Interview with Brad Keefauver

Brad Keefauver has been giving talks at Sherlockian events since 1978.  And he can always be counted on for an interesting, and sometimes provocative, take on a Sherlockian topic.  His blog, Sherlock Peoria, is a treasure trove for fascinating thoughts and ramblings.  And if you like your Sherlockiana a with a little more twists and turns, he is involved with the podcast, Sherlock Holmes is Real, which is currently in its second season.  

Brad has written a handful of books in his years as a Sherlockian, and been at the editor's desk of a few journals as well.  He was a key member in The Hansoms of John Clayton scion in Peoria, Illinois for years and then took his welcoming and gregarious nature to social media, where he has engaged with Sherlockians of all stripes over the years.

Brad is one of the guest speakers at Holmes in the Heartland this August, and is sure to get us all thinking with his talk.  Make sure you register HERE to see just what he's going to say next!

How did you become interested in Sherlock Holmes?

I saw him fight the Loch Ness monster in the Strand Theater in a movie preview, and then didn't get to see the movie for about six years. 

What is your current involvement with Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockians?

I write a blog about all things Sherlock under the heading of "Sherlock Peoria." Sometimes I've involved in the production of a podcast called "Sherlock Holmes is Real." And I also help lead Peoria's north branch library's monthly Sherlock Holmes discussion group. 

Do you have a particular subset of the Sherlockian hobby that really interests you?

Considering what we weren't told about the lives of Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson. Connecting the Watsonian dots in ways that we weren't exactly meant to connect them.

What is your favorite canonical story and why?

A Study in Scarlet, because it's the place we first get to discover Sherlock Holmes as Dr. Watson does.

Is there anything you would like to promote?

Sherlock Holmes. Do more Sherlock Holmes, however you do Sherlock Holmes.

Interview with Tassy Hayden

The Parallel Case of St. Louis's very own Tassy Hayden will be speaking at Holmes in the Heartland this August!  Tassy is a thoughtful and energetic doctor right here in St. Louis and was a co-host of The Three Patch Podcast for a two years.  Her Sherlockian interests range from fan fiction to Jeremy Brett and you can always count on her for an intelligent take on any type of media representation of The Great Detective.

Holmes in the Heartland will be Tassy's first solo talk at a major Sherlockian event and you will definitely want to be there!  Register HERE to spend the weekend with Tassy Hayden and a whole bunch of other great Sherlockians!

How did you become interested in Sherlock Holmes?

The re-release of Disney's The Great MouseDetective occurred when I was in the second grade. By that time, I was already reading detective fiction (Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew most prominently), so I was primed to fall for the Great Detective. I read some children's adaptations of the ACD stories and kept on reading other fictional detectives but didn't revisit Canon until The Hound of the Baskervilles on a lazy college weekend. Since then, when not busy with school, residency, and establishing my medical practice, I've enjoyed consuming and considering the wealth of new adaptations as well as looking for archetypal Holmes and Watson pairs in popular media.

What is your current involvement with Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockians?

I'm a member in good standing (I think...) of The Parallel Case of Saint Louis [Editor's Note: The BEST Standing!], and I'm working my way through both the Granada series and Elementary. And there are ten or so Sherlockian books on my bookshelf awaiting perusal. I'm actually *really* excited for the Will Ferrell adaptation. I've got an idea for a pastiche in my mind, but it seems like the type of thing that will have to percolate for about a decade.

Do you have a particular subset of the Sherlockian hobby that really interests you?

As intriguing and wonderful as I find the Game, as a physician I am fascinated by Conan Doyle himself, particularly his medical education, interaction with Dr. Joseph Bell, and the impact this had on Holmes. I've long felt that about 85% of the medical information I get from a patient comes from the interview, 10% from the physical examination, and 5% from lab testing or imaging studies. The process of medical history-taking hasn't been exempt from my analysis and critique, and glimpses of great practitioners of the past help me see the good bones in our seemingly idiosyncratic method.

What is your favorite Canon story and why?

