The Company Canon

I recently got hold of a (complete) set of seven Sherlock Holmes publications titled the 'The Company Canon' published by the Franco-Midland Hardware Company. Each of these books contains a single Sherlock Holmes story, with annotations created by Philip Weller. All seven books were published in 1994 and 1995, are spiral-bound, and each has a differently-colored card cover. They are quite attractive, but what I was not prepared for based on the photos I'd seen is how small they are (4 inches by 6 inches) - see the standard-sized iPhone placed next to the seven books to give a sense of scale!

 

The seven stories that were annotated are (not in order, which I cannot determine):

• The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb (236 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Devil's Foot (123 annotations)
• The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax (127 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Dancing Men (212 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk (301 annotations)
• The Problem of Thor Bridge (138 annotations)
• The Adventure of the Empty House (191 annotations)

The various newsletters of the FMHC I own do not really provide any articles with a context for the creation of the series. There are brief pieces stating 'Company Canon' issues are available for sale, but I can't find any announcement of the series. The books do have a 'General Introduction' :

"The Company Canon is a collection of singular case Holmesian texts, produced in a convenient working format for scholars by The Franco-Midland Hardware Company, The International Sherlock Holmes Study Group. The basic texts used are those of The Strand Magazine, this having been the form in which the majority of the cases were first published. Variations between those texts and other important editions of the Holmesian Canon are noted, including the manuscript version, if available, and the datings assigned by the major Holmesian chronologists are listed. Space is provided for the inclusion of additional annotations.

The cover displays the crest of the Franco-Midland Hardware Company, and the Contents are listed. I'm showing Engineer's Thumb as an example. The story is not short, and the Contents show the story occupies about 33 pages,. The annotations occupy about 20 pages. Some annotations relate to differences in formatting between editions, while others provide historical context, geographical context, or meanings. Weller encouraged textual study and in these volumes he provided a 'Additional Annotations' section to allow the owner to jot down other annotations (see my post on his Geographica Baskervillia for another example of this approach). Finally, the inside of the back cover provides the dates determined by eleven Sherlockian chronologies - very handy indeed.

It's a shame (as always) that the series from Weller wasn't continued beyond these seven editions, but they provide a useful complement to the Baring-Gould and both Klinger annotations, among others. They also look great!!

As a side-note, this is not the only annotation of a Conan Doyle story published by Weller. Doyle's story 'The Winning Shot' was also published in 1995 by 'Sherlock Publications. This publication contains further detailed analysis of the story including discussion of the Dartmoor connection and maps of the area.

The Baker Street Cinematograph

I purchased a copy of David Stuart Davies book 'Holmes of the Movies" published in 1977. 

That's not much of a blog post on it's own, but one of my 'favorite things' is finding an item inlaid into a book. In this case, I found a single sheet of paper printed. on both sides, and dated 1977 (the same year the book was published). The document was created by Jon Lellenberg for the National Film Society in Washington, D.C., for 5 November 1977. The document concludes with a description of the Baker Street Cinematograph, a Sherlockian group I've not heard of. 

Given the topic, author, and timing, I feel this is worth transcribing and sharing - though I should say the single-sentence review of the DSD book is fairly brutal !!

What do you think of Lellenberg's list?

THE FILM MYSTIQUE OF MR, SHERLOCK HOLMES

Jon L. Lellenberg, National Film Society, Washington, D.C., November 5, 1977

Filmbooks

• Michael Pointer, The Sherlock Holmes File, Clarkson, N. Potter Inc., 1975. Highly recommended ; worth its price as a portrait gallery alone.
• Robert Pohle & Douglas Hart, Sherlock Holmes on the Screen, A.S. Barnes & Company, 1977. A first-rate survey of Sherlock Holmes films.
• David Stuart Davies, Holmes of the Movies, Clarkson, N. Potter Inc., 1977. Very superficial and error-ridden account of the subject.
• Ron Haydock, Deerstalker, Scarecrow Press, forthcoming 1978. Bibliographical survey of Holmes on film and television, of unknown quality.
• Chris Steinbrunner, The Cinema of Sherlock Holmes, Citadel Press, forthcoming 1978. A recommended study of Sherlock Holmes films.

Landmarks of Sherlock Holmes Films

1. SHERLOCK HOLMES BAFFLED, unknown cast. 1900, American Mutoscope and Biograph Company (US). The earliest known Sherlock Holmes film.

2. THE SPECKLED BAND, Georges Treville, 1912, Franco-British Film Company (US/Fr). First of a series of eight, Sherlock Holmes films became a big business at this time.

3. A STUDY IN SCARLET, James Bragington. 1914, Samuelson Film Mfg. Co. (UK). The first feature Sherlock Holmes Film. Followed by H.A. Saintsbury in The Valley of Fear (1916), the first time Holmes was portrayed on film by a first-rank actor.

4. SHERLOCK HOLMES, William Gillette. 1916, Essanay (US). The film version of the great stage play, starring the actor who molded the public image of Sherlock Holmes.

5. SHERLOCK HOLMES, John Barrymore. 1922, Goldwyn Pictures (US). Gustav von Seyffertitiz (Moriarty), Roland Young (Watson). The first Holmes film made on an "A" budget.

