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Sherlock HolmesC O L L E C T I O N S

September 2001Volume 5 Number 3

“Your merits should be publicly recognized” (STUD)

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The Basic Homesian Library

1Library Receives

Maiwand Jezails Artifacts

1100 Years Ago

250 Years Ago

3From the President

4Using the SherlockHolmes Collections

7An Update from the

Collections

9Acquisitions

10Musings

11Remembrances

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Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections 1

The Basic Holmesian Libraryome say that book collecting (I would say, library building) is a noble occu-pation, a great game. To me, and I began collecting books at the age often, and I started my Sherlock Holmes library in 1937, collecting is a wayof life. It is a door which opens to education, pleasure and friendship. Ihave learned so much and I have made friends whom I treasure even more

than my books. And I hope I have made myself more humane, better educated, andother than a paucity of space and money, more happy than I thought it possible to be."

John Bennett Shaw wrote this passage in Collecting Sherlockiana, printed in 1991 by theOpuscula Press in Bradenton, FL. In this essay, he defined the differences between ashelf of books (an assortment), a collection of books (a number with a special purpose),and a library (a number of books and other printed material on one subject, or on sever-al). Shaw chose his subject and amassed his own Sherlock Holmes reference library.

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Library Receives Maiwand Jezails Artifacts

Sherlock Holmes CollectionsSuite 111, Elmer L. Andersen LibraryUniversity of Minnesota222 21st Ave. S.Minneapolis, MN 55455

Telephone: 612-624-7526FAX: 612-626-9353

Timothy J. Johnson, Curator

Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections12

Mailing list corrections requested—Because of the high cost of returned newsletters,we would appreciate being informed of changesof address or other corrections.

RemembrancesIn supporting the Sherlock Holmes Collections, many donors have made contributions either in honor or in memory of special persons.

IN MEMORY OF FROMPoul Anderson Laura KuhnDennis France Hirayama YuichiDon Hardenbrook Hames CoffinMichael Harrison Samuel E. FryCameron Hollyer Bruce AikinWalter McAdam Otto SchultzE.W. McDiarmid Fred and Sunnie LevinE.W. McDiarmid Susan McNellisGeorge Schuster Laura KuhnWayne Swift Samuel E. Fry

For any inquiries contact:Timothy J. Johnson, Curator612-624-3552 [email protected]

Continued on page 5

ichard D. Lesh, B.S.I. (1965, “The Fatal Battle ofMaiwand”) donated souvenirs of the June 2, 2001Maiwand Jezail dinner to the Sherlock HolmesCollections. At this conclave, held in Omaha,

Nebraska, Commandant Lesh presented Friends PresidentRichard Sveum and Board member John Bergquist with the gift of the dinner program and three bottles: Borgia Black Pearl1904 (Lesh & Cryne Vinters), Yalumba Port Croker (Adelaide,Australia 1786) and Le Petit Corporale (Fine Napoleon Brandy1904).

John Bennett Shaw kept a file labeled “The Maiwand Jezails”among his scion society materials. It contains correspondence,menus and souvenirs of the Maiwand Jezail dinners held over aperiod of thirty years. Through the continuing efforts of RichardLesh, the Sherlock Holmes Collections will be able to build upon the materials from JohnBennett Shaw’s library. Lesh had previously given special artifacts created to commemoratethe Maiwand Jezails Dinner of October 23, 1999 which included an illustrated program,original Sherlockian wine labels and one of only fifty unique bronze Sherlockian medals.

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IS “S.S.T.” THE LOVE-CHILD OF BIGFOOT?

A Consideration By Daniel Stashower

Elvis and Lindbergh Baby Spotted inParis Cafe. Loveable Walrus DiscoversAIDS Vaccine. Prince Edward to beDipped in Cheese, Says NeighborhoodPoodle.

The trouble with a provocative head-line, no matter how arresting it maybe, is that at some stage it will have tobe supported by cold, hard facts.Apparently this lesson had not beenfully grasped by the anonymous“S.S.T.” when he contributed his arti-cle — “Is Doyle a Plagiarist?” — to a1901 issue of The University of VirginiaMagazine. The writer, presumably astudent at the university, appears to berising to the defense of Edgar AllanPoe, himself a former University ofVirginia student. S.S.T. presents hisreaders with the assertion that ConanDoyle has plagiarized the essential ele-ments of the character of SherlockHolmes from Poe’s fictional sleuth, C.Auguste Dupin.

The similarities between Holmes andDupin — and the plots of some oftheir adventures — have frequentlybeen noted, and it is not necessary torevisit those parallels here. It may besaid briefly that Poe’s reputation as thefather of modern detective fiction restson five short stories written betweenthe years of 1841 and 1844. In thesestories, three of which feature Dupin,Poe anticipated virtually every conven-tion of the classic detective story —the brooding, eccentric sleuth; thecomparatively dense sidekick; the

wrongfully accused client; the unlikelyvillain; the secret code; the false clueand the impossible crime. ConanDoyle understood Poe’s achievementas few others did, and when he tookup his pen to write “A Study inScarlet” in 1886, he saw a clear linebetween Poe’s innovations and hisown ambitions. In my view, however,“A Study in Scarlet” and the subse-quent Holmes adventures wouldprove to be far less derivative than anyof Conan Doyle’s work to that point.Sherlock Holmes owed much toDupin’s fascination with “the infinityof mental excitement,” but Poe’s sto-ries served as a catalyst, rather than atemplate.

The question emerges, then, as to howwe determine the difference between acatalyst and a template — or, as S.S.T.would have it, the difference betweenliterary inspiration and outright pla-giarism. As I understand it, plagia-rism involves putting forth the ideasand words of another as one’s own. Inthe literary realm, this is rocky terrain.Words can be copyrighted, but,beyond a certain point, ideas cannot.I have written many books in which amurder takes place and a detectivebrings the killer to justice. The notionof a detective solving crimes did notoriginate with me, nor have I everbeen a detective myself. I am simply awriter who enjoys reading detectivefiction, which has led me on occasionto draw ideas and situations from thework of some of my favorite authors.This is not a crime. If it were, Milton,Homer and Shakespeare would havemuch to answer for.

In reviewing the case of Poe andConan Doyle, S.S.T. arrives at a differ-ent conclusion. He would have usbelieve that Conan Doyle has not onlyborrowed ideas from Poe, but that hehas done so improperly and withoutattribution. He makes his case pri-marily on the strength of the mind-reading episode which appears vari-ously in “The Cardboard Box” and

100 Y E A R S A G O


“The Resident Patient,” and its similar-ity to the famous demonstration byDupin in “The Murders in the RueMorgue.” In the view of S.S.T., ConanDoyle fails in his duty to acknowledgePoe’s influence on this incident andmany others. “Now,” he asks at onestage, “has Doyle acknowledged thesource of these imitations?” Theanswer, he would have us believe, is aresounding no.

As every Sherlockian will recall, how-ever, Conan Doyle does, in fact, makean overt reference to Poe during theepisode: “‘You remember,’ said[Holmes], ‘that some little time agowhen I read you the passage in one ofPoe’s sketches, in which a close rea-soner follows the unspoken thoughtsof his companion, you were inclinedto treat the matter as a mere tour-de-force of the author. . .’” Unforgivably,S.S.T. withholds this reference until hisfinal page, when he has already con-demned Conan Doyle as a plagiarist.At this late stage, the overt reference toPoe is raised only to be dismissed asinadequate. S.S.T. concludes: “[W]emust hold that it does not accord withthe dictates of reason to suppose thatthis casual reference was intended asan acknowledgement of Doyle’s greatdebt to Poe. Hence our judgment —Doyle is a plagiarist.”

And hence my judgment — S.S.T. hashis head stuck up his alimentary canal.

It would be difficult to find a writerwho acknowledged his literary influ-ences more readily than Sir ArthurConan Doyle, especially when it cameto Edgar Allan Poe. “Poe is the masterof all,” Conan Doyle once had occa-sion to write. “If every man whoreceives a cheque for a story whichowes its springs to Poe were to pay atithe to a monument for the master, hewould have a pyramid as big as that ofCheops.”

Indeed, at the time that S.S.T. wrotehis article, Conan Doyle had not only


The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collectionsis a quarterly newsletter published by theFriends of the Sherlock Holmes Collectionswhich seek to promote the activities, inter-ests and needs of the Special Collectionsand Rare Books Department, University ofMinnesota Libraries.

Mail editorial correspondence c/o:

EditorJulie McKuras

13512 Granada Ave.Apple Valley, MN 55124

952-431-1934952-431-5965 [email protected]

Editorial BoardJohn Bergquist, Timothy Johnson,

Jon Lellenberg, Richard J. Sveum, M.D.

