Please note that there will be a delay in fulfilling orders in the Society Shop between January 9th and 15th, while “Selena Buttons” is at the Sherlock Holmes Birthday Festivities (AKA the BSI Weekend) in New York City.
Next week, Sherlockians from across the country and around the world will gather in New York City to celebrate the Master’s birthday in grand style. Scheduled events include the BSI Annual Dinner, the Gaslight Gala, the Baker Street Babes Daintiest Scream on the Moor charity ball, a Distinguished Speaker Lecture presented by Martin Edwards, an informal brunch hosted by ASH, a vendor’s room, and more.
I’m very excited to be attending for the very first time. Will I see you there? Let me know in the comments! (If you’re following along from home, be sure to check our twitter feed during the Weekend!)
I’ll have some badge ribbons on hand, just for fun!
For those interested in this post, I wanted to report the passing of Gianni Bonagura, who played John Watson in the RAI Italian TV movie in 1968. Bonagura died on the 8th of October, 2017, at the age of 92. A witty and enjoyable Watson, he was courteous enough to talk to us of Uno Studio in Holmes about his experiences on the set of that Canonical production in a telephone interview in the early 2000s.
Gianni Bonagura was born Gianfelice Bonagura on October 27, 1925 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He played Dr Watson to Nando Gazzolo’s Sherlock Holmes for a six-episode television series in 1968. He died on October 8, 2017 in Milan.
This is my copy of the edition of this story published by the Baker Street Irregulars in 1948. The volume has the wonderful preface to the story by the Christopher Morley. I hope that all the John H Watson Society and Sherlockians everywhere are reading this story today. I wish my column editor Selena/Beth all my best wishes for the most blessed and warm family Holiday for all the love and care she has put into working with me and so improving our column beyond any effect I could do. -Ron/Chips
[All the best to you and yours, dear Chips. And to each and every one of you out there. –Selena Buttons]
[Editing note: This was scheduled for the 27th, but did not actually post!]
Photo from Holmes Museum by Alberto Ghione [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]Sherlockian scholarship has a long and fascinating history, going back more than a century now. From Msgr Knox’s “Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes” to our own Watsonian, students of the Canon have analyzed Dr Watson’s chronicles from nearly every conceivable angle.
But is Sherlockian scholarship… well, scholarly? Robert Perret (JHWS “Sampson”) is currently researching this very question, and you can help! This short survey aims to gather information on the current state of Sherlockian scholarship. As with any survey, more participants make for better data. Responses are anonymous; the aggregate data is intended for use in a paper for a Sherlockian journal.
An eagle-eyed member pointed out that today’s entry for SIGN read “December 4, 1888”, when it should have been 1878. While there are a number of cases in which the source we use is an outlier (as also mentioned in the entries for today and yesterday), this was an typographical error on my part and has been corrected.
We love to talk in the comments section here on the blog, but sometimes we’d like a bit more room to have conversations. Enter the John H Watson Society Slack Channel!
The channel provides a members-only space for chatting about a variety of topics. To get your invitation to join the channel, please complete the form below with your name, your Society moniker, and your preferred email address.
The Fall 2017 issue of The Watsonian has been arriving across the US this week, and is expected to begin landing on the other side of the pond soon. If you do not receive your copy, please do let Selena Buttons know!
Email notifications were sent out last night for the digital edition. The notifications look just like the original email you received when joining the Society, but they now include the link to download the newest issue.
We have a great mix of scholarship, observations, and fiction in this issue, as well as beautiful artwork and a particularly cryptic puzzle from our own Pawky Puzzler, Margie Deck (JHWS “Mopsy”). You’ll find some familiar names and some first-time contributors, hailing from locations all over the globe. We sincerely hope that you will find something that makes you think and something that makes you smile within those pages. Let us know what you think!
Last night, the Curious Collectors of Baker Street held an event called “Sherlock Gets Schooled” – an evening all about Holmes’s own education and the broader subject of schools in the Canon. I was asked to give the toast to Sherlock Holmes, and I decided to try my hand at writing a limerick.
My hat is officially off to those of you who write all those clever limericks!
Since our dear “Chips” is a fan of limericks, and it happens to be his birthday today, I’d like to share my very first (and quite possibly last!) Sherlockian limericks.
Sherlock Holmes shares few facts from his past
So tiny details large shadows cast
Ribbons athletes sport
Take on great import
If they name his alma mater at last
He was clearly a Cambridge man, some claim
Others carry the Oxonian flame
Wherever his class
Let’s all raise a glass
To the Master, and his own good name
We received word from Andrea Stewart (JHWS “Asta”) that our dear “Pal”, Don Yates, passed away earlier today.
The friendship between Don Yates and Don Libey (“Buttons”) was the cornerstone of our Society, which was founded on April 11, 2013, as a birthday gift from Don Libey to Don Yates.
Our deepest condolences go to his family and friends.
October 16th – A dull and foggy day, with a drizzle of rain. The house is banked in with rolling clouds, which rise now and then to show the dreary curves of the moor, with thin, silver veins upon the sides of the hills, and the distant boulders gleaming where the light strikes upon their wet faces. It is melancholy outside and in. The baronet is in a black reaction after the excitements of the night. I am conscious myself of a weight at my heart and a feeling of impending danger – ever-present, which is the more terrible because I am unable to define it.
