Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press August 2011

8/4/2019 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press August 2011

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Aug11 #1 Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti PressLaurie R. King's newnovel about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes is PIRATEKING(New York: BantamBooks, 2011; 204W., $25.00); it's set in 1924, andhas Russell tmdercover investigating a British mvie conpany that's makinga rovie about a mvie companythat's making a novie of Gilbert & Sullivan's"Pirates of Penzance". There are visits to Portugal and Morocco, real pir-ates, plenty of surprises, and a truly splendid set of opening paragraphs.Laurie's web-site is at , where she has details on herbook tour, which begins on Sept. 6 and takes her as far east as Chicago. ABritish edition (with a different cover) is due on Sept. 12.Romancedetective Jamie McJackreturns (in Sherlockian costume) in DanielleCorsetto's on-line comic strip available at (Dec 10 #4). The cast of characters includes cat as well as people of var-ious genders and persuasions; check the archive for July 25-28.John Baesch spotted an article in the N.Y. Times (Jtme 9) with quotes fromJacki Mari, also known as Sherlockjacki; she and her husband are "intuitiveinformation specialists, free-lance psychic profilers, and corporate intui-tives," and her web-site at IOOreinformation abouttheir services, as well as Sherlockian artwork.What actor played Dr. Watson in 35 "Sherlock Holmes" programs on Americanradio in the 1940s, but isn't mentioned in. any of the Sherlockian referencebooks? This isn't really a trivia question, of course, since it isn't easyto find him.Roger Johnson reports "The Legacy of Sherlock Holmes"I a 55-minute documen-tary written and produced by James Hodder and broadcast by the British ra-dio station Resonance104.4fmon July 26. The program includes interviewswith Sherlockians I actors, and authors, and can be heard at and downloadedfrom .Anglofile, offering detailed coverage of British entertainment and formerlyavailable by mail, now is a blog by Leslie King, and you can read her lat-est news at ; she offers early news of pro-grams to comeon PBS-TVand on BBCAmerica.Tina Rhea spotted an aRllSing basset hound in Sherlockian costume in a ten-minute video ("The Mysterious Adventures of Sherlock Hounds") that was cre-ated by Charlie Foley to promote the King County (Washington) Library Sys-tern's "catch a Clue at the Library!" SUJJDereading program in 2007. Montystars as Sherlock Houndsat Robert A. Moss' "Arthur ConanDoyle and Sherlock Holmes: APhilatelic Cele-bration" is the cover story in the August issue of The American Philatelist(the jOl~l of the American Philatelic Society); Moss, a memberof The Ba-ker Street Irregulars as well as a philatelist, has done an excellent jobof surveying the manystamps that have honored ConanDoyle and Holmes, andthe article is profusely illustrated in full color. $4.95 i 100 Hatch Fac-tory Place, Bellefonte, PA16823 . Bob has kindly made thearticle available on-line at .


