The Maniac Collector's Inbox Sherlocking in Austin Last Sunday was the Diogenes Club of Dallas’ monthly meeting. We had a first time attendee whose real name was James Moriarty. The meeting came off without a hitch. The Napoleon of crime seems to have lost something.
Bryan Woolley (L) keeps a close watch on This past week I was in San Diego working at my office. It was a good week but 100% non-Sherlockian. When I flew home Friday, Joyce picked me up and instead of heading back to the Mound of Flower we drove south to Austin, Texas for her niece’s wedding on Saturday afternoon. This meant we had most of Saturday to cruise Austin’s various bookshops and funky south side of town where the motto there is “Keep Austin Weird.” They certainly live up to their motto. Shopping the ‘SoCo’ region offers such eclectic place as New Bohemia, although I did not find a single scandal and Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds and Electric Ladyland. The latter is where rumor has it that Bob Dylan shopped there for retro outfits. The mural above the store is like the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover on steroid. It is fun and challenging to try to name as many characters as possible.
I found some old Sherlockian books in the New Book Store. I picked up a copy of the 1971 Union Carbide edition of His Last Bow with the dust jacket featuring “The Case of the Deadly Clock” by Robert L. Fish. These books are part of the Union Carbide ‘Super-Sleuth Series’ that also included The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Each edition featured one of three different pastiches. This is a nice marketing ploy because it requires the completist to have three copies of each book. This is what I thought until I got home and discovered the dust jacket of my copy of His Last Bow did not have a pastiche inside. I suppose now the completist will need a copy of each sans the pastiche. I also picked up a copy of Bohemia Souls published by the Baker Street Irregulars as part of their Manuscript Series and getting more difficult to find. The last book I bought was the Paul D. Gilbert pastiche, The Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes. I do not remember the last time I bought three Sherlock Holmes books in a row that were in English. In the New Bohemia store, I found a cute little sign for 4 Diesel. The sign is made so when screwed into place, the graphics are visible on either side. I will strategically place it in my library for the optimum effect. Another bookshop was located next to Sherlock’s 221b Pub, so I was required to take some more Up-Close and Personal Sherlockian pictures. This is the running photo-essay that I have been compiling over the past few years. The shtick is to photograph all things related to Sherlock Holmes but only include the least amount possible of myself. All told, it was another successful Sherlocking adventure. Happy Collecting!!
Another Sign of 4
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Past 2012 Columns January 8, 2012 January 15, 2012 January 29, 2012 |
