Jan 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The birthday festivities in New York were nicely unwintry, and enjoyable as usual. Thursday offered a variety of informal gatherings, concluding with the Aunt Clara Sing at O'Lunney,s Steak House and some Iroquois Hotel room parties that may or may not have ended early Sunday morning. Friday's schedule began with the Mrs. Hudson Breakfast at the Hotel Algon- quin, and continued with the William Gillette Luncheon at Moran's Chelsea, where Paul Singleton, Sarah Montague Joffe, and Andrew Joffe performed what may be the world premiere of a play written by William Gillette when he was only 21 years old (it is likely that "The Sorrowful Tragedy of Jimlagaglio" may never be performed again, since many members of the audience found it memorable only for the exploding nuns). And Otto Penzler's open house at the Mysterious Bookshop offered refreshments as well as tempting treasures for collectors. The Baker Street Irregulars gathered at 24 Fifth Avenue, where *The* Woman was Myrtle Robinson, who was toasted by David Hammer during the pre-dinner cocktail party and then dined at the National Arts Club with a dozen other ladies who have received that honor. The BSI's agenda featured the usual toasts and traditions, and some unusual entertainment, including Marina Stajic's put-'em-on-one-at-a-time presentation on Victorian undergarments, Tom Stetak's discussion of Canonical lawn ornaments (which might well have been subtitled "beware the deadly sundial"), Paul Herbert's report on two Sherlockian films that never made it from script to screen (for which Sher- lockians can be thankful), and Sherry Rose-Bond's toast to The Second Most Dangerous Man in London (in which she explained why that title really ought to be assigned to Sherlock Holmes). Irregular Shillings and Investitures were given to David Stuart Davies ("Sir Ralph Musgrave"), Thomas J. Francis ("The Imperial Opera of Warsaw"), Theodore Friedman ("The Commonplace Book"), Marina Stajic ("Curare"), Dante M. Torrese ("Von Herder"), Gerald N. Wachs ("Godfrey Emsworth"), Kathryn White ("The Musgrave Ritual"), and Ronald White ("The Cabinet Photograph"). And Robert S. Katz received the BSI's Two-Shilling Award. The Fortescue Symposium also convened on Friday evening, at the St. Moritz Hotel, where the agenda included Cheryl Hurd's paper on Canonical gardens and gardening, and a presentation on Canonical divorce by Aretha Franklin (impersonated by Kate Karlson), and energetic and enthusiastic singing of songs by many people who may still be wondering whether reindeer really are Sherlockian. On Saturday morning the usual suspects gathered at the huckster room at the Algonquin (aka Covent Garden West), and the BSI Saturday-afternoon cocktail party at 24 Fifth Avenue offered food and drink and a bit of entertainment: Al Rosenblatt's poetic report on events at the BSI annual dinner, the usual fast-and-furious auction that raised more than $1,100 for the Dr. John H. Watson Fund. Saturday evening the Chisholm Galley was open for a memorial service for Steve Emmons, who died shortly before the weekend; Steve was a splendid artist whose striking and imaginative Sherlockian poster art, both originals and limited-edition reproductions, was welcomed by collectors. Jan 95 #2 The cocktail party included an announcement by William R. Coch- ran, editor of The Baker Street Journal: the Morley-Montgomery Memorial Award, established by Lew David Feldman in 1958 for the best con- tribution to the BSJ, has been revived. The author of the best paper pub- lished in 1995 will receive a prize of $500. The announcement included a warning that Poul Anderson, winner of the award in 1958, will have a paper in the BSJ in 1995, but the competition is open to all; Bill's address is 517 North Vine Street, DuQuoin, IL 62832. One of the auction items offered a room for two nights at the Beekman Arms and two seats at the Culinary Institute of America on May 13, which is the date of the Grand Gourmet Sherlockian Dinner at the CIA in Hyde Park. The Beekman Arms already is fully booked for the week-end, and the price of the dinner has not yet been set, but I will publish the important information as soon as it is available. 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. THE SHERLOCK HOLMES VIDEO is a new 52-minute videocassette that has nicely blended modern views of the cities and towns and countryside where many of the Canonical stories occurred with interviews with Sherlock Holmes' secre- tary and Stanley MacKenzie. Holmes and Watson provide their own commentary (with style and humor), and the cassette is available for $30.00 postpaid from Countryside TV Productions, Chargot Manor, Luxborough, Watchet, Somer- set TA23 0SL, England; it's an NTSC cassette, for American machines. Herman Beerman ("Sir James Saunders") died on Jan. 1. He was an eminent dermatologist and an enthusiastic Sherlockian, and combine his two worlds by founding The Sir James Saunders Society for dermatologist who shared his enjoyment of the Canon. He was a Master Copper-Beech-Smith of The Sons of the Copper Beeches of Philadelphia, and his gentle manner and devilish wit contributed greatly to their meetings. Gillette Castle has deteriorated to the point where more than $1 million is needed for renovations, and private fund-raising may be the only way to get the money, according to an article by Ward Morehouse III in the N.Y. Post (Dec. 30), at hand from Ted Friedman. The castle leaks and the masonry has weakened, and one worker at the castle joked that "we haven't had a strong wind, so it's still standing." And John Rowland, who just won reelection as governor of Connecticut, campaigned on a platform that included repeal of the state income tax, and may not look kindly on increasing spending on state parks. Reported: THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES AND OTHER DETECTIVE STORIES, with an introduction by Owen Dudley Edwards (London: HarperCollins, 1994; 1468 pp., L9.99); the Canon and many other stories. Jan 95 #3 Tom Kowols reports that BBD Audio has released MEMOIRS OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES, VOLUME 3, with four more of the BBC radio program starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams; the two-cassette set costs $15.99, and the stories are "The Greek Interpreter", "The Naval Treaty", "The Final Problem", and "The Second Stain". Apparently some sets shipped with defective second cassettes ("The Second Stain" is missing); Tom Galbo reports that replacements are available from BBD's distribution center at 2451 South Wolf Road, Des Plaines, IL 60018. One of the most fascinating and frustrating aspects of the world of Sher- lockians in the 1980 and 1990s is the increase in Sherlockian scholarship published in languages other than English: fascinating because there is so much excellent work done in other languages, and frustrating because it is not accessible to those who do not speak those other languages. Newly at hand is LA PEQUENA COMPLICACION DOMESTICA DE LAS TRES SEGUNDAS MANCHAS, by Manuel Diez-Alegria (Madrid: The Amateur Mendicant Society, 1994); this is a 124-page monograph dealing with "The Little Domestic Complication of the Three Second Stains", and it is carefully researched. The question of how many cases there actually were has long intrigued Sherlockian scholars who have noted that the case mentioned by Watson in passing seems not to be the one he wrote using that title; Diez-Alegria concludes that there was only one case, which occurred in 1886, and he identifies all the politicians who were involved in it. The monograph costs $10.00 postpaid (currency only, please), from Miguel Gonzalez-Pedel, C/ San Vidal 15 (3-B), 28010 Madrid, Spain; if you want it by airmail the cost is $20.00 postpaid. The Tortoises of Galapagos is the newest Sherlockian society, founded by Irving and Selma Kamil on the island of Santa Cruz, where they landed from the yacht Cruz del Sur on Nov. 19, 1994. The society is for Sherlockian visitors to the Galapagos (although Irv is normally found at 32 Overlook Avenue, Cliffside Park, NJ 07010). Nino Erne died on Dec. 11. He was the editor of a uniform edition of the Sherlock Holmes stories translated into German and published in 1959 and later years by Bluchert and many other publishers. The GESAMMELTE WERKE IN EINZELAUSGABEN did much to bring Sherlock Holmes to the attention of German readers, and Erne's excellent forewords and introductions helped in this. SHERLOCK TAKES A WIFE AND OTHER MODERN TALES, by Ira Bernard Dworkin (Flem- ington: Creative Writers of Hunterdon, 1994; 92 pp., $10.00), reviewed last month (Dec 94 #6) is available from the publisher (Box 724, Flemington, NJ 08822) for $11.50 postpaid). Mary Ann Warner (Annmar Enterprises, 2711 Fairlane Place, Chino Hills, CA 91709-1240) offers an illustrated flier for four new Sherlock Holmes mouse pads ($8.95 each plus shipping). "They Might Be Giants" is alive and well, and getting ready for a new tour, according to an report spotted by Chris Redmond in the Varsity Review (Nov. 3, 1994). That's the rock group, not the film, but the rock group is named for the film. John Linnell and John Flansburgh founded the duo in 1982 and have been touring and recording ever since; their new album is "John Henry" (Elektra), and they have a dial-a-song number in Brooklyn (718-387-6992). Jan 95 #4 Peter Cook died on Jan. 9. Regarded as one of the founders of modern British satire, he performed in the comedy revue "Beyond the Fringe" in the 1960s, launched the satirical magazine Private Eye, and shared the screenplay credit with Dudley Moore for a comedy version of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (1978) and starred in the film; Variety's review described Cook's Holmes as an "absurdly degenerate version of Conan Doyle's master-sleuth." Cook also had an amusing scene in the film "Without a Clue" (1988), as Norman Greenhough, publisher of The Strand Magazine, thoroughly shocked at the news that "The Crime Doctor" intends to succeed Holmes. The fourth running of the Rache Road Rally, planned by The STUD Sherlockian Society for Mar. 5, will honor the centennial of automobile racing in Amer- ica, duplicating the original race from Chicago to Waukegan ("but with more Canonical twists than you'll find in one of Mrs. Turner's German pretzels," Don Izban promises). The weekend also includes a meeting of The Solar Pons Breakfast Club on Mar. 3; additional information is available from Donald B. Izban, 5334 Wrightwood Avenue, Chicago, IL 60639-1524. 1995 marks the 100th anniversary of Buster Keaton's birth, and many of his films are now being released on cassettes and laserdiscs by Kino on Video (800-562-3330) in three boxed sets, according to TV Guide (Jan. 14). One of the films is "Sherlock Jr." (1924), described recently by the American Film Institute as "'The Purple Rose of Cairo' in reverse, as dreaming pro- jectionist Buster jumps right into the screen (amid furious editing from garden bench to city street to cliff to lions) that eventually settles down to Keaton as ace detective Sherlock Jr. outwitting the bad guys, with an electrifying motor-cycle chase ... years later a routine physical revealed he'd unknowingly broken his neck when the water tank spout swept him away." 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. Jim Suszynski reports a Sherlockian deerstalkered Bugs Bunny on five of the cards in and on a $1.99 box of "34 Tiny Toon Adventures Mystery Valentines" distributed by the Paper Magic Group to CVS drug stores. ENCYLOPEDIA SHERLOCKIANA, by Matthew E. Bunson (New York: Macmillan, 1994; 326 pp., $25.00) is a worthy successor to Jack Tracy's out-of-print volume with the same title; subtitled "an a-to-z guide to the world of the great detective," it conforms to the format used by Tracy but extends the focus beyond the Canon itself, with additional entries on actors, artists, films, plays, pastiches, and much more, including many excellent illustrations. The rhetorical question of the month (Dec 94 #6) was: 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? Russ Geoffrey's answer is: it depends on the price of the carpet. Patrick Campbell reports that he has conducted exhaustive tests, with his cats and buttered toast, with and without parsley, and has found that the assembled unit landed on its left side (possibly true only north of the Equator). Jan 95 #5 Last year (May 94 #6) Warren Randall noted entries for Holmes and Watson and Conan Doyle in A BOOK OF DAYS FOR THE LITERARY YEAR. And now Warren reports an entry for Conan Doyle in THE PHYSICIANS' BOOK OF DAYS (May 22) and for Holmes in THE LAWYERS' BOOK OF DAYS (Jan 6.); both published by Hugh Lauter Levin Associates and distributed by Macmillan (New York). Warren also spotted a comment in Richard Zoglins' long article on the Star Trek phenomenon in Time (Nov. 28, 1994): "Star Trek has never won much respect. In the realm of long-running entertainment phenoms, Sherlock Holmes has more history; James Bond, more class; Star Wars and Indiana Jones, more cinematic cachet. And while no one sneers at the Baker Street Irregulars, noninitiates consider Trekkies to be pretty odd." And while it's too late to help voters in New York decide who to vote for in the governor's race, Warren has forwarded an item from Newsday (Oct. 19, 1994) with answers to questions posed to candidates Cuomo and Pataki. One of the questions asked for the candidates' favorite book: Cuomo answered: "Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's The Divine Milieu because it's a wonderful combination of poetry and ultimate truth." And Pataki answered: "Sherlock Holmes". George E. Pataki (Rep.) is now governor of New York. Our new "Happy New Year!" stamp honors the oriental year of the boar. The weather-bitten pillars on either side of the lodge gates were surmounted by the boars' heads the Baskervilles, and there also is mention of a "human wild boar," formidable in its bestiality, in "The Veiled Lodger". Further to the report (Dec 94 #2) of a new Sherlock Holmes Pub in Cairo, Al and Julie Rosenblatt note that a friend has reported a Sherlock Holmes Free House on Collins Street in Melbourne, Australia. The comic-book mini-series SHERLOCK HOLMES: ADVENTURE OF THE OPERA GHOST is now in the shops; two issues, $2.95 each, from the Caliber Press, and it's the Phantom of the Opera again. THE SHAW FESTIVAL'S "SHERLOCK HOLMES", by William Gillette (1994; 208 pp.), offers Christopher Newton's revised version of the Gillette play (performed last year at the Shaw Festival), with additional material that includes an excellent essay by Chris Redmond about the play and about Gillette, and a reprint of Gillette's "The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes", and is available in plastic clam-shell binding from George Vanderburgh (Box 204, Shelburne, Ont. L0N 1S0, Canada); CA$20.00 plus US$3.00 shipping. Also available from George Vanderburgh is THE UNPUBLISHED SOLAR PONS, by August Derleth (1994; 102 pp.), offering three hitherto unpublished stories and an unfinished fourth story (the latter previously published by Luther Norris in The Pontine Dossier). Derleth created Solar Pons as a tribute to Sherlock Holmes, and the Pontine saga has long been highly regarded for its imagination and style; the unpublished stories are among the first he wrote (in 1929 and 1930), and were not even known to exist until ten years ago, when his college roommate donated them, with other Derleth papers, to the August Derleth Society. The book is bound in paper-covered boards and the cost is CA$20.00 plus US$3.00 shipping. Jan 95 #6 Jack Tracy has issued a new catalog from Gaslight Publications (3888 West Sahara Avenue #221B, Las Vegas, NV 89102), offering W. W. Higgins' OUR BLAZONINGS AND CHARGES (due in March at $18.95) as well as a long list of in-print books from Gaslight and other publishers. The telephone number is 702-221-8495, and credit card orders are welcome. Many of the cable networks have their own monthly magazines, and Arts & En- tertainment is no exception. A&E Monthly (Jan. 1995) celebrated Sherlock Holmes' birthday with a nicely Sherlockian "Quiz for the Fiendishly Clever" by Lester Shane, and an article on Sherlockian collectibles by Linda Peter- son (with attractive color photography); 235 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017; $2.50. It is frustrating to consider how many really grand shows were broadcast on television in the days before videocassettes. Among them were the programs in the series "The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes" (with 26 shows broadcast by ITV in Britain in 1971 and 1973). Some of them were aired here in 1972 and they were delightful. The series was triggered by the anthologies edited by Hugh Greene, of course, and offered (to name only a few) Derek Jacobi as Duckworth Drew, John Neville as Dr. John Thorndyke, Robert Stephens as Max Carrados, Roy Dotrice as Simon Carne, Donald Pleasance as Carnacki, Douglas Wilmer as Prof. S.F.X. Van Dusen, and Charles Gray as Eugene Valmont. And I'm sure they'll never be rebroadcast by PBS-TV on "Mystery!" Another fine series was "The Edwardians" (produced by the BBC and broadcast in 1972); it had eight programs about interesting Edwardians such as Baden-Powell, Lloyd George, Daisy Warwick (a very close friend, as was said in those days, of the Prince of Wales), and Arthur Conan Doyle (played by Nigel Davenport). Only four of the shows were broadcast by PBS-TV here (including the one on Conan Doyle, but unfortunately long before VCRs were widely owned). A year ago I suggested (and I will suggest again) that Arts & Entertainment cable carries a lot of fine British programming, old and new, and it might not be at all amiss to write to A&E (address as above) to ask that they consider broadcasting these fine series. John Aidiniantz, proprietor of The Sherlock Holmes Museum, who was convict- ed last month on charges of obtaining L1.2 million by deception, was jailed for three years and fined L30,000 in costs, according to a brief report in the Daily Telegraph (Jan. 21), noted by Wayne Swift. Jennie Paton reports WINNIE THE POOH: DETECTIVE TIGGER, a 55-minute commer- cial videocassette from Walt Disney Home Video with four excerpts from the animated "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh"; three of them ("Tigger, Private Ear", "Eeyore's Tail Tale", and "Sham Pooh" feature Tigger in Sher- lockian costume. Jerry Kegley, John Farrell, and Chuck Kovacic recently created the Curious Tiger Press and from it have published the first issue of Baker Street W1, a new journal intended as a rallying point for Sherlockians who live west of the Mississippi and thus have far fewer opportunities for the proverbial whiskey and sodality than those in the more populous east. The first issue offers a fine article by Steve Hecox on Jefferson Hope's career in Nevada, reports on western society activities, and more; $3.00 postpaid from Jerry Kegley, 110 El Nido #41, Pasadena, CA 91107. Jan 95 #7 The next "Victorian Holmes Weekend" in Cape May, N.J., will be held on Mar. 31-Apr. 2. There will be a mystery to solve (with prizes for the winners) during a tour of eight Victorian homes, and meals, and other fun and games. More information is available from the Mid-Atlan- tic Center for the Arts, Box 340, Cape May, NJ 08204-0340 (609-884-5404). I tend not to mention The Baker Street Journal often in this newsletter, on the grounds that those fanatic enough to subscribe to this newsletter also subscribe to the BSJ (and if you don't, I recommend it, and it costs $18.95 a year for four issues). But what's truly worthy of mention here is A CUM- ULATED INDEX TO THE BAKER STREET JOURNAL 1970-1993, compiled by Donald A. Redmond: it is an invaluable tool for people who want to know what's been published in the BSJ since 1970, because it is a true index (as opposed to a list of authors' names and titles of articles). The authors and titles are there, to be sure, but Don Redmond also has including careful indexing by subject, and that's what makes an index an index. There are 120 pages, and it costs $19.95 postpaid, and the address (both for the BSJ and for the index) is The Baker Street Journal, Box 465, Hanover, PA 17331. Debi Pollard notes an attractive Rathbone/Bruce T-shirt, available from Book'em Mysteries, 1118 Mission Street, South Pasadena, CA 91030 (818- 799-9600); $21.95 postpaid; credit card orders are welcome. The design is by Pasadena artist/ actor Michael Wilhelm, and the shirts are avail- able in large and extra-large sizes. "London in Children's Literature and the History of Childhood" is the title of the Christopher Newport University summer seminar in London from July 27 to Aug. 9; the seminar can be taken for credit and will be taught by Prof. Kara Keeling, and the Canon is among the children's classics to be studied. University president Anthony R. Santoro, a member of The Cremona Fiddlers, will be on hand to ensure proper attention to Sherlock Holmes. Additional information is available from Prof. Keeling at Christopher New- port University, Newport News, VA 23606-2998. Dana Richards has reported an interesting (and Sherlockian) "Double Cross" puzzle on page 36 of the Jan. 1995 issue of Games World of Puzzles. Arthur and Joyce Ann Liebman will guide their 14-day tour "In the Footsteps of Sherlock, Dracula, and Agatha" in England, starting by air from New York on Aug. 5, 1995. Their phone number is 516-621-6008, or you can write to Contemporary Tours, 580 Plandome Road, Manhasset, NY 11030. One of the interesting things about Sherlockians who are collectors is that quite often they collect something other than Sherlockiana. A fine example of such a non-Sherlockian collection is on exhibit at The Grolier Club in New York through March: Jerry and Glorya Wachs' collection of 19th-century English poetry. And the catalog prepared for the exhibit offers some fine lessons on why and how collectors collect (and they happily pay tribute to A.S.W. Rosenbach, who once suggested that "After love, book collecting is the most exhilarating sport of all"). Jan 95 #8 The winter 1995 issue of Scarlet Street has arrived, with David Stuart Davies' interview with Jeremy Brett, who offers some new anecdotes about the Granada series. Asked, "Will you play Sherlock Holmes again?" Brett smiled and said sweetly, "That door is never quite closed." Scarlet Street now has a video department, selling the Granada and Rathbone series and other Sherlockian films. The magazine costs $20.00 a year for four issues; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. And Scarlet Street publisher Jessie Lilley notes with pride that a copy of the magazine is on display in an exhibit of "Screams on Screen: 100 Years of the Horror Film" at the N.Y. Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center (the exhibit is on through April). Syd Goldberg has reported a knighthood for another Sherlockian actor: the Queen's annual New Year's honours list included Robert Stephens, who starred in "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1970). The eight one-crown coins issued last year by Gibraltar in honor of "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" (Nov 94 #2) are offered by Peter Mosiondz, Jr. (26 Cameron Circle, Laurel Springs, NJ 08021) at prices slightly lower than those asked by the Pobjoy Mint; write for his illustrated flier. According to my not-always-infallible records, subscribers to the ink-on- paper edition of this newsletter all now should have my seasonal souvenir for 1995 ("GORGON'S FATHER"), received during the birthday festivities in New York, or since, or with this mailing. If I managed to forget anyone, please let me know. And it's available to readers of the electronic edi- tion in return for two 32c stamps; it's a modest tribute to the 1940s comic strip "Barnaby" and its creator Crockett Johnson, reprinting an passing but amusing reference to the Canon. And a few commercials: the revised 15-page list of Investitured Irregulars, Two-Shilling Awards, *The* Women, and the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes costs $1.15 postpaid. The 72-page list of 657 Sherlockian societies, with names and addresses for contacts for the 397 active societies, costs $3.65 postpaid. A run of address labels for 336 individual contacts (recommended if you wish to avoid making duplicate mailings to people who are contacts for more than one society) costs $10.30 postpaid. Checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please. For the electronically enabled, the 15-page list of Irregulars and others is available from me as e-mail without charge, and the list of Sherlockian societies is offered by Willis Frick via anonymous ftp from ftp.netcom.com (directory pub/Sh/Sherlocktron). Al and Julie Rosenblatt's splendid 20-page souvenir menu for "An Evening in Scarlet" at the Culinary Institute of America on May 16, 1987, handsomely devised, designed, and produced, with many illustrations, annotations, and explanations, is still available for $18.00 postpaid; checks also payable to Peter E. Blau, please). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Feb 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press The ninth 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). And for $1.00 more you can receive the annual and a year of the society's monthly newsletter. The Giant Rats of Sumatra have a new necktie (red) with an amusing design (yellow); $25.00 postpaid from Raymond J. Phillip, 2865 Stage Coach Drive, Memphis, TN 38134. Gayle Harris spotted nice news in the N.Y. Times (Jan. 7): a photograph of members of the Greater Philadelphia Search and Rescue Team searching for a cougar reported in Cobbs Creek Park in Yeadon. The search was led by Jim Hosgood and his bloodhound Watson. One of the nice souvenirs distributed during the birthday festivities was Cheryl Hurd's "A Sherlockian Garden" (two pages of helpful hints for people considering a horticultural tribute to the Canon); send a #10 SASE to the Teapot Press, Box 2048, Scotia, NY 12302. Don Hobbs reports that Thomas W. Olson's two-act play "Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars" has been scheduled by the Dallas Children's Theater on June 2-18, 1995; the box-office address is 2215 Cedar Springs, Dallas, TX 75201 (214-978-0110). The play premiered in Minneapolis in 1989 and was well-received. The latest issue of The Sherlock Holmes Review is largely devoted to the Granada series, with articles by Patricia Ward, Steven T. Doyle, and Mark Allen Gagen, and a long interview with Michael Cox. 64 pp., $6.00 postpaid from Steven T. Doyle, Box 583, Zionsville, IN 46077 (a four-issue subscrip- tion costs $20.00). Plan ahead: the fifth annual Mid-Atlantic Mystery Book Fair and Convention will be held at the Holiday Inn (Independence Mall) in Philadelphia on Nov. 10-12. Membership is limited to 450, full registration costs $45.00, and the contact is Deen Kogan, Detecto-Mysterioso Books, 507 South 8th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147. Norman Houde reports that THE QUEST FOR SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: THIRTEEN BIOGRAPHERS IN SEARCH OF A LIFE, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg (Nov 87 #4) is offered by The Scholar's Bookshelf, 110 Melrich Road, Cranbury, NJ 08512, discounted to $14.95. The book is a fine guide to the many, and frequently unreliable, biographies. Geraldine Beare's anthology CRIME STORIES FROM THE 'STRAND' in 1991 (with "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Dying Detective") was followed by ADVENTURE STORIES FROM THE 'STRAND' in 1992 (with "A Pot of Caviare") and this year by ADVENTURE STORIES FROM THE 'STRAND (with "How the Brigadier Came to the Castle of Gloom"). The three volumes are illustrated by David Eccles and make a uniform set; the new title costs $37.95 from The Folio Society, 2323 Randolph Avenue, Avenel, NJ 07001 (and the first two are still in print). Feb 95 #2 Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes Library continues its series of reprints of classic Sherlockiana: BAKER STREET STUDIES, edited by H. W. Bell (New York: Otto Penzler Books, 1995; 223 pp., $8.00), first appeared in 1934; it was (and still is) a splendid anthology of scholarship written by Dorothy L. Sayers, Helen Simpson, Vernon Rendall, Vincent Star- rett, Ronald A. Knox, A. G. Macdonnell, S. C. Roberts, and Bell himself. "I was able to refer him to two parallel cases, the one at Riga in 1857, and the other at St. Louis in 1871, which have suggested to him the true solution," Sherlock Holmes said (in "The Sign of the Four"). Union Station in St. Louis is shown on a postal card issued last year, but Charles Lavazzi reports that the station opened on Sept. 1, 1884, far too late for that Canonical reference, or for the one found in "A Study in Scarlet" ("When you see him, ask him if he remembers the Jefferson Hopes of St. Louis"). But Union Station was there when Arthur Conan Doyle arrived in St. Louis by train in 1923. And in OUR SECOND AMERICAN ADVEN- TURE he told a story he heard in St. Louis, about a drummer selling potted milk. "It came from a contented cow," was his slogan. His fellow-drummer was selling some imitation beer. "I wish I had a slogan like yours," he said. "Well," said the other, "I've seen your stuff and tasted it. You might say it came from a discontented horse." Shall the world, then, be overrun by Sherlock Hound porcelain? The teapot available previously from What on Earth (Sep 94 #5) also is available from The Mind's Eye, Box 1060, Petaluma, CA 94953 (800-949-3333), along with a new matching set of four mugs ($44.95), according to Tim O'Connor. The Sherlock Holmes Journal has long been one of the best of Sherlockian periodicals, and the winter 1994 issue is at hand, with Richard Lancelyn Green's excellent article about the history of The Sherlock Holmes Society, and the S'ian scholarship in the early 1930s that preceded the founding of the Society in 1934. The Sherlock Holmes Society was dissolved in 1938, and was succeeded by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, whose member- ship secretary is Graeme Jameson (75 Kingsgate Street, Winchester, Hants. SO23 9PE, England); you can write for details (including available back issues and other material). Green quotes from a letter written by Dorothy L. Sayers to H. W. Bell in 1932: "I am also for maintaining the authenticity of the established text wherever possible, because this demands much more complication and perverse ingenuity than iconoclasm. What I like so much about your book was the determined seriousness and majestic parade of scholarship with which it plays the game. It's no fun unless it is played with deadly earnestness." Sayers continued in that belief, and in the introduction to her UNPOPULAR OPINIONS (1946) wrote: "The game of applying the methods of the 'Higher Criticism' to the Sherlock Holmes canon was begun, many years ago, by Mon- signor 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 slight- est touch of extravagance or burlesque ruins the atmosphere." Feb 95 #3 Arthur H. Lewis died on Jan. 25. He grew up in Mahanoy City, and had first-hand experience of the Shenandoah Valley, well- demonstrated in his book LAMENT FOR THE MOLLY MAGUIRES (1964), on which the 1970 film "The Molly Maguires" was based. He was a faithful member of The Sons of the Copper Beeches, and he had grand fun libelling his fellow Sher- lockians in his murder mystery COPPER BEECHES (1978). "You don't happen to have a Raphael or a first folio Shakespeare without knowing it?" Sherlock Holmes asked (in "The Three Garri- debs"). And this year's "Love" stamp has a Raphael cherub (from his "Sistine Madonna"), according to the postal service. Well, not quite, according to Joseph Cafetta Jr., whose letter in the Washington Post (Feb. 2) notes that the stamp actually portrays one of two "putti" (guardian death angels) that Raphael painted resting their elbows on the coffin of Pope Julius II. When the pope, who was Raphael's patron, died in 1513, Raphael made the painting to be carried in the funeral procession, and it is now in the Dresden Gallery in Germany. The 10th World of Drawings and Watercolours Fair was held at the Park Lane Hotel in London last month, and one of the paintings offered (for L24,000) was Charles Altamont Doyle's watercolor "Enjoying the Ice: a Curling Match on Duddingston Loch" (the loch, southeast of Edinburgh, was a favorite for skating and curling matches, according to the report spotted by Wayne and Francine Swift in The Times, and the artist was the father of Arthur Conan Doyle). Joseph A. Coppola reports that the Oxford University Press is considering reprinting the colorful set of postcards that were used as promotion for THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES; if you'd like to be on their mailing list, you can call them at 800-451-7556. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE WHITE LADY OF FEATHERSTONE is Tony Lumb's second pastiche about Holmes' investigations in Yorkshire, again with plenty of local color; the 31-page pamphlet costs $5.00 postpaid (currency, please) from the author (21 Albert Street, Featherstone, Pontefract, West Yorks. WF7 5EX, England). "I shall be the Hans Sloane of my age," said Nathan Garrideb. And SIR HANS SLOANE: COLLECTOR, SCIENTIST, ANTIQUARY, by Arthur MacGregor, has just been published by the British Museum Press (294 pp., L50.00). According to John Baesch, it is available from The Good Book Guide (24 Seward Street, London EC1V 3GB, England); they welcome credit-card orders. Roger Johnson's newsletter The District Messenger continues to provide all sorts of news about what's happening in Great Britain (and sometimes else- where); it's published approximately monthly and costs $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). His most recent issue has an alert for videotapers here: the series "Biography" (on A&E cable five days a week) filmed a dozen members of The Sherlock Holmes Society dining at The Sherlock Holmes in the company of Dr. John H. Watson (impersonated by David Burke). There's no word yet on a broadcast date. Feb 95 #4 SHERLOCK HOLMES & OTHER DETECTIVE STORIES (London: HarperColl- ins, 1994; 1468 pp., L9.99) offers all of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and 31 other stories that involve detectives (or detection), from "That Little Square Box" (1881) to "The Lift" (1922), with an introduction and bibliography by Owen Dudley Edwards. The stories are arranged in order of publication, mixing S'ian and non-S'ian stories, and allowing readers to consider Edwards' suggestion that "Conan Doyle worried that the pressure on him to produce series of Sherlock Holmes stories would mean that Holmes was dragged into perfectly good plots which really did not need a great detec- tive." Edwards also notes Conan Doyle's skillful focus on the short-story format, proposing that "he would have thought of one of the greatest of all modern derivations from Holmes and Watson, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby', as a short story." AN ILLUSTRATED MONOGRAPH ON THE USE OF FIREARMS IN THE ADVENTURES OF SHER- LOCK HOLMES, by E. W. McGinley, offers a knowledgeable exploration of the topic, concentrating on the weapons used by Holmes and Watson (the author concludes that Holmes was more expert than Watson); 47 pp., $19.95 postpaid from Joseph Coppola, 103 Kenny Drive, Fayetteville, NY 103066. Carl and Diana Stix have found a new and interesting use of Sherlock Holmes, in promoting shopping safety at the Eastern Hills Mall in Williamsville, N.Y., where Holmes provides entertainment and safety tips at the mall, poses for pictures with children, and is delighted to meet with school and civic groups. And his portrait appears on the mall's publicity, and on the shoulder patch worn by the mall's security officers. An illustrated flier for the mall's "project awareness" notes that they chose Sherlock Holmes for this role "because he represents the calm, cool, confidence that comes from being in control of the situation." A nicely-illustrated flier is available from the Eastern Hills Mall (attn: John E. Abt), 4545 Transit Road, Williamsville, NY 14221. Michael Meer has sent a brochure from a new establishment called Sherlock's City in Switzerland; the address is Rte de Jura 49, 1700 Fribourg, and it offers a bar, rotisserie, and billiards. Plan ahead: "A Study in Largess" is the title of the memorial conference that will mark the dedication of the John Bennett Shaw Collection at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on Oct. 13-15, 1995. The schedule will include exhibits, lectures, music, theater, tours, and much more, and a prospectus will be available next month. David Stuart Davies reports that he has heard from Jeremy Brett, who has been in hospital again, for serious heart failure, but is now on the mend. But he's had to suspend all activity for the next three or four months, and thus won't be able to join the festivities at "A Study in Scotland" on May 6-8 in Edinburgh. The weekend gathering is sponsored by the Northern Mus- graves, and will include presentations by Owen Dudley Edwards and Michael Cox, a ghost walk, a whisky tasting, and a new drama written by John Car- gill Thomson. Additional information is available from David at Overdale, 69 Greenhead Road, Huddersfield, W. Yorks. HD1 4ER, England. Feb 95 #5 IT'S A PRINT!: DETECTIVE FICTION FROM PAGE TO SCREEN, edited by William Reynolds and Elizabeth Trembley (Bowling Green: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1994; 235 pp., $46.95 cloth, $18.95 paper), is a fascinating anthology of essays on how the printed page is brought to both film and television screens. The coverage extends from "The Thin Man" to "The Silence of the Lambs", and Granada's "Sherlock Holmes" is discussed both by Elizabeth Trembley and by Michael Cox (who produced the first 32 of the Granada shows); Cox's article is noteworthy for its explanations of the reasons for the strengths and weaknesses of the series. A newsletter from the UCLA Film and Television Archive reports that thanks to Hugh Hefner's ongoing support, they are making great progress in preser- vation (from the original negatives and deteriorating prints) of six of the Sherlock Holmes films made by Universal in the 1940s. The National Endow- ment for the Arts has suspended its funding for film preservation, and your donations, large or small, are thus more important than ever; the develop- ment officer is Cornelia Emerson, UCLA Film and Television Archive (FX48), 302 East Melnitz, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1323. Richard Lederer has long delighted lovers of the English language with his explorations of that language's oddities, and he and Michael Gilleland have explored LITERARY TRIVIA: FUN AND GAMES FOR BOOK LOVERS (New York: Vintage Books, 1994; 233 pp., $10.00); there's Sherlockiana, of course, and lots of other challenges for those who love literature. George Ault reports that the "top 50 music video countdown" broadcast by VH1 cable on Dec. 17 included (as the #29 video) a song called "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" from the Crash Test Dummies album "God Shuffled His Feet", with three kids dressed in Sherlockian costume, in foggy London, investigating spots on another kid's body (like a school play put on for the parents, according to George, and really quite cute). The Trifling Monographers will hold their annual dinner during the annual meeting of the Public Relations Society of America in Seattle on Oct. 29. Laborers in the vineyards of public relations (and local Sherlockians) are invited to contact William Seil (3001 125th Avenue SE #3-D, Bellevue, WA 98005). The next meeting of the Practical, But Limited, Geologists will be at Ches- terfield's (1111 Fannin Street) in Houston on Wednesday, Mar. 8; drinks at 7:00 and dinner at 8:00. I think that I've already alerted all the Houston Sherlockians, but if I've missed anyone, I'll be at the Doubletree Hotel at Allen Center (713-759-0202) from Mar. 4; just give me a call if you'd like to attend the festivities in honor of the world's first forensic geologist. The latest Sherlockian scholarship from Spain is ALGUNAS LEGUAS AL NORTE DE OPORTO: LA VERDAD SOBRE EL NORAH CREINA?, by Antonio J. Iriarte (Madrid: The Amateur Mendicant Society, 1995); the 59-page monograph explores "Some Leagues to the North of Oporto: The Truth about the Norah Creina?", offer- ing an intriguing suggestion of a possible connection between the events in "The Resident Patient" and the Irish Republican Brotherhood. The monograph costs $10.00 postpaid (currency only, please), from Miguel Gonzalez-Pedel, C/ San Vidal 15 (3-B), 28010 Madrid, Spain; or $20.00 postpaid by airmail. Feb 95 #6 There are all sorts of imaginative Sherlockian goings-on in the United Kingdom, and if you have scheduled a visit this summer, you might wish to attend the "Appledore Towers Summer Ball" planned by The Poor Folk Upon the Moors, at the Lord Haldon Hotel in Dunchideok, near Exe- ter, in Devonshire, on June 10. Additional information is available from Mike C. Philipson, 4 Dolvin Road, Tavistock, Devon. PL19 9EA, England. Sorry about that: Ron Fish notes that Connecticut governor John Rowland was elected, rather than reelected (Jan 95 #2), last November. A sales list of books, pins, neckties, socks, and memorabilia offered by The Speckled Band of Boston is available from Richard M. Olken, 200 Hyslop Road, Brookline, MA 02145-5724. There's some fine writing in the antholo- gies of Sherlockian scholarship and humor perpetrated over the years by the members of the Band. When Sarah Jane Smith decides she would like to meet Rudyard Kipling, the Doctor kindly makes the necessary arrangements, but as so often happens in stories about Doctor Who, his time-setting is slightly off, and they arrive in England to find Kipling still a schoolboy. In Devon, where a thoroughly horrible hound is roaming Dartmoor, and another doctor is on hand: Arthur Conan Doyle, member of the crew of the whaler Hope. John Peel's EVOLUTION (London: Virgin Publishing, 1994; 261 pp., L4.99/$5.95) is a new cross-over novel, and nicely done (with some advice from Bill Vande Water). "On the scene is Sherlock Holmes matching wits with Archy Stillman while Ham Sandwich and Wells Fargo look on," is (part of) the blurb for a recent unabridged recording of Mark Twain's "A Double-Barreled Detective Story", read well by Thomas Becker on two audiocassettes (2:15 hours), with a bit of added value: letters from readers, when the parody of 19th-century mys- teries was first published in 1902, wondering about one of Twain's jokes, and his bemused response. The set is available for $16.95 from Commuters Library, Box 3168, Falls Church, VA 22043 (800-643-0295), and credit-card orders are welcome. Other authors in their catalog include Chekhov, Wells, Poe, Carroll, Wharton, Joyce, and Kipling. A reader has asked for an explanation of the derivation of the name of the Spermaceti Press. Many years ago, when I wanted a whimsical name for the imaginary press from which my seasonal souvenirs were published (following in a long Sherlockian tradition of devising interesting names for this sort of thing), it occurred to me that someone whose Investiture in the BSI was "Black Peter" and who lived just down the road from Arrowhead, where Herman Melville wrote MOBY DICK ought to be able to find a name that had something to do with whaling. Of course one wouldn't expect to find printing presses on whaling ships, but I did some research and found that there used to be a spermaceti press, which was used for the final processing of whale oil into the spermaceti from which the finest candles were made. And there still is one surviving spermaceti press, preserved at the Nantucket Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, in the actual building where in the 19th century millions of candles were made and exported throughout the world. Now you know . . . The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Mar 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physi- cal, than in the year '95," proclaims the announcement of this year's grand Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., on May 13. The evening begins at 5:00 pm, with wine, hors d'oeuvres, and a brief film interlude, with dinner at 7:30 pm. Dress is black tie, and the cost is $95.00 per person. Checks (with a limit of four people) with names and addresses for all people, should be sent to Albert M. Rosenblatt (300 Freedom Road, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569); enclose a self-addressed postal card if you want an acknowledgement. Al advises quick action, since space is limited, and that you prepare for the dinner by reading the five cases said to have occurred in 1895 (Blac, Bruc, Norw, Soli, and 3Stu). And as in the past, there will be a Firehouse Breakfast in Rhinebeck on Sunday. The Beekman Arms in Rhinebeck is sold out, but a discount rate ($65.00 per room) is available from the Sheraton Hotel (914-486-5300) in Poughkeepsie (about 10 minutes south). Conventional motels in Hyde Park include the Dutch Patroon (914-229-7141), Golden Manor (914-229-2157), Hyde Park (914- 229-9616), Roosevelt (914-229-0026), and Super 8 (914-229-0088). Motels in Rhinebeck (about 20 minutes north) include the Rhinebeck (914-876-5900) and Village Inn (914-876-7000). The current issue of Anglofile reports that Mark Frost's THE SIX MESSIAHS (a sequel to his THE LIST OF SEVEN) will be issued by Dove Audio in July in an audiocassette set, read by David Warner ($24.95). I've not had any word of a book edition (although there surely will be one), nor anything about the long-rumored film based on THE LIST OF SEVEN. Anglofile is a monthly newsletter with detailed coverage of British entertainment; $12.00 a year (Box 33515, Decatur, GA 30033). It was a capital mistake (and it was mine): the new membership secretary of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London (Feb 95 #2) actually is Bob Ellis, 13 Crofton Avenue, Orpington, Kent BR6 8DU, England. Stanley MacKenzie died on Feb. 25. He joined The Sherlock Holmes Society of London soon after it was founded in 1951, became a member of its Council in 1956, and was one of its honorary secretaries from 1980 to 1985. He was a member of The Baker Street Irregulars (as "The Man with the Twisted Lip" in 1967), and an enthusiastic and energetic collector (one of the very few to have owned more than one copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual). Stanley's particular interest was in theatrical Sherlockiana, over the years finding many unique posters and playbills for early productions; that special in- terest was understandable, in view of his own career in the theater, which included the post of deputy stage manager for the Royal Shakespeare Company when it revived William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in 1974 and brought it to Washington and New York. Nice news for those who have been searching for commercial videocassettes of the first six shows in Granada's Jeremy Brett series (Scan, Spec, Danc, Nava, Soli, and Blue): all 35 shows that have been broadcast in the United States are now available ($19.98 plus shipping) from Scarlet Street Video, Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452; credit card orders welcome. Mar 95 #2 Bert Coules (Fairway, Sandling Road, Saltwood, Hythe, Kent CT21 4QJ, England) offers laser-printed scripts (about 60 pp. each) for