Jan 90 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The birthday celebration in New York was enjoyable, but there wasn't much of any real interest, so I'll just proceed with the usual notes and such. Alan Hale, Jr., died on Jan. 2. He appeared in 65 movies, but was best known as The Skipper in the 1960s television series "Gilligan's Island". In the episode "Up at Bat", Gilligan was bitten by a bat, and thinking it was a vampire bat, was afraid that he would turn into a vampire. While searching for the bat, to determine whether it was a vampire bat or a fruit bat, Hale appeared as Colonel Watney, and Russell Johnson (The Professor) as Inspector Sherlock. Further to the report (Sep 89 #3) from the News of the World on plans for a new film "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Missing Santa Claus" (with David Bowie as Holmes and Gene Kelly as Santa), the story hasn't made news anywhere else. And David Bowie is now reported (more reliably) to be ready to begin work this summer on a film of "Mandrake the Magician". If you've been to the movies recently you may have seen pre-previews of "Dick Tracy" (with Warren Beatty in the title role). But I doubt that the copy-catting will last long enough for anyone to get round to "Sherlocko the Monk". The second issue of "Holmes for the Holidays" has arrived, and the magazine deserves another plug as a fine item for younger Sherlockians or for any children who ought to be younger Sherlockians. There are attractive color covers by Bob Weber, Jr. (creator of "Slylock Fox") and 12 pages of stories and puzzles, and it's value-for-money at $5.00 a year for five issues. The magazine, edited by Michael W. McClure (1415 Swanwick Street, Chester, IL 62233), is published by the Chester Baskerville Society. Plan ahead: Hugo's Companions and The Hounds of the Baskervilles (sic) are planning a day-long celebration on May 5, at and near the Newberry Library in Chicago, of the centennial of Christopher Morley's birth. Information is available from Charley Shields, 142 Utah, Frankfort, IL 60423. The first Sherlockian publication of the year would appear to be TAILS OF THE GIANT RATS: SHERLOCKIAN MUSING BY THE GIANT RATS OF MASSILLON, edited by Hugh T. Harrington and Roy K. Preece, Jr. (Massillon: Village Bookshelf, 1990; 60 pp., $7.50 postpaid from the publisher, Box 708, Massillon, OH 44648; and plastic is accepted). It's a professionally-produced anthology of essays, articles, and poetry, and nicely done. Gordon Jackson died on Jan. 14. Best known as Angus Hudson, the butler on "Upstairs, Downstairs", his acting career included many roles on stage and screen, including Inspector Alec MacDonald in the Peter Cushing television film "The Masks of Death" (1984). Terry-Thomas died on Jan. 8. Born Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens, he used the name Thomas Terry for stage roles until he discovered that people thought he was related to the actress Ellen Terry. Then he reversed the names and inserted a hyphen as a tribute to the gap in his teeth, which became his trademark in a long career that included the role of Dr. Mortimer in the Cook/Moore film version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978). Jan 90 #2 Actually, the birthday festivities were quite interesting, as always. The formal proceedings opened on Friday, in the Oak Room at the Hotel Algonquin, with the Mrs. Hudson Breakfast, sponsored for many years first by The Old Soldiers of Baker Street (The Old SOBs) and then by The Old Soldiers of Baker Street of the Two Saults (The Old SOBs3), a scion society of the BSI and of the Unicorn Questers of Mackinac Island. This was Bill Rabe's last year as New York's representative of Mrs. Hudson, and Tom and Ruthann Stetak will be handling the arrangements for the breakfast in future years. Susan Rice presided over the annual William Gillette Luncheon at the Old Homestead, where the agenda included a tribute to the late Lisa McGaw, and a performance by The Friends of Bogie's of an excerpt from Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes". Otto Penzler's open house at the Mysterious Book Shop was also well-attended, and book-hunters who visited Murder Ink found that shop under the management of its new owner, Jay Pearsall, who purchased the business from Carol Brener last November. The Baker Street Irregulars gathered for dinner at 24 Fifth Avenue, where Eleanor Sullivan was *The* Woman, toasted by Philip Shreffler and honored both for her editorship of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and for her many years of ensuring appearances of fine Sherlockian stories in the magazine and in the EQMM anthologies. The BSI dinner agenda included many if not most of the usual traditions, and some events that will never be traditional. Some (but not all) of the presentations were toasts by Bjarne Nielsen (to Doc Holliday's brother, Dr. Watson) and Bob Katz (a second and possibly now-annual toast to the second Mrs. Watson), and reports by Al Rodin (on Joseph Bell, testicles, sex, and syphilis), George Fletcher (on copyrights and copywrongs), Jon Lellenberg (on the BSI archival history project), David Musto (on his role in founding a S'ian society at the Great Wall Station in the Antarctic), Ed Vatza (on the Canonicity of "The Blanched Soldier"), and Al Rosenblatt in occasional falsetto (on Sherlock Holmes' amorous walks). Two-Shilling Awards (for extraordinary devotion to the cause beyond the call of duty) were given to Dick Lesh and Bill Rabe, and posthumously to Lisa McGaw, who had accepted her invitation to the annual dinner and had hoped to be able to attend. Irregular Shillings were presented to Charles Adams ("The Winter Assizes at Norwich"), Allen Mackler ("Sarasate"), Austin McLean ("The London Library"), Fred Page ("The Arcadia Mixture"), Milton Perry ("Nathan Garrideb"), Don Pollock ("The *Anthropological Journal*"), and Tom Stetak ("The Head of the Police at Cleveland"). And Robbie Burr was on hand to receive his Irregular Ha'penny and an Investiture ("The Trap Door") in The Baker Street Irrasculars. John Bennett Shaw, marooned in Santa Fe by a slight stroke, did not deliver "Simpson's Simplistic Summarized Statement" (a report on some of the more unusual correspondence he has received, and responded to, as the secretary of the BSI), but he firmly intends to do so next year. John spent a total of 32 hours in the hospital, and is now at home on prescribed medication (one aspirin a day), and is recovering rapidly, and he will appreciate get- well cards and any other mail he doesn't need to answer. Jan 90 #3 The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes also gathered on Friday evening, at Garvin's Restaurant, with presentations (again, the list is far from inclusive) by Tina Rhea (on Sherlock Holmes' nanny), Sue Dahlinger (on what Watson read during the Great Hiatus), and Peggy Henry (on Canonical landladies), and a performance by Karen Johnson and the Six Pips (Minus Two) of a series of Moriarty filk songs. On Saturday morning a crowd of Sherlockian vendors and customers gathered in the Oak Room at the Algonquin, with a wide variety of books and other collectibles available. And the Saturday afternoon cocktail party at 24 Fifth Avenue honored seven Sherlockian artists, with a display of original art. The Commissionaire's Award (a complete portfolio of Julian Wolff's original Sherlockian maps, awarded for conspicuously extraordinary and signal contributions to keeping green the memory) was presented to Henry Lauritzen, and accepted on Henry's behalf by Bjarne Nielsen, who managed to persuade a thoroughly reluctant Jon Lellenberg to sing, as an additional tape-recorded tribute to Henry, a chorus of "Aunt Clara". Awards of The Queen Victoria Medal were also made *in absentia*, to Dorothy Beverly West and Katherine McMahon, the only survivors of the early Sherlockians who solved the "Sherlock Holmes Crossword" published by Christopher Morley in the Saturday Review of Literature in 1934. Susan Rice reported poetically on the ASH dinner, and Al Rosenblatt similarly on the BSI dinner, and the performances ended with an auction of three pieces of original artwork from the exhibit, with the proceeds going to the Dr. John H. Watson Fund. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to Sherlockians (membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might otherwise be unable to participate in the weekend's festivities. A carefully anonymous John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes contributions, which can be made by check payable to John H. Watson and mailed (without any return address) to Dr. Watson, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr., who will happily forward the checks unopened. Tom's address: 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648. On Saturday evening many S'ians gathered off-off-Broadway at the Theatre at Saint Peter's Church to see Lee Shackleford's play "Holmes & Watson" (with the author and Glenn Alan Gardner in the title, and only, roles). The play is an interesting exploration of the relationship between Holmes and Watson after Holmes' return from the Great Hiatus, and was well-received at its premiere at the University of Alabama in Birmingham last May, and at its ten-day run in New York. On Sunday, south-bound travelers dined in Philadelphia with The Master's Class at the Franklin Inn Club, where Ruthann Stetak reported in graphic detail on notable Victorian murderesses. A revised 11-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling Awards, and *The* Women is now available, for $1.00 postpaid (checks to Peter E. Blau, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007). Also available (same address) is the 54-page list of the 507 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for the 293 active societies, at $3.25 postpaid. A run of address labels for the 256 individual contacts (recommended for those who wish to avoid making duplicate mailings to people who are contacts for more than one society) costs $10.00 postpaid. Jan 90 #4 SHERLOCK HOLMES' LONDON: FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF LONDON'S MASTER DETECTIVE, by Tsukasa Kobayashi, Akane Higashiyama, and Masaharu Uemura, published in Japan in 1984 and in an American edition in 1986, has been reissued in a second printing (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1986; 128 p., $16.95), and it is recommended highly for its fine color photography of the S'ian aspects of modern London, and for the older photographs and illustrations of the London that Sherlock Holmes knew. Eternity Comics has finished its comic-book mini-series A CASE OF BLIND FEAR (four issues with its version of Sherlock Holmes versus the Invisible Man), and is reported ready to begin another mini-series about Sherlock Holmes and the War of the Worlds. In the meantime, Eternity has launched a much more interesting series called SHERLOCK HOLMES OF THE '30S reprinting the old strips drawn by Leo O'Mealia (see D5840b and D5841b). And Eternity is continuing its series of reprints of the Frank Giacoia SHERLOCK HOLMES strips (#19 has been published, with a total of 26 issues planned). Owners of "DEAR STARRETT--"/"DEAR BRIGGS--" (the first volume in the BSI Archival Series) (Nov 89 #2) will also enjoy the 1989 issue of The Beeman's Christmas Annual, which is devoted to Gray Chandler Briggs, with seven fine articles about the first S'ian to follow Sherlock Holmes's footsteps and discover the actual location of 221B Baker Street. The 32-page pamphlet also has a photograph of Briggs, and is available from William R. Cochran, 517 North Vine Street, DuQuoin, IL 62832; $5.00 postpaid. And further to the item (Dec 89 #6) about the new comic strip "Norb" here's a sample (from the San Francisco Examiner, Dec. 5 and 6, 1989): Jan 90 #5 A flier at hand with details about The Bimetallic Colloquium to be held at McGill University in Montreal on June 15-17 (there's a ten-percent discount if you register by Feb. 28). Speakers will include Mark Alberstat, Patrick Campbell, Cameron Hollyer, Chris Redmond, Barbara Rusch, and Peter Wood, with Roger Johnson as an added entry, and you can request more details from The Bimetallic Question, Box 883 Stock Exchange Tower, Montreal, Quebec H4Z 1K2, Canada. In response to queries about how to find copies of Peter Haining's THE TELEVISION SHERLOCK HOLMES (Nov 89 #2): the British edition, from W. H. Allen, is distributed here by Lyle Stuart and priced at $24.95. And Lyle Stuart is part of the Carol Publishing Group (600 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022). The book is also available from the Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019) for $35.50 postpaid, and they take plastic. Members of the Baker Street Irregulars, real or otherwise, are not seen all that often on network television, so the episode of "Dear John" broadcast by NBC-TV on Jan. 24 was a pleasant surprise, with Gordon Clapp playing BSI Dave Travis. TV Guide's synopsis: "Kirk expects to hunt snow bunnies when he takes John along on a free ski weekend, but he's left in the cold when John befriends a fellow Sherlock Holmes buff." Robert F. Fleissner's article "No Ghosts Need Apply" discussing a possible connection between "The Empty House" and Algernon Blackwood's ghost story "The Empty House" appeared in Studies in Weird Fiction #6 (fall 1989). The magazine is available for $6.00 postpaid from the Necronomicon Press, 101 Lockwood Street, West Warwick, RI 02893. Responding to the query (Dec 89 #3) about cocktails, Steve Rothman readily identified a letter titled "Sherlock Holmes and Cocktails" (and signed by "Charing Cross") that appeared in Christopher Morley's column "The Bowling Green" in the Saturday Review of Literature (Jan. 6, 1934): "Will not the Hotel Duane on Madison Avenue, which you say is frequented by Sherlock Holmes's publishers, invent a Sherlock Holmes cocktail in honor of the birthday? I will offer the 2-volume edition of the Complete Stories as a prize for the most appropriate formula.--Of course there should really be two; the *Sherlock* and the *Mycroft*. What a subtle and softly influential philtre the *Mycroft* would have to be!" In an addendum to the letter Morley wrote that "I like Mr. Cross's suggestion about the cocktail, and will be pleased to forward for his judgment any suggested formulae." Suggestions must have been received, but none are to be found in the pages of the SRL. Does anyone know if someone else followed up on this elsewhere? "You see, my image of Sherlock isn't me," Jeremy Brett recently explained at a gathering of media journalists in Hollywood this month. "My image, I think, is a kind of cross between Ben Kingsley and Al Pacino...with a touch of George Hamilton thrown in." Brett, who started playing Holmes in 1983, also said that "it's now '90 and the trouble is that I'm finding him easier to play, which is not a good thing." Brett, accompanied by Peter Davison (Campion), David Suchet (Hercule Poirot), John Thaw (Inspector Morse), and Rebecca Eaton (producer for WGBH-TV), were celebrating (and promoting) the tenth anniversary of "Mystery!" Jan 90 #6 THE LIGHT IS DARK ENOUGH is a 36-page booklet prepared for last year'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 (Jun 89 #3). The booklet costs $20.00 postpaid (checks payable to the Society), and you can order from Jonathan McCafferty, 5 Jonathan Court, Windmill Road, Chiswick, London W4 1SA, England. Gideon Hill reports that Granada's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" is now being broadcast by the Armed Forces Network to West Germany, Belgium, Holland, and the United Kingdom (and anyone who has an NTSC-format VCR will be able to watch the shows). The series is also likely to run later this year on Southern European Broadcasting and the Pacific Broadcasting System. The military networks don't pay royalties, and that's why it often takes a long time for them to obtain access to series and television films. Other news from the comic-book world: Jerry Margolin reports that Northstar has now issued a hardbound edition (in slipcase, at $29.99) of its earlier paperback collection reprinting the first four issues of CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES series, with artwork by Dan Day. And Caliber's BAKER STREET series set in punk-world London, with many echoes from the Canon, is continuing (#4 has been published). There are also Canonical echoes in HELLBLAZER #23, published by DC Comics in Oct. 1989. The fine catalog of the Vincent Starrett exhibit at the University of Minnesota Library was distributed in New York as one of the birthday- festivities souvenirs, and it is also available on request (and without charge) from Austin McLean, Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. The Forbes Magazine Galleries are at 62 Fifth Avenue (at 12th Street), and open from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, which is neatly convenient for those heading for the Saturday cocktail party at 24 Fifth Avenue during the birthday festivities in New York. One of the splendid exhibits features 12,000 toy soldiers (selected from more than 100,000 in the Forbes collection), and one of the displays shows a military parade, complete with spectators, who include Holmes and Watson. Sherlock Holmes' new secretary at 221b Baker Street is Tony Harries, who succeeds Nikki Caparn, who retired from the post last year (Nov 89 #4). L. B. Greenwood's second novel-length pastiche SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF SABINA HALL (May 88 #6) is now available in paperback (New York: Pocket Books, 1989; 190 pp., $3.95). And Esther M. Friesner's alternate-universe fantasy novel DRUID'S BLOOD (Jul 88 #2) is available in a British paperback (London: Headline, 1989; 279 pp., L3.50). According to my records, my 1990 seasonal souvenir ("EL DETECTIVE SHERLOCK HOLMES") should have reached all subscribers, either during the birthday festivities, or since, or with this mailing. If I missed someone, please let me know. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Feb 90 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Harrison H. Schmitt, the former astronaut and former U.S. senator from New Mexico, was in Tulsa at the end of January to speak at the Tulsa Press Club and to dine with the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and to ascend Holmes Peak, where he was honored for his naming Sherlock Crater on the Moon, which in turn inspired the naming of Holmes Peak (which is the only geographic feature officially honoring Sherlock Holmes on the Earth). The annual dinner of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London generated press reports about "The Case of the Identical Addresses", discussing plans by John Aidiniantz for his Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street (Jun 89 #6 and Dec 89 #1). According to the Evening Standard (Jan. 8), the museum will be established above the Martins restaurant now on the ground floor at 239, and Aidiniantz says that his museum will be stocked with memorabilia such as the phosphorescent paint used on the fangs of the Hound of the Baskervilles, the emerald tie-pin given to Holmes by Queen Victoria, and Holmes' "private papers". Aidiniantz also reported that the Westminster Council has given permission for him to call the address of the museum 221B, but the Post Office said that mail for Sherlock Holmes is still being sent to the Abbey National Building Society ("Letters are delivered to the address on the envelope."). The Sherlock Holmes International Society has only half-a-dozen members, Aidiniantz acknowledged, but "that will increase hugely when we open." Collectors of finely written, composed, and printed Sherlockiana are well aware of the fine work done by John Ruyle at his Pequod Press, from which, in occasional intervals when the ink has dried on printings of John's poems and of Dr. Fatso's memoirs, issue irregular items such as the small folder which offered New Year's greetings from the Iron Dyke Co., reprinted here with permission and thanks. Feb 90 #2 Travelers to England may want to visit the Blue Orchid disco in Croydon. According to a report in local papers in Oct., the site of the Blue Orchid was once the Greyhound Hotel, "featured by famous author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in one of his novels." The report does not, however, mention the name of the novel. THE DEVIL'S MODE, a collection of stories by Anthony Burgess, published last year in Britain (Nov 89 #7), is now reported in an American edition (New York: Random House, 1990; 290 pp., $18.95). One of the stories is a Sherlockian pastiche "Murder to Music". The catalog for the 8th annual Oxford and Cambridge University Vacations offers "The Light upon the Moor" (examining "the techniques and development of two great English mystery writers, and the special locations in England which inspired them"). The two great mystery writers are Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, with six days at university and five days in Devon. The Oxford dates are July 8-18, and the Cambridge dates are Aug. 12-22. The catalog is available from University Vacations, International Building, 9602 N.W. 13th Street, Miami, FL 33172 (800-792-0100). Martin Gardner's "The Irrelevance of Conan Doyle" (D2108b) was collected (with a postscript) in his SCIENCE: GOOD, BAD AND BOGUS (1981), which is now available in paper covers (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1990; 412 pp., $15.95). An older item, just discovered: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE JEWEL & OTHER SHORT PLAYS, by M. Choksi, with illustrations by Dolly Biswas (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1983; 158 pp.), is a collection of five adaptations for sixth- grade students, part of a series of Sangam English Supplementary Readers intended to help students who are learning English. "Sherlock Holmes and the Jewel" is an adaptation of "The Blue Carbuncle", and the booklet is available for $3.95 postpaid from Apt Books, 141 East 44th Street #511, New York, NY 10017. S'ian philatelist Bruce Holmes has assembled two topical mini-collections, one of stamps showing saints mentioned in the Canon (10 pp.), and the other showing stamps keyed to the Canon for each letter of the alphabet (15 pp.). Bruce offers high-quality photocopies of "Sherlockian Saints" ($10.00) and of "Sherlockian Letters" ($15.00); both prices are US$ postpaid, and his address is 64 Maple Circle, Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec N9B 1E5, Canada. They Might Be Giants, a rock group consisting of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, took their name from the George C. Scott film, and their first album was "They Might Be Giants" (Bar/None), issued in 1986 (Apr 89 #2). Their second album was "Lincoln" (Bar/None), and they have now moved to a major record company for their third album, "Flood" (Elektra). THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by Sebastian Wolfe (London: Xanadu, 1989; 247 pp., L3.99), is a paperback collection reprinting some of the better burlesques, parodies, and pastiches. Of the 14 stories, only one is to be found in Ellery Queen's collection (of which Wolff was unaware when he chose the name for his collection, and one is a new pastiche ("The Affair of the Midnight Midget", by Ardath Mayhar). Feb 90 #3 The late Bliss Austin's splendid collection of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, bequeathed to his children and to Lehigh University, will be sold at auction this spring by silent sealed-bid auction. Bidding can be flexible: for individual lots, for combinations of lots, and for the entire collection, and the collection will be available for inspection and offers at the Linderman Library on Apr. 16-29 (viewing is by appointment only, and the appointment times can include evenings and weekends). A detailed description of the material is now available ($5.00 postpaid, checks payable to Lehigh University Libraries), as is a formal announcement of the sale with details on the procedures to be followed. If you are interested, contact Dr. Philip A. Metzger at Linderman Library 30, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015 (215-758-4506). Bliss' copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual (signed by Vincent Starrett and by Frederic Dannay) and his manuscript of "The Valley of Fear" will not be included in the auction at Lehigh, as they have been sent to Sotheby's for sale later this year, and his manuscript of "Memories and Adventures" was bequeathed to Mount Holyoke College. But even without these three items, the collection is still one of the best ever assembled: almost all of the first editions of the Canon (some in dust jackets), The Strand Magazine in British and American issues, many other early magazines and newspapers, and extremely rare material from the early days of The Baker Street Irregulars are only some of the treasures that were to be found on Bliss' shelves. STUDIES IN SCARLET (Dubuque: Gasogene Press, 1989; 199 pp., $19.95) is an anthology of essays originally intended to accompany a centenary edition of "A Study in Scarlet" planned by the Daedalus Press, and the contributors (who include John Ball, David L. Hammer, Michael Harrison, John Bennett Shaw, and Philip A. Shreffler) have not limited their discussions to the centenary story. The book also has fine illustrations by Kiyoshi Tanaka, and can be ordered ($22.45 postpaid) by mail from the Gasogene Press (Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52001). A belated George Washington's Birthday to all, since we don't celebrate his actual birthday any more, just President's Day. But: on what date in 1731 was George Washington actually born? I am still pursuing my research on THE BOY'S SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by Howard Haycraft (D657a, D264b, and D266b), and I would greatly appreciate hearing about copies owned by anyone who has not already responded to my earlier queries. Further to the search for recipes for the Sherlock and Mycroft cocktails (Dec 89 #3 and Jan 90 #5), the first response to "Charing Cross" was a letter from "Gasogene" in "The Bowling Green" in the Saturday Review of Literature (Jan. 20, 1934), suggesting that "whatever beverage your Holmes- and-Watson club chooses for its ceremonial luncheon, it had better not be the wine of Beaune," because "the good Doctor told us that Beaune at lunch made him irritable." Ted Friedman also notes that H. R. Stahl proposed, in a letter in "The Bowling Green" (Feb. 3, 1934), that one ingredient of the Mycroft cocktail would surely be "pollinaris water", which will be found in O. Henry's story "Lost Blend". But we still need a complete recipe for one or both of the cocktails. Feb 90 #4 "The Avengers: The Curious Case of the Countless Clues" (from the 1968 one-hour television series starring Patrick Macnee and Linda Thorson, and with Peter Jones as Sir Arthur Doyle) is available from Discount Video (10792 Belleville Road, Belleville, MI 48111) in VHS only for $12.99 plus $2.00 shipping. The episode is not really Sherlockian, nor Doylean, but there are occasional echoes. And if you're an "Avengers" fan, Discount Video has many other episodes available, with Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg as well as Linda Thorson. The first issue of The Sherlockian Tabloid, edited by Mohamed Bazzi for The Young Sherlockians of New York (based at the Joseph Pulitzer Intermediate School in Jackson Heights), is a 16-page slick-paper anthology of articles, pastiches, and puzzles, and available ($3.00 postpaid) from the editor, at 80-08 35th Avenue #5-F, Jackson Heights, NY 11372. The manuscript of "The Three Garridebs" was sold at auction at Christie's in London in December (Nov 89 #6), and purchased by Mark Hime for L44,000 (that's about $72,600 and does not include the 10% buyer's premium). The manuscript was recently offered by Hime's firm Biblioctopus at the Califor- nia Book Fair for $155,000. Other items offered by Biblioctopus included A STUDY IN SCARLET in the first printing of the first book edition ($35,000), a complete run of first printings of Classics Comics/Illustrated ($20,000), and a complete run of Topps' Football Cards ($38,000). E. Christian Mattson (300 East Joppa Road #A-9, Towson, MD 21204) offers his illustrated catalog (with a color cover showing a handsome copy of the first edition of THE HOUND OF BASKERVILLES) of early and recent S'iana ($3.50 postpaid, refundable on purchase). Recently seen: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE EMINENT THESPIAN, by Val Andrews (Romford: Ian Henry, 1988; 110 pp., L8.95). The eminent thespian is actor William Gillette, in London in the spring of 1901 starring in his play "Sherlock Holmes" (which in this pastiche seems to have been based on the 1939 film "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"). For the record, Gillette opened his London run of "Sherlock Holmes" at the Lyceum in Sept. 1901, some months after, rather than before, the coronation of Edward VII. Rick Hacker's Celebrity Cards have proved quite successful: of the four Sherlockian designs in the series, three have sold out (SHC-183, SHC-284, SHN-184), but one is still available (SHC-184); the price is $8.50 for a box of ten cards with envelopes, and the address is Box 634, Beverly Hills, CA 90213. A four-page sales list with color illustrations of all 20 cards in the series is also available, for $2.00 postpaid. Rick also reports that the Apr. issue of Playboy has a brief item on the Peterson "Sherlock Holmes" pipe set in the Potpourri section. The third issue of Prescott's Press (New Series), edited by Warren Randall for The Three Garridebs, was published in Sept. 1989, with 40 pages, and is devoted to "The Speckled Band", offering articles, alternative solutions devised for a contest set by 1st Bangalore Pioneers, and a discussion of the helodermatid *Sampoderma* (described and illustrated for the first time in 1956 in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History). Feb 90 #5 Robert Barr, writing as Luke Sharp, was the author of one of the earliest Sherlockian parodies, published in May 1892 issue of The Idler as "Detective Stories Gone Wrong: The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs" (D5816a). And George W. Locke has discovered a second interesting item: "The Adventure of the Second Swag", also by Barr, as Sharp, in the 1904 volume of The Idler. According to Locke's synopsis, the story is set at Doyle's Hindhead home, Undershaw, to which Sir George Newnes, publisher of The Strand, has come to pay the pieces of gold owing to Doyle for his resurrection of Sherlock Holmes. All goes smoothly, until Holmes himself arrives, intent on securing his cut... A pamphlet reprint of the story is available for L15 (or $25) from Ferret Fantasy, 27 Beechcroft Road, Upper Tooting, London SW17 7BX, England. Julian Wolff died on February 12. Julian's first formal contribution to the Sherlockian world was a set of maps produced in 1940 (in the minutes of the 1941 annual dinner of the BSI, Edgar W. Smith noted that Julian was "cartographer extraordinary to the cult" and in 1942 he had been promoted to "cartographer royal"), and he received his Investiture ("The Red-Headed League") in 1944. When Edgar died in 1960, Julian volunteered to serve as editor of the BSJ and as Commissionaire of the BSI, continuing as editor for 17 years and as the only officer of the BSI for 26 years. He received the Two-Shilling Award in 1968, and a special Golden Sovereign in 1973, and many of his friends contributed to a *festschrift* issue of the BSJ published in June 1986, recommended to those who wish to know more about the energy and wit that Julian contributed to the Sherlockian world. In Sept. 1973 Julian attended a meeting of The Red Circle of Washington, and discovered that the Washington chapter of the International Wizard of Oz Society was meeting at the same restaurant. After stopping by for a drink with friends in that group, he returned to report that people were meeting in another room, talking about Dorothy and the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman as if they were real people. "They're crazy," Julian noted mildly. There has been