tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26664601860966796762024-03-17T19:59:08.092-07:00BSI Archival History blog"Disputation, Confrontation, and Dialectical Hullabaloo"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-39576416444700196932015-02-04T11:01:00.005-08:002015-02-04T11:01:39.485-08:00
<br />
<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">Out at last, as a new volume in the BSI Archival History series.</span></b></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8c5dHPMCyULH91R8cpjgEdb_TVlEixS58_wAreMG05ypSX7cqNMsjoI9FYMkSm0wp_mDOZH9hFOjmm0bYvG8mLgLBCuaLEgrNdQWhvzU-2XLuPJh_XAzpTiHBnlk3AssOOSgMwgMLuo/s1600/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8c5dHPMCyULH91R8cpjgEdb_TVlEixS58_wAreMG05ypSX7cqNMsjoI9FYMkSm0wp_mDOZH9hFOjmm0bYvG8mLgLBCuaLEgrNdQWhvzU-2XLuPJh_XAzpTiHBnlk3AssOOSgMwgMLuo/s1600/unnamed.png" height="320" width="266" /></a></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
<b>Regarding the novel, in 2010 military historian Thaddeus Holt Jr., </b></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
<b>a member of The Five Orange Pips, wrote:</b></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p3" style="text-align: center;">
<i>You may assume many of this book’s adventures, and many of the people Woody Hazelbaker meets, to be the product of the author’s imagination. You will usually be wrong. With a kaleidoscope of real events both famous and little known, of real people both prominent and obscure, this readable book shows how true is Sherlock Holmes’s observation that “Life is infinitely stranger than any-thing which the mind of man could invent.”</i></div>
<div class="p4">
<br /></div>
<div class="p5" style="text-align: right;">
Thaddeus Holt, author of <i>The Deceivers: Allied </i></div>
<div class="p5" style="text-align: right;">
<i> Military Deception in the Second World War</i></div>
<div class="p6">
<br /></div>
<div class="p6">
<br /></div>
<div class="p7" style="text-align: center;">
<b>from the Companion Volume's FOREWORD:</b></div>
<div class="p8" style="text-align: justify;">
I hoped to do this book before now, and hope that some will be interested in the information in it—both about the Baker Street Irregulars’ history, and their world during the decade and a half the BSI took shape. It explains why <span class="s1"><i>Baker Street Irregular </i></span>was written, and how. “Sources and Methods” is a term in the intelligence community that also took shape in those years, whose formative stages provide part of the novel’s story line. Sources and Methods are critical to collection of raw intelligence and its analysis into useful product to inform policy; and in wartime, strategy and operations. They normally must be kept secret—but not here. I want instead to disclose the sources and methods behind <span class="s1"><i>Baker Street Irregular </i></span>for readers who’d like to know more about the personalities, institutions, and events in it. And for the sake of the historical record, since I spent thirty-five years in the kind of work that Woody Hazelbaker, the novel’s protagonist and narrator, goes to Washington in 1940 to do, in the novel's Ch. 12.</div>
<div class="p8" style="text-align: justify;">
Some Irregulars in the novel are heroes of mine. But so are many of its other characters, real men and women also, who didn’t spare themselves in the struggle to preserve liberty at a time when democracy was in mortal peril—something Irregulars of the 1930s and ’40s realized as well. I was pleased when M. J. Elliott, reviewing the novel for the <span class="s1"><i>Sherlock Holmes Journal</i></span>, said: “unlike many pieces of historical fiction, the book does not wear the author’s research on its sleeve.” Nonetheless, as this volume will show, a great deal of research did go into it, because I wanted the story to be real, and to tell real stories of those years. <span class="s1"><i>Baker Street Irregular </i></span>is a work of fiction, but every word of it is true.</div>
<div class="p8" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p9" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;">xxiii + 154 pp., 32 pictures, in BSI Archival History format.</span></b></div>
<div class="p9" style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="p10" style="text-align: center;">
$20.00 postpaid in the U.S., from</div>
<div class="p11" style="text-align: center;">
Hazelbaker & Lellenberg Inc.</div>
<div class="p11" style="text-align: center;">
P.O. Box 32181</div>
<div class="p11" style="text-align: center;">
Santa Fe, N.M. 87594</div>
<div class="p11" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="p11" style="text-align: center;">
or by PayPal to jonlellenberg@gmail.com.</div>
<div class="p12">
<br /></div>
<div class="p13">
<br /></div>
<div class="p14">
<br /></div>
<div class="p12">
<br /></div>
<div class="p14">
<br /></div>