6. THE SIGN OF FOUR, Eille Norwood. 1923, Stoll Pictures Productions (UK). The culmination of a series of forty-seven Holmes films, the first to update Holmes into contemporary times.

7. THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, Clive Brook. 1929, Paramount (US). The first Holmes film in sound, made the same year as the last silent Holmes film. Followed by Brook in Sherlock Holmes (Fox, 1932), with Ernest Torrance as Moriarty.

8. THE SPECKLED BAND, Raymond Massay. 1931, British & Dominion Studios (UK). Lyn Harding (Grimesby Rylott). Photgrapher by Freddie Young. The first British Holmes film in sound, the film version of the stage play.

9. THE SLEEPING CARDINAL, Arthur Wontner. 1931, Twickenham Film Studios (UK). Wontner is perhaps the best Sherlock Holmes on film. Followed by The Missing Rembrandt (1932), The Sign of Four (1932), The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935), and Silver Blaze (1937). 

10. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Basil Rathbone. 1939, Twentieth Century Fox (US). Nigel Bruce (Watson). The most famous Sherlock Holmes on film, in a splendid return to period format. Followed by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) and the series of twelve Universal films (1942-1946).

11. THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES, Peter Cushing. 1959, Hammer Films (UK). Andre Morrell (Watson), Christopher Lee (Sir Henry). The first Sherlock Holmes film in color. Cushing would later star as Holmes in a BBC television series in the late 1960s.

12. A STUDY IN TERROR, John Neville. 1965, Compton-Cameo Films (UK). Donald Houstin (Watson), Robert Morley (Mycroft Holmes). The last major Holmes film to be made for the sake of the adventure.

13. THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, Robert Stephens. 1970, Mirisch Productions (US/UK). Colin Blakeley (Watson), Christopher Lee (Mycroft Holmes). Directed by Billy Wilder. The first film to tamper with Holmes's image, the release version is only two-thirds of the completed film.

14. THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS, George C. Scott. 1971, Universal (US). Joanne Woodward (Watson). A film about the desire to be Sherlock Holmes, rather than about Holmes himself.

15. THE SEVEN-PERCENT SOLUTION, Nicol Williamson. 1976, Universal (US). Robert Duvall (Watson), Laurence Olivier (Moriarty), Alan Arkin (Sigmund Freud). The film version of the bestselling novel.

Forthcoming: LIMEHOUSE (based upon The Return of Moriarty by John Gardner) with Donald Sutherland; THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (the tenth film version!) with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore ; SHERLOCK HOLMES AND SAUCY JACK. 

Holmes on Television

The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes on television was in 1937, in a U.S. live broadcast of The Three Garridebs ; the first series began in 1951 with Alan Wheatley, on BBC in Great Britain. Since that time Holmes has been played on television by Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Ronald Howard, Douglas Wilmer, Peter Cushing, John Cleese, Christopher Plummer, and others. The first feature Sherlock Holmes film made for television appeared in 1972, The Hound of the Baskervilles with Stewart Granger ; followed in 1976 by The Return of the World's Greatest Detective with Larry Hagman, and Sherlock Holmes in New York with Roger Moore as Holmes and John Huston as Moriarty. There will be more.

The Baker Street Cinematograph

is an organization established to perform four functions in the area of Sherlock Holmes films: (1) to assist in the preservation of rare Holmes films threatened with destruction due to age and neglect ; (2) to collect and preserve related filmic materials for research and scholarly purposes ; (3) to assist in making Holmes films available for viewing by Sherlockians and scion societies of the Baker Street Irregulars ; and (4) to sponsor an annual showing of rare Sherlock Holmes films during the Baker Street Irregulars weekend in New York every January. For information write to Richard L. Katz, The American Film Institute, 501 North Doheny Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90068, or Chris Steinbrunner, WOR-TV, 1440 Broadway, New York, NY 10018. 

The first year of the blog - reviewed

Well, it's been ONE YEAR since the first post on my Sherlockian blog (221bcooee.blogspot.com/2023/05/hello.html). At the time I knew it was a little risky to start a blog that awkwardly sat around without posts, and I've tried to keep a good level of activity. Looking at my blog activity, I see I've made 60 posts in 12 months! Some of these posts were short notes or observations, others were drafts of Sherlockian articles I was working on. These article drafts are useful for me to post because they are usually longer than the edited-for-space-or-readability article that is ultimately published. Perhaps best of all I find that ideas I post on the blog are 'markers' I can return to when thinking about concepts to develop into an article or talk.

Looking at my first post on the blog, these were the topics I planned to post on:

1. Posts on Sherlockian books, new and old - including tracing original owners.

2. Books published by the 'Baker Street Irregulars' (because I'm trying to collect all BSI publications)

3. I hope to interview people. This hasn't really eventuated.

4. Report on new Sherlockian publications or events I attend.

Point 3 never really took off because I discovered other blogs already doing interviews in a way that was far better than anything I'd thought of. I did recently interview someone for an article I'm writing and I do have a list of people. I'd like to speak to on specific topics.