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Aug11 #2 ASTUDYN SHERLOCK:TORIESNSPIREDBYTHEHOLMESANON,d-ited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (NewYork: BantamBooks, 2011i 385 pp., $15.00), is an excellent and interesting anthology ofnewstories, with authors ranging from Alan Bradley to Jacqueline Winspear;someof the stories are pastiches, but many others are indeed, and in vari-ous ways, inspired by the Canon.Peter H. Wood ("The Second Stain") died on July 31. Hewas originally fromthe Isle of Man, and was a teacher there, and after he emigrated to Canada,in Saskatchewan and Alberta, where he fotmded The EdJOOntonDeerstalker andThe C.P.R. Stockholder's Society; whenhe retired he roved to Vancouver andwas an energetic memberof The stormy Petrels. The Bootmakers of Torontomadehim a Master Bootmaker in 1983, and he received his Investiture fromThe Baker Street Irregulars in 1985.What actor played Dr. Watson in 35 IISheriock Holmes"programs on Americanradio in the 1940s, but isn't mentioned in any of the Sherlockian referencebooks? Wendell Holmes. The "Sherlock Holmes"series broadcast by WOR-MBSin 1948-49 is widely listed as starring John stanley as Sherlock HolmesandIan Martin as Dr. Watson, but the story's quite different if one listens tothe series (and they're widely available now). Watsonwas played by Martinin only the first four of the 39 episodes, and in the remaining episodes byGeorge Spelvin, whoreally was Wendell Holmes. "George Spelvin" has beenused as a theatrical alias for manyyears, and the producers of the seriesseem to have decided that listeners would be confused ifWatsonwas playedby someonenamed Holmes.As far as I know, Daniel J. Morrowwas the first to con-firm (from Stanley) that the series used ItGeorgeSpelvin"as an alias. There doesn't appear to be RJJCh informationabout Wendell Holmes: the Internet MovieData Base notesthat he was born in 1914 (as Oliver Wendell Holmes) anddied in 1962, and appeared often in films and on televis-ion. Here's what he looked like in 1949, whenhe had asupporting role in the film "Lost Boundaries".The electronic journal Ripperologist casts its net widely: the July issue(#121) reprints "Lot No. 24911 with an interesting introduction and annota-tions by the journal's editor Eduardo Zinna. There is also an article by~leff Mudgett with the intriguing title "Jack Is Holmes"; but it's not ourHolmes: Mudgett's newbookBLOODSTAINSells the story of his great-great-grandfather HermanWebster Mudgett, better known as H. H. Holmes, whoad-mitted to killing 27 people in Chicago in. 1893. Youcan contact the editorat for information about subscriptions.P. D. ~laJ1lE>$rote TALKINGBOUTETECTIVEICTION(2009) at the request ofthe Bodleian Library, which benefits from sales of the book, and there isan interesting chapter on "The Tenant of 221BBaker street and the ParishPriest from Cobhole in Essex". The limited edition, signed and slipcased,is now out print, but the British edition is still available (Bodleian Li-brary, 12.99); the Americanedition from Knopf is out of print, but thereis a trade paperback published this year (Vintage, $14.00). Fans of G. K.Ch~sterton will knowthat the parish priest is Father B r o w n .


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A~~ 11 #3 The KennedyCenter's MarkTwainPrize for ArnericanHumorwillbe awarded to Will Ferrell on Oct. 23. He is noted for his a{r-psarances on "Saturday Night Live" and in films and his one-man comedy showon Broadway, but (so far) not for playing Dr. Watsonwith sesba Baron Cohenas Holmes in a film announced by ColtUnbiaPictures (.luI 08 #3); that film'sin what's politely described as "development hellllBrit Movie Tours offers Sherlock Holmes tours in London that include loca-tions featured in film and television adaptations, with public walks, pri-vate group walking tours, and car and coach tours; you can visit their wet>-site at .

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ron ~ The U.S. Postal Service has honored the centennial of Ronald~ Reagan's birth. Hewrote to O. Dallas Baillio (director ofthe public library in Mobile, Ala.) in 1911, describing hisdebt to public libraries and the books he read as a young boyin Dixon, Ill.: "Then came the Zane Grey phase, Horatio Algerand Sherlock Holmes, and, of course, MarkTwain with Tom Saw-yer and Huckleberry Finn." In 1992 the Reagans dined at TheSherlock Holmes in Northumberland Street and were greeted byHolmes and Watson (costtUnedactors Stewart Quentin Holmes and John Barrett-Watson); there's more about that in a story in the Sherlock HolmesGazette(spring 1993).

"}WenSherlock Holmeswould have been perplexed by this mystery," an adver-t.isement by GovMint.cornproclaimed in the Washington Post (Aug. 5). It's"a real-life mystery Sir Arthur ConanDoyle couldn't writ.e. And SherlockHo]me.c;COUldn't SOlve," the advertisement promised, but the only connectionseems to be that Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in a }:XX)kublished in 1894,and a hoard of Romanbronze coins was found in England in 1895. 1,661 ofthe coins were sold at auction last year for 46,694 [$16,251]' and they'renowbeing offered at $179 (if you buy five or more); the calculation is asinple one, as someoneonce said: anyone whoacted quickly could have hadthem all for a mere $279,319.The Internet Archive is a fine resource for researchers: Virginia Aldrichreports that they have li~c; to scans of the first 64 voltUneSof The StrandMagazine (from bound voltUneS); some scans are faster to open than others,but givesyou slow-speed access to all 64 volurne.c;.Forec.ast: WINTERATDEATH'HOTEL,by Kenneth Cameron (from Orion in Novem-ber r 12.95) i Arthur ConanDoyle and his wife Louisa arrive inNewYork in,January 1896 to begin his first American tour and there is a series of bru-tal murders r and with the help of a hard-bitten detective and an ambitiousf~..ma] e news reporter r "Louisa starts to piece together a story of madness,murderI and depravity."The auction for the f.ordship of the Manorof Manaton in Devon (.JlID 11 #1)is underwayr and details are available at the welrsite of Manorial Auction-eers i they believe that Manaton Inspfred THRHOUNDFTHRBASKRRVTI .T . .ESI and estimate the Lordship at 20J000 to 30,000 (and ifyouintend to bid I you'll need to pay 25 for a "Baskerville Pack").