<div class="p14">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="p14">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-16658892877524819032012-08-28T15:51:00.002-07:002012-08-28T15:51:55.141-07:00Keeping A Promise<span style="color: yellow;">The BSI Archival History website continues to be updated, the latest being a new discovery by Mike Dirda at the Ask Thucydides dept., and a link to a lovely tribute to the late Ronald Mansbridge, one of my all-time favorite Irregulars, at the Editor's Gas-Bag.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-87946821033771721062012-08-08T02:42:00.001-07:002012-08-08T02:42:46.205-07:00<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">BAKER STREET IRREGULAR</span></i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A nice comment about the novel by mystery writer and Sherlockian Dan Andriacco at his blog recently, greatly appreciated by me:</span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com/2012/07/irregular-but-wonderful.html">http://www.bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com/2012/07/irregular-but-wonderful.html</a></span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'd have posted Mr. Andriacco’s kind comments sooner, but only returned last night from several magnificent weeks in Yorkshire and Scotland. I will post a few words about the Doylean aspects of the trip, especially my visit to Peterhead, from which Conan Doyle sailed on the Arctic whaler Hope in February 1880, in a couple of days here.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-35773545284237744662012-07-20T16:19:00.002-07:002012-07-20T16:19:57.871-07:00<br />
<div class="p1">
</div>
<div class="paragraph_style_7" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: black; color: #fafb2b; font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; margin-right: 36px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">
MY APOLOGIES for the lengthy time my BSI Archival History website sat on a virtual shelf. In the autumn of 2010, Dan Stashower and I agreed to co-edit the first of two new books about A. Conan Doyle for the British Library, and keeping my website active fell victim to this among other things. The first book was an annotated transcript of Conan Doyle’s first attempt at a novel in 1883, <a class="style_6" href="http://www.bestofsherlock.com/ref/narrative-john-smith.htm" style="color: white; font-family: Baskerville-Italic, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;" title="http://www.bestofsherlock.com/ref/narrative-john-smith.htm">The Narrative of John Smith</a>; it came out last October. The second, <a class="style_6" href="http://www.bestofsherlock.com/ref/diary-arctic-adventure.htm" style="color: white; font-family: Baskerville-Italic, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;" title="http://www.bestofsherlock.com/ref/diary-arctic-adventure.htm">“Dangerous Work”: Diary of an Arctic Adventure</a>, will be published in September. It’s a facsimile with an annotated transcript of the hand-written and –illustrated diary Conan Doyle kept as ship’s surgeon on the Arctic whaler <span class="style_6" style="font-family: Baskerville-Italic, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">Hope</span> in 1880. It has not been read by others for over fifty years, and concludes with a direct link to the first Sherlock Holmes tale. </div>
<div class="paragraph_style_7" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: black; color: #fafb2b; font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; margin-right: 36px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="paragraph_style_7" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: black; color: #fafb2b; font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; margin-right: 36px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">
So much for A. Conan Doyle for a while, and back to BSI history. You will find at the website -- http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org -- my “Ronald Knox Myth” essay for the <span class="style_6" style="font-family: Baskerville-Italic, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">Sherlock Holmes Journal</span> (plus another blow to the myth in the Disputations department), two additional essays, a Q&A at Ask Thucydides, new Links of the Week, and more. I shall endeavor to keep the website up to date from now on — or anyway, after returning from a few weeks’ vacation in Yorkshire and Scotland.</div>
<div class="paragraph_style_7" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; background-color: black; color: #fafb2b; font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 18px; margin-right: 36px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span class="style_7" style="font-family: Baskerville-Italic, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic;">Rodger Prescott of evil memory</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-47499345904885973992011-02-10T05:38:00.000-08:002011-02-10T05:38:58.526-08:00The late Allen Mackler, BSI, broadcasts on "Sherlock Holmes and Music"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At last August’s Sherlock Holmes Collections weekend at the University of Minnesota, significant attention was paid to the late Allen Mackler (“Sarasate”), including tributes by Dr. Paul Martin (“Dr. Leslie Armstrong”) and me at the installation at the Wilson Library of the marvelous 221B sitting-room Allen had created in his Minnesota home and left to the Collections. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">It's largely thanks to another fabulous bequest by Allen that the new permanent E. W. McDiarmid Curatorship for the Sherlock Holmes Collections has been created. Before moving to Minnesota Allen lived in Washington D.C. and worked at its NPR affiliate WETA-FM, with his own weekly “Collectors Forum” program featuring music from his immense personal collection of vintage 78rpm classical records. On one occasion he presented “Sherlock Holmes and Music,” and E. W. McDiarmid Curator Timothy Johnson has just added a recording of that program to the University Libraries’ media section, at </span><a href="http://umedia.lib.umn.edu/node/91221/197384"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">http://umedia.lib.umn.edu/node/91221/197384</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-43684054983452401252011-02-08T07:04:00.003-08:002011-02-08T07:04:37.058-08:00Coming up next week, Tuesday February 15th:<title></title> <style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 22.0px Baskerville}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 18.0px Baskerville}
p.p3 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 9.0px Baskerville; min-height: 10.0px}
p.p4 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial}
p.p5 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Arial; color: #3000ff}
span.s1 {letter-spacing: 0.0px}
span.s2 {font: 13.0px Arial; letter-spacing: 0.0px}
</style> <br />
<div class="p1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">From Dr. Wesley Britton of spywise.net:</span></span></div><div class="p3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="s1"></span></span></div><div class="p4"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Next Tues., Jon Lellenberg, literary agent of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle estate, will discuss Doyle and his most famous creation on Dave White Presents. Jon will also talk about a remarkable group known as the Baker Street Irregulars and his new novel—BAKER STREET IRREGULAR—a blend of fact and fiction, mystery and espionage. And a touch of Mr. Holmes as well . . .</span></span></div><div class="p4"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> </span></span></div><div class="p4"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">The new edition of DWP debuts Tues. Feb. 15 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern, then 7:30 Pacific over <span class="s2"><a href="http://www.ksav.org/">www.KSAV.org</a></span></span></span></div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p4"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">On Wed. Feb. 16, the program will become available for download anytime you like at </span></span></div><div class="p5"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.audioentertainment.org/dwp">www.audioentertainment.org/dwp</a><span class="s2"></span></span></span></div><div class="p4"><br />
</div><div class="p2"><span class="s1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I’m interviewed for thirty minutes about the BSI and my novel, followed by other features on what is a 90-minute biweekly program in all. Even if you can’t catch it that night, it can be accessed at the second website above any time from the following day on.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-49949693360360684892011-02-06T15:20:00.000-08:002011-02-06T15:20:52.893-08:00Something new in BSI Archival History<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"></span><br />
<div class="paragraph_style_4" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-family: Baskerville-Bold, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 24.7px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">about Christ Cella’s Speakeasy.</span></div><div class="paragraph_style_4" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Baskerville-Bold, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; line-height: 24px;"><b><a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Fischetti.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Fischetti.html</a></b></span></span></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_5" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-style: normal;">Something unknown to Waal, also to Baker Street Irregulars: the tough cop who protected Christ Cella’s speakeasy during Prohibition when Christopher Morley and his kinsprits were cooking up the BSI there, and what </span><span class="style_1" style="font-family: Baskerville-BoldItalic, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; line-height: 15px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">he</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium; font-style: normal;"> thought about Sherlock Holmes -- a minority report from around that fabled table in Christ Cella’s kitchen, and published long ago by one of the original Baker Street Irregulars, but entirely forgotten until now!</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-89207253261099502782011-01-29T06:13:00.001-08:002011-01-29T06:13:51.919-08:00Julian Wolff, and the BSI of an earlier era<div class="p1" style="font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Baskerville; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Just added at <a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/dispatch-box.