOCK HOLMES' MOST THRILLING CASES at
$14.95 each (these are the Australian animations of Stud, Sign, Houn, and
Vall, with Peter O'Toole as Holmes).  Eternity is working on collections of
their comic-book reprints of the 1950s comic strips, aiming for bookstore
sales.  And Iron Crown Enterprises confirmed that their series of "Sherlock
Holmes Solo Mysteries" ended with seven titles in the U.S. (enthusiasm for
choose-your-own-ending game-books has waned here), but there is an eighth
title in the series in some foreign translations (we will report further on
this when more information is available).

Jun 89 #5   Another variant of Doubleday's THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES has
            appeared.  The one-volume "Dorset Press Edition" is similar to
the standard Doubleday edition (1960), but was published by Marboro Books
to be sold only by B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble, at $12.95 (discounted from
$18.95).  The main distinguishing point is the statement on the title-page
verso: "This edition published by Dorset Press, a division of Marboro Books
Corporation, by arrangement with Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday
Dell Publishing Group Inc. 1988 Dorset Press."  Other points: the endpapers
are plain white; the binding is brown paper-covered boards with a facsimile
signature of A. Conan Doyle in gold on the front cover, quarter black cloth
with spine lettered in gold; and the jacket is yellow, brown, and black on
much glossier stock than the earlier tan, brown, and black jacket.

William B. Lemar, an energetic member of The Maiwand Jezails, died in May.  
He was a civil engineer, and had retired from the Army with the rank of
colonel, triggering an interest in military history (S'ian and otherwise)
that involved considerable correspondence with Brigadier (retd.) Flashman.

"The Adventures at the Atheneum Club" is the title of a Sherlock Holmes
Mystery Weekend scheduled at Roselawn House (part of the Donald Gordon
Centre at Queen's University) in Kingston, Ontario, on Aug. 25-27, 1989.  
The weekend is arranged by a company specializing in English Murder Mystery
Weekends, the cost is $289 a person, and further information is available
from Whodunnit Inc., 173 Camden Road, Napanee, Ont. K7R 1E1, Canada.

Loren Estleman's SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. DRACULA (D4907b) is back in print, in
a new printing of the Penguin paperback (214 pp., $3.95).

Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's "Nate the Great" series of children's book has
another entry: NATE THE GREAT STALKS STUPIDWEED (Dell Yearling paperback,
$2.95) features the deestalkered young detective in a botanical mystery.

SHERLICK HOUND AND THE VALENTINE MYSTERY, by Kelly Goldman and Ronnie
Davidson, is a pleasant children's mystery, with attractive illustrations
by Don Madden (Niles: Albert Whitman, 1989; 40 pp., $7.95).

There may be more Sherlockian audio in store for American listeners: Clive
Brooks, who has written a series of stories read by Nick Girdler on Radio
Solent in England, reports that they may eventually be available here.  And
his book SHERLOCK HOLMES REVISITED, with twelve stories, is to be published
next spring.  A demonstration cassette reveals that his stories are written
and read with fine style.

Gunnar E. Sundin, an active Sherlockian in Chicago, died on June 12.  His
SHERLOCK'S LONDON TODAY (BSJ Mar 86) is a fine guide-book for visitors to
the London of Sherlock Holmes, and his four-sheet reprint of the Weekly
Dispatch's 1861 Map of London is a valuable resource for researchers.

Plan ahead: Nov. 12-19 will be National Children's Book Week, and Nov. 15
will be National Young Reader's Day, celebrated by the Library of Congress
and by local libraries.  Sherlockians and their societies might with to use
the occasion as an opportunity to help libraries to encourage young readers
to read a good detective story.

Jun 89 #6   Gary Thaden has forwarded an American reprint of a report from
            The Observer [London] on a proposal to renumber Baker Street so
that the present No. 239 will become No. 221B.  "The devilish mind behind
the plot is that of John Aidiniantz, an entrepreneur" who recently placed
an advertisement in Country Life: "Investor/sleeping partner required with
$4 million.  World famous London landmark for sale.  May suit titled person
with cultural and historical interests."  Aidiniantz notes that No. 239 has
17 steps leading up to the first floor, and says that he wants to set up a
Sherlock Holmes Center, with a reconstruction of the sitting-room, museum,
and library.  The Westminster City Council announced that it will consider
Aidiniantz's request, which has met with objections from the Abbey National
Building Society ("we have looked after Mr. Holmes for so long that to us
he is a real person") and by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London ("the
location of the house where the detective lived is probably the most vexed
question in the whole of the Holmes saga").  One might wonder when someone
will get round to asking Aidiniantz whether the interior of No. 239, along
with the 17 steps, is original, or was rebuilt after the WW2 bombing that
gutted almost all of Baker Street.

