With the journal recently printed and mailed (and thank you very much indeed for the exceptionally nice comments from so many of you), we now turn our attention to the preparation of the annual Treasure Hunt questions.
This year, in addition to the Member Individual and the Open Individual categories, we are extending this second annual Treasure Hunt to a worldwide focus with the first John H Watson Society Annual World Invitational Treasure Hunt. We are also inviting teams or individuals from all over the world to participate for the honours of solving what may be the most difficult Sherlockian/Watsonian quiz in history. The competition will begin 1 August 2014 and end 1 September 2014. Details are found on the Treasure Hunt page of this website.
If you are reading this, please consider this to be your official invitation to field a team of Quiz Masters from the U.S., Canada, U.K., France, Italy, India, Portugal, UAE, or wherever two or more Sherlockians/Watsonians may be gathered and willing to spend up to one month on scholarly and Canonical research to solve 150 diabolically difficult questions (yes, you read correctly: the number of questions is increasing to 150).
Here, we will spend all of June and July researching, writing and perfecting at least 3 questions a day, all linked in a great chain of 150 forged links, each enabling participants to find their way to the ultimate treasure in question #150 and, at last, to Perfection of Canonical Knowledge (PCK).
Return regularly for updates . . . Now is the time to get online to your favourite bookseller and purchase a copy of the one-volume edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes, published by Doubleday, 1930, with the Christopher Morley preface, and having a “W” in the copyright notation. This is the standard reference for the quizzes. These editions can be found on eBay, ABE books, Powell’s, and elsewhere for anywhere from $6 to $30 depending upon condition. This edition is the standard text and gives us all a common page number and line number reference for any Canonical question or citation.
For those of you who belong to scion societies or have international contacts, please let as many clubs and organisations as possible know about the open invitation to participate. We would genuinely wish to see a great worldwide participation by enthusiasts of the Canon and a continuation of the burgeoning interest in and recognition of Dr Watson as an integral and essential creator, character and partner in the Sherlockian milieu.
150 questions!?! Oh my. My head is spinning already. But, team SOB (Sheila, Margie, Airy & Melissa) is ready to give it a go. Sheila and I did this last year and had a lot of fun. We can hardly wait. 🙂
I’m not sure what you mean by “having a W in the copyright notation”. I’m looking at my library’s copy of the 1930 Doubleday Complete Sherlock Holmes in one volume with the Morley introduction, but I don’t see a W anywhere near the copyright information. Where exactly would the “W” appear?
In the Doubleday 1930 one-volume edition, the CREDIT NOTE page has, as the fifth line, a single capital “W” centered. It is unknown what this means or stands for, but the edition has become known by many as the “W” edition. This is found on the verso of the large title page. This volume is cloth, brown boards with black spine and quarters and contains 1122 pages with a “Q16” located on the bottom of the final page in the gutter. The endsheets, both front and rear are brown with “A. Conan Doyle” as a facsimile signature on all four sheets. That should help you identify this edition. It sold perhaps more than any other edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes and is the edition keyed to many of the standard reference works such as, The New Good Old Index, and others.
As a further note, you may have a Book Club edition (identical) but it may not have the “W.”
Ah, thank you! I wonder if it’s a Book Club edition that sneaked in as a donation, since it sounds otherwise identical.
Buttons,
Will you continue with the individual competition in addition to the team competition?
Mais oui! The individual competition will be as last year: Member and Open. We hope you will be defending your hard-won title!
Further to Denny’s Question:
Please see the Treasure Hunt page of the website and Rule #2 which explains the categories. Essentially, the Treasure Hunt is available to members and non-members in both individual and team categories with a separate category for individual students. In 2014, there will be added a worldwide scion/organization invitational team category.