The Speckled Band because there are so many iconic elements-- the fireplace poker, the stakeout, the dark lantern, Holmes fighting a snake... I also feel that the criminal is particularly clever in this story.

Is there anything you would like to promote?

Can I say Saint Louis City itself? We've got a lot of hidden gems here, so if you've got some free time this weekend or in the future, think about checking out:

The grown-up playground that is The City Museum

Our premier independent record store in the Delmar Loop, Vintage Vinyl

The large-scale sculpture garden, Laumeier Sculpture Park

Bird-watching and pavilion-peeping in Tower Grove Park

A great collection of mid-century furniture and kitsch, The Future Antiques

A hell of a good brunch at Rooster on South Grand

The many trains (and cars and ships, oh my!) at the Museum of Transportation

One of our many microbreweries, particularly Schlafly or Urban Chestnut

And definitely grab a boozy nitrogen-frozen ice cream treat at Ices Plain and Fancy 

If you're interested in online fandom, the long-running ThreePatch Podcast, which I contributed to from 2016 to early 2018, captures the zeitgeist of that phenomenon. Fandom differs from traditional Sherlockiana in many ways, but the two hobbies are similar in the object and fervor of passion. A few big name fans have contributed to Fandom Studies as an academic field, and even silly online fans occasionally have serious conversations, like those about creator/fan interaction, fat representation in media, translating Sherlock Holmes across societies, bee-keeping, and the accuracy of science, medicine, and drug use in BBC's Sherlock. My personal favorite segment is an audio tour of filming sites in London.

Interview with Bill Mason

This week's featured Holmes in the Heartland speaker is Bill Mason of The Nashville Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem.  Bill is also the founder of the Fresh Rashers of Nashville, a Baker Street Irregular, Master Bootmaker, former Head Light of The Beacon Society, and member of numerous other scions.  Bill's 2010 book Pursuing Sherlock Holmes is a must read for any Sherlockian, and his writings have appeared all over the place, from The Baker Street Journal to a number of journals, and have even been sited by Leslie Klinger in the New Annotated Sherlock Holmes.  He has spoken at previous St. Louis symposiums, and was definitely someone we wanted to have back!

Make sure you register for Holmes in the Heartland HERE to hear what Bill has to say this time.

How did you become interested in Sherlock Holmes?

My mother was a high school English teacher; and I was an avid reader, even as a child.  On my 13^th birthday, she gave me the Whitman Classics edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  I was hooked on Sherlock Holmes from that point onward.  (And that particular volume is still the most treasured item in my collection—even though you could probably get a copy for a quarter at a yard sale.)

For years, I thought I was pretty much alone in my love of Sherlock Holmes, watching the Rathbone movies on television and reading (and re-reading) the Canon. Then, while in college, I came across the two-volume set of The Annotated Sherlock Holmes by Baring-Gould.  The annotations were great of course, but the real excitement for me was reading the dozen or so scholarly essays that opened the book and learning about the existence of scion societies, Sherlockian publications, and the Baker Street Irregulars. 

What is your current involvement with Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockians?

I am a member of the Baker Street Irregulars (“White Mason”), and I make the trip to New York every January.  In my home town, I am a member of the Nashville Scholars of the Three Pipe Problem (“The Hydraulic Press”) as well as the Fresh Rashers of Nashville, where I am the founder and “Breakfast Ringer” (presiding officer). I spent three years as “Head-Light” (president) of the Beacon Society, which gives grants to schools and libraries to teach about Sherlock Holmes.  I am also a member of the Bootmakers of Toronto, in which I am a “Master Bootmaker;” the John H. Watson Society, in which I am a charter member and have the name “Billy;” The Sounds of the Baskerville of Seattle; and The Red Circle of Washington, where I lived for many years.  I attend as many Sherlockian conferences as I can, and I have been honored to be asked to speak on many occasions.

Do you have a particular subset of the Sherlockian hobby that really interests you?

My days of collecting anything and everything pertaining to Sherlock Holmes have ended, mainly because of the sheer volume of material that is available. I focus on the “writings about the writings;” first editions of early Sherlockian literature, both fiction and non-fiction (starting with those books mentioned or excerpted in 1944’s The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes and expanding from there); and Sherlockian comic books (which number about 850 in my collection at this point).

