This special edition of Crime Factory
focuses on Sherlock Holmes, the brilliant consulting detective of
221 B Baker Street London, and his loyal assistant and biographer,
Dr. John H. Watson. It is almost impossible to imagine crime fiction
without these archetypal characters created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(1859 – 1930), one of English literature’s greatest storytellers.
Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short
stories featuring Holmes and Watson. They first appeared in A Study
in Scarlet (1887) and last appeared (at least in a story written
by Doyle) in ‘The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place’ (1927);
most marriages do not last forty years!
Generally speaking, the short stories are
superior to the novels, and the first batch of short stories is superior
to the last batch. Doyle hoped to be remembered for his historical
novels, such as Micah Clark (1889) and The White Company (1891),
so when Holmes’ popularity began to overshadow his other works
he killed the Great Detective in ‘The Final Problem’ (1893),
only to bring him back to life a few years later; Holmes cannot be
denied!
Holmes and Watson have been kept alive over
the years through films, television series and a host of new stories
written by others in Doyle’s cosy style, and also by the quirky
endeavours of the duo’s legion of loyal and often eccentric
fans around the world. The following articles examine just some aspects
of the world of Holmes and Watson.
The late John
Bennett Shaw of Santa Fe,
New Mexico, who owned the world’s largest private Sherlock
Holmes collection of books and memorabilia, suggests some reasons
for Holmes’ extraordinary popularity. Peter
E. Blau of Washington,
D.C. explains the origins of his much sought after Sherlock Holmes
keepsakes produced for the annual dinner of the Baker Street Irregulars,
the pre-eminent American Sherlock Holmes society. Jerry
Margolin of Portland, Oregon describes his impressive and extensive Sherlock
Holmes art collection.
I introduce Maurice Jackson of Melbourne,
Australia, who has been a Sherlock Holmes enthusiast since the 1940s,
and in the process I also discuss the two most popular and important
Sherlock Holmes magazines, The Baker
Street Journal and The Sherlock
Holmes Journal. Bookseller Vincent Brosnan of Los Angeles, California
describes the witty Sherlock Holmes books superbly produced by John
Ruyle’s private press, The
Pequod Press.
Melbourne art gallery director and publisher,
Robert Littlewood, reviews some of the quirky Sherlock Holmes books
produced by my own private press, The
Black Jack Press. Michael Jorgensen
of Melbourne explains how he came to write his two detective stories,
The Murillo Murder Mystery and Lady Arnold’s Diamonds, which
feature the cast of the 1911 Australian production of Doyle’s
Sherlock Holmes play, The Speckled Band.
The late Stephen
Murray-Smith, the founding
editor of the respected Australian literary magazine, Overland, interviews
Holmes about the Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the 1951 Festival
of Britain. This is followed by a fascinating commentary on Murray-Smith’s
unexpected interest in Holmes by the Melbourne author and academic,
John McLaren.
Melbourne cartoonist and graphic designer,
Vane Lindesay, attempts to baffle us with ‘A Sherlock Holmes
Rebus.’ And finally I review Justice
Hall, the latest in the
series of crime novels by Laurie R. King featuring Sherlock Holmes
and his wife, Mary Russell.
Derham Groves
Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning
The University of Melbourne
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