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  questions might be. Before I do so, let me hasten to

  stance, or what I am looking at- the person, or the

  say that you are probably not listening to a defini-

  object) that requires special information, and if so,

  tive evaluation. It could be that what is described in

  what? In ‘ The Adventure of the Broken Chessman,’

  this paper will serve as a guidepost, or even an in-

  Solar Pons glances out of the window of his Praed

  centive, to sharper brains than mine- which needed

  Street flat, and says, ‘Ah, we are about to have a

  only to have a direction indicated to them (a new

  visitor of some importance.’ How did he know, and

  P a g e 2 0

  T h e S o l a r P o n s G a z e t t e

  B E I N G A N E X A M I N A T I O N . . . c o n t .

  how did he identify the visitor a few moments later

  with an unhappy admission that in the wee hours of

  as M. Perenin, the Russian consul? First of all, the

  last night I thought of a fifth question-which seemed

  visitor was well-dressed, and carried a walking stick

  so obvious that I failed to write it down (and have

  and all that, but the revealing and identifying item

  forgotten it) - and with the hope that in the future

  was the ensign-that is how what I would have called

  when you reread your Solar Pons you will gain addi-

  the crest is named- on his motor car. By having the

  tional pleasure as you mentally keep pace with him,

  knowledge of what this particular ensign (or crest)

  and silently ask yourself the same questions that

  meant, Solar Pons unerringly identified his caller as

  he undoubtedly did-which I have now set down for

  a ’visitor of some importance,’ and then named

  future generations to Ponsder over, if I may be per-

  him.

  mitted a Puns.

  So, when he silently asked himself the question

  This article appeared in the 1971 Annual issue

  (Volume 1, Number 2) of The Pontine Dossier.

  about special information, those were his impecca-

  ble answers. The third question which the detective

  A. E. van Vogt

  unquestionably has to ask of himself in that secret

  1912 - 2000

  consulting of his systematic thought (which all good

  Alfred Elton van Vogt was one of the

  detectives either do, or they’re not good craftsmen)

  greatest of all science fiction writers.

  is, (3) Is there anything here that is obvious?

  In 1996 he received the Grand Master

  Award from the Science Fiction and

  Fantasy Writers of America for his

  And, if so, what? For my example of this one, I will

  body of work. Noted authors in the

  draw on the test which I have already mentioned. In

  field such as Philip K. Dick, Harlan Ellison and Fre-

  The Sign of the Four, Dr. Watson hands Sherlock

  derick Pohl were fans of his writing.

  Holmes a watch and asks him to tell him something

  van Vogt was a fan of Solar Pons and wrote a nice

  about the owner. The obvious thing that Holmes

  tribute for The Pontine Dossier after August Derleth

  observes is that the initials carved on the watch are

  died. Derleth’s Arkham House imprint published van

  H.W. He therefore- since the watch was handed to

  Vogt’s novel, Slan. He passed away in 2000, a victim

  of Alzheimer’s Disease.

  him by Dr. Watson (who has been carrying it, and

  clearly owns it) - draws the obvious conclusion that

  van Vogt was also an early contributor to one of my

  the W. stands for Watson. And since H. is not Dr.

  favorite fantasy series, the Thieves World books, ed-

  Watson’s first name, Holmes makes the obvious

  ited by Robert Lynn Aspirin and Lynn Abbey.

  deduction that it belonged to another member of

  the Watson family.

  The fourth question should be obvious to all per-

  sons who are deductively inclined. It is simply: (4) In

  what I am looking at-person or thing- have I noticed

  everything? The corollary to that question would be,

  ‘Did I notice something but dismissed it as unimpor-

  tant, perhaps by jumping to a conclusion about it

  based on some preconception?’ You will all readily

  agree that that question is so obvious it does not

  need any examples. I conclude my little analysis

  P a g e 2 1

  T h e S o l a r P o n s G a z e t t e

  T h e R e a l S t o r y B e h i n d

  T h e N o t e b o o k ’ s M e r s t h a m

  t u n n e l M y s t e r y

  B y B o b B y r n e

  ‘From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker’ can be found in A Praed Street Dossier. The Notebook entry for December 14, 1919, features a discussion between Pons and Inspector Jamison regarding a woman’s body found in the Merstham Tunnel.

  The basis for this snippet is a real life murder committed in 1905. August Derleth bor-Mary Money

  rowed the specifics of the killing for his entry and then offered a speculative solution involving blackmail. Though the real killer was never caught, there is no doubt that Derleth used the sad story of Mary Money for this Notebook entry.

  WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW

  Pons

  1905

  The corpse of a young woman is found in Merstham

  The corpse of a young woman is found in Merstham

  Tunnel

  Tunnel

  The body was mangled by a train, one leg nearly sev-

  The body was mangled by a train, one leg severed

  ered

  The girl, Angela Morell, was a clerk in a dairy

  The girl, Mary Money, was a clerk in a dairy

  She was of good reputation

  She was of good reputation

  She left her lodgings, saying she was going for a short She left her work place, saying she was going for a walk and was killed shortly thereafter

  short walk and was killed shortly thereafter

  A piece of a veil was found in her mouth

  A scarf was found stuffed down her throat

  She was likely gagged and pushed out of the moving

  She was gagged and pushed out of the moving train

  train

  The killer was never identified or caught

  The killer was never identified or caught

  Elements of the Merstham Tunnel Mystery appeared in a better-known detective story: The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans, featuring Sherlock Holmes. The body of Cadogan West was disposed of in a tunnel; for all appearances, having been thrown from a train. However, the killer had done so as a ruse, the murder not occurring on the train at all.

  It is quite likely that Doyle discussed the Mary Money killing at one of the meetings of the Crimes Club, since a fellow member was very interested in the case. Thus, Doyle likely had access to more information and analysis than most, laying the groundwork for incorporation of this crime into a Holmes tale.

  P a g e 2 2

  T h e S o l a r P o n s G a z e t t e

  F o r e w o r d :

  T h e R e t u r n o f S o l a r P o n s

  E d g a r W . S m i t h ( A p r i l 7 , 1 9 5 8 )

  There is no Sherlockian worthy

  quate supply of vitamins. Some of the product of this

  of his salt who has not, at

  labor of love is good, and some of it is very bad in-

 
least once in his life, taken Dr.

  deed. It is the writers of high literary repute, by some

  Watson’s pen in hand and

  quirk of fate, and those among them in particular

  given himself to the produc-

  who have turned to outright parody, whose product

  tion of a veritable Adventure. I

  ranks in lowest esteem. Dr. Doyle, for example – one

  wrote my own first pastiche at

  of the great historical novelists of his time, and a

  the age of fourteen, about a

  giant in many realms – did no more than scratch

  stolen gem that turned up, by

  feebly at the surface with the two short passages in

  some unaccountable coinci-

  a lighter vein which he attempted. ( The Field Bazaar

  dence, in the innards of a fish

  in The Student, of Edinburgh University, in 1896; and

  which Sherlock Holmes was serving to his client in

  How Watson Learned the Trick, in The Book of the

  the privacy of his rooms; and I wrote my second

  Queen’s Doll’s House, in 1924), and his shortcoming

  when I was fifty-odd, about the definitive and never-

  is all the more notable because of the opportunity he

  more-to-be-seen-in-this-world disappearance of Mr.

  had, in his capacity as Dr. Watson’s literary agent for

  James Phillimore in a matrix of newly poured ce-

  more than forty years, to learn how Watson actually

  ment. It would be difficult to say which conception

  did the trick. Doyle’s work falls below the standards

  was the cornier of the two; but the point does not

  attained by many who wrote from a longer perspec-

  concern me too greatly, after all, because Mark

  tive, and without their tongues too obtrusively in

  Twain wrote a pastiche once, when he was some-

  their cheeks; it is not to be compared – to cite one

  where between the ages of fourteen and fifty-odd,

  instance among few – with that of Vincent Starrett,

  which was considerably cornier than either of them.

  whose The Unique Hamlet stands as a classic in the

  The point that does concern me – and it is a point

  true genre of the pastiche.

  that all of us who are tempted to emulation should

  bear in mind is that the writing of a pastiche is com-

  The fact remains, in any event, that not many of the

  pulsive and inevitable: it is, the psychologists would

  essays made at simulation of the Saga have brought

  say, a wholesome manifestation of the urge that is in

  satisfaction to any but the essayers themselves. The

  us all to return again to the times and places we

  writing of pastiches is its own, and usually its only,

  have loved and lost; an evidence, specifically, of our

  reward; and this, for the true amateur and dilettante,

  happily unrepressed desire to make ourselves at one

  is altogether as it should be. But there have been

  with the Master of Baker Street and all his works –

  occasions when a more ambitious writer has taken it

  and to do this not only receptively, but creatively as

  upon himself, in grim and feckless bravado, to

  well.

  launch a highly organized attack upon the whole

  front of the Sacred Writings, with the acknowledged

  Besides Mark Twain and myself, the roster of those

  intent of invading them, planting his banner in their

  who have felt the impulse to produce a coin in coun-

  very midst, and pushing his way to stand boldly at

  terfeit of the pure Watsonian gold includes such di-

  Watson’s sainted side. This, I think, is carrying good,

  verse seekers after the truth as Bret Harte, Agatha

  clean fun too far.

