I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere: Recent Episodes
When a figure like Sherlock Holmes has been around for over a century, there are bound to be misconceptions that creep into public thinking. We blame this not on carelessness or laziness but rather on the overwhelming popularity of the great detective.
The image of Holmes clad in deerstalker and Inverness cape, clenching a Meerschaum pipe in his teeth is the universal, if cliched, image of a detective. But was it true?
We were recently reminded of a number of classic myths about Sherlock Holmes, thanks to a contest being sponsored by The Baker Street Journal (also a sponsor of our program): it has long been rumored that men wore black armbands throughout the city of London after reading "The Final Problem" in the Strand Magazine. And only anecdotal evidence has been referenced whenever this supposed fact is brought up. The BSJ is offering a free year's subscription to anyone who can definitively prove that such mourning attire was worn in response to the death of Sherlock Holmes.
That got us to thinking: what other Sherlockian myths are there? And are we guilty of propagating any of them ourselves? Join us for a quick game show-style question and answer session on the topic, as well as a reading of your comments from our last show and some recent news from the world of Sherlock Holmes.
The Editor's Gas-Lamp: Rather than the traditional gas-lamp, which began under Edgar Smith's editorship of the Baker Street Journal, we thought we would mark May 5 as the 123rd anniversary of Christopher Morley's birth by reading two of his poems: the very short "The Secret" and the quite remarkable "Toulemonde."
Links:
- The Baker Street Journal contest
- Sherlock Holmes-related 2013 Edgar Award winners and nominees
- "Stand with me here upon the terrace" for Irving Kamil
- The Deal Table from the BSJ
- The Christopher Morley Literary Estate on Facebook
- Sherlockian Mythbusters: "Thor Bridge" and "The Engineer's Thumb"
We thought we'd stir up the discussions a bit and try to get to the bottom of a couple of controversies that have been roiling the world of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts (we're careful to say neither "fans" nor "devotees" at this juncture).
The first item of interest that grabbed our attention in early 2013 was the so-called "Free Sherlock" movement. Summed up, this is basically an issue that is being brought to court via a case titled Klinger vs. Conan Doyle Estate, in which Leslie Klinger, BSI ("The Abbey Grange") is contesting the Conan Doyle Estate's claim that any new content that contains Sherlock Holmes must pay a royalty or license fee to the Estate. Burt and Scott parse through some of the non-technical/legal aspects of the case and discuss what's at stake.
Speaking of being at stake, the other item on the docket is the debate as to what in fact constitutes a Sherlockian of good standing? That is, can one have arrived at the doorstep of 221B Baker Street via the BBC series (or Granada, or Universal, etc.) or must one have been schooled only in the printed literature and dress the part of a 1940s joiner? It's quite a debate - one that was taken up vehemently by The Baker Street Babes earlier this year, after the "Elite Devotee Redux" was published in recently resurrected Saturday Review of Literature. We offer our own humble observations on the matter.
For those who wish to subscribe to the publication and read all of the very interesting articles therein, you may procure a copy by sending $5 postpaid to Donald K. Pollock, 521 College Avenue, Niagara Falls, NY 14305. An image of the cover and inside cover can be seen below.
The Editor's Gas-Lamp: We purposefully revisited the same Gas-Lamp (Vol. 3, No. 2, OS) that we shared on Episode 15, because Edgar Smith's "Who is a Baker Street Irregular?" seemed to strike the same chord some 65 years later.
Links:
- Les Klinger's Free Sherlock site
- The New York Times takes note of the lawsuit
- Sherlock Holmes Estate challenged with 'copyfraud'
- The Baker Street Babes take umbrage with being dismissed by Philip Shreffler
- The BSI's statement: A World of Sherlockians
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Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323). Connect with us on The Sherlock Holmes Community on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
And above all, please let our sponsors know that you heard us mumble their hallowed names on the show: Wessex Press and The Baker Street Journal.
Our 50th episode is a fitting one. As you know, a 50th anniversary is typically celebrated with gold. Because we appreciate our listeners so much, we would settle for nothing less than the same.
But our gold comes in the form of a scintillating conversation with the two editors of the Baker Street Irregulars' eighth entry in their Manuscript Series, The Wrong Passage, which is a look at the manuscript of "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez." Co-editors Andrew Solberg, BSI ("Professor Coram") and Robert Katz, MD, BSI ("Dr. Ainstree") joined us to discuss just what it is that goes into creating a significant piece of scholarship such as we've come to expect from BSI publications of late.