Travelers to France might want to plan an itinerary that includes Avignon,
where, on a road between the Hotel Mercure (outside of town) and the old
city, one will find the "Pub Sherlock Holmes".

Judson Philips died on Mar. 7, ending a writing career that spanned fifty
years.  As Hugh Pentecost he wrote the short story "My Dear Uncle Sherlock"
(D6051), which was later televised (D4619b), and he was the author of a
truly memorable opening line for a story: "Believing in ghosts is not at
all difficult.  If you are one."






















John Pryce Figurines (132 Brookfield Road, The Acorns, Welshpool, Powys,
United Kingdom) offers hand-painted figurines (5 in. high) of Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson at L10.25 each.

Jun 89 #7   Hy Gardner died on June 17.  He wrote a Broadway gossip column
            for the N.Y. Herald Tribune from 1951 until the paper ceased
publication in 1966, and then wrote a syndicated gossip column.  He also
was a member of the original celebrity panel on the television program "To
Tell the Truth".  In 1965 Gardner provided the introduction for the WFUV-FM
radio broadcast by The Priory Scholars of "The Sinister London of Sherlock
Holmes" (adaptations by Chris Steinbrunner of "The Man with the Twisted
Lip" and "Charles Augustus Milverton").

SHERLOCK HOLMES: TWO COMPLETE ADVENTURES is a new (1989) semi-miniature
book (2.75 x 3.25 in., 153 pp.) with "Five" and "Blue" (and with the title
SHERLOCK HOLMES: THREE COMPLETE ADVENTURES on the dust jacket); $4.95 in
bookstores ($7.45 postpaid from the Running Press, 125 South 22nd Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19103).

Plan ahead: "The Bimetallic Colloquium" will be held in Montreal on June
15-17, 1990.  The weekend event will be held at McGill University, under
the sponsorship of the local Sherlockian society (The Bimetallic Question),
and additional information is available from Wilfrid de Freitas, Box 883,
Stock Exchange Tower, Montreal H4Z 1K2, Canada.

John Bryan's JAMES BOND: DID HE REALLY LIVE TWICE? (Domino Books, 1989, 130
pp., L6.95) is an examination of the echoes and parallels between the Canon
(and the Rathbone films) and the saga of James Bond (in print and on film);
Bryan concludes that the echoes and parallels are more than coincidental.  
The publisher's address is Springfield Court, New Castletown Road, Douglas,
Isle of Man, Great Britain.

The Eternity reprints (as SHERLOCK HOLMES CASEBOOK) of the Dell comic books
NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES reveal that there are variants of Dell
#1245 (D6190a).  Eternity has reprinted the page "Sherlock Holmes' London
Haunts" from the inside back cover of their original copy of Dell #1245,
which also exists with a full-page advertisement for Kellogg's OKs on the
inside back cover.

John H. Jenkins, the colorful Texas antiquarian book dealer, was shot to
death on Apr. 16, leaving law-enforcement authorities, friends, and family
arguing about whether his death was suicide or murder.  His autobiography
AUDUBON AND OTHER CAPERS: CONFESSIONS OF A TEXAS BOOKMAKER was published in
1976, the same year in which the John H. Jenkins Award for Bibliography,
funded by Jenkins and Union College to mark his participation in an FBI
sting operation that resulted in the recovery in 1971 (from Mafia thieves)
of a volume of Audubon's BIRDS OF AMERICA stolen from the college library,
was given to Ron De Waal for his THE WORLD BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
AND DR. WATSON.

The silver cigarette case inscribed "From Sherlock Holmes 1893" presented
by Arthur Conan Doyle to Sidney Paget on the occasion of his wedding will
be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on July 20, accompanied by a one-page
letter from Conan Doyle to Paget, arranging to meet him in London, in one
lot estimated at L1,500-2,000.  The cigarette case was last seen at auction
on July 24, 1980, when it went for L1,500 to A. K. Shiel of Edinburgh (who
had earlier in the sale purchased the letter for L200).

Jun 89 #8   The personal essay may indeed be a vanishing literary art form,
            despite occasional appearances in periodicals such as the BSJ
(where a fine essay by Bill Schweickert will be found in the June issue).
Christopher Morley was a masterful essayist, in era when essays were widely
read and enjoyed, and George Fletcher has assembled a splendid selection in
CHRISTOPHER MORLEY'S NEW YORK (New York: Fordham University Press, 1988;
377 pp., $19.95), along with a warm tribute by Morley's friend Bill Hall.  
There is a section of essays on The Three Hours for Lunch Club in the early
1920s (when it was far more philosophical and much less social than it was
to became later in the decade after Morley had joined the founders of the
Saturday Review of Literature).  And the 1949 essay "On Belonging to Clubs"
may surprise those who do not know, or have forgotten, just how informal an
organization The Baker Street Irregulars once was.

THE LIGHT IS DARK ENOUGH is a 36-page booklet prepared for this month's
"Cambridge Expedition" by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, edited by
Jonathan McCafferty and offering a series of essays and illustrations of
the Cantabridgean aspects of the Canon.  The cost of the booklet is L8.00
(or $17.50) postpaid from Jonathan McCafferty, 5 Jonathan Court, Windmill
Road, Chiswick, London W4 1SA, England (checks payable to the Society).

If the Kroger chain of supermarkets is in your area, check the egg section:
Jennie Paton reports that their "symbol of eggcellence" egg cartons show an
egg with deerstalker and magnifying glass.

Chris Steinbrunner has a new address: Golden Hill HCC, 2028 Bridgeport
Avenue, Milford, CT 06460 (203-877-0371).

Oliver Bruhns' PRACTICAL HANDBOOK OF SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S LITERARY WORKS
PUBLISHED IN GERMANY, WITH SOME OBSERVATIONS UPON SHERLOCK HOLMES IN
PASTICHE is a 74-page checklist of German Sherlockiana ranging from SPATE
RACHE (the earliest translation, in 1902) to SHERLOCK'S SPURNASENSCHULE
(EIN SESAMSTRASSEN-BUCH).  The checklist is in German, with a Preface in
English, and with artwork by Richard Gutschmidt (the earliest known German
artist to illustrate the stories).  It is available (postpaid airmail) from
Oliver Bruhns (Kathe-Kollwitz-Weg 10, 2400 Lubeck 1, West Germany) for DM
10.00 (in currency or by international money order or bank draft); if you
pay with a US dollar check, the cost is $8.50.

Sherlockians traveling on British Airways should not neglect the in-flight
entertainment, which includes a Sherlockian "Play of the Month" in their
headphone repertoire.  These are 30-minute dramatizations from the Canon,
adapted by Grant C. Eustace and recorded by Daedalus Productions, with Roy
Marsden (Sherlock Holmes) and John Moffatt (Dr. Watson).  They are nicely
done, and faithful to the Canon, and there are 24 programs in the series
(which began in 1987).  Daedalus hopes to be able to release the series on
audio cassettes eventually.

A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Dove Books on Tape) is a new four-cassette
package with seven stories (Scan, RedH, Twis, Croo, Card, Copp, SixN) read
by Ben Kingsley, who does a good job with his characterizations (and better
with the supporting roles than with Holmes and Watson).  In bookstores or
direct from Dove (800-345-9945).

Jul 89 #1                             Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press

Harvard Magazine has a "Chapter and Verse" department ("a correspondence
corner for not-so-famous lost words"), and in the May-June 1989 issue ran a
query asking for Canonical authority for Christopher Morley's reference in
his introduction to THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES to Sherlock Holmes having
had earlier lodgings in Montague Street.  There were more than 30 replies
to the query, including one from David Musto on behalf of the Yale Sherlock
Holmes Society, and the answer appeared in the July-August issue.  Not all
the queries are literary: the current issue also asks for the words to a
song about "My Little Papaya Tree" (sung to the tune of "The Twelve Days of
Christmas") once heard on the radio.

Julian Symons' Sheridan Haynes pastiche THE KENTISH MANOR MURDERS is now
available in paperback (New York: Penguin Books, 1989; 191 pp., $3.95).

THE ROAD TO KHARTOUM: A LIFE OF GENERAL CHARLES GORDON, by Charles Chenevix
Trench, first published by Norton in 1978, has been reissued as a trade
paperback by Carroll and Graf (320 pp., $10.95), and will be of interest to
those who recall Watson's newly-framed picture of Gordon.

