Pre-BSI Publications and The Blue Carbuncle
A Few Notable pre-BSI Publications by Distinguished Sherlockians
Vincent Starrett. The Unique Hamlet: A Hitherto Unchronicled Adventure of Mr. Sherlock Holmes. Chicago : Privately printed for the friends of Walter M. Hill, at Christmas 1920.
The Unique Hamlet
Important Sherlockians began publishing about Sherlock Holmes well before the founding of the BSI. Writer Vincent Starrett built the finest collection of Sherlockian literature of his time and published several important works, principally, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes in 1933. Shown here is his book, The Unique Hamlet, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that sets Holmes on a hunt for a missing edition of the Shakespeare play.
H. W. Bell. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Chronology of their Adventures. London : Constable, 1932.
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: The Chronology of their Adventures.
Both Starrett and H. W. Bell were present at the very first meeting of the Baker Street Irregulars. Bell was the author of the first published scholarly work to deduce the chronological order of the cases of Sherlock Holmes, as opposed to the order in which the cases were published.
The First BSI Publication: The Blue Carbuncle
Hendrik Willem Van Loon. A World Divided is a World Lost. New York : The Pamphlet House, 1935.
A World Divided is a World Lost
The earliest BSI publications were published by Edgar W. Smith under the imprint, The Pamphlet House. But the very first Pamphlet House book, by Dutch-American historian and author Hendrik Willem Van Loon, had no Sherlockian connection.
Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle. With an introduction by Christopher Morley. Edited and with a bibliographical note by Edgar W. Smith. New York: Baker Street Irregulars, 1948. From the library of David Randall.
The Blue Carbuncle
The first BSI title published by Pamphlet House was a special edition of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, with an introduction by BSI founder Christopher Morley.
Below are additional displayed copies of The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, on loan from the collection of Glen S. Miranker.
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, from the library of Edgar W. Smith
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Inscribed by Edgar W. Smith to Norman Convery, the dust jacket illustrator.
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Inscribed by Edgar W. Smith to Norman Convery, the dust jacket illustrator.
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, from the library of Christopher Morley
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, from the library of Christopher Morley