From the history of the manuscript itself, to artifacts from Paul Churchill's famed "evidence boxes," to an in-depth look at the historical background alluded to in the tale, the breadth of topics within the book is impressive. Also included are a number of other analyses on topics ranging from the historical and geographical to the linguistic, religious and medical, by noted Sherlockians Peggy Perdue, BSI ("Violet Westbury"), Denny Dobry, Donald Pollock, MD, BSI ("The Anthropological Journal"), Albert Silverstein, BSI ("Professor Presbury"), C. Paul Martin, MD, BSI ("Dr. Leslie Armstrong"), Jacquelynn Morris, Richard J. Sveum, MD, BSI ("Dr. Hill Barton"), John Baesch, BSI ("The State and Merton County Railroad"), and William Hyder, BSI ("A Most Valuable Institution").
Our discussions range as far and wide as the book itself, and we also cover just a bit of the BSI Weekend festivities from 2013. But more on that in a future episode. This one clocked in at over an hour and 20 minutes, but we think you'll enjoy the conviviality between four Sherlockians as you spend a long evening with Holmes.
The Editor's Gas-Lamp: We thought it was fitting to focus on 50th anniversaries, so we took a page from the 50th anniversary year of the Baker Street Journal and read the Editor's Gas-Lamp of Vol. 46, No. 4 from December 1996, with Donald Pollock as editor.
Links:
- The Wrong Passage, available for sale for $35
- The BSI Manuscript Series
- Randall Stock's The Best of Sherlock Holmes
- The Sherlock Holmes Community on Google+
- The eBSJ, now available for purchase
You do subscribe to us on iTunes, don't you?
Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page. You can also find us onTwitter, Tumblr and Instagram. Be sure to visit the Sherlock Holmes Community on Google+. And as always, please give some love to our sponsors Wessex Press and The Baker Street Journal.
"Compliments of the season" is how Watson described his activities regarding a visit he paid to Holmes during the Christmas season.
And we know "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" as the sole Christmas story in the Canon of Sherlock Holmes stories. And rather than focus on the nostalgic and its place in the lineup of winter classics, we discuss how this classic fits in the pantheon of Holmes stories in its own right as a tale of friendship, crime, discovery and what we've come to realize as some of the typical Baker Street scenes.
In an effort to pay homage to this Christmas classic, the Baker Street Irregulars in 1948 crafted a special edition of "The Blue Carbuncle" that included a wonderful essay by Christopher Morley titled "A Christmas Story Without Slush." About BLUE, Morley said, "it was superb art. It hasn't a word too many or two few." That essay itself has become something of a classic as well, and we're delighted to share it with our listeners here.
After Burt inhabits the person of Morley for our reading, we come to a rather alarming and satisfying conclusion. We would be interested to hear if you share our assessment.
We go on to express admiration for the dramatized versions of the story - particularly by Jeremy Brett and David Burke for Granada and Peter Cushing and Nigel Stock for the BBC. We even invent our own version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with one of the actors who appeared in each.
As part of the holiday season, we also offered up our own - rather eclectic - list of gift ideas and sites where you might find the same. Herewith, the gift giving guide for Sherlockians (or perhaps those from the Steampunk crowd as well) during the holiday season:
- Gentleman's Emporium (Inverness capes for only $99!)
- Construct your own Inveness Cape
- The Scottish Inverness Cape Company - a Harris tweet version ($$$)
- Mr. Antony - Inverness-style rain capes
- Recollections Clothing
- Sherlock Holmes gifts at BuzzSugar
- Detachable collars from Amazon Dry Goods
- Polyvore's "Keep Calm" poster
- Two Sherlock Holmes chess sets: one from The Robert Opie Collection, and one from Amazon
- Sherlock Holmes quote wall art from Style It Out
- Magnoli Clothiers has vintage and custom clothing
- Randall Stock's list of the 10 Best Sherlock Holmes Gifts
The Editor's Gas-Lamp: We round out the show with a reading of "Two Days Before Christmas," a version of "The Blue Carbuncle" that takes the form of Clement Moore's classic "A Visit From St. Nick." If you would like to read this poem for your own Sherlockian society meeting, please feel free to download or print it out - with attribution, of course.
Links:
- Listener James O'Leary's contribution identifying Canonical sources for "Elementary"
- Episode 17: an interview with Otto Penzler
- The Jeremy Brett version of "The Blue Carbuncle" (Amazon US | Amazon UK)
- The Peter Cushing BBC version of "The Blue Carbuncle"(Amazon US |Amazon UK)
- Patrick Gowers' original soundtrack to the Granada Sherlock Holmes series (Amazon US | Amazon UK)
- BSI Weekend events
When Conan Doyle embarked on his whaling adventure at the age of 20, little could he have guessed what awaited him.
