What is a Sherlockian?



  Artwork by Resa Haile
Based on a cover of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
which was clearly based on Basil Rathbone

 by Resa Haile

I am a Sherlockian. A Sherlockian is someone who studies the fifty-six short stories and four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These stories are known to Sherlockians (who are called “Holmesians” in Britain) as the Canon.

Because Conan Doyle wrote these very quickly and didn’t really consider them serious literature, there are certain seeming contradictions in the stories. Sherlockians strive mightily to come up with copious theories to reconcile these contradictions. This is something fans of television series now do on the Internet every day. In fact, Sherlock Holmes was the subject of what might qualify as fanfiction before there officially was fanfiction.

Because Dr. Watson, who narrated most of the stories, did not tell the cases in order, another Sherlockian activity is the creation of a chronology, or timeline, for the tales. A Sherlockian might look for clues to the date of the case, such as Watson’s reference to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee (an anniversary of her reign), and then try to figure out which Jubilee it was.

There is also great debate over the number of times Watson was married, with some Sherlockians positing as many as six (which would lead one to wonder if Holmes’s old friend was Bluebeard) and some only one (with a separation for health reasons). The identity of Watson’s second wife (if there was one) is another subject for speculation.

The spaces between the stories allow writers to create their own Sherlock Holmes stories as well. Sherlock Holmes has met Dracula and Oscar Wilde, and faced off against Jack the Ripper (a few too many times). He has been frozen and revived in modern times (in two television pilots and a cartoon series). He has traveled through time. Every year, new novels and short stories appear featuring Sherlock Holmes, various other characters from the Conan Doyle tales, and relatives of Sherlock’s that we never knew existed, along with Sherlockian theory and criticism.

Groups of Sherlockians get together to discuss the Canon and put forth theories. The main organization is the Baker Street Irregulars in New York, and there are various scion societies across the country. One such scion society, The Notorious Canary Trainers, is located in Madison. I hope to eventually form a group in Janesville.

Sherlock Holmes lives, and Sherlockiana is one of my favorite pastimes.

This article was originally published in the December 2008 issue of Blackhawk Technical College's student newspaper, The BTC Flyer, under the title of Sherlockiana, along with the book list below. In early 2010, I met fellow Sherlockian Gayle Lange Puhl, and we co-founded The Original Tree Worshippers of Rock County, a Sherlock Holmes group based in Janesville, Wisconsin. The Original Tree Worshippers was a name I had carried in my head since the 'eighties for a possible scion, and I was very pleased that Gayle and the group agreed to use it. A modified version of this article appears on the OTW blog: http://rocksherlockotw.blogspot.com/, and you can find more information about our group there, as well as meeting minutes and other articles by members. Our Facebook page is http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Original-Tree-Worshippers-of-Rock-County/121545477857624 and Gayle's blog is http://www.cheeseheadintheuk.blogspot.com/

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet

The Sign of Four

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Hound of the Baskervilles

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Valley of Fear

His Last Bow

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes

Some Sherlock Holmes Books by Other Authors

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer

Exit Sherlock Holmes by Robert Lee Hall

Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula by Loren D. Estleman

Prisoner of the Devil by Michael Hardwick

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Sabina Hall by L.B. Greenwood

Holmes and Watson by June Thomson

I, Sherlock Holmes by Michael Harrison

Ten Years Beyond Baker Street by Cay Van Ash

The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr

The Book of the Dead by Robert Richardson

A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin