The sonnet 221B by Vincent Starrett is a wonderful constant in our hobby. Introduced in 1942 (and then to a larger public in 1943), it is recognized as a masterwork that not only brings to life the romance of the Victorian world of Sherlock Holmes, but always fits into whatever chaos our world happens to find itself in. It's timeless and beautiful. I invite you to look it up and read it, then print it out and hang it on a wall like most of us have.
I watched an interview with my friend Ray Betzner a few days ago, and am constantly in awe of his collection, recall, and dedication when it comes to Mr. Starrett. And since you can't discuss Vincent without talking about 221B, it gave me an idea of what to do here for this month. Now, I have no desire to take anything away from the poem, but I do want to sort of focus on the last line:
"Here, though the world explode, these two survive, and it is always 1895."
This constantly catches my attention. I know from a poetic standpoint the number five is easy to find a rhyme for, but the chronologist in me balks just a touch because I know from a chronology standpoint that 1895 was not Holmes's busiest year. (I realize, of course, that it isn't meant to be viewed that way in 221B, and no one is grimacing at the year and thinking the way I do, but if it is meant to indicate a representative time in the Holmes calendar, then there is another which takes the prize for the busiest - according to the chronologists.)
I have an extensive database system for what I do here. I have documents and files and photos and jpegs and gifs and pdfs and spreadsheets. In fact, I have seven major spreadsheets. I had six until a few weeks ago, but finally created one of the ones I've been thinking about for too long. It's this one which places everything I need for this entry in one place. So, what year are we talking about? I could make you guess, but I have no idea how that would work on here, so I'll just tell you: 1889.
The years of 1888 to 1890 were very busy for The Master, but 1888/9 have the distinctions of being the only years that have each month listed by chronologists as having activity. 1895 covers only nine months, missing September, October, and December. But having each month represented is not the only way to measure this: 1889 also have a lot of activity. Let's take a look at the details. Ready?
Nineteen cases are on file for 1889. I'll list them here, but only by their four-letter abbreviation. (Writing them all out would take up too much space. Sorry.)
In the order they appear:
VALL, CHAS, SCAN, COPP, IDEN, CROO, ENGR, STOC, TWIS, SECO, DYIN, GREE, CARD, HOUN, FIVE, SILV, REDH, BERY, and BLUE.
The precise dates are:
January 7
February 4
March 20/21/22
April 5
June 1/3/6/7/8/14/15/16/17/18/19/21/20/22/25/26/29/30
July 11/13/15/17/29/30
August 3/6/9/14/28/30/31
September 7/8/11/24/25
October 1/7/9/18/19
November 16
December 19/27.
(Now, I know what you're thinking...where's May? Well, I'll get to that in this next section.)
The less-than-precise dates are:
Six people just say March for SCAN
One likes April for COPP
Two say April for IDEN, while one says April or May, and another says May to June
One prefers summer for CROO, while another says "a Tuesday in late summer"
Two others choose summer for ENGR
Three people say just June for STOC
Another three select June for BOSC, while three others say "early June"
Four say just June for TWIS, while three others say "late June"
Five folks pick July for IDEN, while another likes "late July"
Two like July for ENGR
One puts "a Tuesday in July" for SECO, and another can't do better than "July 2, 9, 16, or 23"
Three folks list July or August for ENGR
Another likes the same for CROO
Four people say just August for CROO
Two like it for CARD
One likes it for ENGR, and another says "early August" for that case
One person lists autumn for HOUN
One suggests September for CROO
Two list it for ENGR
One prefers it for IDEN, while someone else says "a Thursday in September"
Two place FIVE in September, and one other likes "late September"
Three fancy just October for HOUN, one says "1st three weeks of October (until the 19th)," another says "c. October 1 - 24," while one other just says "early October"
Six folks say November for DYIN
Four finger December for BLUE, while another says "Christmas-time"
There are actually several more listings, but they are not terribly specific. An example would be one chronologist placing BERY on "a Friday in February between 1882 and 1897." Yeah...I ain't gonna bother with those.
I know these technical posts can be a bear to get through, but you did it, and for that I thank you. I was thinking about this little journey of mine a few days ago, like I do, and I started considering that just giving you this info in date form doesn't really help you out much when it comes to understanding all of this, so I will start working in more about the reasoning and logic behind these decisions. In order to educate you about this faction of the hobby, I need to tell you as much as I can. I vow to do so.
On a personal note (again)...
I missed a lot of work to this COVID-19 thing. Now, I don't know who's telling the truth about it, who's fudging numbers and stats, who's lying to the public about data...none of that crap. What I do know is that I was really, really sick for most of last month, but slowly recovering this month. I did have a bad scare about my heart, though. Happily, it turned out to be a red herring. I'm still having symptoms, but they are much milder, and drastically reduced. In short, I feel better, and am back to work and getting through entire shifts again. (Unfortunately, this illness is a roller coaster, and it can reappear at any time. I guess we'll see.) Thank you for the concern you've shown here and on the other means of communication with me. I truly appreciate it, and can say with a bit more confidence that I'll be here to bring you more about this wonderful part of Sherlockiana.
Ray Betzner has a blog called 'Studies in Starrett' over at http://www.vincentstarrett.com/.
The interview I mentioned is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M8sWGzllUc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3p8Q17slboT60RtQn81qRfclg0hBwQzU_sC9nS0l3_QF4t02LoCPFVVpw
The abbreviations for the 60 Canonical cases can be found here: https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php?title=Abbreviations_for_the_Sherlock_Holmes_stories
I'll see you next month, and as always...thanks for reading.
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