And little did the world know how profoundly his experiences would influence his later life, including the creation for which we know him most intimately - that of Sherlock Holmes.
We're joined in this episode by the editors of Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure, Jon Lellenberg, BSI and Daniel Stashower, BSI. Jon and Dan have been with us on previous episodes of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere: when we discussed Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters on Episode 13, and again on Episode 37 when we covered The Narrative of John Smith, a lost Conan Doyle manuscript.
What we learn about Conan Doyle's six and a half month voyage on the Hope is absolutely fascinating - from the provenance of the manuscript itself and how Dame Jean Conan Doyle worked tirelessly to ensure this publication could be seen, to the harrowing adventures that Arthur himself saw as part of this arctic voyage and more - and what we consider the world would have been like had this journey not taken place, or worse: if events had taken a more grisly turn.
From the raw and harsh realities that required the ministrations of a third year medical student, to the unexpected swims and from the daily thoughts to the watercolor illustrations, we gain a view of Conan Doyle that truly helps the reader understand the seeds that were planted for a later career. What would his mother, (the "Ma'am") have thought of his accepting the adventure? What would his work been like absent such adventures? We speculate with the two men who have come to know Conan Doyle intimately through their previous work.
One item of note that the editors shared with us is that Dr. William Henry Neale, the surgeon on board the Eira (a ship that the Hope encountered), posed in a photograph with Conan Doyle at the time. A later photo (in 1892 and pictured below) shows Dr. Neale, who could very easily pass for Dr. Watson.
There is another item of note related to Dr. Watson that was mentioned by Conan Doyle at the conclusion of his voyage, but rather than spoil it here, we'll let you discover it yourself in the audio.
Finally, rather than the traditional Editor’s Gas-Lamp, we thought that while we had the editors with us, they could read to us from Doyle's diary. We asked Dan to read a poem that Doyle wrote in the July 26 entry, titled "Meerschaum Pipe."
We then turn to your comments on previous episodes and review your response to some of our questions/surveys on Facebook. Of course we do our housekeeping and mention all of our social network presence: on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram - including the Top 10 Suggestive Lines from the Sherlock Holmes Canon.
Links:
- Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure[Amazon link]
- Details on the Manuscript of Arthur Conan Doyle's Whaling Diary on the SS Hope [Best of Sherlock]
- A database of Sherlock Holmes pastiches
It's our Halloween show!
With Victorian and Gothic influence in a number of the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Canon can be great fodder for the mysterious, occult and spooky elements of Halloween. Certainly The Hound of the Baskervilles, "The Adventure of the Devil's Foot," "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier," or "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place" have elements that can make a reader's hair stand on end.
But the most direct link with Halloween as we know it today (other than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lot No. 249" - the original mummy story) has to be "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire." Sherlock Holmes himself was a bit dismissive of the supernatural in this case, saying "Rubbish, Watson, rubbish! What have we to do with walking corpses who can only be held in their grave by stakes driven through their hearts? It's pure lunacy."
But our guest on this episode, Les Klinger (a guest on Episodes 31 and 32, when he spoke about the Guy Ritchie / Robert Downey, Jr. movies and his role as Warner Brothers' consultant on the set) is no stranger to Dracula. He has written The New Annotated Dracula and has been an influential in the Dracularian movement. As we discuss the intersection of Holmes and Dracula, Les helps us understand the evolution of vampire literature and Dracula-influenced media.
In the discussion, Les alludes to other influential fictional works in the movement such as I Am Legend, In the Shadow of Dracula, and Anno Dracula by Kim Newman, who is the Distinguished Speaker at the 2013 Baker Street Irregulars Weekend. In addition to the popular work, Les noted that there is a scholarly vein of work (pardon the pun) in the field that brings more seriousness to the practice, albeit less fluid and constant than Sherlockian scholarship. But we kept coming back to the intersections of Holmes and Dracula, in all forms: written, film and stage, and how each have their cycles of popularity that are typically driven by a single piece of work each time.
We had a number of listener comments from you regarding Episode 46 ("Elementary, My Dear CBS) that included very visceral opinions about the Jonny Lee Miller / Lucy Liu show, as well as some traditional and fanciful ideas for Canonically-inspired Halloween costumes.
For our Gas-Lamp this episode, we welcome a very special guest for a chilling reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." We won't spoil it by telling you who it is; you'll have to tune in yourself to hear it.