Detail of Sherlock Holmes statue in Edinburgh
And have I not cause for such a feeling? Consider the long sequence of incidents which have all pointed to some sinister influence which is at work around us. There is the death of the last occupant of the Hall, fulfilling so exactly the conditions of the family legend, and there are the repeated reports from peasants of the appearance of a strange creature upon the moor. Twice I have with my own ears heard the sound which resembled the distant, baying of a hound. It is incredible, impossible, that it should really be outside the ordinary laws of Nature. A spectral hound which leaves material footmarks and fills the air with its howling is surely not to be thought of. Stapleton may fall in with such a superstition, and Mortimer also, but if I have one quality upon earth it is common sense, and nothing will persuade me to believe in such a thing. To do so would be to descend to the level of these poor peasants who are not content with a mere fiend-dog, but must needs describe him with hell-fire shooting from his mouth and eyes. Holmes would not listen to such fancies, and I am his agent. But facts are facts, and I have twice heard this crying upon the moor. Suppose that there were really some huge hound loose upon it, that would go far to explain everything. But where could such a hound lie concealed, where did it get its food, where did it come from, how was it that no one saw it by day?
In the comments on yesterday’s entry, Paul Hartnett (JHWS “Scout”) pointed us to this video featuring Steven Doyle and an intrepid crew testing out “the disappearing gun trick”.
Illustration by Sidney Paget for The Strand Magazine (September, 1891)
September 30, 1889: Mary Sutherland wrote her stepfather about her impending marriage. [IDEN]
“Mr. Hosmer Angel came to the house again and proposed that we should marry before father came back. He was in dreadful earnest and made me swear, with my hands on the Testament, that whatever happened I would always be true to him. Mother said he was quite right to make me swear, and that it was a sign of his passion. Mother was all in his favour from the first and was even fonder of him than I was. Then, when they talked of marrying within the week, I began to ask about father; but they both said never to mind about father, but just to tell him afterwards, and mother said she would make it all right with him. I didn’t quite like that, Mr. Holmes. It seemed funny that I should ask his leave, as he was only a few years older than me; but I didn’t want to do anything on the sly, so I wrote to father at Bordeaux, where the company has its French offices, but the letter came back to me on the very morning of the wedding.”
September 30, 1900 (according to Zeisler): Watson walked to Grimpen and met both of the Stapletons. [HOUN]
Illustration by Sidney Paget for The Strand Magazine (November, 1901)
A small fly or moth had fluttered across our path, and in an instant Stapleton was rushing with extraordinary energy and speed in pursuit of it. To my dismay the creature flew straight for the great mire, and my acquaintance never paused for an instant, bounding from tuft to tuft behind it, his green net waving in the air. His grey clothes and jerky, zigzag, irregular progress made him not unlike some huge moth himself. I was standing watching his pursuit with a mixture of admiration for his extraordinary activity and fear lest he should lose his footing in the treacherous mire, when I heard the sound of steps, and turning round found a woman near me upon the path. She had come from the direction in which the plume of smoke indicated the position of Merripit House, but the dip of the moor had hid her until she was quite close.
The Iowa City Public Library is hosting a celebration of the 125th anniversary (quasquicentennial) of the publication of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, with lots of fun and interesting events. Tomorrow, Monica Schmidt (JHWS “Margaux”), president of the Younger Stamfords of Iowa City, will present a talk called “Will the Real Sherlock Holmes Please Stand Up“.
Too far away for me, but if you make it, let us know all about it in the comments! Our Margaux is an excellent speaker, as a number of you can attest, and this is a rich topic for exploration.
Bonnie MacBird (JHWS “Lady”) will be giving a talk at Arthur Conan Doyle’s former Hindhead home, Undershaw, on September 10: Writing Sherlock Now – Modern Holmes on Screen and in Print. She will also be signing her recently-published second book in a trilogy about Holmes and Watson, Unquiet Spirits.
I’d certainly attend if I could! If you’re able to go, let us know how it was in the comments. And wherever you happen to be, do check out the Baker Street Babes’ Live & Local interview!
“‘Come, Watson, come!’ he cried. ‘The game is afoot.'” [ABBE] (Illustration by Sidney Paget for The Strand Magazine, 1904)Now that we are closer to the end of 2017 than the beginning, we are looking ahead to 2018 (and beyond). Calendar Year 2018 Memberships are now available in the Shop in Paperless, Domestic PDF+Paper, and International PDF+Paper options. Current members with subscription expiry dates in mid-2018 who would like to continue receiving paper copies of The Watsonian without interruption may opt for the Renewal for Memberships Ending Mid-2018. (That’s some forward planning!)
If you are unsure when your membership ends, please see our Member Page.
Looking forward to more Watsonian adventures with all of you!
*Yes, I know I’ve wrenched that quote way out of context.
We have no Canonical events for July 4-8, so Chips shares a pair of limericks describing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson and hopes you enjoy them.
