Jan 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press This scuttlebutt is now also available in bits and bytes, on the Internet, without charge (and without illustrations), to members of The Hounds of the Internet, which is an electronic society for people who have computers and modems and telephones, or access to them and to the Internet. The society now has about 115 members, and it is easy to join (the list is maintained by Alan Block, and you can send an e-mail message to blocka@beloit.edu and state in the text: subscribe hounds). Robert F. Fleissner's essay "Did Not T. H. Huxley's 'Piece of Chalk' Leave Its Mark on the Canon?" discusses some possible connections between Huxley and Holmes, in the fall-winter 1993 issue of Clues: A Journal of Detection (Bowling Green State Univ. Popular Press, Bowling Green, OH 43403; $7.50). "You Have Been in Afghanistan, I Perceive." is the title of Thaddeus Holt's intriguing article in the winter 1994 issue of MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History. Thad's conclusion is that the fatal battle of Maiwand provided Conan Doyle with the names of both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. And MHQ is far more than a magazine: each hard-bound issue offers 112 pages of fine articles and illustrations. $60 a year (back issues cost $20 each plus shipping); Box 597, Mt. Morris, IL 61054-0597 (800-827-1218). More first day covers for the British "Sherlock Holmes" set are available, from Benham (A. Buckingham), Benham House, The Bayle, Folkestone, Kent CT20 1SD, England. A set of five single-stamp covers, with different postmarks and different full-color Granada photograph on silken fabric, costs L12.50, and the set of stamps is available on two different covers with postmarks honoring Granada, at L4.95 each (possibly still available signed by Jeremy Brett, at L8.99 each). Postage costs L1.00 extra, and credit-card orders are welcome. Mark Alberstat has a few copies left of his 1994 Sherlockian Calendar with illustrations from The Strand Magazine, and with William S. Baring-Gould's dates for the cases; 5 Lorraine Street, Dartmouth, NS B3A 2B9, Canada, and the cost (postpaid) is US$12.00. Baker Street Miscellanea began publishing in Apr. 1975, founded by William D. Goodrich, John Nieminski, and Donald K. Pollock (who modestly described themselves as "editorial staff"). Their stated goal was "a periodic unpre- tentious mini-anthology, the best of the new spiced with a goodly dollop of the old, the rare and the little known, each issue a diverting mixture of odds and ends which complement rather than duplicate the more substantial fare of senior publications in the field," and they certainly succeeded, as demonstrated by the fact that BSM now itself is one of the senior, as well as one of the best, Sherlockian periodicals. And Don Pollock, now formally the editor, has announced that BSM will cease publication soon, likely with issue #76, because it is becoming harder and harder to maintain a backlog of material that meets the high standards set by those who have contributed to the magazine over the years. And those standards have been high, as the readers of BSM know well, and as shown by the fact that its circulation of more than 450 makes BSM one of the half-dozen most-widely-read Sherlockian periodicals published in English. Don and his colleagues merit our thanks. Jan 94 #2 The birthday festivities in New York were (as always) enjoyable and entertaining, and the wintry weather less so (Richard Shull suggested at the Saturday cocktail party that the weather outside reminded him of the Donner Party, although the food was better) (and someone asked, "How do you know?"). Thursday's informal events included the annual Chris- topher Morley Walk arranged by Allen Mackler and Charlie Shields (this year with a guided tour of the Woolworth Building) and the Aunt Clara Sing at O'Lunney,s Steak House. Friday's schedule began with the lavish Mrs. Hudson Breakfast at the Hotel Algonquin and continued with the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chel- sea, with honors paid to Gillette and Edith Meiser (with excerpts from her unfinished stage play "The Sign of the Four" performed by Paul Singleton, Sarah Montague Joffe, and Andrew Joffe). And the day continued with Otto Penzler's traditional hospitality (and Sherlockian books) at an open house at the Mysterious Bookshop. The Baker Street Irregulars gathered at 24 Fifth Avenue, where *The* Woman was Theresa Thomalen, who was toasted by Bill Schweickert during the pre- dinner cocktail party and then departed to dine at the National Arts Club with other ladies who have received that honor. The BSI's agenda featured the usual toasts and traditions, and Bruce Montgomery's melodic tribute to his grand-aunt Clara and to his father, and then focused on 60 years of BSI history, including George Fletcher's anecdotal history of The Baker Street Journal, a joint presentation by Susan Rice and Mickey Fromkin of some of the better Irregular poetry, Steve Rothman's discussion of the very early meetings of the BSI, and reminiscences of the annual dinners of the 1950s by David Weiss (who has been attending the annual dinners for more than 40 years). Bill Schweickert's own poetic birthday tribute to the Master ended the historic and historical festivities. Irregular Shillings and Investitures were given to Bruce Montgomery ("The Red Circle"), Peter J. Crupe ("The Noble Bachelor"), Mickey Fromkin ("The Missing Three-Quarter"), Ruthann Stetak ("The Camberwell Poisoning Case"), Geoffrey Stavert ("The Shingle of Southsea"), Bill Vande Water ("An Enlar- ged Photograph"), Don Izban ("Market Street"), Tom Joyce ("A Yellow-Backed Novel"), Hirotaka Ueda ("Japanese Armor"), Thomas Utecht ("Arthur Charpen- tier"), and Francine Swift ("The Wigmore Street Post Office"). Eleanor O'Connor was awarded the Queen Victoria Medal in recognition of her many years of assistance to the BSI at the annual dinners, and Don Redmond (who is almost ready to publish a new index to the Baker Street Journal updated through 1993) received the BSI's Two-Shilling Award. The Fortescue Symposium (sponsored by The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, The Priory Scholars of New York, and The Montague Street Lodgers of Brook- lyn), also was convened Friday evening, at the St. Moritz Hotel, moderated by Allan Devitt and Kate Karlson and with a program of toasts, songs, and presentations by Marilyn MacGregor on "Plumming Sherlock Holmes" (exploring Sherlockian allusions in the writings of P. G. Wodehouse), Patricia Guy on "Victorian Medicinal Imbibing" (and it was considerable), and B.J. Rahn on "Dorothy L. Sayers and Sherlock Holmes: The French Connection" (in which she revealed that Sayers was indeed the issue of a liaison between Sherlock and Irene). Jan 94 #3 And on Saturday morning the huckster room at the Algonquin (aka Covent Garden West) was well attended, as was the BSI's Satur- day-afternoon cocktail party at 24 Fifth Avenue, where the agenda included Jon Lellenberg and Clint Gould's "March of Time" report on the history of the BSI, a performance by Paul Singleton and Philip Brogdon of an excerpt from Jeremy Paul's play "The Secret of Sherlock Holmes", poetic reports by Al Rosenblatt and Marilyn McKay on the events of the previous evening, the award of an Irregular Shilling and Investiture to Catherine Cooke ("The Book of Life"), the usual fast-and-furious auction (raising a generous $380 for the Dr. John H. Watson Fund), and a warm tribute to Tom Stix delivered by Bob Thomalen. And the Chisholm Gallery stayed open after the party, so that visitors could view Steven Emmons' new Sherlockian posters. The Dr. John H. Watson Fund offers financial assistance to all Sherlockians (membership in the BSI or the ASH is not required) who might otherwise not be able 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 checks payable to John H. Watson and mailed (without return any address on the envelope) to Dr. Watson, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr., who will forward the checks unopened. Dr. Watson will acknowledge your generosity, and Tom's address is 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648. Other news from the birthday festivities: George A. Vanderburgh distributed (on behalf of a society called The Retired Colonels) a floppy-disk edition of Mark Twain's A DOUBLE-BARRELLED DETECTIVE STORY that contained more news of Ron De Waal's THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES, which (as noted earlier) is scheduled to be published on May 22, 1994 (the deadline for orders is Mar. 15). The new information is that the bibliography will have a "selective concordance" with about 5,000 different words, and those words will include the last names of all the purchasers of the set; George also has asked for nominations (by Mar. 15) of your favorite words, to be included, with entry numbers, in the selective concordance. And George has announced that after May he will take orders for a second printing, that will be priced at least 50% more than the $100 cost (plus postage) of the first printing. George's address is: Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada. And Julie and Al Rosenblatt will present a four-day mini-course on Sherlock Holmes at Vassar College on July 10-15, 1994 (Sunday evening through Friday morning counts as four days in the Hudson Valley). The mini-course is open to all, and additional information is available from Maryann Bruno, Vassar College, Conferences and Summer Programs, Box 77, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. And (plan ahead) the Third Occasional Sherlockian Cruise will sail on June 17, 1995, from Fort Lauderdale on the MV Zenith. Seven days, with stops at Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel, and Key West, and with a two-day Sherlockian symposium en route. Holmes at His Zenith (Box 96, Norwood, NJ 07648) is the contact, and enquiries are welcome. On Nov. 21 and 28, 1982, "The Jeffersons" on CBS-TV involved a "mystery- writers cruise" that included Sherlockian allusions. If you have an off- the-air videocassette of the second episode, please tell Jennie C. Paton (206 Loblolly Lane, Statesboro, GA 30458). And Jennie also would be glad to hear about any other Sherlockian episode of "The Jeffersons". Jan 94 #4 HOLY BLOOD: AN INSIDE VIEW OF THE AFGHAN WAR (Westport: Green- wood, 1993; 248 pp., $55.00) is Paul Overby's account of the most recent hostilities in that still-violent land, where he fought briefly on the side of the rebels, and he includes a passing mention of an earlier Afghan veteran: Dr. Watson. Peggy Nelson died on Sept. 20. She was toasted by the Baker Street Irregu- lars as *the* woman in 1967, to the delight of her husband, old Irregular Jim Nelson, and joined us again for the toast to all of *the* women at the BSI's cocktail party in 1989, and she will be missed by her many friends. "'Come, Watson, come!' cries Sherlock Holmes, 'the game is afoot' and so they leap into a hansom cab and rattle through foggy Victorian London to Paddington or Waterloo or indeed to No. 221B Baker Street, where the gaso- gene burns in the corner, a put-upon but devoted Mrs. Hudson prepares bacon and eggs and a mysterious visitor awaits them." From the flier prepared by the Folio Society last year to publicize their set of the short stories. I don't recall that anyone has wondered (at least in print) about that lovely description, but Alan Olding does now, in the latest issue of News from the Diggings. "The gasogene burns in the corner?" he asks. "Does the tantalus also sing in its little cage?" The Folio Society completes its version of the Canon with SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE COMPLETE NOVELS, a four-volume boxed set with illustrations by Francis Mosley and a binding uniform with the five-volume set of the short stories published in 1993. The set will be published in April at $149.00, but the Society offers a pre-publication price of $124.00 postpaid to its members and to readers of this newsletter if you order before Mar. 31. They take plastic, and their toll-free number is 800-688-6247, or you can order by mail from Folio Books at 2323 Randolph Avenue, Avenel, NJ 07001; to qualify for the discount price, mention "Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press" and pay them $124.00. Tom Rieschick offers an illustrated flier for his attractive prints of Sherlock Holmes (as portrayed by Rathbone and Brett), and Watson and Moriarty, and Hercule Poirot, and others, and he accepts commissions; his address is 179 Gold Kettle Drive, Gaithersburg, MD 20878. THE DISNEY VILLAIN, written by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas (New York: Hyperion, 1993; 232 pp., $45.00), is a well-illustrated book written by two of the "Nine Old Men" who were Disney's head animators for more than forty years. The excellent coverage runs from a surly wooden-legged pirate in the "Alice" series in the 1920s to Jafar in "Alladin", and does not neglect the infamous Ratigan in "The Great Mouse Detective". HarperAudio has issued THE STORIES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, VOL. 1 (with Basil Rathbone's fine reading of "The Speckled Band" and "The Final Problem") at $5.99. The cassette is a reissue of the 1963 recording from Caedmon, and it would be nice indeed if other Rathbone readings are reissued as well. Jan 94 #5 Further to earlier reports (Sep 90 #3; Jul 92 #4) on plans for an animated film of "Cats" (which one hopes would include the infamous Macavity), the latest issue of Anglofile reports that Andrew Lloyd Webber has decided to produce the film himself, and that the playwright Tom Stoppard has been recruited to write a screenplay. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter that offers detailed coverage of British entertainment; the cost is $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). Listen for Pleasure (EMI) offers boxed two-cassette sets of readings of the four long stories: "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of Four" read by Tony Britton, "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Hugh Burden, and "The Valley of Fear" by Martin Jarvis. The stories have been abridged to fit the two-hour format, but they are read well, with excellent voices; the first three are reissues, but Jarvis' "Valley" is newly recorded (1992). The Parallel Case of St. Louis have prepared a new cloisonne pin, similar to their 1991 Sherlock Holmes pin but showing Dr. Watson (patterned after Nigel Bruce). $13.00 postpaid from Joseph J. Eckrich, 914 Oakmoor Drive, Fenton, MO 63026. The Serpentine Muse is the quarterly journal of The Adventur- esses of Sherlock Holmes, and it is always of interest. The current issue (winter 1993) offers Dorothy K. Stix's thoughts on what it's like "Being Married to the Head of the BSI", and subscriptions cost $10.00 a year, from Evelyn A. Herzog, 360 West 21st Street #5-A, New York, NY 10011-3310. "The whole trouble in trying to write on any aspect of the Canon," Tupper Bigelow once suggested, in an early contribution to our literature, "is that in your reading of it, for the particular purpose you have in mind, you become so fascinated with the story (no matter how often you may have read it before) that unconsciously you forget what it is you are looking for, and before you know it, you have finished the story, having made no notes at all, and then have to go back and try to read it all over again with an attempted deliberate detachment that I have never yet found to be completely possible." THE BAKER STREET BRIEFS, by S. Tupper Bigelow (Tor- onto: Metropolitan Toronto Library, 1993), in 168 pages of selections from his Sherlockian writings, easily shows that he was far too modest about his scholarly skills. The cost is $15.95 postpaid, from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada. What on Earth (2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087) continues to offer Sherlockiana in their mail order catalogs, including a 20-oz hand- painted porcelain Sherlock Stein (item G1869) at $129.95. THE REALLY RAGGED SHAW: BEING THE EXPANDED RAGGED SHAW (Dubuque: Gasogene Press, 1994; 161 pp., $16.95) is David L. Hammer's birthday tribute to John Bennett Shaw, offering splendid examples of the imagination and inspiration and humor to be found in the quizzes devised by the Sage of Santa Fe. John did not rest from his labors when THE RAGGED SHAW appeared in 1987 with 45 quizzes, and there now are 59 quizzes to bemuse and bedevil all who claim true knowledge of the Canon. The publisher's address is Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004. Recommended. Jan 94 #6 The August Derleth Society continues to honor the creator of Solar Pons (and many other fine works), most recently with A DERLETH COLLECTION (Sauk City: Geranium Press, 1993; 61 pp., $17.00 post- paid), which offers a variety of hitherto unreprinted material, including his comments in the July 1951 issue of the Unicorn Mystery Book Club News when THE MEMOIRS OF SOLAR PONS was one of the club's monthly selections. The book is available from the society, at Box 481, Sauk City, WI 53583. Nate the Great continues his sleuthing, deerstalkered and assisted by his dog Sludge, in the amusing children's series written by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat and illustrated by Marc Simont, from the Delacorte Press. NATE THE GREAT AND THE PILLOWCASE (1993; 48 pp., $12.95) and NATE THE GREAT AND THE MUSHY VALENTINE (1994; 44 pp., $12.95) are the latest titles, suggested for young readers aged 6-9. IT WAS A DARK & STORMY NIGHT: A POP-UP MYSTERY WHODUNIT, designed by Keith Moseley and with pictures by Linda Birkinshaw (New York: Dial Books, 1991; $12.95), is an amusing children's book, with Inspector Derek Dog appearing in Sherlockian costume. The J. Peterman Co. (2444 Palumbo Drive, Lexington, KY 40509) offers its Owner's Manual #27, with a wide range of entertainingly-described items, one of which is the "most fiendishly intelligent hat ever designed" (an Irish tweed deerstalker) now discounted to $37.00. Spotted by Jennie Paton: SOCCER CIRCUS, by Jamie Gilson, with illustrations by Dee deRosa (New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1993; 177 pp., $12.00); an entertaining book for older grade-school readers, with Hobie Hanson and his soccer team attending a soccer tournament, which neatly happens to coincide with a meeting of WORMS (World Organization of Readers of Mysteries), which allows Hobie to meet a grandfatherly and deerstalkered mystery readers, and to help solve a mystery, and to impersonate a penguin. Those who know Michael Harrison only as an author of Sherlockian books and as a fine raconteur will learn much more about the man and his work in Tina Rhea's THE BOOKS OF MICHAEL HARRISON (Greenbelt: Firecat Press, 1994; 47 pp., $5.00 postpaid). This is an annotated bibliography of Michael's 64 published books, with comment and occasional tales-out-of-school by Michael and by Tina, and with a fine portrait of Michael by Stephanie Hawks. The book is available from Tina at 3-E Ridge Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770-1969. William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" will be performed from June 18 to Oct. 15 at the Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake in Ontario. The box office has a toll-free number (800-267-4759); they take plastic. The Bootmakers of Toronto and An Irish Secret Society at Buffalo are planning a theater party on July 2, with lunch, the play, and souvenirs; details are available from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada. Al Rosenblatt has received a report that the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok has an "authors' residence" decorated with photographs of famous authors who have (allegedly) stayed at the hotel and found inspiration there. And Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is one of those authors. Along with Tolstoy, Gorky, and Dostoyevsky, and Gertrude Stein, and Victor Hugo, and other improbables. Jan 94 #7 Simon & Schuster's audiocassette THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #23 ($12.00) offers two more of the fine old radio shows from scripts by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher, with new introductions by Harry Bartell (who was one of the announcers in the 1940s). "The Gunpowder Plot" (5 Nov 45) stars Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and is already avail- able on records and cassettes (with lower fidelity). The new-to-audio "The Babbling Butler" (27 Jan 47) has Nigel Bruce and Tom Conway (as Watson and Holmes, with top billing going to Bruce). A special Sherlock Holmes cover was issued on Jan. 8 at "Stamp Expo '94" in Long Beach, with a silhouette cachet and commemorative postmark. A few of the covers still may be available from the International Stamp Collectors Society, Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408; $4.95 postpaid. Recent Sherlockian comic books, reported by Ralph Hall and Jim Suszynski: Muppet Babies (Dec. 1993) from Harvey Classics, reprinting "The Strange Case of the Missing Mermaid Costume". Walt Disney's Donald & Mickey (Sept. 1993) from Gladstone, reprinting "Mickey and the Sleuth: The Case of the Wax Dummy"; (Jan. 1994) reprinting "The Case of the Pea Soup Burglaries"; and (Mar. 1994) reprinting "The Great Winks Robbery". Walt Disney's Comics & Stories (Feb. 1994) from Disney, with "Inspector Clew Gluesome: Synthetic Lightning". Roger Zelazny's A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER (New York: William Morrow/ AvoNova, 1993; 280 pp., $18.00) is an imaginative blend of fantasy, horror, and humor, with thoroughly appropriate illustrations by Gahan Wilson. The story is told by a dog named Snuff who, when he isn't involved in calculat- ing where the world will end, is a watch-dog for his knife-wielding master Jack not far from London, where they encounter an intriguing number of the more well-known characters from the various literatures that Zelazny knows so well. The Great Detective is one of those characters, otherwise unnamed but easily identified, both from his actions in the story and from the art- work (including Wilson's color portrait on the back of the dust jacket). Plan ahead: the fourth annual Mid-Atlantic Mystery Book Fair and Convention will be held at the Holiday Inn (Independence Mall) in Philadelphia on Nov. 4-6, 1994. Membership is limited to 400, full registration costs $40.00, and you can contact Deen Kogan at Detecto-Mysterioso Books, 507 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147. Shots in the Dark ("Britain's only Crime Writing Convention") will be held in Nottingham on June 10-12. Nottingham also will host Bouchercon 26, from Sept. 28 through Oct. 1, 1995, with Colin Dexter and James Ellroy as guests of honour. More information is available from Broadway Media Centre, at 14 Broad Street, Nottingham NG1 3AL, England. It's always interesting to watch Sherlockian actors do other things. Ian Richardson (Sherlock Holmes) and Colin Jeavons (Insp. Lestrade) have been on display in "To Play the King" on "Masterpiece Theatre" on PBS-TV. And in the second episode (broadcast on Jan. 23), Jeavons (Tim Stamper) said, "I'm a notorious snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." Whom is he quoting? Jan 94 #8 Who claimed to be a "snapper-up of unconsidered trifles" before Colin Jeavons did? Not Sherlock Holmes, although it does sound like something he would have said, sufficiently so that I couldn't imagine why I wasn't able to find that phrase in Bob Stek's electronic Canon. The answer (with thanks to Jerry Bangham) is that William Shakespeare gave the words to Autolycus ("a rogue") in "The Winter's Tale" (Act IV, Scene iii). Vincent Starrett later put the phrase on the title page of his AUTOLYCUS IN LIMBO (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1943), a collection of poetry that includes his wonderful sonnet "221B" and other poems with Sherlockian allusions. Reported by Kevin Parker: John Peel, the author of WHERE IN THE U.S.A. IS CARMEN SANDIEGO? (Apr 92 #4), is now writing EVOLUTION, a novel in a soon- to-start DOCTOR WHO: THE MISSING ADVENTURES series. Tom Baker's Doctor and his companion Sarah Jane will meet Sherlock Holmes, and the book is due to be released in September (with Baker in Sherlockian costume on the cover). A Canadian edition has been reported of June Thomson's THE SECRET JOURNALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (McClelland & Stewart, CA$29.99). Also Nicholas Meyer's THE CANARY TRAINER (Penguin, CA$24.99) And THE OXFORD BOOK OF VILLAINS, edited by John Mortimer (Nov 92 #2) is now available as a paperback (Oxford University Press, $11.95); Prof. Moriarty is present, in a reprint of T. S. Eliot's poem "Macavity: The Mystery Cat". "Genius's residence" was the clue in the crossword puzzle in the N.Y. Times Magazine on Jan. 2. And the answer was: "Sherlock's home". Tim O'Connor reports that videocassettes with the edited two-hour versions of "The Leading Lady" and "Incident at Victoria Falls" (the 1992 television films starring Christopher Lee as Holmes) are now deeply discounted: $9.99 each (at EP speed) from Critic's Choice Video (800-367-7765). Dick Lesh reports that the 300-piece jigsaw puzzle showing "The Great Mouse Detective" issued by Western Publishing at $5.99 (Dec 93 #5) also is avail- able (but as "Poster Puzzle") for $7.99 (add $4.50 shipping) from Donavan Distributing, 732 Clinton Street, Waukesha, WI 53186 (800-236-7123). According to my not-always-infallible records, you all now should have my seasonal souvenir for 1994 ("CUSHLAMOCHREE!"), received during the birthday festivities in New York, or since, or with this mailing. If I managed to miss anyone, please let me know. And a few commercials: the revised 15-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling Awards, *The* Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes costs $1.10 postpaid. The 70-page list of 632 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for contacts for the 386 active societies, costs $3.55 postpaid. A run of address labels for 329 individual contacts (recommended if you wish to avoid making duplicate mailings to people who are contacts for more than one society) costs $10.25 postpaid. Checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Feb 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press A new issue (#26) of The Tonga Times has arrived from Carol Wenk, who has reactivated The Mini-Tonga Society, which the late Dee Snyder founded for creators and keepers of Sherlockian miniatures. Membership costs $6.00 a year (with three issues of the newsletter, and back issues are available), and Carol's address is Box 770554, Lakewood, OH 44107. Oliver Smith died on Jan. 23. He was a co-director of the American Ballet Theatre for more than 35 years, and was best known as an award-winning set designer on Broadway, and in opera and films. His sets were an important feature of Broadway shows such as "West Side Story", "My Fair Lady", "Hello Dolly", "Camelot", and "Baker Street". Reported by Ralph Hall: ELEMENTARY DOCTOR WATSON! is a new CD and cassette starring country artist Doc Watson, issued by Sugar Hill Records; none of the tracks appear to be Sherlockian, and the contents are similar to, but not the same as, the phonograph record issued by Poppy Industries in 1972. Star Trek: The Next Generation #26 (Feb. 1994) has an interview with Alex Singer, director of "Ship in a Bottle" (which he compares to Pirandello's "Six Characters in Search of an Author"). The "Great Illustrated Classics" series from Baronet Press now includes THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, edited by Malvina G. Vogel and illustrated by Brendan Lynch (look for it on bookshop bargain tables); this is a reissue of the paperback from Playmore Inc. (Mar 85 #4). COOKIE MCCORKLE AND THE CASE OF THE CROOKED KEY and COOKIE MCCORKLE AND THE CASE OF THE MYSTERY MAP are the latest titles in Sharon Cadwallader's nice series of juveniles (ages 7 to 9) about a young girl who is fascinated by Sherlock Holmes, and has named her dog Moriarty, and solves mysteries; from Avon Books (Young Camelot), $3.50 each. The eighth volume of Beeman's Christmas Annual offers 32 pages of Sherlock- ian scholarship from past meetings of The Occupants of the Empty House; the cost is $11.00 postpaid, from the society (105 Wilcox, Zeigler, IL 62999). The BBC's six-hour dramatization of George Eliot's "Middlemarch" will air on "Masterpiece Theatre" starting on Apr. 10, according to the latest issue of Anglofile, and with some fine actors, including Robert Hardy and Patrick Malahide. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter that offers detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). The third issue of Troy Taylor's The Whitechapel Gazette is at hand, with 58 pages of nicely illustrated articles on Conan Doyle and Houdini, Basil Rathbone's "Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror", a possible identifi- cation of Cheeseman's near Horsham, and much more. Troy's address is 805 West North, Decatur, IL 62522, and the cost is $6.00 postpaid. Robert W. Wright, who is Branch Manager at the U.S. Colonial Office of the Franco-Midland Hardware Co., reports that the society is planning a meeting at the Gillette Castle in Hadlyme, Conn., some time during the summer. If you would like more information about the event, his address is R.R. 3, Box 401, Myerstown, PA 17067. Feb 94 #2 The winter 1993 issue of Scarlet Street offers tributes to the late Vincent Price, Richard Valley's discussion of Rathbone's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (with excerpts from alternate versions of the script), interviews with Ida Lupino and Terry Kilburn (both of whom were in the film), and David Stuart Davies' report on Granada's most recent work (with production stills from "The Red Circle" and "The Three Gables"). $20.00 a year (four issues), from Scarlet Street Inc., Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. David has reported in a later letter that Jeremy Brett is in the final stages of filming "The Cardboard Box", and that the new shows will be broadcast in Britain beginning Feb. 28. Eleri Arden's SHERLOCK HOLMES OBSERVED, OR WATSON TV TONIGHT is a 32-page guide to the Granada series, offering brief discussion of each program and notes on their Canonical anomalies, published in 1993 by the Teapot Press. Cheryl Hurd, the proprietor of the press, has herself written pamphlets on DRESSING UP VICTORIAN (36 pp.) and COME TO TEA! (40 pp.), both interesting guides for those who wish to sample or recreate turn-of-the-century life- styles. The pamphlets are available from Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219; $6.00 each postpaid. Marina Stajic found a nicely Sherlockian sign on a door of the Institut de Police Scientifique et de Criminologie in Lausanne. Andrew Jay Peck reports for the completists that Nicholas Meyer's THE CANARY TRAINER, published at $19.95, is now available from the Book-of-the-Month Club at $16.95 (and when one adds in postage, there isn't much discount). David L. Hammer's investigation of THE 22ND MAN: IN RE SHERLOCK HOLMES: GERMAN AGENT (Jul 89 #5) has a sequel: THE QUEST: BEING THE SEARCH FOR THE TREASURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE 22ND MAN, by Angus Maclaren (Gasogene Press, 1993; 125 pp., $15.95). Maclaren, in a style remarkably similar to Hammer's, reports on his successful pursuit of Holmes' own case reports, which are scheduled for publi- cation later this year. THE QUEST is well-illustrated by photographs taken in Germany, England, and Switzerland, and is available from the publisher (Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004); $18.70 postpaid. The winter 1994 issue of Varieties of Ash is available, with Francine and Wayne Swift's explanation of the difficulties of preparing and displaying properly a flag that actually is a quartering of the Union Jack with the Stars and Stripes, and David R. McCallister's suggestion that the villains of half a dozen different stories were all members of an "invisible gang", and other Sherlockian scholarship. $12.00 a year (two issues), from Susan E. Dahlinger, 758 Third Street, Secaucus, NJ 07094. Frank Darlington reports that the Johnson Smith Company (which has supplied generations of customers with sneezing powder, whoopee cushions, and rubber chickens, and other neat stuff) still offers woolen deerstalkers at $16.95 in their mail-order catalog (Box 25500, Bradenton, FL 34206). Feb 94 #3 David Rush has provided a copy of a flier received from Malcolm Payne about The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment's plans for a series of limited-edition commemorative covers honoring the birthday of Sherlock Holmes, the death of Conan Doyle, the birth of Conan Doyle, and the cricket match in which Conan Doyle bowled W. G. Grace. Information on prices and payment is available from Richard Greep, The Limes, Eridge Road, Crowborough, East Sussex, England. Claude Akins died on Jan 27. He made his movie debut in 1953 as a sergeant in "From Here to Eternity" and went on to specialize in supporting roles in films and television, most recently as Teddy Roosevelt in "Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls" (1992). W. K. Dolls (6641 Backlick Road #206, Springfield, VA 22150) offers a color flier showing six different Sherlockian dolls designed by William Knoth and priced at $500 each (or $2,500 for all six). Further to Frank Darlington's report (Nov 93 #5) that the Oxford University Press is holding a drawing for a set of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES signed by the editors, Barbara Roden notes that Wallace Robson died before proof sets were available, and that her husband Christopher has signed his books only for members of his family, so it is