Sherlocking In Armenia
By Don Hobbs

It was a rare time last week because I got to spend it at home instead of on the road. I was able to sleep in my own bed, eat in my own kitchen, and even listen to my favorite radio stations. This is how I heard about the 10th Annual Armenia Fest.

I have been working on The Galactic Sherlock Holmes, an illustrated extension of  foreign language section of The Universal Sherlock Holmes, edited by Ronald B. De Waal. By an extension I mean I have painstakingly added all of the editions in my own collection not list listed in De Waal (NIDW). There are several languages that I am still working on completing. One of these is Armenian. De Waal listing C2388 as the only Armenian edition. Zapiski o Šerloke Holmse was published in Yerevan, Armenia in 1958 by Ajpetrat Publishing Company. It's contents is The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

I have two other Armenia translations of Sherlock Holmes but I was lacking complete bibliographic information on them. This is where the 10th Annual Armenia Fest came in handy. We packed up my Armenian translations and drove to the fest. It was being held an Armenian Church just about 10 miles away. We walked past a group of wizened old men playing Backgammon on an ornate board. We were given a few sideways glances. My wife's blonde hair stood in contrast to all of the women there with jet black hair.

We went into the exhibit hall where I ask one of the venders if there was someone that would be able to help me with my bibliographic needs. He directed me over to Mr. Art Tonoyan, a young Ph.D. student, who is, of all things, Armenian. I quickly explain my reason for being there and kindly offers to help me. We exchange email addresses and I agreed to send him scans each book's bibliographic pages and he will translate them for me.

When Art looked at the books, he smile and said he had these book back home. The two books I have not listed in De Waal are: Some Adventure Stories of the Detective Sherlock translated by Bizi Aray?n?z.  It was published in 1985 by National Book Publishers. Its contents are RedH.; Scan.; Houn.; and Lost World. The book has 503 pages. The second NIDW book is Sherlock Holmes Adventure Stories  translated by Ana Ekran. This book was publish in 1989 also by The National Book Publishers. This book has 432 pages its partial contents includes Sign.; Stoc.; Glor.; Reig.; Maza.; Abbe.; 3Stu.; Gree.; and Blan.  Both books are translated from Russian. They are both hard cover editions.

The Armenian alphabet was invented around 404 AD by a cleric in the Armenian royal court named Mesrop Mashtots (361-440 AD). Today Armenian, an Indo-European language spoken in Armenia, Iran, Georgia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and many other countries by about 6 million people. The Armenian name for the Armenian language is Hayeren. A significant number of Armenian root words owe their origin to or are similar to roots in Old Persian, revealing common Indo-European ancestry.

The Armenian Alphabet can be seen at

http://www.haias.net/kultur/armenian-alphabet.html

Happy Collecting!!