Copyright © 2001University of Minnesota Library

The University of Minnesota is an EqualOpportunity Educator and Employer.

Continued on page 8

G.K. Chesterton

MusingsIt has been a busy summer forthe Sherlock Holmes Collectionsas you will note in these pages.The exhibit held in conjunction

with the Norwegian Explorers’ confer-ence “2001: A Sherlockian Odyssey”attracted the conference attendees aswell as a number of other interestedparties. Tim Johnson reports on theexhibits’ many visitors, who certainlydisplay “the charm of variety”.(NOBL)

We would like to welcome DanielStashower, B.S.I. to these pages. Hehas written our 100 Years Ago articleregarding an essay published in theUniversity of Virginia magazine. Danis well known to Sherlockians as theauthor of Teller of Tales, The Life of SirArthur Conan Doyle and The Adventureof the Ectoplasmic Man. His HarryHoudini mysteries The Dime MuseumMurders and The Floating Lady Murdercombine his interests in detective fic-tion and magic. A third book in theseries, The Houdini Specter, will bepublished in November. In choosinga subject for the 100 Years Ago col-umn, we found that the SherlockHolmes Collections did not have acopy of the University of Virginiamagazine; Curator Tim Johnson wasable to obtain a copy of the articlefrom the U. of VA library. TheSherlock Holmes Collections contin-ues to work not only in obtaining newmaterials, but those previously printedas well.

As 2001 marks the 50th Anniversaryof the Sherlock Holmes Society ofLondon, it seems appropriate that wechoose an item written by a formerChairman of that august group. JohnBergquist has taken time from his newduties as Vice President of the Friendsof the Sherlock Holmes Collection toexamine Gavin Brend’s My Dear

Holmes, a book described by ElaineHamill as “a delightful read and anexcellent entrée to the world ofSherlockian scholarship.” (The SherlockHolmes Journal, Summer 1999, p. 55)

Richard Sveum has noted the recentdonations from Richard Lesh and theMaiwand Jezails. It is with pleasurethat the Sherlock Holmes Collectionsaccepts materials such as these. JohnBennett Shaw was the keeper of manyscion materials, and it is with suchongoing generosity that Shaw’s librarycontinues to grow. We hope thatevery scion society will make the sameeffort.

After reading the Acquisitions columnin the June 2001 issue of this newslet-ter, Saul Cohen of Santa Fe noted thathe had a question as to whetherChristopher and Barbara Roden wouldactually inscribe a book “with compli-ments of the Arthur Conon DoyleSociety”. No, they certainly wouldn’t.Their inscription was from the “ArthurConan Doyle Society”. I’m sure thatProfessor Moriarty interfered withboth the typing and the proofreadingof the original sentence.

Lastly, we would all like to thankBruce Southworth, B.S.I., for hisefforts during the time he was associ-ated with the newsletter and theEditorial Board. Bruce was the firsteditor of the newsletter, beginning inearly 1997, and stepped down fromthe Board of the Friends of theSherlock Holmes Collections in June.We wish him well.

Julie McKuras, A.S.H., B.S.I.

I

501951 was a banner year in London forkeeping green the memory of SherlockHolmes: This was the year that saw theSherlock Holmes Exhibition at AbbeyHouse; the resuscitation of theSherlock Holmes Society, renamed theSherlock Holmes Society of London;and the publication of My DearHolmes, by Gavin Brend.

My Dear Holmes was the most com-plete “biography” of Holmes to date,presenting the master detective’s careeras a continuous narrative while placingcases and events as recorded by Dr.Watson into chronological order.Because the good doctor had been socareless and inaccurate in his dating ofHolmes’s cases, Brend found thatestablishing the order of events “wasnot so easy as it sounds.” In hisPreface, Brend states, “The pieces inthis elaborate jig-saw puzzle refused tofit. Dates had to be altered. Reasonshad to be found for altering the dates.New mysteries came to light demand-ing a solution. Before long I came tothe conclusion that the only way tounravel the tangle was to writeHolmes’s life. Hence this book.” Brendleavens his scholarship with a lighttouch, for example “Why is [Watson]blessed with a superfluity of Christiannames whilst in the Moriarty familythere is a shortage?”

Brend was the fourth ‘B’ to haveundertaken a Holmesian “chronology,”following H.W. Bell in 1932, T.S.Blakeney in 1932, and William S.

Baring-Gould in 1948.1 For the mostpart, Brend hews close to the Canon,

Y E A R S A G O


indulging in only occasional specula-tion, as when he wonders aloudwhether some of Watson’s anachro-nisms were actually coded signals sentto Holmes during the Great Hiatus byhis brother Mycroft. In his Preface,Brend acknowledged the earlierchronological work of Bell andBlakeney, but he did not mentionBaring-Gould or J. Finley Christ,whose chronology had been publishedin 1947. (The other major early workof this type, Ernest Bloomfield Zeisler’sBaker Street Chronology, was not pub-lished until 1953, two years after

Brend’s.)2

The Collections owns copies of MyDear Holmes from the former librariesof John Bennett Shaw, Philip Hench,E.W. McDiarmid and Bill Rabe. Thefirst edition, published by George Allen& Unwin Ltd., features a scarlet dustjacket bearing the first-class carriageillustration by Sidney Paget from“Silver Blaze.” The book was reprintedin a paperback edition in 1994 by OttoPenzler Books of New York. Shawselected My Dear Holmes as one of the

100 books for his Basic HolmesianLibrary. Another work of Brend’s, “TheRoute of the Blue Carbuncle”, isincluded in James Edward Holroyd’santhology Seventeen Steps to 221B, alsolisted in the Shaw 100.

Brend, a solicitor by profession, servedas the fourth Chairman of the SherlockHolmes Society of London, dying inoffice in 1958 at the age of 54. He alsobelonged to the Dickens Fellowshipand had an unfulfilled dream of stag-ing a debate between the Fellowshipand the Society on the question ofwhether “The Blue Carbuncle” was abetter Christmas story than AChristmas Carol. Although Brend didn’tlive to participate, the debate was duly

held in his memory in 1959.3

John Bergquist

1. Baring-Gould’s 1948 chronology was pub-lished in the Baker Street Journal (NewSeries), Vol. 3, Nos. 3 and 4. In 1955Baring-Gould published a revised andgreatly expanded chronology, TheChronological Holmes. This latter chronolo-gy was summarized in Baring-Gould’s fan-ciful biography Sherlock Holmes of BakerStreet (1962) and in The AnnotatedSherlock Holmes (1967).

2. For a comparison of these and laterchronologies, see The Date Being—?, byAndrew Jay Peck and Leslie S. Klinger,Magico Magazine, New York, 1997.

3. For background information on Brend,the author acknowledges W.T. Rabe’s S’ianWho’s Who and What’s What, Old Soldiersof Baker Street, Ferndale, Michigan, 1962,and Elaine Hamill’s article “THE CLAS-SICS REASSESSED 6. My Dear Holmes byGavin Brend,” The Sherlock Holmes Journal,Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer, 1999. Hamillacknowledges the assistance of RichardLancelyn Green, who had given her accessto his extensive collection.


My Dear Holmes

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Acquistions

2001: A Sherlockian Odyssey,A Journey Among the Shaw100” was the perfect opportuni-ty for a number of attendees to

donate items to the Sherlock HolmesCollections. The conference, heldJune 29 – July 1 and hosted by theNorwegian Explorers of Minnesota,focused on the John Bennett Shaw’slist of 100 Books most important tothe Cult of Sherlock Holmes. Withtheir donations, these individuals con-tinue the spirit of John Bennett Shaw.

Caroline Bryan of Rio Rancho, NewMexico donated the Sherlockian scrap-book that belonged to the lateKatherine McMahon. Ms. McMahonwas one of the original few who suc-cessfully completed the legendarySherlock Holmes Crossword whichappeared in the May 19, 1934Saturday Review of Literature.The puzzle was initially designed byChristopher Morley’s brother Frankand was intended as a test for admit-tance into the Baker Street Irregulars.Ms. McMahon and her fellow employ-ees at Mrs. Cowlin’s Open Book Shopin Elgin, Illinois passed the test, butdue to their pre-existing membershipin the female sex, were not mademembers of the B.S.I. In 1990,Thomas Stix, Jr. awarded the QueenVictoria Medal to Ms. McMahon, andthe following year, she received herinvestiture as Lucy Ferrier. Includedin the notebook are both of theseawards, as well as programs for theBrothers Three Moriarty, quizzes byJohn Bennett Shaw, and copies ofCaroline Bryan’s Shadow of the ElmsNewsletter. There are numerous pho-tographs of Ms. McMahon with Mr.Shaw, Mr. Stix and Caroline, as well asletters.

