Redmond - A Sherlock Holmes Handbook

A SHERLOCK HOLMES HANDBOOK

CHRISTOPHER REDMOND

The writing of this manuscript and the publication of this book were made possible by support from several sources. We would like to acknowledge the generous assistance and ongoing support of The Canada Council, The Book Publishing Industry Development Program of the Department of Communications, The Ontario Arts Council, and The Ontario Publishing Centre of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation.

Kirk Howard, President; Marian M. Wilson, Publisher

Copyright 1993 by Christopher Redmond. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Simon & Pierre Publishing Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Dundurn Press Limited. Permission to photocopy should be requested from the Canadian Reprography Collective. Cover illustration by Frank Wiles for The Valley of Fear, by A. Conan Doyle; courtesy of the Metropolitan Toronto Library Board.

ISBN 0-88924-246-1

1 2 3 4 5 8 7 6 5 4

Simon & Pierre Publishing Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of Dundurn Press

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Redmond, Chris

A Sherlock Holmes handbook

Includes index.

ISBN 0-88924-246-1

1. Holmes, Sherlock (Fictitious character).

2. Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir, 1859-1930 - Characters

Sherlock Holmes. 3. England - Social life and

customs - 19th century. 4. England - Social life and

customs - 20th century. I. Title.

PR4624.R44 1993 823.8 C93-094437-2

Editor: Doris Cowan

Printed and bound in Canada by Best Gagn Book Manufacturers, Louiseville, Quebec, Canada

Order from Simon & Pierre Publishing Co. Ltd., care of

Dundurn Press Limited

2181 Queen Street East

Suite 301

Toronto, Canada

M4E 1E5

Dundurn Distribution

73 Lime Walk

Headington, Oxford

England

0X3 7AD

Dundurn Press Limited

1823 Maryland Avenue

P.O. Box 1000

Niagara Falls, N.Y.

U.S.A. 14302-1000

ILLUSTRATIONS

Hardly a village library anywhere is without some volume of Sherlock Holmes. Hardly a cartoon or show business figure has never dressed up in deerstalker hat and magnifying glass to communicate instantly to a universal audience that here is the great detective, known to North American toddlers as Sherlock Hemlock and to late-night movie watchers as the hyperactive, overcoated Basil Rathbone. If the creator of Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle, was once identified as the best-known living Englishman, Sherlock Holmes has a claim to be the best-known Englishman who never quite lived.

Everyone who is literate knows Sherlock Holmes vaguely, and may some day wish to know more. A few enthusiasts already know far, far more, to the point that they exchange trivia at the regular meetings of Sherlock Holmes societies from Tokyo to Toronto. This book is intended for both kinds of people. For the enthusiasts, the Sherlockians, it may serve as a key to larger libraries, including their own shelves as well as to the largest imaginable library of Sherlockiana. It has been designed, too, as a ready reference for information currently scattered in often inaccessible places in the great Sherlockian literature. I hope it will stand beside the chief existing reference works for Sherlockians Tracys Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana, the DeWaal bibliographies, the Gibson and Green Bibliography of Arthur Conan Doyle, William D. Goodrichs Good Old Index, and the valuable though flawed Annotated Sherlock Holmes. For general readers, it may be of use as a companion to The Complete Sherlock Holmes, or to whichever smaller volume of Holmes stories may be at hand. By no means could I imagine including all knowledge about Sherlock Holmes in a single volume, but the essential facts are here, along with generalizations that provide a context for them, and a good many indications about what else has been said or written for those who want to know more. I welcome corrections, comments and suggestions.

I hope the style of these pages makes it clear that I take the stories of Sherlock Holmes seriously, but enjoy them at the same time. It would be a pity not to take them seriously, for they demonstrate such insight, and can teach us so much. It would be a disaster not to enjoy them as four generations have already done. As entertainment they generally speak for themselves, but perhaps this book will be a little help for those who hope to understand a little better the language in which Sherlock Holmes, and Arthur Conan Doyle, make themselves known.

In writing this book I have of course drawn on many sources. At my elbow I have kept the Canon itself, as well as the Goodrich Index and the Gibson and Green Bibliography. But rarely have I managed to write a paragraph without jumping up to consult some other volume: one of those standard reference works, or perhaps Steinbrunner and Michaelss The Films of Sherlock Holmes, Hugh Harringtons privately printed Canonical Index, Bigelow on Holmes, the indexes to the Baker Street Journal, and Bill Rabes 1962 Sherlockian Whos Who and Whats What. Practically every other volume on my shelves, I think, was needed at least once during the several months in which I drafted the pages that follow.

In the same way, many individuals have been of great help. Some were asked for information on specific points (and while I cannot provide an exhaustive list, I must certainly acknowledge Cameron Hollyer and Victoria Gill of the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library). My good friend Barbara Rusch has encouraged me throughout the writing, and was of particular help as I planned, wrote and revised my chapter on the Victorian background. I take pleasure in acknowledging the help of Kate Karlson once or twice she provided specific suggestions, but more generally she has, during my long friendship with her, contributed enormously to forming my view of the Sherlockian literature and the Sherlockian world, on which this book is based, and developing my knowledge of both. In the same way I am greatly indebted to my father, Donald A. Redmond, whose guidance and companionship have made my Sherlockian work possible. Further, he has read most of this book during its preparation and provided valuable suggestions.

My dear wife, Susan, resolutely resists becoming a Sherlockian (a policy that helps keep me in modest touch with the real world outside my study) but has provided affectionate moral support throughout the writing of these chapters. As I finish them, our Christopher is just reaching the stage of real literacy, with a special enthusiasm for Nate the Great. I look forward to the day when he may find this book a tool in truly discovering Sherlock Holmes.

CAR
May 1993

The stories of Sherlock Holmes, known as the Canon in allusion to a term used by Bible scholars, were written by Arthur Conan Doyle over a period of some forty years, from 1887 to 1927. They include four novels and five volumes of short stories, for a total of sixty tales. According to a report by Charles E. Lauterbach in 1960, the Canon contains a total of 660,382 words.