One of the most precious volumes in my library, from a
sentimental point of view, is the one-volume Doubleday edition of The Complete Sherlock Holmes that I bought
new for $5.50 while I was in grade school. I wrote about its arrival at our home in
the book version of Baker Street Beat:
I came home one day from the seventh grade to find a suspicious mound under a white tea-towel. Is it only in my memory that my mother removed the towel with a flourish reminiscent of Holmes in “The Naval Treaty”? The book had arrived! And it had more than just the stories. The Book (as my friend Steve Winter has always called it) also came with an introduction by a man named Christopher Morley that was magical; I read it and re-read it.
So I've always had a soft spot for the man who not only wrote that great essay, but also founded the Baker Street Irergulars. Some years ago I acquired a copy of The Standard Doyle Company: Christopher Morley on Sherlock Holmes. Steven Rothman edited this collection of essays, some previously uncollected in book form, and wrote an introduction.
I read the book with great enjoyment when I bought it, probably not long after its publication 20 years ago. Now I've decided it's time to read it again. This time around, I plan to read an essay a night before I go to bed, the same way I read Sherlock Alive, Karen Murdock's wonderful colleciton of Vincent Starrett's Sherlockian columns.
At least, that's the goal. I may not be able to stop at one essay.
The Standard Doyle Company was one of the most important books in my development as a Sherlockian. I read it from start to finish in two very quiet Winter evenings while alone and house sitting. It thoroughly convinced me that 'this' is what I wanted to do and be a part of - "this" being Sherlockian culture, book collecting, scions, dinners, toasts, etc etc. One of those magical crossroads that take on mythological status in hindsight.
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