Steve Clarkson, B.S.I., of Ellicott City,Maryland donated the original manu-script of The Canonical Compendium.Mr. Clarkson was a speaker at thesymposium, discussing the origin ofhis book which was published in1999.

Don Hobbs of Flower Mound, Texasdonated the pamphlet The Palimpsest ofGloria Patri.

Charles Press of Lansing, Michiganadded to the Sherlock HolmesCollections’ holdings with programsfrom The Greek Interpreters, helpingto meet our goal of having copies of allscion societies publications. Mr. Pressalso donated the game Murder on theOrient Express, listed as “A SherlockHolmes Mystery Game”.

Allen J. Heiss of Salem, Wisconsindonated his recently published ASherlock Holmes Trilogy. This book fea-tures three stories, “The Satyr ofStonehenge”, “The CuriousConnoisseur”, and “The Illusion ofGlory”.

Doug Wrigglesworth of HollandLanding, Ontario gave a brief updateon the upcoming Bootmakers ofToronto’s “Footprints of the Hound”conference, scheduled for October 19– October 21, and made a gift of thesymposium’s handouts.

Les Klinger Of Malibu, Californiadonated the galleys, proof pages, andmanuscripts of his The Adventures ofSherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, andThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

Ed Christenson of Oshkosh, WI for-warded a complete run of Travels withSherlock. This is the quarterly newslet-ter of the Merripit House Guests, andcovers the period from Summer of1999. For those who haven’t seen thepublication, Sherlock is Christenson’sShih-Tzu, and the articles are writtenfrom his perspective.

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Katherine McMahon's Queen Victoria Medal withthe January 24, 1990 note from Thomas L. Stix, Jr.,

included in Ms. McMahon's notebook

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Timothy Johnson holding the recently published A Sherlock Holmes Triology by Allen J. Heiss

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Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections 9Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections4

An Update From the CollectionsFrom the President

n Saturday June 30, 2001 agroup of about 120 werelead by a bagpiper from theHoliday Inn to the Elmer L.

Andersen Library for the 2001 AnnualMembership Meeting of the Friends ofthe Sherlock Holmes Collections. Ourbusiness meeting was conducted inthe Givens Suites and noted thatfinances were in order. TheNominating Committee report wasread by Board Member MichaelMcKuras and reported new BoardMembers for 2001 Lucy Brusic,Patricia Nelson and Steve Stilwell.Officers elected were President RichardSveum, Vice President John Bergquist,Secretary Julie McKuras and TreasurerTimothy Johnson. Special recognitionwas given to retiring Board MembersRuth Berman, Jamie Hubbs, AllenMackler and Bruce Southworth.

The E. W. McDiarmid Curatorship forthe Sherlock Holmes Collections was

O presented with a reading of Mac(Sigerson) McDiarmid’s life story,remembering him as a scholar, gentle-man, librarian and Sherlockian. Ourgoal is to honor him through our con-tinued support of the Sherlock HolmesCollections. The Sigerson Society hasbeen established to recognize thosedonors who have made a gift, pledgeor bequest provision of $10,000 ormore in support of the SherlockHolmes Collections. A Certificate ofAppreciation for charter membershipin the Sigerson Society was awarded toMary McDiarmid, John and InezBergquist, Michael and Julie McKuras,The Hubbs Family, Timothy Johnson,Allen Mackler and Richard Sveum.

The membership meeting continuedwith Curator Tim Johnson giving theState of the Collections Address.Michael Whelan, Wiggins of the BakerStreet Irregulars, gave a few remarks inremembrance of John Bennett Shaw.

Peter Blau then conducted an Auctionto benefit the McDiarmid Curatorship.Items sold included a special confer-ence poster hand colored by the artistLynette Yencho and a book donated byJoe Eckrich and The Parallel Case ofSt. Louis in memory of Dr. and Mrs.Bartlett Simms.

The Friends of the Sherlock HolmesCollections thanks everyone whohelped with the Norwegian Explorers’conference associated activities. Iwould like to thank John Bergquist,Julie McKuras and Gary Thaden forleading the underground tours of theElmer L. Andersen Library at theFriday Exhibit Opening Reception.We hope that with everyone helpingwe can become the World Center forthe Study and Research on SherlockHolmes. I personally hope that manymore will contribute to the McDiarmidCuratorship and many more will jointhe Sigerson Society.

Richard J. Sveum, M.D.

ords are a poor substi-tute, but I trust this con-veys some of the plea-sure I felt in welcoming

those of you who were present duringthe recent conference to the AndersenLibrary for the chance you had to viewthe Collections and the Shaw exhibit,and for the enjoyment of your compa-ny while you were in town. I had avery good time; I hope you did aswell. For those of you who did nothave the chance to attend the confer-ence, I want to extend an open invita-tion to visit us when you are in town.Please contact me regarding your visit,and I’d be delighted to give you a tourof the building and the Collections.

I am also thrilled with the continuedattention our exhibit, “The BasicHolmesian Library,” has generated.Just before the conference began, thelocal Fox News affiliate sent a crew tovideotape the exhibit and interviewKathi Neal, my assistant curator. Astory appeared on the evening newsthat same day. In addition, a newspa-per story appeared in the MinnesotaDaily and just yesterday (I’m writingthis on July 19th) Julie McKuras and Ispent a few hours with a producerfrom Minnesota Public Radio for apiece that will appear shortly on thelocal segment of “All ThingsConsidered,” the late afternoon newsprogram. You’ll all have a chance tohear more about the exhibit and theCollections (in addition to some‘sound effects’ of the cavern doorsopening and closing, the lightingtimers clicking away, and the soundsand descriptions of traveling under-ground in the Andersen Library). Asyou might deduce, Julie and I had afun time.

We also had an extraordinary visitfrom a group of young summer schoolstudents, part of the “DoolittleDetective Agency.” Julie McKurasreports on that visit elsewhere in these

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pages. It was a very memorabletime, as you’ll discover. And I can’tforget to report that the exhibit wasthe focus for a reception held by the Uof M Law Library as a part of theAmerican Association of LawLibrarians annual conference held inMinneapolis. Over 250 academic lawlibrarians had a chance to view theexhibit, take tours of the building, andconverse with the great detective (whomade a special guest appearance forthe event).

Finally, let me give you a brief recap ofmy “state of the collections” addressgiven to the Friends meeting duringthe conference. We are in very goodshape. The Hubbs/Holmes catalogingproject is at the halfway point and weare ahead of schedule in terms ofnumbers of volumes cataloged (nowover 7,000). New acquisitions andgifts continue to be received. My con-tinuing thanks to you for thinking ofthe Collections in this manner. We’replanning on creating an online versionof the current “Basic HolmesianLibrary” exhibit for those who don’thave a chance to see it in person. In

addition, we’re planning to work withDerham Groves and his students toproduce another architectural exhibit,also online. Monies continue to beraised for the McDiarmid Curatorship,and a number of donors (now mem-bers of the Sigerson Society, for theircontributions in excess of $10,000)were recognized at the Friends meet-ing. We intend to catalog audio visualmaterials and artifacts after the booksand serials are cataloged. A search inour online catalog will give you somehint at the overall activity, and quality,of the cataloging records that ourenthusiastic staff is producing. Moreawaits to be done, such as additionalpreservation treatments on book jack-ets, but for now I’m stepping aside fora trip east and a chance to become aGreek interpreter. I hope to see manyof you in Toronto for the “Hounds”conference in October and trust you’llgive our Canadian colleagues thesame resounding support that is evi-dent in Minnesota.

Tim Johnson

Tim Johnson and Tasya Rosenfeld of Minnesota Public Radio

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Maiwand Jezails Artifacts Continued from Page 1

Founded by Professor Lesh, Chairmanof the Art Department at Wayne StateCollege, the Maiwand Jezails held theirfirst meeting on October 13, 1963.The after dinner activities were careful-ly arranged with both the schoollibrary and the local newspapers. The13 dinner attendees tried to break intothe library in order to change the cardcatalog for the Sherlock Holmes storiesto credit John H. Watson as theauthor. Since that date, the dinner aswell as the scion have been conductedon a quasi-military plan withCommandant Lesh as the “BenevolentDespot” and thus no secretaries ortreasurers reports, no ballots, quizzes,

dues, newsletter, head table, scheduledmeetings or females. The dinners fea-ture gourmet food and libations, flagsand pictures, and an authentic antiqueJezail rifle on the wall. A table isalways set for guests Holmes andWatson, should their schedules allowthem to attend. Special guests haveincluded Basil Rathbone in 1965 andWiggins Michael Whelan this year.

