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The Baker Street Journal . . .

Every week here at Sherlock Peoria, there is a small report called "New Arrivals, which lists the Sherlockian periodicals and ephemera that arrive in my mailbox each week. It is hardly a complete representation of the wide array of Sherlockian newsletters and periodicals in existence . . . I’ve never been one who felt the need to subscribe to everything. But those I do get, by whatever whim, are always cause for a small celebration, and so it gives me some small pleasure to announce their arrivals.

Four times a year, my post-mailbox celebrations get a little bigger as The Baker Street Journal arrives, like it did this week. It’s the oldest of the publications I get. It’s also the biggest. (Annual book-size collections like The Shoso-In Bulletin seem in a class by themselves.) And of all the periodicals I’ve ever picked up on a regular basis, The Baker Street Journal is the one that I’ve had the strangest relationship with. I’ve had dealings of the writer-editor sort with the last five editors of the Journal, and they’ve each been entirely different, as one would expect -- these were five very different fellows. And even their very distinctive editorships are a subset of even larger divisions in The Baker Street Journal’s run.

When it comes to the Journal, you’ll often hear the phrases "old series" and "new series" thrown around. The old series was a grand and glorious venture, as thick as a Reader’s Digest, with type set in a nicely readable size. It didn’t make it out the the 1940s, however, and when the 1950s rolled around, the new series began in a mode that was basically an effort to survive. Typeset by typewriter, printed by mimeograph, and held together by paper brads like a child’s project, the first issues of the new series are perhaps the most beautiful issues of the Journal in my mind. They were a statement that the content of Sherlockiana is more important than the format they’re printed in. They were a statement that Sherlockiana would not need commercial success to continue. And production values did soon improve.

In fact, they may have eventually improved a little too much. Even though we speak of the "new series" of The Baker Street Journal as one continuous whole, it has its divisions as well. There’s the Edgar Smith era of the fifties, the Julian Wolff era of the sixties and early seventies, and then there’s the "big press" era that began in 1975. Julian Wolff was retiring from the scene just as a major Sherlockian boom was taking place. Circulation shot up and a university press became involved in the production of the Journal, much more able to handle the incoming load of sending out over a thousand issues per quarter than the earlier one-man show. The Baker Street Irregulars was still growing as well, and between the idea of one man handling both the editorship of the journal and leadership of the club was soon to be a thing of the past as well.

All this changes were surely needed and welcome at the time, but looking back, it seems a bit like seeing Wal-mart come in to replace the mom-and-pop variety store. There are benefits, to be sure, but a certain personal touch is lost forever. Once The Baker Street Journal was definitely the voice of the Baker Street Irregulars, as its leader expressed himself via the journal. But after the changes, the Journal’s non-BSI readers would never have the opportunity to develop quite the same fond feeling for Tom Stix that they had for Smith or Wolfe, simply because the voice in the Journal was always that of someone else.

And that voice varied every few years. Being published on the same presses as other university scholarship, The Baker Street Journal seemed at times to start fancying itself as an academic publication, rather than the heart-driven commercial venture of the old series or the enthusiastic amateur production that began the fifties. The weight of its history also began to affect its editors and readers, and the Journal became Very Important to many people, some of whom even felt it necessary to offer the editors critiques of each issue or breath down their necks if deadlines were missed (and with the separation of BSI leadership and BSJ editorialship, that breathing could come from somebody a bit more threatening than a letter-writer from Beemish Falls, Iowa). It’s not too surprising that the light heart of the Journal’s earlier days often disappears in the editorials of the latter 1900s.

Which brings us to late June 2002, and the current issue of The Baker Street Journal. Current editor Steve Rothman begins the issue with a discussion of how the tone is set for each issue, and in the pages that follow, one can see that he isn’t just talking out his calabash. Even though the articles vary widely in subject matter and voice, the Sherlockian thread that runs down the issue’s center is true, never straying too far from the basic path of interest we all share.

The small details, like Coptic patriarchs and Sir George Lewis come up, as do larger issues like Reichenbach Falls and the vindication of yet another Canonical villain. Some thoughts on Conan Doyle, Houdini, and the Canon give the Literary Agent some text time without losing the Sherlockian focus, and a very thoughtful work on interpreting Holmes and Watson gives the brain a little something to chew on. Les Klinger’s checklist-type guide to important sources of Sherlockian scholarship provides a nice finale and segue to the Editor’s Commonplace Book/Inventory. (And his "Contemporary Victorian Source Material" section alone makes this one of the more useful checklists to the Sherlockian who wants to do more than collect.) Editor Rothman likes to end each issue with a personal essay from a long-time Sherlockian, and when all the scholarship and research are done, that essay is always a nice way to wind up one’s BSJ experience. (This issue’s piece by Susan Rice on collecting and Vincent Starrett is especially choice.)

While I’d still like to see one of the more talented graphic designers among the Baker Street Irregulars give the old journal a spiffy new look for the new millennium, the contents are still what count and the Journal has got the goods. If you haven’t ever subscribed to the Journal, or gave it up at some point in the past, you may want to give it a look-see. For more info head to www.bakerstreetjournal.com

Your humble correspondent,
Brad Keefauver