rather dubious that a signed set actually exists. Barbara also notes that space is still available at the meeting of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society in Toronto on Apr. 29-May 1, and that additional information is available from the society, at Ashcroft, 2 Abbotsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester, Cheshire CH4 0JG, England. Virginia Lou Seay (Calhoun Book Store, Box 24552, Edina, MN 55424) offers sales-lists of in-print and out-of-print Sherlockian and Doylean magazines, books, audiocassettes, comic books, etc. The new catalog from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011) offers Barnes & Noble reprint editions of THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Ken Greenwald (first published in 1989, with 13 stories adapted from the Denis Green/Anthony Boucher scripts for the Rathbone radio series) at $4.98 (item E104047); DEATH LOCKED IN, edited by Douglas G. Greene and Robert C. S. Adey (an anthology of locked-room stories first published in 1987, with "The Lost Special") at $9.98 (item 1954635); and 100 DASTARDLY LITTLE DETECTIVE STORIES, edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan Dziemianowicz, and Martin H. Greenberg (an anthology of short fiction that Richard Wein reports has reprints of at least seven Sherlockian parodies and pastiches) at $7.98 (item 1858729). Ralph Hall notes that the Mar. 1994 issue of Sesame Street Magazine has an illustration of Sherlock Hemlock in "I Can Follow Clues", and that there is an approving report from London on The Sherlock Holmes Museum and its just- opened Hudson's Restaurant in Victoria Magazine (Mar. 1994). And Mystery Forum Magazine #8 has Retta West Whinnery's "Forensic Firsts", quoting from H. M. Robinson's SCIENCE CATCHES THE CRIMINAL (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1939): "When Sherlock Holmes whipped out his magnifying glass to examine a flake of Latakia tobacco found on the Smyrna rug in the 'Boscombe Valley Affair', he became not merely a very charming character in detective fic- tion, but an exponent of a whole new way of looking at life." Feb 94 #4 MEG MACKINTOSH AND THE MYSTERY IN THE LOCKED LIBRARY (Boston: Little Brown, 1993; 44 pp., $13.95) is the latest in Lucinda Landon's imaginative solve-it-yourself mystery series for young readers; this time Meg and her brother Peter are racing the clock to find valuable Sherlockian treasure hidden in, and almost stolen from, the local library. The Northern Musgraves continue to publish interesting scholarship in The Ritual (two issues a year) and in The Musgrave Papers (an annual); a fine example (in the 1993 annual) is Richard Lancelyn Green's report on Conan Doyle's initial plans to end the Memoirs with "The Naval Treaty" (with "The Final Problem" having been added somewhat later), and on just who it was who first noticed the dual appearance of the famous mind-reading episode, and called it to the attention of the author and the publisher. Membership costs $32.00 a year (with airmail to the U.S.), from David Stuart Davies, Overdale, 69 Greenhead Road, Huddersfield, W. Yorks. HD1 4ER, England. "Back to Baker Street" is the formal title for the ten-day festival planned by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London from May 20 to May 30, with a wide variety of events, all open to Sherlockians and the general public; anyone planning to be in London on any of those days will surely find something of interest in the schedule, now available from Pamela Bruxner, St. Cuthburt's Cottage, 23 North Street, Barming, Maidstone, Kent ME16 9HE, England. Steve Robinson has a small supply of the smaller (4" x 4") Sherlock Holmes cigar-box labels, available for $16.00 postpaid. His address is 6980 South Bannock Street #3, Littleton, CO 80120 (303-794-9709). Chris Redmond's THE TIN DISPATCH-BOX: A COMPENDIUM OF THE UNPUBLISHED CASES OF MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES, first published in 1965 (when a great deal of S'ian scholarship was published in multi-colored hectograph), has been reprinted; it's a well-researched 32-page pamphlet, with two full-page illustrations by Jon Wilmunen, and the cost is US$7.00 postpaid from the author (at 523 Westfield Drive, Waterloo, Ont. N2T 2E1, Canada). Roger Johnson reports that the script for the play THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, written by J. E. Harold Terry and Arthur Rose for Eille Norwood and produced in London in 1923, has been published by Ian Henry at $61.00 post- paid (20 Park Drive, Romford RM1 4LH, England). Philip Weller's ELEMENTARY HOLMES: A POCKET REFERENCE GUIDE TO THE WORLD OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is $15.00 postpaid from Sherlock Publications (6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England). Anne Jordan's I LOOKED IN AT MECCA (a mono- graph on Holmes' visit) costs $6.00 postpaid (payment in currency, please); Fairbank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorkshire, BD16 4DN, England. Jon Lellenberg reports that John Barrymore's film "Sherlock Holmes" (1922), seldom seen in theaters and never broadcast on television, will be one of the films in a retrospective of MGM silent films at the Film Forum in New York. They will be showing a print supplied by Turner Entertainment, so it may well be from the vaults, rather than the print reconstructed some years ago from bits and pieces found in the archives at George Eastman House in Rochester. The film will be screened three times on May 3; the Film Forum is at 209 West Houston Street (just south of Greenwich Village), and their box-office telephone number is 212-727-8110. Feb 94 #5 Jim Suszynski has spotted another Sherlockian children's book: SHERLOCK HOUND AND THE CASE OF THE FOUL SMELL, illustrated by Scott Ross "from the case files of Dr. Bulldog Watson" (Morris Plains: Uni- corn Publishing, 1993; 40 pp., $6.95); if you can't find it at Waldenbooks or other bookstores, the publisher's address is 120 American Road, Morris Plains, NJ 07950. Later: there's a second title available: SHERLOCK HOUND AND THE CASE OF THE MYSTERIOUS MISSING PUMPKIN. Bob Burr reports in a supplement to the Mar. 1994 issue of Plugs & Dottles that Kendall J. Pagan, the mysterious leader of the Reichenbachian Cliff Divers, has been merely missing, rather than deceased, and that a new issue of The Reichenbachian Cliff-Notes will is due in April. Plugs & Dottles is an interesting monthly, and costs $10.00 a year from Robert C. Burr, 4010 Devon Lane, Peoria, IL 61614. William Allen (602 West Houstonia, Royal Oak, MI 48073) offers a Sherlock Holmes Mouse Pad (that's something used by some computerized Sherlockians) in blue Lexan (8 x 9.5 in.) with a white S'ian design, for $12.95 postpaid. Harold and Teddie Niver's A SHERLOCKIAN SONGBOOK, first published in 1982, is still available, offering thirteen turn-of-the-century songs, with new Sherlockian lyrics (such as "On the Trail of the Fearsome Hound" and "Yes Sir, That's My Sherlock"); $10.00 postpaid from Harold E. Niver, 29 Wood- haven Road, Rocky Hill, CT 06067. A new supply of lapel pins for the Men on the Tor (Mar 93 #5) also is available, in case your checks were returned when the original supply was exhausted (or in case you weren't reading this newsletter then); also $10.00 postpaid, from the same address. Chuck Kovacic (14383-B Nordhoff Street, Panorama City, CA 91402-1927) will be happy to send a copy of his new sales-list of Sherlockian pins, posters, photographs, press kits, and the like. A subscriber reports an addition to the list of homosexual pornography with a Sherlockian theme: EXPOSED, by Aaron Travis (New York: Badboy/Masquerade, 1993; 177 pp.; $4.95); it's a collection of Travis' stories, including "The Adventure of the Ragged Youth" (with Holmes and Watson being thoroughly un- Canonical). Masquerade Books (801 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10017) has a toll-free number (800-458-9640); $1.00 extra for shipping. IRENE'S LAST WALTZ (New York: Tom Dougherty/Forge, 1994; 480 pp., $22.95) is the fourth book in Carole Nelson Douglas' imaginative series about Irene Adler Norton and her friend Penelope Huxleigh, who this time investigate a murder at the Parisian establishment of Charles Worth, the king of couture, and then return to Prague for a second encounter with the King of Bohemia. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson make an appearance, but as usual the story is Irene's, and it is well told. The Mid-Atlantic Mystery Book Fair and Convention (in Philadelphia on Nov. 4-6, 1994) will feature publication of THE MID-ATLANTIC MYSTERY COOK BOOK (with recipes for suspenseful beginnings, mysterious main meals, villainous vegetables, sinister salads, and deadly desserts). Interested readers and writers are invited to submit their recipes, by May 31, to Deen Kogan, at the Society Hill Playhouse, 507 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147. Feb 94 #6 VICTORIAN DETECTIVE STORIES is the Oxford University Press's title for the paperback edition of VICTORIAN TALES OF MYSTERY AND DETECTION, which was edited by Michael Cox and published in 1992 (Oct 93 #5); the anthology has 31 stories, with one from the Canon, as well as Conan Doyle's "The Lost Special", and the trade paperback costs $12.95. NATMEET is what Sherlockians in Australia call their national meeting of Sherlockian societies, and this year's NATMEET will be held on Aug. 6-7 in Toowoomba in Queensland, celebrating "The Empty House" and featuring the third annual Toowoomba Silver Blaze Race Day. Travelers from afar will be welcome, and details are available from Michael Farrell, 86 Bridge Street, Toowoomba, Q. 4350, Australia. There certainly is no shortage of roses in the Canon, but doves seem to be few and far between (one candidate is the "sucking dove" mentioned in "His Last Bow"). Roses and doves were both featured on this year's "love" stamps. Cate Pfeifer, who presides over a Sherlockian society called The Nocturnal Journalists of 131 Pitt Street (their motto being "si hoc adfixum in obice legere potes, et liberaliter educatus et nimis propinquus ades") has kindly sent the second issue of the society's newsletter The Midnight Oil, with an imaginative outline for a "Multiple-Choice Sherlock Holmes Story" (you can ask Cate for your a copy, and her address is 3939 North Murray Avenue #402, Milwaukee, WI 53211). It is unlikely that there are many Sherlockians who are not aware of the contribution that The Strand Magazine made to ensuring the fame of Sherlock Holmes, but it is possible that only a few Sherlockians know that there was once also The New Strand, launched in 1961 in hopes that it could be worthy successor. Unfortunately, The New Strand lasted only 15 months, but every one of those 15 monthly issues had delightful articles on "Baker Street and Beyond", written by Lord Donegall. Don was the 6th Marquis of Donegall (a Marquis ranks just below a Duke), a wonderful Sherlockian, an enthusiastic collector, the editor for many years of The Sherlock Holmes Journal, and a fine writer. The Westminster Libraries and The Sherlock Holmes Society of London have recently published BAKER STREET AND BEYOND: ESSAYS ON SHERLOCK HOLMES, reprinting all of Don's articles from The New Strand, and (in full color) his spectacular Sherlockian series of Christmas cards. The cost is $35.00 postpaid (checks payable to City of Westminster, please), and orders can be sent to the Sherlock Holmes Collection, Marylebone Library, Maryle- bone Road, London NW1 5PS, England. Jim Duval has reported a set of "Peanuts" trading cards issued by ProSport Specialties. Card #25 shows the comic strip from Oct. 16, 1979, in which Charlie Brown buys Snoopy a new book. "How thoughtful!" Snoopy says, "This is one I hadn't heard of: 'The Hound of the Beaglevilles'." Charles Schulz has been using Sherlockian references at least since 1962, when Snoopy was shown with a deerstalker and pipe, about to track down some rabbits. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Mar 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "People used to kill for *noble* reasons--for revenge or honor or to usurp a throne. Today, everyone lets it 'all hang out.'" His lip curled around the phrase disdainfully. "You can't build a believable mystery around sim- ple *scandal* for its own sake anymore. Can you *imagine* trying to write *A Scandal in Bohemia* today? Instead of hiring Sherlock Holmes to retrieve that picture of himself with Irene Adler, the king would probably be trying to peddle the negatives to *The National Enquirer*." Sigrid laughed. "And would probably be turned down because both parties in the picture were ful- ly clothed." Spotted by Tom O'Day in CORPUS CHRISTMAS, by Margaret Maron (New York: Doubleday, 1989); p. 176-176. The new Granada series began on ITV on Mar. 7, with "The Three Gables" and a story by Adrian Furness in TV Times (Mar. 5) that noted that Jeremy Brett was diagnosed as suffering from heart failure after collapsing during work on the show. "I have bounced back like Bambi," said Brett. "I'm as fit as a fiddle, though still a little fragile." Brett also said that these would be his final six films as Holmes, and he wants to celebrate them: "I've got think of a way of publicizing this series. Perhaps I could streak naked across Lord's cricket ground with S and H painted on my backside..." The series continued with "The Dying Detective" on Mar. 14, and "The Golden Pince-Nez" on Mar. 21 (with Frank Finlay as Sergei), and "The Red Circle" on Mar. 28. Press reviews have been mixed, with some comment on overacting and on over-the-top directing, and some reviews welcoming the chance to see more fine Sherlock Holmes stories. And informal comment from British users of the Internet was generally enthusiastic. Charles Gray (as Mycroft) got high marks as Mycroft in "The Golden Pince-Nez" (apparently Granada did not tell the press that this was the first show filmed, and that Mycroft subbed for Watson because Edward Hardwicke was still working on the film "Shadow- lands"). Edward Hardwicke's daughter Emma appeared as Dora in "The Three Gables". And the latest news from Britain was an article in the Sun (Mar. 25) with the headline TV SHERLOCK IN A MENTAL WARD, reporting that Jeremy Brett had been admitted to London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital after breaking down with severe depression. The story noted that he had collapsed from serious heart problems last November during filming of the current Granada series, and that he had been using lithium since his nervous breakdown in 1986. Granada confirmed that Brett was hospitalized on Mar. 16, and that doctors are readjusting his medication for the treatment of depression. MITIGATED BLEAT is the title of the latest collection of Sherlockian verse from the pen of John Ruyle and the metal-and-ink of his Pequod Press. The 41 quartets are his "observations on HIS LAST BOW," and the cost is $35.00 (cloth) or $15.00 (paper) postpaid; you can order from the author at 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521. Vinnie Brosnan has issued a grand tenth catalog from Sherlock in L.A. (1741 Via Allena, Oceanside, CA 92056); packed with Sherlockiana old and new, and with interesting articles by Michael Boss and John Ruyle, and a reprint of Ben Abramson's flier promoting THE PAINFUL PREDICAMENT OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. Mar 94 #2 Tiger Books (Yew Tree Cottage, Westbere, Canterbury, Kent CT2 0HH, England) has published an ABBREVIATED BIBLIOGRAPHIC CHECK LIST OF A. CONAN DOYLE (60 pp., L16.50); the information is restricted to first appearances of his articles and stories in magazines and newspapers and to the first editions of his books, and relies to a great extent on the Green/Gibson bibliography. The checklist is certainly much handier for the collector to carry along to bookshops than the more detailed bibliography, but has one serious defect: there is no index, and magazines are reported chronologically according to the first appearances of Conan Doyle item, so anyone finding a run of Pearson's, for example, will locate the check list of ACD's contributions to the magazine only by searching a three-page table of contents. Tom Kowols notes in The Police Gazette (published by The Scotland Yarders) that the Laser Disc Newsletter reports that the entire Granada series has been released in Japan on twenty laserdiscs, each 104 minutes and priced at Y4,800 (about $45.00). The series is broadcast in Japan in English, with Japanese subtitles, and I expect the laserdiscs are the same. The west-coast branch of the Interna- tional Wizard of Oz Club sponsors the annual Winkie Conference, and the 1994 gathering will be held on July 8-10 in Pacific Grove, Calif., with L. Frank Baum's mystery novel THE LOST PRINCESS OF OZ (1917) as its theme. Their pub- licity flier shows a portrait of Toto drawn by Frank Kramer for Jack Snow's novel THE MAGICAL MIMICS IN OZ (1946), and the conference events will include a presentation of Baum's play "The King of Gee-Whiz" (at the end of which a fat missionary called Willie Cook emerges from a cannibal kettle to de- clare that he is none other than Sherlock Holmes). Dick Rutter (long an enthusiast in the worlds of Oz and the Canon) is in charge of the program, and additional information about this year's Winkie Conference is available from Peter E. Hanff, 1083 Euclid Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94708. Stafford Davis reports that The Afghanistan Perceivers will celebrate their 20th anniversary on May 21 (Queen Victoria's birthday) as part of a three- day weekend that will include a picnic on Holmes Peak. Travelers from afar will be welcome, and details are available from Staff, at 2144 North Elwood Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74106-3632. Bob Burr reports that Nintendo's time-travel game "Star Tropics II" has an 1890s London segment featuring Sherlock Holmes. Bob also notes that those who do not subscribe to his newsletter Plugs & Dottles, and who do wish to receive a copy of the just-published four-page Aug. 1991 issue of Kendall Pagan's newsletter Reichenbachian Cliff-Notes, are invited to send a #10 SASE and $1.00 to The Lascarian Press, 4010 Devon Lane, Peoria, IL 61614. The lead story in the newsletter deals with an intriguing parallel between an event reported in "The Naval Treaty" and a recent criminous assault in Detroit that still echoes in the nation's headlines. Mar 94 #3 Roger Johnson has reported in the latest issue of The District Messenger that Robert Godfrey, the owner and publisher of The Sherlock Holmes Gazette, has died after a long illness. And Carolyn Senter of Classic Specialties reports that a new publisher has been found: he is Peter Harkness, and he hopes to have the next issue of the Sherlock Holmes Gazette off to press and into the mails soon. Roger Johnson has also noted that Sherlock Holmes Fine Ale (described as a "palatable brew") is now available at The Sherlock Holmes in Northumberland Street in London. Bob Mangler reports that the Book-of-the-Month Club is offering members THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES in an exclusive ("not available in any bookstore") nine-volume uniform hard-cover set priced at $44.95. This is not a reprint of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES, but instead seems to have been produced from earlier editions: A STUDY IN SCARLET and THE SIGN OF THE FOUR probably were copied from a pirated edition first published by Orange Judd in 1907, and the other seven volumes were copied from the first American editions (from a quick examination of photocopies kindly forwarded by Bob Fritsch. BOMC's address is 485 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Ruth Brandon's THE LIFE AND MANY DEATHS OF HARRY HOUDINI (London: Secker & Warburg, 1993; 338 pp., L17.99) is a splendid biography of Houdini, drawing upon his correspondence and scrapbooks in collections such as those at the Library of Congress and the University of Texas, and examining the man and his family and friends in addition to his magic and showmanship. She does not neglect Houdini's relationship with Conan Doyle, but her discussion of that aspect of his campaign against Spiritualism is only one part of a fine portrayal of a man driven to create his own miracles. Geoffrey A. Landis' "The Singular Habits of Wasps" (Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Apr. 1994) is a somewhat different Sherlock-Holmes-and-Jack-the- Ripper pastiche, with illustrations by Broeck Steadman (who obviously is a fan of Basil Rathbone). ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: EINE ILLUSTRIERTE BIBLIOGRAPHIE DER VEROFFENTLICHUNGEN IM DEUTSCHEN SPRACHRAUM, by Gerhard Lindenstruth, is an impressive 236-page review of all of Conan Doyle's work published in German in German-language nations, and in English in those nations. There are illustrations (some in color) of some of the more interesting book covers, a translation table of the bibliographic terms and abbreviations, and an appendix with the English translations of the German titles of books and stories. The bibliography can easily be used by collectors who are not fluent in German, and offers a splendid look at how well Conan Doyle's work has been presented in another language. The book is available from the publisher (Verlag Munniksma, Lin- dengasse 5, D-35390 Giessen, Germany) in paper covers at $35.00 (or L23.00) postpaid, and in cloth (with additional color illustrations) at $70.00 (or L46.00) postpaid. The late Isaac Asimov may not be the only Investitured member of The Baker Street Irregulars to have a school named in his honor, but he's the only one that I know of. Thanks to Pj Doyle for the news that Public School 99 in Brooklyn is now the Isaac Asimov School for Science and Literature. Mar 94 #4 Visitors to Montreal may or may not wish to dine at Sherlock's, the first in North America of a chain Swiss-owned restaurants all with that name (there are more than 30 such restaurants in Switzerland land, according to a review in the Jan. 27 issue of The McGill Reporter, at hand from Chris Redmond). The "may not" involves the menu, which features nothing Sherlockian, or even British, except for the shepherd's pie. But you can get grilled buffalo steak, and they have mystery nights, a dance floor, and 14 "state-of-the-art" pool tables. Alex Jack, author (as "Hapi") of THE ADAMANTINE SHERLOCK HOLMES (1974), has returned to the S'ian genre with INSPECTOR GINKGO TIPS HIS HAT TO SHERLOCK HOLMES (Becket: One Peaceful World Press, 1994; 231 pp., $12.95). Gingko is a holistic detective who lives in Boston and follows the deductive prin- ciples (although not the diet) of Sherlock Holmes in attempting to recover the ceremonial headpiece of a high Tibetan lama, in a pursuit that takes him to London, the Reichenbach, and Nepal, with many Canonical echoes. The publisher's address is Box 10, Becket, MA 01223. As some of you know, The Red Circle's quizzes consist of questions devised by our members, with the Committee on Quizzes selecting the most malevolent questions for the quiz. One of the categories systematically rejected by the committee is "abstruse mathematical calculations," which explains why a question proposed by Brad Schaefer for this month's quiz on "Silver Blaze" was disallowed. But it deserves wider circulation. So: at the speed that Holmes calculated the train was going, how long would it have taken for the train to win the Wessex Cup? Book-hunting tourists in London should not neglect Ming Books, a mystery- specialist bookshop at 110 Gloucester Avenue in Primrose Hill, just to the north of Regent's Park (in which Holmes and Watson occasionally strolled, and in which Holmes visited the Zoo, and conveniently, because Baker Street is just to the south of the Park). The BBC's six-hour dramatization of George Eliot's "Middlemarch" will air on "Masterpiece Theatre" starting on Apr. 10, according to the latest issue of Anglofile, and with some fine actors, including Robert Hardy and Patrick Malahide. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter that offers detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). Last year's river-boat Sherlockian convention "The Game's Afloat" was quite successful, and The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn are now planning another one, on Oct. 8-9 (and hoping that the excitement of last year's flood will not be repeated this year). Additional information is available from Len Cleavelin, 35 St. Lawrence Drive, St. Peters, MO 63376. Mary Russell is a new addition to the list of Sherlockian protagonists, and she will be found in Laurie R. King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994; 347 pp., $21.95). Russell, in her teens when she almost stumbles over Holmes in a field on the Sussex Downs in 1914, becomes his friend and student, and then his associate in war-time England, solving cases with him and telling her own story in a book that offers consistent character and voice. She has her own strengths, and weaknesses, and tells her story well. St. Martin's also offers credit-card sales (800-228-2131). Mar 94 #5 Plan ahead: four of the Sherlockian societies in New York have arranged a joint dinner meeting at 6:00 pm on Apr. 6 at the Old Garden Restaurant at 15 West 29th Street. Nicholas Meyer, author of books of Sherlockian interest, will be the guest of honor, and copies of his THE CANARY TRAINER will be available for purchase so that people can have them signed. Additional details are available from Dante Torrese of The Three Garridebs; his daytime telephone number is 914-965-4004. George Vanderburgh has issued an addendum to the first edition of S. Tupper Bigelow's THE BAKER STREET BRIEFS (Jan 94 #5), offering material that was omitted from the first edition; it is available to purchasers of the first edition for $0.50 (United States and Canada) or $1.00 (elsewhere). And the second (revised) edition of THE BAKER STREET BRIEFS is available, at $15.95 postpaid. And since many readers of this newsletter have enquired whether Ron De Waal's THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES will be issued on floppy disks or CD-ROM discs, George wrote recently that he has "no plans to release De Waal in ASCII at any time." George's address is: Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada. Forecast: MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: VOLUME 2 (due from Bantam Doubleday Dell audio in August, priced at $15.99 for a two-cassette set) will have four more stories from the BBC Radio series starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams. And THE ADVENTURES OF THE DETECTED DETECTIVE: SHERLOCK HOLMES IN JAMES JOYCE, by William D. Jenkins, is due from Greenwood Press in April ($46.00). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet for dinner on June 15, at the Denver Press Club, during the annual convention of the American Associ- ation of Petroleum Geologists. Geologists and Sherlockians (and visitors of either persuasion) are welcome to join us in honoring the world's first forensic geologist; you can make reservations with (and obtain additional information from) Steve Robinson, 6980 South Bannock Street #3, Littleton, CO 80120. Forecast in "Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes Library" in paperback reprints from Otto Penzler Books ($8.00 each): R. HOLMES & COMPANY, by John Kendrick Bangs (in April); SEVENTEEN STEPS TO 221B, edited by James Edward Holroyd (in June); MY DEAR HOLMES: A STUDY IN SHERLOCK, by Gavin Brend (in August); BAKER STREET BY-WAYS, by James Edward Holroyd (in October); and HOLMES AND WATSON: A MISCELLANY, by S. C. Roberts (in December). Also due in cloth ($21.00 each): SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MASQUERADE MURDERS, by Frank Thomas (in May, reprinting the now-almost-impossible-to-find paperback original published by Medallion Books in 1986; and THE ANGEL OF THE OPERA: SHERLOCK HOLMES MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, by Siciliano (in June). The reason why the paperback original of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MASQUERADE MURDERS is so difficult to find is that Medallion Books planned to sell its titles by subscription, and didn't distribute to bookstores, and went broke before word of the pastiche reached most Sherlockians. Much of their stock was sold to a discounter who shipped it off to Australia, where a supply of the pastiche was located and sent to me (that's at least 18,000 miles for a round trip), and in 1988 those well-traveled copies were offered at $6.00 postpaid in this newsletter and quickly sold out. Mar 94 #6 The Arthur Conan Doyle Society plans to publish a new edition of Conan Doyle's WESTERN WANDERINGS (an account of his visit to the United States and Canada in 1914); cloth-bound, 80 pp., with six photo- graphs and an introduction by Christopher and Barbara Roden, and the cost is L19.50 (or $33.00) postpaid, from the Society (Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester CH4 0JG, England). A new third "fully revised and updated" edition of THE TELEVISION SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Peter Haining (London: Virgin Books, 1994; 255 pp., L14.99 or $19.95), is now available in Britain (there's no word yet on an American distributor); half of the book is a discussion of Sherlock Holmes and S'ian television pre-Granada, and the other half covers the Granada series. Both sections are profusely illustrated, with much color, and there's a new one- page foreword by Jeremy Brett, a new six-page introduction by Haining about the Granada series, and coverage of the series through the newest one-hour show (although the book went to press before cast lists were available for some of the programs). Fanatic completists may face some problems with the set of stamps issued by Britain last year in honor of Sherlock Holmes: Philip Weller has managed to find more than 50 different first day covers for the set. Some still are available, and offered in the latest issue of The New Baker Street Pillar Box, the quarterly periodical of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company. The issue's 42 pages also contain a wealth of British news and scholarship, and an 8-page booklet giving information about the society and its publications is available for $1.00 (currency please) from Philip (6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England). Dave Galerstein reports that Arthur and Joyce Liebman will offer "An Even- ing with Sherlock Holmes" at the New School for Social Research in New York on Apr. 22, from 8:00 to 9:30 pm; the New School's address is 66 West 12th Street, admission costs $10.00, and reservations aren't required (the phone number is 212-229-5600, if you want to check for a schedule change). Melanie Hughes has discovered William J. McGrath's review, in Newsday (Apr. 8, 1990), of READING FREUD: EXPLORATIONS AND ENTERTAINMENTS, by Peter Gay (Yale, 204 pp., $14.95), which notes that one of the essays in the book is titled "The Dog That Did Not Bark in the Night" and discusses the question of whether Freud had an affair with his sister-in-law Minna Bernays. Some 65 letters written when the affair would have occurred are missing from the Freud-Bernays correspondence, but Gay is not concerned, and believes there was no love affair, and states that "The missing letters are like Sherlock Holmes' famous dog that did not bark in the night ... there are times when dogs do not bark because they have nothing to bark about." THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF HISTORICAL WHODUNNITS, edited by Mike Ashley (London: Robinson, 1993; 522 pp., L5.99) (and New York: Carroll and Graf; $9.95), is an interesting anthology of stories that (almost all) fit the editor's rule that a tale be set in a time earlier than its author's birth. The contents include reprints of Adrian Conan Doyle's "The Case of the Deptford Horror", Edward D. Hoch's "Five Rings in Reno" (as by R. L. Stevens, and about Conan Doyle), and Elizabeth Peters' "The Locked Tomb Mystery" (S'ian deduction by the sage and scholar Amenhotep Sa Hapu, assisted by his friend Wadjsen). Mar 94 #7 Readers of TV Guide may recall being asked to participate in an annual reader poll last summer. Victoria Robinson has kindly sent a copy of the poll that appeared in the Canadian edition of TV Guide on June 26, with (in some cases) different questions and proposed choices. In the U.S. and Canada, readers were asked to vote on the best drama actor, with a list that included (in Canada only) Jeremy Brett (Sherlock Holmes). And in Canada only, readers were asked to choose the sexiest TV actor, from a list that included Jeremy Brett. Alas, Jeremy Brett didn't make the top three in either category: Canadian readers selected Patrick Stewart, Tom Skeritt, and Michael Moriarty as best drama actors; and Joe Lando, Patrick Stewart, and Ted Danson as sexiest TV actors. Barbara Roden has reported from England that the hard-cover edition of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES is now almost sold out; the set will be published in paperback this fall at L3.99 per volume, with Owen Dudley Edwards' correc- tions of some errors in the Notes and Introductions. The wide variety of Sherlockian societies in the broad category described as "other" includes The Sherlock Holmes Wireless Society, whose members are licensed amateur radio operators who are known to each other by mysterious code names such as WA2PXM or W6NKE or WD8NUK or N9RGW. Or KX1W (Ron Fish), who edits their newsletter (The Log of the Canonical Hams); his address is Box 3382, New Haven, CT 06515-3382. Don Hobbs notes that Greek translations of five of the nine volumes of the Canon are available from G. C. Eleftheroudakis SA, International Bookstore, 4 Nikis Str., Athens 105 63, Greece. Tom Stix reports that Gruntal & Co. (stockbrokers) have discovered Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company that makes and sells off-patent (generic) drugs. There is no information on whether a descendant of John H. Watson is president of the company. Noted by Gary Westmoreland: Michael Howard's review, in the Times Literary Supplement (Feb. 11), of Martin Walker's THE COLD WAR AND THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD (Fourth Estate, 404 pp., L18.99), in which Walker writes that "the costs of the Cold War, and the distortions inflicted upon the social systems of what had been the world's most powerful economies, suggests that the superpowers had become superlosers during the Cold War's final decade final struggle, plunging over the Reichenbach Falls together in a deadly embrace, then the USA was left clinging perilously and exhausted to the rim while the Soviet Union crashed down to the rocks below." Cathy Childs (1510 Lake Drive, Grand Island, FL 32735) offers a new sales- list, with reduced prices for her Sherlockian artwork, portraits of Jeremy Brett and other actors in the Granada series, and cartoon material. Further to an earlier report (Nov 93 #3) that "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970) was scheduled for release in letterbox format on laserdisc, Jim Dooley has reported to the Hounds of the Internet that the release has been delayed while work continues on putting the pieces back together. And it would appear that the laserdisc version may have some (but possibly not all) of the footage that was edited out before the film was released. Mar 94 #8 Spotted by Al Rosenblatt in Richard Jenkyns' review in the New Republic (Jan. 31) of Catherine Peters' THE KING OF INVENTORS: A LIFE OF WILKIE COLLINS: "Count Fosco is one of the most splendid villains ever imagined. With his megalomania tempered by intellect, courtesy, and an almost feminine delicacy, he is an ancestor of Professor Moriarty and those world-domination baddies in the James Bond books, though he is vastly superior to these descendants." Television ratings. The Wednesday-night Nielsen rating for the half-hour in which Tonya Harding skated during the Winter Olympics was 50.5 (that's 47.6 million television households) with a 64 share (that's 64 percent of all households where the sets were turned on). And for the half-hour when Nancy Kerrigan skated, the rating jumped to 53.4 with a 70 share. Friday night, which is sometimes called "baby-sitters night" (and when there was less suspense), the rating was 44.2 with a 63 share. The record-holder for highest-rated network program is the final episode of "M*A*S*H" (broadcast in 1983) with a rating of 60.2 and a 77 share. And the highest-rated Sher- lockian broadcast recorded in my notes is the television film "Hands of a Murderer" (with Edward Woodward as Holmes, on CBS-TV in 1990), which had a rating of 9.5, with a 15 share. Maxine Reneker reports that her daughter Sarah, recently in Vietnam, found a Vietnamese translation of some of the Sherlock Holmes stories, published in Hanoi in 1993. The title is NHU'NG CUOC PHIEU LU'U CUA SHERLOCK HOLMES (with accents here and there that my computer won't reproduce), and there are six stories (Danc/3Stu/Dyin/Lady/RedH/Blue) presented on the even pages in English and on the odd pages in Vietnamese. Readers who are planning to visit Vietnam are invited to find a convenient bookstore and to bring back more copies, since Vietnamese apparently is not (until now) on the list of languages into which the Canon has been translated. The Barnes & Noble reprint edition of Ken Greenwald's THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Feb 94 #3) also is available at other chain bookstores at $4.98; it's a minor variant, since the order of the last two stories has been reversed. The book is a collection of short-story adapations of radio scripts from the Rathbone/Bruce series. Video-taper alert: "The Deadly Bees" (1967) will be broadcast by USA cable at 2:30 am on Apr. 21. Robert Bloch's screenplay is based on H. F. Heard's novel A TASTE FOR HONEY, but Bloch told me that a British writer [Anthony Marriott] took "some vast liberties" with Bloch's version (which did have Mr. Mycroft as a character). Bloch was informed that the script was to be juiced-up to include more horror, and suspected (correctly) that the gentle Mr. Mycroft had vanished from the screenplay (and Bloch refused to see his "deformed offspring"). "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held on Oct. 22-23 at the Tarrytown Hilton in Tarrytown, N.Y. This annual gathering is always well-attended, and the agenda interesting, and additional information is available from Robert E. Thomalen, 69 Glen Road, Eastchester, NY 10709. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Apr 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Well, yes, I didn't give the answer to the question Brad Schaefer submitted for The Red Circle's quiz on "Silver Blaze", just in case there are readers who didn't want me to spoil their fun. The question was: at the speed that Holmes calculated the train was going, how long would it have taken for the train to win the Wessex Cup? Eugene Ionesco died on Mar. 28. He was widely recognized as the inventor of the "theater of the absurd" and was famous as a writer of plays such as "The Bald Soprano" (1950) and "Rhinoceros" (1959). Zero Mostel starred in the film of "Rhinoceros" and did a magnificent job of turning into a rhino- ceros without using makeup. And "The Bald Soprano" has a scene in which a man and woman deduce that because they live on the same street, and in the same house, and share the same bed, they must be married. But it is the family's maid who declares, "I am Sherlock Holmes." This obviously is the year for German bibliography. Gerhard Lindenstruth's ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: EINE ILLUSTRIERTE BIBLIOGRAPHIE DER VEROFFENTLICHUNGEN IM DEUTSCHEN SPRACHRAUM (Mar 94 #3) has excellent coverage of all of Conan Doyle's work published in German in German-language nations, and in English in those nations, and now Michael Ross and other members of Von Herder Air- guns Ltd. have produced JUBILAUMSBIBLIOGRAPHIE DEUTSCHER SHERLOCKIANA 1894- 1994. This centenary bibliography celebrates the appearance of SPATE RACHE in German in 1894, and offers excellent coverage of a hundred years of the Canon, pastiches, parodies, scholarly articles, journals, and games. The annotations are in German and English, and there is glossary explaining the abbreviations, and the bibliography's 290 pages provide a splendid view of German Sherlockiana, both original and in translation. The book is avail- able for DM 40.00 ($24.00) from Michael Ross, Bendheide 65, D-47906 Kempen, Germany; U.S. dollars in currency only, please. Forecast: SEANCE FOR A VAMPIRE, by Fred Saberhagen (from Tor Books in May); "When Sherlock Holmes disappears, evidently abducted by malign powers while investigating a seance, Dr. Watson knows that it is up to him to perform the distasteful ritual of summoning the only one who might be able to help: Holmes' vampire cousin, Prince Dracula himself." "Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes Library" continues to reprint fine older Sherlockiana (and covers that show Frederic Dorr Steele's artwork in full color) in a paperback format that will make the books available to people who have not been able to find them (and who in some cases may never have known they existed). Vincent Starrett's 221B: STUDIES IN SHERLOCK HOLMES ($7.95) was published in 1940 and was the first anthology of Sherlockian fiction and scholarship to be published in the United States; it offers a grand example of how well the Sherlockians of the 1930s played our Grand Game. John Kendrick Bangs' R. HOLMES & CO. ($8.00) offers ten stories that appeared in Harper's Weekly in 1905 and were collected in a book in 1906; Bangs offered apologies to both Conan Doyle and Hornung for "the remark- able adventures of Raffles Holmes, Esq., Detective and Amateur Cracksman by Birth" (the collection includes an explanation of how Raffles Holmes had a detective father and an amateur-cracksman grandfather, and tells some tales of how he followed in their footsteps, in New York rather than London. Apr 94 #2 And for the readers who didn't want to calculate the answer to the question (at the speed that Holmes calculated the train was going, how long would it have taken for the train to win the Wessex Cup), it would have taken 109.3 seconds to win the race (the distance was 1.625 miles, the velocity was 53.5 miles per hour, and the formula is D/V=T). Patricia Dalton died on Apr. 6. She was Patsy to her friends, and she had many of them in The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, which she joined in 1966, and which she served in many ways, as a member of its Council, as its chairman from 1980 to 1983, and as co-editor of The Sherlock Holmes Journal from 1982 to 1983. "Brief Writing and Oral Argument in Appellate Practice", by the Honorable Albert M. Rosenblatt, was published in the fall 1993 issue of Trial Lawyers Quarterly (the official journal of the N.Y. State Trial Laywers Institute), and uses Canonical names in examples of what to avoid. Such as: "While in front of her home at Grosvenor Square in the Town of Brewster, on March 15, 1987, the seven year old infant plaintiff herein, Isadora Klein, was struck by a vehicle having been driven by defendant third-party plaintiff, Grice Patterson." Al not only has to read this sort of thing, but is supposed to understand it, and deserves our sympathy. The Institute's address is 132 Nassau Street, New York, NY 10038. Jennie Paton has forwarded an item in the Library Journal (Mar. 15), about Mark Frost's novel THE LIST OF 7 (Sep 93 #4): "Morrow put plenty of time, money, and energy into promoting this book, and though it didn't break out as expected, the estimated sale of 40,000 copies is nothing to regret." Avon will issue the book soon in paperback. Jennie also spotted Christopher Morley's essay about Walt Whitman in the Jan. 25, 1953, issue of the N.Y. Times Book Review (the editors noted that "Mr. Morley has largely taken the place of Walt Whitman on Long Island"). Morley suggested that "Some innocent (or well-trained) mortal ingredient was lost in Walt's makeup. At bottom he was tellurian, telluride, whatever the word may be. See Conan Doyle's gorgeous burlesque, 'When the Earth Screamed.' You can take that tale (which Walt would have called 'cute') as a quite unconscious parable of 'Leaves of Grass.' The description of the palpitant earth-jelly, uttering its appalling yell of outrage (and spatter- ing the inquisitive pressmen with grievous muck) is a neat precis of the career of the 'Leaves.'" The U.S. has issued a set of ten stamps showing Al Hirschfeld's caricatures of stars of the silent screen. Some of them appeared in Sherlockian roles, including Charlie Chaplin (as Billy in William Gillette's plays "Sherlock Holmes" and "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes") and Buster Keaton (in the film "Sherlock Jr."). Can you identify another one? Apr 94 #3 There was some interesting Conan Doyle manuscript material in an auction at Sotheby's in New York on Dec. 10, 1993. The lots and prices (including the 15% buyer's premium): four letters, with one to Greenhough Smith about "The Man with the Watches" ($2,070); the poem "The Ballad of the Eurydice" (3 leaves) (unsold); "A Shadow Before" (14 leaves) ($3,738); "The Home Coming" (17 leaves) ($3,738); "The Last Galley" (10 leaves) ($3,163); "The Last of the Legions" (9 leaves) ($3,738); "The Vital Message" (67 leaves) ($6,900); and "The Bully of Brocas Court" (27 leaves) ($7,475). According to the catalog, the material was the "Property of a California Collector." Lawrence E. Spivak died on Mar. 9. He founded and produced and served as a panelist on "Meet the Press" (the longest-running program in the history of television); the program debuted on Nov. 6, 1947, and still is one of NBC's most important news shows. Jon Lellenberg has reminded me that Spivak was at the annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars in 1943, and it was not merely as a curious onlooker. Spivak had been the publisher of The Ameri- can Mercury since 1939, and the Mercury Press was the publisher of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine from its first issue in 1941 until 1954, when he decided to work full-time on his television series. The Mystery Writers of America gave him their Raven award in 1981 for launching EQMM. The third silent-screen star who appeared in a Sherlockian role is Harold Lloyd, who played Tonga on stage in "The Sign of the Four" in 1912 (in a stock-company production of Charles P. Rice's play at the Grand Theatre in San Diego). Don Hobbs reports that a set of THE CROWBOROUGH EDITION is available from Barber's Book Store, at 215 West 8th Street, Fort Worth, TX 76102 (800-327- 5471). Brian Perkins is the proprietor of the store, and the set and its dust jackets are in very fine condition, and the price is $2,000. The set is the last "authorized" collection of Conan Doyle's works, in 24 volumes published in 1930, and the first volume was signed by the author (and in 1930 you could have bought the set from the publisher for $240). And if you call or write, Brian Perkins would like to know you read about it here. Jim Vogelsang reports that Beethoven and Sarah Rose Karr (stars of the film "Beethoven's 2nd") are wearing deerstalkers on the cover of FT Magazine #1 (which has minor Sherlockian content in its puzzles-for-kids, and may still be available free at McDonald's). Graham Sudbury has proposed creating a society called SKIRMISH (an acronym for Sherlockians Keen to Inhibit and Rectify Mendacious Identifications of Sherlock Holmes) for those who would like to join in identifying and gently exposing "obvious misstatements" about Holmes, such as a suggestion in the Boston Sunday Globe's review of THE CAVEMAN'S VALENTINE that author "George Dawes Green has invented just about the most original amateur sleuth since Sherlock Holmes." Graham's address is Box 52062, Tulsa, OK 74152. The latest issue of The Sherlock Holmes Review features a long interview with Nicholas Meyer, and "Some Thoughts on Holmes and Raffles" by Edward and Karen Lauterbach, and costs $6.00 postpaid from Steven T. Doyle, Box 583, Zionsville, IN 46077 (subscriptions cost $20.00 for four issues). Apr 94 #4 It has been a while since I mentioned a fine catalog of Bargain Books from Edward R. Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031-5000). One book still available at a bargain price, I'm reminded by Gordon Kelley, is William S. Baring-Gould's THE ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES in a one-volume edition published by Outlet Books in 1992; it's item 83744X, and the price is $19.95 (plus $3.00 shipping per order). And Hamilton's catalogs always are packed with other bargains. Thanks to Kevin Reed for the report on the imagi- native promotion of the Santa Anita Derby on Apr. 9. Fans could wear buttons proclaiming that they liked one of the three favorites: Brocco, Valiant Nature, and Tabasco Cat. Brocco was the winner, with Tabasco Cat second and Strodes Creek third. And Valiant Nature wasn't even there, having been withdrawn and shipped east for the Bluegrass and the Kentucky Derby (the latter on May 7). Cherie Jung reports that the May issue of her magazine Over My Dead Body will have a story on the Sherlock Holmes pub and a short profile of Jeremy Brett. Box 1778, Auburn, WA 98071, is the address; $5.00 (or $12.00 for four issues). Ellery Queen's THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1944) quickly achieved almost legendary status, for two reasons: one being that Adrian Conan Doyle managed to force Frederic Dannay to stop publication of the book after only five printings (making the book difficult to add to one's collection), and the other being that it was such a splendid anthology, of material selected with expertise and enthusiasm and ably presenting a wide range of excellent Sherlockiana. And Marvin Kaye's THE GAME IS AFOOT (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994; 512 pp., $24.95) is in many ways a better anthology, and not just because Kaye has been able to select material from an additional fifty years. Kaye also has included some of the best Sherlockian scholarship (or pseudo-scholarship), and has found a publisher that will see that the book is widely distributed. As it deserves to be: it is packed with wonderful writing and grand fun, and offers new material as well as reprints of old favorites. And while Kaye has not included everything that he might have, that's only because he hopes to edit a second anthology, which is nice news indeed. Recommended. John Brunner's MUDDLE EARTH (New York: Ballantine/Del Rey, 1993; 275 pp., $3.99) offers a look at "the most unlikely place in the known and unknown universe" and includes among its characters "the adolescent Sherlock Holmes and his Biker Street Irregulars." It's an amusing fantasy, full of awful puns and some really weird characters, few of whom are what they seem to be (or even what they seem to think they are). G. C. Burner's short Sherlockian pastiche "The Puzzle of Graceland Manor" (first-place winner for Elvisian prose) was published in the first issue of The International Journal of Elvisology and the Elvisian Era, published by the Florida First Coast Writers' Festival and the Florida Community College at Jacksonville. You can request a copy of the 8-page journal from Howard Denson, FCCJ North Campus, 4501 Capper Road, Jacksonville, FL 32218. Apr 94 #5 The latest issues of The Parish Magazine (semi-annual) and ACD (annual) are at hand from The Arthur Conan Doyle Society, with interesting articles and essays, and reports. ACD's contents include Conan Doyle's "The Wild Geese: The Story of the Irish Brigades in France" (a fas- cinating lecture published only once before, in an Irish newspaper in 1954) and Cameron Hollyer's detailed article about the play "Angels of Darkness" (Conan Doyle's own dramatization, without Holmes, of "A Study in Scarlet"). Society membership costs L14.00 (or $27.00) to U.S. addresses (or L19.00/ $35.00 airmail); the address is: Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester CH4 0JG, England. Paul Giovanni's play "The Crucifer of Blood" is on the summer schedule of The Phoenix Theatre at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College in Westchester County, from July 20 through Aug. 7. Discount rates are avail- able to groups of ten or more, and the group sales director is Jane Katz, at 5 Barker Avenue #407, White Plains, NY 10601 (914-681-9398). Andy Peck reports that the Mystery Guild is offering its members a Sherlock Holmes key chain ($7.95) and a Sherlock Holmes letter opener ($14.95). The picture of the letter opener is too dark to reproduce here; the Guild's address is Box 6325, Indianapolis, IN 46206. Further to the report on plans for a meeting of The Practical, But Limited, Geologists on June 15 at the Denver Press Club (Mar 94 #5), the contact for more information about the meeting (honoring the world's first forensic geologist) is Guy Mordeaux, 705 Forth Street, Castle Rock, CO 80104. Comic books are getting to be extremely strange. THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE is a sort-of-related set that tells a series of stories that (at the beginning and the end, at any rate) involve two dead boy-detectives who are influenced to some degree (although not really all that much) by Sherlock Holmes. There are seven comic books in the series, which is published by Vertigo/DC, and they cost $3.95 each. The latest news about Jeremy Brett is that the Daily Mail reported on Apr. 11 that he was out of hospital to attend a party in Manchester marking the tenth anniversary of the Granada series, having lost 49 pounds and feeling much better, and planning to go into a mental home for a week or ten days. If you would like to know why lithium can be dangerous, take a look in the PHYSICIANS' DESK REFERENCE at a library or a your doctor's office, to see what the book says about lithium carbonate in the sections on WARNING and DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION and ADVERSE REACTIONS. If you don't want to wait until 1985, or whenever WGBH-TV decides to broad- cast the newest one-hour Granada shows on "Mystery!" here, and if you are willing to wait in line, so to speak, Jennie C. Paton has added "The Three Gables" and "The Dying Detective" (and possibly more of the six new shows, by the time you receive this newsletter) to her video lending library, and is now accepting reservations. You can write to Jennie for additional in- formation (please enclose a #10 SASE) at 206 Loblolly Lane, Statesboro, GA 30458; her e-mail address is . Apr 94 #6 Mel Hughes has spotted a report that "Return to the Lost World" is available on videocassette from WorldVision at $59.95 (and it is likely that "The Lost World" also is available). The two shows were produced in 1991 by Harmony Gold (the company that made the two mini-series with Christopher Lee as Holmes and Patrick Macnee as Watson), and were in- tended for similar syndication on television, but were overtaken by the far more spectacular dinosaurs in "Jurassic Park" (Harmony Gold pretty much had pieces of life-size models, with feet thumping through the underbrush, and heads poking through the trees). The Harmony Gold series stars John Rhys- Davies as Challenger and David Warner as Summerlee (they're the only name actors in the casts); I've seen both of the shows on preview cassettes, and they're worth renting, if only to see what dinosaurs films used to be like. Bill Vande Water reports an article by John Devonport about the Battle of Maiwand (with mention of Conan Doyle) in Military History (June 1994); the magazine's address is 602 South King Street #300, Leesburg, VA 22075. Richard M. Nixon died on Apr. 22. His first known contact with the world of Sherlockians was the telegram of greetings he sent to the annual dinner of The Baker Street Irregulars in 1956, and which was noted with disdain by Rex Stout in the June 1961 issue of The Baker Street Journal. The investi- gation of Watergate launched a flood of Sherlockian allusions in editorials and in editorial cartoons. But Nixon did know about Sherlock Holmes: Julie Baumgold reported in New York (June 9, 1980) that he had told her, "I don't care for novels, and mysteries bore me except on TV, and since Holmes is off, what is there?" He also found an appropriate context for a mention of "Sherlock Holmes's dog that did not bark" in his book 1999: VICTORY WITHOUT WAR (1988, page 76). The Scowrers and Molly Maguires will hold their workshop/playshop/confer- ence/seminar/funfest (that's Ted Schulz's cover-all-the-bases description) at Stanford University on Aug. 3-7. Details are available from Charlotte A. Erickson, 1029 Judson Drive, Mountain View, CA 94040-2310. A man in Sherlockian costume is shown swinging on a bordello chandelier on the cover of Spider Robinson's LADY SLINGS THE BOOZE (New York: Ace Books, 1993; 257 pp., $4.99); there was an Ace Books hardcover edition in 1992, possibly with the same artwork on the dust jacket. Holmes isn't a charac- ter in the book (although Ralph von Wau Wau is), but there are occasional Canonical allusions in an amusing story set in the best little whorehouse in the universe. Dave Galerstein and Bill Nadel have reported that the Walter Reade Theater (apparently at or near Lincoln Center in New York) will screen Rathbone's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939) on May 19 (2:00/5:15/8:30) and Brook's "Sherlock Holmes" (1932) on May 24 (5:05/8:05). Admirers of fine actors who have portrayed Moriarty well have rated Ernest Torrence highly, and properly, since he glowered just as well as Lyn Harding or Eric Porter ever did, and Torrence does his glowering in "Sherlock Holmes" (and George Zucco is a nicely suave Moriarty in "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes"). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu May 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The "Sherlock Holmes" series of briar pipes launched in 1987 by Peterson of Dublin is still available, and at discount prices. There are seven differ- ent shapes, and various finishes, and a pipe-rack, and a flier is available from Gideon D. Hill . Jon Lellenberg has supplied a copy of Godfrey Smith's column in the Sunday Times (Apr. 10), reporting that Kevin Charles, now Sherlock Holmes' secre- tary at Abbey National, receives and answers about 20 letters a week, and has occasional visitors, with whom he is happy to shake hands ("often, he says, emotional Japanese fans are overcome by the honour"). This month's contribution to Canonical philately offers more roses, on one of the stamps in our new booklet showing summer garden flowers. Queen Elizabeth II and President Francois Mitterand officially inaugurated the Channel Tunnel on May 6. The 31.4-mile tunnel cost $16 billion to build, and it has been 81 years since Sir Arthur Conan Doyle voiced support for the project ("The matter seems to me to be of such importance that I grudge every day that passes without something having been done to bring it to realization," he suggested in a letter published in The Times on Mar. 11, 1913). At least four more months will be needed before regular traffic begins between Folkestone and Calais on the Eurotunnel car trains (passengers will remain in their cars during the 35-minute trip, which will cost from $330 (in winter) to $460 (in summer). The spring 1994 issue of Scarlet Street offers the usual interesting mix of mystery and horror, including a long interview with Edward Hardwicke, and David Stuart Davies' fond farewell to the Granada series (he was there when they demolished the Baker Street rooms). $20.00 a year (four issues), from Scarlet Street Inc., Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. The spring-summer catalog from The Mysterious Bookshop has three pages of in-print Sherlockiana, and other items such as the special edition of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (published by Doubleday in 1953 with Conan Doyle's signature ($2,750) and a sketchbook with scores of non-Sherlockian sketches by Sidney Paget ($350); 129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019. And the spring 1994 issue of The Armchair Detective includes an interesting article by Gary Lovisi proposing that the first hardboiled detective ("this most American of all characters") can be found in a book written by a Brit- ish author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the detective being Birdy Edwards, in THE VALLEY OF FEAR. Quarterly ($26.00 a year); same address. "A hobby is only really amusing when it becomes an obsession," according to H. Rider Haggard (quoted recently by John Ruyle). John also reports that he has now completed his verse exegesis of the Canon, with THE AGENT'S LAST BOW: THE 'CASE-BOOK' RE-CASED. There are 53 verses in the latest pressing from Pequod, which costs $40 (cloth) or $18 (paper), from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521. May 94 #2 LEAVES FROM THE COPPER BEECHES (1959) and MORE LEAVES FROM THE COPPER BEECHES (1976) are among the best of the anthologies of scion-society scholarship, and they are still in print from The Sons of the Copper Beeches. The second issue of LEAVES (in paper covers) costs $5.00, and the first issue of MORE LEAVES (in boards) costs $15.00 (prices include postage), from James G. Jewell, 1012 Waltham Road, Berwyn, PA 19312. David Langton died on Apr. 25. He was best known for his portrayal of Lord Bellamy in the television series "Upstairs, Downstairs" from 1971 to 1976, and he was seen as Sir Charles Baskerville in Ian Richardson's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1983) and as Sir James Damery in Granada's version of "The Illustrious Client" (1991). Stephen F. Rosenberg (3 Greenwood Place #307, Pikesville, MD 21208) offers a Sherlock Holmes lapel pin, in black plastic outlined in gold; $4.00 postpaid. Basil Copper continues to add to his series of Solar Pons pas- tiches, with THE EXPLOITS OF SOLAR PONS (Minneapolis: Fedogan & Bremer, 1993; 239 pp., $24.00). The book has four new novellas that pay skillful tribute to August Derleth's style, and an attractive dust jacket and four full-page illustrations by Stephanie Hawks; the publisher's address is 700 Washington Avenue #50, Minneapolis, MN 55414 (a limited edi- tion also is available, priced at $60.00). The busts of four different people are mentioned in the Canon. Try naming those four different people. Michael Ross reports that there's an amusing Sherlock Holmes figurine in the German "playmobil" series (the most popular series of toys for some 25 years, and on sale throughout Europe); the figurine is 7.5 cm high, made of plastic with movable limbs, and available from Michael Ross (Bendheide 65, D-47906 Kempen, Germany) for DM 10.00 (or $6.00) sent by surface mail (U.S. dollars in currency only, please). And Michael reports that Sherlockiana continues to appear in German: M. J. Trow's LESTRADE UND JACK THE RIPPER [LESTRADE AND THE RIPPER] (Rowohlt, DM 12.90 paperback); Mark Frost's SIEBEN [THE LIST OF SEVEN] (v.g.s., DM 44.00 cloth); SHERLOCK HOLMES [a German version of Gibson's card game with Paget artwork] (Schmidt Spiele, DM 30.00); and an inexpensive nine-volume edition of the Canon, in a faithful translation and with annotations (Haffmans, DM 49.80). Michael can also supply these, but warns that additional postage costs could be expensive. Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers a new sales-list of Sherlockian collectibles, including a just-released pair of Holmes-and-Watson bookends from Rohn Porcelain ($185.00 including shipping and insurance) and other interesting posters, pins, advertising, etc. Reported: Barnes & Noble have published their own edition (with a new dust jacket) of A SHERLOCK HOLMES COMPENDIUM, edited by Peter Haining ($7.98); the book was published by W. H. Allen in 1980, and by Castle Books in 1981, and is an interesting anthology of reprinted Sherlockiana. May 94 #3 As for those four different people whose busts are mentioned in the Canon, they are: Sherlock Holmes (of course) and Napoleon (of course) and Athene (Milverton's bookcase had "a marble bust of Athene on the top") and Brenda Tregennis (the photograph "showed the bust and face of a very beautiful woman"). David McCallister spotted an advertisement in The New York (May 2) for a reproduction of a bust of Pallas Athena (from an original in the Louvre) offered (for $260 postpaid) by Eleganza, 3217 West Smith #145, Seattle, WA 98199. The advertisement notes that Pallas Athena was the protectress of heroes who fought against evil, which makes her an interesting choice to decorate Milverton's study. And if you are now wondering about Brenda Tregennis' bust, please keep in mind that our language has changed a bit from what it was in Victorian and Edwardian times. Further to earlier reports (Nov 93 #3 and Mar 94 #7) on plans for a laser- disc version of "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970), Jennie Paton reports that her copy has arrived, with the film letterboxed on two discs, and offers some (but not all) of the sequences cut from the film, and music and other nice material. The set costs $55.48 postpaid from Crane's Laser- disc, 15251 Beach Boulevard, Westminster, CA 92683 (800-624-3078); or you can pay $59.95 (plus shipping) from Movies Unlimited, 6736 Castor Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19149 (800-523-0823). Spotted by Mel Hughes: a report in Daily Variety (May 5) on recent rulings by the Classification & Ratings Administration of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, which assigned "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (issued by MGM/UA Home Video) a PG-13 rating ("for brief drug-related plot material"). Forecast: THE PILTDOWN CONFESSION, by Irwin Schwartz ("a mildly entertain- ing yet ill-conceived fictional solution" to the Piltdown hoax, with Conan Doyle as a major character, but apparently not as the culprit), from Wyatt/ St. Martin's in July ($20.95). The Folio Society has completed its version of the Canon: SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE COMPLETE NOVELS is a four-volume boxed set with illustrations by Fran- cis Mosley, and an interesting Introduction by Michael S. Cox (producer of the early programs in the Granada series). Cox discusses the novels, and offers some intriguing insights into the series (which he had hoped would begin with "The Sign of Four"). In his comments on "The Hound of the Bas- kervilles" he suggests sadly that their version "limps home in third place" behind the films made by Basil Rathbone (1939) and by Peter Cushing (1959). Both boxed sets presumably are still available (but at $149.00 each) from Folio Books, 2323 Randolph Avenue, Avenel, NJ 07001. The Great Detective and The Prince of Darkness were allies in Fred Saber- hagen's THE HOLMES-DRACULA FILE (1978), set in 1897, and his SEANCE FOR A VAMPIRE (New York: Tor Books, 1994; 285 pp., $21.95) brings them together again in 1903; the story is told by both Dracula and Watson, and involves pirates, mesmerism, executions by hanging, stolen treasure, murder, kidnap- ping, revenge, seduction, women taken by force, and attempts to materialize the spirits of the dead. "I know what you are going to say," Dracula sug- gests, "everything in the above list is a bit out of the ordinary." May 94 #4 Sherlockians who were impressed by that Sherlockian caricature of Valiant Nature (Apr 94 #4) did well only if they didn't bet on him in the Kentucky Derby on May 7. The winner was Go For Gin, followed by Strodes Creek and Blumin Affair. Valiant Nature "gave way readily" and was 13th, finishing 15 lengths back. Noted by Pat Ward: an excellent still from "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939) in HOLLYWOOD DOGS, edited by J. C. Suares (San Francisco: Collins, 1993). And Laurie Langbauer's long article on "The City, the Everyday, and Boredom: The Case of Sherlock Holmes" in Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 5.3 (1993) 80-120; noting discussion by others of how many wives Watson had, and how many times he was wounded, she suggests that "the connection here between women and wounding goes without saying, but what is worth comment is the uncertainty that attends it: through it, Doyle seems to be at least acknowledging that such misogyny (even as he practices it) is actually an unsuccessful attempt to pin down and contain vague threats, to ground amorphous categories." The "Rache Road Rally" from Racine to Sheboygan, planned by The STUD Sher- lockian Society for May 1, has been postponed until Oct. 9 to coincide with their celebration of Sherlock Holmes' birthday. Additional information is available from Donald B. Izban, 5334 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60639. Don also reports that the third annual Watsonian Weekend (celebrating Dr. Watson and the Battle of Maiwand) will be held in Arlington Height, Ill., on July 8-10, featuring a horse race, a dinner, a collegium, and a pistol competition; additional details are available from Robert W. Hahn, 2707 South 7th Street, Sheboygan, WI 53081. Some interesting Sherlockiana is available from The Sherlock Holmes Society of London: neckties, scarves, back issues of The Sherlock Holmes Journal, recent handbooks, and (from this year's "Back to Baker Street" celebration) mugs and coasters; a sales list is available from Mrs. Lynne Godden, Apple Tree Cottage, Smarden, Ashford, Kent, TN27 8QE, England. The Williamstown Theatre Festival (in Williamstown, Mass.) is celebrating its 40th anniversary this summer, and Hugh Leonard's "The Mask of Moriarty" is scheduled for July 6-17. Described as a "wonderful send-up of the Sher- lock Holmes legend," the play premiered in Dublin in 1985, with Tom Baker as Holmes, and was done in Leicester in 1987 and Kenilworth in 1993. This is its American premiere (cast not yet announced), and the box-office phone number is 413-597-3400. Gordon E. Kelley has long been interested in Sherlockian films, radio, and television, and his new SHERLOCK HOLMES: SCREEN AND SOUND GUIDE (Metuchen: Scarecrow Press, 1994; 316 pp., $37.50) offers a splendid look at the long history of Sherlock Holmes in all those areas, and on records and tapes and computer disks. The coverage is up-to-date, and the entries often include detailed lists of casts and credits. It can be frustrating to see how much one has missed, not only older material but also recent television programs that have come and gone (but of course many of them may return on all those cable-channels-to-come). The publisher's address is Box 4167, Metuchen, NJ 08840 (800-537-7107); $40.00 postpaid, and they take plastic. May 94 #5 The Sixth International Holmes Games will be held in Vancouver this year, on Sept. 17-18. The events have not been announced, but in years past have included "the pursuit of a chaste yeoman's daughter across the moor," and there will be a dinner, a formal debate, and other festivities; more information is available from Elsa Haffenden, 1026 West Keith Road, North Vancouver, B.C. V7P 3C6, Canada That very nice copy of the first edition of THE LOST WORLD, inscribed by Conan Doyle to his wife Jean, once owned by Richard Manney, and auctioned at Sotheby's in New York in Oct. 1991, is on the market again, offered by The 19th Century Shop, 1047 Hollins Street, Baltimore, MD 21223 (410-539- 2586) for $9,500. The buyer at the auction paid $4,950 for the book. Don Hobbs reports a new (1993) addition to the Canonical series issued by the Reader's Digest Association: THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, with excellent illustrations by David Johnson and an Afterword by Philip A. Shreffler (the contents consist of HIS LAST BOW and four of the apocryphal tales). Other volumes in the series are worth looking for in book sales: A STUDY IN SCARLET/THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1986), THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1987), THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1988), and THE RE- TURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1991). Victoria Gill reports: SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE RAILWAY MANIAC, a pastiche by Barrie Roberts (London: Constable, 1994; L14.00). DR. SHERLOCK HOLMES V CECHACH, by Rudolf Cechura (Prague: Nase Vojsko, 1993; 42 kr); pastiche (in Czech). 2ND CULPRIT, edited by Liza Cody (London: Chatto & Windus, 1993; L12.00); with a reprint of Peter Lovesey's pastiche "The Curious Computer". CREEPERS: BRITISH HORROR AND FANTASY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, edited by Clive Bloom (London: Pluto, 1993; L9.00); with Victor Sage's essay on "The Speckled Band". John Aidiniantz is still pursuing his campaign to control 221B Baker Street (according to an article in the Daily Telegraph on May 10). The Sherlock Holmes Museum (at 239) now argues that refusing to allow the Museum to use the 221B address is threatening jobs: a mail-order business, gaining extra credibility from the address, would eventually create 400 jobs, the Museum claims. But the Westminster Council opposes a change, and Abbey National is "determined to hold on" (chairman Lord Tugendhat is a great fan of the detective). The latest catalog from Cerebro (Box 327, East Prospect, PA 17603) is full of cigar-box labels, including the colorful "Sherlock Holmes" outer label (about 4" square) at $18.00. Their telephone number is 800-695-2235, and they take plastic. I've been told that MY DEAREST HOLMES, by Rohase Piercy (London: Gay Men's Press, 1988; 142 pp., L3.95) is still available from Alyson Publications, 40 Plympton Street, Boston, MA 02118 ($7.95). As reviewed earlier (Apr 88 #1), the book is homosexual in its intellectual and emotional approach, but it is neither erotic nor pornographic; it is a two-part pastiche, with the first half presenting Watson's account of a new case in 1887, and the sec- ond offering a thoroughly revised report on the events that preceded and followed the fateful journey to the Reichenbach. May 94 #6 Ardent Sherlockians need not be told how important film preser- vation is. And it's nice indeed that the UCLA Film and Televi- sion Archive has assigned priority status to the 12 Sherlock Holmes films made by Universal in the 1940s (the nitrate masters are now on the verge of deterioration). Lab costs are about $15,000 per film (that's $180,000 for the series), and your donations, large or small, are welcome. The develop- ment officer is Cornelia Emerson, UCLA Film and Television Archive (FX48), 302 East Melnitz, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1323. Warren Randall notes that A BOOK OF DAYS FOR THE LITERARY YEAR, edited by Neal T. Jones (published by Thames and Hudson) has entries for Holmes and Watson and Conan Doyle (and it's a perennial, so you don't need to buy one every year). And FODOR'S TORONTO 1993 recommends the Metropolitan Toronto Library as housing "the finest public collection of Holmesiana anywhere." A brief report, extracted from a longer report by Chris Redmond, on events at the end-of-April meeting of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society in Toronto, organized by Christopher and Barbara Roden, with about 80 people on hand, including two members of the Conan Doyle family: Georgina Doyle (widow of the Brig. John Doyle, son of ACD's brother Innes) and Charles Foley (grand- son of ACD's sister Ida). Speakers spoke on Doylean subjects, and Michael Coren discussed the 250,000-word biography he is writing about Conan Doyle, with publication planned for the fall of 1995, with a press run of 120,000 copies in eight languages; asked about his opinions of Conan Doyle, Coren called him "the best of Empire" and spoke of his "basic decency". One session, led by the Rodens, traced the Society's history and offered enthusiastic comment on its future. A member of the audience asked whether (and if so, why) there was animosity between the Society and the Sherlock- ian world; Catherine Cooke (a member of the council of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London) said firmly that she thinks there is no such hostility, apart perhaps from a few misguided individuals, and Christopher Roden spoke of last year's controversy in print over remarks he was said to have made about Sherlockians' preferring for food and drink over scholarship (he said that an intervention into that debate from the head of the Baker Street Ir- regulars was particularly unfortunate). Three publications were issued at the meeting: WESTERN WANDERINGS (articles by ACD about his trip to Canada in 1914) costs L17.00 (or $29.00); and THE FUTURE OF CANADIAN LITERATURE (a lecture delivered during that trip) costs L8.00 (or $13.00). DR. DOYLE OF UPPER WIMPOLE STREET (presenting evidence that ACD's ophthalmological office was not, after all, in Devonshire Place, but rather in Upper Wimpole Street) may also be available (price unknown). Prices postpaid, from Christopher Roden, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester, Cheshire CH4 0JG, England. "The famous detective solves crimes while concealing her true sexual iden- tity" in Therese Lentz's new play "221 B Baker Street" now playing (through June 19) at the Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd., North Holly- wood, Calif.; the box-office telephone number is 818-769-7529. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Jun 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Simon & Schuster's audiocassette THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #24 ($12.00) offers two more of the grand old Rathbone/Bruce radio shows, from scripts by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher, with new introductions by Sarah Marshall (daughter of Herbert Marshall and Edna Best, one of the producers of the series). "The Accidental Murderess" (26 Nov 45) has been available on records and cassettes (with lower fidelity), but "The Blarney Stone" (18 Mar 46) is new to audio. K.C. Berger offers an autograph letter signed by Conan Doyle, written from 15 Buckingham Palace Mansions to a Mr. Bligh Bond (likely his fellow-spiri- tualist Frederick Bligh Bond), for $1,150. For full details, send her an SASE (1555 Belford Road, Reno, NV 89509-3097). Michael Ross reports that the first edition of the JUBILAUMSBIBLIOGRAPHIE DEUTSCHER SHERLOCKIANA 1894-1994 (Apr 94 #1) sold out quickly; if you have not ordered already, don't. Von Herder Airguns are preparing a supplement, and an expanded second edition for those who missed the first edition. The Brothers Three of Moriarty will convene at the Albuquerque Press Club on July 16, for their traditional Col. Sebastian Moran Memorial Trap Shoot, an event which may or may not mark the end of Moran's extended term in prison. The Parole Board will award a prize for the best letter or speech offered supporting a parole for Col. Moran; John Bennett Shaw is chairman of the parole board, and letters should be sent to C. Bryan Gassner, P.O. Drawer G, Corrales, NM 87048-0178. C. Bryan Gassner also presides over The Shadows of the Elm at the Arroyo del Oso Elementary School in Albuquerque, continuing to help her students in presenting half-hour dramatizations of the Canon. This year's story was "The Copper Beeches", and it was videotaped. A cassette is available (with a selection of out-takes titled "May God Save Us from Colour and Life") for $8.00 postpaid from Mrs. Gassner at the same address. WHO'S WHERE: A HANDY REFERENCE GUIDE TO PERSONS IN THE HOLMESIAN CANON (52 pp., spiral bound) is available for $6.50 postpaid from Benton Wood, Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222. Ben also offers $5.00 face value of old commemor- ative postage stamps to use on your mail, for $5.50 postpaid. The Mini-Tonga Scion Society now has 72 members, and will meet informally on Aug. 3, during the N.A.M.E. national meeting in Anaheim. Calif. Issue #27 of The Tonga Times offers eight pages of news (including instructions on making a miniature dark lantern); membership costs $6.00 a year (with three issues of the newsletter, and back issues are available), and if you would like to have more information about the society, send a #10 SASE to Carol Wenk (Box 770554, Lakewood, OH 44107). Cleadon Hall Collectibles (31-A Maple Avenue, Barrie, Ont. L4N 1R7, Canada) has sent a sales-list announcing that they are the exclusive distributors for the commemorative Sherlockian plate and the Reichenbach jug designed by Deirdre Keetley at her Studio Gallery in London. Other S'ian collectibles (mugs, thimbles, bells, etc.) are available in quantities of 12 or more. Jun 94 #2 In his new book THE CATS OF THISTLE HILL: A MOSTLY PEACEABLE KINGDOM (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994; 236 pp., $22.00), Roger A. Caras tells many amusing stories, including one about the late cartoonist Charles Addams. Caras and Addams once were among the judges at a charity pet show for children, where Addams whispered that he wanted "to give first prize to that ugly little boy with the ugly little turtle" be- cause "they look just alike." Caras pointed out that they shouldn't, since the turtle was an Eastern box turtle, a threatened species that was locally endangered, and it was illegal for the ugly little boy to have it. Addams thought for a moment; then his face brightened, passing quickly from con- templation to enlightenment. "If it really is illegal for him to have it, let's give him first prize, and then hang him." Jerry Devine died on May 20. He was an actor-producer whose film career started in silent films, and he played Billy in John Barrymore's Sherlock Holmes" (1922). He later turned to writing, and had two plays produced on Broadway, and then wrote for radio, contributing to "Mr. District Attorney" and producing and directing "This Is Your FBI". The 24nd running of The Silver Blaze (Southern Division), at Pimlico on May 28, was won easily by the appropriately-named Gotcha Cornered, who finished nine lengths ahead of Every Nuance. Lynda Blankenship, of The Giant Rats of Massillon, awarded the trophy on behalf of the Washington and Baltimore scions; The Silver Blaze was the first race she had attended or bet on, and by nice coincidence she had bet on the winner. Richard Hughes, one of the grand old men of journalism in south-east Asia, and founder of The Baritsu Society in Tokyo in 1948, appeared as two diff- erent characters in books by two different authors (as Dikko Henderson in Ian Fleming's YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE and as Bill Craw in John le Carre's THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY). There are many other stories told about him, some by himself in his autobiography FOREIGN DEVIL (London: Andre Deutsch, 1972) and others by Norman McSwan in THE MAN WHO READ THE EAST WIND (Kenthurst: Kangaroo Press, 1988). And there's a new one told by his son Dick Hughes, in his autobiography DON'T YOU SING (just published in Australia, according to a story in the Washington Times on May 27): in the early 1950s Richard Hughes was reporting to The Sunday Times from Tokyo, and was contacted by the Soviets, who asked him to obtain information for them; Hughes reported this to Ian Fleming, who informed MI6 (Britain's foreign intelligence ser- vice) and for some time Hughes sold the Soviets misinformation prepared by MI6. And Hughes used the code name "Altamont". The International Stamp Collectors Society (Box 854, Van Nuys, CA 91408) is offering older Sherlockian postal material, such as the four stamps and one souvenir sheet from Turks & Caicos Islands (1984) for $24.95; and the set of four booklets from Great Britain (1987-88) with S'ian covers designed by Andrew Davidson (who also designed the recent set honoring Sherlock Holmes) for $39.95. Write for their illustrated fliers. Arthur and Joyce Ann Liebman will guide their 14-day tour "In the Footsteps of Sherlock, Dracula, and Agatha" in England on Aug. 6-20, according to a flier forwarded by Gordon Kelley. Their phone number is 516-621-6008, or you can contact Contemporary Tours, 580 Plandome Road, Manhasset, NY 10030. Jun 94 #3 Cliff Goldfarb notes that the Quality Paperback Book Club sum- mer selection is THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, in three volumes at CA$23.95 (members in the U.S. will likely pay about $17.50). The club de- scribes the volumes as "definitive editions" with illustrations by Sidney Paget, and the club's "own guide to Holmes' world." The covers reprint the Frederic Dorr Steele portrait of Holmes that was used in 1904 on the covers of CONAN DOYLE'S BEST BOOKS (D673a) in 1904. The club is for members only, but it's easy to join; the address is: Camp Hill, PA 17011-9902. Sorry about that: the title of Barnes & Noble's reprint of Peter Haining's book (May 94 #2) is A SHERLOCK HOLMES COMPANION (as Don Izban has noted). The book was published as A SHERLOCK HOLMES COMPENDIUM in 1980 and 1981, and a different title was used for new reprint, possibly chosen by someone who didn't know or didn't care that A SHERLOCK HOLMES COMPANION also is the title of a book by Michael and Mollie Hardwick. And no, book titles cannot be protected by copyright. Jack Tracy has completed his westward trek, and is now at 2809 Wilmington Way, Las Vegas, NV 89102, will have Gaslight Publications unpacked soon. "Cut out the poetry," Sherlock Holmes once said (severely), and it may well be that modern Sherlockians are heeding his advice, since we don't see that much new S'ian poetry. One recent (and interesting) exception is "Watson", one of six poems in Henry Knight's collection SUSPICIONS (Toronto: Childe Thursday, 1994; 102 pp., US$9.35 postpaid). The publisher's address is 29 Sussex Avenue, Toronto, Ont. M5S 1J6, Canada. Russia now has an active Sherlockian society, and it is active indeed: The Ural Holmesian Society has dinner meetings, and a journal (Elementary, Wat- son!), and has published two volumes of THE ADVENTURES OF THE GREAT DETEC- TIVE SHERLOCK HOLMES (not reprints from the Canon, but rather anthologies of S'iana translated into Russian, and Russian scholarship, pastiches, and parodies), and they are now at work on a four-volume edition of the Russian misadventures of Sherlock Holmes. All in Russian, of course, and with fine illustrations, old and new. The society contact is Alexander Shaburov, Ul. Cherepanova 4-334, Ekaterinburg 620034, Russia. "Enter the world of Norbertina Ninja Nanny, a mischievous cow in search of answers to the riddles of her past and Sleuth Sherrloch Sheltie, a budding computer criminology from Loch Sherr, Scotland." That's the blurb for "No. 11 Downing Street", a new CD-ROM disc game published by Silicon Alley and offered for $49.95 by CD-ROM Warehouse, 1720 Oak Street, Lakewood, NJ 08701 (800-237-6623), and reported by Jerry Bangham. They offer a double-speed CD-ROM drive for $199.00, and more CD-ROM discs than you can shake a panic button at. Northstar/Arpad published the two issues of the comic book SHERLOCK HOLMES: TALES OF MYSTERY AND SUSPENSE in 1992 (Aug 92 #3 and Nov 92 #5), and there was a third issue in Mar. 1993 that was unreported along the Sherlockian grapevine. The third issue (with Joe Gentile's story "The Sequestered Spy" and artwork by Eric and Kevin Masi) is available for $5.00 postpaid from Joe Gentile, 47 East Lincoln Highway, Frankfort, IL 60423. Jun 94 #4 Philip Weller (6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hants. PO14 3RU, England) offers some new publications: ALPHABETICALLY, MY DEAR WATSON (a pocket reference book listing all the Canonical characters, with brief details and citations), $13.00 (surface)/$15.00 (air); THE COM- PANY CANON: THE EMPTY HOUSE (a pocket edition, with the text of the story and almost 200 annotations), $7.00/$10.00; and THE HAMPSHIRE PAPERS (loose- leaf reprints of Hampshire newspaper articles by and about Conan Doyle), $8.00/$10.00. Payment in currency, rather than checks, please). John Aidiniantz has not abandoned his campaign to control mail that is sent to Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street, according to an article by Stephen Ellis in the Sunday Times (June 5). Aidiniantz insists that his museum, at 239 Baker Street, is the "real" 221B, and want to sell memorabilia to those who write to Holmes. Abbey National's press spokesman noted that: "We have taken on the role of answering the letters to Sherlock Holmes, and do not plan to give it up without a fight. The people at the museum want to capi- talise on them, while we just like the goodwill it creates." And the Post Office continues to agree with Abbey. Jeremy Brett is alive and well and working, according to a report at hand from Melanie Hughes. Stuart Wavell noted in the [London] Sunday Times (May 22) that Brett is working with Joss Ackland and Elizabeth Hurley on a new television film "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (scheduled to begin shooting in London this month). Victoria Gill notes that Colin Dexter's collection MORSE'S GREATEST MYSTERY AND OTHER STORIES (London: Macmillan, 1993; L15.00) includes a reprint of his amusing pastiche "A Case of Mis-Identity" (first published in WINTER'S CRIMES 21, 1989). Marilou Trask-Curtin is writing a biography of William Gillette, and would like to hear from people who knew him or saw him perform (or, since there aren't that many such people surviving) from people whose family or friends knew him or saw him perform. Her address is: R.D.4, Box 523, Oneonta, NY 13820 (607-432-8145). Reported: MORIARTY'S RETURN: A GAME OF GLOBAL PURSUIT (for people who drive Macintosh computers), available at software stores (price unknown); you get to join the Diogenes Club Irregulars (an organization that was funded by a bequest in Mycroft Holmes' will) and use deductive reasoning while pursuing modern criminals; the game is made by Mysterium Tremendum (909 North Negley Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206). New sales-list at hand from Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219), with summer specials: new Sherlockian sport-shorts, sweat-shirts, golf towels, and sports towels. 3RD CULPRIT: AN ANNUAL OF CRIMES STORIES, edited by Liza Cody, Michael Z. Lewin, and Peter Lovesey (London: Chatto & Windus, 1994; 263 pp., L11.99), is the latest anthology of stories written by members of the Crime Writers Association; with an amusing Sherlockian allusion in H.R.F. Keating's story "Mr. Idd" and a delightful Sherlockian caption for one of the drawings con- tributed by "Clewsey" to the CWA's monthly newsletter Red Herrings. Jun 94 #5 Further to the reports (Jun 93 #5 and Jul 93 #5) on the retro- spective exhibit in Los Angeles of Mark Tansey's paintings, the show is now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. And this time the show's keynote painting, displayed on a large banner outside the museum and on the exhibition's poster, is "Derrida Queries De Man" (which owes a great deal to Sidney Paget's illustration of Holmes and Moriarty at the Reichenbach). One art critic has suggested that the two figures in Tansey's painting are "locked in eternal combat over the meaning De Man gave to the meaning that Derrida gave to Rousseau." Bruce Parker, who saw the show in Los Angeles, has reported that the figures seem to be dancing, rather than fighting, and that the words dimly seen on the rocks consist of phrases and clauses from deconstructionist critical works by Derrida and De Man. Henry Mancini died on June 14. He called himself simply a composer (and he titled his autobiography "Did They Mention the Music?"), and by the end of a career that began in 1952 he had won four Oscars, twenty Grammies, and many other awards. His Sherlockian films were "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986) and "Without a Clue" (1988), and in an interview that appeared in Holmes for the Holidays (Mar.-Apr. 1993) he recalled growing up with Sher- lock Holmes, at the movies in the early 1940s. The film based on Mark Frost's Conan Doyle pastiche THE LIST OF SEVEN isn't in production yet, but an item in Daily Variety (May 24) spotted by Melanie Hughes reports that the Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has been signed by Universal to rewrite Frost's script (and is likely to direct the film). Meanwhile, Frost is completing a sequel to his book, to be set in the U.S. early in this century and called THE SIX MESSIAHS. Here's a smaller (the original is 19 x 40 in.) black-and-white reproduction of Steven Emmons' colorful pencil-ink-and-watercolor tribute to the BSI (in an edition of seven copies at $2,550.00 each). And his catalog (with color photocopies) of other available Sherlockian original art and printed post- ers costs $12.00. His address is 70-A Greenwich Avenue #206, New York, NY 10011 (212-627-4889). Jun 94 #6 Reported by Peter Calamai: THE CASE OF THE ALL-CONSUMING FIRE, by Andy Lane (London: Virgin Books, 1994); a cross-over novel, in which Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes investigate the disappearance of books from the most secret library in the world: the Library of Saint John the Beheaded in London. A good source for Virgin's "Doctor Who" series is Who Enterprises, Box 399, Station A, Toronto, Ont. M4G 4C3, Canada; Lane's book costs CA$10.91, or about US$10.20. The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met for dinner at the Denver Press Club on June 15, honoring (as usual) the world's first forensic geologist, and some of the visitors who were attending the annual meeting of the Amer- ican Association of Petroleum Geologists were warmly welcomed by members of Dr. Watson's Neglected Patients. Bill Dorn showed slides of the geology of Dartmoor (well, there were rocks in many of his pictures), but did not have any petrological specimens as souvenirs. The Practical, But Limited, Geol- ogists will meet next in Seattle on Oct. 25, and in Houston in March 1995. "Sherlockians who have been President of the United States" is of necessity a limited number. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman both were members of The Baker Street Irregulars, but otherwise one settles for what one can get, such as memories of childhood reading (and that's how Ronald Reagan made the list). Now Andy Peck reports a letter sent by Bill Clinton in April to a Mystery Writers of America symposium and workshop on "Mystery Writing is Murder". "Mystery novels have been one of my favorite forms of literature since I was a child," President Clinton said. "Sherlock Holmes' brilliant logic inspired me throughout my young adulthood." A splendid collection of Conan Doyle letters and memorabilia was offered at auction at Sotheby's in New York on June 10: over 190 letters and cards to people such as Bram Stoker, Sir Henry Irving, Charles Frohman, and his pub- lishers, and a signed photograph, a prescription that he wrote in 1898, and a signed menu from the Ladies Dinner given by the Authors Club (with Conan Doyle as chairman) in May 1901. Sotheby's estimate was $125,000-175,000; the highest bid was $70,000, and the lot was not sold. The Mystery Writers of America held their annual dinner in New York on Apr. 27, and presented their Ellery Queen Award (for writing teams, editors, and publishers who have made an outstanding contribution to the mystery genre) to Otto Penzler. And the nominees for Edgars included "1994 Baker Street" (for the best mystery feature or mini-series) and Mark Frost's THE LIST OF SEVEN (for the best first mystery novel by an American author); the winners were "Prime Suspect 2" and Laurie King's A GRAVE TALENT (her second novel is THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE. Late-breaking news: Paxton Whitehead will play Sherlock Holmes in "The Mask of Moriarty" at The Williamstown Theatre Festival (in Williamstown, Mass.) on July 6-17 (the box-office telephone number is 413-597-3400). This will be the first American production of Hugh Leonard's play, which premiered in Dublin in 1985; Whitehead has played Holmes before, in Paul Giovanni's "The Crucifer of Blood" in Buffalo and New York in 1978. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Jul 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press There wasn't time or space last month to do justice to the Sherlock Holmes conference in Bennington, Vt., on June 23-26. It was arranged by members of The Baker Street Breakfast Club with assistance from Bennington College and the Vermont Council on the Humanities, and had as its theme "Sherlock Holmes: Victorian Sleuth to Modern Hero". There were about 180 people on hand (the farthest-flung travelers being Masamichi Higurashi and his wife, en route from Japan to England); the papers varied from quite academic to thoroughly not (and there were enough papers for multiple sessions); and the sessions were held in the college's Visual and Performing Arts Center (which is grand indeed). And there were dealers, and a dinner and enter- tainment, and published authors (such as Nicholas Meyer, Edward B. Hanna, and Sena Jeter Naslund). One of the interesting aspects of the conference was what happened before the fun started: the local Sherlockians' outreach efforts, centered around the state's literacy program and working with the state's libraries to develop ways to help children and adults to learn to read. The locals also worked with local schools to encourage students to read and write mysteries (and contest-winners got to attend the conference and had a special session with Hanna). And the weekend was great fun. Ronald B. De Waal's THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES has been published, and shipped to those who ordered it, and it is a truly welcome continuation of Ron's devoted bibliographic efforts. The good news (at least for those who have computers) is that the publisher, George Vanderburgh, has changed his mind since February, when he wrote that he had no plans to release the bib- liography in ASCII at any time; now he states in an Editor's Note and else- where that he is planning an electronic edition. This is indeed important, because of the bad news: the ink-on-paper edition has no index, and thus is not accessible as a bibliography should be. Collectors and researchers who have found the indexes of personal names and titles in the previous volumes so useful will find nothing of that sort in this one. Vanderburgh instead provides what he calls a "selective concordance" (it is really a selective word-list) that devotes far more attention to the letter "A" than to the other letters (thus there are citation numbers for each and every appearance of "April" and "August" but there are no entries for the other months). And because it is a word-list, the brothers Morley will be found undifferentiated under "Morley", rather than separately as Frank and Felix and Christopher. The word-list also is extremely idiosyncratic: it has "Arthur" and "Adrian", but not "Conan" or "Doyle" or "Denis" or "Jean"; there are entries for "Kiwanis" and "Kodak" but not for "Knox" (and it was Ronald A. Knox, after all, who did so much to launch our grand game); and one finds "Pageboys" but not "Paget". Vanderburgh suggests that the electronic edition will "supersede the need for the compilation of a Title-Author Index"; while this may well be true for those who have computers, it will be of no help whatsoever to the many Sherlockians who do not, and who were expecting indexes similar to those in the first two volumes. Copies of THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES may still be available from George A. Vanderburgh (Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada), but purchasers should be aware that what is offered is essentially only an unindexed print-out of the data-base. Jul 94 #2 Sherlock Crater, still waiting patiently for astronauts to re- turn to the Moon, has not been forgotten. Edward C. Rochette has noted in an article in The Numismatist (July 1994) that the site of the crater is shown (although not identified) on the reverse of the Eisenhower bicentennial dollar issued in 1976. Ed kindly offers to send a copy of the issue to those who write to him at Box 7083, Colorado Spring, CO 80933. More Sherlockian philately: Allan Hauck reports (in the July-Aug. issue of Topical Time) on an item in the Brit- ish Postmark Bulletin (Mar. 25). The first listing was for a "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" handstamp for 1st April 1994, with a note: "The Manager of the SHC (Special Handstamp Centre) asks that we point out that this first of April postmark is to be applied using a new experimen- tal invisible ink." A series of "Little Brown Notebooks" published by the Indigo Press in Lon- don includes one titled SCENES FROM SHERLOCK HOLMES, with quotations from the four long stories and decorative illustrations by Debra Thompson. The notebooks are hardbound and pocket size, with 256 pages and plenty of room for journal-keepers or diary-writers, and cost $6.95. They are available here from the Sterling Publishing Co., 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016 (800-367-9692). Jim Zunic reports that he is about to marry, and move; his new address is 2739 Kingston Drive, Natrona Heights, PA 15065-1730 (412-226-2082). Jeremy Brett's new film-in-progress "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" has had some coverage in the British press, but most of the coverage tends to focus on the female stars; the film will "study the aristocracy's recreational use of narcotics," and it's a thriller, with location filming in fashionable Knightsbridge's Rutland Gate (a letter to residents warned: "Do not be con- cerned by muted female screams from the basement of No. 26"). Forewarned is forearmed: a short article by Russell Atwood