The Maiwand Jezails’ 37 year dream isthe erection of a monument on thebattlefield of Maiwand to honor Dr.John H. Watson. Bill Rabe’s “Voicesfrom Baker Street #2” features on side2, band 3, “Remarkable Lesh: Simply

Remarkable!” an improbable accountof a highly impossible plan. RichardLesh is also the author of “Watson,Come Here; I Want You: InAfghanistan” Baker Street JournalVolume 14, No.3 (Sept 64), 136-138.

The Sherlock Holmes Collections ispleased to continue John BennettShaw’s collections of scion society arti-facts. We extend a special thank you toCommandant Richard Lesh for donat-ing these items to help preserve andtreasure memorable events such as theMaiwand Jezails dinners.


acknowledged his debt to Poe, he hadtaken the trouble to travel to Americato do so. While facing the press inNew York in October of 1894, ConanDoyle was asked whether he had beeninfluenced by Poe’s stories when hecreated Sherlock Holmes. Many of theother journalists present, it seems,believed that Conan Doyle would takeumbrage at the question. “A hush fellin the room,” wrote the reporter fromThe New York Times. “It could beheard as distinctly as if the string of aviolin had snapped.” As it happened,Conan Doyle wasn’t at all affronted.“Oh, immensely!” he responded,apparently warming to the question.“His detective is the best in fiction.”

“Except Sherlock Holmes,” anotherreporter ventured.

Conan Doyle would not be swayed.“I make no exception,” he answered.In some re-tellings of this incident,Conan Doyle is reported to have thun-dered his reply with angry bluster, asthough consigning Sherlock Holmes toliterary hell. According to The NewYork Times, however, he answered thequestion “very earnestly,” and went onto elaborate. “Dupin is unrivaled,” hestated. “It was Poe who taught thepossibility of making a detective storya work of literature.”

Is it unreasonable to expect that S.S.T.should have known this when helaunched his attack nearly ten yearslater? Possibly, but Conan Doyle’sremarks to the New York press wereby no means his only words on thesubject. Here, for example, is aremark made in an interview withRaymond Blathwayt, published in TheBookman in 1892: “The best detectivein fiction is E. A. Poe’s Mons. Dupin.”Then there is this comment by thewriter of a profile in an 1895 Ladies’Home Journal: “Of Poe’s genius as a

100 Years Ago Continued from Page 2

writer of short stories [Conan Doyle]cannot say enough.” Later still, in1901, Conan Doyle made this declara-tion to journalist Mortimer Menpes:“Why, Sherlock Holmes was merely amechanical creature, not a man offlesh and blood — and easy to createbecause he was soulless. One story byEdgar Allan Poe would be worth adozen such.”

These tributes were not limited toauthor interviews. In a story called“The Fate of Evangeline,” published in1885, Conan Doyle offered an espe-cially resonant passage: “It would bewell if those who express opinionsupon such subjects would bear inmind those simple rules as to theanalysis of evidence laid down byAuguste Dupin. ‘Exclude the impossi-ble,’ he remarks in one of Poe’s immor-tal stories, ‘and what is left, howeverimprobable, must be the truth.’”

There are other such references madeprior to 1901, the date of the S.S.T.article, but the young critic apparentlyfailed to discover any of them — and,in effect, proceeded to make brickswithout sufficient clay. Worse, per-haps, in Conan Doyle’s view, wouldhave been the insistence on condemn-ing Conan Doyle on the strength ofremarks made by Sherlock Holmes. Itis not known whether Conan Doyleever saw the piece by S.S.T. Even if hehad troubled to defend himself, how-ever, there would have been otherlike-minded critics waiting in thewings. One thinks immediately ofArthur Guiterman’s rhymed criticism— “To Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” —published in 1912, which contains theline: “Borrow, Sir Knight, but be can-did in borrowing!” It seems appropri-ate, therefore, to close with the famousreply — “To An Undiscerning Critic”— thus allowing Conan Doyle himselfto have the final word:

“Sure, there are times when one cries with acidity,

‘Where are the limits of human stupidity?’

Here is a critic who says as a platitude,That I am guilty because ‘in

ingratitude,Sherlock, the sleuth hound, with

motives ulterior,Sneers at Poe’s Dupin as very

“inferior”,’

Have you not learned, my esteemed commentator,

That the created is not the creator?As the creator I’ve praised to satietyPoe’s Monsieur Dupin, his skill and

variety,And have admitted that in my

detective work,I owe to my model a deal of

selective work.

But is it not on the verge of inanityTo put down to me my creation’s

crude vanity?He, the created, the puppet of fiction,Would not brook rivals nor stand

contradiction.He, the created, would scoff and

would sneer,Where I, the Creator, would bow

and revere.

So please grip this fact with your cerebral tentacle,

The doll and its maker are never identical.”

When he began his work withSherlockian symposiums he sought toassist other collectors by compiling alist of the books, periodicals and pam-phlets that he thought were essentialto the cult of Sherlock Holmes. Hetitled his 1977 listing “The BasicHolmesian Library”. In the years thatfollowed, he revised the list as newwritings appeared. These listings fol-low the same format, varying slightlyin headings of each section, and notepublications under the categories ofThe Canon; The Apocrypha; Holmes,General Writings About; The Agent;Bibliography and Chronology;Performing Arts; Specialized Items;Parodies and Pastiches; andPeriodicals.

The Norwegian Explorers ofMinnesota chose Shaw’s List of 100 asthe subject for their conference “2001:A Sherlockian Odyssey” held June 29– July 1. Tim Johnson, Curator ofSpecial Collections and Rare Books,took this opportunity to host anexhibit in conjunction with the confer-ence and with the annual meeting ofthe Friends of the Sherlock HolmesCollections. Over a period of severalweeks, books and periodicals wereselected with an eye to not only thevariety within the list, but also thevariety among the collectors them-selves. The exhibit featured materialsfrom the collections of John BennettShaw, E. W. McDiarmid, Felix Morley,Bill Rabe, Vincent Starrett and PhilipHench, and the items themselvesranged from the pristine to the tatteredreading copy.

The Basic Holmesian Library Continued from Page 1

The exhibit officially opened on June30 when conference participantstoured the Elmer L. Andersen Libraryand “The Basic Holmesian Library, AnExhibit Based on Shaw’s List of 100”.A number of the attendees had theopportunity to see their own worksdisplayed among the Shaw 100, andothers took time to recount stories ofhaving visited Shaw’s library at hishome in Santa Fe. For all who haveeither had the opportunity to walkthrough the exhibit or use his list as aguide to their own library building,the wish remains the same as the oneexpressed by John Bennett Shaw inclosing each of his revised lists: “Goodreading and good collecting.”

The exhibit was on display throughthe end of August.

Julie McKuras

The Basic Holmesian Library Exhibit. This case features The Sherlock Holmes Scrapbookby Peter Haining and a statue of Holmes by St. Paul, MN artist Lynette Yencho

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The Basic Holmesian Libary Exhibit

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Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections8 Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections 5

Leslie Klinger and Jon Lellenberg inside

The Sherlock Holmes Collections

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Using the Sherlock Holmes Collections

he Doolittle Detective Agencycame on a sleuthing expedi-tion to the Sherlock HolmesCollections on July 9, 2001.

Jean Doolittle and her class of 13young detectives, ages 7 –11 years old,viewed The Basic Holmesian LibraryExhibit. Their 4 week class was called“The Mystery Club – You Be theDetective” and was a part of theSummer Enrichment Program of theMinneapolis Public Schools. Theystudied the detective method by read-ing an Encyclopedia Brown story, watch-ing movies including a cartoon of “TheValley of Fear” and deciphering codes.Ms. Doolittle viewed the exhibitionprior to the field trip and prepared aquiz to test the students' observationskills regarding the objects within thedisplay. Special Collections and RareBooks Curator Timothy Johnson took

the group on a tour of the Elmer L.Andersen Library in addition toanswering questions.

One item of special interest to thegroup was Ely Liebow’s Dr. Joe Bell:Model for Sherlock Holmes. JosephAnderson, a member of the DoolittleDetective Agency, is the great-great-grand nephew of Dr. Bell. Joseph’smother is from Sussex, and membersof the family still reside there, as doesan elderly beekeeper.

