Being a part of a hobby means inner-interest trading between participants. Someone who knows your particular tastes for the ol' bookshelf will come across something and immediately think of you. Before you know it the item will be happily resting in its own spot in the case - after being perused and explored for a bit, of course. Well, that happened to me recently and it was totally unexpected and unnecessary, and that makes it even better. However, the gift came with an additional gift. That was even more unexpected.
I don't recall when I picked up this item, but I remember being intrigued by the fact that it was printed in Southern Illinois (where I'm from) by Southern Illinois University Press. Inside I found this...
It's a NEWS letter about the book itself! (See what I did there?) Very cool item. And it really does this old heart some good to see that address and phone number at the top (and bottom). Makes me long for my former home - a little village nestled in a col between two arms of the westernmost part of the Shawnee National Forest. Carbondale, just outside its boundaries, was about 15 miles north of where I grew up. It was a city to my small town eyes with its malls and campuses and nightlife. My childhood was spent surrounded by trees and bluffs and woodland creatures. They were as much a part of my life as my family and friends, and I do miss the comfort of their presence. (***deep sigh***) Anyway, I have a number of finds just like this, as do most folks. But we're here to talk about the one that was in my newest gifted acquisition.
Anyone in this hobby who doesn't have their earbuds in too far has heard of Ernest Bloomfield Zeisler and his incredible contribution to the Sherlockian chronology aspect of it all. His book is a landmark in this hobby, and will always be so even if you don't agree with his findings. When my friend Christopher Zordan contacted me and said he found a free copy on a table o' books, he asked me if I wanted it. (He even offered to pay for the book because it was such a great find, but the money was refused. Good for you, Chris!) I told him I was interested, and it found its way to me by post. I was thrilled. But then...
As I was thumbing through this Magico Magazine reprint copy (which is in fantastic shape and was packaged especially well) my eyes fell on handwriting. Now, to anyone with a book passion, written-in notations of ANY kind are exciting. I realized I was looking at someone's handwritten dates! I asked Chris if he'd looked in the book, and he admitted he'd seen the penciled-in bits. I guess he wanted them to be a surprise. Cheeky rascal. My shock turned to curiosity. Who wrote these? Are they their dates or those of someone else? Did we have a previously unknown chronology compiled by a mystery chronologist?
As I looked closer it occurred to me that the dates were only written next to William S. Baring-Gould's. (That's another name you should know, by the way.) I was still faced with questions about them, so I went to my beloved database of timelines to try and see if they already existed. I'm a little sad to say that they were all dates from Baring-Gould's monumental work The Annotated Sherlock Holmes from 1967. Still, any reason to go into said database is worth it. This person was thorough enough to write in the later dates by Baring-Gould, but they didn't bother with making notations about his findings in the text of the rest of the book. I've said this many times - the dates are meaningless without explanation. If you're going to write in new information it is also necessary to show the logic behind them. However, I do understand that is a lot of extra work, so I'll step down from my soapbox. I'm getting too fired up...and I'm old!
That's Chris and I at A Scintillation of Scions in 2015 at the black-and-white only party. (I also had a pair of white sunglasses with a little while gentleman's mustache attached, but they're not shown here.) We always find something to laugh about, and it's a pleasure to see him every time I get lucky enough to do so. His thinking of me as a possible receiver of this book was wonderful. It was a pretty amazing gift with a pretty amazing extra gift from a pretty amazing guy. The great thing is that up until I got this in the mail, all I had was a photocopied version. Hard to believe, I know, but it's true. Now I have what I will refer to as the Zordan/Zeisler Enigma copy. It's the only one of its kind in the world. Can't beat that.
Well, it's that time in the post to remind you just how much I love it when you make it all the way down here. That's an appreciation that will never wane. Please take care of yourselves, and check in with me next month. I'll see you then, and as always...thanks for reading.