no formal suggestion about a charity to which contributions might be sent in memory of Julian, but a fine proposal by Francine Swift is the Dr. John H. Watson Fund, which offers financial assistance to S'ians (membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might otherwise be unable to participate in the weekend's festivities. A carefully anonymous John H. Watson presides over the fund and welcomes contributions, which can be made by check payable to John H. Watson and mailed (without any return address) to Dr. Watson, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr., who will happily forward the checks unopened. Tom's address: 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648. Linda King offers an illustrated sales list of color photographs of Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke taken backstage in London, Cardiff, and Bath, and onstage at the last night of "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes" in London. Prices range from L1.25 (4"x6") to L12.00 (20"x30"), and Linda's address is 39 Rollestone Park, Shrewton, Salisbury, Wilts. SP3 4DU, England). THE CASE OF THE INFERNAL NONSENSE, edited by Dean Clark for the Afghanistan Perceivers, is an anthology of pastiches, essays, and debate (the latter about the true identity of Billy the page), with some fine illustrations by Ed Stadler (113 pp., $10.00 postpaid from R. Dean Clark, c/o S.E.G., Box 702740, Tulsa, OK 74170). Feb 90 #6 Further to the report (Jan 90 #3) on the birthday festivities, the seven S'ian artists whose original artwork was displayed at the cocktail party on Saturday afternoon were: Jeff Decker, Stefanie K. Hawks, Henry Lauritzen, Charles A. Meyer, Laura Parker, the late Norman Schatell, and Kiyoshi Tanaka. John E. Stephenson reports another source for deerstalkers: Johnson Smith Co., Box 25500, Bradenton, FL 34206. Their price is $13.95. Issue number 23 of The Tantalus at hand from the Pequod Press, with hints of titles of cases as yet unrecorded by Dr. Fatso about his friend Turlock Loams, and an announcement of BAKER STREET OR BUST, the latest collection of Sherlockian quatrains composed by Baron Dowson, the chief helmsman of the Pequod. The book is available from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $30.00 cloth or $15.00 paper. The ninth annual Wright State Symposium, with considerable Sherlockian and Doylean content, will be held on Mar. 10-11 in Dayton. Additional details are available from Al Rodin, 3041 Maginn Drive, Beavercreek, OH 45385. Canada's new stamp showing a timber wolf is Canonical, what with seven mentions of wolves in six of the stories. It was Sherlock Holmes who said (in "A Study in Scarlet") that "I am one of the hounds and not the wolf." Tekna Productions (2 & 3 Moores Place, Brentwood, Essex CM14 4AG, England), the firm that produced eight color prints and four greeting cards for the City of Westminster Libraries, and "The 221B Collection" of color prints from THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Jul 88 #1), has a new set of eight color prints of Sidney Paget's illustrations from THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, for L13.50 postpaid. The prints are handsomely produced, on heavy stock and suitable for framing, and an illustrated flier is available from Tekna. MATCH WITS WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES is a series of four children's books, for ages 8-11, each with two stories from the Canon, adapted by Murray Shaw and illustrated by George Overlie (Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books, 1990). The adaptations and illustrations are splendid, and the books are well produced in attractive reinforced library bindings. The books cost $9.95 each (or $39.80 for the set) postpaid from the publisher, at 241 First Avenue North, Minneapolis, MN 55401 (800-328-4929). Carolrhoda Books is also sponsoring a mystery-writing contest for students in grades 4-6, encouraging students to read one of the four books and then write a Sherlock Holmes mystery of their own (Murray Shaw will select the grand prize-winner, whose story will be published by Carolrhoda). Contest packages are available from Carolrhoda to teachers, librarians, and anyone else who would like to organize a preliminary round at the local level. Further to the report (Jan 90 #5) on The Bimetallic Colloquium at McGill University in Montreal on June 15-17, the speakers will also include Beth Greenwood. A flier is available from The Bimetallic Question, Box 883 Stock Exchange Tower, Montreal, Quebec H4Z 1K2, Canada. Feb 90 #7 Earlier (Feb 90 #3) I asked, "on what date in 1731 was George Washington actually born?" George Washington was born on Feb. 11, 1731, well before the British, in 1752, adopted the Gregorian calendar in all of their possessions, including the American colonies. The change resulted in a loss of eleven days, and Feb. 11 became Feb. 22. For those who think that Washington was born in 1732 rather than 1731, he was indeed born in 1731: the change to the Gregorian calendar also involved shifting the start of the new year from Mar. 25 to Jan. 1, so Feb. 11, 1731, is now considered to have been Feb. 22, 1732, even if it really wasn't. The Mar. 1990 issue of Esquire has a nice essay by John Berendt on "The Slipper" (based on an interview with Stanley MacKenzie). Another plug for the discount-book catalogs from Edward R. Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031): his latest catalog offers the Mysterious Press edition of THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (published at $25.00) for $6.95, Michael Hardwick's THE REVENGE OF THE HOUND (published at $17.95) for $4.95, and THE ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATED SHERLOCK HOLMES (a facsimile reprint of all the stories illustrated by Sidney Paget) for $6.95. The Great Alkali Plainsmen are planning a "Holmes on the Range" convention in Kansas City on Labor Day weekend (Sept. 1-3), with an agenda that will include "special guests, films, dramatic entertainment, curious incidents, games afoot, super conversations, hucksters galore, and much more." There will also be a competition to find the most knowledgeable scion society, with John Bennett Shaw as quizmaster and Jon L. Lellenberg and Philip A. Shreffler as judges, and all Sherlockian societies have been invited to send teams of "three of your finest Canonical experts" to compete in the "gawdawful Shaw arena" in Kansas City. Additional information is available from Stan Carmack, 10517 East 71st Terrace, Raytown, MO 64113. Apropos of nothing in particular, an item in the Washington Post (Jan. 25) notes that veteran actress Shelley Winters isn't easily intimidated, and cites a report in Premiere magazine. When the upcoming film "Awakenings" was being cast recently, Robert De Niro requested that Winters play the role of his mother. Someone--no one will admit to it--insisted that she read for the part. The actress arrived to meet with the casting director. After a moment of silence, she reached into her satchel and pulled out an Oscar, which she placed on the desk. Then she reached in and pulled out another, placing it next to the first. Finally she said, "Some people think I can act. Do you still want me to read for this part?" "No, Miss Winter," came the reply. She got the part . . . Sherlock Holmes meets H. P. Lovecraft, and Cthuhlu, in SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE ADVENTURE OF THE ANCIENT GODS, a pastiche written by Ralph Vaughan and first published in 1983 in Holmesian Federation #4. The story has now been reissued as a 38-page pamphlet, with new illustrations by Earl Geier, and available from Gryphon Books, Box 209, Brooklyn, NY 11228; $5.00 postpaid. This year's "Canonical Convocation" for Chicago Sherlockians (and anyone else who wishes to participate) will be held in Door County, Wisconsin, on Sept. 14-16. Additional information is available from Donald B. Izban, 5334 Wrightwood, Chicago, IL 60639. Feb 90 #8 If you know any librarians who are going to attend the annual conference of the American Library Association in Chicago, you might let them know about the next meeting of The Sub-Librarians Scion of the BSI in the ALA, on June 24. Details are available from Marsha Pollak, Sunnyvale Public Library, 665 West Olive, Sunnyvale, CA 94086. Further to the report (Jun 89 #3) on the Edinburgh branch of the Federation of Master Builders' plans to commemorate their 50th anniversary in 1991 by donating a statue of Sherlock Holmes to the city, sculptor Gerald Laing has completed work on the clay model. The eight-foot statue, to be cast in bronze, will be installed (on a six-foot base) in Picardy Place, where Conan Doyle was born in 1859. The photograph is from the Edinburgh Evening News, which reports that the Master Builders have cleared a L3,500 profit on a fund-raising boxing event, but are still well short of the the L35,000 cost of the statue, and that they will welcome contributions sent to their appeal fund at 30 Richmond Terrace in Edinburgh. Dr. and Mrs. Arthur Liebman (18 Meadow Lane, Roslyn Heights, NY 11577) offer a flier for their mystery-lover's tour of England "in the footsteps of Sherlock, Agatha, and Dracula," July 29-Aug. 12, 1990. Yet another alphabet-soup report on BDB Corp. and BDD Promotions Book Co. (Dec 89 #4): BDB Corp. (which owns B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble) has agreed to purchase the Doubleday Book Shops (40 outlets nationwide) from the West German company Bertelsmann AG, which owns Doubleday (and the BDD Promotions Book Co.). And, for those whose newspapers don't carry Doug Marlette's "Kudzu" comic strip, here's the one that ran on February 6: The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Mar 90 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The Mini-Tonga Scion Society is back in action, and The Tonga Times is back in print with issue #24 and an interesting article by Brian Jackson on his research on the floor plan of 221 Baker Street. The society is for keepers and creators of Sherlockian miniatures: for information on membership, send a #10 SASE to Dee Snyder, 8440 Nashua Drive, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418. The British Museum in London has organized an exhibition on "Fake: The Art of Deception" (from Mar. 9 to Sept. 2), including a Conan Doyle display: the Cottingley Fairy photographs, on loan from The Brotherton Library at Leeds University. American Express has shipped the fifth installment of the Simon & Schuster audio cassettes to subscribers, bringing the total number of cassettes to fourteen (far more than are available in stores). I don't know whether American Express card-holders can still subscribe to the series, but their toll-free telephone number is 800-528-8000. The first ten cassettes are available directly from Simon & Schuster, but their toll-free number is 800-687-2677. At hand from Gary Westmoreland is news of for Granada's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which was selected by the editors of the Associated Press as one of the eleven best television miniseries and specials of the 1980s, and singled out as one of the decade's bright spots by Robert Goldberg in the Wall Street Journal. We all know (or we all should know by now) that the phrase "Elementary, my dear Watson" does not appear in the Canon. But (one of my correspondents has asked): when *was* the phrase first used, and by which author or actor? "Hero bloodhound Sherlock sniffs out kidnapped newborn" (according to the N.Y. Post, in a report at hand from Marlene Aig). On Feb. 3 a three-day- old infant was kidnapped from St. John's Hospital in Brooklyn by a woman posing as his mother, in a case solved with the assistance of Sherlock, a 95-pound member of the local police department's canine unit. The Sherlockian "Garfield" was used in the Washington Times (first spotted on Feb. 22) in a promotion for a Newspaper in Education Week workshop for teachers "eager to enhance their curriculum through the use of the newspaper as an innovative learning tool." Further to the further report (Feb 90 #6) on the seven Sherlockian artists whose original artwork was displayed at the cocktail party on Saturday afternoon, Ruthann Stetak was the first to remind me that the seven were actually nine: Scott Bond, Jeff Decker, Stefanie K. Hawks, Henry Lauritzen, Charles A. Meyer, Laura Parker, the late Norman Schatell, Kiyoshi Tanaka, and Jean Upton. Mar 90 #2 Plan ahead: "The Final Problem Workshop: Conan Doyle's Revenge" will be held at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg on June 14-16, 1991. The workshop will be masterminded by Ray Betzner and The Cremona Fiddlers, whose fine workshop "Fiddling Around with Sherlock Holmes" was held in Williamsburg in July 1987. Other S'ian events already scheduled for 1991 are the Sherlock Holmes Society of London's pilgrimage to Switzerland, Apr. 26-May 5, and the Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park on May 4. Rathbone's (your friendly tavern with excel- lent food), at 1702 Second Avenue, near 88th Street, in New York, has a nicely S'ian logo. The Friends of Bogie's at Baker Street do not restrict their dramatics to S'ian programs. Disguised as ZPPR Productions, Henry Enberg, Mickey Fromkin, Andrew Joffe, Sarah Montague, Dore Nash, Susan Rice, and Paul Singleton can be heard on National Public Radio, which airs their series "Visit New Grimston, Anyway". Another series ("Little Chills") will start in April, presenting original short dramas of mystery, suspense, or otherworldly themes. Your local NPR station can tell you if and when the series will be broadcast, and mail-order cassettes are avail- able from ZPPR Productions, 34 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY 10014. The Mar. 1990 issue of Smithsonian has an instructive one-page essay by Jim Lehrer (associate editor of the "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour") on the pleasures of collecting (Lehrer describes himself as a world-class collector of depot signs and other memorabilia). Collectors, Lehrer suggests, are not odd. "We are merely possessed with a need to collect certain things that some people might consider odd." Gary Larson's "The Far Side" cartoon "Buddy's Dream" (about the Parakeet of the Baskervilles), which ran in newspapers on Dec. 5, 1986, was reprinted in THE PREHISTORY OF THE FAR SIDE: A 10TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBIT (Kansas City: Andrew and McMeel, 1989). M. J. Trow has written six books about Inspector Sholto Lestrade, offering a new and more sympathetic look at the oft-maligned detective portrayed in the Canon, writing with humor (sometimes slapstick and often punning) and pleasant ingenuity. The books, published by Macmillan in England, are THE ADVENTURES OF INSPECTOR LESTRADE (1985), BRIGADE: FURTHER ADVENTURES OF INSPECTOR LESTRADE (1986), LESTRADE AND THE HALLOWED HOUSE (1987), LESTRADE AND THE LEVIATHAN (1987), LESTRADE AND THE BROTHER OF DEATH (1988), and LESTRADE AND DEATH (1988), and LESTRADE AND THE RIPPER (1988). The first book has been published by Stein & Day in the U.S. as THE SUPREME ADVENTURE OF INSPECTOR LESTRADE (1985), and there is a possibility that others in the series will also be published here. The National Council for Research on Women is sponsoring "Spend an Evening with Women of Mystery" at Saint Bartholomew's Episocopal Church at Park Avenue and 51st Street in New York on Apr. 27, with more than 30 of the country's leading mystery writers taking part. Tickets cost $75.00 (or $90.00 at the door), and further information is available from Mary Ellen Capek, NCRW, 47-49 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10021. Mar 90 #3 Michael Stewart, who served twice as Great Britain's foreign secretary in the 1960s, died on Mar. 10. It was Stewart who gave approval for plans by his permanent undersecretary, Sir Paul Gore- Booth, to impersonate Sherlock Holmes during the 1968 trip to Switzerland by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. And when some members of the press and public criticized the impersonation as undignified and unsuitable for a senior