The Open and Inclusive Worldwide Online Sherlockian Society (Really, We're about Having Fun)
We sold out the initial inventory of lapel, blouse, or deerstalker pins in the first two days (and we won’t receive our initial inventory from Scotland for another 8 days). We have doubled our order and those will arrive in 10 days, so you will be receiving them in the mail shortly after receipt. It appears we have a hit! You like the pins and we hope you will wear them to Sherlockian and Watsonian events with pride! Thanks for your kind support.
The Society is honoured to report that Robert Katz, MD, JHWS “Willow” has graciously volunteered to represent the Society as our “Unoffical Ambassador” (in true Holmesian and Watsonian “irregular unofficialness”) during the Baker Street Irregulars Annual Weekend in New York City. He will endeavor to inform BSI members and others of the worthy pursuits of The John H Watson Society and to encourage interest in our activities and collegiality.
Dr Katz is a renowned Sherlockian with a special interest in reaching out to young people with enthusiasm for the Canon. He has distributed copies of The Watsonian to young readers and encourages them to submit articles to our journal.
“Willow” has a highly distinguished Sherlockian and Watsonian history and will be a most able, qualified and enthusiastic Ambassador of our Society.
His biography follows:
“I have been a Sherlockian since my early teens, but John Watson has always seemed to be the focal point of my interests. I received my BA from Haverford College (alma mater of all three Morley brothers) and then received my MD from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. I trained and worked in a variety of places before settling in Morristown, NJ, in 1987, and recently retired after 35 years of practicing Pathology. In 1983, I received the Titular Investiture of “Dr. Ainstree” from The Baker Street Irregulars and in 1995 I received the Two-Shilling Award. I founded The Epilogues of Sherlock Holmes, in New Jersey, in 1990. I am also the current Headmastiff of The Sons of the Copper Beeches in Philadelphia. My ASH investiture is “Dr. Jackson”. In addition, I have served as both Commissionaire and Gasogene of The Six Napoleons of Baltimore and am a member of The Five Orange Pips. I am an active member of most of the scion societies in the New York area (including Mrs. Hudson’s Cliffdwellers and The Montague Street Lodgers).
I have had the pleasure and honor of speaking at many scion society meetings, the John Bennett Shaw workshop in Williamsburg, and at several of the Annual Dinners of The Baker Street Irregulars.
I have been published in The Baker Street Journal, The Baker Street Miscellanea, The Serpentine Muse, and various scion society publications. Most recently, I co-edited with Andrew Solberg (also a Charter Member of this group), the latest volume in the BSI Manuscript Series, entitled The Wrong Passage. Andy and I are currently working on another volume in this series.
Perhaps because of our mutual profession, perhaps because I admire his personality so much, Watson has always fascinated me. I am pleased and proud to be joining an organization devoted to his remarkable life and admirable works.”
The Watson Lapel/Blouse/Deerstalker Pin
Thanks to the kind research by our distinguished Charter Member Harrison Hunt “Dash,” the Society has been fortunate to obtain a supply of distinctive and very nicely-crafted lapel, blouse or deerstalker pins featuring Dr Watson’s Scots clan badge and motto “Insperata Fluorit” which translates to the very appropriate “It Has Flourished Beyond Expectation.”
Given the worldwide flourishing of Dr Watson’s Canon–far beyond his original expectations–it is a most fitting motto for adoption by our Society. The badge shows two hands grasping the evergreen and ever-growing Tree of Knowledge set upon the ancient tartan of the old Edinburgh Watson family from which our good doctor doubtless descends. No more perfect symbols of the Society’s goals and aspirations could be asked for.
In future, we hope to further incorporate this Watson clan badge into our Society’s publishing endeavors and adapt its elements as a part of the Society’s logo and publishing colophon.