What is your favorite Canon story and why?

My top three, in order: “The Man with the Twisted Lip” has everything a Holmes story should include: the right atmosphere, a good mystery, a glimpse at the lives of both Watson and Holmes, and a solution found in a manner that only Sherlock Holmes would employ.  The Hound of the Baskervilles introduces Holmes to his devotees more than any other tale. The book’s popularity is understandable: it never fails to produce both thrills and pleasure with each reading. Finally, “The Blue Carbuncle” is the quintessential story for studying Holmes’ methods.

Is there anything you would like to promote?

Not for myself, but I encourage Sherlockians to attend not only their local scion meetings, but also any conference, symposium or Sherlockian special event they can manage.  The real value of being a Sherlockian may begin with the Canon, but is found in the people who share the passion.  That cannot be experienced on-line or in any publication, only in person.

Interview with Tim Johnson

As registration for Holmes in the Heartland rolls on, we wanted to highlight the great speakers you can see at our event on August 10-12!  First up is our keynote speaker, Tim Johnson.  Tim is the curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota.  Since our theme this year is "A Curious Collection" and we are celebrating the new St. Louis Sherlockian Research Collection at the St. Louis Public Library, we felt that Tim would be the perfect keynote speaker for our inaugural event!

If you haven't registered yet, you can do so HERE and you can see Tim speak in person!

How did you become interested in Sherlock Holmes?

I read some of the stories as a youngster, and saw some of the Rathbone/Bruce movies growing up, but it really wasn't until Jeremy Brett appeared in the Granada series that aired on PBS "Mystery" that I really got roped in. There were a few of us at work who regularly watched the series--sometimes together--and my VCR was set each week to record each episode, just in case I had a conflict and couldn't watch it in real time, or to watch it again and again and again. I still have those tapes. Then, when I took the curator's position at the University of Minnesota I realized there was a whole other level of engagement with Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson. I was a babe in the woods. And, truth be told, the Holmes Collections at the U were not my main motivation for applying for the curator's position in the first place. But that quickly changed. TheNorwegian Explorers of Minnesota had a conference scheduled about two months after I started my job. I soon realized that some serious preparation was in order, so I re-read the entire Canon (a word I knew of in the biblical context, but was not yet introduced to in the Sherlockian sense) so that I might appear at least somewhat knowledgeable about the Holmesian world and could, on a very elementary level, "walk the walk and talk the talk." But I was still a babe in the woods. However, the Norwegian Explorers welcomed me with open arms, and it is a community I still value to this day. Along with the Explorers, The Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections got their hooks into me early and slowly drew me closer, educating me along the way. Julie McKuras, Dick Sveum, Gary Thaden, John Bergquist, C. Paul Martin, and the late Allen Mackler were my tutors. Those friendships cemented my interest in Sherlock Holmes. I would be poorer without them.

What is your current involvement with Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockians?

For the last twenty years, I've been the curator of Special Collections and Rare Books at the University of Minnesota, which includes being curator of our most special gathering of materials, the Sherlock Holmes Collections. And since 2010, I've been the E. W. McDiarmid Curator of the Sherlock Holmes Collections, an endowed curatorship in the University Libraries (the first) that allows me to spend at least half of my time working with the Holmes Collections, traveling to various conferences and cons, writing about the Collections in the Friends newsletter (and in other publications), creating exhibits, and helping to plan and host our owntriennial conference. (Planning for our next conference, to be held in August 2019, is already underway.) I've had the honor of being a past guest at a number of Baker Street Irregular dinners and try to get to New York for the Birthday Weekend on an irregular basis. More recently, I've become rather fond of 221B Con in Atlanta, and have now attended their two most recent conventions. I, along with Peggy Perdue from the Toronto Public Library, were guests of honor at one of the last SherlockSeattle cons. And I am now very pleased to be the keynote speaker for the Holmes in the Heartland conference. As with many fans and devotees, I've enjoyed seeing Holmes and Watson in the movies (as portrayed by Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law) or on television via BBC's "Sherlock" or CBS's "Elementary." Occasionally, I've been moved to write or comment on these recent manifestations on my blog or through presentations to various groups. I, along with our Friends of the Collections, take a "big tent" view of the Sherlockian world, something I think we inherited from John Bennett Shaw. We want to be inclusive and try to capture for the Collections all expressions of Canonical, Apocryphal, parody, or pastiche Holmes. My latest challenge is working with fan fiction creators on how best to preserve their work and make it accessible to future generations. I have, as many have noted, one of the best jobs on the planet.