Links:
- Len Wolf's original The Annotated Dracula
- Les Klinger's The New Annotated Dracula
- The Dracula Society
- The Journal of Dracula Studies
- H.P. Lovecraft Companion by Philip A. Shreffler
- Les Klinger's website
Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, submit a review on iTunes, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page, Twitter account, Tumblr or Google+ page.
And please sure to check out our sponsors and let them know that we sent you:Wessex Press and The Baker Street Journal
Joining the BBC's Sherlock on television this fall is another high-powered outing by the network CBS in the United States. If you haven't yet heard, the new show is Elementary and it stars Jonny Lee Miller as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes who is in New York after rehab, and Lucy Liu at Dr. Joan Watson, Holmes's "sober companion," whose responsibility it is to look after him an ensure he readjusts to society and doesn't relapse.
The creators were under pressure almost from the moment the project was announced, what with the success of another modern-day Sherlock Holmes enjoying popular acclaim. Rest assured,Elementary does not encroach on the territory of Sherlock.
But exactly how much of the Canon does it include or reference? And how faithful are the characters to what we know? Or does that even matter? And how closely tread is the fine line that exists between an established character and updating it to a modern setting? Join us as we debate and discuss the relative merits and attributes of the latest addition of Holmes to the small screen.
During the episode, we share some listener comments of late, read the Editor's Gas-Lamp from Vol. 6, No. 1 (March 1956) from the Baker Street Journal, and prepare for our Halloween Show. As part of that, we'd like to know what Canonical or Sherlockian Halloween costume you might wear. Tell us in a comment below.
Links:
- Interview with Rob Doherty: "Interesting, Though Elementary" [HOUN]
- WSJ.com: Sherlock Got Sex Appeal
- Hollywood Reporter: Elementary: How Does CBS's Sherlock Holmes Measure Up?
- The Atlantic: Sherlock Holmes's Disappointing New Update
- Tor.com: Elementary's Biggest Crime Is Being Lame
- Oppa Grimpen Style and Oppan Gangnam Style
- The Elementary opening credits and theme on YouTube
Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.
Be sure to check out our sponsors: Wessex Press and The Baker Street Journal
The political season is upon us. At least in America, that is.
In case you've been hiding under a rock for the last 18 months, the presidential election is closing in, with Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney. This site certainly does not stand for any type of political dogma; indeed, Sherlock Holmes is for every political persuasion.
So why would we want to touch the third rail of polite conversation and delve into politics on our podcast about Sherlock Holmes? As it turns out, there are a number of political figures in the Canon and politics, both domestic and international, play a role in the plots of a few of the stories.
We take a look at the influence of politics inside the Sherlock Holmes stories as well as what was happening externally at the time. In addition, we even look at one member of the Baker Street Irregulars who had something of a government post and his Sherlockian scholarship - amazingly enough, written at a very crucial juncture of our country's history.
Try as we might, we were unable to find a Gas-Lamp from the archives of The Baker Street Journal that were political in nature. However, we were able to find some letters from that government servant mentioned above, which make for a very special reading.
Links:
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt's five letters to the Baker Street Irregulars
- Sherlock Holmes for the 21st Century: Essays on New Adaptations by Lynnette Porter Amazon UK | Amazon USA
- Sherlock and Transmedia Fandom: Essays on the BBC Series Amazon UK | Amazon USA
- I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere Facebook page: http://facebook.com/ihearofsherlock
Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.
Be sure to check out our sponsors: Wessex Press and The Baker Street Journal
Sometimes, when there's a topic that bears a discussion-based episode between the two of us, we like to do a little research to see what's been written previously, so we can have some reference material upon which to base some of our zany theories.
Sunday, June 17 was Father's Day in the United States, which made it a perfect opportunity to tackle the topic of fathers in the Canon. Imagine our chagrin and surprise then, when we discovered that there was no appreciable material (at least to our "small but select" libraries of Sherlockiana) that adequately chronicled fathers and father figures in the Sherlock Holmes stories.
Not to be deterred, we decided to thumb through the stories and pick out not only fathers, but step-fathers, would-be fathers, father figures and others who espoused the characteristics that fathers do or should have. More than a laundry list of individuals, this episode turned into a fun reminiscence and analysis that we hope you enjoy listening to almost as much as we enjoyed creating it.
While we couldn't find an Editor's Gas-Lamp that was directly about fatherhood, we did find one that had paternal overtone in the Vol. 8 No. 4 issue from October 1958 titled "Truth is Better than Fiction."
A new modern urban re-interpretation of Sherlock Holmes. That's how the digital comic Watson and Holmes is being referred to.
