Sherlock Holmes Scrapbook

by Peter Haining

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517172488
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Crescent
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Mixed book of I wonders!

As the books name implies, this is little more than a scrapbook. It displays clips, articles, insight etc. all on the fictitious detective and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. What is the good is that it gives various persectives of Holmes from the people who loved him and also those that mocked or poked fun at all the hype connected to Holmes, watson and the British people in general. All in all it is a lot of interesting "junk mail". True Lovers of the Books and films series will be happy to have it in their collection. Others will say "To each their own", I for one like it! P.S. Still I wouldn't pay too much for it. $5.00 or a little more is good for an old copy in good shape.

More than meets the eye...

According to the actor Peter Cushing's introduction to this scrapbook on Sherlock Holmes, 'you cannot have too much of a good thing'. Even by the early 1970s, when this book was first produced (as a look back over the previous 50 years of coverage of Sherlock Holmes, since the publication of the last of the official stories), there were literally hundreds of books available, and editions, articles, films, plays, radio and television shows, and more too numerous to count. Haining does not intend to be exhaustive by any means, but rather, by means of this scrapbook, to introduce fans of Holmes, newcomers and aficionados alike, to the wide range of possibilities within the Holmesian arena. That Peter Cushing penned the introduction is a good example -- Cushing portrayed Holmes in character, as well as being an expert in Holmesian lore himself. Sherlock Holmes is one of the best known detectives in the world -- so famous in fact, that 221B Baker Street in London continues to get mail adddressed to this fictional character almost a century after he would have died had he been a real person. There are groups of people -- Sherlockians and Holmesians, the distinction between which is rather subtle -- who delight in retelling the tales. The official canon is 60 stories -- 56 short stories, and 4 novels, published at various times during Conan Doyle's life. However, Conan Doyle wrote far more than he ever published as part of the official canon, and some relates directly to Holmes; other pieces remain controversial with regard to their applicability. Holmes has appeared virtually everywhere. Haining reprints copies of cigarette cards with Holmesian characters, playbills, advertisements, 'Strand' drawings, diagrams of rooms, routes, and maps. He includes photographs of significant figures, including major actors to play Holmes (Rathbone, Norwood, Gillette, etc.) and Watson (Bruce, etc.), as well as Conan Doyle himself. One of the recurring features in the book is a series of letters, some to editors in newspapers, some to Holmes himself - this includes a mock obituary that might have appeared in The Times of London, had Holmes been a 'real' person. There are plaques in London, just as real historical figures have, commemorating not only the location of where 221B Baker Street was (or would have been), but also plaques erected commemorating Watson's first meeting with Holmes, and even Watson's meeting with Stamford, who introduced the pair to each other. There are cartoons, film stills, play photos, a recreation of Holmes' Baker Street flat, and more. The wide range of Holmesian lore beyond Conan Doyle far exceeded Conan Doyle's own output by millions, in currency and in printed pages. This relatively brief collection is a great addition to any Sherlockian or Holmesian library.

The Sherlock Holmes Scrapbook

Since the day an impoverished Southsea doctor named Arthur Conan Doyle first put pen to paper and created Sherlock Holmes, the congenial detective has become acclaimed as one of the legendary figures in world literature.Read from one side of the world to the other for nearly one hundred years, Holmes has attracted more detailed study and inquiry than perhaps any other single character in fiction and has also raised a band of enthusiasts whose numbers now run into millions.Over the past century, the "Great Detective," as he is popularly known, has been the subject of countless articles, newspaper reports, memoirs, letters to the press, and illustrations -- not to mention libraries of books. These reflect not only the man, his cases, and his faithful assistant Dr. Watson, but also the people to whom he is not just a fictious character -- but a criminal investigator to be analyzed, explained, and compared. A far-ranging collection of such diverse material has been brought together in a unique souvenir of the making of a legend. Herein the reader will find some of the best, the most illuminating and frequently most amusing items to appear about the famous detective partnership.The contributors include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his wife, Lady Conan Doyle, Dorothy L. Sayers, Frank Swinnerton, Edmund Pearson, Wyndham Lewis, Irving Wallace, Ronald Knox, and Christopher Morley.The book will prove a delight to Sherlockian and general reader alike, mirroring as it does one of the most extraordinary literary phenomena of all time.