his BBC radio adaptations (the current series starring Clive Merrison and Michael Williams as Holmes and Watson, except for the 1988 broadcast of "The Hound of the Baskervilles" with Roger Rees and Crawford Logan). The programs are: Stud, Sign, Scan, Bosc, Blue, Nobl, Silv, Croo, Fina, Empt, Norw, Danc, Soli, Chas, SixN, Seco, Houn, Wist, Bruc, Devi, Last, Illu, Maza, Suss, Thor, Lion, and Reti. The postpaid cost (by sterling check or draft) for each short-story script is L12.00 (surface) or L14.00 (airmail), or you can pay with currency ($19.00 or $22.00) or by dollar check ($28.86 or $30.02). The cost is doubled for the three long-story scripts. Catherine Cooke, who presides over the Sherlock Holmes Collection at the Marylebone Library in London, notes that she now has access to the Internet (and her e-mail address is C.COOKE@BBCNC.ORG.UK). It was 35 years ago that The Council of Four of Denver published the first anthology of Sherlockian science-fiction, reprinting seven stories by some of the very best writers working in the field. SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT, edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: DAW Books, 1995; 374 pp., $5.50), is a somewhat different anthology, with far more stories (26 of them, all published for the first time), and it is interesting that the most successful of the new stories are those that do what the stories in the earlier volume did: they offer new and imaginative approaches to a character that is loved by so many readers, and give readers far more than tales told by authors who merely use Sherlock Holmes. Ron Fish reports a new comic book: THE REN & STIMPY SHOW #29 (Apr. 1995) in the shops now (from Marvel, $1.95), with Sherlock Hoek and Dr. S. J. Stupid M.D. in "The Casebook of Sherlock Hoek". Stephen Davies reports that the 100th anniversary of the opening of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" will be marked by the installa- tion of a stained glass window in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. It should be remembered that Conan Doyle met Wilde, at a dinner at which they both were commissioned to write stories for Lippincott. Wilde's story was "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and Conan Doyle's was "The Sign of the Four" (and it is interesting that a character in Conan Doyle's story offers some echoes of Wilde). Domestic cats are mentioned in four of the Sherlock Holmes stories, and it is nice that the Royal Mail has issued a handsome "cats" set with designs by Elizabeth Blackadder (kindly forwarded by Roger Johnson and Jean Upton). And since black cats are mentioned in two of the four stories ("His Last Bow" and "The Yellow Face"), the black cat (named Sophie) on the 19-pence stamp is nicely appropriate. Mar 95 #3 Sherlockians considering attending the Dartmouth Alumni College on Aug. 6-11 will (one hopes) be happy to hear that the focus will be on crime and mystery fiction, especially the locales of the genre. "Landscapes of Murder" is to be the theme, and the program "will of course explore the landscape of Sherlock Holmes and other consummate masters." If you've never seen the lion's mane, you might wish to pay a visit to the New England Aquarium in Boston, Mass., where John Baesch reports that it is on display in a new exhibit ("Jellies") that is expected to run through the summer. Peter Calamai spotted the N.Y. Times obituary for Leonard S. Silk, who died on Feb. 10. He was a distinguished columnist and editorial writer for the paper and, as the obituary noted, a rarity in journalism: a reporter with a Ph.D. in economics. He started his journalism career in 1954 at Business Week, and moved to The Times in 1970 and wrote his farewell column in 1992. One of his stories, published in 1977, focused on Oskar Morgenstern, who with John von Neumann published a landmark treatise on THE THEORY OF GAMES AND ECONOMIC BEHAVIOR in 1944. They used Holmes' flight from Moriarty to explain the game of Matching Pennies, and Silk carefully explained for gen- eral readers how (as Morgenstern put it) when Holmes left Waterloo Station he was "already 48 percent dead." The sixth issue of Troy Taylor's The Whitechapel Gazette has arrived, with 50 pages of nicely illustrated articles on Doyleana, including Groombridge and Crowborough, a tribute to John Bennett Shaw, and some pastiches. $6.50 postpaid; Troy's address is 805 West North #1, Decatur, IL 62522. Compliments and congratulations to Bjarne Nielsen, who has won first prize in the Scandinavian "Viking Lotto". Jette Randloev has kindly forwarded an article from the Berlingske Tidende (Feb. 26) with a photograph that showed Bjarne in a deerstalker and reported that the first prize was 4.3 million kroner (about $711,000). Bjarne's mystery-specialist bookshop Antikvariat Pinkerton is located in a former jail in Nykobing, Denmark, where he also presides over his Sherlock Holmes Museum; according to the article, Bjarne will now try to buy the building from the Ministry of Justice. A new and well-illustrated 28-page catalog is at hand from Carolyn and Joel Senter (Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219), with a fine mix of books, pamphlets, pins, prints, and other collectibles. A hitherto unreported copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 has turned up, at auction at Christie's East in New York, where it was sold from the collection of the late Charles J. Liebman to an unidentified buyer on Feb. 22 for $14,375 (including 15% buyer's premium). It was without wrappers and advertisements, and was rebound in contemporary cloth, with the name of a previous owner (Claremont) on the Contents leaf and a bookseller's slip with the name Walter Schatzki. There's still time to plan to attend this year's National Sherlock Holmes Meeting in Australia on Apr. 14-17, when The Sydney Passengers will be in charge of the 1995 festivities. More information is available from Phil Cornell, 24 Byron Street, Croydon, N.S.W. 2132, Australia (02-799-3107). Mar 95 #4 "Body Found in Lions' Den at Zoo" was the headline on a story in the Washington Post (Mar. 5), and the story seems to have been followed widely in other papers. The victim was Margaret Davis King, of Little Rock, and the authorities have concluded that she chose a grisly way of committing suicide. The lions involved were a 450-pound male named Tana and a 300-pound female named Asha, and Tana is the son of one of the North African (or Atlas or Barbary) lions that The Red Circle of Washington visited during a "Cat House Picnic" at the National Zoo in June 1977. The Canon's Sahara King (in "The Veiled Lodger") was a North African lion, and they were recorded as extinct in the wild in the 1930s (killed by the likes of Count Negretto Sylvius); in the 1970s a few survivors were found in the King of Morocco's private zoo. This year marks the 150th anniversary of statehood for one of the states mentioned in "The Five Orange Pips" (the colorful design by Laura Smith shows an alligator enjoying himself in a swamp); Texas is due for similar honors later this year. Spradlin & Associates (Box 863, Lapeer, MI 48446) offer an attractive deck of playing cards, with Paget and Steele portraits of principal characters on the court cards (Moriarty's on the jokers), and Canonical quotations on the others. The Game's Afoot Playing Cards cost $12.00 a deck, plus $3.00 per order shipping. Those who remember Nigel Hawthorne from the fine series "Yes, Minister" and "Yes, Prime Minister" broadcast by some PBS-TV stations will find him doing something quite different, and doing it magnificently, in the title role in the film "The Madness of King George", which I recommend highly. Hawthorne is joined by other fine actors, including Ian Holm and Helen Mirren, and if you need a Sherlockian excuse to see the film, two of the characters in it are mentioned in the Canon. Tom Drucker was the first to note, and quite correctly, that the mention of Raphael is in "The Three Gables" rather than in "The Three Garridebs" (Feb 95 #3). My collection of G's is a confused one . . . Jennie Paton spotted SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE CARD GAME, from Gibsons Games (H. P. Gibson & Sons Ltd., London SW19 2B, England) in 1991; 108 playing cards, score pad, and rule book with detailed background notes ($20.00 in a store in Georgia). Gibson also produced 221B BAKER STREET: THE MASTER DETECTIVE GAME and VIDEO BAKER STREET. Joseph A. Coppola's article "Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" appears in the Mar.-Apr. issue of Topical Time (published by the American Topical Associa- tion). Joe does a nice job of telling about his discovery and pursuit of stamps honoring Sherlock Holmes. Box 630, Johnstown, PA 15907; $3.00. The brochure for "A Study in Largess" will be available from Judy Burton at 499 Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (e-mail J-BURT@VM1.SPCS.UMN.EDU); that's the memorial conference scheduled for Oct. 13-15 to honor the dedication of the John Bennett Shaw Collection, and the schedule will include exhibits, lectures, music, theater, tours, and more. Mar 95 #5 If your collection extends to romance novels with Sherlockian titles, such as Colin Rafferty's SHERLOCK AND WATSON (Toronto: Harlequin Books, 1991; #363) (Jan 92 #1), you might want to pursue Sharon De Vita's SHERLOCK'S HOME (New York: Silhouette Books, 1988; #593), which John Farrell recently found. According to the blurb: "Willie Walker took her position as head of the Children's Welfare Agency very seriously. Too seriously, according to juvenile detective Michael Ryce. As far as Ryce was concerned, that petite, fire-and-brimstone, by-the-book social worker was the only thing keeping him from adopting T.C. Sherlock, the street- smart orphan he'd grown to love." John Farrell reports that Rosella Frederick, a Cochiti Pueblo Indian, designs and makes porcelain-on-copper ornaments (John uses his on his bolo tie, but brooches also are available). John has BSI in dancing men in his design (the ornament is 3 in. high), and the cost is $50.00 postpaid. More information is available from Charlotte Irons, Box 283, Cerillos, NM 87010. The Sherlock Holmes Society of London has issued two delightful audiocassettes with Douglas Wilmer reading "The Speckled Band", "The Devil's Foot", "The Musgrave Ritual", and "Charles Augustus Milverton"; the readings are unabridged, the notes are decorated with Wilmer's self-portrait as Holmes, and Wilmer, who has played Holmes on both television and film, does well indeed. The cost of the set is L13.95 or $23.00 postpaid (the checks should be payable to the Society, please), from Mrs. E. M. Godden, Apple Tree Cottage, Smarden, Ashford, Kent TN27 8QE, England. John Baesch, on holiday in London, reports that the Sherlock Holmes Museum still is open, with John Aidiniantz's mother in charge. The Practical, But Limited, Geologists met for dinner at Chesterfield's in Houston on Mar. 8 to honor (as usual) the world's first forensic geologist. Visitors attending the annual meeting of the American Association of Petro- leum Geologists were welcomed by members of The John Openshaw Society and The Strollers on the Strand. And we all welcomed Laurie R. King, author of THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, who by pleasant coincidence was in Houston for a book-signing earlier in the day at Martha Farrington's Murder by the Book (Laurie's second book about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes will be issued this year, and a third book is in the works). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will meet next in New Orleans in November (does anyone know of any Sherlockians in New Orleans?) and in San Diego in May. We've lost a lawyer, and gained a judge. Congratulations to Andy Peck, who on Mar. 31 was inducted as United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of New York. It's not entirely clear when and where Sherlock Holmes might have heard the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus performed, but I've had my first opportunity to do that, on Mar. 18 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Washington, where the Palestrina Choir performed an all-Lassus program. And it was a delight to hear the songs, in a thoroughly appropriate setting, with fine acoustics. Mar 95 #6 Dave Galerstein reports that the Alumni Federation of Columbia University is planning a Swiss Alumni College, May 30-June 7, and since the alumni college will be based at the Sherlock Holmes Hotel in Meiringen, the brochure includes a photograph of the statue, and mention of Conan Doyle's visit to Meiringen. Alumni Federation, Columbia University, Box 400, New York, NY 10027 (800-323-7373). Jim Hillestad (The Toy Soldier, Paradise Falls, R.R. 1, Box 379, Cresco, PA 18326) offers two new sets of 54mm Sherlockian figurines: "Boscombe Valley" shows Holmes and Watson in a railway train compartment ($130 postpaid), and "Silver Blaze" shows Holmes and Watson with Silver Blaze and his rider ($50 postpaid); color photographs available from Jim in return for an SASE. Tom Stix has spotted an imaginative poster for the French release of the 1963 film "Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes" (which was dubbed into English and released in 1968 as "Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace"). The film starred Christopher Lee and Thorley Walters, and the poster measures 31 x 23.5" and is offered by the Omnibus Gallery (422 East Cooper Avenue, Aspen, CO 81611) at $600. The winter 1995 of The New Baker Street Pillar Box is at hand, with 46 pages of articles by and news of members of The Franco-Midland Hardware Company. The society is led by Philip Weller, and offers a sales-list of other Sherlockian studies and monographs, from Philip at 6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England. The fourth annual Watsonian Weekend (celebrating Dr. Watson and the Battle of Maiwand) will be held in and near Des Plaines, Ill., on July 28-29, with a dinner, a speech by Susan Rice, a horse race, and a contest for the best essay on how many wives Watson had. Additional details are available from Fred Levin, 8242 North Ridgeway Avenue, Skokie, IL 60016. A video-taper alert from Jerry Margolin: "VR.5" is a new one-hour series on the Fox television network, with the overall premise that "lonely but like- able computer buff Sydney Bloom (Lori Singer) stumbles onto the previously unattainable fifth level of virtual reality." And the show will be in part Sherlockian on Friday, April 7. Wayne and Francine Swift report that they've been told that Stanley MacKen- zie's collection has been sent to auction at Sotheby's in London; the date is not yet known (34-35 New Bond Street, London W1A 2AA, England). Three volumes of the game SHERLOCK HOLMES, CONSULTING DETECTIVE are avail- able on CD-ROM discs, and now there's a book: SHERLOCK HOLMES, CONSULTING DETECTIVE: THE UNAUTHORIZED STRATEGY GUIDE, by Bruce C. Shelley (Rocklin: Prima Publishing, 1994; 369 pp., $19.95); it's a true "everything you ever wanted to know" book, with instructions on how to play, and hints on how to play better, and the stories for all nine cases, and comments on them, and much more. Box 1260-BK, Rocklin, CA 95677-1260 (800-632-8676). The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Apr 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Bob Thomalen proudly reports that his grandson Patrick is as observant as every Sherlockian should be: their recent visit to the American Museum of Natural History in New York included an inspection of the museum's cross- section of a huge redwood tree, which is marked with time-lines that show what happened during the life of the tree. And Patrick happily called to Bob's attention the label, which noted that "this tree was cut down in a forest in California in 1891, the year in which Arthur Conan Doyle first published the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in the Strand Magazine." 