The Spring 2012 Baker Street Journal includes these articles:
The Editor’s Gas-Lamp.
“You Are the Mysterious Sherlock!”: A Century-old Advertising Stunt Invokes the Great Detective
by Sonia Fetherston.
“The Invisible Network Which Was Drawn All Round Them”
by Chris Redmond and Kristina Manente.
Holmes’s Return: An Interview with Anthony Horowitz
by Tom Ue.
The Origins of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Peter Calamai.
On the Second Mrs. Watson
by Greg Darak.
And Love Will Still Be Lord of All: The Bright Heart of “The Devil’s Foot”
by Karen Campbell.
However Improbable: Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, and Spiritualism
by Erinn Fry.
Art in the Blood
by Scott Bond.
The Commonplace Book.
Baker Street Inventory.
The 2012 Birthday Weekend.
Letters to Baker Street.
Whodunit?
* * *
The Editor’s Gas-Lamp
“Consider yourself at home”
by Steven Rothman, Editor
New neighbors are arriving. Once again the popular zeitgeist has discovered Sherlock Holmes.
The two lavish Guy Ritchie movies with their adventure-Holmes and the BBC’s modern-day scary-smart Sherlock, combined with the easy interchange of the Internet, have created an unprecedented popular appreciation of Holmes. This current group of enthusiasts is by far the largest ever seen by those of us who pilgrimage to Baker Street—beyond anything experienced during the 1970s revival brought on by the Royal Shakespeare Company’s resurrection of William Gillette’s Sherlock Holmes, beyond the rising tide caused by the book and movie of The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, beyond even the wave of fans of the Brett years.
Many in today’s audience are almost aggressively passionate in sharing their affection for Holmes and Watson, and do so in ways unimagined even ten years ago. The new social media allow international, immediate, and wide-ranging conversation encompassing words and pictures both moving and still. Those conversing especially appreciate the relationship between Holmes and Watson (or Sherlock and John, as they usually call them), one of literature’s greatest friendships.
Yes, many are and will remain fans—just like their predecessors. But also like their predecessors, some will stay to become Sherlockians, possibly a larger number than ever before owing to the size of this newest wave. Already we are seeing scholarly appreciations for the Canon from new perspectives informed both by the newcomers’ enthusiasms and the depth of materials immediately available courtesy of the Internet. Things will change, but it is always 1895.
The Editor’s Gas-Lamp, Spring 2012, Vol. 62, No. 1.
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