Members wishing to have and wear the Watson lapel, blouse or deerstalker pin to Sherlockian meetings and gatherings as a proud indication of their membership in The John H Watson Society may care to purchase a pin at the Society’s cost including shipping of just $10 U.S. and $15 International. The “Buy Now” button above will accommodate PayPal purchases. We anticipate having a limited stock of pins for shipping to you by 25 January 2014.
This kind review of the Society’s first monograph publication was received from our appreciative member Ron Lies “Chips” in Denver. Thank you, “Chips”:
“I received my copy of Coin of the Canonical Realm written by Nicolas Utechin and edited and designed by Dr Joanne Yates. This first monograph by our society is a pleasure to read. It is full of information for each case that I now have at my fingertips. It is a great bargain for what little it costs. I feel there will come a day when you will not be able to obtain a copy and you will be sorry.”
Ron in Denver
The Society welcomes scholarly papers, articles, original fiction, miscellanea or other submissions for the April 2014 issue of The Watsonian. Members and non-members are invited to submit works by 15 February 2014, the deadline. The journal will print and mail in April 2014. We encourage you to submit your writing directly to Dr Joanne Yates, Editor and Publisher.
Email to: publisher@johnhwatsonsociety.com
We are particularly interested in articles from students and encourage all members to give as much notification as possible to students of the Canon in your area.
The submissions for the April issue along with those from the October 2013 issue will be the basis for awarding the various prizes and awards of the Society for its first publishing year.
Please join in furthering our efforts and the scholarship focused on Dr Watson by participating in this very important publishing mission. One need not be an experienced or academic writer; some of our most engaging articles come from individuals with a love for the writing and appreciation for the pleasures gained over the years.
We want to see your name on the cover!
Buttons has just returned from the Wigmore Street Post Office where he posted the monograph “Coin of the Canonical Realm” to all who ordered a copy. The printer shipped to the Drs office on time, but weather and the Christmas bustle seems to have delayed delivery from New Jersey to California until 31 December. But, all is well! You should all receive your copies in 7 to 10 days, a bit longer for our European and Far East members.
Thank you very much indeed to all who purchased a copy of this fascinating and exceedingly detailed and well-researched monograph by Nicholas Utechin “Rex.” The design and editing by our Editor, Dr Joanne Yates, is superb. This will be a monograph of historical canonical note.
There are still a few copies remaining. Please see the Society Publications page to order a copy.
Mr Brosnan is featured on our Watsonian Limelight page. He was a renowned and remarkable Bookman, one of the last great bookmen and the end of an era.
We have stood upon the terrace for the last time and “Beeton” has now moved in membership to Honourary Emeritus Member.
Please join together in a quiet moment of kind reflection for Vinnie who passed this way with great integrity and left us all immeasurably better for his presence.
With a new year beginning, we invite all of our members to participate in the quiz activities. It is a pleasant and fun diversion each week and we have many reports from long-time Sherlockians and Watsonians saying that they always learn many new things from the quizzes.
Please, do give it a go!
Alexis writes:
“Dear Members:
Best wishes for 2014. I hope that this new year will bring you many new sherlockian discoveries. Here is one you maybe don’t know:
Sidney Paget was not the first one to draw Sherlock Holmes with a deerstalker (BOSC in The Strand Magazine in October 1891). Thirteen months earlier, the Bristol Observer was publishing The Sign of Four in 8 issues between 17 May and 5 July 1890 with 24 illustrations. The illustrator has depicted 2 times Sherlock Holmes with a deerstalker… and a moustache.”
The afternoon also served as a meeting of the Napa Valley Napoleons of S.H., Dr Don Yates, “Pal” in the chair. The “Blue Carbuncle” radio drama starring Sirs Richardson and Geilgud was listened to and discussion followed.
Prof Yates called the Society’s third Consultation to order. The nine Founding and Charter Members present included Prof Yates and Dr Joanne Yates “Pal and “Sandy,” Andree and Chuck Youngson “Belle” and Jeeves,” Bruce Taylor “Booker,” Alice and Donald Schueler, “Goldie” and “Ascoyne,” Andrea Stewart “Asta” and Don Libey, “Buttons.”