20 26 23 2 "Any Englishman who claims high intelligence," said Sherlock 29 3 13 24 Holmes, should be able to identify which of these numbers is 27 25 17 10 the odd one out, within about ten minutes." That is one of 22 12 21 28 the 74 Mensa-type puzzles in THE SHERLOCK HOLMES IQ BOOK, by Eamonn Butler and Madsen Pirie (London: Pan Books, 1994; 193 pp., L3.99); summaries of the Canonical cases are used as introductions to the puzzles, which aren't in themselves Sherlockian (but that doesn't mean that they aren't challenging). And I will publish the solution next month. A new catalog from Art & Artifact, 2451 Enterprise East Parkway, Twinsburg, OH 44087-8021 (800-950-9540) offers a Sherlockian chess set ($450.00) with board ($185.00); this is the same address used previously by What on Earth. Randy Cox is now editing the venerable Dime Novel Round-Up, a monthly maga- zine for collectors of the old-time dime and nickel novels, which sometimes had Sherlockian connections: the Feb. 1995 issue (for example) has a cover photograph of one of the old Flashlight Detective Series covers with a fine portrait of Sherlock Holmes. Robert H. Smeltzer's brief article about the Sherlock Holmes stories is in the Nov. 1944 issue, J. Edward Leithead dis- cussed the influence of Holmes on the Nick Carter stories in the June 1968 issue, and there are minor Sherlockian allusions in the Sept. 1950 and Dec. 1981 issues. Fanatic collectors will welcome the news that back issues are available (although some are in short supply), at $3.00 each postpaid (or $7.50 postpaid for all five issues); the address for the magazine is Box 226, Dundas, MN 55019-0226. Michael Ross reports that SCORN, edited by Matthew Parris (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994), is a collection of unfriendly comments by famous people on other famous people or places, including a quote from the Canon on London: "that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained." More Star Trek: The Next Generation stuff: Joe Coppola spotted a new book- mark showing Data in Sherlockian costume, with the quote "It is deduction, pure and simple ... well, perhaps not *that* simple." Design KBO-10901 from the Antioch Publishing Co., Yellow Springs, OH 45387. The Ben Silver Collection (800-221-4671) continues to use a small Sherlock- ian silhouette to identify regimental or school neckties "associated with the great detective Sherlock Holmes" in its spring 1995 catalog (but there are no explanations of the associations, as there were in the autumn 1994 catalog); the company's address is 149 King Street, Charleston, SC 29401. Apr 95 #2 The imaginative activities of Les Quincailliers de la Franco- Midland merit some wider publicity: they have departments and branches throughout France, and in other nations, and their publications include the Ironmongers Daily Echo and Franco-Midland Branches Advertiser (in French), which recently offered details of a proposed "Hommage au Brig- adier Gerard a Waterloo le 18 juin." The society's headquarters are at 26 avenue de la Republique, 75011 Paris, France. The newest Sherlockian society pin is from The Denizens of the Bar of Gold, who meet on Maryland's eastern shore. The design is by Jeff Decker (his first), and the eight- color pin is 1" wide and it costs $10.00 postpaid, from Michael F. Whelan, 342 Perry Cabin Drive, St. Michaels, MD 21663. On Mar. 22, 1995, the "American Masters" series on PBS-TV broadcast a one-hour show on "Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul". And Mary Burke noted that one of the program commentators suggests that "the Sherlock Holmes stories are very much patterned after the Dupin stories." If you missed it you can wait for a repeat, or order a cassette from PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314 (800-848-4727); $24.95 plus shipping. It was at the third pillar from the left outside the Lyceum Theatre that Mary Morstan was directed to meet her unknown benefactor. And a lengthy argument over preservation of the theater now seems to have ended. Seven years ago (Sep 88 #1) the London Residuary Body (successor to the Greater London Council) sold a 150-year lease on the building to a company that planned to turn the Lyceum into a London version of the Paris Lido (a "tits and bum" cabaret, one angry opponent suggested), but nothing came of that. Now according to an article at hand from Sally Kinsey, work has begun on a true restoration project that will turn the present eyesore back into a proper 2,000-seat theater. That's what's planned by a partnership between Apollo Leisure and American theater-owner James Nederlander, and the L15 million project is targeted for completion in August 1996. Apollo chairman Paul Gregg noted that archeologists have been invited in to make sure that London's history is preserved; "they have not uncovered any corpses yet," he said, "only dead shows." Michael McClure's publications list continues to expand: his newest period- ical is THE BAKER STREET NEWS, launched during the birthday festivities in January with color covers and 64 pages of articles and interviews ($10.00 for two issues). Mike also publishes HOLMES FOR THE HOLIDAYS, for younger Sherlockian and anyone who has one handy ($7.50 a year for five issues), THE DEVONSHIRE CHRONICLE ($4.00 a year for four issues), and the STIMSON & COMPANY GAZETTE ($1.00 an issue); and his address is 1415 Swanwick Street, Chester, IL 62233. Forecast from Fedogan & Bremer in October: THE RECOLLECTIONS OF SOLAR PONS, by Basil Copper, with three new stories and a revision of an older one, and illustrations by Stephanie Hawks. Copper's THE EXPLOITS OF SOLAR PONS (May 94 #2) is still available at $24.00; the publisher's address is 603 Wash- ington Avenue #77, Minneapolis, MN 55414-2950, and they take plastic. Apr 95 #3 FACT AND FEELING: BACONIAN SCIENCE AND THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERARY IMAGINATION, by Jonathan Smith (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995; 277 pp., $52.00 cloth, $22.95 paper), is a scholarly discussion of the perceived (misperceived, in Smith's opinion) conflict be- tween the scientific method and the arts. He finds interesting parallels (between Hutton's geological uniformitarianism and Eliot's THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, for example), and the book ends with a chapter on Sherlock Holmes as a scientific detective. Smith explores the influence of Huxley, Tyndall, and Darwin on Conan Doyle and Holmes, and notes Albert Einstein's tribute to "the admirable stories of Conan Doyle." The film "The Pagemaster" (1994) arrived in the videoshops this month, with a brief glimpse of an animated Hound of the Baskervilles (Macauley Culkin plays a boy who winds up in an animated dream-world that includes some of the classic children's stories (Dec 94 #1). Tom Biblewski now offers a silhouette of Conan Doyle on a 50-sheet notepad (and the silhouette of Holmes is still available). $2.25 postpaid per notepad, from the Baker Street Dispatch, Box 5503, Toledo, OH 43613. Roger Johnson reported earlier (Feb 95 #3) that the series "Bio- graphy" filmed a dozen members of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London dining at The Sherlock Holmes in London in the company of Dr. John H. Watson (impersonated by David Burke), and now Richard Wein has learned that the one-hour program "Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective" will be broadcast on A&E cable on Monday, May 22. According to the A&E press release, the show "has an intriguing twist--it assumes that Holmes is a real person and is still alive, and it traces the publishing history of his stories as if they were still being churned out today." Mike Kean noted in the Dec. 1994 issue of The Baker Street Journal Philip Weller's suggestion that there is good reason to consider that "the only surviving example of a fully-operational version of a Bruce-Partington Sub- marine" is His Majesty's Submarine Torpedo Boat No. 1, launched on Oct. 2, 1901, as the Royal Navy's first submarine. Renamed H.M. Holland I, it sank off Plymouth in 1913, and was recovered in 1981. And John Baesch has sent a story from the Daily Express (Mar. 27) that reports that "scientists are locked in a L250,000 battle to save her from the rust which has been goug- ing holes in her once-watertight hull." Restoration of the historic boat is being carried out at the Royal Naval Submarine Museum in Gosport, near Portsmouth. Further to last month's report (Mar 95 #3) that Bjarne Nielsen had won the Scandinavian "Viking Lotto", it should be noted that Bjarne had more than that to celebrate, namely his 50th birthday. And the festivities included publication of DETEKTIV DROMMAR [DETECTIVE DREAMS], an extremely-limited- edition of pastiches written about Bjarne by his friends in various styles; the book was edited by Anders Hammarqvist, and of course there was a Sher- lockian pastiche: Nils Nordberg's THE ADVENTURE OF THE THIN MAN. A grand time was had by all, including Marina Stajic, who survived both the beer and a visit to jail. Well, to Bjarne's museum, which is in a jail. Apr 95 #4 "Surf Reichenbach!!!" proclaims the cover of the just-published St. Patrick's Day 1993 issue of the Reichenbachian Cliff-Notes, published occasionally (very occasionally) by The Reichenbach Cliff-Divers. This issue's contents include "The Reader's Indigestible Condensed Canon: Fifty-Six Stories and Four Novels Available Now as Eight Brief Tales" and "The Rotherhithe Memorial Get-It-Over-With, Off-the-Deep-End-with-an-Aqua- lung Sherlockian Monograph Chart", and it's available in return for a #10 SASE from Robert C. Burr, 4010 North Devon Lane, Peoria, IL 61614-7109. Plan ahead: the next Canonical Convocation and Caper in Door County, Wis., is scheduled for Sept. 15-17, 1995, with talks by Bob Hahn, David Hammer, and Tony Citera, and "surprizes" (according to Don Izban); contact Claud- ine Kastner, 810 Burning Bush Lane, Mount Prospect, IL 60056. "I'd wanted to write about a detective, a Sherlock Holmes or Maigret, to keep me alive in my old age," John Mortimer recalls in the latest install- ment of his memoirs. "Then I thought of making him a criminal defender, in honour of the Old Bailey hacks I'd known and admired." The book is MURDER- ERS AND OTHER FRIENDS (New York: Viking, 1995; 260 pp., $23.95), and it's nicely done indeed, with a few other passing Canonical allusions. Mortimer was on tour in the United States last month, lecturing in Washington and Boston and elsewhere, and in fine fettle. Lawrence Nepodahl reports that Court Benson died on Feb. 5. He was a fine actor, and had a long career on radio and television, and played Watson on many of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater dramatizations of the Sherlock Holmes stories from 1977 to 1981. The tradition of home-movie drama survives in the age of video, and perhaps the genre is easier to produce now: "Quintet" is an 86-minute videocassette made in 1993 and available from Quartz Productions, 392 Taylor, Ashland, OR 97520 ($20.00 postpaid); there are five "neo-classic screenplays by living playwrights," including "Watson's Only Case" (26 minutes), a farce written by Robert Spira, with Leland Tanquaray as Holmes and Jon Bernard as Watson. The fourth Sherlock Holmes Review Symposium will be held on Nov. 18-19 in Indianapolis (in the Omni Severn Hotel, a restored classic built in 1913, across the street from the railroad station where Conan Doyle arrived in 1894); contact the SHR, Box 583, Zionsville, IN 46077. John Ruyle is celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Pequod Press the same way it began, issuing a book of his poems (his first "serious" collection since 1986); SPLINTERED PARTS will offer about two dozen poems, including full-page tributes to "two men who helped the Press survive" (Holmes and Moriarty). $40.00 cloth, $20.00 paper; 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707-1521. Jeanne Munson recommends a new CD-ROM game called "Hodj'n'Podj" produced by Boffo Games and marketed by Virgin Interactive Entertainment (800-874-4607) -- it's engineered for MS-DOS computers, and costs $49.99 plus $4.00 ship- ping, and contains 19 mini-games such as poker, mazes, and battleship (but with a new spin on each game); the games have occasional Sherlockian allu- sions (perhaps thanks to Jeanne, who gets credit in the testing section). Apr 95 #5 Further to the earlier report on the film-preservation efforts of the UCLA Film and Television Archive, their annual Festival of Preservation featured some of the results: on Apr. 20 the archive showed a new 35mm print of "Paramount on Parade" (1930), in which Sherlock Holmes is shot to death by Fu Manchu (and Clive Brook has a splendid death scene). On Apr. 23 they screened new 35mm prints of Basil Rathbone's "The Pearl of Death" (1944) and "The Woman in Green" (1945). Donations, large or small, are of course welcomed; the development officer is Cornelia Emerson, UCLA Film and Television Archive (FX48), 302 East Melnitz, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1323. Bob Fritsch uses an imaginative Sherlockian wooden shilling as his calling card, and he'll be happy to send you one in return for 50c and an SASE. Or you can get three of them for $1.00 and a #10 SASE with 55c postage. Bob's address is Box 3003, Nashua, NH 03061-3003. Fifteen years ago John le Carre was asked about "writers who mean the most to you," and replied, "P. G. Wodehouse for rhythm and timing. Conan Doyle for thrust and instant atmosphere." And le Carre has included Sherlockian allusions in his books, most recently in his new novel OUR GAME (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995; 302 pp., $24.00); it's a splendid book about secret service agents involved with and in the current conflict in southern Russia (and with some real insight into the reasons for that conflict). Dave Thomas (one of the stars on ABC-TV's "Grace Under Fire") is reported to be writing a comedy special for Showtime cable about "the final adven- ture of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson." Thomas and fellow "SCTV" alumnus Joe Flaherty expect to start shooting the show in May. The spring 1995 issue of the Sherlock Holmes Gazette has fine cover art by Tom Rieschick and 48 pages of interesting articles and news, including a report from Philip Weller on the closing of the Conan Doyle Room at The Cross Hotel in Crowborough; the new landlord of the hotel was not able to continue to provide space for the collection, which had been assembled by Malcolm Payne and his society The Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment. The collection is now in storage, until Malcolm finds a new display site. 46 Purfield Drive, Wargrave, Berks. RG10 8AR, England; or Classic Special- ties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219. And a welcome addendum: Tim O'Connor has received a report from Malcolm Payne that Andrew de Candole, the owner of Groombridge Place, has kindly offered the Victorian dairy and cheese room of the old manor as a new home for the collection, which may be open again by Easter. One of the nicest things about the Internet is how easy it is to send and receive news and information, as was the case immediately after the earth- quake in Kobe. And that generated a Sherlockian item in a long story about the growth of computerized communication in Japan, in Time (Mar. 6), kindly forwarded by Dick Lesh: "Shortly after the Kobe quake, Tomoji Ohta, a coll- ege student whose parents' home had collapsed, approached Time reporters on the rubble-strewn streets with an urgent request: 'Please get on the Inter- net and notify the Baker Street Irregulars that all our members in Kobe are all right.' Sherlock Holmes fans around the