civil servant, it was Stewart who noted mildly that Sir Paul was in no danger of being fired. "I have every sympathy with him," Stewart said, adding that "I'm a great Sherlock Holmes enthusiast myself. I often pick up a book, though I am not a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society." Yet another S'ian logo, discovered by Kathy Cabanyog (Ted Schulz's daughter-in-law-elect) at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. The reviews of Umberto Eco's new book FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM suggest that it is even more challenging to the reader than his THE NAME OF THE ROSE (and so far there has been no mention of anything Sherlockian about FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM). But the book is certainly imaginative: a review (also at hand from Ted Schulz) notes that two of the main characters in the book have started a School for Comparative Irrelevance, teaching such skills as potiosection (the art of slicing soup) and tetrapyloctomy (the art of splitting a hair four ways). Check your local PBS-TV listings for "The Power of Algebra", a series of ten 15-minute programs produced by Louisiana Public Broadcasting in 1989 and intended to help eighth and ninth-grade students in mastering various algebra concepts. The programs include amusing animated segments featuring Holmes and Watson. Ron De Waal's bibliographies of foreign translations of the Canon run from Afrikaans to Uzbek, but there is now an addition to his list: Pig-Latin. ETHAY ADVENTUREAY OFAY ACKBLAY ETERPAY, translated and published last year by Kevin Reed as a 30-page pamphlet, is available for $12.45 postpaid from Sherlock's Home, 4137 East Anaheim Street, Long Beach, CA 90804. One of the more unusual scion-society pins shows Popeye in S'ian costume, honoring his birth in Chester, Ill., where he was created by Elzie Segar in 1929. The six-color enameled pin is available for $7.00 postpaid from The Chester Baskerville Society, 1415 Swanwick Street, Chester, IL 62233. Further to the report (Dec 89 #6) on the two-hour CBS-TV television film "Napoleon of Crime" (with Edward Woodward as Holmes and John Hillerman as Watson), a new report by Marilyn Beck (forwarded by Emory Lee) says that the film has a new title ("Hands of a Murderer"), that production work will end this month, and that the program will be broadcast in May during the "sweeps" (when the networks compete hardest for good Nielsen ratings. The cast and crew survived the hurricane-force winds that plagued England in recent weeks, and Woodward said that despite adventures in getting to the set, "production is a romp." And Lenny Picker reports that Anthony Andrews (who was Sebastian Flyte in "Brideshead Revisited") will play Moriarty. Mar 90 #4 Julian Symons' biography CONAN DOYLE: PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST (reprinted by the Mysterious Press in 1987 at $15.95) has been remaindered at $3.99 at Crown (and presumably at other bargain outlets). First published in 1979 in Britain, the book is relatively short (137 pp.), well-written though with some factual errors, and profusely illustrated (and with some photographs and other material not available elsewhere); unfortunately, illustrations published in color in the first edition appear only in black-and-white in the reprint. Check the dog-food shelves in your supermarkets for boxes of Milk-Bone Flavor Snacks displaying a "win $10,000 in gold" promotion on the front: the back of the box has Sherlock Bones and details on how to solve "The Case of the Vanishing Flavor Snacks" (and on how you might win one of the one thousand Sherlock Bones T-shirts). It will be interesting to see if any S'ian manages to win one of the T-shirts, since this may well be the first limited-edition S'ian collectible for which luck rather than lucre is the controlling factor: regardless of how many times a compulsive collector enters the contest, there's no guarantee of winning one. Paramount has set Apr. 27 as the release date for "Tales from the Darkside: The Movie" (with Deborah Harry, James Remar, Christian Slater, and Rae Dawn Chong), billed as a collection of stories by Stephen King, Michael McDowell, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Christian Slater was Adso of Melk in "The Name of the Rose" (1986). And Lenny Picker reports that Paramount reports that "Lot No. 249" is the Conan Doyle story used in the film. Victoria Robinson reports some additional television news (from the Los Angeles Times, Mar. 11): plans for a four-hour version of "The Lost World" (with Oliver Reed as Challenger and Donald Pleasence as Summerlee). MagicImage Film Books (740 South 6th Avenue, Absecon, NJ 08201) specializes in publishing horror-film shooting scripts, with photographs and production information, priced at $19.95, and they are planning to publish Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes films in the same format. Not immediately, however: "The Scarlet Claw" is scheduled for late 1991, with others to follow. Videotaper alert: according to the late winter 1989 issue of Anglofile, CBS-TV added "The Prisoner" to its Thursday late-night lineup starting on Feb. 1 (actually in the early hours of Feb. 2), following the Pat Sajak show. But not in Washington, where we get "Hawaii Five-O" in that time slot. If you do get "The Prisoner" you might want to record episode 15 ("The Girl Who Was Death"), since Patrick McGoohan appears in Sherlockian costume in that program. And Anglofile is a 12-page newsletter published six times a year for fans of British stage, screen, television, and music (the latest issue includes interviews with Leo McKern and Peter Davison). $12.00 a year from The Goody Press, Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033. Mar 90 #5 Sherlockian gourmets, gourmands, chefs, cooks, and collectors who have been searching for copies of the cookbook DINING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES will welcome the just-published second edition (New York: Fordham University Press, 1989; 287 pp., $18.95). DINING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES, by far the best of the Sherlockian cookbooks, has now been improved by its authors, Julia C. Rosenblatt and Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt, who have added a new preface and a long appendix on "Sherlock Holmes at the C.I.A.: The Quinquennial Dinners". The appendix includes some additional recipes (which have not been added to the index), and the book is recommended as a fine example of the pleasures to be found in the world (and especially the dining rooms) of Sherlock Holmes. Fordham takes plastic, and has a toll- free number (800-666-2211), and charges $2.50 for shipping. More Sherlockian artifacts: sterling-silver key rings and pipe tampers, priced at $50.00 each, can be ordered from Marty Pulvers (Sherlock's Haven, Four Embarcadero Center, San Francisco, CA 94111). The new movie "The Handmaid's Tale" has received mixed reviews, but it does feature three Sherlockian actors: Robert Duvall (the Commander) was Watson in the film "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" (1976), Natasha Richardson (Kate) was Violet Hunter on TV in Granada's "The Copper Beeches" (1985), and Victoria Tennant (the Headmistress) was Helen Stoner on TV in the Sheldon Reynolds' version of "The Speckled Band" (1981). A variety of Sherlockiana published by the Marylebone Library is available by mail: Catherine Cooke's 95-page booklet THE CONTENTS OF A LUMBER-ROOM: A CATALOGUE OF THE SHERLOCK HOLMES COLLECTION (L7.00), a set of eight tinted prints from Sidney Paget's illustrations (L8.00), a set of four full-color greeting cards (L5.30), and a set of five black-and-white greeting cards (L4.00). Prices are postpaid to the U.S., and payment in sterling is requested, payable to the City of Westminster (dollar checks should include an extra L0.80 to cover exchange commission). Orders can be sent to the City of Westminster, attn: Leisure Services (14th floor), Westminster City Hall, Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QP, England. More information at hand on the second "Canonical Convocation" for Chicago Sherlockians (and anyone else who wishes to participate), which will be held in Door County, Wisconsin, on Sept. 14-16. The agenda is interesting and imaginative, and a detailed schedule is available from Donald B. Izban (5334 Wrightwood, Chicago, IL 60639). The energetic efforts of Jack Tracy and Bill Goodrich have made it rather difficult to devise interesting Canonical challenges that cannot be solved by referring to THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA SHERLOCKIANA or GOOD OLD INDEX. But one such challenge was devised by Chris Redmond and included in "A Patrickian Puzzler for St. Sherlock's Day 1990": Sherlock Holmes said the potato was completely different. From what other vegetable, and as different as what? Neither Tracy nor Goodrich have reported this reference to the potato. And you will find no mention of this particular reference by Julie Rosenblatt and Fritz Sonnenschmidt in DINING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES. Mar 90 #6 At hand from Gary Westmoreland is a press release announcing plans by Harmony Gold and Klondike Films to produce "The Golden Years of Sherlock Holmes" starting in the fall of 1990, with Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson, and "major guest stars" making cameo appearances, to be filmed in "spectacular original settings all over the world." The first program is to be a four-hour miniseries "Sherlock Holmes: The Incident at Victoria" (which takes place on a train journey from Capetown to Cairo, with a stopover at the Victoria Falls Hotel), and this will be followed by a second four-hour miniseries "Sherlock Holmes: The Merry Widow" (which will take Holmes and Watson across Europe). And then there will be 22 one-hour adventures, each following a new case. It is not entirely clear how much of the filming for the first mini-series will be on location, in view of the fact that there is not now, nor ever has been, a railroad line from Capetown to Cairo. Harry Alan Towers, who produced the Gielgud/Richardson radio series for the BBC in 1954, is president of Klondike Film Productions Ltd. and will be executive producer for the new series. Christopher Lee was Holmes in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959) and "Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes" (1963), and Mycroft in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970). And Patrick Macnee was Watson in "Sherlock Holmes in New York" (1976). There is also a possibility of long-range good news for radio fans: "A Tale of Two Cities" (produced in Britain by Independent Radio Drama Productions and now running as a serial on National Public Radio) will give you an idea of current work by a company that has a new stereo Sherlock Holmes series under consideration, and Andy Trudeau, senior producer at NPR, hopes to be able to air the series. And there's more television news, this time involving "Tyburn Productions vs. Conan Doyle": the [London] Times reports that a lawsuit by Tyburn, who produced the Peter Cushing television film "The Masks of Death" (1984) and have planned to make a sequel ("The Abbot's Cry"), and who had sued last year in Britain seeking a ruling that Dame Jean has no control over the characters, was unsuccessful. The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over the still-extant copyright in the United States. There *are* people who read the words in Playboy, rather than just look at the pictures. Dave Galerstein reports that "Miss February" in 1976 was named Laura Lyons, and that she is also on display in the Jan. 1977 issue. Robert C. Hess (529 Potters Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) has a new sales list, offering Sherlockian theater programs, film posters, statues, dolls, plates, umbrellas, and other collectibles. Ray Goulding died on March 24. Ray Goulding and his partner Bob Elliott created "The Bob and Ray Show" in the late 1940s, and their gentle and offbeat humor delighted generations of radio and television fans. VINTAGE BOB AND RAY, issued by Genesis Records in 1973, has twenty items from their early radio days, including "The Adventures of Sherlock Sage" (featuring the renowned sleuth and his uncomplicated sidekick, Dr. Clyde). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Apr 90 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press News from Japan: THE INTERNATIONAL ILLUSTRATED SHERLOCK HOLMES (with 742 illustrations and 59 photographs from the Granada series), edited by John Bennett Shaw, Tsukasa Kobayashi, and Akane Higashiyama, has been published by Kodan-sha (Kyoritsukaikan 4-6-19, Kohinata, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112), and the price is Y2,000; the book is a massive collection showing how the Canon has been illustrated over the years, and in various countries. And Kiyoshi Tanaka's translation of Charles Viney's SHERLOCK HOLMES IN LONDON has been published by JICC Shuppan at Y2,900, in soft covers and with a smaller page size than the original edition. And the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club's newsletter Baker Street News reports that the owner of the manuscript of "The Dancing Men" is offering it for sale, for Y48 million (that's about $300,000); the manuscript has 53 pages, and was donated by Conan Doyle to the Red Cross in 1918 and sold at auction in London for ten guineas. The current owner is an unidentified American lady. The question posed last month (Mar 90 #5) noted that Sherlock Holmes said the potato was completely different, and asked from what other vegetable, and as different as what? Sherlock Holmes' statement (in "The Sign of the Four") was, "To the trained eye there is as much difference between the black ash of a Trichinopoly and the white fluff of bird's-eye as there is between a cabbage and a potato." Not all of the Canonical indexes ignore the two vegetables: both are listed in Hugh T. Harrington's HARRINGTON'S CANONICAL INDEX, which is available from The Village Bookshelf, Box 708, Massillon, OH 44648 ($22.00 postpaid). And Chris Redmond, who devised the query, notes that on Nov. 10, 1979, the Saturday Review asked readers to define the difference between a cabbage and a potato. One of the entries was a poem that began: "Both are plants and both are food--/ Simple facts, widely understood./ But boiled, roasted, or fried,/ Only cabbage smells like something that died." A political (though non-Sherlockian) question, occasioned by the fact that George Bush was serving as vice president when he was elected president. How many other serving vice presidents have been elected president? And who were they? No need to look this up in an almanac, as the answer will be given below. Alan C. Olding (P.O. Box 13, Stirling, S.A. 5151, Australia) offers copies of a bold yellow bumper sticker (shown here in reduced size): US$10 for five bumper stickers (payment in currency requested). Apr 90 #2 Robert L. Fish's "Schlock Homes" parodies are modern classics that delighted readers of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine from 1960 to 1981, and they are now again available from Gaslight Publications in SCHLOCK HOMES: THE COMPLETE BAGEL STREET SAGA. And the saga is indeed complete: 23 of the stories were collected in THE INCREDIBLE SCHLOCK HOMES (1966) and THE MEMOIRS OF SCHLOCK HOMES (1974), but nine additional stories were previously appeared only in EQMM; this collection has all the stories, with an attractive dust-jacket illustration by Joseph Mahler. Gaslight's address is 626 North College Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47404, and the price of the book is $31.45 postpaid (plastic accepted). Also available from Gaslight, in the "Conan Doyle Centennial Series", is A DUET WITH AN OCCASIONAL CHORUS, with an Afterword by Peter E. Blau ($18.45 postpaid). First published in 1899, A DUET is a romance (it was described by Conan Doyle as "an attempt to draw the quiet humours of domestic life, as a contrast to my stories of action") and often quite autobiographical, and