Prof Yates called the Consultation to order at 3:00 p.m. A toast to Dr Watson was offered and celebrated. A motion was made to proceed with Bylaw #5 and to adjourn the meeting as no other business was before the Society. The motion carried and the Chair adjourned the Consultation at 3:05 p.m. Following the meeting, a fine bottle of aged port was poured and sticky toffee pudding was enjoyed by all.
With these words, Dr Watson began his story The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. And, with these words, we extend to all of our members–now nearing 130 worldwide–our “compliments of the season.”
Our Maven of Miscellanea, Ron Lies “Chips” of Denver, who sends us wonderful tid-bits he finds in his Watsonian and Sherlockian peregrinations, suggested we offer the Ode written by Sandy Kozinn “Roxie”. Ron writes:
“Buttons, I read this and thought it would be a good piece to put in our blog. I wish you and yours all the best for a blessed and wonderful Christmas and all things great for next year. Please extend all my hopes and wishes for the holiday season to all the members of our Society.”
“Roxie” writes:
“There are always new Sherlockians. Some of them may actually have never seen this, a toast I presented to a Blue Carbuncle Dinner meeting of The Three Garridebs some years ago. It’s another take on that old question: What was that stone, anyhow?”
ODE ON THE O.E.D. ON THE CARBUNCLE, or What Was it, Anyhow?
Each year we meet to greet and dine,
Perhaps to sip a glass of wine
In honor of the carbuncle blue.
A carbuncle blue? It can’t be true!
As I glanced through the O.E.D.
Three definitions popped out at me.
A carbuncle stone, it clearly said,
Was a precious stone of a fiery red.
A carbuncle could be a red facial spot,
An infection or a tumor, but both red hot.
There’s one thing more that it could be:
A small lump of coal, quite black to see.
Such coal in a goose would be quite shocking.
(It really belongs in Moriarty’s stocking.)
But if Mycroft Holmes had sired a child
(And I admit that idea is wild)
And if Sherlock were sad on the day that he sat
For Oscar Meunier — did you get all that? —
And Oscar worked in coal, then that statue or trunk’ll
Turn out to have been a blue carb uncle.
But a statue in black, the size of a bean
In the crop of a goose might never be seen.
So what was the stone? what color? what kind?
There’s only one answer I’m able to find.
Since Watson wrote “scintillatingly brilliant blue”
Then what must have happened — I leave it to you —
Was: He made a mistake! There’s a very good reason,
For Watson, like us, was toasting the season.
S.E. Dahlinger is the editorial manager of Havas Metro Life, a division of Havas Worldwide, a global advertising agency.
She is an invested member of The Baker Street Irregulars and The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes; a Master Bootmaker of The Bootmakers of Toronto; and an honorary member of The Sherlock Holmes Klubben i Danmark.
Susan started writing for The Baker Street Journal in 1968. For Calabash Press, she edited Violets & Vitriol; for Wessex Press (with Leslie S. Klinger) Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle & The BOOKMAN. Her current project is a book about William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes during the years he played in it, a subject on which she has lectured widely and for which she won the Morley Montgomery Award. For her work on the manuscript of “The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot, ” Susan won The Bootmakers’ True Davidson Award.
SED’s interests include 19th century opera and theatre, philology, books about books, and collecting art of the Modern Hudson River School.
Please extend a warm welcome with our traditional greeting:
“You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
Stefano Guerra, BSI, “Count Negretto Silvius,” M. D., Child Psychiatrist, Psychoanalist, Teacher and School Director. Founder, with C. E. Casini, of Italian Sherlock Holmes Society, Uno Studio in Holmes, in 1986. Organiser of many conferences in Italy, where he presented several reports. Past-President of Uno Studio in Holmes Society. Since 2009, Director of Strand Magazine, official magazine of the Association.
