Spring 2022 BSJ

The Spring 2022 Baker Street Journal includes these articles:

The Editor’s Gas-Lamp.

“My dear Watson, . . . the law is as dangerous to us as the criminals are”: Sherlock Holmes and the Official Police
by Mary M. Bendel-Simso.

Sherlock Holmes in the Roaring Twenties
by Russell Merritt.

The Problem of the Mutable Detective
by Roberta Pearson.

The First Sherlockian: William Aspenwall Bradley
by Daniel L. Friedman and Eugene B. Friedman.

Sherlock Holmes and His Literary Prototype
by William Aspenwall Bradley.

Conan Doyle’s Divided Self: Medical and Scientific Knowledge
by Marino C. Alvarez.

The Bloody Question: Conan Doyle and Early Forensic Science at the Old Bailey
by Francis Paul Rugman.

The Commonplace Book.

Baker Street Inventory.

The 2022 BSI Weekend.

Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects: A Review
by Richard Sveum.

Whodunit?

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The Editor’s Gas-Lamp

“Take good care of yourself”
by Steven Rothman, Editor

Steven Rothman, Editor, The Baker Street Journal

And so we are in Year Three of the Year of the Plague—a plague that apparently was not brought to us courtesy of a giant rat or a poisoned spring or service in foreign climes. At first glance, this illness should not require much attention from this journal, but it occupies so much mental space for so many of our readers that we cannot refrain from comment.

This is the Moriarty of viruses. Whatever we think of to oppose it, it has already noted. It is as if the virus is saying: “I tell you that you will never beat me. If you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do as much to you.” And though whole continents threw themselves into lockdown and possible economic suicide, the virus marches on, changing its ways as quickly and easily as Holmes changes disguises.

This is written while we are still seeing the rise of the Omicron variant. At this juncture it is impossible to foresee its long-term effects. We must hope that our dim vision can be tempered with the optimism that Holmes demonstrated to Watson at the end of “His Last Bow”: “It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared.”

We look forward to a time when we shall be able to look back, smile at ourselves, and wonder why we were so obsessed with this threat. Until then, please be vigilant.

The Editor’s Gas-Lamp, Spring 2022, Vol. 72, No. 1.