The Baker Street Irregulars

Last updated
The Baker Street Irregulars meeting on January 30, 1940. Those pictured include Christopher Morley, Frederic Dorr Steele, Robert Keith Leavitt, and David A. Randall, among others. The Baker Street Irregulars 1940.jpg
The Baker Street Irregulars meeting on January 30, 1940. Those pictured include Christopher Morley, Frederic Dorr Steele, Robert Keith Leavitt, and David A. Randall, among others.

The Baker Street Irregulars is an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley. [2] As of 2015, the nonprofit organization had about 300 members worldwide. [3]

Contents

The group has published The Baker Street Journal, an "irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana", since 1946. [2] Members of the society participate in "the game" [4] which postulates that Holmes and Doctor Watson were real and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was merely Watson's "literary agent". [5]

History

Baker Street Irregulars Fletcher Pratt, Christopher Morley and Rex Stout (1944) BSI-Pratt-Morley-Stout-1944.jpg
Baker Street Irregulars Fletcher Pratt, Christopher Morley and Rex Stout (1944)

The BSI was an outgrowth of Christopher Morley's informal group, "the Three Hours for Lunch Club," which discussed art and literature. [6] The inaugural meeting of the BSI was held in 1934 at Christ Cella's restaurant in New York City. [7] Initial attendees included William Gillette, Vincent Starrett, Alexander Woollcott, and Gene Tunney. [6] Morley kept meetings quite irregular, but after leadership passed to Edgar W. Smith, meetings became more regular. [6] [8]

In February 1934, Elmer Davis, a friend of Morley, wrote a constitution for the group explaining its purpose and stating that anyone who passed a certain test was eligible to join. [9] This test, a crossword puzzle by Morley's younger brother Frank, was published in the May 1934 issue of Saturday Review of Literature . [9]

Edgar W. Smith led the BSI from 1940 until 1960, initially using the title "Buttons" and later "Buttons-cum-Commissionaire". [10] [11] Julian Wolff was the head of the BSI from late 1960 to 1986, and used the title "Commissionaire". [11] From 1986 until 1997, Thomas L. Stix Jr. was the leader of the organization, and used the title "Wiggins". [12] [13] The title "Wiggins" has since been used for the leadership position. [13] [14]

The organization long resisted admitting women, a policy which spawned a female-centered organization, the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, [8] whose founders had picketed an all-male BSI gathering. [15] The BSI invested its first woman in 1991: [6] Dame Jean Conan Doyle. [16] She was followed by Katherine McMahon, the first woman to solve the crossword puzzle. [16] McMahon was followed by Edith Meiser, [16] who wrote numerous Holmesian radio scripts for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes .

Leadership of the BSI passed to Michael Whelan in 1997 [13] and Michael Kean in 2020. [14]

Membership

Membership is by invitation only [8] based on criteria unknown to the public. [6] Members take on a name inspired by the canon [17] with the head of the organization known as "Wiggins". [6] As of 2020, the organization has had a total of 701 members, whose names, years of investiture, and pseudonym are listed in the reference volume Sherlock Holmes and the Cryptic Clues. [18]

Notable members

Among the members of the Baker Street Irregulars, past and present:

The Baker Street Journal

The group publishes a periodical, The Baker Street Journal . The original series of the BSJ was started in 1946, but it ceased in 1949. [6] In 1951, Edgar Smith began publishing it again as a quarterly; it has continued publication since that time. [6]

Scion societies

The BSI has spawned numerous "scion societies", [7] many of which are officially recognized by the BSI. The first was The Five Orange Pips of Westchester County, New York, in 1935. [6] Independent Sherlockian groups include the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, the U.K.’s Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and Canada's The Bootmakers of Toronto.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baker Street Irregulars</span> Fictional characters in Sherlock Holmes stories

The Baker Street Irregulars are fictional characters who appear in three Sherlock Holmes stories, specifically two novels and one short story, by Arthur Conan Doyle. They are street boys who are employed by Holmes as intelligence agents. The name has subsequently been adopted by other organizations, most notably a prestigious and exclusive literary society founded in the United States by Christopher Morley in 1934.

Sherlockiana is a term which has been used to refer to various categories of materials and content related to the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by Arthur Conan Doyle. The word "Sherlockiana" has been used for literary studies and scholarship concerning Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes pastiches in print and other media such as films, and memorabilia associated with Sherlock Holmes. Sherlockiana may be defined as "anything about, inspired by, or tangentially concerning" Sherlock Holmes.

<i>Baker Street</i> (musical) 1965 musical

Baker Street is a 1965 musical with a book by Jerome Coopersmith and music and lyrics by Marian Grudeff and Raymond Jessel, based on the tales of Sherlock Holmes.