Books (Italian):
Il fantasma di Sherlock Holmes, atti del convegno per il centenario (Editor)- Ed. Uno Studio in Holmes 1987
I diciassette scalini – Enciclopedia di Sherlock Holmes (with E. Solito, BSI) Ed. Il Torchio, 1998
Il diciottesimo scalino – Enciclopedia di Sherlock Holmes – II ed. revised and enlarged (with E. Solito) Ed. Delos Book, 2004
Articles (English):
Between Antigone and Creon: Holmes, Law and Justice in Italy and Sherlock Holmes by Enrico Solito, BSI, and Gianluca Salvatori, BSI, (Editors) The Baker Street Irregulars International Stories, 2010
Children and Sherlock Holmes in Italy and Sherlock Holmes by Enrico Solito, BSI, and Gianluca Salvatori, BSI, (Editors) The Baker Street Irregulars International Stories, 2010
The Wax Vesta in the Mud Mistery: Holmes’ Mistakes in Italy and Sherlock Holmes by Enrico Solito, BSI, and Gianluca Salvatori, BSI, (Editors) The Baker Street Irregulars International Stories, 2010
In 2102 he published in Italian and in English the article entitled “A spasso per Roma con Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” in bilingual book “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Viaggio in Italia – Italian Journey” edited by USIH, published by Bobi Bazlen Ed. in Rome. (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Venice, 2012, “Sherlock & Shylock, the Sleuths of Venice”.)
Articles (Italian):
Sherlock Holmes e la psicoanalisi – ovvero “L’avventura del clavicembalista inibito”, in Sherlock Holmes – Indagine su un mito centenario by F. Giovannini e M. Zatterin – Dedalo Ed. 1987
Holmes e Freud, due metodi a confronto The Strand Magazine n. 3 Winter 1997 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Prato, 1996)
I cani nel Canone The Strand Magazine New series n. 0 Vol. III January 1998 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Rome, 1997)
I bambini e Sherlock Holmes: l’infanzia a Baker Street The Strand Magazine N.s. n. 2 September 1999 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Rome, 1998, during the event “Giallo Estate” promoted by Roman Municipality)
Il mistero del fiammifero nel fango – ovvero Gli errori di Sherlock Holmes (Report at Annual General Meeting of USIH “A week later” – Milano- Firenze/Sesto Fiorentino – September 2000- Published in Meeting acts)
Il Mastino dei Baskerville (with Gianluca Salvatori, BSI, and Enrico Solito) The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 9 June 2002
In July 2002 he joins The First National Meeting on Popular Literature: “Il caso Sherlock Holmes” promoted by Roseto degli Abruzzi Municipality (TE), with a report entitled “Sherlock Holmes e il caso del Dottor Shepherd”
Tra Antigone e Creonte: Sherlock Holmes, la legge e la giustizia The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 13 June 2004 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Naples, 2004)
In November 2004 he joins the Symposium “Gli endocrinologi incontrano gli altri specialisti”, at 4th AME Italian Meeting “Update in Clinical Endocrinology” – Roma – Accademia Lancisiana – Ospedale S. Spirito, with a report entitled “Il metodo scientifico in Medicina: arte e investigazione”, published in The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 14 December 2004
Altri tempi, ovvero L’ultimo dei Baskerville The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 15 June 2005
Il metodo holmesiano e le filosofie orientali The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 15 June 2005 (Report presented at meeting “Sherlock Holmes tra Oriente e Occidente”, organized by Pesaro Studi, Lingue e Civiltà Orientali, Urbino University “Carlo Bo”).