The recent revival in Sherlock Holmes material across a variety of media has truly increased the buzz around our favorite topic. From the reimagining on the big screen, courtesy of the Robert Downey, Jr. / Jude Law films, to the small screen updating of the characters in Sherlock, through Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman and soon the Jonny Lee Miller / Lucy Liu version in Elementary, there is plenty of interest in the perennial character.
Now, we're prepared to be treated to yet another version of the iconic detective and his faithful friend and colleague, thanks to New Paradigm Studios. In this episode, we're joined by three of the principals who are behind the updating of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson the a modern urban setting of New York and as African American characters. Brandon Perlow, Publisher and co-creator of Watson and Holmes, Justin Gabrie, Senior Editor, and Karl Bollers, Writer joined us to tell the story behind their work with Paul J Mendoza, Co-creator and color artist and Rick Leonardi, Penciler - who has worked on a number of Marvel and DC Comics projects.
We also discuss the issue of race and the Canon, landing on an interesting work from Vol. 27, No. 3 (September 1977) of the Baker Street Journal - not a Gas-Lamp, but an article by William P. Collins titled "Norbury and Steve Dixie: Holmes and Victorian Racial Attitudes."
Links:
- Watson and Holmes Facebook page, with previews of the page layouts
- Bleeding Cool with its preview of the new comic
- iVerse Media
- The Societe Sherlock Holmes de France takes a look at the issue of color at the BSI dinner
Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.
Be sure to check out our sponsors: Wessex Press and The Baker Street Journal
Sherlock mania as at its heights. The second series of the BBC's Sherlock is making its way to the U.S. shores currently, and fandom online and offline is continuing to grow.
On behalf of the show, Burt made his way to New York City on May 2, 2012 for the sneak preview of the new season and question and answer time with some of the cast and crew of Sherlock, including Rebecca Eaton, Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue and of course, Benedict Cumberbatch. About 800 people crowded into a theatre after 10,000 applied for seats, and the reaction - including screams - were reminiscent of the Beatles coming to the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s. And this is nothing new; Frank Sinatra garnered a similar reaction at the Paramount in New York City back in the 1940s. Thanks to Burt's courageous reporting, we have some clips from the event and the queue, as well as a question and answer session with the cast, in which we're able to hear and feel the excitement of the crowd.
We've witnessed the #believeinsherlock movement that arose from the BBC airing of the series and how the phenomenon has grown. We discuss a bit of that and we sing our own praises to Sherlock Holmes, in a manner of speaking.
And with such an enthusiastic new group of fans, it's inevitable that we would welcome them to the world of Sherlockians. The Editor's Gas-Lamp from the current issue of the Baker Street Journal. (Vol 62, No. 1), titled "Consider yourself at home," is the perfect way to do so.
Links:
- Frank Sinatra causes a riot at the Paramount
- The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show
- Sherlock on PBS Masterpiece
-
SherlockPBS Twitter events
- Pre-order your DVD of Sherlock: Season Two (U.S.)
To Burt and Scott she is always the guest. While you may have heard her mentioned by the name of Irene Adler, she is actually Lara Pulver and she is our interview subject for this very special episode of I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.
Sherlock: Season Two originally aired on BBC One in January and now we're poised for it to air on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery in the United States. One of the most intriguing characters of this new series is none other than the adventuress Irene Adler, the antagonist in the first episode "A Scandal in Belgravia."
So in this episode, titled "The Woman," we're joined by the woman who played the woman in "A Scandal in Belgravia," Lara Pulver. An actress, singer and dancer, Lara has the enviable distinction of playing Irene Adler as perceived in the 21st century. She joined us from Chichester after a theatre performance and chatted with us on her experience with Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman on the set of the BBC "Sherlock," and what it was like to inhabit the character of the only woman who beat Sherlock Holmes.
We close the show with an appropriately titled and themed Editor's Gas-Lamp from the Vol. 41, No. 1 issue of the Baker Street Journal.
Links:
- The BSJ CD-ROM and other eBooks
- Great Sherlockian scholarship: The Grand Game, published by the Baker Street Irregulars
- Sherlock on PBS Masterpiece
- Pre-order your DVD of Sherlock: Season Two (U.S.)
- The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes
Listen now:
Download this episode by right-clicking the icon and selecting "Save As..." or simply click on the file to listen, or on the nice box above. (File size: 28.37 MB, 1:01:50)
Your thoughts on the show? Leave a comment below, send us an email, call us at (774) 221-READ (7323) or drop by our Facebook page.
And here's a sneak peek at what's coming to PBS:
Watch Sherlock Season 2: A Scene from Ep. 1 on PBS. See more from Masterpiece.
Be sure to check out our sponsors: Wessex Press and The Baker Street Journal