<i>Sherlock Holmes</i> (1954 TV series) American TV series or program

Sherlock Holmes was a detective television series syndicated in the autumn of 1954, based on the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. The 39 half-hour mostly original stories were produced by Sheldon Reynolds and filmed in France by Guild Films, starring Ronald Howard as Holmes and H. Marion Crawford as Watson. Archie Duncan appeared in many episodes as Inspector Lestrade. Richard Larke, billed as Kenneth Richards, played Sgt. Wilkins in about fifteen episodes. The series' associate producer, Nicole Milinaire, was one of the first women to attain a senior production role in a television series.

<i>A Study in Scarlet</i> (1914 British film) 1914 film

A Study in Scarlet is a 1914 British silent drama film directed by George Pearson and starring James Bragington, making him the first English actor to portray Holmes on film. It is based on the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 1887 novel of the same name and is considered to be lost. An American film of the same name was released in the U.S. on the following day, 29 December 1914. As of 2014, the film is missing from the BFI National Archive, and is listed as one of the British Film Institute's "75 Most Wanted" lost films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie S. Klinger</span> American attorney and writer (born 1946)

Leslie S. Klinger is an American attorney and writer. He is a noted literary editor and annotator of classic genre fiction, including the Sherlock Holmes stories and the novels Dracula, Frankenstein, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as well as Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comics, Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons's graphic novel Watchmen, the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods.

The Valley of Fear is a British silent adventure film of 1916 directed by Alexander Butler and starring Harry Arthur Saintsbury, Daisy Burrell and Booth Conway. The film is an adaptation of the 1915 novel, The Valley of Fear by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes. This is now considered a lost film.

<i>Sherlock Holmes</i> (play) Four-act play by William Gillette & Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes is a four-act play by William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes. After three previews it premiered on Broadway November 6, 1899, at the Garrick Theatre in New York City.

<i>The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes</i> Series of three annotated books edited by Leslie S. Klinger

The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes is a series of three annotated books edited by Leslie S. Klinger, collecting all of Arthur Conan Doyle's short stories and novels about Sherlock Holmes. The books were originally published by W. W. Norton in oversized slipcased hardcover editions. The first two volumes containing the short stories were published on November 17, 2004, with the third volume containing the novels following a year later on November 17, 2005. Each volume was subsequently published separately on November 5, 2007, without a slipcase.

Sherlock Holmes fandom is an international, informal community of fans of the stories by Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. The fans are known as Sherlockians or Holmesians. Many fans of Sherlock Holmes participate in societies around the world, and engage in a variety of activities such as discussion, tourism, and collecting.

<i>Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street</i>

Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World's First Consulting Detective is a 1962 novel by William S. Baring-Gould. The book purports to be a biography of Sherlock Holmes. It is considered to be the "definitive" biography of Sherlock Holmes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lyndsay Faye</span> American author

Lyndsay Faye is an American author. Her first novel was the Sherlockian pastiche Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killings by Dr. John H. Watson and she has been nominated for the Edgar Award for The Gods of Gotham and Jane Steele. The Gods of Gotham was named "the year’s best mystery novel" by the American Library Association.

The Baker Street Journal is a quarterly journal devoted to Sherlockiana published by The Baker Street Irregulars. Leslie S. Klinger has called it "the leading publication" in the study of Sherlock Holmes.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is an American old-time radio show that aired on US radio networks between 1930 and 1936. The series was adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories by scriptwriter Edith Meiser. For most of the series, Richard Gordon played Sherlock Holmes and Leigh Lovell played Dr. Watson.

The Speckled Band is a 1910 play in three acts by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, based on his own 1892 short story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edith Meiser</span> American author and actress (1898–1993)

Edith Meiser was an American author and actress, who wrote mystery novels, stage plays, and numerous radio dramas. She is perhaps best known for bringing adaptations of Sherlock Holmes stories to radio in the 1930s.

<i>From Holmes to Sherlock</i> 2017 book by Mattias Boström

From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon is a non-fiction book by Mattias Boström which explores the history of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock fandom, originally published in 2017. It was nominated for an Edgar Award in the category of "Best Critical/Biographical" by the Mystery Writers of America. It won an Agatha Award for "Best Nonfiction" in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baker Street Babes</span> Podcast about Sherlock Holms

Baker Street Babes is an-all female Sherlockian group who host the web's first all-female Sherlock Holmes podcast. There are eleven members of the group, including Edgar Award-nominated author Lyndsay Faye, a collective devoid of a president or a leader. They consider themselves "a bridge between older Sherlockians and young, tech-savvy enthusiasts" and they have been described as being "at the center of online Sherlock fandom."

