It's not a typo, it's a new field of Sherlockiana! It's the Sherlockianian scholar!

The field of Sherlockiana has had a great many sub-fields of study almost since day one. Chronologists examined the dating of the stories and events of Sherlock Holmes's life. 221B specialists investigated the location and contents of Holmes's sitting rooms. As the hobby grew, so did the number of sub-hobbies within it. Collecting became more popular, and with that came experts on Holmes movies, Holmes comic books, foreign Holmes editions, and others. With only sixty works in the complete Doyle Canon, new generations of Sherlockians have always hunted for places to make their mark, and they could always find something new and still related to Sherlock to explore.

And once Sherlockians had been around for four or five decades, it only seemed natural that somebody would start studying their history. Scion histories and books on the Baker Street Irregulars started showing up. The Baker Street Journal started doing Christmas Annuals on periods in Sherlockian history, rather than on Holmes himself. The BSI Archives and Trust were started to make an effort to retain documents and artifacts relating to the history of the Irregulars. And now, in a major effort to capture as much historical info on its members as possible, the Baker Street Irregulars has launched a project to get every living member of the BSI to provide answers to a intimidating battery of questions.

While the BSI survey is gathering material for the historical archives, it is doing so by gathering current data, which makes one think that the compilers might be an entirely new subspecies of Sherlockian other than earlier-seen Sherlockian historian. Could this be the emergence of the Sherlockianian scholar, the specialist in the study of living Sherlockians?

Gossiping about our fellow Sherlockians has always been an energetically pursued entertainment among our ranks, just because we have so many colorful, accomplished, eccentric, fascinating, and often just plain nutty folks in our hobby. But up until now, it's been solely for our amusement. Suddenly one can envision it moving to the next level.

Field guides for the observation of the regional Sherlockian. Controlled sociological experiments recording the reactions of Sherlockian groups to specific stimuli. Sherlockian gene mapping. And then, one day . . . a cure.

Okay, maybe I've gone a little off the rails. But we do seem to be reaching the outer limit of the our fascination with the history of the BSI. And even though the project is being run by two of the most likable  Baker Street Irregulars on the planet,  Julie McKuras and Sue Vizoskie,  I fear they have quite a challenge ahead of them. Why? Because of their subject matter.

Gathering data on any group of Sherlockians is easily compared to that classic metaphor for controlling chaos, the herding of cats. A lot of BSI in the hinterlands are a bit cantakerous, anti-BSI-establishment, and generally will react the way a backwoodsman would to a census taker from the federal government.  I would suspect they’ll get a lot more response from the newbies in the group than the veterans.

In any case, I wish these  new Sherlockianian scholars well and  will continue watching  for the next offspring of Sherlockian study to emerge   . . .  but I have to admit, sometimes I do miss the days when it was just all about Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Your humble correspondent,

Brad Keefauver