this edition also contains two chapters published for the first time in an American edition of the book. And Gaslight's spring 1990 catalog offers many other titles from Gaslight and other publishers. German interest in Sherlockiana continues apace, as noted by Dick Rutter. SHERLOCK HOLMES UND DAS GEHEIMNIS DER SACHERTORTE, a pastiche by Gerhardt Totschinger, was published by Langen Muller in 1988. SHERLOCK HOLMES UND DIE KRONJUWELEN, a translation of Val Andrews' pastiche SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE EMINENT THESPIAN, was published by Knaur in 1989. And NOBEL MORDER, published by Bastei-Lubbe in 1989, is a collection of stories selected by the Swedish Academy of Detection and published in England in 1981 as CRIME WAVE; the collection includes "Das Backerdutzend in der Baker Street", a pastiche by Arthur Douglas (a pseudonym of D. A. Moreton). And we are delighted to report that Chris Steinbrunner is now at home in Queens (52-52 82nd Street, Middle Village, NY 11379). Spring fever rages at the Pequod Press, which has announced publication of THE ADVENTURE OF THE FRYING DETECTIVE, in which Turlock Loams matches wits with the shadowy Gene Moriautry. Available from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $30.00 (cloth) or $15.00 (paper). Bud Grace's "Ernie" is a relatively new comic strip in the Washington Post, where this one appeared in Apr. 3. Apr 90 #3 At hand from Jean Upton is a flier for "The 7% Convention: A Sherlock Holmes Event" to be held at the Shepperton Moat House Hotel (in Middlesex) on Aug. 25-26, offering talks, films, competitions, and other entertainment. The organizer, Jane Sayle, is a Member of Council of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and Douglas Wilmer will attend, and Edward Hardwicke and Jeremy Paul may be able to participate. Details are available from Jane Sayle, 6 Bramham Moor, Hillhead, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England. Further to earlier reports (Oct 89 #4 and Dec 89 #5) on the next Granada series ("The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes"), British press reports state that production will begin soon on "Lady Frances Carfax". The five other stories will be "The Illustrious Client", "Shoscombe Old Place", "Thor Bridge", "The Creeping Man", and "The Boscombe Valley Mystery". More news from Britain: a Baker Street nightclub has opened in Grimsby (on the northeastern coast of England, not far from Hull). According to owner Reza Daryan, the nightclub is "aimed at the over-21's who are looking for rather more sophisticated entertainment," and has an adjoining Victorian- style bar called Sherlock's. NATE THE GREAT AND THE MUSICAL NOTE, by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and Craig Sharmat (New York: Coward-McCann, 1990; 48 pp., $11.95), is the latest in the continuing series of amusing children's books about a young detective. As usual, Nate appears in a deerstalker in Marc Simont's illustrations. There are politicians aplenty on postage stamps (including Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman, both members of the BSI), as well as quite a few lighthouses (five of them in our newest stamp booklet, with one more on the cover of the booklet). But philatelic trained cormorants are more difficult, though not impossible, to locate. Sherlockian philatelists will now have a brief respite, as far as U.S. stamps are concerned: the next item scheduled is a postal card honoring Niagara Falls, due in September. A political (though non-Sherlockian) question, occasioned by the fact that George Bush was serving as vice president when he was elected president. How many other serving vice presidents have been elected president? And who were they? No need to look this up in an almanac, as the answer will be given below. Errors found in this newsletter are not, despite suggestions from eagle- eyed readers, published in order to find out whether anyone actually reads the newsletter. M. J. Trow has indeed written six books about Inspector Sholto Lestrade (Mar 90 #2), and the title LESTRADE AND DEATH (1988) is a ghost. And Christopher Lee did not play Holmes in the 1959 film "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (Mar 90 #6): Lee was Sir Henry Baskerville, and Holmes was played by Peter Cushing. Apr 90 #4 American Express Merchandise Services has told subscribers to the series of Rathbone/Bruce radio shows on audiocassettes that "the producer of these tapes has informed us that due to a manufacturing problem the remaining twelve tapes in the series are out of production." The fifth shipment (with cassettes 12-14) will be the last from American Express. Ken Greenwald of 221A Baker Street Associates reports that the only problem is that fewer than 2,000 people subscribed to the series, and American Express wasn't interested in continuing it. But 221A (and Simon and Schuster) will continue with distribution to bookstores (five of the first seven cassettes are on the national best-seller list), through the entire series of 26 cassettes (and possibly more). Further to the report (Mar 90 #4) on plans for a new four-hour television mini-series of "The Lost World" (with Oliver Reed as Challenger and Donald Pleasance as Summerlee), this is to be a joint production by Harmony Gold and Klondike Films, who are also planning to produce "The Golden Years of Sherlock Holmes" (Mar 90 #6), and Lucy and Luiz Carlos Barreto of Brazil (who produced "Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands" and "Bye Bye Brazil"). Work on the mini-series is to begin this summer, with shooting on location in Brazil, Luxembourg, and Yugoslavia. At hand from Ely Liebow is the first issue of Sleuth & Statesman, which is "a quarterly communique to friends and patrons of Winston & Holmes," with Sherlockian content and some genial promotion for their pipes, cigars, and accessories. You can write to Winston & Holmes at 138 Cumberland Street, Toronto, Ont. M5R 1A6, Canada. Thanks to a far-flung and sharp-eyed bargain-hunter on the west coast, I can offer three mint-condition copies of the boxed one-volume edition of William S. Baring-Gould's THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES, published by Crown in 1986 at $55.00. My price is $40.00 each, plus shipping, and the offer stands until the copies are gone. Call (202-338-1808) or send a post card, but don't send a check until you know you were in time with your order. Three serving vice presidents were elected president: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Martin Van Buren. There were other serving vice presidents who became president (but were not elected) when their predecessors died in office or resigned, and Richard M. Nixon was not serving as vice president when he was elected president. "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) was found in the discount and drugstores again this Easter. First reported last year (Mar 89 #5), the kit has a variant this year: the box now lists the ingredients (per government regulations), and the kit contains ten (rather than six) "disappearing paper eggs that change into beautiful egg coloring." THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: ORIGINAL STORIES BY EMINENT MYSTERY WRITERS, edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Carol-Lynn Rossel Waugh, did well in its hard-cover British edition (Mar 88 #5), and is now available as a trade paperback (London: Arlington Books, 1990; 345 pp., L7.95), with the same cover portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Slatter Anderson. Apr 90 #5 In case you are curious but haven't asked (some readers have), the "hologram" envelopes used for these mailings were issued by the US postal service as one of the many philatelic items intended to help pay for "World Stamp Expo 89" (a massive exposition held in Washington in 1989). Local post offices generally don't stock this sort of thing (nor do they have all the commemoratives, postal cards, and envelopes issued during the past twelve months). But the USPS Philatelic Sales Division (Box 9997, Washington, DC 20265) will be glad to send you a color-illustrated catalog for mail orders (they take plastic, and there's a minimum 50-cent shipping charge for orders from the catalog). The "hologram" envelopes cost 30 cents each (or $136.00 for a box of 500), but note that these are #9 envelopes, slightly smaller than the usual #10 envelopes, so you need to be careful when you fold a standard letter sheet. The USPS Stamped Envelope Agency (Williamsburg, PA 16693) will also print your return address on a box of 500 "hologram" envelopes for a total charge of $139.50 (they charge $136.90 for a box of 500 return-address regular #10 stamped envelopes). Charlotte Erickson (1920 Marich Way, Mountain View, CA 94040) will publish cumulative quarterly supplements to the Oct. 1989 edition of her 45-page checklist SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE COMIC BOOKS. The checklist costs $12.00 postpaid ($13.00 in Canada and $16.00 overseas), and the supplements cost $3.50 a year ($4.50 overseas). Further to the note (Mar 90 #3) on not yet having received any report of anything Sherlockian about Umberto Eco's FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, Al Rodin has found an allusional Sherlockian reference, on page 265, where a directory of the world's secret societies (with addresses, postal codes, and phone numbers) is described as including "the Mormons (I read about them in a detective story, too, but maybe they don't exist anymore)." Gary Thaden reports that Gerry Gersten's caricature of Sherlock Holmes is still in use by the Quality Paperback Club (Camp Hill, PA 17012), on watches ($19.95), sweatshirts ($16.00), and mugs ($7.20 for a set showing Sherlock Holmes and Edgar Allen Poe), and they offer a 20% discount to new members. "Murder, Myth, and Mystery" is a series of seven- day tours of England, arranged by British Heritage Tours, "looking into the world of some of Britain's most illustrious crime writers" (including, as one might expect, Conan Doyle). Their American agent is John Murray, 235 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06880, or you can write to them at Richmond Place, 125 Boughton, Chester CH3 5BJ, England. An illustrated flier at hand from Frank J. Vacante for a new full-color deck of Sherlock Holmes playing cards, with 18 original drawings by Jeff Decker. The cards cost $7.50 for one deck, and $14.00 for two (plus $1.50 per deck for shipping), and they can be ordered from Singular Cards, Box 1364, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18703. Apr 90 #6 Gary Thaden also reports Sherlockian artwork on the cover of THE MAGIC DETECTIVES: JOIN THEM IN SOLVING STRANGE MYSTERIES, by Joe Nickell (115 pp., $7.95). This is a book for children (ages 9-15), intended to help them learn the techniques of skeptical investigation (of ghosts, UFOs, Bigfoot, and the like), published by Prometheus Books, 700 East Amherst Street, Buffalo, NY 14215 (800-421-0351, plastic accepted). There's also a S'ian cover illustration (and one inside, on p. 38) in 50 MYSTERIES I CAN SOLVE, by Susannah Brin and Nancy Sundquist (Los Angeles: Price Stern Sloan, 1988; 48 pp., $2.95). The Sherlock Holmes Museum has opened in Baker Street, with some publicity (one newspaper article ran under the headline "221b or not 221b?"), and also discussion of the unlikelihood that Sherlock Holmes actually lived at 239 Baker Street (the actual address of the Museum) or at the site now occupied by the Abbey National Building Society (where Tony Harries, now Sherlock Holmes' secretary, says that "we don't object to a museum opening down the street . . . what we object to is him calling it 221b"). And a third-hand report from a visitor notes that the Museum has an entrance fee of L5.00 and contains an exhibit that consists of one display-case, which has led to complaints about "rip-off" and "charlatan" (none of which should be directed at the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, which has carefully avoided any association with the Museum). John Aidiniantz, proprietor of the Museum, has been described in the press as admitting to a mixed career (selling videos to Nigerians, dress-making, being a property agent for Arabs, a music publishers, and a singer's promoter), and as believing he has found a potential pot of gold. Robert Mauro's 1988 one-act comedy "Sherlock Holmes: 10 Minutes to Doom" is included in his collection TWO-CHARACTER PLAYS FOR STUDENTS ACTORS (with 15 plays, 192 pp.), available from Meriwether Publishing, Box 7710, Colorado Springs, CO 80933 ($7.95 plus $2.75 shipping). Bruce Holmes' attractive topical mini-collection of "Sherlockian Letters" (Feb 90 #2) has been published (as "L'alphabet selon Sherlock Holmes") in the Mar. 1990 issue of Philatelie Quebec. The magazine is available from Editions Phibec, 4545 avenue Pierre-de-Coubertin, Montreal, Quebec H1V 3R2, Canada; (CA)$3.00. For the benefit of those planning to attend the next Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America on May 4, 1991, Al Rosenblatt writes that Chuck LaForge, owner of the Beekman Arms, reports that his hotel has a few (but only a few) rooms still open for the weekend. A two-night stay is required, and the telephone number is 914-876-7077. Al also reports that there are many other nice hotels in the area, including the Radisson in Poughkeepsie (about ten minutes from the CIA). The Radisson will accept a one-night reservation (their telephone number is 914-485-5300), and they are offering a special discount to Sherlockians. Finally, eager gourmets and gourmands are warned *not* to try to make reservations for the dinner, since Al is not yet accepting reservations. Readers of this newsletter will learn quickly when Al is ready to accept reservations for the dinner. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 May 90 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Another stop on a Conan Doyle tour of England: according to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph (Apr. 4), the Eagle and Child (a Matthew Brown pub) at Hurst Green has been refurbished with a Conan Doyle theme, commemorating the author's student days at nearby Stonyhurst College. The decorations include framed stills from Sherlock Holmes films, and Mrs. Hudson's kitchen "will provide an extensive menu in leather-bound holders." Walter R. Brooks' series of books about "Freddy the Pig" have delighted children for more than fifty years, and FREDDY THE DETECTIVE (D6166a) is again in print (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987; 264 pp., $4.95), with a new color cover by Leslie Morrill and a new introduction by Michael Cart. J. Robert Black's interesting sculptures of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Prof. Moriarty (D3795b) are still available, about 18 inches high, in stoneware (with or without painted skin tones) or in porcelain with black detailing, at $65.00 each. Also available are pendants on rawhide ($10.00 each), and plates or plaques ($18.00 each), and special commissions are also welcome. Write to J. Robert Black, Jr. (1320 Orkney Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48103). Jack Kerr reports that Eve Titus' BASIL AND THE WILD WEST has been reprinted as a trade paperback (New York: Pocket Books/ Minstrel), with new cover art by Judith Sutton. BASIL OF BAKER STREET, BASIL AND THE PYGMY CATS, and BASIL AND THE LOST COLONY are also available in the reprint series. Ben Wolf ("Vernet, the French Artist") has an apt Investiture: his artwork has graced the covers of the dinner menus of The Sons of the Copper Beeches for many years, and his artistic talents extend well beyond the Sherlockian genre. "Then & Now: Purist Paintings in Retrospect & Recent Watercolors by Ben Wolf" was the title of an exhibition during May at the Newman Galleries in Philadelphia. A new sales list at hand from Chris and Beth Caswell (Sherlock's Home, 4137 East Anaheim Street, Long Beach, CA 90804), with many in-print books and collectibles such as hand-painted T-shirts honoring Holmes or Moriarty. Joseph Payne Brennan died on Jan. 28. His stories of mystery and horror were published in Weird Tales and by August Derleth's Arkham House, and his series detective Lucius Leffing owes much to H. P. Lovecraft as well as to Sherlock Holmes (though the stories are not Sherlockian pastiches). THE CASEBOOK OF LUCIUS LEFFING, THE CHRONICLES OF LUCIUS LEFFING, and ACT OF PROVIDENCE are out of print, but THE ADVENTURES OF LUCIUS LEFFING can be ordered from Donald M. Grant, Box 187, Hampton Falls, NH 03844 ($30.00 signed by Brennan and the book's artist, Luis Ferreira). Videotaper alert: The Movie Channel will show "Without a Clue" (1988) on June 5 and 30, and "The Black Cat" (1941) on June 20. "The Black Cat" has Basil Rathbone in the cast (as Hartley), and in one scene another character asks, referring to Rathbone, "Who does he think he is--Sherlock Holmes?" May 90 #2 Kathy Barry-Hippensteel's "Little Sherlock" doll ("a clever little boy who thinks he's the world's greatest sleuth") may turn out to be the most heavily-promoted collectible in the history of Sherlockiana. First advertised (May 89 #4) with a June 30 deadline for orders, it was widely advertised again in TV Guide in Oct. 1989, and most recently in the Apr. 22 issue of Parade Magazine (which is an insert in Sunday editions of newspapers in most major and many minor cities). There is now a one-per-customer limit on this mawkish 11-inch hand-crafted bisque porcelain doll in the "Born to be Famous" collection (last year you could order two of them), and the price is $87.00 (plus $2.44 shipping and state sales tax). The latest advertisement says the doll is "now available", but if you've postponed ordering, there's no particular rush, since orders will be taken until the end of 1990 (write to the Ashton-Drake Galleries, 212 West Superior Street, Chicago, IL 60610). As noted earlier (Dec 89 #2), one might wonder whether there's going to be any increase in value after this "limited edition" closes, since so many people will already have one (if not two) of them. One example of a high-priced limited-edition collectible that has not shown any increase in value is Al Hirschfeld's signed lithograph "Stars of the Playhouse", which shows twenty world-famous stars who have appeared at the Westport Playhouse since it opened in 1931. The advance price (Nov 88 #3) was $600 (increased to $750 after Jan. 1989), and a "special offering" just at hand still offers the lithograph at $750 (from George J. Goodstadt, 17 Danbury Road, Ridgefield, CT 06877). One of the twenty caricatures shows Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, and I believe that it was drawn for this lithograph, since there is no record of a Hirschfeld caricature when the Rathbone play was produced in 1953. Rathbone presumably appeared at the Westport Playhouse in some other role, since his "Sherlock Holmes" went direct from its Boston tryout to Broadway. Robert Quackenbush has four series of semi-Sherlockian children's books. featuring Detective Mole, Piet Potter, Investigator Ketchem, and Sherlock Chick. SHERLOCK CHICK'S FIRST CASE was published by Parents Magazine Press in 1986, and SHERLOCK CHICK AND THE PEEKABOO MYSTERY in 1987, and they are nicely done. John and Patricia Kluge, recently newsworthy because of a pending divorce (according to the N.Y. Daily News, Kluge is worth about $5.2 billion, and is giving his wife their 45-room mansion in Charlottesville as well as the annual interest from $1 billion), were in 1988 the employers of Sir Richard Musgrave, who was convicted of killing hundreds of federally-protected owls and hawks in order to protect the English-style game-shooting on the Kluge estate (May 88 #6 and Jun 88 #1 and Dec 88 #2). "I guess I'll be the first criminal in the family since Charles I," Sir Richard suggested at the time, also noting that his title results from the "political shenanigans" of a Tory forefather. Robert A. Heinlein's THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS (D5930a) is available as a paperback reprint (New York: Ace Books, 1987; 302 pp., $3.95); the book is excellent (it won a Hugo award at the World Science Fiction Convention in 1966), and it features a computer named Mycroft, as well as many other Sherlockian references. May 90 #3 Caliber Press, which publishes the BAKER STREET comic book (I have seen three issues, but there may be as many as five issues with the story "Honour Among Punks"), also issues CALIBER PRESENTS, which has in the Feb. 1990 issue (#9) a pleasantly S'ian story-strip "Elementary My Dear". KATY KEENE COMICS DIGEST MAGAZINE #10 (July 1990) is a smaller magazine (in "The Archie Digest Library"), with Katy Keene in S'ian costume in "The Mystery of the Shabby Shadow". SHERLOCK HOLMES #22 (with the Frank Giacoia strip) and SHERLOCK HOLMES OF THE '30S #4 (with the Leo O'Mealia strip) have been published by Eternity. The four-issue run of Eternity's 1989 mini-series A CASE OF BLIND FEAR (Sherlock Holmes versus the Invisible Man) has been reprinted as a graphic novel (Newbury Park: Malibu Graphics, 1990; $9.95). And some forecasts, in ADVANCE COMICS (July 1990), at hand from Tim O'Connor: Eternity will soon begin SHERLOCK HOLMES: CASE OF THE MISSING MARTIAN (a four-issue mini-series about the War of the Worlds), and Northstar will publish CASES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: BOOK II (a trade paperback reprinting issues #6-9 with Dan Day's artwork). The May 1990 issue of Gourmet has a nice article on "Shopping in Bath" with discussion of why the scarlet British fox-hunting coat was for many years call "pink", and who it was the Bath Oliver was named for, and a fine color photograph (on p. 92) of an attractive Sherlockian display of tobacco at the shop of Frederick Tranter. Linda King (39 Rollestone Park, Shrewton, nr. Salisbury, Wilts. SP3 4DU, England) offers an illustrated flier showing seven designs (with artwork showing Brett and Hardwicke in the Granada series) available as notecards. A copy of the INTERNATIONAL ILLUSTRATED SHERLOCK HOLMES (edited by John Bennett Shaw, Tsukasa Kobayashi, and Akane Higashiyama) has arrived, and the book is a delightful demonstration of how much fun artists in many countries have had illustrating the Canon over the years, and in a wide variety of styles. The captions appear in both Japanese and English, and there's very little collateral text in Japanese only. The publisher is Kodan-sha (Kyoritsukaikan 4-6-19, Kohinata, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112, Japan); the price is Y2,000, and I would guess that many Sherlockian book dealers already have shipments on the way for those who are willing to wait rather than order from Japan. CBS news correspondent Bruce Morton came up with an ingenious idea for celebrating National Secretary's Week: interviewing a secretary "whose boss won't send flowers, because he never existed." Morton's interview from London, with Sherlock Holmes' secretary Tony Harries, aired on radio and television on Apr. 25, and was spotted by an alert Pj Doyle. Does anyone have a complete set of videocassettes of the 1981 television series "Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson" (starring Geoffrey Whitehead and Donald Pickering)? And are there any partial holdings, which might allow a complete set of copies to be assembled? Please let me know what you have. John B. Taylor recommends a new antiquarian book dealer in Britain: David Hadaway (The Old Gallery Bookshop, 125 High Street, Hythe, Kent CT21 5JJ, England) has recently retired from the Metropolitan Police Force, and is specializing in antiquarian and second-hand true crime (with some S'iana). May 90 #4 At hand from David L. Hammer is a report from Country Life (Mar. 8, 1990) that the Georgian buildings that stand on Baker, Blandford, and George Streets may fall victim to a scheme for building a neo-Georgian block on the site. The owners applied for a demolition order in 1980 and were refused, but a new application has been filed. It is not clear from the article whether the buildings covered by the application are on the west side or the east side of Baker Street: the west side includes no. 31 (suggested by some as the real no. 221), and the east side includes no. 34 (suggested as the real empty house). Anonymous mailings can present intriguing Sherlockian mysteries, the latest of which involves handsome circular brass pins, decorated with a silhouette of Sherlock Holmes and lettered BSI/ASH CLASS OF '90, received (with thanks to the generous and anonymous donor) by a least two Sherlockians, who would like to know who else might have received similar pins (and, of course, to know whom to thank directly for the nice gifts). The predicted respite for Sherlockian philatelists (Apr 90 #3) turns out to be shorter than expected, since a bobcat (*Lynx rufus*) is shown on the $2.00 definitive to be issued in June. "It was just as well that his prairie training had given Jefferson Hope the ears of a lynx," the Canon reports, and biologists suggest that the lynx found in Utah and Nevada was more likely to be the *Lynx rufus* than the *Lynx canadensis* shown two years ago on a stamp issued by Canada (Feb 88 #2). The Christopher Morley Centennial Celebration in Chicago on May 5 went very well, according to all reports, with a total attendance of 130 at the two events. The symposium at the Newberry Library included talks by Warren Scheideman ("Christopher Morley, Forgotten Man of American Letters"), Ely Liebow ("The Poetry of Christopher Morley"), Robert Mangler ("Christopher Morley and the BSI"), Thomas J. Joyce ("Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshopper"), and Allen Mackler ("Christopher Morley, Metrophile"), and the dinner at the Forum Hotel featured Anna Lou Ashby ("Christopher Morley: A Birthday Salute". Dr. Ashby is associate curator of printed books at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York and has written a soon-to-be-published book on Morley's life and works. A videocassette (VHS only) of highlights from the centennial celebration is available for $49.95 (they take plastic) from Viscom, 820 North Orleans, Chicago, IL 60610 (800-829-1260). And the Fordham University Press has followed CHRISTOPHER MORLEY'S NEW YORK (Jun 89 #8) with CHRISTOPHER MORLEY'S PHILADELPHIA, edited by Ken Kalfus (329 pp., $19.95). The essays are, as should be expected, delightful (and there is a passing mention of Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes in the essay Morley called "Footnote on Philadelphia Cricket"). Fordham's next Morley collection (to be published in Sept.) will be thoroughly Sherlockian: THE STANDARD DOYLE COMPANY: CHRISTOPHER MORLEY ON SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited and with an introduction by Steven Rothman. The price will be $19.95, and they take plastic, and there's a $2.50 charge for shipping (Fordham University Press, Box 6525, Ithaca, NY 14850). May 90 #5 Helen Cushman is one of the growing number of philatelists seeking stamps that associated with the Canon, and her article "Stamps Illustrate Holmes Mysteries" appeared in Linn's Collector's Guide to Topicals, a supplement in the May 14, 1990, issue of Linns Stamp News (Box 29, Sidney, OH 45365). She also has a continuing series of articles on the subject in The Blotter, published quarterly by the American Topical Association's Law Enforcement Study Unit (study-unit membership unit costs $5.00 a year, and the contact is Steve O'Conor, Box 858, Vernon, NJ 07642). And on to a report on the auction of Bliss Austin's collection, which was a fine one indeed. There were 37 bidders, and there were bids on all of the lots (one bidder submitted a "rescue bid" of $5.00 on every lot), and the total of individual high bids for all lots was $147,846.75 -- somewhat less than the $151,000.00 winning bid for the entire collection submitted by a consortium consisting of Daniel Posnansky, Glen S. Miranker, and Peter L. Stern. Some of the Austin material will be offered for resale, and anyone interested in individual items is invited to write to Daniel Posnansky (Box 768, Cambridge, MA 02238). The highest bid for a single lot was $31,502 for lot 28 (the first edition of THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES in dust jacket), followed by $16,000 for lot 58 (the first edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET from Ward, Lock & Co.), $10,151 for lot 1032 (Paget's artwork for "The Red-Headed League"), $7,006 for lot 1026 (the manuscript page from "The Hound of the Baskervilles"), $7,006 for lot 3 (the first and second issues of the first American edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, with the second issue in jacket), $6,050 for lot 35 (the first American edition of THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES in jacket), $6,006 for lot 58 (another copy of the first edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET), and $5,000 for lot 23 (the first edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, signed by Conan Doyle). There were three other bidders for the entire collection (the lowest bid was $60,000), and there were as many as nine bids were submitted on some lots. As might be expected, there was a wide range of bidding for many lots: not counting the $5.00 rescue bid for every lot, there were low bids of $41 for lot 28, $102 for lot 58, $21 for lot 1032, $150 for lot 1026, and $102 for lot 3. And it should be noted that submitting low bids is not necessarily a futile effort: there were only 516 lots on which there was a bid other than the $5.00 rescue bid. Lot 1060 (the "large lot of leftovers") was the real sleeper, with bids ranging from $75 to $4,125. The lot was described by Lehigh's curator of special collections Philip Metzger as the "I can't stand it any more" lot (a quite understandable reaction, considering the amount of miscellaneous material and the lack of time in which to describe everything in detail), and it included original artwork by Frederic Dorr Steele (a draft sketch for an illustration for "The Hound of the Baskervilles") and his manuscript for "The Adventure of the Murdered Art Editor"), as well as Bliss Austin's correspondence with his fellow-collectors and friends. Copies of the 44-page sale list and the list of high bids are available, from Philip A. Metzger, Linderman Library 30, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015 ($5.00 postpaid). May 90 #6 Unpublished authors who despair at receiving rejection slips and who are unwilling to pay for publication by a vanity press (such as Vantage Press, which has just been hit by a $3.5 million judgement in a class-action suit filed on behalf of more than 2,000 authors) might wish to take advantage of the services offered by the Brautigan Library, which has just opened in Burlington, Vt. According to Brad Miner (in the May 14 issue of the National Review), the Brautigan Library is named in honor of author Richard Brautigan, and has only one restriction: everything in the library must be unpublished. Authors can send their manuscripts (and a fee of $25) to the library, which will bind the work and provide comfortable seating to visiting readers. The five-page manuscript for Conan Doyle's article "I Pledge My Honour That Spiritualism Is True", published in the Aug. 4, 1928, issue of the [London] Daily Express, is available for $6,500, from The Scriptorium (attn: Gordon Gushee), Box 1290 Beverly Hills, CA 90213). Great Britain's post office has issued an imaginative booklet of stamps showing famous smiles. And one of those smiles is that of Stan Laurel, who appeared in Sherlockian costume in the film "The Sleuth" (1925), and with Oliver Hardy, both in deerstalkers, in "Do Detectives Think?" (1927) and "The Big Noise" (1944). The 31st running of The Silver Blaze Purse at the Arlington International Racecourse will be held on July 22, and those planning a trip to Chicago can obtain more information from Robert W. Hahn, 2707 South 7th Street, Sheboygan, WI 53081. Carnegie Hall will celebrate its centennial, from Aug. 1990 to May 1991, and has asked for assistance in locating items that might be borrowed for its centennial exhibitions. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lectured at Carnegie Hall in Apr. 1922 and Apr. 1923 (and discusses his lecture series in OUR AMERICAN ADVENTURE and OUR SECOND AMERICAN ADVENTURE). Gino Francesconi (Corporation Archives, The Carnegie Hall, 881 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10019) would like to hear from collectors who have material relating to those lectures at Carnegie Hall. SHERLOCK HOLMES IN BIRMINGHAM is a carefully-researched 20-page monograph by Paul Lester on the city's connections with Conan Doyle (who lived there) and with the Canon (two of the stories involve Birmingham), available from Protean Pubs, Flat 4, 34 Summerfield Crescent, Edgbaston, Birmingham B16 0ER, England (L2.50 postpaid). M. J. Trow has a new publisher, and a new title in his amusing series about Insp. Sholto Lestrade. LESTRADE AND THE GUARDIAN ANGEL (London: Constable, 1990; 235 pp., L11.95) offers a thoroughly complicated mystery, some rather nasty murders, a red herring or three, bawdy humor, an encounter with Dr. Watson, and (as usual) a competent-though-clumsy Lestrade. A new sales list at hand from Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219), offering Sherlockian prints, paintings, pillows, tapestries, lamps, bellpulls, placemats, and other collectibles. May 90 #7 On the assumption that everyone saw "Hands of a Murderer" on May 16 (or on a time-shift video recording), there's no need for a review, but it is of interest that Newgate Prison was actually New College at Oxford. Roger Mortimore, editor of The Baker Street News (the newsletter published by The Oxford University Sherlock Holmes Society), also reports that Oxford's Brasenose College was seen in the film "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985). "Hands of a Murderer" did reasonably well in the Nielsen ratings, averaging a 9.5 rating and a 15 share (that means that 9.5 percent of the sets in the nation's 92,100,000 "television households" were tuned to the show, and 15 percent of the sets that were in use were tuned to the show). The Fox network premiere of the film "Wall Street" broadcast at the same time averaged 4.5/8. The season finale of "Wonder Years" on ABC earlier in the evening averaged 14.1/25, and the season finale of "Jake and the Fatman" (also earlier in the evening on CBS) averaged 9.2/16. The most popular show that week was "America's Funniest Home Videos" (25.2/40), followed by "Cheers" (18.9/31) and "Roseanne" (17.7/28). "Hands of a Murderer" was co-produced by Yorkshire Television, so British viewers will surely see it soon. However the British have (and we haven't) seen a seven-part children's series broadcast by BBC-1 on Saturday mornings beginning on Mar. 3. "Tales of the Rodent Sherlock Holmes" featured Roland Rat Superstar as Sherlock Holmes and Kevin the Gerbil as Dr. Watson, who were joined in the first episode ("Wilson the Notorious Canary Trainer") by special guest Barbara Windsor (as Irene Wilson, "a glamorous star of the musical theatre who harbours a secret desire to be a serious dramatic actress"). According to a press release at hand from Richard Wein, series producer Steve Haggard said that "Roland Rat is the latest in a long line of distinguished actors to pull on the cloak and deerstalker of the master detective," adding that "he's probably the first to wear sunglasses." Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets and the lovely world of Sesame Street, died on May 16. His first Muppets, named Wilkins and Wontkins, appeared in Washington in 1957, in commercials made for Wilkins Coffee. Sherlock Hemlock first appeared on Sesame Street on Mar. 17, 1971, and although he was only an occasional visitor rather than a featured player, he was one of Henson's favorites. "I'd use him more," Henson once said, "but our researchers say he's not as educational as some of the others." The Granada Studios Tour in Manchester had almost a million visitors in its first 18 months, according to the spring 1990 issue of Anglofile, which also has an interview with Louise Jameson (who accompanied Doctor Who in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang"). Anglofile costs $12 a year for six issues, from the Goody Press, Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033. Jay Pearsall, the new owner of Murder Ink, has issued his first mail-order catalog, with an interview with mystery-author Sue Grafton. The shop has new hours (11:00 to 7:00 Friday through Wednesday, and 11:00 to 10:00 on Thursday), and its address is 271 West 87th Street, New York, NY 10024. May 90 #8 "Hands of a Murderer" received mixed reviews in the press, with the best marks going to Anthony Andrews for his bravura version of Professor Moriarty. Almost every reviewer seen so far noted that Edward Woodward was far weaker as Holmes than Jeremy Brett, who now seems to have replaced Basil Rathbone as the official owner of the role. One review said that Jeremy Brett is "also likely to play the master detective on Broadway this year in a revival of Williams Gillette's hoary, 19th-century 'Sherlock Holmes' drama, which Brett starred in last year on the London stage," but that's just a confused reference to the continuing rumors about a tour of "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes". And there appears to be no truth to another rumor: that the program at "The Bimetallic Colloquium" in Montreal on June 15-17 will be conducted entirely in French. Andrew Jay Peck reports an advertisement in Billboard, announcing plans by Orion Home Video for a June 28 release of "Without a Clue" (1988) on video cassette at $19.95 (a year ago the price on first release was $89.95). It would appear that some S'ians have encountered difficulties in viewing material in the special collections at the N.Y. Public Library. Bernard McTigue (Curator of the Arends Collection and Keeper of Rare Books) has written to Tina Schweitzer explaining that those who wish only to see (but not use) material in the NYPL collections should write to the Office of Special Collections (at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018) to make an appointment with the appropriate curator. Researchers can gain access to the collections by obtaining a user's card from the same office. The first flier for Bouchercon XXII has arrived: next year's annual Anthony Boucher Memorial Mystery Convention will be at the Pasadena Hilton on Oct. 11-13, 1991, with Edward D. Hoch as the guest of honor and William Link as the visual-media guest of honor. Bouchercon XXII will be sponsored by the Southern California Institute for Fan Interests, and registration now costs $35.00 (an increase is due in December). Checks payable to SCIFI, and sent to Bouchercon XXII, 2334 Beach Avenue, Venice, CA 90291. "Elementary, My Dear Designers" was the headline on an article in Newsday (Apr. 3), also at hand from Richard Wein. The report on Fashion Week in New York highlighted the new collection from Rebecca Moses, who "found her inspiration in Sherlock Holmes." As described by fashion reporter Frank DeCaro, this meant "tweedy mid-thigh-length capelet coats, magnifying-glass pendant necklaces, and a model with a saggy-baggy basset hound in tow." An illustrated flier at hand from Holmes By Hall (Box 221-B, Flushing, MI 48433), offering their porcelain Master Sleuth Teapot ($79.95) and Holmes Beverage Mug ($17.95). Attenta: the announcement for the next meeting of The Red Circle will be mailed with next month's newsletter. The venue has not yet been confirmed, but you can reserve Tuesday, July 17, for an evening with Sherlock Holmes' secretary, Tony Harries. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Jun 90 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The Easton Press (47 Richards Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06857) is reprinting its deluxe three-volume COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES 100TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION at $39.45 postpaid per volume (plastic accepted). Originally issued in 1987 and reprinted in 1988 (at $37.50 postpaid per volume), the set is a reissue of the Heritage Press edition, leather-bound, with a different full-color frontispiece by Frederic Dorr Steele in each volume. It's a handsome set, with the Canonical text edited by Edgar W. Smith for the Limited Editions Club, and with fine illustrations by Paget, Steele, and others. And, since I've already had queries about whether the set is worth getting, a bit of history: the basic text was edited by Edgar W. Smith, who also selected the illustrations, for the Limited Edition Club and published in a nine-volume set in the early 1950s, with a series of fine introductions by notable Sherlockians, and some illustrations done by Steele as publicity for the film of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939). Later in the 1950s (and again in the 1970s) the Heritage Press issued a three-volume set that included only Vincent Starrett's introduction and Smith's epilogue, and that's what the Easton Press has reprinted, adding the frontispieces and the leather binding. If you have one of the earlier versions, you might not think the new frontispieces and the leather binding worth the price. And the Easton Press set isn't an investment, since thousands of copies have already been sold, with more to come. Celebrations of Christopher Morley's centennial continue: an exhibition of his letters and manuscripts has opened at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia (through Oct. 7). The late Nathan L. Bengis was an enthusiastic Sherlockian, and a collector both energetic and imaginative: of all the intriguing areas in which he specialized, perhaps the most interesting was his search for variants of "The Sign of the Four". Eventually he assembled a collection of some 250 variants, and when he sold his collection in 1971, most of those variants went to the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, where they have been waiting patiently for a researcher who could use them. Now a researcher has done just that, and the results are fascinating: SHERLOCK HOLMES AMONG THE PIRATES: COPYRIGHT AND CONAN DOYLE IN AMERICA 1890-1930, by Donald A. Redmond (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990; 304 pp., $39.95), offers a careful examination of those variants, and the reasons why there are so many of them. The principal reason is that "The Sign of the Four" was not protected by copyright in the United States and thus could be reprinted by anyone. Those reprints were produced quickly and cheaply, with little attention to fidelity or accuracy, and the corrupt texts have allowed Redmond to establish careful pedigrees, in some cases showing several generations of piracy. Redmond also provides a vivid description of one of the most cut-throat eras in the history of American publishing, and a careful explanation of how books were produced from hand-set type and stereotype plates (which were often used by a succession of publishers), as well as a detailed bibliography that will be of great assistance to collectors wondering who did what, and when, and to whom. The publisher takes plastic (800-225-5800 extension 700). Jun 90 #2 Best-laid-plans department: the local authorities in Halstead (in Essex), noting that they had a road called Holmes Road, proposed to name a nearby road Sherlock Close, but encountered strong opposition from residents of Halstead, who pointed out that Holmes Road had been named to honor a well-known local family, rather than the detective. And the nearby road has been named instead Juniper Close, marking the work done for the town by "the well-known and much-respected Charlie Juniper," according to a report in the Halstead Gazette (Apr. 20). The 39th running of The Silver Blaze at Belmont Park in New York will be held on Sept. 22, and details are available from Stephen L. Stix, R.R. 1, Box 452, Markleville, IN 46056. They're authentic, though not quite contemporary with Sherlock Holmes: the old red telephone boxes, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and used in Britain for more than 50 years. Now being phased out, they are available from Pilot Developments Ltd. (Fyfield Hall, Fyfield, Ongar, Essex CM5 0SA, England) at prices that start at L300 (in off-street condition). A flier at hand from Martha Irish suggests alternative uses: bookcase, aquarium, cocktail cabinet, shower room, or even an in-house phone box. Art Lund, a popular baritone in the big-band era whose recording of "Blue Skies" was a long-lasting hit in the 1940s, died on May 31. His singing career began in the late 1930s with the Benny Goodman band, and he later acted on television and in films, including "The Molly Maguires" (1970), in which he played Frazier, leader of the Mollies. And here's an intriguing Sherlockian passage in Nicolas Freeling's DRESSING OF DIAMOND (Harper & Row 1974/Penguin Books 1976), one of a series of fine suspense novels about the French policeman Henri Castang. The conversation is between Castang and a judge: Jun 90 #3 THE VAMPIRE FILES #1: BLOODLIST (New York: Ace Books, 1990; 200 pp., $3.50) and THE VAMPIRE FILES #2: LIFEBLOOD (New York: Ace Books, 1990; 202 pp., $3.50) are the first two in a series of horror novels by P. N. Elrod about Jack Fleming (formerly a reporter and now a vampire) and his private-detective friend Charles Escott (whose name is not the only S'ian echo in the series, which is set in gangland Chicago in the 1930s). There is some nice inside humor (a reference to the film "Romeo and Juliet" allows Escott to say that "the fellow playing Tybalt seemed to know what he was doing"), and P. N. Elrod is better known in S'ian circles as Patti Nead Elrod (creator of the "Baker Street Irragulars"). The third book in the series (due in Oct.) will be THE VAMPIRE FILES #3: BLOODCIRCLE. At hand from Mark Erdrich is a flier from What on Earth (25801 Richmond Road, Cleveland, OH 44146), offering a "Sherlock Holmes Pub" T-shirt ($12.95) and sweatshirt ($22.95). Shipping costs $2.00, and they take plastic. Victoria Robinson has forwarded a report that William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" is being performed this summer at the Weston Playhouse in Weston, Vt., June 28-30, July 1, and 3-8 (plus matinees on July 1 and 8). Christopher Lloyd (of "Back to the Future") stars, and the box-office phone number is 802-824-5288. Rex Harrison died on June 2. Best known for his performance in the role of Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" (he won a Tony for the Broadway show, and an Oscar for the movie version), he began his career with the Liverpool Repertory Company in 1924, playing a young father who had a single line in the play (and, according to the story Harrison often told, he got it wrong: "It's a doctor," he said, "Fetch a baby."). Plan ahead: Fred Fondren, proprietor of the Prometheus Theatre in New York, reports that his new play "Sherlock Holmes: The Eclipse Conspiracy" will open in Oct. 1990, with performances Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 pm. The theater's address is 239 East 5th Street, New York, NY 10003, and the telephone number is 212-477-8689. And it is quite likely that the run will extend through the birthday festivities, including the evening following the BSI cocktail party on Jan. 12. Ken Greenwald (of 221A Baker Street Associates) reports plans by Simon & Schuster to issue a Christmas package with the first four cassettes of the Rathbone/Bruce radio shows. Robert S. Gellerstedt, Jr. (1035 Wedgewood Drive, Fayetteville, GA 30214) would like to hear from the owner of Edgar W. Smith's annotated copy of BAKER STREET AND BEYOND (1940). Some of the annotations were trimmed in the BSI reprint (1957). Bob is trying to recapture the complete annotation found on page 40 of the reprint. Returning to Patti Nead Elrod's inside humor, the actor who "seemed to know what he was doing" in "Romeo and Juliet" (1936) was Basil Rathbone. Jun 90 #4 The Green County WanderFreunde (an affiliate of the American Volkssporting Association) will hold its second "Holmes Peak Volksmarch" on Nov. 18. As in 1988, the Volksmarch will be a ten-kilometer hike around and up Holmes Peak. A special medallion (this time showing Dr. Watson) will be awarded to those (and only to those) who complete the hike. Anyone interested in participating in the Volksmarch should contact Dick Warner (Head Sherpa of the Holmes Peak Preservation Society), at 3168 South Rockford Drive, Tulsa, OK 74105. Jack Gilford died on June 4. His acting career started in 1934 at an amateur night in the Bronx, and he went on to perform in vaudeville and nightclubs, and in dramatic and comic roles on stage and in television and films, including "They Might Be Giants" (1971), in which he played Wilbur Peabody, the librarian who longed to be the Scarlet Pimpernel. One of the more interesting reviews (because the reviewer is a good writer) of "Hands of a Murderer" was Marvin Kitman's critique in Newsday (May 15), in which he noted in passing an earlier prediction that "the next L.A.