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is a book by Vincent Starrett originally published in 1933. It is considered the first book on Sherlock Holmes scholarship, as well as a cornerstone of the study of Sherlockiana. It has been credited with jumpstarting the creation of Sherlockian Societies. It has been used as an inspiration and a reference for "biographies" of Sherlock Holmes such as Nick Rennison's 2005 Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography.

Sherlock Holmes is a French–British silent film series consisting of eight short films which were produced in 1912 by Éclair.

References

  1. ↑ "Entertainment and Fantasy": The 1940 Dinner". BSI Archival History. Retrieved 19 November 2020. See the section "A Picture of the Crowd".
  2. 1 2 "Baker Street Irregulars 1923-2007: Guide". Houghton Library, Harvard Library . Harvard University . Retrieved 2015-03-25.
  3. ↑ "The Baker Street Irregulars Trust". ZoomInfo. March 2015.
  4. 1 2 Dirda, Michael (February 2, 2012). "Sherlock Lives!". The New York Review of Books . Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  5. 1 2 Grann, David (December 13, 2004). "Mysterious Circumstances". The New York Times . Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur; Klinger, Leslie S. (2005). The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 . W. W. Norton & Company. pp. lxiii–lxvi. ISBN   0-7394-5304-1.
  7. 1 2 Bunson, Matthew (1997). Encyclopedia Sherlockiana: an A-to-Z guide to the world of the great detective. Macmillan. pp. 20–21. ISBN   0-02-861679-0.
  8. 1 2 3 Faye, Lyndsay (March 22, 2012). "Inside the Baker Street Irregulars". Tor.com . Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  9. 1 2 Boström, Mattias (2018). From Holmes to Sherlock . Mysterious Press. pp. 206–207. ISBN   978-0-8021-2789-1.
  10. ↑ Lellenberg, Jon (2015). "Edgar W. Smith: Prolegomena to Any Future Biography, Part 5". BSI Archival History. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  11. 1 2 "Wolff and Still Waters". BSI Archival History. December 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  12. ↑ Lellenberg, Jon. "The March of Time". BSI Archival History. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  13. 1 2 3 Zeffren, Tamar (July 29, 2016). "The 1997 BSI Dinner". The Baker Street Irregulars Trust. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  14. 1 2 "The 2020 BSI Weekend Report". The Baker Street Irregulars. 29 January 2020. Retrieved February 13, 2021.
  15. ↑ Dundas, Zach (2015). The Great Detective. Mariner Books. p. 135. ISBN   978-0-544-70521-0.
  16. 1 2 3 Boström, Mattias (2018). From Holmes to Sherlock . Mysterious Press. pp. 428–429. ISBN   978-0-8021-2789-1.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Kaska, Kathleen (March 29, 2014). "A Society like None Other: The Baker Street Irregulars Celebrates 80 Years". Kings River Life. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  18. ↑ "THE INVESTITURED (OR INVESTED) IRREGULARS" (PDF). Sherlocktron. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 "The Official BSI Members List and BSI Honours" (PDF). The Baker Street Irregulars. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  20. ↑ "Episode 125: Revenge of the Sherlockian Nerd".
  21. ↑ Blumenberg, Taylor (January 10, 2016). "Episode 71: Bert Coules". Baker Street Babes . Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  22. 1 2 Zeffren, Tamar (September 26, 2015). "The 1971 BSI Dinner". The BSI Trust. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  23. ↑ Claire, Nancy (September 15, 2013). "Sherlockian Girl Goes Wilde: An Interview with Lyndsay Faye". Los Angeles Review of Books . Retrieved January 5, 2018.
  24. ↑ Zeffren, Tamar (October 31, 2016). "The 2005 BSI Dinner". The BSI Trust. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  25. ↑ Zeffren, Tamar (March 12, 2016). "The 1985 BSI Dinner". The BSI Trust. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  26. ↑ Boström, Mattias (2018). From Holmes to Sherlock . Mysterious Press. p. 429. ISBN   978-0-8021-2789-1.
  27. ↑ "In Memoriam: Dr. David Musto". Yale Daily News . October 13, 2010. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  28. ↑ Monty, Scott (January 8, 2017). "The 2017 BSI Weekend Ended in Friendship".
  29. 1 2 Mehegan, David (November 28, 2005). "Guilt by association: For 65 years, a Boston club has made Sherlock Holmes mysteries a scholarly pastime". The Boston Globe . Retrieved January 3, 2018.
  30. ↑ Zeffren, Tamar (March 12, 2016). "The 1986 BSI Dinner". The BSI Trust. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
  31. ↑ Shashower, Daniel (July 10, 2015). "Why Sherlock Holmes Endures". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  32. ↑ "Frederic D. Steele, An Illustrator, 70". The New York Times . July 7, 1944. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
  33. ↑ Zeffren, Tamar (May 19, 2016). "The 1993 BSI Dinner". The BSI Trust. Retrieved January 3, 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.