EXISTENTIALISM, NOIR, AND THE BIG SLEEP
I AM SAVORING MY WAY through The Annotated Big Sleep. See “As Hard-boiled as a Shamus’s Simile” and “On Chandler’s Greatness” and “Sleeping with Virginia Woolf, Dreaming About a Naked … Continue reading
BOSTON BLACKIE—REFORMED JEWEL THIEF
BOSTON BLACKIE WAS BILLED AS “enemy to those who make him an enemy, friend to those who have no friend.” With this convoluted moral message, he entertained readers of pulp … Continue reading
ON THE TRAIL OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
I’M ENJOYING STEPHEN BROWNING’S On the Trail of Sherlock Holmes, a fine addition to my collection about this first and most famous of the world’s Consulting Detectives. Conan Doyle the … Continue reading
AN AFFABLE AND PORTLY HOLMES PART 2
ALL OF THIS STARTED with my viewing Reginald Owen in A Study in Scarlet, 1933 (when only a year before he had portrayed Watson). Today in Part 2, we find … Continue reading
AN AFFABLE AND PORTLY HOLMES PART 1
ILLUSTRATOR SIDNEY PAGET evidently knew the world’s first consulting detective very well. And for many of us, actor Basil Rathbone came most closely to Paget’s lean intensely hawkish image. However, … Continue reading
SLEUTHING WOMEN
A RECENT UNEARTHING of the book Detectionary yields tidbits on the fair sex in mystery fiction. There’s also an interesting bibliographic tale of the book itself. Back by Popular Demand. … Continue reading
HOLMES, THE ISLE OF MAN, AND PETER H. WOOD
AMONG PETER HARRY WOOD’S PASSIONS were vintage British cars and Sherlock Holmes. Peter was invested into The Baker Street Irregulars in 1985 with the BSI sobriquet “The Second Stain” and … Continue reading
DIVA DELVES INTO SKULLDUGGERY
HELEN TRAUBEL WAS MORE than a Metropolitan Opera soprano specializing in Wagnerian roles. She was a baseball fan, part owner of her hometown St. Louis Browns. She mixed with the … Continue reading
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AND DAVOS SKI-RUNNING
DOCTOR JOHN H. WATSON’S literary agent, a fellow named Arthur Conan Doyle, helped to make skiiing popular in Davos, Switzerland. Details are given in Harry Mount’s “How Conan Doyle Pioneered … Continue reading
THE CASE OF THE TWO IAN FLEMINGS, AND ANOTHER MISTAKEN LINKAGE
WHAT DID THE 007 AUTHOR have in common with the man portraying Dr. John H. Watson in British movies in the 1930s? Nothing, except for sharing the name Ian Fleming. … Continue reading
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