My plan with this blog is to provide a look at publications new or old. They first is Doylean: "The Annotated Jelland's Voyage ; The Only One Japanese Story written by Conan Doyle". This pamphlet is about 20 pages long, edited by Hirayama Yuichi BSI, and published by the "Shoso-in Press" of Tokyo. The Shoso-in Press is best known for publishing 14 annual volumes of the Sherlockian "Shoso-in Bulletin".
There is some information on the Shoso-in Bulletin here https://shoso.ninja-web.net/Shoso-inBulletin/index.html , and that page provides a summary of its purpose:
There were many Sherlockian magazines, but most of them were published and written by American and British Sherlockians. We believed there were many Sherlockian scholars in non-English speaking countries, and wanted to support them as they communicate with other countries' Sherlockians. The Shoso-in Bulletin was published in English, but contributors did not need to write perfect English articles. Our editors provided support by checking their English.
As an aside, read the remarkable story of where the term "Shoso-in" derives from - an amazing repository almost 1,400 years old: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Ds%C5%8Din
Along with the Bulletin, the Shoso-in Press produced one or two other monographs including this work - the transcription and annotation of the ACD short story "Jelland's Voyage". If you'd like to read the story, and learn about its publication history, you can do so here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Jelland%27s_Voyage and note there is an excellent "Doings of Doyle" podcast discussing the story: https://www.doingsofdoyle.com/2021/11/20-jellands-voyage-1892.html .
My copy does not have any signatures or dedications, and has a light green softcover wrapper. The work does not have a Table of Contents. It contains the following sections, some of which I have provided photos of:
- an essay on the "Background of Jelland's Story" of the story and the Japanese historical context that Doyle built his story around
- the story "Jelland's Voyage" with numbering for footnotes, that relates to the next section...
- the "Annotations" section that provides explanations and context. For example, the first term clarified is the now-problematic and dated phrase "Anglo-Jap".
- an "Appendix - Chronology of the Japanese and Western History in late 19th Century" , that provides a list of events impacting Japanese-Western interactions from 1953 onwards.
- There is also a brief bibliography listing sources used in the creation of the essay and annotations
The booklet is a wonderful focused view of a specific ACD story, with historical and cultural context provided by someone well placed to do so. There are multiple copies available at online book resellers, so I wouldn't consider this publication valuable. It's of more interest to those interested in ACD's bibliography, and a nice spin-out from a Sherlockian publisher.
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