What has been 'popular'? Here are the five most viewed blog posts.

1. March 2024: The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Public Library
Most visited, and one of my most recent posts. Describes my visit to the collection while in Toronto, with highlights from the collection including a Beeton's first edition. 

2. August 2023: The Sherlockian podcast world
This could do with a companion piece on Sherlock drama/pastiche postcast series.

3. June 2023: Sherlockian glimpses in London
This is a compilation of sites I visited in London related to the world of Sherlock. I'd like to do the same thing for the Doylean world on a future visit to London.

4. May 2023: Why Does Glen Miranker Collect Books?
This is actually the first post (after the introductory post) that I made. I recorded Glen's presentation to the Red Circle, and continue to record and post scion presentations.

5. September 2023: My fascination with Calabash Press
This fits into the 'book collecting' category - I've been collecting every book published by Calabash press. More importantly, this post lists all books published by Calabash Press.

I've also reflected on my personal favorite posts: 

1. The dancing miners and their photographer
A blog post studying one of the first Sherlockian photographs - taken in Australia - and identifying the location and photographer.

2. Donald Girard Jewell’s Sherlock Holmes Natural History Series
Describing Jewelll's book series that I'd finally managed to bring together.

3. A book is more than just a book. Gisela Susanne Seligmann (1929-?)
Where I identify the backstory of the owner of a cope of The White Company.

4. Reflections on the Cottingley Fairies by Frances Griffiths

A book review, with backstory on the ACD connection to the Cottingley Fairies.

5. Mrs. Hudson and the Return of Sherlock Holmes

A filming (by me) of a wonderful performance of a new short play written by Ray Betzner and performed at the 2024 William Gillette luncheon.

So there it is. Just like ACD"s list of his twelve best stories, it's true that my favorite posts are a little different from those that are widely read. I'm incredibly thankful that ANYONE reads these posts, and I'm also satisfied that I've managed to continue posting. I don't think I expected to post on Scion meetings as much as I have - and writing these reviews and linking them to presentation recordings is a nice way of capturing the context for these recorded presentations.

My current priority is to write a set of Sherlockian articles I've sketched out, and I'll be posting drafts of these articles in the next few months. 

Conclusion: this blog was totally worth it! 

Some new books (including from Curtis Armstrong)

It's been a while since I shared some new books on the blog. I have to be honest: I'm not amazing and finding and judging books based on their rarity and quality and value. I have a list of books I'm looking for that is not long, and are mainly obscure things that are 'rare but not valuable' because I really want to read them. And then I keep an eye out for Granada-related publications, BSI publications, and British Sherlockian society publications.

Apart from that, what I look for are things that catch my fancy - because they are pretty, or because they have an owner's inscription that I'd like to trace to learn more about the owner (my favorite hobby).

Here are some examples of books I managed to get hold of recently, and why I purchased them. Three of these things were purchased as part of Type Punch Matrix, a book dealer that acquired the collection of Curtis Armstrong and have been releasing the books in batches - with the last batch being released a week or two ago. 

First is a copy of Through The Magic Door, a conversational book where Arthur Conan Doyle shares his favorite writings. The books os not a first edition, but came with a dust jacket split into two parts at a crease. What I really like is the bookplate inside the cover, signed by Curtis Armstrong.

London: Thomas Nelson. 7.25’’ x 4.75’’. Original red cloth, gilt-lettered spine. In original dust jacket with photographic paste-on to front panel. 256 pages. From the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong, with his signed bookplate to front free endpapers. Jacket in two parts, split along front joint, with about 1/3 of spine lacking, moderate wear andsoil. Book with light edgewear and bumping. Very good plus in good jacket.

Next is a set of the first six issues of the Journal of the Arthur Conan Doyle Society.  I'd really like to own a set of this journal - the articles are wonderful and there aren't too many collections of Doylean articles. I keep an eye out for these issues - but don't see them too oftem.

Chester: The Arthur Conan Doyle Society. 8.25’’ x 5.75’’ each. Original pictorial wrappers. Ranging between 80and232pages.Thoughnoprovenancemarkings, from the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong. Moderate soil to wrappers (a bit heavier to Vol. 3, with crease to front wrapper). Interiors clean. Overall very good.

Third from this purchase was GRANADA COMPANION NUMBER ONE: A Sherlock Holmes Album. This one was a bit of a gamble. It was produced with Granada as an overview of the series to date. What I was hoping to find were some behind-the-scenes photographs - especially information about the Baker Street File. No luck there - you can see the contents of the magazine in this video from the Jeremy Brett podcast guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWZUvy2yZlI .

London: Karizzma. 12.75’’ x 9.25’’. Original saddle-stapled color pictorial wrappers. 40 pages. Though no provenance markings, this copy from the library of noted actor and Sherlockian Curtis Armstrong. Light bumping, edgewear. Very good plus. 

This isn't part of the above purchase, but one I picked up on eBay. It definitely fits into the 'pretty' category for searching. I love this dust jacket.

Tales of Sherlock Holmes. Published by New York: Grosset & Dunlap, New York. Early 1940s.