Edgar W. Smith's output

I've recently been thinking about Edgar W. Smith. He was so central to early Sherlockian activities and publications - including the Baker Street Journal, but also so much more.

I realised that there isn't a biography of Smith, and I couldn't find a bibliography. There is an excellent overview of Smith's Sherlockian publishing activity written by Glen Miranker, in Irregular Records of the Early ‘Forties.

So I drove down to Second Story books and grabbed two different copies of Ronald de Waal's 'World Bibliography' of all things Sherlock, and started looking at what I have on my shelves. 

In putting together this list, I'm avoiding the Baker Street Journal, as that is well-indexed and well-recognized

A few things make this list tricky. Smith was an editor, an author, an illustrator, and a publisher. What am I to include on this list? I decided to focus on things he wrote, edited, or published. I'm not including here books that have a foreword by Smith - there are lots of those. That challenge tracking publishing is that he had two: 'The Pamphlet House' which Smith operated as a private press, and he was also responsible for the 'Baker Street Irregulars' publications (it was not the 'BSI Press' at this stage). So I'm going to include here a couple of things that  

There are two companion posts to this list (i.e. I've already written about them) for

• The first generation of BSJ Christmas editions
• The BSI 'incunabular' series of editions organized by Edgar W. Smith (I need to write a new article on that)

I invite comments and feedback ; I'll edit this post as it is improved by the feedback of others. And until I can think of a better way to organize these, I'm going with chronological order!

Smith, Edgar W.  Appointment in Baker Street. New York: The Pamphlet House. [1938] Limited to 250 numbered copies. I do not have this. Many thanks to Bruce Harris for sharing the images.

Smith, Edgar W.  The Long Road from Maiwand. pamphlet [1940] 4 p. 

Baker Street and Beyond. Edgar W. Smith. New York: The Pamphlet House, 1940. 300 copies published, first 100 in deluxe binding.

Letters from Baker Street. Edited by Edgar W. Smith. New York: The Pamphlet House, 1942. 60 p. 400 copies published, first 200 in deluxe binding. This copy is the 'deluxe' binding. It may be deluxe, but it's also very delicate with age, and I should track down a copy of the 'other' regular type, which is in simple blue wrappers.

 

Harvey Officer, A Baker Street Song Book. New York: The Pamphlet House, 1943. p. 14. The image for this cover was kindly provided by Harrison “Terry” Hunt.

The Field Bazaar: A Sherlock Holmes Pastiche. Summit, NJ: The Pamphlet House, 1947. 15 p. Includes an introduction by Edgar W. Smith. Limited to 250 copies. This is a beautiful slim volume. It is published by Smith's 'Pamphlet House'.

 

Smith, Edgar W. ed. A BakerStreet Four-Wheeler: Sixteen Pieces of Sherlockiana. [Maplewood, NJ, and New York: The Pamphlet House, 1944] 77 p. Many thanks to Jens Byskov Jensen BSI for sharing the image of this book.

Smith, Edgar W.  Baker Street Inventory. [New York: The Pamphlet House, 1944 typewritten, then 1945 publication]. Jens Byskov Jensen has shared images of three diffierent printings of this book. Jens indicates that “Baker Street Inventory" began life as typewritten sheets in a binder before publication.

 

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. A Baker Street Folio: Five Letters About Sherlock Holmes from Franklin Delano Roosevelt. [Compiled and with a prefatory note by Edgar W. Smith.] Summit, N.J.: The Pamphlet House, 1945. [8] p. The image for this cover was kindly provided by Harrison “Terry” Hunt, showing the copy held at the FDR library (photo taken 2018).

Andrew C.R. and Page Heldenbrand, Two Baker Street Akronisms. Summit, N.J.: The Pamphlet House for the Sherlock Holmes Society of Akron, Ohio, 1945. 11 p. The image for this cover was kindly provided by Harrison “Terry” Hunt.

A Lauriston Garden of Verses, by Helene Yuhasova. Summit, N.J.: The Pamphlet House, 1946, but printed at the Thorneycroft Press of Summit, NJ. p. [15]. Limited to 250 copies. Bruce Harris provided the images shown for this book.

Smith, Edgar W.  A Baker Street Quartette: Four Sherlockian Tales in Verse. New York: The Baker Street Irregulars. [1950] 44 p. illus. Limited to 221 numbered copies. This was 'printed at the Thorneycroft Press of Summit, NJ'. My copy is signed by Smith, but not numbered.

Smith, Edgar W. The Napoleon of Crime; Prolegomena to a Memoir of Professor James Moriarty, Sc.D. [Baker Street Irregulars, and Summit, NJ: The Pamphlet House, 1953]. Limited to 221 copies. This is with paper wrappers. This shows the cross-over between BSI and Pamphlet House. The Pamphlet House is clearly listed as the publisher on the title page, but the BSI are listed as publisher on the cover, and inside it states 'done for the Baker Street Irregulars'.

Other books from 'Pamphlet House' that I need to follow up on:

Sherlockian Bibliography. Summit. N.J.: The Pamphlet House. 1945. 81 p.

An Irregular Guide to Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street. [Introduction by Edgar W. Smith.] New York: Argus Books; Summit, N.J.: The Pamphlet House. 1947. 118 p.