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Aug11 #4 The school board of Albemarle County, Va., has reached a finaldecision on whether A STUDYN SCARLEThould be dropped fromthe approved reading list for sixth graders (Jul 11 #1): the book has beenreaoved from the list. A local parent ~lained that the book was tmfairto Monoons,but the board decided that the book was not "age appropriate"for the sixth grade. The parent has suggested that THEHOUNDFTHEBAS-KERVILLES"a better introduction to mystery") could be substituted for ASTUDYN SCARLET.The board's decision has been widely reported, IIDreof-ten than not in stories and blogs that said (incorrectly) that ASTUDYNSCARLETas been banned from school library shelves. As might be expected Ithere was a quick increase in the rrumberof downloads of ASTUDYN SCAR-LETfrom Project Gutenberg.John Wood died on Aug. 6. He began his acting career in the mid-1950s withthe Old Vic ConpanyinLondon, and went on to perform often with the RoyalShakespeare Conpany in London and :NewYork, and in films and on television.He w on a well-deserved Tonynomination for his title role in their revivalof William Gillette's "Sherlock Holmes" in 1974.The Pleasant Places of Florida showwhat can be done with a society's web-site : they have madeavailable PDFfiles of all 306 issuesof their newsletter ConImmications (from Mar. 1972 onward) as well as theirother publications.Further to the report (Jul 11 #5) about sculptor David Cornell's romplaintsthat his statue of ConanDoyle had been ruined by slog;>y cleaning methods,Brian Pugh reports that the Crowboroughtown council has decided to pay aspecialist 450 to clean up the statue this year I and 300 a year in futureto maintain it.Sherlock Holmesand the Case of the Unraveling strand" is the title of amystery weekendscheduled incambridge, Ohio, on Jan. 6-7. More informa-tion is available at click on "WhatTo Do"and then on "Sherlock. HolmesWeekend".Another (non-Sherlockian) MurderMystery Weekendis scheduled at Madden'sat Gull Lake in Brainerd, Minn., Sept. 30-0ct. 2. Details are available at."How to Make Phosphorus Out of Pee" is an intriguing (and aJIl.1Sing) blog-post by Ether Inglis-Arkell, who says that her first introduction to phos-phorus was reading THEHOUNDFTHEBASKERVILLES;haven't experimented todetermine whether it works, but will be happy to hear from anyone whogivesit a try CBSNewsconducts a IIDnthly "60 Minutes/Vanity Fair Poll" (of 1,045 adultsnationwide, interviewed by telephone), and one of the questions I reportedin the Sept. issue was "Whichof these fictional character would you IIDstlike to go on adventures with?". Sherlock Holmes came in second overall,and for menand for people older than 45; James Bond ranked first, and cap-tain Jack Sparrow third (except for womenand people younger than 45, withwhomhe outranked Holmes). Harry Potter came in fourth for everyone, andLara Croft fifth.


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Aug11 #5 Stephen R. Alton's inpressi ve article "The Game Is Afoot!: TheSignificance of Donative Transfers in the Sherlock: Holmes can-on in the spring issue of the Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Journalis a fine example of what happens when someonewith specialized knowledgebrings it to bear on the Sherlock Holmes stories. It's a long article (47pages) because the author assumes his readers maynot have read the canonand reviews events in somedetails, but he has discovered a few twists andturns that appear to be new to Sherlockian scholarship. Sonia Fetherson'shusband Ben noted the article, and she reports that the best way for Sher-lockians to read it will be to find someonewho's a memberof the AmericanBar Assoc:iation and can download it from ; search for[rpte journal].The Hounds of the Baskerville (sic) are co-sponsoring The Fourth NewberryLibrary Sir Arthur ConanDoyle-Sherlock Holmes SynpJsiumon Oct. 1; 60 WestWalton Street in Chicago, from 9:30 amto noon. The event is open to thepublic without charge, and the speakers will be Jon Lellenberg and DanielStashower (on Conan Doyle's THENARRATIVEFJOHNSMITH),Jacquelynn Morris(on the continuing canpaign to save Undershaw), and Henry Zecher (on Will-iamGillette).The British Library will I1K>UIltsmall exhibition showcasing the manuscriptTHENARRATIVEFJOHNSMITHnd other material from their extensive ConanDoyle, exploring "the context of his literary apprenticeship and his earlystruggles to gain professional recognition/' sept. 9 through Jan. 5. in theSir John Ritblat Gallery .

