Baker Street Studies

I bought a bunch of Sherlockian books, but I still can't get the rare chronology books by H. W. Bell, and Ernest Bloomfield Zeisler. Even if I could afford those out of print books, I wouldn't spend that much money on them. After all, their information may be superseded by more modern books; I just wanted to hear their logic and know their sources. The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia provides their chronologies, but those are plain lists without the reasoning behind the dates. However, I was able to buy Baker Street Studies edited by H. W. Bell in 1934. It's one of many reprints by Otto Penzler's Sherlock Holmes Library, to keep Sherlockiana available to readers; check libraries and used bookstores for them. Baker Street Studies contains essays from other Sherlockians on various topics, but Bell does provide his own chronology of SIGN at the end. So I can at least get a taste of his opinions. He thinks that SIGN took place in 1887 too. This probably explains why Bell dates VALL to 1887 before the marriage, when most others place it in 1888. However, it looks like he believes in Watson having 3 wives per the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia above.

Speaking of VALL, I also discovered A. G. Macdonell's theory on "Mr. Moriarty" which relies on dating VALL to 1899. I've added that theory to my previous chronology post on VALL.

Moving on, the book features Dorothy Sayer's essay on "Holmes's College Career." It's odd that she attended Oxford, yet she argues for Cambridge. Also, she just assumes that we know technical terms like Triposes without explaining them. From context it can either mean the examinations that students take, or it can mean the course of study leading to a degree. Meanwhile, another Sherlockian Helen Simpson looks at Watson's medical career, pointing out the contradiction between his high M.D. degree and his deciding to become a lowly army doctor. (Watson could have stopped at an M.B. degree, if he just wanted to open a civil practice.) Simpson speculates that some scandal with a woman necessitated Watson to abandon his hospital career and leave the country. Personally I think that Watson wanted to be an army doctor all along and go to India. But he stayed in London to get the M.D. degree to please someone, like his father. When his father died, Watson decided to quit and enlist, not knowing that the Second Anglo-Afghan War would break out and cut short his army career.

Anyway I also need time to read the Angel of Crows book, which is Sherlock Wingfic that has been changed to different characters. There's never enough time for books.