The Faithful Irregulars and That Other Doctor

The swirling mass of data and non-data we call the internet turns up some real gems on occasion. It’s a bit like a hailstorm that throws a diamond at you once every million hailstones. If you’re lucky, you’ll be paying attention when the diamond falls, and I got very lucky.

The diamond fell on what is known as the ACD list, and came in the form of a quote from a letter Edgar Smith wrote to a Baker Street Journal contributor in 1946. BSI historian Jon Ldlenberg pro-vided the quote, and it runs like this:

“The piece as it is written is a delightful tribute to the medical profession, as personified by Dr. Watson, and it would make a most appropriate item for The Baker Street Journal if only you could edit out of it the references to that other doctor — Doyle, I believe his name was — who appears in it a little too clearly to satisfy the predilections of any faithful Irregular. We regard Watson as the true author of the tales, of course, and everything you have said about the other person could equally well be said of him.  The tone you take in your opening paragraphs is exactly in keeping with this carefully-nourished tradition.”

Apparently, Edgar Smith, as editor of The Baker Street Journal, was actually editing the name of Doyle out of the articles ... a shocking revelation if you are a serious scholar of the Doylean. To the stalwart Irregular (of the shilling or of the heart) it comes as a happy little confirmation of the way Sherlockiana was meant to be.

Edgar Smith was a key figure in the origins of Sherlockiana, with his great enthusiasm for the hobby and considerable resources as a vice president for General Motors. His work on The Baker Street Journal from 1946 until his death in 1960 did not merely set the standard for Sherlockiana to come, it set the ideal.  He attracted Some of the best writers that the Journal ever boasted, and one cannot look at his tenure without realizing that he certainly was doing something right.  The charm of Smith-era Sherlockiana is still what warms the heart of many a good Sherlockian on a cold winter’s night.

But was Edgar Smith wrong in leaving Conan Doyle out of the lore of Sheriock Holmes?

Well, that depends on your understanding of, and sympathies for, what Smith was doing.

Y’see, Edgar Smith understood about magic. He understood the limitless vistas of the world of Shertock Holmes and Dr. Watson. And, very possibly, he knew that there was more fun to be had chasing the origins of a snake that can climb, drink milk, and hear whistles than sitting in English class, listening to some prof drone on about a dead guy who spent most of his time at a writing desk.

When Edgar Smith cranked up The Baker Street Journal, people weren’t writing for it for the prestige or the chance that they’d get invited to some social event in New York as so often happens these days. People like Rex Stout or Vincent Starrett already had those things. They were writing for the BSJ for fun.

And why was it fun?

Because the study of Sheriock Holmes and Dr. Watson as the very real and somewhat whimsical fellows they are is a good time. It’s done with a smile and a wink, and nobody on this planet can claim they have a more authoritative view of those two than you do (even though someone will always try!).

Bringing the name Doyle into Sherlockian studies tends to change the flavor of things a bit. It’s almost like Sherlock and John’s dad has come home and the neighborhood kids have to tread lightly around 221B Baker Street. As time passes, some of the kids do seem to grow up a little too much and start sympathizing with big “D,” whose favorite children weren’t Holmes and Watson, anyway. The games of the other kids might even seem repetitive and silly to the maturing Baker Street boy or girl.  Things quickly become very serious.

By giving a warning when he saw Doyle coming, Edgar Smith kept things around Baker Street from becoming too serious. He was a great lookout, and the fun just didn’t stop while he was on the job. We aren’t as lucky today, and every now and then things do get serious on us.  But that doesn’t mean that the fun’s not still around (just stumble into Jabez Wilson’s basement on the Internet some-time, for one very good example).

If that seems a little too “Peter Pan” for you, remember this: The members of Sheriock Holmes’s unofficial police force, the Baker Street Irregulars, were children to a man — dirty, loud, barefoot, all those uncivilized things that make life fun. “The predilections of any faithful Irregular,” as Smith called them, really haven’t changed since the 1940s, or even before that.

(Printed in Plugs & Dottles, August 1998)