world were reassured." Apr 95 #6 THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES, issued as a nine-volume set in 1993 (Dec 93 #8) offered delightful scholarship in its introductions and many explanatory notes by Owen Dudley Edwards, Richard Lancelyn Green. Christopher Roden, and W. W. Robson, and a new edition is now available in The World's Classics series of paperbacks (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994; L3.99 or $5.95 per volume). The new edition has color covers showing Frederic Dorr Steele artwork, and it really is a new edition (rather than a new printing), because some errors and omissions have been corrected. Reported: a two-in-one paperback (Donald I. Fine, $13.95) with reprints of John T. Lescroart's SON OF HOLMES (Mar 86 #2) and RASPUTIN'S REVENGE (May 87 #3). The detective is bon vivant Auguste Lupa, son of Sherlock Holmes and an opera star, who makes his detecting debut in France in 1915 in the first book, and in the second winds up in St. Petersburg in 1916, using a passport in the name of John Hamish Adler Holmes, accused of espionage, and rescued by his father. THE GAME IS AFOOT, a splendid anthology of pastiches, parodies, and schol- arship edited by Marvin Kaye, was published last year in cloth (Apr 94 #4) and is now available as a trade paperback (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995; 512 pp., $13.95). Recommended. Reported by B. J. Rahn: June Thomson's biographical HOLMES AND WATSON, new from Constable in London (this is her fourth Sherlockian book, following her three collections of pastiches). Plan ahead: the seventh International Holmesian Games will be held on Sept. 16-17 in Vancouver, B.C. Details on the "Sherlympiad" are available from Fran Martin, 10662-129 Street, Surrey, BC V3T 3H4, Canada. Roger Johnson reports in the latest issue of The District Messenger that Michael Coren's THE LIFE OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE is due in November from Bloomsbury Publishing (L20.00), and that Ian Henry (20 Park Drive, Romford RM1 4LH, England) have published Ernest Dudley's revised acting edition of THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (L5.95), and that Malcolm Payne has reported that THE HISTORY OF THE CROWBOROUGH BEACON GOLF CLUB (with much about Conan Doyle) is available from the Club (Beacon Road, Crowborough, East Sussex, England) (L11.00 postpaid). The Practical, But Limited, Geologists will convene on Tuesday, Nov. 7, at Ralph and Kacoo's in New Orleans, during the annual meeting of the Geologi- cal Society of America. Geologists and Sherlockians are welcome to join in honoring the world's first forensic geologist; Ralph and Kacoo's is at 519 Toulouse Street, and the festivities will begin with cocktails at 7:00 and continue with dinner at 8:00; reservations are not needed. New Orleans may well be the largest city in the U.S. without an active Sherlockian society; if anyone knows of any Sherlockians down there in the bayous, please let me know their names and addresses. Scott Monty spotted Rathbone as Holmes on the cover of the 1995 Antibodies Catalogue from Transduction Laboratories (2134 Nicholasville Road #18, Lex- ington, KY 40503-9888), and Canonical quotations scattered through it pages (their motto is "Investigation Made Elementary"). Apr 95 #7 ESTUDIOS DEL NATURAL: LOS CASOS QUE SHERLOCK HOLMES NO PUDO RESOLVER Barcelona: Grijalbo Mondadori, 1995; 142 pp., 1,200 pesetas) is a Spanish translation of STRANGE STUDIES FROM LIFE AND OTHER NARRATIVES: THE COMPLETE TRUE CRIME WRITINGS OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, edited by Jack Tracy and published by Gaslight in 1988 (Dec 88 #5). The publisher's address is: Arago 385, Barcelona, Spain. Dick Lesh reports that a cassette with Buster Keaton's film "Sherlock Jr." (1924), recently issued by Kino Video (Jan 95 #4), is available from Barnes & Noble (126 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10011); item D120162 ($29.95). And that Archie McPhee: Outfitters of Popular Culture (Box 38052, Seattle, WA 98103) offers the colorful 7x8" inner lid label for Sherlock Holmes cigars for $16.95 postpaid. Burl Ives died on April 14. Carl Sandburg dubbed Ives "America's mightiest ballad singer" in the 1940s, and his unique voice and stage presence made him (and the folk songs he sang) world-famous. He also was an actor, and won an Oscar as best supporting actor in 1959 (in "The Big Country"). And he was one of many singers who recorded songs from the 1964 musical "Baker Street" (his LP album "Burl's Broadway" was issued by Decca in 1969 with "A Married Man"). "St. Bartholomew's Hospital, founded for the sick and poor of London nearly 900 years ago, had developed a formidable instinct for survival", The Times noted on Apr. 6, but British Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley "has suc- ceeded where Henry VIII, the Great Fire of London, the Blitz, and Margaret Thatcher all failed." The long campaign to keep the hospital open (Apr 93 #4) seems to have failed, and the government now proposes to move most the facilities to Whitechapel (St. Bart's accident and emergency unit closed in January). One hopes that The Sherlock Holmes Society of London is planning to rescue Sherlock Holmes' laboratory chair and the plaque that honors the first meeting between Holmes and Watson. Douglas G. Greene's JOHN DICKSON CARR: THE MAN WHO EXPLAINED MIRACLES (New York: Otto Penzler/Simon & Schuster, 1995; 537 pp., $35.00) is a delightful biography of a splendid writer. "The Man Who Explained Miracles" was the title chosen by Fred Dannay for one of Carr's short stories, but it's also an apt description of the master of the "impossible mystery" genre. Carr is possibly most familiar to Sherlockians for his excellent biography of Conan Doyle, and his work with Adrian Conan Doyle on some of the pastiches that were published as THE EXPLOITS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, but he also wrote radio adaptations of "The Lost World" and "The Speckled Band" for the BBC, and two amusing Sherlockian parody-playlets performed at the annual dinners of the Mystery Writers of America. He succeeded in creating four success- ful series detectives, and Greene has done a fine job of describing the man who could perform that sort of miracle. The spring 1995 issue of Scarlet Street offers David Stuart Davies' inter- esting interview with Michael Cox, who tells some fine stories about the Granada series (such as: the studio wanted a well-known name in the title role, and having recently produced "Brideshead Revisited" suggested Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, but Cox insisted on Jeremy Brett). The magazine costs $20.00 a year for four issues; Box 604, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Apr 95 #8 "Sherlock Holmes on American Radio" is a new audiocassette pre- pared by Lawrence Nepodahl, with one hour of comments on and excerpts from the many radio series about the Great Detective. The sound quality is high, and the cassette offers an excellent tour of the American series, and (at the end) Gordon E. Kelley's fine tribute to Basil Rathbone. 1230 Vienna Boulevard, Dekalb, IL 60115; $20.00 postpaid. A new audio dramatization of William Hjortsberg's NEVERMORE from Radio The- ater, 150 Martinvale Lane, San Jose, CA 95119 (800-959-7107) offers three hours on two cassettes ($14.95). The novel (Oct 94 #5) brought Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini to New York in 1923, involving them with Opal Crosby Fletcher (a provocative and beautiful medium) and with a mysterious serial killer (who copies murders described in Edgar Allan Poe's stories, and whose targets include Conan Doyle and Houdini), and the dramatization is nicely done. It hasn't taken long for Laurie R. King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE to be translated: BIAVLERENS LAERLING (Arhus: Klim, 1994) is the Danish version. Forecast: ESCAPADE, by Walter Satterthwait, from St. Martin's Press in July ($22.95); "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini join forces to solve the murder of their host, killed in a locked room during a seance at his country manor house." And: THE SIX MESSIAHS, by Mark Frost, from William Morrow in July ($23.00); "Arthur Conan Doyle embarks on his first tour of the United States, where six strangers await him--convinced it is Doyle who can lead them to the source of their vision." Reported: Anthony Boucher's delightful mystery novel THE CASE OF THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS (1940) has been reprinted, with an introduction by Otto Penzler, from Carroll & Graf ($4.95). One of the nicest things about being a publisher is that it is not diffi- cult to get one's writings into print. And it is particularly nice for readers when the publisher is a fine writer, as is David L. Hammer, whose new collection THE BEFORE-BREAKFAST PIPE OF MR. SHERLOCK HOLMES offers a fine assortment of his essays and articles, old and new. 206 pp., $19.50 postpaid, from the Gasogene Press, Box 1041, Dubuque, IA 52001-1041. HAVE A LITTLE PATIENCE: THE SINGULAR ADVENTURES OF AN INDEPENDENT GIRL is Mary L. Jaffee's amusing poetic tribute to Patience Moran, with excellent illustrations by Debra McWilliams, in a 24-page pamphlet published by Vin- cent Brosnan (1741 Via Allena, Oceanside, CA 92056); $10.00 postpaid. And his new "Sherlock in L.A." catalogue 11, available from Vinnie on request, offers 782 items of Sherlockiana and Doyleana, and as added value, essays on Edgar W. Smith by Marilyn Ezzell, and on Michael Harrison by Tina Rhea. Audio-taper alert: BBC Radio 4 sent four people to Lidingo for two days to interview Ted Bergman and four of his friends about Swedish girls, Swedish royalty, Swedish sin, and Swedish interest in Sherlock Holmes, for a pro- gram in the "Ad Lib" series to be presented by Robert Robinson on June 17. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org May 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press "Dracula on the Rocks" is a short story by Carole Nelson Douglas scheduled for CELEBRITY VAMPIRES, a horror anthology due from DAW Books in October at $4.99. Irene Adler "has more suitors than the Crown Prince of Bohemia when she plays prima donna at the Warsaw Imperial Opera. Could Count Dracula be lurking behind the arras and the arias?" 20 26 23 2 "Any Englishman who claims high intelligence," said Sherlock 29 3 13 24 Holmes, should be able to identify which of these numbers is 27 25 17 10 the odd one out, within about ten minutes." For those who 22 12 21 28 came in late, that's the puzzle I published last month, from THE SHERLOCK HOLMES IQ BOOK. The answer is 17. Because the names of all the other numbers begin with a T when written in English. The book suggests that anyone in the top 1% of the population, with an IQ of at least 155, should have been able to solve the problem in ten minutes. There are Hebrew translations of Frank Thomas' SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE MAS- QUERADE MURDERS, SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE SACRED SWORD, and SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE GOLDEN BIRD (possibly the first book-length pastiches to appear in Hebrew), and they are offered by the publisher ("Schalgi" Ltd., 23 Levanda Street, 66020 Tel-Aviv, Israel) at $20.00 each postpaid. And Frank reports that the last two titles are due soon in Russian. And Laurie R. King's THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE will be published in a Dutch edition (as DE LEERLING VAN DE BIJENHOUDER) from Het Spectrum in August. Don Hobbs has found an old and artistic Sherlockian bookplate. I remember seeing the design before, but can't recall where, or when, or whose design it was (the name of Robert F. Larson, Jr., is typed rather than printed). Please let me know if you recognize this and can supply more information about artist or purveyor (the dancing men spell "in libris"). The 24-page manuscript for Conan Doyle's article on "Life on a Greenland Whaler" (which was published in The Strand Magazine in Jan. 1897, and in McClure's Magazine in Mar. 1897) went to auction at Christie's in New York on Apr. 25, and was sold for $9,200 (in- cluding the 15% buyer's premium). The Apr. 1995 issue of Nutshell News has a fine article by Lisa Sullivan on "The Game Is Afoot" (with some excellent color photographs of her miniature of the sitting-room); Box 1612, Waukesha, WI 53187-1612; $3.95. Ginger Rogers died on Apr. 25. Her acting career spanned 65 years, from vaudeville to television, and although she will always be remembered best for her dancing with Fred Astaire, it was as a dramatic actress that she won an Academy Award, as Kitty Foyle in the 1940 film based on Christopher Morley's novel. Her life-long artistic achievement was recognized at the 15th annual Kennedy Center Honors in 1992, when Walter Cronkite confessed that "I wasn't that excited about Fred Astaire or the dancing. But--boy-- her performance in 'Kitty Foyle' just knocked me out." May 95 #2 Ed Wallner spotted a new article about the Andaman Islands in the May issue of Scientific American: Madhusree Mukerjee notes that the Great Andamanese have been reduced to a mixed-race group of 37 surviving on South Andaman Island, where the prison once was. The Jawara, also living on the island, still number about 200; the authorities don't know exactly how many, because the tribe still greets visitors with well- aimed arrows. After the British burned the Capitol, and the Library of Congress, during the War of 1812, there was considerable debate about whether Congress would buy Thomas Jefferson's library to replace the lost books. And, according to Librarian of Congress James H. Billington, some members of Congress com- plained that too much of Jefferson's library "is in languages many cannot read and most ought not to." Billington also reports, in the May/June 1995 issue of Civilization, that the Library now has more than 108 million items in 460 languages. That leaves quite a few languages to be pursued by Sher- lockian collectors (Ron De Waal lists 63 foreign languages in THE UNIVERSAL SHERLOCK HOLMES). But of course the Canon has not been translated into all those other languages. Yet. In 1972 Nicaragua commemorated the 50th anniversary of Interpol with a set of stamps showing the twelve most famous detectives, with tributes to them printed on the backs of the stamps, and with Sherlock Holmes appearing (of course) on the highest value of the set. I have a small supply of mint copies of the Holmes stamp, which I am offering for $15.00 each postpaid, one to a customer; checks payable to Peter E. Blau, please. And yes, the stamps do say that Interpol's 50th anniversary was in 1973, but Nicaragua obviously wanted to be the first to honor the anniversary. In 1973, at the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars, a Sherlock Holmes silver medal was awarded (in absentia) to the Hon. Rafael Sevilla-Sacasa, director of the Philatelic Bureau of the Repub- lic of Nicaragua, for his help in arranging for the world's first official Sherlock Holmes stamp. The second issue of Baker Street West 1 has arrived. This "Sherlockian Journal from the Western U.S.A." continues to focus on activities west of the Mississippi, and its highlights include an amusing cover designed by Chuck Kovacic. $3.00 postpaid, from Jerry Kegley, 110 South El Nido #41, Pasadena, CA 91107. Telephone calling cards are a fairly new collectible (some people actually use them to make telephone calls, but the cards are energetically marketed to collectors), and the first sort-of-Sherlockian card has been spotted by Gordon Palmer: TEC Card (800-333-8735) offers a series of Star Trek cards, one of which shows Data in Sherlockian costume. The S'ian card is one of a set of four that costs $40.00, and each of the four cards gives you $5.00 of long-distance calling (at $1.00 a minute) and $5.00 of access to a "Star Trek" entertainment line. The six Sherlockian daily "Fox Trot" comic strips that ran in various news- papers on Mar. 8-13, 1993, were reprinted in Bill Amend's MAY THE FORCE BE WITH US, PLEASE (Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1994; 128 pp., $8.95). May 95 #3 Our new commemorative honors the late President Richard Nixon, whose 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 Baker Street Journal in June 1961. 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 wrote in New York (June 9, 1980) that he told her, "I don't care for novels, and mys- teries bore me except on TV, and since Holmes is off, what is there?" Nixon also found an appropriate context for a refer- ence to "Sherlock Holmes's dog that did not bark" in his book 1999: VICTORY WITHOUT WAR (1988); see page 76. ESTUDIOS DEL NATURAL: LOS CASOS QUE SHERLOCK HOLMES NO PUDO RESOLVER, the Spanish translation of Jack Tracy's 1988 edition of STRANGE STUDIES FROM LIFE AND OTHER NARRATIVES: THE COMPLETE TRUE CRIME WRITINGS OF SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (Apr 95 #7) also is available from Gaslight Publications, 3888 West Sahara Avenue #221-B, Las Vegas, NV 89102; $17.00 postpaid (credit- card orders welcome). Mel Hughes spotted David Lilley's obituary for Douglas Bartlett Gregor in the Apr. 24 issue of The Independent [London]: Gregor was a classicist by training and profession, and was fluent in more than 20 languages and read many others. "He wrote about Byron's knowledge of Armenian, discussed the texts of Greek tragedies, and translated two Sherlock Holmes stories into Dolomitic Ladin and its sister languages Friulan and Romontsch." Andy Fusco reports that LEXIS-NEXIS (Box 933, Dayton, OH 45401) has some amusing Sherlockian artwork on its new flier ("The Case of the Bogus Busi- ness") promoting the use of LEXIS data bases ("Suppose you need to track the business operations of Moriarity Enterprises, operated by your nemesis, Professor James Moriarity, against whom you are attempting to recover dama- ges in your fraud case"). And there are other S'ian allusions in the text. Edwin Blum died on May 2. He was a playwright and a screenwriter, working with Ernest Pascal and Billy Wilder and others; he shared screenplay credit for Basil Rathbone's "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" (1939), and forty years later his script for "The Ghost of Sherlock Holmes" was considered by ABC-TV for a project starring Christopher Lee. A new flier at hand for Bouchercon 26, at the Royal Centre in Nottingham, Sept. 28 through Oct. 1, 1995. The organizers are still anonymous, but the guests of honour are James Ellroy and Colin Dexter, and Reginald Hill will be the toastmaster at the awards dinner. Additional information is avail- able from Conference Nottingham, The Business Information Centre, 309 Haydn Road, Nottingham NG5 1DG, England. "Sherlock Sholem: Israeli detective in relentless pursuit of his nemesis, Professor Yom Tirra." That was one of the examples that Mary Ann Madden offered in a competition in New York magazine (May 8), in which competitors were invited "to sully by anagram one familiar name of fact or fiction and provide for it a brief description similarly altered by a one-word jumble." May 95 #4 Donald Girard Jewell has announced the sixth volume in his con- tinuing Sherlock Holmes Natural History Series: THE BOTANICAL HOLMES: A MONOGRAPH ON PLANTS IN THE TIME OF SHERLOCK HOLMES is illustrated with contemporary artwork and is twice as long as previous volumes, and the booklet costs $16.95 postpaid (signed and hand-tinted copies are priced at $24.95 postpaid). You can order from the Pinchin Lane Press, 4685 Geeting Road, Westminster, MD 21158. Video-taper alert: watch for a re-run on "Star Trek: Voyager" (syndicated on Mondays). Gilles Coughlan reports that "Ex Post Facto" (Feb. 27, 1995) had Lt. Tom Paris convicted of murder and sentenced to relive the victim's final moments over and over again, but is cleared of the crime when Tuvok applies some logic straight from the Sherlock Holmes stories. "You have a few sheep in the paddock," said Sherlock Holmes (in "Silver Blaze"). Our new stamped envelope shows a sheep (the envelope is for non-profit organizations, and is unde- nominated, because many non-profits don't want you to know that they pay only five cents when they mail you requests for donations). News for fans of Jeremy Brett: the British film "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" (also starring Elizabeth Hurley and Joss Ackland) will be released in June in Britain. And "Mystery!" will broadcast the six new (well, new to Ameri- can television) Granada shows this fall; for those who have forgotten, the shows aired in Britain in March and April 1994 ("The Three Gables", "The Dying Detective", "The Golden Pince-Nez", "The Red Circle", "The Mazarin Stone", and "The Cardboard Box"). Rush Limbaugh can be seen in Sherlockian costume on the cover of the May issue of The Limbaugh Letter (Box 420058, Palm Coast, FL 32142-0058) (800- 829-5386); $3.00. Debbie Clark reports that the Malice Domestic convention in Bethesda, Md., was enjoyable and well-attended, and the Sherlockian news is that Laurie R. King's next novel about Mary Russell (and Sherlock Holmes) is A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN, due from St. Martin's Press in August. "It is always 1895" was the theme of the irregular quinquennial Sherlockian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America on May 13, and the event was as usual delightful. And the weather, and the scenery in and around Hyde Park for those who arrived early or stayed late for a bit of sight-seeing in up- state New York. There was wine and hors d'oeuvres at the CIA's new Conrad Hilton library, and a video presentation in the new Danny Kaye media center of Jennie Paton's rapid-fire and amusing survey of Canonical dining as por- trayed on film and television, and then dinner in the Great Hall with five buffet stations honoring the five cases dated in 1895, and toasts to those cases, and a handsome illustrated souvenir menu based on careful research by Al and Julie Rosenblatt, who shared credit with Fritz Sonnenschmidt for a memorable celebration. And on the next day the Rhinebeck Volunteer Fire Department welcomed visitors to The Great Jonas Oldacre Firehouse Smoke-Out Breakfast. And now back to dieting, preparing for the next gathering . . . May 95 #5 There's occasional Sherlockian artwork by R. Michael Palan in Greg Hunter's NATE THE GREAT LITERATURE NOTES (for students and teachers using the NATE THE GREAT series by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat); item FS-2725 in a catalog from Frank Schaffer Publications (Box 2853, Torrance, CA 90509) (800-421-5565); $2.49 (minimum order $15.00, but there's lots of other things in their catalog). J.B. Fine Arts (420 Central Avenue, Cedarhurst, NY 11516) (800-522-7871) is selling a 37 x 36" multi- colored lithograph of Robin Morris' "Sherlock" for $750.00, and they will be happy to send you a full- color card showing you how handsome it is. There's a discount if you mention "Scuttlebutt". An old comic book, newly noted for modern collec- tors: THE THREE STOOGES #28 (May 1966) shows Moe Howard on the cover, with deerstalker and calabash. Tom Kowols notes in the Apr. 1995 issue of The Police Gazette that Geoffrey A. Landis' Sherlockian pastiche "The Singular Habits of Wasps" (in the Apr. 1994 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact) was nominated for a Nebula Award (for best novelette) by the Science Fiction Writers of America. "I kind of believe what Sherlock Holmes said to Watson," said Michael Tigar (defense lawyer for Oklahoma bombing-suspect Terry L. Nichols), quoted in a report in the N.Y. Times on May 19. "It's like a stick on the ground. It does point in one direction till you turn it around and look at it from the other side and it points just as equally in the other direction." Well now -- what did Holmes really say? Warning: answer on next page. Sotheby's reports that Stanley MacKenzie's collection of Sherlockiana will be auctioned on July 24. The catalog isn't ready yet, but their address is 34-35 New Bond Street, London, W1A 2AA, England. The June-July issue of British Heritage has a fine article by Steven Eramo about Edward Hardwicke, covering much more than his work as Watson on stage and television; Box 1066, Mount Morris, IL 61054-9946 ($4.95). The 1995 running of The Silver Blaze at Belmont Park (in New York) will be held on Sept. 9. Additional information is available from Stephen L. Stix, 1150 NC 50 & US 117, Faison, NC 28341. Eric Porter died on May 15. He was a splendid actor, and his portrayal of Soames Forsyte brought him widespread notice in the United States when "The Forsyte Saga" aired on public television. And he was an inspired choice for the role of Prof. Moriarty in the Granada series. It should be noted, by the way, that the success of "The Forsyte Saga" was the key to bringing British drama to American television; the next step was when WGBH-TV (Boston) networked "The First Churchills" as the first series broadcast on "Masterpiece Theatre". "The Forsyte Saga" also featured Nyree Dawn Porter as Soames' wife Irene, and offered many American viewers their first chance to hear "Irene" pronounced as a three-syllable name. May 95 #6 The Sub-Librarians Scion of the Baker Street Irregulars in the American Library Association will holds it annual meeting from 4:00 to 5:30 pm on June 25 at the Harold Washington Library Center in Chi- cago; there will be reception, and a presentation by Ely M. Liebow, and the cost is $15.00, and the deadline for reservations is June 17. You can send your checks to Marsha L. Pollak, Sunnyvale Public Library, Box 3714, Sunny- vale, CA 94088-3714. And you needn't be a librarian to enjoy the meeting. Jeff Decker (who aptly describes himself as "an artist known for his blend of pawky humor and visual story- telling") welcomes enquiries about original artwork for Sherlockian stationery, greeting cards, and illustra- tions; R.D. 3, Box 7631, Jonestown, PA 17038. Members of The Hounds of the Internet have offered quo- tations as sources for what Michael Tigar said Holmes said. Ben Fairbank gets credit for "The Boscombe Val- ley Mystery" ("Circumstantial evidence ... may seem to point very straight to one thing, but if you shift your own point of view a little, you may find it pointing in an equally uncom- promising manner to something entirely different"). And Tom Crammond gets credit for "The Norwood Builder" ("After all, important fresh evidence is a two-edged thing, and may possibly cut in very different direction to that which Lestrade imagines"). It's difficult to figure out how Tigar got from either one of those quotes to his quote; perhaps he was recalling something from a pastiche or a movie or a television show. "Autumn in Baker Street" will be held on Oct. 28-29 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. If your cable system has the Sci-Fi Channel, watch for "Spectre" on June 3 and June 4 on "Pilot Playhouse". "Spectre" was a two-hour television film made from a story by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Norway Productions for Twentieth Century-Fox Television, and broadcast by NBC-TV on May 21, 1977, starring Robert Culp as William Sebastian and Gig Young as Dr. Hamilton. According to reasonably informed sources, Roddenberry wrote the screenplay several years after the original "Star Trek" series went off the air, and involved Holmes and Watson in a story that was dated after Holmes' retire- ment, and planned as a pilot for a series starring Leonard Nimoy as Holmes. But Nimoy didn't want to do the series, and Roddenberry wasn't able to get permission to use Holmes and Watson as characters, so he just changed the names to Sebastian and Hamilton and turned the project into a non-Sherlock- ian film. The just-published issue #9 of Murder & Mayhem: The Mystery Reader's Guide has a long and well-illustrated article "Of Matters Sherlockian" by editors Fiske and Elly-Ann Miles, and an interesting interview with Dame Jean Conan Doyle by John C. Tibbetts. Box 415024, Kansas City, MO 64141; $2.95. The Spermaceti Press, 3900 Tunlaw Road NW #119, Washington, DC 20007-4830 Telephone: 202-338-1808 Internet: pblau@capaccess.org Jun 95 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press Faithful viewers of the O. J. Simpson trial will recall the battle between defense attorney Barry Scheck and Los Angeles Police Department criminal- ists Dennis Fung and Andrea Mazzola, and Scheck brandishing what he called the "fundamental textbook" used by the LAPD. The book was CRIMINALISTICS: AN INTRODUCTION TO FORENSIC SCIENCE, and its author, Richard Saferstein was interviewed by David Ellis for People magazine (May 15); I don't know about the current edition, but in the second edition (1981) the introductory sec- tion on the history and development of forensic science features a tribute to Conan Doyle and Holmes. Saferstein expects a hung jury. Reported from Britain: THE SHERLOCK HOLMES ENCYCLOPEDIA, by Matthew Bunson (Pavilion, L19.99); the British edition of his ENCYCLOPEDIA SHERLOCKIANA (Jan 95 #4); and NEVERMORE, by William Hjortsberg (Orion, L9.99); the Brit- ish edition of his Houdini/Conan Doyle pastiche (Oct 94 #5). "You don't happen to have a Raphael or a first folio Shakespeare without knowing it?" Sherlock Holmes wondered (in "The Three Gables"). A cherub (suggested by some a guardian death angel) from Raphael's "Sistine Madonna" was seen earlier this year on an undeno- minated "Love" stamps (Feb 95 #3); now there are two of them. "Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective" (on "Biography" on A&E cable on May 22) was nicely done and well produced for its target general audience. And those who don't get A&E, or who forgot to watch or tape the program and who don't know anyone who did tape it, will be glad to know that it's available on videocassette at $23.90 postpaid; you can call 800-423-1212. "Jack the Ripper: Phantom of Death" (on "Biography" on May 23) had passing mentions of Holmes and Conan Doyle. Bob Burr offers a revised version of the one-page "Some Basic Questions for the Beginning Student of the Canon" (some of the questions might be consid- ered multiple-choice, if Bob gave any choices). Send him a #10 SASE (4010 North Devon Lane, Peoria, IL 61614). Alas: newly-increased charges by the Postal Service have triggered a rise in the price of this newsletter, which now is $9.00 a year for six or more pages a month of whatever gossip I find appropriate. A box of 500 stamped envelopes with printed return address now costs $184.60 postpaid ($181.60 postpaid if you're satisfied with the Liberty Bell indicia); that's still a bargain, as far as I'm concerned, and the toll-free number is 800-782-6724. And (alas, again) the postal rates for international mail will increase on July 9. The new newsletter price for Canada will be US$11.50 a year, and the new price for other countries will be US$17.50 a year. James R. Webb's three-page article "Sherlock Holmes on Consulting" offers readers of the Journal of Management Consulting (spring 1995) a look at how Sherlock Holmes anticipated the modern management consultant. The address is: 858 Longview Road, Burlingame, CA 94010; $20.00 postpaid. Jun 95 #2 "I should not be surprised to learn that what we have heard is the cry of the last of the bitterns," said Jack Stapleton (in "The Hound of the Baskervilles"). There still are bitterns to be found in the United States, at least: Bob Robinson has noted a fine cover story in Smithsonian (May 1995) about the American bittern and the least bittern. Barbara Holmes will be glad to accept com- missions for original Sherlockian artwork, and to discuss your ideas. She works in acrylics, and prices range from $38.00 (11 x 14") to $55.00 (20 x 24"); this greatly- reduced reproduction of her color portrait of Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwick shows what she can do; her address is Box 446, Scottsville, VA 24590. Oxford University Press began to discount the boxed hard-cover nine-volume edition of THE OXFORD SHERLOCK HOLMES when the new edition in paper covers was ready (the new edition was edited to correct some of the errors). Last year (Oct 94 #6) the hard- cover edition cost $49.50 (plus $5.00 for shipping) from the press (800-230-3242), and Dick Lesh now reports that it's still available from Daedalus Books for $50.00 (plus $4.50 shipping); Box 9132, Hyatts- ville, MD 20781 (800-395-2665). I don't know if any Sherlockians investigating the Tankerville Club Scandal (mentioned in the "The Five Orange Pips") have ever discussed the case with the Earl of Tankerville, but there is one: the earldom was created in 1714, and the 10th Earl, Peter Grey Bennet, was born in 1956 and succeeded to the title in 1980. And a recent auction at the Swann Galleries in New York in- cluded a signed autograph postal card from Conan Doyle to Lady Tankerville, responding to an inquiry and complimenting her on her knowledge of psychic matters. Laurel Kristick reports (from the PBS home page on the World Wide Web) that "Mystery!" will repeat Granada's "The Last Vampyre" on Aug. 10 (two hours) and "The Eligible Bachelor" on Aug. 17 (ditto). The Ellery Queen Award, established by the Mystery Writers of America in 1982, recognizes achievement in the fields in which Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee) excelled: anthologies, team writing, and edit- ing. This year the award went to Martin H. Greenberg, of whom Francis M. Nevins, Jr., suggested that "his name seems to be on the dust jacket of ev- ery anthology or collection of entertainment fiction published in the last twenty years." Not quite, but Marty Greenberg has edited or co-edited 524 books, including THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1981), THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1987), THE BEST HORROR STORIES OF ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (1989), SHERLOCK HOLMES IN ORBIT (1995), and many others that have included one or more Sherlockian or Doylean stories. Jun 95 #3 This isn't a quiz, but: later this year the postal service will honor the 100th anniversary of comic strips by issuing a sheet of 20 stamps showing classic characters (all of them are at least 50 years old), and the honorees will be: the Yellow Kid, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Krazy Kat, Rube Goldberg's Inventions, the Toonerville Folks, the Katzen- jammer Kids, Dick Tracy, Popeye, Bringing Up Father, Nancy, Blondie, Brenda Starr, Li'l Abner, Terry and the Pirates, Alley Oop, Barney Google, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, Gasoline Alley, and Little Orphan Annie. How many of these strips have had at least one Sherlockian allusion? In newspapers, not comic books or animations. Send me a photocopy of at least one, and I will (eventually) send you a complete set. If you weren't satisfied with the report (May 95 #4) on the grand Sherlock- ian dinner at the Culinary Institute of America, and would like more detail on what you missed, extra copies of the handsome 16-page menu are available ($18.95 postpaid) from Al and Julie Rosenblatt, 300 Freedom Road, Pleasant Valley, NY 12569. The text is carefully crafted by Julie and Al, with some grand photographs and artwork, and you can see "Black Peter and his wife in happier days." John Keane (who has been in business since 1976 as "Sherlock Bones: Tracer of Missing Pets") now has his own home page on the Internet; if you know how to cruise the Web, the URL is: http://www.sherlock.com/home/sherlock. And his e-mail address is (he says that he would love to hear from "barker street irregulars"). "Farintosh," said Sherlock Holmes (in "The Speckled Band"). "I recall the case; it was concerned with an opal tiara." Austra- lia selected the opal as the national gem- stone in 1993, and used holographic images of light and black opals on a set of stamps issued this year. Gem-quality opal also is found in South Africa, but one likes to think that the tiara had opals from Australia, if only because of the nice stamps. SHERLOCK HOLMES FOR CHILDREN is now offered both on CD and on cassette; the one-hour recording contains four stories (Maza/Spec/Musg/Blue) told by Jim Weiss, who does an excellent job of combining narration and dialogue. The stories were edited for a younger target-audience, but the adaptations are imaginative and retain the excitement of the Canon. The cassette is $9.95 and the CD is $14.95 (add $2.00 per order for shipping) from Greathall Pro- ductions, Box 813, Benicia, CA 94510. Sherlockian artist Cathy Childs (1510 Lake Drive, Grand Island, FL 32735) offers a new illustrated catalog of her artwork, including new 6" busts of Jeremy Brett as Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Watson. M. J. Trow's LESTRADE AND THE KISS OF HORUS (London: Constable, 1995; 235 pp., L15.99) is the fifteenth in his splendid series about Sholto Lestrade, who in 1923 is an ex-Detective Chief Superintendent, but still involved in the work of Scotland Yard, investigating the death of Lord Carnarvon (which turns out to have been deliberate murder, and only one of many in Egypt and in London). As usual, the book is full of puns and bravado and fun. Jun 95 #4 Cadds (the British printer) will be issuing another colorful calendar for 1996, with color photos from the Granada series, and in the meantime has published two posters (12 x 16") with color photo- graphs of Jeremy Brett; you can order from Classic Specialties (Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219); $20.50 postpaid for the two posters. Jennie Paton has reported some nice news from Ken Greenwald and 221A Baker Street Associates: he now is working with the Brilliant Cassettes to make 16 new high-quality cassettes with 32 of the old Sherlock Holmes radio pro- grams with Tom Conway and Nigel Bruce; the introductions will be recorded this summer, and the cassettes likely will be released in 1996. And Ken doesn't have a 200-show backlog, unfortunately. If anyone knows where all those shows are hidden, he'd be delighted to hear who has them. Noted by Dana Richards: a Sherlockian rogue's gallery in "Test Your Private Eye-Q" in Games World of Puzzles (July 1995). Roving Reporter: From the Files of Sarah Jane Smith #4 (one of many Doctor Who fanzines) is now available, and one of the stories is "The Adventure of the Visiting Doctor" (by Joelle Augustine, with artwork by Stefanie Kate Hawks); the Doctor and Sarah Jane help Holmes foil a mass murderer. $13.00 postpaid ($15.00 overseas) from Kevin W. Parker, 3-E Ridge Road, Greenbelt, MD 20770-1900. Brad Keefauver calls Kevin's magazine "one of the world's few perfect fanzines." A Sherlockian first: a Sherlockian screen-saver (for non-tekkies, that's a program that helps you keep from burning something into the screen of your computer, which can happen if you leave something on the screen for hours). The "Abominable Wife" screen-saver cycles through seven of Melissa Hellen's black-and-white portraits of Sherlock Holmes, and you need Windows and 1-MB on a hard disk, and it is available on a 3.5" floppy disk from Carolyn and Joel Senter (Classic Specialties, Box 19058, Cincinnati, OH 45219); $23.45 postpaid. The Silver Blaze (Southern Division) at Pimlico on May 27 was won by Banpac and Meccas Boy in a dead heat, first dead heat in the history of The Silver Blaze and possibly all the Silver Blazes. Karen McDonough of Philadelphia presented the trophy (a specially bound copy of one of the Sherlockian vol- umes of The Strand Magazine), which will, one hopes, be shared in rotation over the years by the two fortunate owners. The spring 1995 issue of The New Baker Street Pillar Box has arrived from The Franco-Midland Hardware Company; the 46 pages of news and articles in- clude Catherine and Alan Saunders' interesting exploration of "Heavy Game in the Western Himalayas" (information about the society and its publica- tions is available from Philip Weller, 6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU, England). Dr. Fatso's latest installment of the continuing saga of Turlock Loams is THE ADVENTURE OF THE FERAL BARONET, involving "theriomorphy, exotic herbs, and the fast-food conspiracy," according to John Ruyle, who is even now at work printing the booklet on his Pequod Press. Available from the author, 521 Vincente Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94707; $40.00 (cloth) or $20.00 (paper). Jun 95 #5 The bibliographic research by Richard Lancelyn Green and John Michael Gibson for A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A. CONAN DOYLE (1983) un- covered ten stories that had been published anonymously and not previously known to have been Conan Doyle's; they were reprinted in THE UNKNOWN CONAN DOYLE: UNCOLLECTED STORIES (1982), and many admirers of Conan Doyle's work wondered whether there were more such discoveries to be made. The answer is yes: "The Blood-Stone Tragedy: A Druidical Story" in Cassell's Saturday Journal (Feb. 16, 1884) has been identified as Conan Doyle's work, thanks to Michael Halewood's research, inspired by his purchase at auction of a letter from Conan Doyle in Cassell's archives. The story has now been re- printed for the first time by The Arthur Conan Doyle Society in cloth, in a 63-page book that includes a 32-page Afterword by Owen Dudley Edwards, who offers details from contemporary newspapers about the real-life source for the story, and speculation about why it was not reprinted while its author lived. The cost is $26.70 postpaid by surface from the Society (Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester CH4 0JG, England (information on prices for shipping elsewhere is available from the Society). "If so, it would be good news in the sense that there is no Moriarty out there, no diabolical figure still eluding capture and bent on further may- hem," Joel Achenbach wrote in the Washington Post (June 11), commenting on the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. And he obviously assumed that his readers would know who Moriarty is. It is interesting how often one now sees allusions to the dog that did nothing in the night-time, and to the hound of the Baskervilles, and to Moriarty, without any additional identification, made by writers who believe they are writing for readers who don't need help identifying the dog, and the hound, and Moriarty. Our new stamp shows a familiar rose, since the design has been used before (Sep 93 #1), but the rose is pink (rather than red) and the denomination is 32c (rather than 29c). There are lots of roses to be found in the Sherlock Holmes stories, and on our postage stamps (I doubt that any other flower has been featured on our stamps as often as the rose). Reported by Ralph Hall: Mickey Mouse in a Sherlockian scene from "Lonesome Ghosts" on the face of a wristwatch ($65.00) at a Disney store at a mall. THE BERENSTAIN BEARS AND THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER, by Stan and Jan Berenstain (New York, Random House, 1995; $2.50); Grizzlock Holmes in a deerstalker on one page. And a flier from Peterson announcing a new series of pipes (com- memorating "The Return of Sherlock Holmes"); the first is "The Rathbone" at $150 to $200 at your local pipe shop. Travelers to Ontario may wish to attend a dinner-theatre production of Den- nis Rosa's play "Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Sign of the Four" at the Rainbow Theatre in Parry Sound, July 25-Aug. 5. Box 282, Parry Sound, ON P2A 2X4, Canada (705-746-4050). John Baesch reports that The Folio Society still offers their uniform set of the Canon, as a premium for new members: you can get five volumes of the short stories for L9.95 (for the set), and the four volumes with the novels free if you then decide to join; the society advertised in The Sunday Times (June 4), and their address is 44 Eagle Street, London WC1 4BR, England. Jun 95 #6 Hugh Scullion (proprietor of Cadds Printing) reports that he has learned from Grace Riley (John Aidiniantz's mother) that Aidiniantz, who in January was jailed for three years after being convicted of obtaining L1.2 million by deception, has now appealed the sentence, and hopes to be released if he can persuade a judge that the mortgage lenders wouldn't have suffered financially (because property served as security), and that many people who apply for mortgages don't always tell the complete truth. Aidiniantz's company has now gone into liquidation, which may bode ill for The Sherlock Holmes Museum at 239 Baker Street in London. Anyone who might wish to own a Sherlockian landmark will be interested in a classified advertisement noted by Steve Rothman in the Wall Street Journal (June 7): "STEAK HOUSE & REAL ESTATE. Christ Cella, NY's 70 yr old family owner restaurant. Sale incl. business & bldg in midtwn Mnhtn. Excl Agt 212- 888-8850." The Baker Street Irregulars held their first formal meeting at Christ Cella's Restaurant on June 5, 1934, and their annual dinners on Dec. 7, 1934, and Jan. 6, 1936. However (Steve notes): it may be the same busi- ness, but it's not the same building, since the restaurant has moved since the days of the early BSI meetings. Steve also noted that "P.O.V.: Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter" (on PBS-TV on June 6), made by Deborah Hoffmann and nominated for an Oscar this year, involves the long struggle against Alzheimer's disease by her mother, Doris Hoffmann, who is the widow of the late Banesh Hoffmann, member of The Baker Street Irregulars. The spring 1995 issue of The Ritual is at hand from The Northern Musgraves; it's now a review rather than a newsletter, and offers 60 pages of articles and news, including David Stuart Davies' fine article on the BBC radio ser- ies with Clive Merrison and Michael Williams. Information on membership is available from Anne Jordan, Fairbank, Beck Lane, Bingley, West Yorks. BD16 4DN, England. "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" opened this month in Britain, and was not praised by the newspaper critics. Christopher Tookey (Daily Mail) called the film "the most inept condemnation of drug abuse since 'Reefer Madness' in 1936," and said that it "reduced a packed press screening to helpless laughter." And Jeremy Brett "gives us his Anthony Vernon-Smith, an aristocratic drug dealer, pimp, maker of blue films and master criminal -- though, frankly, he behaves more like a Mr. Prig than a Mr. Big." Other critics were a bit more lenient, at least toward the actors, including Elizabeth Hurley, who is the heroine-on-heroin and looks lovely, and Brett (who plays the drug king "in the louche style long copyrighted by Christopher Walken," accord- ing to Sean French in the Guardian). No word yet on distribution plans in the United States (the film might go directly to videocassette or to cable television, I suspect). "Try Canadian Pacific Railway," said Sherlock Holmes (in "Black Peter"). But that appears not to be the motto of the Canadian government, according to a Reuters dispatch in the N.Y. Times (Apr. 3). The government, striving to cut chronic fiscal deficits, plans to privatize Canadian National Rail- ways in October, but has refused a $1 billion offer from Canadian Pacific Ltd., which wanted to buy the eastern operations of Canadian National. Jun 95 #7 Julian Symons' CRIMINAL PRACTICES (London: Macmillan, 1994; 229 pp., L7.99) is a collection of some of the best of his critical essays and articles about crime writing. "The fact is that ninety per cent of crime stories, mystery stories, thrillers, are written by people w