-made Conan Doyle adventure would feature Burt Reynolds as Sherlock, Dom DeLuise as Watson, Loni Anderson as Mrs. 'Udson, and Bert Convy as Moriarty." The Kitman piece was reprinted in The Third Pillar, a newsletter for "thespian pursuits in Sherlockiana," published quarterly ($3.00) by Paul Singleton, 523 Central Avenue, Bethpage, NY 11714. Steve Landes, editor of The Arcadia Mixture's newsletter The Fluffy Ash, reports that Russell Brown, author of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MYSTERIOUS FRIEND OF OSCAR WILDE, recently spoke at the University of Michigan during Lesbian and Gay Men's Awareness Week (discussing "Sherlock Holmes and the Victorian Woman"). Brown's soon-to-be-published book THE CAPTIVE WOMAN will be the first in a series of "Adventures of Mrs. Hudson" (as told to the son of Harold Stackhurst). Carol Logan (Latimer's, 706 Euclid Avenue, Toronto, Ont. M6G 2T9, Canada) offers a new illustrated sales list: Sherlockian sweatshirts, T-shirts, mugs, postcards, and Christmas cards. The "Sherlock Holmes" exhibit mounted by S'ian philatelist Bruce Holmes at the Post Office House in Montreal is now open (and it will run through the end of August), and a special (and official) postmark with a silhouette of Sherlock Holmes is available on mail posted at the exhibit. If you would like to have one of the postmarked covers, send $1.00 in U.S. currency to Bruce Holmes, 64 Maple Circle, Dollard des Ormeaux, Quebec N9B 1E7, Canada. There was considerable publicity in the press this month about a new book about the Piltdown hoax. Photographs of ACD were prominently displayed in many of the stories, but this time he's not the alleged culprit. Frank Spencer, a professor of anthropology at Queens College in New York, has reviewed all the evidence and investigated all the suspects, and accuses Sir Arthur Keith, a well-respected anatomist who was conservator of the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, as the mastermind who prepared the forged fossils that Charles Dawson planted in the quarry at Piltdown. Spencer's book (PILTDOWN: A SCIENTIFIC FORGERY) is due this fall from the Oxford University Press. Jun 90 #5 Miaowara Tomokato, who first appeared in THE ADVENTURES OF SAMURAI CAT (1984) and then in MORE ADVENTURES OF SAMURAI CAT (1986), has returned in SAMURAI CAT IN THE REAL WORLD, by Mark E. Rogers (New York: Tor/Tom Dougherty, 1989; 128 pp., $12.95). There is nothing Sherlockian about the series (so far, at any rate), but the concept and execution (both artwork and text) are great fun. Otherwise, the series is extremely hard to describe, but it's worth noting that Rogers apparently has the only known copy of Tomokato's official biography (CAT OUT OF HELL, written by William Shirer and A.J.P. Godzilla). An advertisement in this year's Mystery Writers Annual (the program book for the MWA annual dinner) suggests that visitors to Italy might wish to add the country's first mystery-specialist bookshop to their itineraries. La Sherlockiana's address is Piazza S. Nazaro 3, 20122 Milano, Italy, and the telephone number is 02-8059248. Pj Doyle reports a British reprint in paper covers (from Cassell) of Evelyn Waugh's RONALD KNOX (D2636b). It's a fine biography of the man who began our grand game), and available for $3.98 (plus $4.00 shipping per order) from Daedalus Books, Box 9132, Hyattsville, MD 20781 (800-395-2665); they take plastic. Some recent auction prices, from Sotheby's sale this spring of the library of H. Bradley Martin are of interest: the first edition, first issue (from Spencer Blackett) of THE SIGN OF FOUR (estimated at $1,000-1,500) brought $3,300; the first edition of THE WHITE COMPANY (estimated at $600-900) went for $4,400; and one lot with a pair of first editions of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (estimated at $400-600) sold for $3,300. The high prices are likely due at least in part to the provenance (Martin was a noted collector of "important English literature") but they also demonstrate the growing interest in Conan Doyle's works. Otto Penzler, according to a report in the San Francisco Examiner, at hand from Ted Schulz, has sold his Mysterious Press imprint to Warner Books, the company that has distributed the Mysterious Press titles in the past. Otto will remain in charge of the imprint, according to Warner. Travelers to the northwest might wish to attend (or participate in) "The Second Annual International Holmesian Games" in Seattle on Sept. 15. The event is sponsored by The Sound of the Baskervilles, and will open with the traditional re-enactment of Hugo Baskerville's wild midnight pursuit: "At the cry, 'The Dame's Afoot,' Hugo and his evil pack will chase a designated chaste yeoman's daughter across the moor." Contact: Frank Darlington, 141 N.W. 181st Street, Seattle WA 98177. Tony Harries (Sherlock Holmes' secretary) will be speaking to quite a few societies during his tour of the U.S. His (still tentative) schedule is: Scarsdale (July 13), New York (July 14), Washington (July 17), Cleveland (July 19), Chicago (July 21-22), Nashville (July 23), Memphis (July 25), St. Louis (July 28-29), Denver (Aug. 2), Seattle (Aug. 3), San Francisco (Aug. 11), San Diego (Aug. 16), Los Angeles (Aug. 19), and Toronto (Aug. 21). Vacationing S'ians who would like more details can let me know, and I'll supply contact names and addresses for the various scion dinners. Jun 90 #6 Sotheby's paid proper attention to Bliss Austin's material in the catalog for their sale on June 15, inviting bidders to refer to the sale as "6037 Valley" (the description of the manuscript of "The Valley of Fear" filled most of four pages, plus a color frontispiece showing the beginning of the manuscript), and displaying a color photograph of Beeton's Christmas Annual on the catalog's back cover. The Beeton's (with a catalog estimate of $8,000-12,000) brought $52,000. The manuscript (estimated at $80,000-120,000) went for $260,000. Andrew Jay Peck was at the auction, and reports that the winning bids were made by telephone, and were from two different bidders. The prices realized do not include the 10% buyer's premium or the 8.25% New York sales tax, and the fortunate new owners have not yet been identified. Some readers have asked why prices actually realized are so much higher than the estimates in auction catalogs. Well, sometimes they aren't, as can be seen from newspaper articles on art auctions which report that a particular item failed to meet its estimate. And Sotheby's catalog states that "estimates are guides for prospective bidders and should not be relied upon as representations or predictions of actual selling prices," and that "estimates are determined well in advance of the sale date and are subject to revision." So: start with a basic assumption that it is better to have an advance catalog estimate that is too low, rather than one that is too high (because a sale in which prices fail to meet estimates tends to be regarded as "unsuccessful"). Then: assume that estimates can be, and often are, revised (the catalog also invites bidders to "contact the expert in charge of the sale if you have any questions"). Heavy interest in an item often allows the expert in charge to increase the advance estimate (and serious bidders do tend to consult experts), but the revised estimates are almost never reported. And: competition between eager collectors often drives prices far above advance, or even revised, estimates. It is also important to remember that the goal of the auction house is to achieve the highest possible prices (because the auction house operates on commission), not to make exact predictions, well in advance, of prices realized. At hand from Andrew Jay Peck is a report on plans to expand the Granada Studios Tour in Manchester. Construction of the first phase will begin this summer, and will include an office development and a 136-room hotel (to be called The Albert and Victoria), which will feature a Brideshead Suite, a Cafe Maigret, and a Sherlock Holmes Bar. The tour area (now 9 acres) will eventually cover 25 acres, and there are hopes of attracting three to five million people a year. Roger Johnson reports that the Talking Tape Company (Unit 11, Shaftesbury Industrial Centre, The Runnings, Cheltenham GL51 9NH, England) plans to issue three two-cassette packages this fall, each with four of the stories as adapted by Grant Eustace for British Airways (which used one story a month as in-flight entertainment starting in 1987), with Roy Marsden as Holmes and John Moffatt as Watson. Three more packages will be issued in 1991. Roger also reports news from Bert Coules: BBC Radio 4 is planning a weekly series next year, with Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson, broadcasting new adaptations of the short stories as 45-minute programs. Merrison and Williams played the same roles in the BBC Radio 4 broadcasts of "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of the Four" in 1989. Jun 90 #7 Bookseller Mark Hime, proprietor of Biblioctopus (Idyllwild, CA 92349) died earlier this year, after preparing a catalog that included the first issue of the first book edition of A STUDY IN SCARLET (at $50,000), and a copy of the limited and signed edition of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES published by Doubleday in 1953 (at $4,000). His last catalog arrived with a delightful tribute to Hime's ardent and irreverent approach to the world of books: Biblioblivion, or The Ghost of the Octopus ("an offering of 36 literary relics from the private collection of our late founder"), a list that ranges from "The Bow of Ulysses" to "James Bond's License to Kill" and includes "The Brain of Sherlock Holmes" (human brain, much larger on the left side, preserved in formaldehyde, with a note of provenance from John Watson). The British magazine New Scientist often publishes Sherlockian items, the most recent being John F. Bowers' article on "James Moriarty: A Forgotten Mathematician" (Dec. 23-30, 1989). A photocopy is available (please send a #10 SASE) from Mark W. Erdrich (49 Kings Lacey Way, Fairport, NY 14450). Gabriel Pustel (Box 1345, Jackson, NJ 08527) is a S'ian philatelist who specializes in meter cancels, and he would appreciate hearing from anyone who knows of other Sherlockian meter cancels. Further to the report (Apr 90 #6) on the opening of the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street, Jean Upton visited the museum this month, and writes that it consists of two rooms with flea-market-quality Victorian furniture, and completely lacks any of Holmes eccentricities such as the jack-knife in the mantlepiece. Proprietor John Aidiniantz charged L3 for a tour (though the museum wasn't technically complete or open for business), but soon intends to start charging L5 for "the same shabby tour." Jean also says that Aidiniantz's lack of knowledge concerning Holmes is immense (he was not aware of the BSJ), and that he is absolutely obsessed with his goal of having the street numbering changed so that he will officially be 221b Baker Street. Jean suggests that Sherlockian visitors to London will do better with a visit to The Sherlock Holmes pub, where "at least the exhibit is free, albeit a bit dusty." And further to the report (Apr 90 #3) on "The 7% Convention: A Sherlock Holmes Event" to be held at the Shepperton Moat House Hotel on Aug. 25-26, Jean has sent a flier with details on how to be a non-attending convention supporter. The cost is $14.00 (surface) or $18.00 (airmail), which gets you a copy of the program book, which will have a forward by Peter Cushing, an original article by Richard Lancelyn Green, an article on Arthur Wontner by David Stuart Davies, and other material of interest. The price includes a contribution to The Samaritans (the charity the convention is intended to benefit), and checks (payable to The 7% Convention) should be sent to Jane Sayle, 6 Bramham Moor, Hillhead, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England. Jun 90 #8 Ben Wood has also been to London, visiting Catherine Cooke at the Marylebone Library and Tony Harries at Abbey National, and reports mildly that the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street "is well worth passing up." The latest issue of Ben's "Bohemian Scandal Sheet" has a reprint of a Reuters dispatch that mentions that John Aidiniantz will be offering to sell L1,000 shares in his Sherlock Holmes International Society to "investors and Holmes buffs." Ben also offers a new Sherlockian magnet ("no self-respecting Sherlockian kitchen fridge should be without it") in orange-and-black plastic, with a nice design and lettering, for cost of $3.50 postpaid ($5.00 foreign). His address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222. SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE GREAT DETECTIVE IN PAPERBACK is a 151-page detailed checklist compiled by Gary Lovisi, concentrating on post-1930 material but also including some earlier issues, with many illustrations of cover art, and an introduction by John Bennett Shaw. The coverage includes anything published in paper covers, ranging from the Canon through pastiches and parodies to monographs, and the book offers a fine guide to an interesting area for collectors. The book is available from Gryphon Books, Box 209, Brooklyn, NY 11228; $19.95 (cloth) or $9.95 (paper). Reported: NEWTON'S MADNESS: FURTHER TALES OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY, by Harold L. Klawans (Harper & Row, $17.95), with an essay speculating on the cocaine habits of Sigmund Freud and Sherlock Holmes. Paul Giovanni died on June 17. He played The Boy in the original New York cast of "The Fantasticks", wrote music for theater and films, and wrote mystery plays and a musical. One of those mystery plays was "The Crucifer of Blood", which was produced on Broadway in 1978 and won Giovanni a Tony Award nomination as best director. He was also nominated as best director by the Los Angeles Drama Critics when the play was produced there in 1980, with Charlton Heston as Holmes and Jeremy Brett as Watson. Welcome television news: Sherlock Holmes will return to "Mystery!" on July 12, when PBS-TV begins a two-part repeat of "The Sign of Four". And "The Devil's Foot" will air on July 26, presumably to be followed by more repeat programs in August. I've heard that Sherlock Holmes' secretary Tony Harries was interviewed on "Good Morning America" on ABC-TV on June 21, 1990. Did anyone manage to tape the interview off-the-air? And Sherlock Holmes' *other* secretary, Mrs. Riley at 239 Baker Street, was interviewed on the Canadian Broadcast- ing Corp. radio series "As It Happens" (carried by American Public Radio) on June 20. Does anyone have a tape? Al and Julie Rosenblatt's splendid 20-page souvenir menu for "An Evening in Scarlet" at the Culinary Institute of America on May 16, 1987, handsomely devised, designed, and produced, with many illustrations, annotations and explanations, is still available for $16.00 postpaid (checks to Peter E. Blau, at the address below). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Jul 90 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Adela Holzer, who was one of the producers of the New York production of the Royal Shakespeare Company's revival of William Gil