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/dispatch-box.html</a>, my <i>Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections Newsletter</i> article of last month about “Julian Wolff and <i>Still Waters</i>,” with the kind permission of McDiarmid Curator Timothy Johnson and newsletter editor Julie McKuras. In addition to what it has to say about Julian Wolff personally, I think more recent arrivals to the ranks of the BSI may be surprised to learn how succession occurred in an earlier era, even if Julian bears responsibility for how this has changed, and not to the BSI’s betterment. <i>The Sherlock Holmes Collections Newsletter</i> is invaluable reading for all interested in the world of Sherlock Holmes, and if you don’t receive it already, contact the editor at Mike9750@aol.com.</span></span></div><div class="p1" style="font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Baskerville; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="p1" style="font: normal normal normal 18px/normal Baskerville; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Coming soon at the website, something entirely new: What happened to Sherlock Holmes when John Law came knocking at the door of Christ Cella's speakeasy in 1929!</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-37323822389909386982011-01-22T08:28:00.000-08:002011-01-22T08:28:21.109-08:00Mea Culpa<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am not as conscientious about this blog as I should be, for which I apologize. But since the holidays ended I have resumed the new Links of the Week at my BSI Archival History website, and added a bunch of stuff elsewhere there, including highlights of my own from the BSI weekend in New York, that are best accessed through the website's Editor's Gas-Bag at <a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html</a>. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Woody Hazelbaker's World will take a while longer to resume. Working against a deadline, Dan Stashower and I are annotating the text of A. Conan Doyle's first, never published, attempt at a novel, and writing a critical introduction for it. The book will be published by the British Library in the autumn. <i>The Narrative of John Smith</i> (which in his 1924 autobiography <i>Memories and Adventures</i> Conan Doyle described not entirely honestly as having been lost forever in the post in 1883) is not the sort of work one usually thinks of as a Conan Doyle novel. But it is proving to be a source of considerable discoveries about his reading, thinking, and future literary trajectory at the time when he was a struggling young physician in Southsea, struggling even hard to become a published writer. Reading the ms., it can be difficult to believe that in just a year -- he was rewriting it from memory in 1884 -- he would create Sherlock Holmes and write <i>A Study in Scarlet</i>. But many elements of that first Sherlock Holmes tale asee light first in this earlier manuscript of his, not to mention of his subsequent Holmes tales and other literary work of his.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-78016046978624611762010-12-29T04:18:00.000-08:002010-12-29T04:18:57.532-08:00Robert Clyne has died.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Bob Clyne was a co-founder of The Diogenes Club of Brooklyn, when an undergraduate at Fordham University in 1949, and was invested in the BSI in 1959 as "The Opal Tiara." His hometown newspaper obituary is <a href="http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/wiltonbulletin/news/obits/79852-robert-clyne-80-attorney-holmes-enthusiast.html">here</a>. Bob was eighty, and age and poor health had not permitted him to participate in BSI for some time, but his death removes a surviving link to the club as Christopher Morley and Edgar W. Smith knew it, just now as it increasingly becomes something it never was then, a fan club pretending to be an "international literary society."</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-68136396415439940862010-12-14T09:06:00.001-08:002010-12-14T09:06:51.091-08:00EQMM reviews BAKER STREET IRREGULAR<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Jon Breen, in the February issue:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">**** Jon Lellenberg: <span class="style_5" style="font-family: Verdana-Italic, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 15.2px;">Baker Street Irregular</span>, Arkham House/Mycroft & Moran, $39.95. The outstanding item in our annual birthday round-up is the latest novel about eminent fans of the Baker Street sleuth. Though it follows fictionalizations as excellent as Anthony Boucher’s<span class="style_5" style="font-family: Verdana-Italic, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 15.2px;">The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars</span> (1940) and Arthur H. Lewis’s <span class="style_5" style="font-family: Verdana-Italic, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 15.2px;">Copper Beeches</span>(1971), this quite different novel may be the best of them all. In an espionage saga extending from 1933 to the early years of the Cold War, New York