A spasso per Roma, ieri e oggi, in compagnia di ACD The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 16 December 2005 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Milan, 2005)
Vent’anni dopo, ovvero L’avventura di USIH The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 18 bis December 2007 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Florence, 2007)
“Una volta eliminato l’impossibile…” Un’ipotesi sui cinque semi d’arancia The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 20 July 2009 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Rome, 2008, “Il significato dell’insignificante. Sherlock Holmes a Villa Mirafiori”, organized with the collaboration of Rome University La Sapienza)
Preface to “Sherlock Holmes” by William Gillette e Arthur Conan Doyle, (Italian translation by A. Gebbia and M. Meloni) Studies in Scarlet n. 5 – Ed. Uno Studio in Holmes 2010
Abduzione o deduzione? Qualche punto fermo per una questione irrisolta The Strand Magazine N.s. nn. 23-24 – September 2011 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in L’Aquila VIII Investigation Day, “Indagine/indagini. Sherlock Holmes a l’Aquila”, 2009, organized with the collaboration of L’Aquila University)
Sherlock Holmes in mezzo a noi: un esercizio di stile o un’attualizzazione riuscita? The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 25 July 2012 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Rome, 2008, “Sherlock Holmes: attualità del mito”, organized with the collaboration of Rome University La Sapienza)
Sherlock Holmes e la prestidigitazione The Strand Magazine N. s. n. 26 December 2012 (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Urbino, 2011 “Eliminare l’impossibile? Il metodo investigativo tra scienza e magia”, organized with the collaboration of International Studies Department)
In 2102 he published in Italian and in English the article entitled “A spasso per Roma con Sir Arthur Conan Doyle” in bilingual book “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Viaggio in Italia – Italian Journey” edited by USIH, published by Bobi Bazlen Ed. in Rome. (Report presented in Annual General Meeting of USIH, in Venice, 2012, “Sherlock & Shylock, the Sleuths of Venice”.)
Please join in welcoming Dr Guerra with the Society’s greeting to new members:
“You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
Please welcome Alessandra with the Society’s greeting to new members: “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
Her partial C.V. follows:
Alessandra Calanchi is assistant professor of Anglo-American Language and Literature at the University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”. She has published books in English and Anglo-American Literatures and Comparative Studies, such as Vicini lontani. Solitudine e comunicazione nel romanzo americano (1990), Quattro studi in rosso. Lo spazio privato maschile nella narrativa vittoriana (1997), and Dismissing the Body. Strange Cases of Fictional Invisibility (1999). She has dealt with such issues as identity, body representations, masculinity, her major interests lying in the relations between literature and cinema and in Jewish-American fiction. Among her essays in this latter field, see “The Victim : la memoria come detection” (Il recupero del testo , eds. Fink-Morisco, 1988), “Millions of Leaves. Metafore della memoria nel romanzo di Saul Bellow More Die of Heartbreak” (Memoria e tradizione nella cultura ebraico-americana, eds. Fink-Morisco, 1990), “Uncomfortable Connections: Zipping/Unzipping Identity” (Intertextual Identity. Reflections on Jewish-American Artists, eds. La Polla-Morisco, 1997), and “The Dangling Jewish American Identity and the Canon in Saul Bellow’s Earlier Novels” (Merope, Pescara, anno XI, n.31, 2000, pp.69-93). Recently she has edited American Sherlockitis. Ovvero, come Sherlock Holmes conquistò il Nuovo Mondo (Milano 2005). She is a contributor to Cinemasessanta.
Books
1997 Quattro studi in rosso. Lo spazio privato maschile nella narrativa
vittoriana, Cesena, Il Ponte Vecchio, 1997 (monography)
2001 Arthur Conan Doyle, 221B Baker Street. Sei ritratti di Sherlock Holmes, (bilingual), Venezia, Marsilio (transl. & ed.)
2003 Arthur Conan Doyle, La maledizione dei Baskerville, annotated edition ed. by Philip Weller, Milano, Hobby & Work (transl.) Now being republished in montlhly instalments by the SherlockMagazine (2013-2014).
2005 Sherlock Holmes in America: “American Sherlockitis”, ovvero come Sherlock Holmes conquistò il Nuovo Mondo, “Sherlock Magazine”, no. 5, Delos Books, November (ed.).