Dahlinger visited the Collections theweek of June 24 to log some researchtime prior to “2001: A SherlockianOdyssey”. The William Gillette tourscrapbooks yielded up many technicaldetails about the production ofSherlock Holmes here and in London,as well as biographical data about the

actors who played in the show overthe years. Among other things, Susansays it was fun to learn that the firstAlice Faulkner wore a bonnet trimmedwith violets for her final love scenewith Holmes and that WilliamPostance, Gillette’s secretary and stagemanager, started his theatrical careerin London in the company of JohnHare, the only real actor mentioned inthe Canon. SED will be speakingabout Gillette and Conan Doyle inOctober at the "Footprints of theHound" conference in Toronto.

Paula Perry of New York, New Yorkrecently visited the Sherlock HolmesCollections. Paula was in Minneapolisfor the American Association of LawLibrarians conference.

Julie McKuras

Timothy Johnson and Joseph Anderson

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The Doolittle Detective Agency

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Paula Perry, with Vincent Starrett's copy of

Beeton's Christmas Annual

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The Great Detective Appears at the reception for the AmericanAssocation of Law Librarians

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The Basic Holmesian Library exhibit. The book in front is The Elementary Methods of Sherlock Holmes by Brad Keefauver

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The Basic Holmesian Library

The Basic Holmesian Library, with John Bennett Shaw's Sherlockian puppet.

His feet are resting on The Baker Street Dozen,

edited by Pj Doyle and E.W. McDiarmid

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Richard Lancelyn Green and Daniel Posnansky inside the Sherlock Holmes Collections

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acknowledged his debt to Poe, he hadtaken the trouble to travel to Americato do so. While facing the press inNew York in October of 1894, ConanDoyle was asked whether he had beeninfluenced by Poe’s stories when hecreated Sherlock Holmes. Many of theother journalists present, it seems,believed that Conan Doyle would takeumbrage at the question. “A hush fellin the room,” wrote the reporter fromThe New York Times. “It could beheard as distinctly as if the string of aviolin had snapped.” As it happened,Conan Doyle wasn’t at all affronted.“Oh, immensely!” he responded,apparently warming to the question.“His detective is the best in fiction.”

“Except Sherlock Holmes,” anotherreporter ventured.

Conan Doyle would not be swayed.“I make no exception,” he answered.In some re-tellings of this incident,Conan Doyle is reported to have thun-dered his reply with angry bluster, asthough consigning Sherlock Holmes toliterary hell. According to The NewYork Times, however, he answered thequestion “very earnestly,” and went onto elaborate. “Dupin is unrivaled,” hestated. “It was Poe who taught thepossibility of making a detective storya work of literature.”

Is it unreasonable to expect that S.S.T.should have known this when helaunched his attack nearly ten yearslater? Possibly, but Conan Doyle’sremarks to the New York press wereby no means his only words on thesubject. Here, for example, is aremark made in an interview withRaymond Blathwayt, published in TheBookman in 1892: “The best detectivein fiction is E. A. Poe’s Mons. Dupin.”Then there is this comment by thewriter of a profile in an 1895 Ladies’Home Journal: “Of Poe’s genius as a

100 Years Ago Continued from Page 2

writer of short stories [Conan Doyle]cannot say enough.” Later still, in1901, Conan Doyle made this declara-tion to journalist Mortimer Menpes:“Why, Sherlock Holmes was merely amechanical creature, not a man offlesh and blood — and easy to createbecause he was soulless. One story byEdgar Allan Poe would be worth adozen such.”

These tributes were not limited toauthor interviews. In a story called“The Fate of Evangeline,” published in1885, Conan Doyle offered an espe-cially resonant passage: “It would bewell if those who express opinionsupon such subjects would bear inmind those simple rules as to theanalysis of evidence laid down byAuguste Dupin. ‘Exclude the impossi-ble,’ he remarks in one of Poe’s immor-tal stories, ‘and what is left, howeverimprobable, must be the truth.’”

There are other such references madeprior to 1901, the date of the S.S.T.article, but the young critic apparentlyfailed to discover any of them — and,in effect, proceeded to make brickswithout sufficient clay. Worse, per-haps, in Conan Doyle’s view, wouldhave been the insistence on condemn-ing Conan Doyle on the strength ofremarks made by Sherlock Holmes. Itis not known whether Conan Doyleever saw the piece by S.S.T. Even if hehad troubled to defend himself, how-ever, there would have been otherlike-minded critics waiting in thewings. One thinks immediately ofArthur Guiterman’s rhymed criticism— “To Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” —published in 1912, which contains theline: “Borrow, Sir Knight, but be can-did in borrowing!” It seems appropri-ate, therefore, to close with the famousreply — “To An Undiscerning Critic”— thus allowing Conan Doyle himselfto have the final word:

“Sure, there are times when one cries with acidity,

‘Where are the limits of human stupidity?’

Here is a critic who says as a platitude,That I am guilty because ‘in

ingratitude,Sherlock, the sleuth hound, with

motives ulterior,Sneers at Poe’s Dupin as very

“inferior”,’

Have you not learned, my esteemed commentator,

That the created is not the creator?As the creator I’ve praised to satietyPoe’s Monsieur Dupin, his skill and

variety,And have admitted that in my

detective work,I owe to my model a deal of

selective work.

But is it not on the verge of inanityTo put down to me my creation’s

crude vanity?He, the created, the puppet of fiction,Would not brook rivals nor stand

contradiction.He, the created, would scoff and

would sneer,Where I, the Creator, would bow

and revere.

So please grip this fact with your cerebral tentacle,

The doll and its maker are never identical.”

When he began his work withSherlockian symposiums he sought toassist other collectors by compiling alist of the books, periodicals and pam-phlets that he thought were essentialto the cult of Sherlock Holmes. Hetitled his 1977 listing “The BasicHolmesian Library”. In the years thatfollowed, he revised the list as newwritings appeared. These listings fol-low the same format, varying slightlyin headings of each section, and notepublications under the categories ofThe Canon; The Apocrypha; Holmes,General Writings About; The Agent;Bibliography and Chronology;Performing Arts; Specialized Items;Parodies and Pastiches; andPeriodicals.

The Norwegian Explorers ofMinnesota chose Shaw’s List of 100 asthe subject for their conference “2001:A Sherlockian Odyssey” held June 29– July 1. Tim Johnson, Curator ofSpecial Collections and Rare Books,took this opportunity to host anexhibit in conjunction with the confer-ence and with the annual meeting ofthe Friends of the Sherlock HolmesCollections. Over a period of severalweeks, books and periodicals wereselected with an eye to not only thevariety within the list, but also thevariety among the collectors them-selves. The exhibit featured materialsfrom the collections of John BennettShaw, E. W. McDiarmid, Felix Morley,Bill Rabe, Vincent Starrett and PhilipHench, and the items themselvesranged from the pristine to the tatteredreading copy.

The Basic Holmesian Library Continued from Page 1

The exhibit officially opened on June30 when conference participantstoured the Elmer L. Andersen Libraryand “The Basic Holmesian Library, AnExhibit Based on Shaw’s List of 100”.A number of the attendees had theopportunity to see their own worksdisplayed among the Shaw 100, andothers took time to recount stories ofhaving visited Shaw’s library at hishome in Santa Fe. For all who haveeither had the opportunity to walkthrough the exhibit or use his list as aguide to their own library building,the wish remains the same as the oneexpressed by John Bennett Shaw inclosing each of his revised lists: “Goodreading and good collecting.”

The exhibit was on display throughthe end of August.

Julie McKuras

The Basic Holmesian Library Exhibit. This case features The Sherlock Holmes Scrapbookby Peter Haining and a statue of Holmes by St. Paul, MN artist Lynette Yencho

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The Basic Holmesian Libary Exhibit

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Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections8 Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections 5

Leslie Klinger and Jon Lellenberg inside

The Sherlock Holmes Collections

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An Update From the CollectionsFrom the President

n Saturday June 30, 2001 agroup of about 120 werelead by a bagpiper from theHoliday Inn to the Elmer L.

Andersen Library for the 2001 AnnualMembership Meeting of the Friends ofthe Sherlock Holmes Collections. Ourbusiness meeting was conducted inthe Givens Suites and noted thatfinances were in order. TheNominating Committee report wasread by Board Member MichaelMcKuras and reported new BoardMembers for 2001 Lucy Brusic,Patricia Nelson and Steve Stilwell.Officers elected were President RichardSveum, Vice President John Bergquist,Secretary Julie McKuras and TreasurerTimothy Johnson. Special recognitionwas given to retiring Board MembersRuth Berman, Jamie Hubbs, AllenMackler and Bruce Southworth.

