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Welcome! Like the book of the same name, this blog is an eclectic collection of Sherlockian scribblings based on more than a half-century of reading Sherlock Holmes. Please add your own thoughts. You can also follow me on Twitter @DanAndriacco and on my Facebook fan page at Dan Andriacco Mysteries. You might also be interested in my Amazon Author Page. My books are also available at Barnes & Noble and in all main electronic formats including Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iBooks for the iPad.

Friday, February 16, 2018

Goodbye, Good Friend!



I find it hard to believe that Paul Herbert, BSI ("Mr. Leverton") died this morning (Feb. 16). He had survived so many health challenges over the last 20-plus years that I had begun to believe he was as indestructible as Sherlock Holmes himself.

Paul was the founder and Official Secretary of the Tankerville Club, our Sherlockian scion society in Cincinnati.How grateful Ann and I are that he was around for the club's 40th anniversary celebration at our home last year! We all had a wonderful time reminiscing, including a very suitable toast to Paul. (His response to the applause at the end was "just throw money.")

Beyond Cincinnati, Paul was well known to other members of the Baker Street Irregulars and contributed two books to Sherlockian scholarship. The first, The Sincerest Form of Flattery, was on John Bennett Shaw's famous list of 100 most important Sherlock Holmes books. Despite suffering a second stroke in December, Paul attended the annual Baker Street Irregulars dinner in New York last month. While there, he and his wife, Barbara, both contracted the flu.

I've written about Paul many times on this blog, which you can check out by using the search engine at the upper left. The Tankerville Club, if it continues, won't be the same without him. 

Barbara Herbert has been a rock for Paul. Please send her your prayers and thoughts.

5 comments:

  1. Dan,

    Paul was my first teaching hallmate, his wit carried me through some dark moments early in my career (not to mention his love of Bob Dylan's music). I am deeply saddened and the world has lost a brilliant, sharp mind .

    Timothy Hubbard

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  2. My wife, Roseanna and I taught with Paul for many years, we in English and he in History. He was our special consultant in 1983 when we directed our Deer Park High School production of "Sherlock Holmes." By the way, our Sherlock actor, Scott Griswold, went to Harvard for four years and graduated! We dined with Paul and lovely Barbara at their lovely home and we privy to a tour of his fabulous Sherlockian collection. We attended a Sherlock birthday party with them in the 1980's, and viewed the original play, "The Ebony Ape" at The Lexington Opera Hose as part of Paul's entourage.
    His WIT was unmatchable and deadly laser-like. If Paul got you in the cross-hairs of his brilliance you were like the ant on the sidewalk under a magnifying glass--no prisoners were taken! For all his love of Victorian England, Paul was one man who truly should have lived in 18th Century England--The Golden Age of Satire and Sarcasm. We will miss you our brilliant colleague, Rest In Peace, unless, of course,
    "The Game is Afoot!"
    Roseanna and Ted Shaw

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  3. That birthday party was probably at our home, where we hosted it annually for 15 years. We also attended "The Ebony Ape" - and the poster still hangs on one of our walls. Great memories!Thanks for writing, Ted.

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  4. Mr. Herbert was the butt of many jokes at Deer Park High School but one thing that was for SURE- he had a brilliant mind and always kept it 100. Thanks for the memories and all you taught us. Fly high my friend, as you now have your wings.
    Anna Stump Apking

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