Jim Ballinger has spotted a bone china Baker street Mug withan imaginatively stylized Sherlockian design (with "221BBa-ker Street NW"imprinted on the other side) available fromI Whittard of Chelsea for 8.00.

-...... r~ra Bergen's SOPHIETHESNOOPNewYork: Scholastic, 2011;102 pp., $4.99) is part of a series for readers ages 9-12;the cover and illustrations (by Laury Tallardy) showSophiein Sherlockian costume; the text has Sophie hoping t.O be Sherlock Holmes.Megan McDonalds ~1UDYOODYGIRT...ETECTIVESomerville: candlewick Press,2010; 170 pp., $15.99) is Sherlockian only for Peter H. Reynolds' cover andtitle-page artwork, but it's an amusing story for readers in grades 1-3.People whowant to watch DVDsrecorded in other regions, and whodon't havemulti-region software installed on their computers, should download the VLCfreeware from ; it's useful and efficient.AfOOvietrivia challenge: Julie McKurasrecently watched the film "Friendsof Mr. SWeeney"(1934), which was based on a novel by Elmer Davis, and shenotes that Berton Churchill, one of the actors in the film, also appearedin "Danger on the Air" (1938), which was based on the novel DEATHATCHESUPWITHMR.KLUCK,y Xantippe (a pen nameused by Edith Meiser); Jon Lell-enberg adds that Berton Churchill also appeared in liTheSpanish cape Mys-tery" (1935), based on the novel by Ellery Queen (Fred Dannayand ManfredLee) . Are there other actors who have appeared in films that were based onnovels written by different membersof The Baker Street Irregulars?


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Aug11 #6 Les Klinger reports an interesting, and perhaps useful data baseat , where "The Proceedings of the OldBailey, 1674-1913" are easiIy searchable. On Nov. 21, 1887, James Moriarty(aged 17) was one of three defendants tried for violent theft and robbery,but lithe prosecutor, a sailor, did not answer whencalled upon his recogni-sances ,tI With no evidence entered for the prosecution, the defendants werefound not guilty. And there's muchmore to the web-site, including a ex-cellent di.scusaion of "CurrencyI Coinage1and the Cost of Living" i click on"Resp...archand Study Guides" and then on "London and its Hinterlands".SandyKozinn notes that has information about anda f Ine photograph of the "old fort at Agra" (as in "The Sign of the Four'"}.William R. Cochran's mINKINGOUTSIDEHE TIN-DISPATCHOX : THE POSTREICH-ENBA CH SHER LOCK HOLMES is a collection of his essays about the chronologyand manyother aspects of the canon; Bill was a co-founder of The Occupantsof the EmptyHouse and has enthuiastically pursued Sherlockian scholarshipfOT more than 30 years. The 168-page book costs $20.00 from George A. Van-derburgh (Box 122, Sauk City, WI53583 and Box 50, R.R. 4, Eugenia, ONN O ClEl, Canada} ItISwell worth checking sales offers at oncein a while: four books in the Baker Street Irregulars International Serieshave been available as a set at half price, and there's one set remaining;click on [items for sale] and then on [deal table].The latest Issue of CArolynand Joel Senter's The Sherlockian E-Timeswillbe found at with offers of Sher-lockiana, old and new, books and more, and a report (with photographs) ofthe annuat summerpicnic of the Nashville Scholars of the Three-Pipe Prob-lem.Yuri Rasovsky notes that AudioFile's web-site has a "Listener's Guide to Sherlock Holmes"with sanples, reviews, inter-viewsI and an excellent audiography of recordings of C..onanDole's Sherlock-ian and non-Sherlockian stories.Peggy PerdueIs "Letters from r.omaxltas a continuing series of report.s fromthe Arthur ConanDoyle Collection of the Toronto Reference Library I and inthe summerissue she offers an interesting discussion of Doylean and Sher-lockian music and musiC'Ailsithe quarterly journal is published by The Boot-makers of Toronto (TDCPostal Station Box1157I 77 King Street We.c;t,Toron-to I ONM5KP2 I canada ($35.00 a year).Ithas always been a bit embarras.

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Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press August 2011