lawyer Woody Hazelbaker helps settle the affairs of mobster Owney Madden, joins the BSI, and participates in intelligence activities before, during, and after World War II. Clearly based extensively on fact (and a whole second volume is projected to document and clarify), this extraordinary historical novel is recommended to anyone interested in the run-up to World War II in the United States and the role of codebreaking in the defeat of Germany and Japan. Excellent talk in place of physical action gives a much more authentic feel than the cinematic choreography of lesser novels. Historical characters abound from FDR and Churchill to the founding Irregulars, many of whom (notably radio commentator Elmer Davis) had an important role in the war effort. Also appearing is prolific British thriller writer Dennis Wheatley, who would have appreciated how Lellenberg draws several plot strands together for a startling ending.</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-19540308615131886182010-12-13T06:57:00.000-08:002010-12-13T06:57:00.738-08:00"I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere" interview<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Scott Monty and Burt Wolder were kind enough to interview me about my BSI novel <i>Baker Street Irregular</i> for their "I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere" podcast series, and have just posted it. Hear it at </span><br />
<a href="http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2010/12/episode-29-baker-street-irregular.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2010/12/episode-29-baker-street-irregular.html</span></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-61661722700432638312010-11-29T13:50:00.000-08:002010-11-29T13:50:01.955-08:00Bob Mangler has died.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-90561906045648624902010-11-11T10:56:00.000-08:002010-11-11T10:56:34.954-08:00an Irregular Veterans/Armistice Day thought<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">at <a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-58810715166571926182010-11-02T07:02:00.000-07:002010-11-02T07:02:41.437-07:00New Material at the Website<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">After returning from a pleasant visit with "The Greek Interpreter," BSI, in Napa Valley, Calif., new links of the week are finally up, an International Thriller Writers review article about my now-imminent novel </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Baker Street Irregular</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> is linked at the website's Novel page (also at <a href="http://www.thebigthrill.org/2010/10/baker-street-irregular-by-jon-lellenberg">http://www.thebigthrill.org/2010/10/baker-street-irregular-by-jon-lellenberg</a>), and Ch. 6 of Woody Hazelbaker's World is also up at last.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-90142446410381170912010-10-10T14:14:00.000-07:002010-10-10T14:14:26.099-07:00The hardest Archival History volume to find<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><i>Irregular Memories of the 'Thirties</i> came out in October 1990, and by the BSI weekend less than three months later, the entire 500-copy edition was gone and there were no copies to sell at the hucksters room for those who'd been waiting to buy it there. (We upped the press run after that.) A copy, described as mint, just came up for sale on eBay, with the bidding to start at $55.00, and the bidding to close on the 15th. It makes me cringe a bit, but nowhere near as much as when Bob Coghill told me last year what he'd paid a bookdealer for his copy. For those interested, go to</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: yellow;"><a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/Sherlock-Holmes-IRREGULAR-MEMORIES-30s-LELLENBERG-MINT-/250694548742">http://cgi.ebay.com/Sherlock-Holmes-IRREGULAR-MEMORIES-30s-LELLENBERG-MINT-/250694548742</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-25344838039734449702010-09-30T11:39:00.000-07:002010-09-30T11:39:58.705-07:00Woody Hazelbaker's World continues<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Ch. 2's installment now up at <a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Woodys_World.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Woodys_World.html</a>, a bit early thanks to an unexpected trip out of town this weekend. Back by Sunday night (and next week's new Links of the Week will go up then).</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-55914403881417538692010-09-23T18:02:00.000-07:002010-09-23T18:02:34.545-07:00Explore Woody Hazelbaker's World<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b>Starting September 24th, and succeeding Fridays, a weekly rolling visit to the times, settings, and hero's woes in my forthcoming BSI novel <i>Baker Street Irregular -- </i>go to the website's Novel page at</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><b> <a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Novel.