The E. W. McDiarmid Curatorship forthe Sherlock Holmes Collections was

O presented with a reading of Mac(Sigerson) McDiarmid’s life story,remembering him as a scholar, gentle-man, librarian and Sherlockian. Ourgoal is to honor him through our con-tinued support of the Sherlock HolmesCollections. The Sigerson Society hasbeen established to recognize thosedonors who have made a gift, pledgeor bequest provision of $10,000 ormore in support of the SherlockHolmes Collections. A Certificate ofAppreciation for charter membershipin the Sigerson Society was awarded toMary McDiarmid, John and InezBergquist, Michael and Julie McKuras,The Hubbs Family, Timothy Johnson,Allen Mackler and Richard Sveum.

The membership meeting continuedwith Curator Tim Johnson giving theState of the Collections Address.Michael Whelan, Wiggins of the BakerStreet Irregulars, gave a few remarks inremembrance of John Bennett Shaw.

Peter Blau then conducted an Auctionto benefit the McDiarmid Curatorship.Items sold included a special confer-ence poster hand colored by the artistLynette Yencho and a book donated byJoe Eckrich and The Parallel Case ofSt. Louis in memory of Dr. and Mrs.Bartlett Simms.

The Friends of the Sherlock HolmesCollections thanks everyone whohelped with the Norwegian Explorers’conference associated activities. Iwould like to thank John Bergquist,Julie McKuras and Gary Thaden forleading the underground tours of theElmer L. Andersen Library at theFriday Exhibit Opening Reception.We hope that with everyone helpingwe can become the World Center forthe Study and Research on SherlockHolmes. I personally hope that manymore will contribute to the McDiarmidCuratorship and many more will jointhe Sigerson Society.


ords are a poor substi-tute, but I trust this con-veys some of the plea-sure I felt in welcoming

those of you who were present duringthe recent conference to the AndersenLibrary for the chance you had to viewthe Collections and the Shaw exhibit,and for the enjoyment of your compa-ny while you were in town. I had avery good time; I hope you did aswell. For those of you who did nothave the chance to attend the confer-ence, I want to extend an open invita-tion to visit us when you are in town.Please contact me regarding your visit,and I’d be delighted to give you a tourof the building and the Collections.

I am also thrilled with the continuedattention our exhibit, “The BasicHolmesian Library,” has generated.Just before the conference began, thelocal Fox News affiliate sent a crew tovideotape the exhibit and interviewKathi Neal, my assistant curator. Astory appeared on the evening newsthat same day. In addition, a newspa-per story appeared in the MinnesotaDaily and just yesterday (I’m writingthis on July 19th) Julie McKuras and Ispent a few hours with a producerfrom Minnesota Public Radio for apiece that will appear shortly on thelocal segment of “All ThingsConsidered,” the late afternoon newsprogram. You’ll all have a chance tohear more about the exhibit and theCollections (in addition to some‘sound effects’ of the cavern doorsopening and closing, the lightingtimers clicking away, and the soundsand descriptions of traveling under-ground in the Andersen Library). Asyou might deduce, Julie and I had afun time.

We also had an extraordinary visitfrom a group of young summer schoolstudents, part of the “DoolittleDetective Agency.” Julie McKurasreports on that visit elsewhere in these

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pages. It was a very memorabletime, as you’ll discover. And I can’tforget to report that the exhibit wasthe focus for a reception held by the Uof M Law Library as a part of theAmerican Association of LawLibrarians annual conference held inMinneapolis. Over 250 academic lawlibrarians had a chance to view theexhibit, take tours of the building, andconverse with the great detective (whomade a special guest appearance forthe event).

Finally, let me give you a brief recap ofmy “state of the collections” addressgiven to the Friends meeting duringthe conference. We are in very goodshape. The Hubbs/Holmes catalogingproject is at the halfway point and weare ahead of schedule in terms ofnumbers of volumes cataloged (nowover 7,000). New acquisitions andgifts continue to be received. My con-tinuing thanks to you for thinking ofthe Collections in this manner. We’replanning on creating an online versionof the current “Basic HolmesianLibrary” exhibit for those who don’thave a chance to see it in person. In

addition, we’re planning to work withDerham Groves and his students toproduce another architectural exhibit,also online. Monies continue to beraised for the McDiarmid Curatorship,and a number of donors (now mem-bers of the Sigerson Society, for theircontributions in excess of $10,000)were recognized at the Friends meet-ing. We intend to catalog audio visualmaterials and artifacts after the booksand serials are cataloged. A search inour online catalog will give you somehint at the overall activity, and quality,of the cataloging records that ourenthusiastic staff is producing. Moreawaits to be done, such as additionalpreservation treatments on book jack-ets, but for now I’m stepping aside fora trip east and a chance to become aGreek interpreter. I hope to see manyof you in Toronto for the “Hounds”conference in October and trust you’llgive our Canadian colleagues thesame resounding support that is evi-dent in Minnesota.

Tim Johnson

Tim Johnson and Tasya Rosenfeld of Minnesota Public Radio

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Maiwand Jezails Artifacts Continued from Page 1

Founded by Professor Lesh, Chairmanof the Art Department at Wayne StateCollege, the Maiwand Jezails held theirfirst meeting on October 13, 1963.The after dinner activities were careful-ly arranged with both the schoollibrary and the local newspapers. The13 dinner attendees tried to break intothe library in order to change the cardcatalog for the Sherlock Holmes storiesto credit John H. Watson as theauthor. Since that date, the dinner aswell as the scion have been conductedon a quasi-military plan withCommandant Lesh as the “BenevolentDespot” and thus no secretaries ortreasurers reports, no ballots, quizzes,

dues, newsletter, head table, scheduledmeetings or females. The dinners fea-ture gourmet food and libations, flagsand pictures, and an authentic antiqueJezail rifle on the wall. A table isalways set for guests Holmes andWatson, should their schedules allowthem to attend. Special guests haveincluded Basil Rathbone in 1965 andWiggins Michael Whelan this year.

The Maiwand Jezails’ 37 year dream isthe erection of a monument on thebattlefield of Maiwand to honor Dr.John H. Watson. Bill Rabe’s “Voicesfrom Baker Street #2” features on side2, band 3, “Remarkable Lesh: Simply

Remarkable!” an improbable accountof a highly impossible plan. RichardLesh is also the author of “Watson,Come Here; I Want You: InAfghanistan” Baker Street JournalVolume 14, No.3 (Sept 64), 136-138.

The Sherlock Holmes Collections ispleased to continue John BennettShaw’s collections of scion society arti-facts. We extend a special thank you toCommandant Richard Lesh for donat-ing these items to help preserve andtreasure memorable events such as theMaiwand Jezails dinners.


501951 was a banner year in London forkeeping green the memory of SherlockHolmes: This was the year that saw theSherlock Holmes Exhibition at AbbeyHouse; the resuscitation of theSherlock Holmes Society, renamed theSherlock Holmes Society of London;and the publication of My DearHolmes, by Gavin Brend.

My Dear Holmes was the most com-plete “biography” of Holmes to date,presenting the master detective’s careeras a continuous narrative while placingcases and events as recorded by Dr.Watson into chronological order.Because the good doctor had been socareless and inaccurate in his dating ofHolmes’s cases, Brend found thatestablishing the order of events “wasnot so easy as it sounds.” In hisPreface, Brend states, “The pieces inthis elaborate jig-saw puzzle refused tofit. Dates had to be altered. Reasonshad to be found for altering the dates.New mysteries came to light demand-ing a solution. Before long I came tothe conclusion that the only way tounravel the tangle was to writeHolmes’s life. Hence this book.” Brendleavens his scholarship with a lighttouch, for example “Why is [Watson]blessed with a superfluity of Christiannames whilst in the Moriarty familythere is a shortage?”

Brend was the fourth ‘B’ to haveundertaken a Holmesian “chronology,”following H.W. Bell in 1932, T.S.Blakeney in 1932, and William S.

Baring-Gould in 1948.1 For the mostpart, Brend hews close to the Canon,

Y E A R S A G O


indulging in only occasional specula-tion, as when he wonders aloudwhether some of Watson’s anachro-nisms were actually coded signals sentto Holmes during the Great Hiatus byhis brother Mycroft. In his Preface,Brend acknowledged the earlierchronological work of Bell andBlakeney, but he did not mentionBaring-Gould or J. Finley Christ,whose chronology had been publishedin 1947. (The other major early workof this type, Ernest Bloomfield Zeisler’sBaker Street Chronology, was not pub-lished until 1953, two years after

Brend’s.)2

The Collections owns copies of MyDear Holmes from the former librariesof John Bennett Shaw, Philip Hench,E.W. McDiarmid and Bill Rabe. Thefirst edition, published by George Allen& Unwin Ltd., features a scarlet dustjacket bearing the first-class carriageillustration by Sidney Paget from“Silver Blaze.” The book was reprintedin a paperback edition in 1994 by OttoPenzler Books of New York. Shawselected My Dear Holmes as one of the

100 books for his Basic HolmesianLibrary. Another work of Brend’s, “TheRoute of the Blue Carbuncle”, isincluded in James Edward Holroyd’santhology Seventeen Steps to 221B, alsolisted in the Shaw 100.

Brend, a solicitor by profession, servedas the fourth Chairman of the SherlockHolmes Society of London, dying inoffice in 1958 at the age of 54. He alsobelonged to the Dickens Fellowshipand had an unfulfilled dream of stag-ing a debate between the Fellowshipand the Society on the question ofwhether “The Blue Carbuncle” was abetter Christmas story than AChristmas Carol. Although Brend didn’tlive to participate, the debate was duly

held in his memory in 1959.3

John Bergquist

1. Baring-Gould’s 1948 chronology was pub-lished in the Baker Street Journal (NewSeries), Vol. 3, Nos. 3 and 4. In 1955Baring-Gould published a revised andgreatly expanded chronology, TheChronological Holmes. This latter chronolo-gy was summarized in Baring-Gould’s fan-ciful biography Sherlock Holmes of BakerStreet (1962) and in The AnnotatedSherlock Holmes (1967).

2. For a comparison of these and laterchronologies, see The Date Being—?, byAndrew Jay Peck and Leslie S. Klinger,Magico Magazine, New York, 1997.

3. For background information on Brend,the author acknowledges W.T. Rabe’s S’ianWho’s Who and What’s What, Old Soldiersof Baker Street, Ferndale, Michigan, 1962,and Elaine Hamill’s article “THE CLAS-SICS REASSESSED 6. My Dear Holmes byGavin Brend,” The Sherlock Holmes Journal,Vol. 24, No. 2, Summer, 1999. Hamillacknowledges the assistance of RichardLancelyn Green, who had given her accessto his extensive collection.


My Dear Holmes

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2001: A Sherlockian Odyssey,A Journey Among the Shaw100” was the perfect opportuni-ty for a number of attendees to

donate items to the Sherlock HolmesCollections. The conference, heldJune 29 – July 1 and hosted by theNorwegian Explorers of Minnesota,focused on the John Bennett Shaw’slist of 100 Books most important tothe Cult of Sherlock Holmes. Withtheir donations, these individuals con-tinue the spirit of John Bennett Shaw.

Caroline Bryan of Rio Rancho, NewMexico donated the Sherlockian scrap-book that belonged to the lateKatherine McMahon. Ms. McMahonwas one of the original few who suc-cessfully completed the legendarySherlock Holmes Crossword whichappeared in the May 19, 1934Saturday Review of Literature.The puzzle was initially designed byChristopher Morley’s brother Frankand was intended as a test for admit-tance into the Baker Street Irregulars.Ms. McMahon and her fellow employ-ees at Mrs. Cowlin’s Open Book Shopin Elgin, Illinois passed the test, butdue to their pre-existing membershipin the female sex, were not mademembers of the B.S.I. In 1990,Thomas Stix, Jr. awarded the QueenVictoria Medal to Ms. McMahon, andthe following year, she received herinvestiture as Lucy Ferrier. Includedin the notebook are both of theseawards, as well as programs for theBrothers Three Moriarty, quizzes byJohn Bennett Shaw, and copies ofCaroline Bryan’s Shadow of the ElmsNewsletter. There are numerous pho-tographs of Ms. McMahon with Mr.Shaw, Mr. Stix and Caroline, as well asletters.

Steve Clarkson, B.S.I., of Ellicott City,Maryland donated the original manu-script of The Canonical Compendium.Mr. Clarkson was a speaker at thesymposium, discussing the origin ofhis book which was published in1999.

Don Hobbs of Flower Mound, Texasdonated the pamphlet The Palimpsest ofGloria Patri.

Charles Press of Lansing, Michiganadded to the Sherlock HolmesCollections’ holdings with programsfrom The Greek Interpreters, helpingto meet our goal of having copies of allscion societies publications. Mr. Pressalso donated the game Murder on theOrient Express, listed as “A SherlockHolmes Mystery Game”.

Allen J. Heiss of Salem, Wisconsindonated his recently published ASherlock Holmes Trilogy. This book fea-tures three stories, “The Satyr ofStonehenge”, “The CuriousConnoisseur”, and “The Illusion ofGlory”.

Doug Wrigglesworth of HollandLanding, Ontario gave a brief updateon the upcoming Bootmakers ofToronto’s “Footprints of the Hound”conference, scheduled for October 19– October 21, and made a gift of thesymposium’s handouts.

Les Klinger Of Malibu, Californiadonated the galleys, proof pages, andmanuscripts of his The Adventures ofSherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, andThe Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

Ed Christenson of Oshkosh, WI for-warded a complete run of Travels withSherlock. This is the quarterly newslet-ter of the Merripit House Guests, andcovers the period from Summer of1999. For those who haven’t seen thepublication, Sherlock is Christenson’sShih-Tzu, and the articles are writtenfrom his perspective.

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Katherine McMahon's Queen Victoria Medal withthe January 24, 1990 note from Thomas L. Stix, Jr.,

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Timothy Johnson holding the recently published A Sherlock Holmes Triology by Allen J. Heiss

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IS “S.S.T.” THE LOVE-CHILD OF BIGFOOT?

A Consideration By Daniel Stashower

Elvis and Lindbergh Baby Spotted inParis Cafe. Loveable Walrus DiscoversAIDS Vaccine. Prince Edward to beDipped in Cheese, Says NeighborhoodPoodle.

The trouble with a provocative head-line, no matter how arresting it maybe, is that at some stage it will have tobe supported by cold, hard facts.Apparently this lesson had not beenfully grasped by the anonymous“S.S.T.” when he contributed his arti-cle — “Is Doyle a Plagiarist?” — to a1901 issue of The University of VirginiaMagazine. The writer, presumably astudent at the university, appears to berising to the defense of Edgar AllanPoe, himself a former University ofVirginia student. S.S.T. presents hisreaders with the assertion that ConanDoyle has plagiarized the essential ele-ments of the character of SherlockHolmes from Poe’s fictional sleuth, C.Auguste Dupin.

The similarities between Holmes andDupin — and the plots of some oftheir adventures — have frequentlybeen noted, and it is not necessary torevisit those parallels here. It may besaid briefly that Poe’s reputation as thefather of modern detective fiction restson five short stories written betweenthe years of 1841 and 1844. In thesestories, three of which feature Dupin,Poe anticipated virtually every conven-tion of the classic detective story —the brooding, eccentric sleuth; thecomparatively dense sidekick; the

wrongfully accused client; the unlikelyvillain; the secret code; the false clueand the impossible crime. ConanDoyle understood Poe’s achievementas few others did, and when he tookup his pen to write “A Study inScarlet” in 1886, he saw a clear linebetween Poe’s innovations and hisown ambitions. In my view, however,“A Study in Scarlet” and the subse-quent Holmes adventures wouldprove to be far less derivative than anyof Conan Doyle’s work to that point.Sherlock Holmes owed much toDupin’s fascination with “the infinityof mental excitement,” but Poe’s sto-ries served as a catalyst, rather than atemplate.

The question emerges, then, as to howwe determine the difference between acatalyst and a template — or, as S.S.T.would have it, the difference betweenliterary inspiration and outright pla-giarism. As I understand it, plagia-rism involves putting forth the ideasand words of another as one’s own. Inthe literary realm, this is rocky terrain.Words can be copyrighted, but,beyond a certain point, ideas cannot.I have written many books in which amurder takes place and a detectivebrings the killer to justice. The notionof a detective solving crimes did notoriginate with me, nor have I everbeen a detective myself. I am simply awriter who enjoys reading detectivefiction, which has led me on occasionto draw ideas and situations from thework of some of my favorite authors.This is not a crime. If it were, Milton,Homer and Shakespeare would havemuch to answer for.

In reviewing the case of Poe andConan Doyle, S.S.T. arrives at a differ-ent conclusion. He would have usbelieve that Conan Doyle has not onlyborrowed ideas from Poe, but that hehas done so improperly and withoutattribution. He makes his case pri-marily on the strength of the mind-reading episode which appears vari-ously in “The Cardboard Box” and

100 Y E A R S A G O


“The Resident Patient,” and its similar-ity to the famous demonstration byDupin in “The Murders in the RueMorgue.” In the view of S.S.T., ConanDoyle fails in his duty to acknowledgePoe’s influence on this incident andmany others. “Now,” he asks at onestage, “has Doyle acknowledged thesource of these imitations?” Theanswer, he would have us believe, is aresounding no.

