Announcing the Bowery Ruffians

I'm starting a scion - The Bowery Ruffians! 

The Bowery Ruffians will meet in January for the first time, but can meet any other time when two or more Sherlockians gather. The rules? A meeting requires at least two Sherlockians (sorry ), and the meeting must take place in the Bowery, and the only toasts can be to those nefarious criminals and ne'er-do-wells in the canon. I believe Madeline Quiñones will toast our friend Moriarty.

The Bowery features in the only mention of New York in the Canon, in the Red Circle: "Gennaro was able to do a service to an Italian gentleman--he saved him from some ruffians in the place called the Bowery, and so made a powerful friend."

The rules? It takes at least two, and the meeting must take place in the Bowery, and the only toasts can be to those nefarious criminals and ne'er-do-wells in the canon. I believe Madeline Quiñones will toast our friend Moriarty.

I have pins - and if you meet us in the Bowery I'll give you a pin. Shout-out to Kyle Brimacombe for designing the pin.

When and where? Thursday Jan 16th 1025, 3:15 - 5 pm, very informal, at The Wren (344 Bowery) not far from McSorleys.

If you are free, come join the ruffians!

The Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual modern series

The Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual is a special issue that covers a single topic. I've previously posted about the first generation of Baker Street Journal Christmas Annuals published from 1956-1960. The final Christmas Annual in 1960 was produced with material prepared by Edgar W Smith prior to his death that year. The BSJ lived on, but from 1960 till 1997 the Baker Street Journal Christmas Annual was not produced, till it re-emerged again as a fine tradition in 1998.

Each Christmas Annual from 1998 onwards is effectively a monograph authored on a topic. The BSI page helpfully provides details of each Annual (1998-current).

Here is my set:

Below I've created a brief list of each Annual, the title and author(s). Many can be purchased through BSI, and copes come up for sale through resellers.

1998: "Entertainment and Fantasy": The 1940 BSI Dinner. By Jon L. Lellenberg, BSI. 

1999. The Best of the Pips Volume II: More Papers on the Sundial. Edited by Albert M. Rosenblatt, BSI. 

2000. History of the Silver Blaze. By Wayne B. Swift, BSI.

2001. On the Shoulders of Giants: Jack Tracy and the Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana by Christopher and Barbara Roden, BSIs.

2002. Tilting at Windmills: Denis Conan Doyle and the Baker Street Irregulars by Richard Lancelyn Green, BSI.

2003. "The Strength and Activity of Youth": The Junior Sherlockian Movement. By Stephen Clarkson, BSI.

2004. Dubious and Questionable Memories: A History of the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes. By Susan Rice, ASH, BSI, 2s.

2005. Once a Week in Baker Street: The Boucher-Green Years by H. Paul Jeffers, BSI.

2006. Quartering in the Fifties: The Sherlockian Correspondence of Colin Prestige by Nicholas Utechin, BSI.

2007. Rathbone Returns! A Misadventure Called Sherlock Holmes by S.E. Dahlinger, BSI & Glen Miranker, BSI. 

2008. Reading the Signs: Some Observations and Aperçus on Film and Television Adaptations of The Sign of the Four. By David F. Morrill, BSI.

2009. "Did you notice nothing curious about that advertisement?" By Peggy Perdue. 

2010. From Piff-Pouff to Backnecke: Ronald Knox and 100 Years of “Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes” by Nicholas Utechin, BSI.

2011. First Lady by Mary Ann Bradley. Lenore Glen Offord was the first woman to be invested in the Baker Street Irregulars.

2012. Barrymore in Baker Street: “The Great Profile” Meets “The Great Detective,” and They Both Get Their Names Up in Lights by Sonia Fetherston.

2013. Disaster at the New Century. Sherlock Holmes: A New Play in Three Acts by Ouida Rathbone.

2014. The Only Actor Who Ever Got It Right: Douglas Wilmer as Sherlock Holmes. Edited by Elaine & Jonathan McCafferty. 

2015. Together Again for the First Time: Forty Years of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. By Steven T. Doyle, BSI. 

2016. The Day after Christmas: First Encounters with Gillette's Silent Sherlock Holmes. Edited by Russell Merritt, BSI.

2017. "A Woman of Mystery": Helene Yuhasova, Poetess Laureate of the Baker Street Irregulars. 