Do you have a particular subset of the Sherlockian hobby that really interests you?

As I mentioned above, the newer fandom intrigues me. When compared to the output documented in De Waal's magisterial Universal Sherlock Holmes bibliography, it is astounding. De Waal lists about 25,000 items--works created between 1887 and 1994 related to Holmes. In the last ten years, new fans, through online platforms such as Archive of Our Own (AO3), created over 105,000 pieces related to Holmes--over four times the number documented by De Waal! To me, that is a mind-blowing and challenging number. Challenging because these works of fan fiction, art, videos, etc. are created within the context of online communities, communities that add its own commentary, ratings, or annotations to the original works. Thus, it is impossible to collect these works on their own. To do so would rip them out of their communal context. And, because they are digital works, as opposed to works on paper, there are additional technical challenges to try and collect and preserve this material. I have just scratched the surface in reading or experiencing fandom's creativity, but based on what I see at cons such as those in Seattle or Atlanta, this is where there's new energy and a true force in keeping forever green the memory of the Master. Also, these newer fandom communities have been ignored or scorned to some extent by "traditional" Sherlockians, in part because of how they view and embrace the relationship between Holmes and Watson. Because of my "big tent" perspective, I rejoice in what these folks are up to and how they created such a wave of interest, primarily through their interest in Holmes as expressed in the recent movies and television shows, that keeps us all afloat. It is the Great and Grand game at its greatest and grandest.

What is your favorite Canon story and why?

The Bruce-Partington Plans. I'm not sure why I was initially drawn to this adventure, but I think it is because I have a small side interest in submarines. When I lived and worked in Chicago I made multiple visits to see the German U-Boat, U-505, at the Museum of Scienceand Industry. I've also been to the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut and enjoy movies like "Das Boot," "The Hunt for Red October," and "Run Silent, Run Deep." A recently departed friend of mine was an executive officer on a nuclear submarine; we used to spend time together talking subs and he always brought me something from one of his conventions or reunions. My interest in submarines may go all the way back to my childhood, when I saw a submarine while visiting Key West, Florida, or when a childhood friend's older brother served in the Navy aboard a nuclear sub (and could never tell his family where he was). Added to my interest in submarines is the fact that The Bruce-Partington Plans was the BSI investiture for E. W. "Mac" McDiarmid, a founding member of the Norwegian Explorers. I first met Mac when I was in graduate school at Minnesota. We renewed our friendship when I returned as curator of the Collections. I treasure those moments we spent together before he died in 2000, and was delighted when his family gave their approval for naming the new endowed curatorship after him. Finally, there's a bonus in any story that includes Mycroft Holmes. He's another character that interests me.

Is there anything you would like to promote?

As a curator I always have things to promote! First, there is the next Triennial Holmes conference co-sponsored by the Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, the Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections, and the University of Minnesota Libraries. The conference will be held on August 9-11, 2019. The theme of the conference will be "Dark Places, Wicked Companions, and Strange Experience." I look forward to seeing a lot of Sherlockian friends in attendance. 

And, of course, I want to promote the Collections. We have a number of ways for you to explore and discover what we hold and how it can be used. We've digitized and posted a lot of material in our online repository, the UMedia Archive. You can also explore our archival holdings by browsing and searching our collection guides. The Collections website provides additional information. And you can always search our online catalog for books, periodicals, media, and other materials that have been cataloged in the Collections. Visitors and researchers to the Sherlock Holmes Collections are always welcome!