Bernie O'Heir reports that recent one-sheet movie posters are available
from Jerry Ohlinger (242 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011): "Murder by
Decree" ($30.00), "Young Sherlock Holmes" ($15.00), and "Without a Clue"
($10.00).  Shipping costs per order are $3.00 (UPS) and $4.00 (USPS).

                     John Bennett Shaw reports a handsome Sherlockian ring,
                     designed and hand-crafted by Roger Worland (Touchstone
                     Jewellery, 49 Bouldrewood Road, Benfleet, Essex SS7
                     5UA, England) in solid 14-carat gold.  The ring costs
                     L125.00 postpaid, including insurance and U.S. import
                     duty.  Mr. Worland has designed lapel pins for The
                     Northern Musgraves and The Arthur Conan Doyle Society,
                     and welcomes commissions from other societies.

Eve Titus' BASIL AND THE LOST COLONY (New York: Pocket Books/Minstrel,
1989; 96 pp., $2.50), is the second in a series of new trade-paperback
editions, with new color cover art by Judith Sutton.

Jim Backus, who provided the voice for the nearsighted Mr. Quincy Magoo,
died on July 3.  In a 1964 sequence for the television series "Mr. Magoo's
Storybook" (D6098b), Backus played Magoo as Dr. Watson, and the episode is
available on the videocassette "Mr. Magoo...Man of Mystery" (Paramount Home
Video).

Paulette Greene, still preparing for her move to Florida, invites queries
from anyone interested in a nine-room English Tudor house, with a slate
roof and five bedrooms, in a nice part of Long Island: 140 Princeton Road,
Rockville Centre, NY 11570.

Reported: WONDER BEARS TREASURE CHEST OF FUN (four books to read and color,
for children ages 4-8) with a Wonder Bear in S'ian costume on the cover
(Mahwah: Troll Associates, $4.95).

Jul 89 #2   A bibliographic query: I have seen two copies, in dust jacket,
            of Blakeney's SHERLOCK HOLMES: FACT OR FICTION? (London: John
Murray, 1932) with a laid-in promotional flier for Bell's SHERLOCK HOLMES
AND DOCTOR WATSON: A CHRONOLOGY OF THEIR ADVENTURES.  Wondering whether
this is more than mere coincidence, I would appreciate hearing from anyone
who has a copy of Blakeney's book, letting me know whether or not the book
is in dust jacket, and whether or not the book includes the laid-in flier.

          Kate Karlson Redmond has found some new S'ian items: authentic
          HOLMES neckties ($15.00), lapel pins ($4.00), and mechanical
          pencils ($2.00), all with an appropriate silhouette and a HOLMES
          inscription.  This HOLMES is the Home Office Large Major Enquiry
          System, a computerized case-management data-base system designed
          in Britain and used for "major-incident investigations" there and
now in Toronto.  Prices are in US dollars and include postage, and orders
can be sent to Sgt. David A. Reinhardt, 76 Lord Simcoe Drive, Bramalea,
Ont. L6S 5G6, Canada.  The necktie is navy blue with white HOLMES design
(and a red maple leaf to show you're not advertising the British system).

Ben Wright died in July.  British by birth, he arrived in Hollywood in
1946, and was a splendid radio actor.  In the 1946-47 season he appeared in
various roles in the ABC series "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"
(D5463a) and on one occasion, when Tom Conway was ill, replaced Conway as
Holmes.  On Feb. 12, 1949, he played the detective (Inspector Collins) in
an adaptation of "The Lost Special" in the CBS series "Escape", and in the
1949-50 season he played Holmes in the ABC series "Adventures of Sherlock
Holmes" (D5466a).  In 1977 he was cast as Watson in "The Sherlock Holmes
Radio Theatre", a series planned by KIIS (Los Angeles); only seven programs
were recorded, and the series was never broadcast.  Ben Wright recorded the
introduction for the record album "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"
produced by 221A Baker Street Associates in 1986, and his introductions and
comments can also be heard on three of the 221A audio cassettes distributed
by Simon and Schuster.