2007 I mille e uno Sherlock Holmes, “Linguae &”, special issue, I mille e uno Sherlock Holmes/The Thousand and One Sherlock Holmes no. 2 (co-ed. with G. Ovarelli).
2008 J. M. Gregson, Sherlock Holmes e il mistero del golf club, “Sherlock Magazine”, October (transl.).
2013 P. Growick, Sherlock Holmes e il diario segreto del dottor Watson, Delos Books, Milan (transl.).
Essays and articles
“Rovinare le sacre simbiosi: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, e Sherlock Holmes”, Poetiche, 4-5, December 1996, Mucchi, Modena, pp.145-55.
” ‘Others will follow’: lo strano caso di Jekyll, Hyde e Sherlock Holmes”, RSV (Rivista di Studi Vittoriani), 5, III, Pescara, January 1998, pp.133-43.
“Da St.Petersburg a Salt Lake City: scenari d’America in The Dynamiter, A Study in Scarlet e The Valley of Fear“, in R.Baccolini, C.Comellini e V.Fortunati (eds), Culture di lingua inglese a confronto, Bologna, CLUEB, 1998, pp.67-76.
“L’Avventura dell’Enciclopedia”, an afterward to: S.Guerra ed E.Solito, I diciassette scalini. Enciclopedia di Sherlock Holmes, Roma, Edizioni Il Torchio, 1998,
pp.143-45.
(Book review) I casi proibiti di Sherlock Holmes (by Enrico Solito), Delitti di Carta, Bologna, CLUEB, April 1999, pp.135-36.
“Un’americana alla corte di Sherlock”, in Leggere Donna, n.s., 85, March-April 2000, pp.31-32.
(Book review) “L’avventura della Lasiocampa quercus, ovvero, recensione in forma di apocrifo di Come fu ucciso Umberto Eco di G.Celli”, in The Strand Magazine (“Uno Studio in Holmes”), II n.s., September 2000, pp.2-4.
“La moglie di Sherlock Holmes e altri paradossi: lo strano caso della riscrittura di genere”, in Le riscritture del postmoderno. Percorsi angloamericani, eds O.De Zordo and F.Fantaccini, Bari, Palomar, 2002, pp.313-333.
“L’unica professione per un gentiluomo? Lo Sherlock Holmes fin de siècle da Baker Street all’America di frontiera”, in Maschilità decadenti. La lunga fin de siècle, eds M. Pustianaz and L. Villa, Bergamo UP, Edizioni Sestante, 2004, pp. 239-253.
“Chiamatemi Watson. Nuove frontiere degli ‘apocrifi’ angloamericani”, in “Linguae &”, I mille e uno Sherlock Holmes/The Thousand and One Sherlck Holmes, eds. A.Calanchi & G. Ovarelli, no. 2, 2007, pp. 93-106.
“ ‘Reasoning from an armchair’: A Study on Sherlock Holmes’s Homely Masculinity”, in RSV (Rivista di Studi Vittoriani), n. 24-25, anno XII-XIII, 2007/2008, pp. 7-33.
“Notes on the Italian Sherlockscape”, in Italy & Sherlock Holmes, eds. Enrico Solito and Gianluca Salvatori, The Baker Street Irregulars International series, The Baker Street Irregulars, New York, 2010, pp. 7-18.
“Mr Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson: interfacing science and fiction in the ‘Sacred Canon’”, in The Case and the Canon. Anomalies, discontinuities, metaphors between science and literature, eds A.Calanchi, G.Castellani, G.Morisco, G.Turchetti, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht V & R Unipress, Goettingen 2011, pp. 137-144.
“Dal Sacro Canone al Grande Gioco: per una teoria degli apocrifi”, in Fictions. Studi sulla narratività, ed. by Maurizio Ascari & Francesca Saggini, Fabrizio Serra editore, Pisa – Roma, X, 2011, pp. 120 (pp. 83-92).