As every Sherlockian will recall, how-ever, Conan Doyle does, in fact, makean overt reference to Poe during theepisode: “‘You remember,’ said[Holmes], ‘that some little time agowhen I read you the passage in one ofPoe’s sketches, in which a close rea-soner follows the unspoken thoughtsof his companion, you were inclinedto treat the matter as a mere tour-de-force of the author. . .’” Unforgivably,S.S.T. withholds this reference until hisfinal page, when he has already con-demned Conan Doyle as a plagiarist.At this late stage, the overt reference toPoe is raised only to be dismissed asinadequate. S.S.T. concludes: “[W]emust hold that it does not accord withthe dictates of reason to suppose thatthis casual reference was intended asan acknowledgement of Doyle’s greatdebt to Poe. Hence our judgment —Doyle is a plagiarist.”

And hence my judgment — S.S.T. hashis head stuck up his alimentary canal.

It would be difficult to find a writerwho acknowledged his literary influ-ences more readily than Sir ArthurConan Doyle, especially when it cameto Edgar Allan Poe. “Poe is the masterof all,” Conan Doyle once had occa-sion to write. “If every man whoreceives a cheque for a story whichowes its springs to Poe were to pay atithe to a monument for the master, hewould have a pyramid as big as that ofCheops.”

Indeed, at the time that S.S.T. wrotehis article, Conan Doyle had not only


The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collectionsis a quarterly newsletter published by theFriends of the Sherlock Holmes Collectionswhich seek to promote the activities, inter-ests and needs of the Special Collectionsand Rare Books Department, University ofMinnesota Libraries.

Mail editorial correspondence c/o:

EditorJulie McKuras

13512 Granada Ave.Apple Valley, MN 55124

952-431-1934952-431-5965 [email protected]

Editorial BoardJohn Bergquist, Timothy Johnson,

Jon Lellenberg, Richard J. Sveum, M.D.

Copyright © 2001University of Minnesota Library

The University of Minnesota is an EqualOpportunity Educator and Employer.

Continued on page 8

G.K. Chesterton

MusingsIt has been a busy summer forthe Sherlock Holmes Collectionsas you will note in these pages.The exhibit held in conjunction

with the Norwegian Explorers’ confer-ence “2001: A Sherlockian Odyssey”attracted the conference attendees aswell as a number of other interestedparties. Tim Johnson reports on theexhibits’ many visitors, who certainlydisplay “the charm of variety”.(NOBL)

We would like to welcome DanielStashower, B.S.I. to these pages. Hehas written our 100 Years Ago articleregarding an essay published in theUniversity of Virginia magazine. Danis well known to Sherlockians as theauthor of Teller of Tales, The Life of SirArthur Conan Doyle and The Adventureof the Ectoplasmic Man. His HarryHoudini mysteries The Dime MuseumMurders and The Floating Lady Murdercombine his interests in detective fic-tion and magic. A third book in theseries, The Houdini Specter, will bepublished in November. In choosinga subject for the 100 Years Ago col-umn, we found that the SherlockHolmes Collections did not have acopy of the University of Virginiamagazine; Curator Tim Johnson wasable to obtain a copy of the articlefrom the U. of VA library. TheSherlock Holmes Collections contin-ues to work not only in obtaining newmaterials, but those previously printedas well.

As 2001 marks the 50th Anniversaryof the Sherlock Holmes Society ofLondon, it seems appropriate that wechoose an item written by a formerChairman of that august group. JohnBergquist has taken time from his newduties as Vice President of the Friendsof the Sherlock Holmes Collection toexamine Gavin Brend’s My Dear

Holmes, a book described by ElaineHamill as “a delightful read and anexcellent entrée to the world ofSherlockian scholarship.” (The SherlockHolmes Journal, Summer 1999, p. 55)

Richard Sveum has noted the recentdonations from Richard Lesh and theMaiwand Jezails. It is with pleasurethat the Sherlock Holmes Collectionsaccepts materials such as these. JohnBennett Shaw was the keeper of manyscion materials, and it is with suchongoing generosity that Shaw’s librarycontinues to grow. We hope thatevery scion society will make the sameeffort.

After reading the Acquisitions columnin the June 2001 issue of this newslet-ter, Saul Cohen of Santa Fe noted thathe had a question as to whetherChristopher and Barbara Roden wouldactually inscribe a book “with compli-ments of the Arthur Conon DoyleSociety”. No, they certainly wouldn’t.Their inscription was from the “ArthurConan Doyle Society”. I’m sure thatProfessor Moriarty interfered withboth the typing and the proofreadingof the original sentence.

Lastly, we would all like to thankBruce Southworth, B.S.I., for hisefforts during the time he was associ-ated with the newsletter and theEditorial Board. Bruce was the firsteditor of the newsletter, beginning inearly 1997, and stepped down fromthe Board of the Friends of theSherlock Holmes Collections in June.We wish him well.

Julie McKuras, A.S.H., B.S.I.

I

Sherlock HolmesC O L L E C T I O N S

September 2001Volume 5 Number 3

“Your merits should be publicly recognized” (STUD)

FR

IE

ND S O F

TH

E

C o n t e n t s

The Basic Homesian Library

1Library Receives

Maiwand Jezails Artifacts

1100 Years Ago

250 Years Ago

3From the President

4Using the SherlockHolmes Collections

7An Update from the

Collections

9Acquisitions

10Musings

11Remembrances

12


The Basic Holmesian Libraryome say that book collecting (I would say, library building) is a noble occu-pation, a great game. To me, and I began collecting books at the age often, and I started my Sherlock Holmes library in 1937, collecting is a wayof life. It is a door which opens to education, pleasure and friendship. Ihave learned so much and I have made friends whom I treasure even more

than my books. And I hope I have made myself more humane, better educated, andother than a paucity of space and money, more happy than I thought it possible to be."

John Bennett Shaw wrote this passage in Collecting Sherlockiana, printed in 1991 by theOpuscula Press in Bradenton, FL. In this essay, he defined the differences between ashelf of books (an assortment), a collection of books (a number with a special purpose),and a library (a number of books and other printed material on one subject, or on sever-al). Shaw chose his subject and amassed his own Sherlock Holmes reference library.

"S

Library Receives Maiwand Jezails Artifacts

Sherlock Holmes CollectionsSuite 111, Elmer L. Andersen LibraryUniversity of Minnesota222 21st Ave. S.Minneapolis, MN 55455

Telephone: 612-624-7526FAX: 612-626-9353

Timothy J. Johnson, Curator


Mailing list corrections requested—Because of the high cost of returned newsletters,we would appreciate being informed of changesof address or other corrections.

RemembrancesIn supporting the Sherlock Holmes Collections, many donors have made contributions either in honor or in memory of special persons.

IN MEMORY OF FROMPoul Anderson Laura KuhnDennis France Hirayama YuichiDon Hardenbrook Hames CoffinMichael Harrison Samuel E. FryCameron Hollyer Bruce AikinWalter McAdam Otto SchultzE.W. McDiarmid Fred and Sunnie LevinE.W. McDiarmid Susan McNellisGeorge Schuster Laura KuhnWayne Swift Samuel E. Fry

For any inquiries contact:Timothy J. Johnson, Curator612-624-3552 [email protected]

Continued on page 5

ichard D. Lesh, B.S.I. (1965, “The Fatal Battle ofMaiwand”) donated souvenirs of the June 2, 2001Maiwand Jezail dinner to the Sherlock HolmesCollections. At this conclave, held in Omaha,

Nebraska, Commandant Lesh presented Friends PresidentRichard Sveum and Board member John Bergquist with the gift of the dinner program and three bottles: Borgia Black Pearl1904 (Lesh & Cryne Vinters), Yalumba Port Croker (Adelaide,Australia 1786) and Le Petit Corporale (Fine Napoleon Brandy1904).

John Bennett Shaw kept a file labeled “The Maiwand Jezails”among his scion society materials. It contains correspondence,menus and souvenirs of the Maiwand Jezail dinners held over aperiod of thirty years. Through the continuing efforts of RichardLesh, the Sherlock Holmes Collections will be able to build upon the materials from JohnBennett Shaw’s library. Lesh had previously given special artifacts created to commemoratethe Maiwand Jezails Dinner of October 23, 1999 which included an illustrated program,original Sherlockian wine labels and one of only fifty unique bronze Sherlockian medals.

R

Richard Lesh and Richard J. Sveum

Ph

oto

by J

ohn

Ber

gqu

ist

Continued on page 4

sherlock holmes e homesian library · elvis and lindbergh baby spotted in paris cafe. loveable...

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