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Novel.html</a></b></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-35911196097118968002010-09-21T14:35:00.000-07:002010-09-21T14:35:44.851-07:00Bernard Davies, "A Study in Scarlet," BSI<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">died in London this morning. See </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-32191243843152199382010-09-17T09:53:00.000-07:002010-09-17T09:53:32.652-07:00First review of my forthcoming Baker Street Irregulars novel<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">in Publishers Weekly at <a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/reviews/fiction.html">http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/reviews/fiction.html</a>, and it's a starred </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">review, which I never expected. Also at my website's Novel page, with more about the book, at </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Novel.html.">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Novel.html.</a> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-1697598406504032772010-09-13T13:06:00.001-07:002010-09-13T13:06:34.754-07:00How different "Baker Street Irregular behavior" lost us The Players<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">A bit of magic, as it were, and Poof! -- the BSI dinner vanished forever from The Players, ancient club of William Gillette, Frederic Dorr Steele, and quite a few other Irregulars, at <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Thucydides_dept.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Thucydides_dept.html</a></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">(Not to mention other scandalous bohemian matters at the Editor's Gas-Bag.)</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-25711740865429919992010-09-09T11:11:00.000-07:002010-09-09T11:11:29.508-07:00Avoid "Baker Street Irregular behavior"!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Good and perhaps all too relevant advice from an organizational science consultant, starting at </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html</a></span><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 11px;"><br />
</span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-86337728750633823952010-09-08T11:09:00.000-07:002010-09-08T11:09:56.932-07:00"Dear me, Father Knox, Dear me!"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Sadly, another nail in the coffin of the Ronald Knox Myth at <a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Gas-Bag.html</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-51755936890807044742010-09-03T13:47:00.000-07:002010-09-03T13:47:37.299-07:00"The March of Time" this Sunday (Sept. 5th)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none;"></span><br />
<div class="paragraph_style_4" style="font-family: Baskerville-Bold, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 22px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 24.7px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Some will remember the “March of Time” documentary news features shown regularly in American movie theaters between the mid 1930s and early 1950s, and those who don’t have an historical treat in store when Turner Classic Movies airs a four-hour marathon of them this Sunday night. </span><span class="style_2" style="font-family: Baskerville-Italic, Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 400; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">New York Times</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> coverage of the event is </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/movies/03newsreel.html?_r=1&ref=arts">here</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">, and TCM’s own story </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><a href="http://www.tcm.com/thismonth/article/?cid=343404">here</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">. Four hours is a heavy dose at one sitting, but one can record the entire thing for more than a few watchings.</span></span></div><div class="paragraph_style_6" style="font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 9px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 10px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div class="paragraph_style_5" style="font-family: Baskerville, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 1; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> Back in 1994, at the BSI Cocktail Party on Saturday, January 8th, Clint Gould and I performed a “The March of Time” parody based on the BSI Archival History to that point (three volumes had been published by then), and I will post it on the website this Sunday. Check the website's Welcome or Editor's Gas-Bag pages for the link.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2666460186096679676.post-51092559941305165312010-09-01T09:19:00.000-07:002010-09-01T09:19:49.937-07:00Did Bill Rabe ever ascend Holmes Peak?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I don't know the answer to that, but memories of both "Colonel Warburton's Madness" and Holmes Peak with Richard Warner ("High Tor") as its Head Sherpla are accumulating at <a href="http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Thucydides_dept.html">http://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Thucydides_dept.html</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0