about Sherlock Holmes and the BSI is set to appear in the Oct. 1994 issue of A&E Monthly (the cable channel's monthly magazine). Gaby Goldscheider is "redivivus" (that's the title of her new catalog, with 221B items of Sherlockiana and Doyleana); her address is Deep Dene, Baring Road, Cowes, Isle of Wight PO31 8DB, England. Compliments to Herb Tinning, who seems to have been the first to spot (or at least to report on) something that has been available in Britain since Aug. 1993: a colorful folder prepared by the Royal Mail to tell customers about "upgraded priority services" such as registered, special delivery, and recorded mail, with a nice cover photograph of the usual Sherlockian icons (hat, pipe, and lens). Ben Wood reports that The Pleasant Places of Florida have published their second round-robin pastiche of 1994; A CASE OF HIDE 'N' TEA is available for $3.50 postpaid from Benton Wood, Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222. Ben also offers the 1994/5 revised edition of the PPofF HANDBOOK; $5.00 postpaid. Jul 94 #3 Simon & Schuster's audiocassette THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #25 ($12.00) offers two more of the fine old radio shows from scripts by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher, with new introductions by Glenhall Taylor (who produced and directed the series). "The Night Before Christmas" (24 Dec 45) stars Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce and is already available on records and cassettes (with lower fidelity). The new-to-audio "The Darlington Substitution" (4 Jan 47) has Nigel Bruce and Tom Conway (as Watson and Holmes, with top billing going to Bruce). Noted by Bob Fritsch in the June 20 issue of Coin World: Spain's new 10-pesetas coin honoring Sara- sate. It's copper-nickel, so it's a circulating coin; do any other circulating coins show people (other than heads of state) named in the Canon? CREEPERS: BRITISH HORROR AND FANTASY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY is edited by Clive Bloom (London: Pluto Press, 1993; 190 pp., L30.00 cloth, L9.95 paper) and offers Victor Sage's essay on "Empire Gothic: Explanation and Epiphany in Conan Doyle, Kipling, and Chesterton" (Sage makes an interesting sugges- tion that "The Speckled Band" can be read as a horror story masquerading as a detective story). Tim O'Connor has reported a comic-book reprint (with new colors) of Marvin Channing's "The Vampire Hunter" in THE COLLECTOR'S DRACULA: BOOK TWO (1994) from Millennium ($3.95). Originally in MAD HOUSE #97 (Jan. 1975) [D5706b], the story has Victorian vampire-hunter Henry Hobson dressed as and behaving like Sherlock Holmes. Tim also notes that Ruth Lake Tepper's THE SHERLOCK HOLMES CROSSWORD PUZZLE BOOK, first published in 1977, has been reprinted by Gramercy Books and is available for $5.99 at B. Dalton stores. And that his summer sales-list of Sherlockiana is available; you can write to Tim O'Connor at 6015 West Route 115, Herscher, IL 60941. The sixth annual Canonical Convocation and Caper in Door County, Wis., will be held on Sept. 16-18. The mailing list is maintained by Jane Richardson, 3456 Exchange Street, Crete, IL 60417. Collectors of foreign translations of the Sherlock Holmes stories who do not yet have anything in Catalan (one of the official languages in Spain) will welcome news of TRES AVENTURAS DE SHERLOCK HOLMES, with illustrations by Javier Aceytuno (Barcelona: Editorial Lumen, 1994); the three stories are "Silver Blaze", "The Blue Carbuncle", and "The Red-Headed League", and the publisher is at: Ramon Miquel i Planas 10, 08034 Barcelona, Spain (no information available yet as to the price). One does indeed hear of Sherlock everywhere, and one of those everywheres is Spike Jones and His City Slickers' legendary 20-minute parody of "The Nutcracker Suite" (first recorded for RCA Victor in 1945). Carey Cummings has forwarded a newspaper review of the new single-CD collection "Spiked! The Music of Spike Jones" (BMG Classics/Catalyst) that includes the parody (at one point a dog howls, and someone exclaims, "I say, Holmes, what was that?"). And the new liner notes are by Thomas Pyncheon. Jul 94 #4 Ralph F. Turner ("Colonel Carruthers") died on May 22. He had a long and distinguished career in forensics, from his founding of the Laboratory of Forensic Science in the Kansas City Police Department (and supervising the lab from 1939 to 1947), and continuing as Professor of Criminalistics at Michigan State University until his retirement in 1981. He was an enthusiastic member of The Greek Interpreters of East Lansing, and received his Irregular Shilling from the BSI in 1983. And here's a new example of Stu Shiffman's fine caricatures. You can expect to see both artist and artwork at Bouchercon 25 in Seattle on Oct. 6-9, as well as Marcia Muller (guest of honor), Tony Hillerman (lifetime achievement award), Art Scott (fan guest of honor), and George Chesbro (toastmaster). More information on registration available from Box 75684, Seattle, WA 98125. Reported by Ruthann Stetak: Mark Walker's CREA- TIVE COSTUMES FOR CHILDREN (WITHOUT SEWING) (256 pp. $11.95) has a Sherlock Holmes costume on p. 141; the publisher is Cool Hand Communications, 1098 N.W. Boca Raton Boulevard #1, Boca Raton, FL 33432 (800-428-0578); add $2.00 shipping and handling. Galahad Books have published a set of 12 booklets with 25 stories by P. G. Wodehouse (in magazines from 1901 to 1965) that have never been appeared in books in the Britain, and one of the stories is a newly-discovered Sherlock Holmes pastiche. PLUM STONES--THE HIDDEN P. G. WODEHOUSE is available only as a set (L135.00 postpaid to the U.S.); a flier with more information is available from Nigel Williams, 7 Waldeck Grove, London SE27 0BE, England. The fourth issue of The Whitechapel Gazette is at hand from Troy Taylor (805 West North, Decatur, IL 62522), with 60 pages of articles and stories and Troy's fine illustrations; $6.50 postpaid (or $18.00 for three issues). The annual volumes published by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London are always welcome, and this year's BACK TO BAKER STREET is no exception. The focus is on London, in keeping with the Society's celebration of The Return of Sherlock Holmes earlier this year, and Roger Johnson and Jean Upton have edited a splendid collection of scholarship and reminiscences that offer a delightful look at the London to which Sherlock Holmes returned, and at the manuscript which reported that return, and much more. $21.50 postpaid, and you can order from Mrs. Lynne Godden, Apple Tree Cottage, Smarden, Ashford, Kent TN27 8QE, England. Andy Lane's ALL-CONSUMING FIRE (London: Virgin, 1994; 304 pp., L4.99) is one of "The New Doctor Who Adventures" in the series of books that extend the television series; this one is a cross-over novel in which The Doctor and his friends Bernice and Ace encounter Holmes and Watson, and Mycroft and Col. Warburton and Baron Maupertuis, and a bunch of strange creatures and people who are no more strange than one might expect in the worlds of The Doctor, but rather out-of-tune for the world of Sherlock Holmes. Jul 94 #5 In case you missed the auction at Sotheby's in New York on Dec. 10, 1993, which included the manuscripts of Conan Doyle's "The Home Coming" ($3,738) and "The Last of the Legions" ($3,738); Steve Rothman notes that they are now advertised by the Heritage Book Shop (8540 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90069) at $12,500 and $8,500. Jim Suszynski spotted a new offer by the Hallmark Keep- sake Ornament Collector's Club: $20.00 for a one-year membership, which includes their quarterly newsletter (and opportunities to buy lots of stuff) and two free ornaments, one of which is their Sherlock Holmes bear ("Holiday Pursuit"), shown here full-size. The club's address is Box 412734, Kansas City, MO 64141-2734, and they take plastic. Tim O'Connor reports that a recent catalog from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011) includes a close-out offer of the truly hideous Sherlock Holmes nutcracker from Steinbach at $99.00 (catalog key E1AW, item 1893700; that's only a dollar more than the adver- ised price two years ago in a catalog from the House of Tyrol, Box 909, Alpenland Center, Cleveland, GA 30528 (800-241-5404). And that Dove Audio has issued a dis- count version of A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES with seven stories read by Ben Kingsley on four cassettes (Jun 89 #8), still available at $24.95; the reissues are A TREASURY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, with three stories, and MORE SHERLOCK HOLMES, with four stories, at $8.99 each; in stores, or available direct from Dove (800-832-3683). The Harpooners of the Sea Unicorn will hold this year's Sherlockian river- boat convention "The Game's Afloat" on Oct. 8-9; additional information is available from Leonard R. Cleavelin, 35 Saint Lawrence Drive, Saint Peters, MO 63376. Reported by Chris Redmond: QUOTATIONS FROM BAKER STREET, edited by Chris Redmond ("memorable and ought-to-be-memorable passages from Sherlockian writings of the past century"); $7.50 postpaid from George A. Vanderburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada. Ben Wood's WHO'S WHERE: A HANDY REFERENCE GUIDE TO PERSONS IN THE HOLMESIAN CANON was mentioned earlier (Jun 94 #1), but without a note as to just what it is: 52 pp. and spiral-bound, with the people listed by adventure. $6.50 postpaid from Benton Wood, Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222. "There is more violence in an English hedgerow than in the meanest streets of a great city." No, it's not from the Canon, but it's a nice echo, from P. D. James' DEVICES AND DESIRES (spotted by Jack Koelle). Melanie Hughes spotted a story in the [Denver] Rocky Mountain News (June 6) about the newest member of the Douglas County sheriff's K-9 corps, who was named in a contest among local elementary schools. The judges voted 4-1 in favor of "Watson" over the runner-up "Ranger". "It's an appropriate name," said Watson's handler, deputy Troy McCoy. "The dog is very intelligent." Jul 94 #6 "The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes" is being distributed again in the U.S., according to the current issue of Anglofile; the 60-minute television program was made by Avery Productions in 1985, with Christopher Lee as host of an overview of actors who have played the role. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British enter- tainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). Sondra Gair died on May 25. Her career in radio began in Chicago in the 1940s, and when she died at the age of 70 she was host of her own "Midday with Sondra Gair" show for WBEZ (Chicago). Early in her career she went to Hollywood with an NBC soap opera, and in 1946 became the star of the CBS west-coast series "Meet Miss Sherlock" (playing private detective Jane Sherlock). Bill Nadel kindly reports that the series aired from July to Sept. 1946, and from Sept. to Oct. 1947. The Duchess of Devonshire was sold at auction this month at Sotheby's in London. Well, her portrait, at any rate: Thomas Gainsborough's portrait of Georgiana, 5th Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806). She was a grand beauty, and when the portrait first went on public view in 1876, her image became famous (sufficiently famous to have impressed Watson, who described Mary Sutherland's broad-brimmed hat as being "tilted in a coquettish Duchess-of- Devonshire fashion over her ear"). The portrait also impressed Adam Worth: when the portrait was purchased by London art dealer William Agnew and put on display at his gallery, Worth stole it. Worth was as great a criminal genius in real life as Moriarty was in the Canon, and Worth is considered by many to be the model for Moriarty (and not just because Worth's arrest, conviction, and refusal to give up the portrait to avoid seven years im- prisonment made headlines in 1893, shortly before "The Final Problem" was written). Worth served five years, and then, seriously ill, delivered the painting to William Pinkerton, who returned it to London, where it was sold to J. Pierpont Morgan. It was Morgan's granddaughter who sent the painting to auction this month. And it sold for L265,500. Leonard M. Friedman died on May 11. He was a violinist and founder of the Scottish Baroque Ensemble, and was described by his friend John Calder as a brilliant performer and one of the great musical eccentrics. You can hear his violin on the cassettes of the current BBC radio series starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams. Tom Stix has sent a reminder about the Watson Fund, founded some years ago to provide financial assistance to Sherlockians who might not otherwise be able to attend the birthday festivities in New York. The Fund is adminis- tered by a carefully anonymous Sherlockians, and contributions are welcome (and important); checks can be written to John H. Watson, M.D., and sent to him c/o Thomas L. Stix, 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648. Requests for assistance can also be sent to Dr. Watson, whose mail is forwarded unopened by Tom. The "Third Occasional Sherlockian Cruise" will sail on June 17, 1995, from Fort Lauderdale on the MV Zenith. The cruise lasts seven days, with stops at Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel, and Key West, and there will be Sherlockian seminars during the two days at sea. Holmes at His Zenith (Box 96, Norwood, NJ 07648) is the contact, and enquiries are welcome. Jul 94 #7 The Book-of-the-Month Club has announced it will dissolve its editorial board, whose members have read and recommended the books selected by the Club ever since it was founded in 1926. The Club's first Board of Judges were Henry Seidel Canby, Christopher Morley, William Allen White, Heywood Broun, and Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Morley served as a judge until ill health forced him to resign in 1954, and possibly helped ensure that THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES was a club selection in 1930. In today's publishing world, books are published too fast for monthly review by judges, and the club's staff will be responsible for selections. Spotted by Bernie O'Heir: Sonia R. Hillios contributed 14 original paintings to the SkyBox "Star Trek Master Series" of trading cards, one of which (#52) is "The Case of the Errant Holodeck" showing Data, Geordi, and Moriarty. The card is full-color, and is available matted and framed, and signed by the artist on the mat, for $24.95 post- paid, from Time Line Studio, Box 90, South- ampton, MA 01073 (800-659-8463); they take plastic. Cheryl Hurd plans to publish a VICTORIAN YELLOW PAGES early next year: it will be a compendium of modern sources for Victoriana ("antimacassars to zithers"), and she would be happy to hear from people who know about Victorian places, shops, events, resources, books, periodicals, etc. Her deadline is Sept. 30, and her address is: Teapot Press, Box 2048, Scotia, NY 12302. Roger Johnson notes that Groombridge Place, the inspiration for Birlstone Manor, is now officially open to the public. Groombridge is a fine 17th-century house, and well worth a visit; it can also be seen in Peter Greenaway's film "The Draughtsman's Contract" (1983). Visitors are invited to contact The Estate Office, Groombridge Place, Tun- bridge Wells, Kent TN3 9QG, England. "Mr. Penzler of mystery fiction" was the clue (23 across) in the N.Y. Times Magazine crossword puzzle on July 3. The puzzle was by A. J. Santora, and may well be the first one in the paper to honor an investitured member of The Baker Street Irregulars (Otto is "The King of Bohemia"). The television film "The Hound of London" aired on channel 57 (Toronto) on July 14, with Patrick Macnee (Sherlock Holmes) and John Scott-Paget (Dr. Watson); the film was produced in Vancouver in 1993, and is based on Craig Bowlsby's play "The Hound of London" (1987). This is the first broadcast of the film reported; did anyone watch it? And did anyone tape it? The Bimetallic Question will hold a one-day Sherlockian colloquium in Point Claire, Quebec, on Sept. 24. Additional information available from the Bi- metallic Question, Box 883, Stock Exchange Tower, Montreal H4Z 1K2, Canada. Jul 94 #8 President Clinton will award the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to Herbert Block on Aug. 8. Far better known by his byline "Herblock" and described by his colleagues as "a funny, gentle man who draws pictures in a newspaper," Block has been an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post since 1946. His first known use of the Sherlockian image came in 1947, in a lampoon of Reps. Rankin and Thomas and their House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation of Hollywood, and he has drawn more than 15 other Sherlockian cartoons over the years. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE CASE OF THE FEATHERSTONE POLICEMAN is a short new pastiche by Tony Lumb, who celebrated the centenary of a riot by miners in Yorkshire with a story that brings Holmes to the scene; the 20-page pamph- let is available for $4.00 postpaid (in currency, please) from the author (21 Albert Street, Featherstone, Pontefract, West Yorks. WF7 5EX, England). Ralph Earle II ("Joyce Cummings") has been named the next deputy director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. Ralph is now chairman of the board of directors of the Laywers Alliance for World Security, and was earlier the director of the ACDA (1980-81), serving as chief negotiator of SALT II (1978-80). Bob Payton, the flamboyant American restaurateur and dedicated Anglophile, and the man who brought the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory and the Chicago Rib Shack to Britain, died on July 13. He arrived in England in 1973, opened his first restaurant in 1977, and became thoroughly successful (except to his mother, whom he often quoted as saying, "One son is a lawyer, the other lives in Europe"). And he arranged with Forte to refurbish and restore the historic Criterion restaurant in Piccadilly, which reopened in 1992 (Oct 92 #1), offering Sherlockians a chance to stand where Watson stood when he met young Stamford there. Reported from Britain: Mark Frost's THE LIST OF SEVEN now out in paperback (Arrow, L4.99); Arthur Conan Doyle and special agent Jack Sparks battle a sinister gang of devil-worshippers. The U.S. paperback is due from Avon in Sept. (416 pp., $5.99). Avon also will reprint Kim Newman's ANNO DRACULA in paperback in the U.S. (Mycroft and fellow-members of the Diogenes Club versus Dracula, who is both Prince Consort and Regent, in a well-written novel). Rainer Zahn (45 Monchhofstrasse, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany) is offering (to the highest bidder) two volumes of The Strand Magazine (July-Dec. 1891 and Jan.-June 1892, with all of "The Hound of the Baskervilles"), both in pub- lisher's decorated blue cloth, in good condition except for faded spines. Forecast: NEVERMORE, by William Hjortsberg (from Atlantic Monthly Press in October); the novel's three protagonists are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, and Opal Fletcher (a.k.a. Isis, a wealthy widow and clairvoyant to the elite). According to Kirkus Review (June 15), "a carefully researched thriller that provides many fascinating details about celebrities of the Jazz Age but fails miserably and completely to provide any suspense." The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Aug 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Bert Coules (who has dramatized many of the stories in the current series on BBC Radio 4 starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams) reports that the BBC has released nine double-cassette sets (two programs per cassette), with three sets each from the Adventures, the Memoirs, and the Return; the sets cost L7.99 each, plus shipping; The Radio Collection (overseas sales dept.), BBC Enterprises, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London W12 0TT, England. An exhibition on "Reporting the War: The Journalistic Coverage of World War II" is now on view at the National Portrait Gallery (through Sept. 5), and it provides a grand look at the men and women who were part of that effort, and the excellent work they did. One of those recognized is Elmer Davis, member of The Baker Street Irregulars in the early days, and the author of our Constitution and Buy-Laws. He was the director of the Office of War Information in 1942 and 1943, and was criticized by those who believed that the OWI was not making enough information available, and by those who were upset that it was making too much information available, and by others who were thoroughly annoyed at the OWI's efforts to publicize the contribution of black Americans to the war effort. He made the cover of Time, and then went back to being a highly-regarded radio journalist. And he was an early member of The Red Circle. The Royal Mail is issuing a series of stamp book- lets with covers honoring twentieth-century prime ministers; Gordon Palmer has kindly supplied this illustration of Herbert Brockway's design for the first booklet in the ser- ies, which shows Prime Minister Herbert Asquith (1852-1928). And Asquith is indeed mentioned in the Canon. Don't bother looking for "Asquith" (he's not mentioned by name, but he is mentioned). The summer 1994 issue of Scarlet Street offers David Stuart Davies' inter- esting discussion of the six new one-hour programs from Granada, and a nice article by Richard Valley about the new laserdisc version of Billy Wilder's film "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970), and other odds and ends, including a photograph of Jonathan Freeman as McTague in William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in the 1970s (Freeman is better known now as the voice of Jafar in the animation "The Return of Jafar"). $20.00 a year (four issues) from Scarlet Street Inc., Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. People who have fond memories of the comic strips created by Austin Briggs, Alex Raymond, V. T. Hamlin, Al Capp, Milton Caniff, and Will Eisner may not know that the strips are being reprinted by the Kitchen Sink Press, and you ask for their catalog, which also has modern material (320 Riverside Drive, Northampton, MA 01060) (800-365-7465). For those who don't know who those people are, the strips were Terry and the Pirates, Alley Oop, Flash Gordon, Steve Canyon, and The Spirit. And if you do know, you'll be able to match the names of the artists with the names of the comic strips. Aug 94 #2 Bob Gellerstedt (1035 Wedgewood Drive, Fayetteville, GA 30214) is offering THE SHERLOCKIAN ANTHOLOGIES INDEX (20 pp., $5.00 postpaid to the U.S. and Canada); it's a useful guide to 15 anthologies (including Marvin Kaye's THE GAME IS AFOOT), and there's an index to the obituaries in The Baker Street Journal, and a list of Conan Doyle's pub- lished fiction. And his earlier (Jun 91 #5) Macintosh Hypercard edition of Edgar W. Smith's APPOINTMENT IN BAKER STREET (1938) and BAKER STREET AND BEYOND (1940) still is available on one 800K floppy disk (you'll need ver- sion 2.0 or later); $5.00 postpaid (foreign airmail $3.00 extra). Mary Ann Warner (Annmar Enterprises, 2711 Fairlane Place, Chino Hills, CA 91709-1240) offers an illustrated catalog of Sherlockian bookmarks, sweat- shirts, T-shirts, doorhangers, totebags, aprons, and magnets. TOUT CE QUE VOUS AVEZ VOULU SAVOIR SUR SHERLOCK HOLMES SANS JAMAIS L'AVOIR RENCONTRE, by Pierre Nordon (Paris: Le Livre de Poche, 1994; 124 pp., 30 francs) is a well-written paperback discussion of Conan Doyle, and Holmes, and the Sherlockian cult. It's all in French, of course (as was the first and best edition of Nordon's 1964 biography of Conan Doyle), and it offers the French an excellent introduction to the world of Sherlock Holmes. Another example of Sherlockiana available in other languages is IN VIAGGIO CON SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Marco Zatterin (Milan: Il Minotauro, 1994; 203 pp., 24,000 lire). The book is a helpful guide (in Italian) for Sherlockians on tour in Britain and elsewhere, with walking tours in London's neighborhoods mentioned in the Canon, and a discussion of the itinerary Holmes and Watson followed across Europe, and much more. The Sherlock Holmes Gazette is back in business, with a 48-page summer 1994 issue edited by Eddie Bissell and published by Peter Harkness (46 Purfield Drive, Wargrave, Berks. RG10 8AR, England). As usual, there is excellent coverage of events in Britain, and an interview with Jeremy Brett about his new film "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (he plays the villain), and a report on the meeting of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society in Toronto earlier this year. Subscriptions cost L21.00 a year to North America, and you can send $35.00 to Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219. The 1994 "Victorian Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., will be held on Nov. 4-6. There's a mystery to solve (with prizes for the winner) during a tour of eight Victorian homes, and meals, and other fun and games. Additional information is available from the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204-0340 (609-884-5404). The fourth issue of The Shoso-in Bulletin has arrived from The Men with the Twisted Konjo, with 130 pages (in English) of articles, pastiches, poetry, and illustrations by contributors from Japan and seven other nations. The cost is $10.00 postpaid (in currency, please) from Yuichi Hirayama, 2-10-12 Kamirenjaku, Mitaka-shi, Tokyo 181, Japan. A few copies of the second and third issues still are available ($5.00 each postpaid). And The Japanese Cabinet publishes The Dispatch Box, also in English; the cost of a one-year subscription (four issues) is $8.00 postpaid (to be sent to Dr. Hirayama at the same address). There is some fine scholarship being done in Japan, and it is nice to have some of it available to those who don't read Japanese. Aug 94 #3 THE PILTDOWN CONFESSION, by Irwin Schwartz (New York: A Wyatt Book for St. Martin's Press, 1994; 210 pp., $20.95), presents yet another solution to the hoax, offering a putative confession by Charles Dawson, who reveals Arthur ("my friends call me Conan") Doyle and Teilhard de Chardin as his accomplices. The complicated story involves two murders by some evangelical Christians, and copious annotations by Schwartz (who is far from knowledgeable about Conan Doyle and his family). Jack Kirby died on Feb. 6. He was one of the great comic-book artists, and began his career in comics in the 1930s. He worked for Marvel Comics and other companies, and helped create Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Spiderman and many more superheros, including Kamandi. In eight issues of KAMANDI: THE LAST BOY ON EARTH, published in 1977 and 1978, Mylock Bloodstalker (the world's most famous detective) was assisted by his loyal friend Doile in an attempt to hunt down and destroy Kamandi. Iron Crown issued a series of seven "Sherlock Holmes Solo Mysteries" as paperback books in 1987 and 1988; there were to be eight titles, but the eighth (THE LOST HEIR) was never pub- lished in English (there may be a translation in Catalan, as yet not confirmed). The eighth of Iron Crown's titles was to have a cover by Jill Bauman, and the original artwork (without lettering, but with a nice portrait of Watson) is now available: 15 x 20 in., in acrylics on canvas, for $1350. Contact: Worlds of Wonder, 3421 M Street #327, Washington, DC 20007. I've mentioned The Shadows of the Elm before: they're the students taught by Carolyn Gassner at the Arroyo Del Oso Elementary School in Al- buquerque, and each year they make an imagina- tive video dramatization of a Sherlock Holmes story. And at the end of July the classroom was torched by some sixteen-year-old members of a local gang (who have been apprehended). And of course the books, and the costumes and scenery used in the videos, are lost, and need to be replaced. The wish- list includes: illustrated unabridged editions of the Canon, Murray Shaw's MATCH WITS WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES series, Eve Titus' BASIL OF BAKER STREET series, Simon Goodenough's SHERLOCK HOLMES MURDER DOSSIER series, August Derleth's SOLAR PONS series, Robert Newman's BAKER STREET IRREGULAR series, back issues of the BSJ and other periodicals. And anything else suitable for energetic and intelligent grade-school students who need and deserve assistance; you can mail donations to Richard H. Miller, Box 9902, Santa Fe, NM 87504-9902. And (my additional suggestion) if you can't send stuff, a check (payable to C. Bryan Gassner) would be helpful, because there are all the costumes and scenery to replace as well. "Make memos more mysterious" is the motto of Bartholomew's Ink, who offer a fine assortment of rubber stamps in their current catalog, including a page full of Sherlockian designs. Box 4825, Charlottesville, VA 22905. Aug 94 #4 Peter Cushing died on Aug. 11. He began his acting career on stage in the Connaught Repertory Company in 1936, arrived in Hollywood in 1939 (appearing in small parts in Louis Hayward's "The Man in the Iron Mask" and Laurel and Hardy's "A Chump at Oxford"), and went on to fame and fortune and high regard as a star in horror films. And he was a delightful Sherlock Holmes, in the film "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959) and in a BBC television series (1968) and in the television film "The Masks of Death" (1984). He also played Conan Doyle in the television film "The Great Houdinis" (1976). And there were interesting might-have- beens: a West End revival of the play "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" in 1959 was not produced, and he once reported that he was offered (and turned down) "The Crucifer of Blood" on Broadway. He also was ready to do "The Abbot's Cry" in 1986 (as a sequel to "The Masks of Death"), and said in an interview: "I'm hoping to have one more stab at Holmes. Now he's very old and tottering around with his bees. But it's a good script. If I can only stagger through Holmes -- he never stops talking and moves with such speed. I thought, 'Oh, crikey. Roller skates please, props.'" Roger Johnson has reported that CoverCraft (Box 432, Beckenham, Kent BR3 3SZ, England) issued an attractive "Return of Sherlock Holmes Centenary Souvenir Cover" postmarked at Park Lane on Apr. 1, with a cachet showing Paget's illustration of Watson and the old book-seller (L6.00 postpaid); CoverCraft also designed last year's Sherlock Holmes first day cover for the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. Michael Carreras died on Apr. 19. He was a writer, producer, and director on many of the classic pictures made by Hammer Films, and in the 1950s he was executive producer for the studio, when Peter Cushing starred in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1959). "Ronder, of course, was a household word," said Sherlock Holmes to Watson. "He was the rival of Wombwell, and of Sanger, one of the greatest showmen of his day." George Wombwell (1778-1850) launched his traveling menagerie in 1805, and became the nineteenth century's greatest entrepreneur in that field. E. H. Bostock continued the enterprise, and Dramatis Personae (71 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10010) offer a colorful poster for Bostock and Wombwell's Menagerie (1905), with large portraits of the Wombwells and the Bostocks, for $150 in their current catalog (their telephone number is 212-679-3705). R. Irving Paxton died on July 10. He was a civil and mechanical engineer, a bibliophile, one of the founding members (and later the Gasogene) of The Six Napoleons of Baltimore, and (as "Mr. Sandeford, of Reading"), a member of The Baker Street Irregulars. The arrest of Illich Ramirez Sanchez this month made the front pages around the world, and provided a reminder of a Sherlockian connection. In 1975 in Paris he was using the name Carlos Martinez Torres when he shot and killed two French counter-intelligence officers, and (as Frederick Forsythe noted) a French headline-writer dubbed Carlos "the Jackal" after the character in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. Forsythe's book, published in 1971, is excellent, about an attempt to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle, using a rifle smuggled into the country in an aluminum crutch. Aug 94 #5 The Sherlock Holmes Society of London's 1994 Christmas card is now available, with a two-color sketch of troopships (including the "Orontes") at Bombay, waiting to bring home troops from the Afghan War. A packet of ten cards costs $12.00 postpaid (to North America), from Capt. W. R. Michell, 5 Old Farm Place, Hinton St. George, Somerset TA17 8TW, Eng- land (checks payable to the Society, please). Cay Van Ash died in April. He was a friend of Sax Rohmer for many years, and collaborated with the author's widow on the biography of Rohmer called MASTER OF VILLAINY. Van Ash's novel TEN YEARS BEYOND BAKER STREET (1984) pitted Sherlock Holmes against Fu Manchu, and was well-received. Gary Thaden reports that this may be the last chance to buy the "Sherlock Holmes Nesting Dolls" (Holmes, Watson, Lestrade, Moriarty, and the Hound); originally $16.95 from Signals, now $7.99 (item 26899). Also THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES (nine hardcover volumes); published at $99.00, now $89.99 (item 30738) (but this set will be issued soon in paperback). Signals is at Box 64428, Saint Paul, MN 55164 (800-669-9696); they take plastic. The nesting dolls mentioned above were made in China. A different (and more expensive) set of nesting dolls, hand- painted and lacquered in Russia, was noted by Gertrude Mahoney in the curr- ent mail-order catalog from The Cott- age Shop Box 4836, Stamford, CT 06907 (800-388-7660); it's item #5304, and the cost is $74.00 postpaid. THE ADVENTURE OF THE PEREMPTORY SPOUSE is the latest book from Pequod, repre- senting the "recrudescence of Turlock Loams," as announced by Dr. Fatso's ever-industrious literary agent, John Ruyle (521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521); $40.00 (cloth) or $18.00 (paper). For newcomers who have not seen John's work, it is amusing, well-designed, hand-set, hand-printed, and (if you are willing to travel to Berkeley) hand-delivered. James O. Duval died on Aug. 22. He was one of the founding members of Cox & Company of New England in 1979, and edited and published its journal, The QuarterLy $tatement, and enthusiastically attended meetings of almost every Sherlockian society that met in or near New England. He also was an eager and educated collector of Sherlockiana, and received his Investiture in The Baker Street Irregulars in 1984 (quite appropriately as "The Battered Tin Dispatch-Box"). Syd Goldberg has forwarded a brief Associated Press report on a new Fortune magazine survey of the world's 500 largest service companies in 1993. The top-ranked retailer was Wal-Mart (with $67.3 billion in sales), the largest commercial bank was Fuji Bank Ltd. (with $538.2 billion in assets), and the largest savings institution (with $123.8 billion in assets) was . . . Abbey National (still happily assigning someone to answer the mail delivered to Sherlock Holmes at 221B Baker Street). Aug 94 #6 Lady Victoria Wemyss, CVO, Extra Woman of the Bedchamber to the Queen Mother, died at Wemyss Castle, Fife, on May 8, aged 104. There's no Sherlockian connection, but it's worth noting that she probably was the last surviving godchild of Queen Victoria. David Rush has kindly forwarded the obituary from The Times, which noted in passing that she was known to the local police, having been fined for speeding at the age of 77, and that she continued to drive herself around her family estate until she was 100. Earlier this year Dame Jean Conan Doyle presided over the installation of a plaque at 2 Upper Wimpole Street, where her father had his ophthalmological office in 1891 (and where he wrote the first of the Sherlock Holmes short stories). For many years it had been thought that his office was in Upper Devonshire Place, as shown by a report in the Sunday Express (spring 1968) that noted that Conan Doyle's ghost was believed to have played pranks with the elevator at his former office in Devonshire Place. "In 1961 the house was shared by seven doctors. And the lift, though serviced monthly, often stopped inexplicably between the second and third floors. This was next to the rooms where Sir Arthur wrote Sherlock Holmes tales while waiting for patients." One wonders whose ghost it might have been. Perhaps it really *was* Conan Doyle, vainly trying to persuade people to stop claiming he had had an office there. Richard Lancelyn Green's CONAN DOYLE OF UPPER WIMPOLE STREET (May 94 #6) is a well-researched 20-page booklet issued earlier this year to commemorate the unveiling of the plaque, and it's still available from The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester, CH4 0JG, England); $7.00 postpaid. Plan ahead: I've seen proofs from the spectacular 1995 calendar that Cadds (the British printers) are preparing with full-color photographs from the Granada "Sherlock Holmes" television series; it will be distributed here by Classic Specialties, and I'll report again when it is ready. Reported: RETURN OF THE WEREWOLF, by Les Martin (New York: Random House, 1993); a Bullseye Chiller for fourth-grade students, with Jonathan Holmes (Sherlock's cousin) called upon to help a beautiful French countess rid her village of the werewolf that is terrorizing it. Reported by Syd Goldberg: THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF GOLDEN AGE DETECTIVE STORIES, edited by Marie Smith (Carroll & Graf); $9.95 at Barnes & Noble (contents include "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "His Last Bow"). Reported from Britain: THE SINGULAR CASE OF THE DUPLICATE HOLMES, by Jan Walker ($30.00); "an affectionate, engaging story of a mellowed friendship, of lives touched by a woman's intelligent, unaffected sweetness, and of a man whose depth and warmth are buried under the demands of professionalism and honor" (according to the author). And THE BAKER STREET IRREGULAR: THE UNAUTHORISED BIOGRAPHY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Austin Mitchelson ($35.00); "Jack the Ripper has been positively identified ... and he was none other than the famous Victorian detective Sherlock Holmes" (ditto). Published by Ian Henry and distributed here by Players Press, Box 1132, Studio City, CA 91614; shipping costs $4.00 (first book) and $1.50 (each additional book). Aug 94 #7 The Hotel Algonquin still is receiving publicity on the gossip pages, but not, certainly, the way it did in the good old days. Simon & Schuster's hard-cover edition of Howard Stern's PRIVATE PARTS was launched in 1993 at a beer-and-Buttafuoco bash at the Harley Davidson Cafe, according to an item in New York magazine (Aug. 29). And now Pocket Books is considering a book party for the paperback at a more upscale location. "We asked the Algonquin, the Yale and Harvard Clubs, and both the New York and Downtown Athletic Clubs," a Pocket Books spokeswoman said. "They all said yes, which certainly surprised us." But the Algonquin had a restric- tion. "They asked us not to bring any Playboy Bunnies." No decision has been made yet as to whether and when, let alone where, the party will be. "An illusioned and disillusioned primer for collectors and novices," is the way that Vincent Starrett described John Carter's ABC FOR BOOK-COLLECTORS, adding that "no better guide to the whole subject has appeared in print." John Carter knew his subject, and was famous for far more than merely being one of the leaders of those who exposed the infamous forger Thomas J. Wise. ABC FOR BOOK-COLLECTORS was first published in 1952, and went through five editions over the years, and now there's a sixth edition, lightly revised by Nicolas Barker (an expert in his own right), and available for $28.00 postpaid from Oak Knoll Books, 414 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE 19720; they take plastic. I recommend it to those who don't know the difference between page heads and running heads, or who aren't sure about editions and impressions and issues and states and variants, or who might want to read a description of "the chronological obsession" or "point-maniacs" written by someone who writes well and is convinced that "all extremes are a bore." Oak Knoll also can still supply THE AFFAIR OF THE UNPRINCIPLED PUBLISHER, a pastiche by Lawrence Garland that reports on an encounter between Thomas J. Wise and Sherlock Holmes, published by Oak Knoll in 1983 in an attractive hand-printed 21-page pamphlet ($33.00 postpaid); and Rodney Engen's RICHARD DOYLE (London: Catalpa Press, 1983; 206 pp.), a review of the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle's uncle, who designed the traditional cover of Punch and as a freelance illustrator and painter contributed art to a long list of books and magazines ($38.00 postpaid). Knock, knock. Who's there? Watson. Watson who? Nothing much; Watson who with you? IN BEDS WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES is The Sherlock Holmes Society of London's new excursion guidebook, edited by Pamela Bruxner, and the title pays a punning tribute to Chris Redmond's IN BED WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES while offering Brit- readers a clue as to the area covered: Bedfordshire. The articles focus on "The Three Gables", "The Blanched Soldier", and "The Man with the Watches", and the 52-page booklet costs $13.50 postpaid; checks should be payable to the Society, and sent Mrs. E. M. Godden, Apple Tree Cottage, Smarden, Kent TN27 8QE, England). This year's national meeting of the Sherlockian societies in Australia went very well, Michael J. Farrell reports. And it featured an appearance by an authentic Sherlock Holmes, 83 years old, who resides in Newcastle, and who was born in Holmesville, with a Dr. Watson presiding over his birth (it was the nurse who suggested that the boy be called Sherlock). Aug 94 #8 THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES AUDIO GIFT SET #5 will be on sale in September, just in time for Christmas shopping (and offering a less-expensive way of picking up earlier issues): the boxed set with cassettes #17-20 will retail at $25.00 (these are Simon and Schuster's reissues of the Basil Rathbone radio shows, but one of the eight programs has Tom Conway as Holmes). Otto Penzler continues to offer paperback reprints of important classics in his "Sherlock Holmes Library" series, the most recent being SEVENTEEN STEPS TO 221B, edited by James Edward Holroyd (an anthology of excellent British scholarship first published in 1967), and MY DEAR HOLMES: A STUDY IN SHER- LOCK, by Gavin Brend (first published in 1951); $8.00 each. The Armchair Detective Library offers a hard-cover reprint of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MASQUERADE MURDERS, by Frank Thomas (first published in 1986 in an elusive paperback, with an energetic Holmes and a sharp-shooting Watson investigat- ing murder and financial chicanery); $21.00. And Otto Penzler Books has published American editions of June Thomson's THE SECRET FILES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES and THE SECRET CHRONICLES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (published in Britain in 1990 and 1992, each with seven of the unrecorded cases, told with nice style and imagination); $20.00 each. And Sam Siciliano's new THE ANGEL OF THE OPERA: SHERLOCK HOLMES MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA ($21.95); Watson, momentarily annoyed at Holmes, has invented Moriarty and Holmes' death at the Reichenbach, so this story is told by Holmes' cousin Dr. Henry Vernier, who accompanies Holmes to Paris, and tells a tale that has romance as well as mystery. Magico has issued a new catalog of Sherlockiana, including a long back-list (some of the material was published as far back as 1980). One of the books offered for the first time is Reginald Johnson's THEY CAME TO BAKER STREET (New York: Magico Magazine, 1992; 174 pp., $25.95); Johnson was born at the turn of the century and discovered the Canon as a teen-ager, and his book is a collection of more than 50 well-written vignettes of those who visited the famous sitting-room, edited and foot-noted by Alan Truscott (who as the bridge editor of the N.Y. Times has shown in his bridge column that he too is an admirer of Sherlock Holmes). HOLMES' RANGE, by Walter P. Armstrong, Jr. (New York: Magico Magazine, 1994; 90 pp., $19.95), is a collection of reprints of S'ian essays, articles, and toasts written by another long-time enthusiast, a member of the The Baker Street Irregulars who for almost half a century has been a contributor to The Baker Street Journal and other per- iodicals. Shipping costs extra, and Magico's address is Box 156, New York, NY 10002-0156. And, for those who have not yet heard the news, John Bennett Shaw is now recovering nicely from the heart attack he suffered on July 30, while he was visiting the hospital (and that's certainly the best place, if you're going to have one). He is home, and being catered to by various visiting children (some of whom conveniently are nurses), and he gets around a bit using a walker, and is impatiently waiting for the baseball strike to end or college football to start, and isn't answering mail yet (so you can send him anything that doesn't require an answer or an acknowledgement). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Sep 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Fordham University Press may be clearing out its warehouse. Mike Greenberg reports that some of their books are being discounted by Edward R. Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031-5000): the second (revised) edition of DINING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Julia Carlson Rosenblatt and Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt (1990), now $12.95; THE STANDARD DOYLE COMPANY: CHRISTOPHER MORLEY ON SHER- LOCK HOLMES, edited and introduced by Steven Rothman (1990), now $12.95; and SHERLOCK HOLMES BY GAS-LAMP: HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIRST FOUR DECADES OF THE BAKER STREET JOURNAL, edited by Philip A. Shreffler (1989), now $14.95. I recommend all three books highly, and this is a splendid opportunity for those who do not already have them. Thanks to David McCallister for the logo used by Sher- lock Home Finders, in business for some ten years in Jupiter, Fla. (that's near Palm Beach). The company is owned by Richard Clegg, and if you're thinking of renting a home or apartment in the area, his number is 800-597-7368. The Walt Disney Co., whose stage version of "Beauty and the Beast" at the Palace Theatre on Times Square is Broadway's top box-office draw, plans to restore the long-abandoned New Amsterdam Theatre, which once was the home of the Ziegfield Follies and which has many Sherlockian asso- ciations. It was at the New Amsterdam that William Gillette performed in his farewell tour of "Sherlock Holmes" in 1929, and it was in NBC's studios above the theater, in 1930, that he broadcast the first Sherlockian radio program in the U.S. ("The Adventure of the Speckled Band"). By 1966 the theater had been converted into a movie house ("A Study in Terror" opened there), and eventually it closed, surrounded by a decaying neighborhood on 42nd Street. Disney has been offered a low-interest $21 million loan from the state, and will spend at least $8 million more on the project. If you want to see the sorry shape the theater was in, Louis Malle's film "Vanya on 42nd Street" (not yet released) was filmed there earlier this year. LADY BRACKENSTALL'S LORD AND MASTER is J. C. Charles' latest contribution to adults-only Sherlockiana, providing details of Brackenstall's cruel and humiliating treatment of his beautiful young wife, and of his attentions to the pretty upstairs maid; the eight-page pamphlet costs $5.00 postpaid from The Filmoods Co. (Box 475, Scarsdale, NY 10583). The list of "Dover Thrift Editions" continues to expand. These are trade paperbacks priced at $1.00, intended to get good literature into the hands of readers as cheaply as possible. SIX GREAT SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES was published in 1992, and Bob Persing now notes THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES New York: Dover Publications, 1994). Last month I noted that Prime Minister Herbert Asquith is mentioned in the Canon, although not by name. For those who have not solved that puzzle, he was the Prime Minister from 1908 until 1916, and thus will be found in "His Last Bow" ("The Foreign Minister alone I could have withstood, but when the Premier also deigned to visit my humble roof---!"). Sep 94 #2 "Watson on the case as Sherlock packs bags," was the headline on a story by Antonia Feuchtwanger, spotted by Carey Cummings in the Daily Telegraph on Aug. 27, 1994. James Watson, the chairman of the National Freight Consortium (Britain's largest road-haulage business), led a boardroom coup that forced chief executive Peter Sherlock to resign. "I am quite a hard man," Watson said. "I may seem to be somebody who is quite laid-back, but when I want my way I get it." DAMN YOU JOHN CHRISTIE!: THE PUBLIC LIFE OF AUSTRALIA'S SHERLOCK HOLMES, by John Lahey (Melbourne, State Library of Victoria, 1993; 292 pp., A$19.95), is a splendid biography of John Mitchell Christie, who joined the detective force in Victoria in 1867 as the age of 21, and soon because famous for his talents and his exploits, which involved a lot of disguises, and quite a bit of discretion. The book is only marginally Sherlockian, but it's grand fun; the publisher's address is 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Vic. 3000, Australia. SHERLOCKIAN TOAST, edited by Luci Zahray and Mary Erickson, is a 38-page collection of imaginative toasts, poetic and otherwise, given by members and guests at meetings of The South Downers and published by the Homestead Press. Available from Luci Zahray, 685 Marylane Drive, Holland, MI 49423; $6.00 postpaid. Ruth Brandon's THE LIFE AND MANY DEATHS OF HARRY HOUDINI was published last year in London (Mar 94 #3), and the American edition is due in October from Random House (368 pp., $25.00); it's a fine biography of Houdini, with dis- cussion of his complicated relationship with Conan Doyle. Douglas G. Greene reports that his biography of John Dickson Carr will be published by Otto Penzler Books next spring. Doug also has started his own company (Crippen & Landru) to issue trade paperbacks of unpublished (or at least uncollected) work by great detective-story writers. The first volume is SPEAK OF THE DEVIL, an unpublished and non-Sherlockian eight-part radio serial written by Carr ($14.95 post-paid). A flier with information about other titles planned is available from Crippen & Landru (Box 9315, Norfolk, VA 23505-9315). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will convene on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Merchants Cafe in Seattle, during the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. Geologists and Sherlockians (and any other visitors of either persuasion) are welcome to join in honoring the world's first foren- sic geologist. The Merchants Cafe is at 109 Yesler Way in Pioneer Square, and the festivities begin with cocktails at 7:00 and continue with dinner at 8:00; reservations are not needed. It's not too late (although there isn't much time left) for societies to follow a trail blazed by The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis in cele- brating an important centennial this year: the 100th anniversary of Conan Doyle's visit to the United States. On Oct. 15, the day that he arrived in Indianapolis, members of the Clients will take a walking tour of the sites he visited while he was in the city, dedicate a memorial in the Grand Hall of Union Station, and dine at the Penn Street Bar & Grille (the site of the Denison Hotel, where he dined that evening with J. Whitcomb Riley). Sep 94 #3 It was a long time ago (Aug 92 #2) that Pattie Brunner reported on THE DISNEY AFTERNOON, an audiocassette and CD collection of music from four Disney television shows. Disney Records (500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, CA 91521) offered to send people the lyrics, which have now arrived. The "Chip 'N Dale's Rescue Rangers Theme Song" includes a second verse "Fresh prints/Not since Watson and Mr. Holmes/Have two minds /So fine/Looked under every stone/When you need some help to save the day/ They're never far away." The U.S. Postal Service honored the 100th birthday of James Thurber with a commemorative issued this month. Credit Ray Betzner with the discovery of a series of somewhat Sherlock- ian parodies ("The Cases of Blue Ploermell") Thurber wrote for the Columbus Dispatch in 1923; Thurber's "The Gloucester Sympathizer" (1950), sometimes reprinted as "The Case Book of James Thurber", is better known. Melanie Hughes has forwarded an article in the Hartford Cour- ant, about a on-going attempt to restore William Gillette's small-scale railroad train to its rightful place at the Gillette Castle in Hadlyme, Conn. The railroad (which is nicely shown in the Movietone news interview with Gillette) ran along a three-mile route on the estate, and after Gillette's death was sold to a local amusement park. The Department of Environmental Protection is trying to negotiate the purchase or donation of the train, and hopes that it will be possible to restore at least part of the route on the estate. And John Aidiniantz has not yet abandoned his campaign to win the address 221b for his Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street. The [London] Sun- day Telegraph reported on Sept. 4 that the Westminster Council has issued a public notice of an application by the museum to re-number the street (the museum claims it will be able to create hundreds of mail-order jobs if it is allowed to use the address 221b and sell memorabilia to those who write to Sherlock Holmes). The paper notes that the word is that the application is "doomed to failure," because it is opposed by the Post Office, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and the Abbey National Building Society. Bert Coules reports that the first six stories in "The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes" were broadcast weekly beginning Sept. 21 by BBC Radio 4, with Clive Merrison as Holmes and Michael Williams as Watson. The other six stories have not yet been recorded; when they have been, that will leave only "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Valley of Fear" to be done to make the series the first one ever dramatized to offer all 60 stories with the same actors as Holmes and Watson. CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS: ERRANT ESSAYS ON PERPETRATORS OF LITERARY LICENSE, by Nicolas Freeling (Boston: David R. Godine, 1994; 155 pp., $22.95), offers Freeling's thoughts on an interesting selection of authors, some of whom are not usually considered to be crime writers; Conan Doyle is included, of course, and Chandler and Sayers and Simenon, along with Stendhal, Dickens, Conrad, and Kipling. Freeling is himself well-known in the genre (for his series detectives Henri Castang and Inspector Van der Valk); he is a fine writer, and presents imaginative insights into the work of all the authors. Sep 94 #4 SCREAM FOR JEEVES: A PARODY, by P. H. Cannon, illustrated by J. C. Eckhardt (New York: Wodecraft Press, 1994; 86 pp., $20.00 cloth, $7.50 paper), offers three Jeeves-and-Wooster stories involving the worlds of H. P. Lovecraft, with Sherlockian and Doylean allusions, and in one tale an easily-recognizable "Mr. Altamont, of Chicago." The book also has a long essay ("The Adventure of the Three Anglo-American Authors") in which Cannon attempts to find parallels among the authors and their work. The book is available from the Necronomicon Press (Box 1304, West Warwick, RI 02893); postage extra, and they take plastic. The Baker Street Pages offer personalized engraved plastic disks, four inches in dia- meter (the illustration is shown reduced here); the transparent disk has white high- lighting, and a wooden base, and the cost is $14.00 postpaid, from Tim O'Connor, 6015 West Route 115, Herscher, IL 60941. Chris Redmond reports that his QUOTATIONS FROM BAKER STREET (Jul 94 #5) has 48 pages and saddle-stitch binding (not clam-shell plastic); $7.50 postpaid from George Van- derburgh, Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada. Sherlockians have an excuse to see the new film "Corrina, Corrina" (which has been described as the latest in the "kid finds mate for bumbling single dad" series). Ray Liotta (a widower) hires Whoopi Goldberg to care for his daughter, and there's a neighbor (a widow) with two sons who like to dress in costumes, and at one point they dress up as Holmes and Watson. "Mysteriously Yours" (a mystery dinner-theater company that performs at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto) is now doing "The Mystery of the Maltese Blue Jay" and five other plays from their repertory, and will perform a Sherlock Holmes mystery in November, December, and January. Additional information is available from Mysteriously Yours, at 1927 Yonge Street, Toronto ON M4S 1Z3, Canada (416-486-7469 or 800-668-3323). Bjarne Nielsen's mystery-specialist bookshop Antikvariat Pinkerton has a new address: Holtets Plads 1, DK-4500 Nykobing Sjaelland, Denmark. And that's where he also presides over the new Sherlock Holmes Museum and the library of the Danish Academy of Crime Writers. Visitors are welcome, and it's best to write or call (45/59-93-28-21) to ensure that Bjarne's there when you want to be. His current mail-order catalog includes mystery and science-fiction in Danish and in English, including old (and often rare) Sherlockiana. The current issue of Anglofile reports that the film "The Age of Innocence" (with Daniel Day-Lewis) will air on HBO cable on Oct. 29; Jeremy Brett has suggested that Day-Lewis might well be the next Sherlock Holmes, and you'll see why in the film. And "Shadowlands" (with Edward Hardwicke) will air on Cinemax in January. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter with detailed cover- age of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). Sep 94 #5 The fall issue of The Sherlockian Times (the catalog/newslet- ter/journal published by Classic Specialties) is at hand, with a fine assortment of books, prints, shirts, postcards, scarves, pins, news, scarves, a short pastiche by Robert Coffen, and much more. Their address is: Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219. Classic Specialties also offers the spectacular 1995 calendar that Cadds (the British printers) has published with full-color photographs from the Granada "Sherlock Holmes" television series; $16.50 postpaid (Hugh Scullion of Cadds is not able to supply the calendar directly). Lawrence Nepodahl reports that Martin Kosleck died on Jan. 16. He acted with Basil Rathbone in the 1945 film "Pursuit to Algiers" (as Mirko), and played Maurice Gretz in Rathbone's non-Sherlockian "The Mad Doctor" (1941). The latest catalog from What on Earth (2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087) includes a "Sherlock Hound: Master Sleuth" tea- set that includes: a Teapot Hound ($28.95); Sugar and Creamer Dogs ($24.95); Salt and Pepper Pups ($12.95). Shipping is extra, and they take plastic. Michael Ross' Baskerville Bucher has reprinted Ferdi- nand Bonn's SHERLOCK HOLMES: DETEKTIVKOMODIE IN VIER AUF- ZUGEN (112 pp., $16.00); Bonn wrote and starred in the play in Berlin in 1906 (when the play was first published), and the new edition has the play and annotations in German, a summary and commentary in English, and photographs from the original production. The play is based both on the Gillette play and on the Canon, and Bonn went on to write two more Sherlockian plays (which Michael intends to publish) and to star in S'ian films. Send currency only, please, to Michael Ross Verlag, Bendheide 65, D-47906 Kempen, Germany. Will Walsh reports that the autumn 1994 catalog from the Ben Silver Collec- tion (800-221-4671) uses a Sherlockian silhouette to identify 17 neckties "associated with the master sleuth and his creator." These are regimental or school ties (such as "the Thirty-Fourth Bombay Infantry, of which Major Sholto and Capt. Morstan were officers"); the company's address is 149 King Street, Charleston, SC 29401. Listen for Pleasure (EMI) have added a fourth title to their list of two- audiocassette sets of Canonical stories. HIS LAST BOW AND OTHER STORIES has four tales (Wist/RedC/Lady/Last) read (and read well) by Martin Jarvis. The other (older) sets are THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (Hugh Burden), A STUDY IN SCARLET (Tony Britton), and THE VALLEY OF FEAR (Martin Jarvis); the suggested retail price for each set is L7.49. Sep 94 #6 Nice news for fans of Jeremy Brett: the newly-restored 30-year- old film "My Fair Lady" opened on Sept. 21 at the large-screen Ziegfield theatre in New York (and it likely will be shown in other cities that are fortunate enough to have houses with big screens and proper sound systems). And Melanie Hughes notes a report that Brett hosted an hour-long documentary about the film, which will be included in a $75.00 anniversary re-issue (probably on laserdisc and videocassettes). Moris H. Goldberg has succeeded the late James Howe as the contact for The Deerstalkers (the Kent, Ohio, branch of The Inverness Capers); his address is 346 East Summit Street #A, Kent, OH 44240-3680. Robert Bloch died on Sept. 23. Best known for his novel "Psycho" (on which Alfred Hitchcock based his classic horror film), Bloch was prolific in the fields of fantasy, mystery, and suspense. He also was a friend of Luther L. Norris, and an admirer of Solar Pons, and the author of an essay on "The Dynamics of an Asteroid" (in the Oct. 1953 issue of the BSJ). Conan Doyle made a cameo appearance in Bloch's novel NIGHT OF THE RIPPER (1984), and he also wrote a screenplay based on H. F. Heard's "Mr. Mycroft" novel A TASTE FOR HONEY, which was released by Paramount in 1967 (as "The Deadly Bees") without an appearance by Mr. Mycroft, who was in Bloch's screenplay, but British writer Anthony Marriott took "some vast liberties" with the script, Bloch later reported (and Bloch said that he never saw the film he called his "deformed offspring"). "Baker Street Revisited: A Weekend with Sherlock Holmes" is the 15th annual program of talks, panel discussions, and films presented by The Six Napole- ons and the Carlton Club at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Nov. 19-20. The Library's at 400 Cathedral Street, events start at 10:00 am on Nov. 19 and at 2:30 pm on Nov. 20, and there is no charge for admission. Tim O'Connor reports that the current catalog from Past Times (280 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210) (800-621-6020) has a made-in-England wool tweed deerstalker ($59.50). Gertrude Mahoney reports that the current catalog from the House of Tyrol, Box 909, Cleveland, GA 30528 (800-241-5404) offers Holmes and Watson wall masks at $29.95 each (these are the masks made in England by Legend Prod- ucts and distributed here over the years by Cowin Enterprises). And a set of Sherlock Holmes desk accessories in hand-cast English pewter: a letter opener and a magnifying glass at $36.00 each, or $69.00 the set. And they take plastic. Stu Shiffman has reported an item in Comic Shop News (Sept. 28) forecasting a two-issue comic-book mini-series SHERLOCK HOLMES: ADVENTURE OF THE OPERA GHOST, by Steven Jones and Aldin Baroza, due from Caliber Press in Oct. at $2.95 each. Sherlock Holmes vs. the Phantom of the Opera, of course. And: if the end-of-October issue doesn't arrive until the end of the first week of November, the delay will be due to my enjoying my trip to Seattle. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Oct 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press John Bennett Shaw died on Oct. 2 of a heart attack. He had the attack at home, and was taken to the hospital, and wasn't in pain, and Dorothy was with him, and they had a chance to talk before he passed away. John was unique in many ways, but I think the most important of all his achievements was that he was such a good friend to so many of us. Some of us have been fortunate enough to have enjoyed that friendship for more than thirty years (as I have), and it's difficult to accept that sort of loss. If you would like to see what some of his friends thought of John, I recommend the Dec. 1990 issue of The Baker Street Journal, which Philip A. Shreffler edited as a surprise tribute to him. And it was a surprise, and if you don't have a copy, you may be able to get that issue from the Fordham University Press, University Box L, Bronx, NY 10458-5172 ($5.00 postpaid if it's still in stock). I think that it was the fun he found in the world of Sherlockians that was most important to John, far more so than the things he collected. But of course he was well-known as a collector, and it was thoroughly appropriate that he received the Investiture "The Hans Sloane of My Age" from The Baker Street Irregulars in 1965. He received a Two-Shilling Award in 1980, and the BSI's Queen Victoria Medal in 1985, and although the awards and honors were fun to receive, it was people he enjoyed the most. He also enjoyed telling stories, about and on himself, and that's the way many of us will remember him: enjoying a good story. Readers of this newsletter should be aware that it is to John Bennett Shaw that you really are indebted for its existence, since it started with great informality in 1971 simply as sheets of paper kept by my typewriter so that I could write paragraphs of minor news to send to John. So you are sharing (and some of you have done so for many years) some of the news that I have enjoyed sending to him. Dorothy Shaw has suggested that contributions in memory of John might be made to the John H. Watson Fund, which provides assistance to Sherlockians who might not otherwise be able to attend the birthday festivities (checks payable to the Fund can be sent to Dr. John H. Watson, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr., 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648). The on-again off-again world premiere of the play "Harry and Arthur" (with Leonard Nimoy as Houdini and William Shatner as Conan Doyle) appears to be definitely off: an item in the Boston Globe (Sept. 22) reports that Ralph Miller, owner of the Bucks County Playhouse, is suing Shatner for $150,000 for breach of something-or-other. The play is based on the novel BELIEVE. (written by Shatner and Michael Tobias), and was first reported in 1992 and scheduled at the Playhouse in Dec. 1993, and postponed (more than once, it would seem). Critic's Choice Video (Box 808, Itasca, IL 60143) (800-367-7765) has some inexpensive Sherlockian video: "Sherlock Holmes and the Incident at Victor- ia Falls" (GJVES009930) at $14.98; "Sherlock Holmes and the "Leading Lady" (GJAVD051204) at $9.99; and "Without a Clue" (GJORI018733) at $9.99. These are "EP" recordings, which means low speed and low fidelity. Oct 94 #2 More catalog stuff: the carved wooden head-of-Holmes previously available on a walking stick and an umbrella is now offered on a 21-inch cast-resin shoe horn at $25.00 (item 101E) from the Horchow Coll- ection (800-456-7000). Also: "Sherlock Holmes hung his hat on a hall tree like ours," is the proud (and unlikely, I suspect) boast by Colonial Garden Kitchens (Hanover, PA 17333-0066) (800-245-3399); "this twelve-prong butler will hold your company's hats, coats, scarves" (it's brass-coated, six feet high, on sale at $28.90). Forecast: Carole Nelson Douglas' IRENE'S LAST WALTZ, from Forge in paper- back in Nov., $4.99); published earlier this year in hardcover (Feb 94 #5), this is the fourth in the imaginative series about Irene Adler Norton and Penelope Huxleigh, who investigate a murder at the Parisian establishment of king of couture Charles Worth, and then return to Prague for a second encounter with the King of Bohemia. There's a puzzle genre that consists of the first letters of the words in a phrase (such as "emdwe"), and you're supposed to figure out what the phrase is ("Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary"). Chris Redmond recently sent such a list to The Hounds of the Internet, and I'm happy to reprint it here (so that others can have some fun). The phrases all are from the Canon: achdtht ayvyloyr caoiciicats htsyjio iwtbtsb tbawmwihek tbftgoggsh tddnitnt tptlattc trhlid tshsiatw twtfoagh wboaboasu wdydwtb yhbiaip ywncmammw I have in the past assumed that the subscribers to this newsletter also are subscribers to The Baker Street Journal, but that assumption likely is less accurate now, since the newsletter is being posted in bits and bytes to The Hounds of the Internet. The BSJ is published quarterly by The Baker Street Irregulars and is edited by William R. Cochran, and I recommend it highly. The Sept. 1994 issue includes a fine article by C. Bryan Gassner and Morrow Hall about Katherine McMahon, who first met Christopher Morley when he made his rounds as a bookseller in the 1930s, and who was one of the successful solvers of the famous crossword puzzle and thus became one of the earliest members of The Baker Street Irregulars, and who in 1991 received her Inves- titure and Irregular Shilling. The BSJ costs $17.50 a year ($20.00 outside the United States); Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331. Not new, but spotted recently in a Learningsmith shop in a mall: I.Q. Games Culture Classics (Educational Insights EI-2096) is a set of card quizzes on literature and the arts (with Sherlock Holmes on the box and one quiz about "The Hound of the Baskervilles", $6.95; Mystery Authors (Whitehall Line 99- 1501) is a set of playing cards with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the box and some of the cards), $2.95. AUGUST HARVEST: ESSAYS PENNED BY VARIOUS HANDS TO KEEP THE MEMORY OF AUGUST DERLETH GREEN (New York: Magico Magazine, 1994; 172 pp., $25.00) is a fine way to see how varied August Derleth's talents were. Ely Liebow has edited the book, which includes a chapter by Paul B. Smedegaard on the Solar Pons stories, and nine other authors (including Frank Belknap Long, Norman Blei, and Steve Eng) discuss the different genres in which Derleth was so active and entertaining. The publisher's address is: Box 156, New York, NY 10002. Oct 94 #3 Further to last month's mention (Sep 94 #5) of the two-audio- cassette sets available from Listen for Pleasure, they offer four titles: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES read by Hugh Burden (LfP 7607), A STUDY IN SCARLET read by Tony Britton (LfP 7613), and THE VALLEY OF FEAR (LfP 7616) and HIS LAST BOW AND OTHER STORIES (LfP 7808) read by Martin Jarvis. The sets cost L7.49 each, shipping is extra, they accept plastic, and the address is MFP/EMI, P.O. Box 33, Hayes, Middlesex UB4 0SY, England. Western Samoa will issue a set of four stamps marking the centenary of the death of Robert Louis Stevenson, showing his yacht Equator, his home Vailima, and his tomb on Mount Vaea, as well as his portrait. He corresponded with Conan Doyle, complimenting him in 1893 on THE ADVENTURES OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES: "That is the class of literature that I like when I have the toothache. As a matter of fact, it was a pleurisy I was enjoying when I took the volume up; and it will interest you as a medical man to know that the cure was for the moment effectual." Later that year he wrote about the difficulties he encountered telling the story of "The Engineer's Thumb" to a Samoan: "It was necessary, I need hardly say, to go somewhat farther afield than you have done. To explain (for instance) what a railway is, what a steam hammer, what a coach and horse, what coining, what a criminal, and what the police." An alert for variant-hunters. The Oxford University Press catalog shows a color photograph of the boxed set of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES, with the box displaying two color illustrations on the front (rather than the three black-and-white illustrations on the box with my set). It is possible that the photograph shows a preliminary mockup that was not issued (early publi- city showed the color artwork printed on the covers of the volumes, rather than on the dust jackets as issued). Jackie Geyer reports that Sherlock Holmes has been on display in New York: an exhibit of 222 film stills at the Museum of Modern Art included two that showed Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes, and an exhibit of poster art at the Museum of Television & Radio featured a poster for the Granada series on "Mystery!" Credit Peter Calamai with having discovered Martin L. Friedland's THE DEATH OF OLD MAN RICE: A TRUE STORY OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE IN AMERICA (New York: New York University Press, 1994; 423 pp., $29.95). "Old man Rice" was William Marsh Rice, a wealthy Texan who died under suspicious circumstances in New York in 1900, bequeathing a great deal of money to found what was to become Rice University in Houston (depending on which of his wills was accepted as valid), and the book provides a fascinating account of the arrest of Albert T. Patrick for first-degree murder, and his trial and conviction and many appeals. And a demonstration that some aspects of the relationships among money, media, and justice have not changed a bit since then. And there's a connection to Conan Doyle: one of the points at issue during the trial and appeals involved embalming, and one of Patrick's supporters seems to have written to Dr. Joe Bell, who in turn contacted Sir Arthur: Friedland found a letter from Conan Doyle in an embalmers' magazine published in 1907 that said that "there seems to have been a gross miscarriage of justice." Oct 94 #4 Dave Galerstein has reported that the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery offers an opportunity to have your own copy of Joseph Mallord William Turner's fine watercolor of "The Great Falls of the Reichenbach" (1804). The painting, on display at the National Galley of Art in Washing- ton last year (Jun 93 #8), is now back in Britain. Postcards (75p), color slides (L8.00), black-and-white photographs (L10.00), and color photographs (L32.00) are available; prices include shipping, payment in sterling is re- quired with your order, and the Gallery's address is: Castle Close, Bedford MK40 3NY, England. Don Hobbs reports a source for Icelandic translations, for those who don't yet have one: Books on Iceland, Laugavegi 18, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland. The title available are AFREK SHERLOCK HOLMES 1, AFREK SHERLOCK HOLMES 2, ENDURKOMA SHERLOCK HOLMES 1, ENDURKOMA SHERLOCK HOLMES 2, AND BASKERVILLE- HUNDURINN, and the cost is $24.00 postpaid per volume (they take plastic). Steven Cragg's caricature of Conan Doyle, previously used on T-shirts marketed by Largely Literary Designs, has now appeared on bookmarks ($1.29); check your local bookshop. The bookmarks are distributed by Roxbury Twain, 25 Canal Bank Road, Windsor Locks, CT 06096. The 1994 issue of The Musgrave Papers (the annual journal published by The Northern Musgraves) offers 132 pages of scholarship, artwork, reviews and news (the society plans to offer "A Study in Scotland" in Edinburgh on May 6-8, 1995, with papers, dramatics, and gala dinner in the Great Scottish Hall). Membership in the society costs $32.00 a year (airmail to the U.S.), and includes two issues of The Ritual; the society also offers Kathryn White's artwork as prints and on Christmas cards. Write to David Stuart Davies, Overdale, 69 Greenhead Road, Huddersfield, W. Yorks. HD1 4ER, England. Heinz Ruhmann died on Oct. 4. The German actor appeared in more than 100 films, beginning with "The German Mother's Heart" (1926), and on stage and television. And he played an amusing Dr. Watson in "Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war" (1937), released on videocassette by Ufa Universum Film in 1992 and shown (subtitled in English) in many cities in the U.S. in 1993 as part of a touring program of German mystery films. The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery offers Conan Doyle's signed three-page con- tract with Eveleigh Nash and Grayson for their 1926 edition of THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (the book sold for 2s6d, with a 3d royalty to the author, who received an advance of L100, so they expected to sell more than 8,000 copies); the Gallery's address is 989 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10021 (800-376-1776), and they're asking $15,000 for the contract. "High Technology to Market Hot New MPEG Titles with Jakarta Playback Card" was the headline on a story in Business Wire (Sept. 13), reported by Mela- nie Hughes. You install the Jakarta MPEG playback card/video accelerator in your computer, and that allows you to play high-quality digitized video from CD-ROM discs. The first titles ($9.95 each) will be three discs of Max Fleischer's "Superman" cartoons from the 1940s, and one disc with two of the Ronald Howard's "Sherlock Holmes" shows from the 1950s. Oct 94 #5 Jack Kerr reports that a videocassette of "Star Trek: The Next Generation: Elementary, Dear Data" (the first of the two Data- as-Holmes episodes) is available for $14.95 at Suncoast Video (and likely at other shops). And that MURDER ON TRIAL, edited by Cynthia Manson (New York: Signet Mystery, 1994; $4.99) includes Conan Doyle's "The Prisoner's Defense". William Hjortsberg's NEVERMORE (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994; 289 pp., $21.00) brings Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini to New York in 1923, and involves them both with Opal Crosby Fletcher (a provocative and beautiful medium) and with a mysterious serial killer (who is copying the murders described by Edgar Allan Poe and whose targets include Conan Doyle and Houdini). There's lots of skullduggery and derring-do, as well as some serious slighting of the facts with regard to the lives of Conan Doyle and Houdini and their families. Michael J. Gilbert (Box 23094, Ottawa, ON K2A 4E2, Canada) crafts a nice assortment of Sherlockian pewter: figurines ($45.00), plaques ($115.00), key- chains ($8.00), and pins ($8.00); prices in Canadi- an dollars, shipping costs extra, he will send you an illustrated flier is available, and his e-mail address is . Debbie Clark reports a find at a Sun Coast video store: 3 ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (a $14.95 videocassette). Two adventures are old Ronald How- ard programs ("The Haunted Gainsborough" and "The Exhumed Client"), and one is "At the Movies" (a 48- minute set of clips, trailers, and previews); from Brentwood Home Video, 5740 Corsa Avenue, Westlake Village, CA 91362 (item #30575). The SHERLOCK HOLMES READER is a new "Courage Class- ics" collection published in cloth by the Running Press, with eight stories (Glor/Scan/RedH/Five/Spec /Fina/Empt/Danc), Christopher Clausen's essay on "Sherlock Holmes, Order, and the Late-Victorian Mind" (first published in the spring 1984 issue of the Georgia Review), and Sir Arthur's "Sidelights on Sherlock Holmes" (from MEMORIES AND ADVENTURES). 224 pp., $5.98; also available from the publish- er (shipping is extra): 125 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-4399 (800-345-5359). Andy Peck reports a Mystery Guild edition (#023432) of Kim Newman's ANNO DRACULA at $9.98; Mycroft and fellow-members of the Diogenes Club versus Dracula, who is both Prince Consort and Regent, in a well-written novel. The Guild's address is: Box 6307, Indianapolis, IN 46206-6307. Mark Alberstat's 1995 Sherlock Holmes Calendar is illustrated with artwork from The Strand Magazine, and displays important Sherlockian birthdays and William S. Baring-Gould's dates for the cases. The cost is US$12.00 post- paid, and his address is 5 Lorraine Street, Dartmouth, NS B3A 2B9, Canada. Oct 94 #6 This year's Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to mathemati- cian John F. Nash (Princeton University) and economists John C. Harsanyi (University of California at Berkeley) and Reinhard Selten (Uni- versity of Bonn) for their groundbreaking work in integrating "game theory" into the study of economic behavior. It was just 50 years ago that John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern published their treatise on THE THEORY OF GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR (in which Holmes' flight from Moriarty was used as an example to explain the game of Matching Pennies). One of the attractive items commemorating the Third Irregular Sherlockian Seminar at Stanford University in August was a set of five multi-color pins designed by Eugene Stovall. The full set measures 4 x 4.5 in. and weighs 8 oz. (so strong lapels will be important), and there are two variants are offered: the original set, with a commemo- rative plate and with errors on three of the pins ($75.00); and the unofficial set, without a commemorative plate and with the errors corrected ($60.00). The errors are on the pins for Jack McMurdo, Ted Baldwin, and Sherlock Holmes (the illustration here shows the corrected pins), and these pins also are available separately, incorrect and correct, for the completists who want everything ($20.00 for Holmes, and $15.00 each for the other two). Prices are post- paid (add $2.00 per order outside the U.S.), and the address of the company is Olympic Pin Collectors, 5848 Balmoral Drive, Oakland, CA 94619. The Mini-Tonga Scion Society had a mini-meeting during the national meeting of the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts in Anaheim, and issue #28 of The Tonga Times offers eight pages of news and articles and reviews (and instructions on how to make a miniature barometer). Membership costs $7.00 a year (with three issues of the newsletter), and if you would like to have more information about the society, you need only send a #10 SASE to Carol Wenk (Box 770554, Lakewood, OH 44107). "Matlock" (starring Andy Griffith) has used a Sherlockian plot in one show in the eight seasons it has been on television, and has had S'ian dialogue in some other shows, is now entering its ninth season, with Griffith noting the series' attention to music, in an interview in the N.Y. Daily News on Oct. 12 (at hand from Ted Friedman). "The humor and music has grown over the years, and we feel comfortable doing it: even Sherlock Holmes stopped to play his violin once in a while." Michael Taylor reports that the boxed hard-cover nine-volume edition of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES has been discounted at $49.50 (plus $5.00 for ship- ping). And while supplies last, the offer includes a set of postcards with the dust-jacket woodcut artwork (they say 90 postcards, but I assume that's a misprint for 9). Oxford University Press (Order Department), 2001 Evans Road, Cary, NC 27513 (800-230-3242); credit-card orders welcome. Oct 94 #7 Sherlock Holmes' 141st birthday will be celebrated on Friday, Jan. 6, with the traditional festivities in New York. But the festivities actually will begin on Thursday at 9:00 am at the Hotel Algon- quin (59 West 44th Street), whence Allen Mackler and Charlie Shields will lead participants in the annual Christopher Morley Walk, which ends with luncheon at McSorley's. Allen's address is 324 2nd Street NE, Osseo, MN 55369, and from Jan. 3 he will be at the Iroquois Hotel (212-840-3080). Bob Hahn (who claims to be known as the Booming Bittern of Baskerville Bog) will preside over the Aunt Clara Sing (off-hand, off-the-wall, and largely off-key) beginning some time after 8:00 pm at O'Lunney,s Steak House. You can reserve a seat by sending a check for $10.00 a person to Hugh O'Lunney (12 West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036); your $10.00 will be applied to your tab for the evening. Friday begins with the Martha Hudson Breakfast from 8:30 to 10:30 am at the Hotel Algonquin at 59 West 44th Street; $18.95 (checks payable to The Baker Street Irregulars should be sent to Tom and Ruthann Stetak, 15529 Diagonal Road, LaGrange, OH 44050). The William Gillette Luncheon starts at noon, at Moran's Chelsea Seafood Restaurant at 146 Tenth Avenue at 19th Street; $30.00 (Susan Rice, 125 Washington Place #2-E, New York, NY 10014). Otto Penzler's open house at The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street) also is on Friday, from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm, and it is possible that Sherlockian authors will be on hand to sign their books. The Baker Street Irregulars will gather at 6:00 pm at 24 Fifth Avenue (at 9th Street), and The Fortescue Symposium (sponsored by The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, The Priory Scholars, and The Montague Street Lodgers) will convene at 6:30 pm at the Sky Garden of the St. Moritz Hotel at 50 Central Park South at 6th Avenue; $60.00 (Katherine Karlson, 1259 Fowler Place, Binghamton, NY 13903). Early reservations are recommended for the break- fast, the luncheon, and the Fortescue festivities. On Saturday a posse of purveyors will offer a wide variety of S'iana at the Algonquin (also known for the occasion as Covent Garden West) from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm; vendor tables are available (Ray Betzner, 107 Tendril Court, Williamsburg, VA 23188). And The Clients of Adrian Mulliner (a Sherlockian chapter of The Wodehouse Society as well as a Wodehousean scion society of the BSI) will hold a Junior Bloodstain in the Blue Bar of the Algonquin at noon. Artist Steven Emmons, whose attractive Sherlockian artwork has been shown in the past, will exhibit again at the Chisholm Gallery, on the 6th floor at 55 West 17th Street (near Sixth Avenue) from noon until 8:00 pm (in case you're wondering what to do before or after the cocktail party). The Baker Street Irregulars will hold their annual reception, open to all Sherlockians and their friends, on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 to 5:30 pm at 24 Fifth Avenue (at 9th Street). There will be an open bar, and hot and cold hors d'oeuvres, and the cost is $35.00 a person (checks payable to The Baker Street Irregulars should be sent to Donald E. Novorsky, 5182 Mahoning Avenue NW, Warren, OH 44483). The Baker Street Irregulars are a tax-exempt organization, and Tom Stix has arranged with the Hotel Algonquin for rooms (single or double) at $145.00 a Oct 94 #8 night (Wednesday through Saturday); this is the total cost, be- cause no tax is due on reservations made through the BSI. But please note that all other charges (such as room service, telephone calls, meals, drinks, etc.) are not covered. The offer is available to all Sher- lockians: your reservations, with full names of all occupants, accompanied by payment (checks payable to The Baker Street Irregulars) should be sent to Thomas L. Stix, Jr. (34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648) and to arrive no later than Dec. 16. Note: payments to The Baker Street Irregulars for more than one event and for reservations at the Algonquin can be combined and made with one check (in U.S. funds, please) or by international money order to be sent to the BSI, c/o Thomas L. Stix, Jr., 34 Pierson Avenue, Norwood, NJ 07648. Mary Ellen Rich has once again kindly provided a list of hotels that offer reasonable (as defined by New York landlords) rates, along with a warning about non-optional extras: $2.00 a day occupancy tax, 8.25% state tax, and 5% city tax. If you plan to arrive on Thursday, it is important to confirm that the weekend-package rates include Thursday. Roosevelt (45 East 45th St.): $99 (single/double) (800-223-1870); Jolly dison (22 East 38th St.): $99 (single/double) (800-225-4340); Journey's End (3 East 40th St.): $95 (single/double) (800-668-4200); Wellington (55th St. at 7th Ave.): $94 (single) $104 (double) (800-652-1212); Iroquois (49 West 44th St.): $75 (single) $85 (double) (800-332-7220); Portland (132 West 47th St.): $70 (single) $85 (double) (212-382-0600); Pickwick Arms (250 East 51st St.): $70 (single) $90 (double) (212-355-0300). Baker Street Miscellanea's last issue (#76) has been published, and it is a fine one, offering the usual excellent mix of interesting and well-written Sherlockiana and Doyleana. Copies of issues #61-76 will be available until Dec. 1, for those who may wish to see what they've been missing; $5.00 each postpaid, from the Sciolist Press, Box 225, Winnetka, IL 60093. Benton Wood's new MYCROFT'S PUZZLE BOOK: A COLLECTION OF CONANICAL CRYPTIC & CEREBRAL CHALLENGES offers an intriguing sampling of Sherlockian puzzles Ben has published in his newsletters over the past 20 years; his address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222, and the cost is $7.50 postpaid (or $10.00 out-side the United States). Cross-over continues between the worlds of Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes. Issue #4 of Trenchcoat (a 200-page Doctor Who fanzine) offers "The Captive Sleuth", a 12-page pastiche by Patricia Smith that involves the Doctor in an attempt to rescue Holmes from a pulp publisher who is kidnapping famous detectives. US$15.00 postpaid from James Bow, 99 Krug Street, Kitchener, Ont. N2H 2X8 Canada (or CA$15.00 to addresses in Canada). Christopher Roden reports that THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES will be issued in paperback next month at L3.99 per volume ($5.95 in the U.S.) and with Fred- erick Dorr Steele artwork on the covers. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Nov 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press I mentioned earlier (Sep 94 #1) discounted editions of some of the Fordham University Press' Sherlockian titles now available from Edward R. Hamilton (Falls Village, CT 06031-5000); I've seen two of them (SHERLOCK HOLMES BY GAS-LAMP, edited by Philip A. Shreffler, and THE STANDARD DOYLE COMPANY, edited by Steven Rothman), and they are variant issues: there are no dust jackets, but the jacket art is now printed on laminated covers (which is sometimes called library or school binding). DINING WITH SHERLOCK HOLMES, by Julia Carlson Rosenblatt and Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt, may also exist in the same new binding, and the three titles likely are available from bookstores as well. Reported by D.C.A. Mulcahy: Raymond Smullyan's THE CHESS MYSTERIES OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES: FIFTY TANTALIZING PROBLEMS OF CHESS DETECTION (Sep 79 #3) has been reprinted in paperback by Times Books/Random House ($11.00). And Tom Bullimore's BAKER STREET PUZZLES, published two years ago in Great Britain (Nov 92 #4), now has an American edition (New York: Sterling Pub- lishing, 1994; 128 pp., $4.95), but with fewer puzzles; it's a collection of logic problems, number puzzles, and the like, with Holmes and Watson as characters and in the illustrations (by Ian Anderson). Thanks to Peter Costello for a copy of a new stamp from a Irish set honoring Ireland's Nobel prizewinners, one of which was George Bernard Shaw. According to Hesketh Pearson, in GEORGE BERNARD SHAW: HIS LIFE AND PERSONAL- ITY (1963), he once said to Shaw, "I am told I am wrong in identifying Doyle with his creation of Dr. Watson. Some seem to think he was Sherlock Holmes to the life." Shaw replied, "What a libel! Sherlock was a drug addict without a single amiable trait, and Watson was a decent fellow." Another nice story about Shaw is told by Edward Hardwicke, who on his 21st birthday was given a bound volume inscribed by many of his father's friends. Shaw was one of those friends, and offered some advice: "Don't go on the stage, Edward, you would only be Cedric Hardwicke's son at best." James Hill died on Oct. 7. He began his long career as a film director in 1937, making documentaries for the British post office, and had his biggest commercial hit with "Born Free" (1965). And his next film was "A Study in Terror" (1965), with John Neville and Donald Houston as Holmes and Watson. Bill Nadel offers news of an end-of-the-birthday-weekend opportunity to see the last film in which Edith Meiser appeared: "The Middle of the Night" is scheduled at 2:40 pm, 6:30 pm, and 10:20 pm on Sunday, Jan. 8, at the Film Forum 2 at 209 West Houston Street (just south of Greenwich Village); their box-office telephone number is 212-727-8110. Skeletons in the Closet (1104 North Mission Road, Los Angeles, CA 90033) is run by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office to raise funds for the local Youthful Drunk Driving Program, and continues to offer imaginative merchan- dise that includes "Sherlock Bones" (a skeleton in appropriate costume) on T-shirts, tote bags, and mugs, and they have an illustrated sales list. Nov 94 #2 Roger Johnson notes in The District Messenger that Robert Rich- ardson has a new short-story pastiche "The Woman of Goodwill" in CRIME YELLOW: GOLLANCZ NEW CRIMES 1, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (London: Victor Gollancz, L14.99), and that Ian Henry (20 Park Drive, Romford, Essex RM1 4LH, England) plans to publish Glen Petrie's new Mycroft Holmes novel THE HAMPSTEAD POISONING and a hardcover reprint of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE HELLBIRDS (1977), by Austin Mitchelson and Nicolas Utechin (the Ian Henry books are distributed in the U.S. by Players Press, Box 1132, Studio City, CA 91604). Roger's newsletter is full of news of what's happening in Great Britain (and sometimes elsewhere), and is published approximately monthly with no guarantee of how many pages or how often. The cost is $10.00 for twelve issues; dollar checks (payable to Jean Upton) can be sent to Roger Johnson, Mole End, 41 Sandford Road, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 6DE, England. Thanks to Christopher Roden for a copy of a new British stamp (part of a set honoring "Summertime") that shows cricket at Lord's. And of course there is a Sherlock- ian connection, via Dorothy L. Sayers, who said (in the Foreword to her 1946 collection UNPOPULAR OPINIONS "The game of applying the methods of the 'Higher Criticism' to the Sherlock Holmes canon was begun, many years ago, by Monsignor Ronald Knox. . . . Since then, the thing has become a hobby among a select set of jesters here and in America. The rule of the game is that it must be played as solemnly as a county cricket match at Lord's: the slightest touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere." "The Trial of Sherlock Holmes!" is the title of the mystery dinner-theater production that opened at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto on Nov. 11 (and it will play into January). "This hilarious, new, interactive murder mys- tery has the world's foremost fictional detective defending himself against the charges brought forth by the forces of Scotland Yard," according to the flier received from Mysteriously Yours (1927 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4S 1Z3, Canada) (416-486-7469 or 800-668-3323) More news of plans for the birthday festivities in New York: the location of the Jr. Bloodstain of the Clients of Adrian Mulliner has been changed, and it will be held in the Grill Room of the Penn Club of New York (30 West 44th Street) from noon to 1:00 pm on Saturday, Jan. 7. Jon L. Lellenberg would like to know how many breadroll-throwers he can expect; if you plan to attend the gathering, please let him know (3133 Connecticut Avenue NW #827, Washington, DC 20008). Gibraltar has issued eight one-crown coins honoring "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (six of the designs show Canonical scenes, the seventh shows Watson and Holmes meeting Conan Doyle in Baker Street, and the eighth has the Mary Celeste, described as "Gibraltar's own story of the great detective" in the full-color flier from the Pobjoy Mint, which struck the coins). The coins are offered in cupro-nickel ($6.95 each) and sterling silver ($39.95 each) and gold ($175.00 each) if a complete set is ordered (shipping costs $7.00 extra per order). All three metals (and additional information in an illu- strated flier) are available from the Pobjoy Mint (Box 13826, Milwaukee, WI 53213); the full-color flier and the silver coins are available from Pobjoy at Mint House, 92 Oldfields Road, Sutton, Surrey SM1 2NW, England). Nov 94 #3 Simon & Schuster's audiocassette THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES #26 ($12.00) is the last volume in this long and welcome series, with two more of the splendid radio programs written by Denis Green and Anthony Boucher. Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star in "The Haunting of Sherlock Holmes" (20 May 46) and "The Baconian Cipher" (27 May 46), and there are two new introductions by Mycroft Holmes (played by Elliott Reid). Joe Kearns substituted for Bruce in "The Haunting of Sherlock Holmes", and "The Baconian Cipher" was the last of Rathbone's appearances in the series. Ken Greenwald and his associates at 221A Baker Street deserve our gratitude for having brought us high-quality recordings of 52 of these fine shows. Reports from Bouchercon 25 in Seattle last month indicate that it was a fine event (including the Sherlockian tea sponsored by The Sound of the Baskervilles). Bouchercon 26 will be held at the Royal Centre in Nottingham, Sept. 28-Oct. 1, 1995, with Colin Dexter and James Ellroy as guests of honour; more information is available from the Broadway Media Centre, 14 Broad Street, Nottingham NG1 3AL, England. Bouchercon 27 will be in St. Paul on Oct. 9-13, 1996, with Dennis Armstrong and Bruce Southworth as co-chairs, Mary Higgins Clark as guest of honor; information from Box 8296, Minneapolis, MN 55408. Bouchercon 28 will be in San Francisco, with Bruce Taylor and Bryan Barrett as co-chairs; information from Box 6202, Hayward, CA 94540. Robert C. Hess (559 Potter Boulevard, Brightwaters, NY 11718) offers a new sales-list of Sherlockian figurines, chess sets, artwork, posters, medals, pin, badges, pipes, books, and much more. THE NEW GOOD OLD INDEX, by William D. Goodrich (Dubuque: Gasogene Press, 1994; 602 pp., $29.95) is a revised and expanded edition of GOOD OLD INDEX (1988), and it is an invaluable reference guide to the Canon. Indexing is an art as well as a science, and a good index must be far more than merely a word-list; this index is a good one indeed, keyed to the 1960 (and still current) Doubleday edition of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES. The additions include sections on Biblical and Shakespearean quotations, and if you find that boring, you can explore the citations for what this particular indexer classifies as profanity. Available from the publisher (Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004-1041); $32.70 postpaid. Further to the earlier report (Aug 94 #3), with illustration, on the avail- ability of Jill Bauman's original artwork for the cover of the unpublished eighth volume (THE LOST HEIR) in the Iron Crown series of "Sherlock Holmes Solo Mysteries" (issued as paperbacks in 1987 and 1988), I have confirmed, with kind assistance from Joan Proubasta, that the artwork was used on the cover of EL HEREDERO DESAPARECIDO, by Gerald Lientz (Barcelona: Editorial Timun Mas, 1989). As far as I know, the Spanish edition of the series is the only one to include the eighth title. Further to Michael Taylor's report (Oct 94 #6) about the Oxford University Press' discount offer on THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES, Jim Vogelsang reports that the 90 postcards with the dust-jacket woodcut artwork really are 90 postcards: ten sets of the nine cards issued when the set first appeared. Nov 94 #4 "Amusing and profound, and at times repulsive," is John Ruyle's description of the poems in his DIFFICULT OYSTERS: SEVEN MEN IN THE SAME BOAT (TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG! (the seven men being Conan Doyle, Barrie, Wells, Poe, Haggard, Wilde, and Larkin). Well-printed (as always) at the Pequod Press; $35.00 (cloth) or $15.00 (paper) from John Ruyle, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707. Paula Brown spotted a "Sherlock Holmes Cookie Jar" (from Omnibus, 8"x6.25"x18.5") in a catalog from Potpourri, 120 North Meadows Road, Medfield, MA 02052 (800-388-7798); $44.95 plus shipping, and they take plastic. The summer 1994 issue of the Metropolitan Toronto Refer- ence Library News has Bernard Partridge's 1926 caricature of Conan Doyle and Holmes on the cover, and a brief story about a display of material from the library at Niagara- on-the-Lake, and a photo of publisher George Vanderburgh, former curator Cameron Hollyer, and Library CEO Frances Schwenger. A few copies of the newsletter are available (first come, first served) from the Library (attention: Victoria Gill) at 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8, Canada). The Jan. 1995 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine celebrates Sherlock Holmes' birthday with a Sherlockian cover by Joyce Patti and two new pas- tiches: Edward D. Hoch's "A Parcel of Deerstalkers" and Robert Richardson's "The Ghost of Christmas Past". Ben Wood offers a convenient (5.5"x4.5" unopened) 1995 Sherlockian calendar (with notes on some of the Sherlockian red-letter days); $2.50 postpaid, and Ben's address is Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222. Bernie O'Heir reports that Sotheby's will hold a "World of Movie Posters" auction on Dec. 10 in New York, and will offer one-sheets of Wontner's "The Sign of Four" (1932) estimated at $3,500-5,500, and Rathbone's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939) estimated at $7,000-10,000; their address is 1334 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021 (212-606-7000). The fall 1994 issue of Scarlet Street has Richard Valley's "Cross-Dressed to Kill: Transvestism and the World of Sherlock Holmes" (discussing some of the occurrences in the Canon and on stage and screen and television), and a report that Carolco Pictures has purchased the film rights to Anne Rice's novel THE MUMMY (1989). Rice is in the news now as the author of INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (the film is doing well at the box-office), as well as the book on which the film EXIT TO EDEN is based (but the characters played by Rose O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd aren't in the book); THE MUMMY is dedicated to Arthur Conan Doyle (among others) "for his great mummy stories 'Lot No. 249' and 'The Ring of Thoth'." Scarlet Street: The Magazine of Mystery and Horror costs $20.00 a year for four issues; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Scarlet Street has, by the way, done quite well since its first issue was published in 1991 with a print run of 500 copies (and half of the run was given away, according to publisher Jessie Lillie); the 15th issue (summer 1994) had a print run of 26,000 copies. Nov 94 #5 Keith Oatley has won the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for best first novel, for THE CASE OF EMILY V., published last year in England (Nov 93 #5). The book is an interesting psychological pastiche, based on lecture-notes written by Dr. Sigmund Freud, and an account by Dr. John H. Watson after Sherlock Holmes is retained to investigate a case that involves Freud's patient. The L3,000 prize was presented to Oatley last month in Singapore. Michael Innes died on Nov. 12. He was J.I.M. Stewart, an Oxford don who used a pseudonym for his mysteries, starting with DEATH AT THE PRESIDENT'S LODGING (1936), the first of a long series about Inspector John Appleby. Many of his novels offer pleasant Sherlockian allusions and echoes, with THE MYSTERIOUS COMMISSION (1974) leading the list. Gertrude Mahoney reports a new "Sherlock Bear" in the new catalog from The Scottish Lion Import Shop (North Conway, NH 03860-1700 (item K100, $110.00 plus ship- ping, and they take plastic). Reported by Ralph Hall: the Mighty Morphin Power Rang- ers 1995 Calendar has (for October) Billy as Sherlock Holmes (Landmark, $11.99); in stores or from Landmark General Corp. (51 Digital Drive, Novato, CA 94949). "Christmas with Gumby" is a new videocassette Good- times Home Video, $10.99), with Gumby in a deerstalker and referring to himself as Sherlock and to Pokey as Watson (Goodtimes is at 16 East 40th Street, New York, NY 10016). "The Adventures of Mary Kate and Ashley: The Case of the Logical i Ranch" is a new musical-mystery vid- eocassette (Dualstar Video, $9.99) with one of the girls briefly trying to play the violin as Sherlock Holmes did. And British Heritage (Oct. 1994) has a three-page article on "Acquiring Minds: Cigarette Cards" and a color photograph of the Sherlock Holmes card in the Turf Cigarettes set ($5.00; Box 1066, Mt. Morris, IL 61054). Reported: FIRST ENCOUNTERS: A BOOK OF MEMORABLE MEETINGS, by Nancy Caldwell Sorel and Edward Sorel (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994; $24.00); 63 "first encounters" reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly (including Conan Doyle and Houdini), with the stories told by Nancy Caldwell Sorel, and illustrated in color by Edward Sorel. The Baskerville Bucher reprint of the script of Ferdinand Bonn's SHERLOCK HOLMES: DETEKTIVKOMODIE IN VIER AUFZUGEN (1906) is now available (112 pp., $16.00), with the play and annotations in German, a summary and commentary in English, and photographs from the original production, and it offers a nice look at the first and most successful of Bonn's S'ian plays. You can order from Michael Ross Verlag, Bendheide 65, D-47906 Kempen, Germany; pay- ment in currency only, please. Citadel has reissued THE SHERLOCK HOLMES ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Orlando Park (in paper covers at $12.95); the book was first published in 1962 as SHERLOCK HOLMES, ESQ., AND JOHN H. WATSON, M.D.: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THEIR AFFAIRS. It's item B106742 in a catalog from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011) and should be on bargain tables in other stores. Nov 94 #6 Chris Caswell (Baker Street Emporium, Box 2324, Seal Beach, CA 90740) has a new illustrated flier offering a new Sherlockian calendar ($11.95 postpaid) and a plaster-cast reproduction of a life mask of Basil Rathbone prepared by the make-up department at Twentieth Century- Fox ($30.00 postpaid in unfinished white, or $40.00 postpaid with bronze patina). These are discount prices offered to readers of this newsletter (so say you are), and credit-card orders are welcome. The new film "Star Trek: Generations" is fun (although one does wonder why they still haven't realized that seat-belts are a good idea on spaceships), and possibly sort-of-Sherlockian, if that really is a deerstalker and cape hanging on a hook in Data's cabin early in the film (it was only a fleeting glimpse, and I'm not sure). Reported: CRIME IN A COLD CLIMATE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CLASSIC CANADIAN CRIME, edited by David Skene-Melvin (Toronto: Simon & Pierre, 1994; 250 pp., US $16.75); with a reprint of Robert Barr's parody "The Adventure of Sherlaw Kombs". The distributor is the Dundurn Press (Box 100, Niagara Falls, NY 14302); they take plastic. The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met for dinner on Oct. 25 to honor (as usual) the world's first forensic geologist, at the Merchants Cafe in Seattle, where visitors attending the annual meeting of the Geological So- ciety of America were welcomed by members of The Sound of the Baskervilles. The Merchants Cafe is Seattle's oldest restaurant, located "down on the sawdust" on Skid Road, in a neighborhood now more gentrified than it was a century ago. Seattle also has fine bookshops, splendid seafood, and (for the geologists) a dormant volcano. The Practical, But Limited Geologists will meet next in Houston in March, and in New Orleans in November. PBS-TV and Big Feats! Entertainment have agreed to produce and distribute a new 30-minute television series about Wishbone, a Jack Russell terrier whose active imagination allows him to immerse himself in the storylines of classic books such as "Romeo and Juliet", "Don Quixote", "Oliver Twist", and "The Hound of the Baskervilles". The series' goal is to expose children to great literature, and there will be 40 episodes (including one called "The Slobbery Hound"); the series will be broadcast by PBS-TV be- ginning in the fall of 1995. An alert for variant-hunters: the latest catalog from Gravesend Books (Box 235, Pocono Pines, PA 18350) offers a copy of the first edition of DETEC- TIONARY that appears to be a hitherto-unreported later (and likely second) printing; the first printing states on the title page that it was published privately in 1971 by Hammermill Paper Company, and the newly-reported copy, otherwise identical, states 1972. The book's a "biographical dictionary" edited by five experts (Steinbrunner, Shibuk, Penzler, Lachman, and Nevins), and given by Hammermill to publishers as a showcase for its dictionary paper, and difficult to find. There's also a slightly-revised second edition published by the Overlook Press in 1977. Nov 94 #7 Reported: THE INTELLIGENT EYE: LEARNING TO THINK BY LOOKING AT ART, by David N. Perkins (Santa Monica: Getty Center for Educa- tion in the Arts, 1994; 80 pp., $10.00); a review published in The College Board Review (summer 1994), notes that Perkins "invents imaginary internal dialogues between Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes." Getty's address is 401 Wilshire Boulevard #950, Santa Monica, CA 90401 (800-223-3431). Julian Symons died on Nov. 19. He was a skilled and readable critic and mystery writer, and one of the founders of the Crime Writers Association. He succeeded Agatha Christie as president of the Detection Club, and won an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America, and was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His Sherlockian pastiches included two novels (A THREE-PIPE PROBLEM and THE KENTISH MANOR MURDERS), and he wrote an inter- esting biography PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST: CONAN DOYLE. He also suggested in BLOODY MURDER: FROM THE DETECTIVE STORY TO THE CRIME NOVEL (1972) that "the tone of mock-scholarly facetiousness" in the Writings About the Writings "must make them rank high among the most tedious pieces of their kind ever written," but removed that harsh judgement from later editions. But in all editions of that book he displayed his enthusiasm for the Canon: "Certainly what needs to be stressed today is something that should be a cliche, and unhappily is not: that if one were choosing the best twenty short detective stories ever written, at least half a dozen of them would be about Sherlock Holmes"." The Stabur Corp. (11904 Farmington Road, Livonia, MI 48150) (800-346-8940) offers a new catalog with a wide variety of comic-book material, including Sherlockian prints signed by Will Elder, Mort Drucker, and Harvey Kurtzman ($20.00 to $50.00), four issues of the Tome Press "Sherlock Holmes" series illustrated by Dan Day (1992), and reprints of the Caliber Press punk-rock detective series "Baker Street" (1989-1992). Chris Redmond reports with some pride that on Nov. 22 he established the world's first Sherlockian home page on the World Wide Web. In tekkie talk, it is found at URL http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~credmond/sh.html/. For the rest of us, that means you find someone who has a computer that has a World Wide Web viewer such as Mosaic or Netscape or Lynx, and watch while the tekkie uses that strange-looking address to let you see the neat stuff that Chris makes available from the computer at the University of Waterloo. Bert Coules, who has dramatized many of the stories for the excellent BBC radio series starring Clive Merrison as Holmes, reports that recording of the last of the short stories was completed on in Nov. (the last six of the short stories will air early in 1995). "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and "The Valley of Fear" likely will be broadcast in late 1995, or perhaps in 1996. And while BBC has no plans at the moment to release the 1989 drama- tizations of "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of the Four" on cassettes, it is possible that when the full cycle of 60 stories has aired (the first time this has been done with the same actors as Holmes and Watson), all of the stories will be issued on cassettes. But if you don't want to wait for "Stud" and "Sign" you might write to The Radio Collection (BBC Enterprises, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane, London W12 0TT, England), suggesting politely that it would be nice to be able to hear more of the fine performances by Clive Merrison and Michael Williams, since you enjoy the later cassettes so much. Nov 94 #8 There's more news in the continuing saga of John Aidiniantz's campaign to win the address 221b for his Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street: a story in the West End Extra (Nov. 4), kindly sent by Catherine Cooke (via Jon Lellenberg), notes that the Westminster City Coun- cil have rejected, for the third (and perhaps the last) time Aidiniantz's application to re-number the street. And Aidiniantz, seemingly now unable to employ hundreds of the disabled to make and sell memorabilia to those who write to Sherlock Holmes (as he had said that he intended to do if he got the 221b address), plans to sell the museum to an overseas buyer. And The Guardian reported (Nov. 10) that Aidiniantz had gotten support from Edinburgh M.P. Nigel Griffiths, who said he plans to introduce legislation in the House of Commons to reverse the Council's decision and give the 221b address to Aidiniantz. But: The Guardian has also reported (Nov. 16) that Aidiniantz has been charged with criminal fraud. He is accused of having raised a total of L1.2 million from eight multiple and fraudulent mortages, from different lenders, on three properties (including the Museum). Much of the money has vanished without trace, according to the Crown Prosecutor. Aidiniantz denies the charges, and will be representing himself in court, according to The Guardian. Virginia Lou Seay (Calhoun Book Store, Box 24552, Edina, MN 55424) offers an 18-page catalog of old and new Sherlockian books, magazines, and record- ings. And a 70-page "holiday catalogue" from The Mysterious Bookshop (129 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019) has a section for Sherlockiana, new and old and sometimes ephemeral. "Friends from Calcutta . . . had told us that Port Blair, and particularly the Welcomgroup Bay Islands Hotel, is a popular destination for newlyweds." And the Andaman Islands seem to have been discovered by the tourist trade, according to a long article in the N.Y. Times (Oct. 30), forwarded by Syd Goldberg. "Port Blair was the equivalent of Devils Island for the French," the article notes, but makes no mention of "The Sign of the Four". Indian Airlines offers six flights a week from Calcutta and Madras to Port Blair. Jim Suszynski has discovered a small magnifying glass ($0.99) packaged with Sherlockian artwork at his local CVS pharmacy. The fifth issue of Troy Taylor's The Whitechapel Gazette is at hand, with 50 pages of nicely illustrated articles on Holmes, Conan Doyle, Rathbone, Victorian criminals, and some of the mystery writers who followed the trail that Conan Doyle blazed. $6.50 postpaid; Troy's address is 805 West North #1, Decatur, IL 62522. Compliments and congratulations to R. Dixon Smith (formerly of St. Paul) and Paulina M. Smith, on their marriage and on the revival of Rupert Books (the mail-order firm operated for many years by Paulina's first husband, the late David Kirby). They have issued a new 40-page catalog of Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes material, old and new, and the address for Rupert Books is 58/59 Stonefield, Bar Hill, Cambridge CB3 8TE, England. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@cap.gwu.edu Dec 94 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Robert E. Matthews, Jr. ("The Coptic Patriarchs") died on May 20, 1994. He was a member of the end-of-the-1950s generation of Sherlockians, and a real New Yorker (he retired last year after almost 30 years of working for the city). Bob was a member of The Priory Scholars in the long-ago days of the scion's radio broadcasts from WFUV-FM (at Fordham University), and received his Investiture from the BSI in 1958. A new paperback edition of THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES published by Aerie Books for Wal-Mart may well be the cheapest one seen in decades (50c); the 269 pp. include a foreword and afterword by R. L. Fisher. Forecast: SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (from DAW Books in February); a paperback anthology of new science-fic- tion pastiches. In case you need something other than winter weather as an excuse to visit Florida, the fifth annual run- ning of The Wessex Cup at Tampa Bay Downs will be held on Feb. 11, 1995. Details are available from Dr. Benton Wood, Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222. And there's something Sherlockian about the new film "The Pagemaster" (starring Macaulay Culkin and Chris- topher Lloyd); Culkin plays a boy so afraid of the world that he won't even try out a tree-house his father built for him, and who soon winds up in an animated dream-world that includes some of the classic children's stories, and offers a brief glimpse of the Hound of the Baskervilles. There's a lot of tie-in merchandise, and Jim Vogelsang reports that there are Sherlockian allusions in many of the books. And "Star Trek: Generations" (Nov 94 #6) does have a minor Canonical con- nection: David Carson, the director of the film, worked in England for many years and directed three of the shows in the Granada series ("The Resident Patient", "The Musgrave Ritual", and "The Six Napoleons"). Plan ahead: the 14th annual Sherlock Holmes/Conan Doyle Symposium will be held at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, on Mar. 24-26, 1995. Con- tact: Greg Sullivan, 2800 North River Road, Yellow Springs, OH 45387. John Baesch reports that Barnes & Noble have reissued the Doubleday edition of THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES, beautifully bound, with an oval portrait of Holmes on the spine, and with gilt-edged pages and a permanent book-mark ($16.95). John J. Waldeck died on Nov. 28. He was a lawyer (and an expert in parlia- mentary law), and for many years a member of Sherlockian societies in Ohio, and in 1981 led a stalwart band of the Inverness Capers to London in a new attempt to identify the location of 221 Baker Street (settling on 113 Baker Street, according to a story that ran on the UPI wire). Dec 94 #2 David L. Hammer's THE 22ND MAN: IN RE SHERLOCK HOLMES: GERMAN AGENT (Jul 89 #5) led to THE QUEST: BEING THE SEARCH FOR THE TREASURE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE 22ND MAN, allegedly by Angus Maclaren (Feb 94 #2), and now David offers MY DEAR WATSON: BEING THE ANNALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (Gasogene Press, 1995; 104 pp., $12.95). The annals are the trea- sure sought in the previous book: thirteen accounts of hitherto-unreported cases. $18.70 postpaid from the publisher (Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52004). This year's Canada Savings Bonds were promoted with a colorful flier showing a Sherlockian squirrel ("take the mystery out of investing" was the motto) (that's "investir n'est pas un mystere!" in Quebec). "Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes Library" has extended its series of paperback reprints of classic Sherlockiana (with full-color artwork by Frederic Dorr Steele on the covers); the latest volumes are BAKER STREET BY-WAYS, by James Edward Holroyd, and HOLMES & WATSON: A MISCELLANY, by S. C. Roberts, and they each offer a grand opportunity to see some fine writers at work. The books are distributed by Simon & Schuster, and cost $8.00 each, and a reprint of H. W. Bell's BAKER STREET STUDIES is due soon. And Douglas G. Green's JOHN DICKSON CARR: THE MAN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES is scheduled for March in cloth at $35.00; this is a 512-page biography of one of the best of the "golden age" writers. Carr also was the author of THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1949) and some amusing Sherlockian parodies performed at annual dinners of the Mystery Writers of America. Further to the report (Nov 94 #7) about Chris Redmond's Sherlockian home page on the World Wide Web, Willis Frick reports that three files from his Sherlocktron bulletin board (a list of the Sherlockian societies, a list of Sherlockian publications, and a list of Sherlockian purveyors) are avail- able by anonymous FTP from ftp.netcom.com (directory pub/Sh/Sherlocktron). Translation: if you know how to use file-transfer-protocal, you can have your computer get those files for you. The list of Sherlockian societies is the list I maintain and offer as a 71-page print-out for $3.55 postpaid (so you can see that computers and the Internet can make things faster and less expensive). Bookcassette Sales (Box 481, Grand Haven, MI 49417) offers a three-cassette set with Michael Page reading "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Sign of Four" (unabridged, nine hours) for $17.95; you will need a cassette player with balance control, or a $4.95 adapter (they use single-track recording to get three hours on each cassette). Their toll-free number is 800-222-3225, and they welcome credit-card orders, and if you order by Jan. 13, you get a 10% discount and free shipping. One hears of Sherlock Holmes pubs everywhere: Tim Richards reported in the winter 1994 issue of The Western Flyer (a newsletter published by the Sher- lock Holmes Society of Western Australia) that a Sherlock Holmes Pub opened this year in the Ramses Hilton Hotel in Cairo. Dec 94 #3 THE ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES' DAUGHTER is an audiocassette (1993) with a Telephone Network Theatre presentation (1991) of "The Adventure of the Golden Key", written by Ian McTavish and with Renee Dennis as Minerva Holmes, the illegitimate daughter of Sherlock Holmes (who needless to say has inherited her father's deductive abilities). There are 17 installments of just under four minutes each (you called a 900 number to hear a new installment each day) (each call cost $1.75, and the number's no longer in service); it's an interesting and hitherto-unreported vehicle for a Sherlockian pastiche. The cassette was produced by Ida Games Audio (516 West 159th Street, New York, NY 10032), and retails at $8.00 in stores, and if you can't find it in your neighborhood audio store, the cassette costs $9.95 postpaid from Ida. A second adventure is forecast for June 1995. The Booker Prize is often described as the most significant literary award in Great Britain, and this year two prizes were awarded, one for 1994 and the other for 1894. The candidates for 1894 were: IN THE YEAR OF JUBILEE, by George Gissing; THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, by Anthony Hope; JUNGLE BOOK, by Rudyard Kipling; TRILBY, by George du Maurier; ESTHER WATERS, by George Moore; and THE EBB TIDE, by Robert Louis Stevenson (sorry, THE MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES didn't make the list of candidates). And the winner was: George Moore's ESTHER WATERS. Arthur Conan Doyle enjoyed the book, as did Victoria Glendinning, one of this year's judges, who said that it combined "realism and great lyrical beauty." A hundred years ago, however, a review in the Spectator suggested that "a great novel must have both humour and narrative charm. ESTHER WATERS has neither." And Moore's book was sharply criticized by others as immoral, and W. H. Smith and Son refused to sell it or circulate it in their lending libraries. Conan Doyle, in turn, criti- cized the boycott in two letters in The Daily Chronicle (reprinted in 1986 in the volume of his LETTERS TO THE PRESS edited by John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green). Conan Doyle said that ESTHER WATERS was "a great and a very serious book," and suggested that "if it is to be placed outside the pale of legitimate fiction, it is difficult to see how any true and se- rious work is to be done within it." Further to the earlier report (May 94 #2) on the Sherlock Holmes figurine in the German "playmobil" series, completists may or may not be delighted to learn that there are variants that seem to be distinguishable only from the box, which displays a number code: FS 062/4501/3092817/xx.xx. One of the boxes received from Germany earlier this year has a code ending 01.94, and a box from a store in the U.S. more recently has 05.94; the difference is of course even more minor than the points that distinguish the variants of that vinyl dog-toy The Hound of the Baskervilles (by A. Collie Dog) that was in pet shops a few years ago. Happy hunting . . . Irving L. Jaffee died on Nov. 19. He was for many years a journalist and a free-lance writer, and the author of Sherlockian articles published in Fam- ous Detective Stories, Double-Action Detective Stories, and Crack Detective and Mystery Stories in the 1950s and 1960s and collected in 1965 in ELEMEN- TARY MY DEAR WATSON: A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON THE GREAT DETECTIVE AND SOME OTHERS (1965). He and his wife Mary also wrote pastiches, and five of them were collected by Luther Norris in BEYOND BAKER STREET (1973). Irving also was a member of The Old Soldiers of Praed Street, The Trained Cormorants of Long Beach, and many other of the California societies. Dec 94 #4 SHORT STORY CRITICISM: EXCERPTS FROM CRITICISM OF THE WORKS OF SHORT FICTION WRITERS (VOLUME 12), edited by David Segal (De- troit: Gale Research, 1993) has a 44-page section on Conan Doyle, and the critics excerpted are Nordon, Lambert, Higham, Knight, Moskowitz, Slusser, Cox, Wertheim, Jaffe, and Liebow. $88.00 postpaid from Gale Research, Box 71701, Chicago, IL 60694 (800-877-4253); they take plastic. Lots of people get caught doing lots of things, and some of those people, of course, are named Moriarty. Missouri secretary of state Judi Moriarty was forced from office when the Missouri state supreme court ruled unani- mously that she committed impeachable conduct when she backdated her son's election paperwork. The backdated papers were intended to show that her son Tim had filed for a seat in the state House before the filing deadline; he withdrew from the race when the fraud was made public. Benton Wood's PHILATELIC AND NUMISMATIC HOLMES, first published five years ago, has been up-dated (through the new commemorative crowns of Gibraltar) and is now illustrated in color; 33 pp., $10.00 postpaid from Benton Wood, Box 740, Ellenton, FL 34222. The autumn 1994 issue of the Sherlock Holmes Gazette has arrived, with 48 pages and an excellent assortment of articles and illustrations and news (including a report that Jeremy Brett is keeping busy: his latest booking was for voice-overs for some television commercials for Homepride flour). And a new feature: Club Corner, with reports from some of the societies in England, Japan, and Australia (and a suggestion that other societies send in their news). The magazine is edited by Eddie Bissell, from 46 Purfield Drive, Wargrave, Berks. RG10 8AR, England; and the American distributor is Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219 (the issue costs $8.00 postpaid). THE SIGN OF FOUR had a complicated publishing history in the United States, a result of the lack of copyright protection for foreign authors in those long-ago days. That lack of protection led to a number of pirated editions here, and it was not until 1893 that J. B. Lippincott published the first authorized cloth-bound separate edition, using stereotypes from the plates used by Spencer Blackett for the first British edition (which explains the use of the British title rather than THE SIGN OF THE FOUR). The Lippincott first edition has now been reprinted in facsimile as the first in a Library of Congress Centennial Bestseller Series (Bedford: Applewood Books, 1994; 283 pp., $24.95), with a foreword by James H. Billington (Librarian of Con- gress) and an introduction by John Y. Cole (Director of the Center for the Book). Applewood's address is Box 365, Bedford, MA 01730 (800-277-5312); they also offer some other interesting older material, including Tom Swift books, a book on bundling that was banned in Boston in 1871, and Margaret Sanger's HAPPINESS IN MARRIAGE. Craig Bowlsby's entertaining two-act play "The Hound of London" was first performed in Canada in 1987, and then produced for television and broadcast in 1993 with Patrick Macnee as Sherlock Holmes (adding Macnee to the list of actors who have played both Holmes and Watson). Intrepid Productions now offers a 72-minute videocassette for $18.00 postpaid; Box 514, 250 H Street, Blaine, WA 98230), and credit card orders are welcome. Dec 94 #5 And there's news from London about Sherlock Holmes Museum pro- prietor John Aidiniantz, who was charged with criminal fraud involving eight fraudulent mortgages on three properties (including the Museum) for a total of L1.2 million (Nov 84 #8). The jury deliberated for two hours and then delivered eight verdicts of guilty, and (according to the Daily Mail) was then told that Aidiniantz had previous convictions for mail order and society security frauds stretching back 17 years (he's now 38 years old). The judge warned Aidiniantz that "there is a very serious likelihood of you facing a custodial sentence in due course," according to a report in The Times. Aidiniantz insisted that he is innocent, and said that he plans to appeal, and he is now free on bail pending sentencing in January. According to an Associated Press dispatch, Aidiniantz asked Judge David Martineau if the court could return his passport so he could pay a Christmas visit to his children who live in the United States; he promised to come back for sentencing. "It doesn't take the world's greatest detec- tive," the AP suggested, "to deduce that Martineau turned him down." The third volume of SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE is one of the top 100 CD-ROM discs, according to the Sept. 13 issue of PC Magazine (forwarded by Ruthann and Tom Stetak). "Use the hour of interactive video--sometimes comically overacted--to interview suspects and witnesses." It is issued by Viacom New Media (Viacom bought ICOM last year) at $70.00 (800-877-4266); it may be discounted in the stores, and I have read that the first two vol- umes are available at deep discounts. The first volume, in fact, is one of ten CD-ROM discs in a $30.00 "10-Pak" from Sirius Publishing. The annual series of anthologies edited by Maxim Jakubowski has moved to Gollancz, a publisher whose bright yellow jackets have long been a beacon for mystery fans, and CRIME YELLOW: GOLLANCZ NEW CRIMES 1 (London: Victor Gollancz, 1994; 283 pp., L14.99) is a nice anthology indeed. Robert Rich- ardson's Sherlockian pastiche "The Woman of Goodwill" is not entirely new (a shorter version was published in The Independent on Dec. 27-28, 1994), but appears in the book for the first time with the full text. Bernie O'Heir has reported on some of the results in the "World of Movie Posters" auction on Dec. 10 at Sotheby's in New York: a one-sheet of Wont- ner's "The Sign of Four" (1932) sold for $3,737 (including 15% commission) and a one-sheet of Rathbone's "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1939) for $7,475. A three-sheet for the original "King Kong" went for $48,000, and a three-sheet (described as unique) for "Gone with the Wind" for $71,250. John J. Kehoe, sometimes known as "Black Jack" Kehoe and as the King of the Molly Maguires, and charged with the murder of mine boss Frank Langdon, was acquitted at a trial in Pottsville earlier this month, according to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, at hand from Syd Goldberg. Needless to say, the trial was a reenactment, and was of little help to Kehoe, who was found guilty at his real trial, and hanged in Pottsville on Dec. 18, 1878. Videotape alert: the Sci-Fi Channel has acquired the "Twilight Zone" series and will broadcast them all, starting with a 15-hour marathon on New Year's Day. One of the shows is "The Arrival" (1961), which has some minor Sher- lockian dialogue that no one seems to have on videotape. So: if you have the channel, and can tape "The Arrival" at SP speed, please let me know. Dec 94 #6 "A Year with Sherlock Holmes" is the title of the 1995 calendar illustrated with interesting black-and-white artwork by Melissa Hellen (aka the Abominable Wife of Ross County), published by Cheryl Hurd's Teapot Press, and offered by Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219); $11.85 postpaid. SHERLOCK TAKES A WIFE AND OTHER MODERN TALES, by Ira Bernard Dworkin (Flem- ington: Creative Writers of Hunterdon, 1994; 92 pp., $10.00), is a reprint of the eight stories in his SHERLOCK HOLMES IN MODERN TIMES (1980), with an additional story ("Sherlock Takes a Wife") in which Holmes marries in the 1980s; the other stories also have him alive and well in WW2 and later dec- ades. The publisher's address is Box 14, Flemington, NJ 08822. Morency R. Dame ("Colonel Lysander Stark") died on Nov. 18. He served in the infantry officer in the Second World War and the Korean War, with many years as an Army Ranger, and retired as a lieutenant colonel, enjoying the appropriateness of his investiture in the BSI, which he received in 1982. He also was the first Chief Surgeon of Dr. Watson's Neglected Patients in Denver, and edited their newsletter The Medical Bulletin, and contributed to our literature in The Baker Street Journal. The "Mystery Money" ticket is from one of the games in the Michigan state lottery this sum- mer (Sam Stinson of The Ribston-Pippins notes that one member of the society matched three umbrellas and won $2.00). "Americans, particularly, are very keen" col- lectors of second-hand pipes, according to Dunhill archivist Howard Smith, who was quoted in The Times (Nov. 5). Of course the pipes aren't necessarily used. Dunhill issued a limited-edition silver-mounted "calabash" pipe in 1987 to honor the centenary of the first Sherlock Holmes story; packaged in a sumptuous red leather "book", it cost L200 (and now is worth about L1,500, according to the article). Mel Hughes has kindly forwarded a report from the San Diego Union-Tribune (July 15), in which Don Freeman reminisced about a long-ago interview with Sir Cedric Hardwicke. During the interview the telephone rang, and before answering it, Hardwicke said, his voice full of drama, "I wonder how that phone call will change my life." Then he merely said two words into the phone: "Thank you." And, asked if the phone call would indeed change his life, he replied, "Well, not exactly. It was the cleaners. My suit is ready." Rhetorical question of the month (from the Dec. 1994 issue of Generation Next: If cats always land on their feet, and toast always lands buttered- side down, what happens if you tie a piece of toast buttered-side-up to a cat's back and drop him? And my address for electronic mail has changed (see below): The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org