2018. The Exhibitionists: Sherlock Holmes in London 1951 and New York 1952. By Mattias Boström and Nicholas Utechin. 

2019. Baring-Gould of Baker Street: The Life and Footprints of William S. Baring-Gould. By Julie McKuras, Timothy J. Johnson, Richard J. Sveum, and Gary Thaden. 

2020. The 100-Year Adventure of The Unique Hamlet. Edited by Richard Sveum.

2021. “The Dean of British Sherlockians”: A Celebration of the Life and Works of S. C. Roberts. 

2022. “A Lady Ventures into the Sacred Precincts”: Women on the Periphery of the BSI, 1940–1960. By Julie McKuras and Sonia Fetherston.

2023. John Bennett Shaw Remembered. Edited by Jim Hawkins.

Continuing to build the BSI library

I think in my very first post I stated that:

"my niche passion is books published by the 'Baker Street Irregulars'. This includes books published by the Press, earlier books published under that name, and the Baker Street Journal. I am often frustrated at small print runs and out of print books, and hope to share what I learn about BSI books and their content. I'll share the journey of bringing together all BSI books - of course it might never happen."

Little did I realise that it would be so difficult - I was naive - and as this blog will attest I have enjoyed other collecting goals that can provide satisfaction. A full list of books published by BSI can be found here. 

The latest two books have been tricky to find:

Left: Fifty Years in Baker Street. 2010. Jens Byskov Jensen provides a "50-year history of The Cimbrian Friends, a Danish scion society". 

As a side-note, this book has a non-ideal feature... on the cover an. 'owners label' has been affixed (why on the cover??). The owner was Mr. Charles Creager of Ohio. IMDB shows Creager acted as Inspectort Ferguson in "Sherlock Holmes" (2011) - Peter Blau tells me it was a re-make of Rathbone’s “The Women in Green”. No other Sherlockian connections to Creager are known. As an aside, I seem to recall being told by someone in Danish circles that there were 80 copies of this book published.

Right: Peter E. Blau: A Festschrift. 2018. "In celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of his receiving the Irregular Shilling, several friends of Peter banded together, under the editorship of Les Klinger, and produced this Festschrift in his honor. Printed in a very limited edition, it contains biographical information, photos, and reminiscences of Peter and his many contributions to The Baker Street Irregulars". I believe about 150 copies of this book were published - on the BSI page some books have the number of copies published, others like this have a statement like 'very limited edition', and others state nothing.

I'm certainly getting there in collecting it all, but it will take time. I also just finally completed the collection of all BSJ Christmas Annuals, and will post on that soon.

So here's where things stand... the bottom two shelves shown are all BSI publications, the upper shelf is not (with one exception, which is why I didn't crop it).

The search continues!!

Phosphorus and the Making of a Hellhound

I was going to write a blog post Sherlock Holmes @ 50 meeting in Minneapolis MN during July 2024. But really, I instantly saw SO MANY people sharing their experiences that I felt I couldn't add a great deal. What I decided to do instead in this long post is to discuss the topic of my talk at the meeting, and the subsequent article.

Some key points do need to be made about Sherlock Holmes @ 50. Summary: This meeting put professional organizations to shame. The structure of the meeting was wonderful, zero hiccups with IT, plenty of seating and food, and plenty of time to interact with others. Huge credit to Richard Sveum the Conference Chairman, Timothy Johnson who curates the UMN collection, and all the committee members.

The conference was organized by the Norwegian Explorers scion in partnership with the UMN libraries, and they do so every three years. 200 people descended on Minneapolis for the conference, which ran from Friday July 26 in the Givens Suite of the Andersen Library, with The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections Annual Meeting held on late Friday afternoon, presentations and a banquet on the Saturday, and concluded on Sunday, July 28. In amongst all of that, there were tables selling books, art, and other goodies.

Before I go on I need to add a couple of my favorite photos of the time in MN:

At the Sherlock @50 exhibition created by the University of Minnesota Library collection, among other things there are FOUR Beeton's Christmas Annuals displayed together here. Truly remarkable.

At the Sherlock @50 exhibition created by the University of Minnesota Library collection, a Sidney Paget original illustration. "All afternoon he sat in the stall", created for The Red-Headed League.

At a wonderful Friday evening dinner at Dick Sveum's home. L-R: Max Magee, Glen Miranker, Peter Blau, the blog author, and Will Walsh.