The 221A audio cassettes have also had some nice publicity.  On June 23 the
ABC series "The Radio Show" included a one-hour segment in which Tom Snyder
interviewed Glenhall Taylor and Harry Bartell (with some discussion of the
Rathbone/Bruce series, and much more about old-time radio in general), and
on July 9 the television series "Entertainment This Week" included a four-
minute segment on Leonard Maltin's visit to a recording session for new
introductions for future cassettes.  And a long story on the series, in the
Chicago Tribune (July 2), reports that the first cassette in the series has
sold an estimated 25,000-30,000 copies in the first three months (I think
that estimate may be highly optimistic, but only 10,000 copies is regarded
as a best-seller for an audio cassette).

Rick Hacker reports that THE ULTIMATE PIPE BOOK (May 85 #1) is scheduled
for a second (revised) edition in September (with discussion of Sherlock
Holmes' smoking habits), and that the summer 1989 issue of Carey's Club
News has an article (with a photograph) about his presentation of the Pipe
Smoker of the Year Award to Jeremy Brett.  Carey's Club is a mail-order
pipe-and-tobacco club, and the address (attn: Denise Drumm) is 7245 Whipple
Avenue NW, North Canton, OH 44720.

Jul 89 #3   Duncan Kyle's political thriller THE DANCING MEN is now on the
            remainder tables at $1.98.  The book is non-Sherlockian, except
for the title, but it is possible to put together an interesting collection
of such books, which might include A CASE OF IDENTITY (by Leonard Brain and
by Richard Marsh), THE CROOKED MAN (by Shelley Smith), THE EMPTY HOUSE (by
Michael Gilbert, by Francis Grierson, and by Irina Karlova), THE VALLEY OF
FEAR (by John Creasey, by Francis Addington Symonds, and by Robin Gar), and
THE YELLOW FACE (by William Murray Graydon).  There are also THE CRIMSON
CIRCLE (by Edgar Wallace), THE SCARLET CIRCLE (by Jonathan Stagge), COPPER
BEECH (by Ariadne Thompson), WISTERIA COTTAGE (by Robert M. Coates), and
THE DANCING MAN (by P. M. Hubbard).  Many of these titles were reported by
the late John Nieminski (Nov 86 #1).  Can anyone add to the list?

One of my correspondents notes that Americans and British use different
formats for writing dates: 12-25-88 (American) and 25-12-88 (British).  It
doesn't make much difference when it's Christmas, but a date written as
07-01-88 can be confusing.  Does anyone know why the formats differ, and
how they evolved?  What formats are used in other countries?

SHERLOCK HOLMES BY GAS-LAMP: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST FOUR DECADES OF THE
BAKER STREET JOURNAL, edited by Philip A. Shreffler (New York: Fordham
University Press, 1989; 423 pp., $22.50), demonstrates in many ways why the
world of Sherlockians is so interesting.  For an older generation it serves
as a reminder of how important the BSJ has been to those who played the
Sherlockian game, and for younger Sherlockians it offers fine examples of
the wit and intelligence and devotion that have been and still are brought
to that game by those who play it in the traditions of its inventors.  The
book offers an informative and appreciative account of the history of the
BSJ, and a thoroughly successful selection that cannot have been easy to
make.  Recommended.

26 programs from the Granada series are now available on video cassette in
Britain, on 16 cassettes at L9.99 each, according to the current program
for "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" at Wyndham's Theatre.  The British use
PAL format, so the cassettes won't play on American or Japanese machines
(which use NTSC format); only the first six programs have been issued here.

Mel Blanc died on July 10, after more than fifty years of providing voices
for many of the most popular cartoon characters on film and television (and
the sound of the wheezing Maxwell automobile on Jack Benny's radio series).  
His characters included Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, and he is heard in the
films "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery" (1945) and "Deduce, You Say!" (1956).

GRANADA COMPANION NUMBER ONE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES ALBUM is the 40-page album
published by Karizzma in 1987, with an introduction by Vincent Price, and
articles by Kenneth Harris, plus many color photographs of actors, sets,
and scenery, now available for $7.95 postpaid from Ming Books, 225 South
18th Street #1502, Philadelphia, PA 19103; they take Visa and Mastercard.

There's nothing Sherlockian about the latest nutritional advisory, but it's
a fascinating idea: don't eat or drink anything advertised on television.  
It it was good for you, they wouldn't have to spend all that money to get
you to buy it.

Jul 89 #4   SHERLOCK HOLMES: A STUDY IN SCARLET is a new "graphic novel"
            ($5.95) with "A Study in Scarlet" (adapted by James Stenstrum,
and illustrated by Noly Panaligan) and "The Singular Case of the Anemic
Heir" (written by William B. Dubay and Kevin Duan