Sherlock Holmes
by William S Dorn BSI, DWNP
Sherlock Holmes was the great master sleuth,
For he always discovered the truth,
He assisted the poor
Using logic quite sure,
And he never did did one thing uncouth.
John H Watson
by William S Dorn BSI, DWNP
Watson wrote all those wonderful tales,
Beside which every other tale pales,
What more can we say,
Than up to this day,
Each attempt to improve on them fails.
The latest issue of the Watsonian is making its way to members’ mailboxes around the world. Digital subscribers should have received a “completed order” email including a link to download the new issue. (If you have the Paperless Membership or the Print + PDF Membership and you did not receive an email, please contact Selena Buttons.)
This issue’s contributors reflect our commitment to blending the wisdom and background of great Sherlockians and the enthusiasm of those newly drawn to The Game. Some have been writing for the Watsonian since its inception, while others are appearing for the first time.
An eclectic mix of features and topics fill this issue. Sandy Kozinn (“Roxie”) examines campfire cookery in “Roxie’s Canonical Ramblings”, Alexian Gregory (“Darwin”) explores the alleged connections between Cornish and Chaldean in “Pondicherry Ponderings”, and Lyn Adams makes an expedition to Baker Street West. The issue includes artwork from Neha Dinesh, John Foster (“Barney”), and Fran Wing (“Phoebe”). The “Billiards With…” interview series returns with a look at the Sub-librarians Scion. Margie Deck (“Mopsy”), AKA The Pawky Puzzler, presents a cryptic challenge to solve. Essays both scholarly and personal, poetry, and pastiche can all be found with this issue’s pages.
We hope you will find something interesting, educational, entertaining, and thought-provoking in this issue. Digital (PDF) copies and details about the contents are available in the Shop: Watsonian vol. 5 no. 1.
According to A Day by Day Chronology of Mr Sherlock Holmes, According to Zeisler and Christ, compiled and edited by William S Dorn, BSI and DWNP, on June 4, 1902, Holmes confronted Isadora Klein. [3GAB]
A minute later we were in an Arabian Nights’ drawing-room, vast and wonderful, in a half gloom, picked out with an occasional pink electric light. The lady had come, I felt, to that time of life when even the proudest beauty finds the half-light more welcome. She rose from a settee as we entered; tall, queenly, a perfect figure, a lovely mask-like face, with two wonderful Spanish eyes which looked murder at us both.
Illustration by Frederic Dorr Steele for Liberty (1926)
“In the first place you must give back this manuscript.”
She broke into a ripple of laughter, and walked to the fireplace. There was a calcined mass which she broke up with the poker. “Shall I give this back?” she asked. So roguish and exquisite did she look as she stood before us with a challenging smile that I felt of all Holmes’s criminals this was the one whom he would find it hardest to face. However, he was immune from sentiment.
“That seals your fate,” he said coldly. “You are very prompt in your actions, madame, but you have overdone it on this occasion.”
The Spring 2017 issue of the Watsonian is currently being printed and will soon be winging its way to mailboxes around the world. Digital subscribers will receive an email including a link to download the new issue.
Our publication schedule is now two issues per year: the Spring issue in May and the Fall issue in November.
This is the last issue in many members’ subscriptions. If your membership expires on June 30th, you will not receive the Fall issue unless you renew. Not sure when you’re due for renewal? Membership dates can be found on the Members Page, and mid-year renewals (through December 2018) are available in the Shop.
If you’ve been meaning to join, it’s not too late! Membership is available for the 2017 calendar year, and you will receive both the Spring and Fall 2017 issues of the Watsonian. Don’t miss out on the art, essays, fiction, and puzzles that make up each issue of our excellent journal!
Michele Lopez (JHWS “Reggie”) posted yesterday in the comments of our Billiards with Uno Studio in Holmes post:
This is my copy of the edition of this story published by the Baker Street Irregulars in 1948. The volume has the wonderful preface to the story by the Christopher Morley. I hope that all the John H Watson Society and Sherlockians everywhere are reading this story today. I wish my column editor Selena/Beth all my best wishes for the most blessed and warm family Holiday for all the love and care she has put into working with me and so improving our column beyond any effect I could do. -Ron/Chips
The Fall 2017 issue of The Watsonian has been arriving across the US this week, and is expected to begin landing on the other side of the pond soon. If you do not receive your copy, please do let Selena Buttons know!
Last night, the Curious Collectors of Baker Street held an event called “Sherlock Gets Schooled” – an evening all about Holmes’s own education and the broader subject of schools in the Canon. I was asked to give the toast to Sherlock Holmes, and I decided to try my hand at writing a limerick.
Bonnie MacBird (JHWS “Lady”) will be giving a talk at Arthur Conan Doyle’s former Hindhead home, Undershaw, on September 10: Writing Sherlock Now – Modern Holmes on Screen and in Print. She will also be signing her recently-published second book in a trilogy about Holmes and Watson, Unquiet Spirits.
The Spring 2017 issue of the Watsonian is currently being printed and will soon be winging its way to mailboxes around the world. Digital subscribers will receive an email including a link to download the new issue.