  Christie, O. Henry, Anthony Berkeley, John Kendrick

  Bangs, Dr. A. Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc, J.M.

  Just such an effort as this to enlarge the Saga was

  Barrie, and practically every normal fourteen-year-old

  made, a few years ago, by Adrian Conan Doyle, the

  boy who has had the proper upbringing and an ade-

  agent’s son. What he did was to produce twelve sto-

  P a g e 2 3

  T h e S o l a r P o n s G a z e t t e

  ries, some of them deriving putatively from the

  manuscripts in the tin dispatch-box in the vaults of

  If you will open the issue of Cosmopolitan for August,

  the bank of Cox & Co., at Charing Cross, which he

  1948, and turn to page 48, you will see it there in all

  proceeded to offer to the public, straight-faced, as

  its textual glory, with beautiful illustrations by Robert

  Canonical and heaven-sent. He worked at first with

  Fawcett. THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO WAS WANTED,

  John Dickson Carr, that excellent exponent of the

  the headline screamed, BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN

  locked room and the unlocked solution, but dis-

  DOYLE. and at the foot of the rector page, “Printed

  agreements arose between them, and the last six of

  by arrangement with the Estate of the late Sir Arthur

  the stories were by the Scion alone. The book con-

  Conan Doyle. Copyright, 1948, by Denis P. S, Conan

  taining the stories, when it was published, was called

  Doyle, Executor of the Estate of the late Sir Arthur

  The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes, but to the cogno-

  Conan Doyle.” The blurb at the front of the issue said

  scenti it is known as Sherlock Holmes Exploited; the

  this: “We wish we could tell you the dramatic story

  stories, in the vernacular of the Baker Street Irregu-

  about how the previously unpublished Sherlock

  lars, are not denominated as pastiches, but rather

  Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on page 48

  (shunning the crude term “forgeries”), as simulacra.

  was discovered after all these years. But the facts of

  It is evidence of the appraisal given them, to put it in

  the matter are simply that Doyle stuck the manu-

  its mildest terms, that they have not been subsumed

  script into a hatbox which he put in a safe-deposit

  into the Canon.

  box back in 1922 without telling anybody about it.

  The bank finally decided to open the safe-deposit

  That honor of subsumption came closest to being

  box last year and there it was.”

  conferred in the instance of one pastiche which at-

  tained to such rarefied heights that it was published,

  That, in all conscience, is a dramatic enough story

  in a national magazine, under the by-line of Sir Ar-

  for anybody’s wish – but the best is yet to come. The

  thur Conan Doyle himself. The history of this episode

  story, it turned out, was a fairly good one, but only

  – certainly one of the great biblio-bobbles of the cen-

  fairly good: it contained anachronisms and un-

  tury, if not of all time – is worth detailing.

  Sherlockian doings and un-Watsonian sayings that

  led many a B.S.I. to question its authenticity, and

  The rumor had spread during the years of ht Second

  disputation waxed on every hand. The circumstance

  World War that the manuscript of a new Sherlock

  seemed incredibl
e that the one fixed point in a

  Holmes story had been discovered among the pa-

  changing age had given way, and that the Canon

  pers left by Dr. Doyle at the time of his death in

  now comprised not sixty tales, but sixty-one. Bu there

  1930. Hesketh Pearson quoted excerpts from it in

  the record stood: “by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,” which

  his Conan Doyle: His Life and Art, in 1943, and the

  was to say, under the agential arrangements that

  Irregulars clamored for its publication in full. The

  existed between them, by Dr. Watson.

  Doyle estate pleaded reluctance

  on the score of “unworthiness,”

  And there, to all intents and purposes, the record

  but when the war was over, and

  stands today, despite the fact that neither Doyle nor

  the market for literary merchan-

  Watson had anything whatsoever to do with the

  dise showed promise of a better

  story’s authorship. IT was Vincent Starrett, praise be,

  financial return, the manuscript

  who brought proof to confirm the suspicions still pre-

  was sold to Hearst’s Cosmopoli-

  vailing. Putting his sleuths in Britain on the trail, he

  tan magazine (although no Brit-

  uncovered the facts and published them in his col-

  ish magazine would touch it) for

  umn in the Chicago Tribune; and they were later re-

  what must have been a very tidy

  printed and extended in the pages of The Baker

  sum.

  Street Journal. And the facts were simply these: that

  P a g e 2 4

  T h e S o l a r P o n s G a z e t t e

  an English gentleman by the name of Arthur

  gust Derleth, a prodigious man in many arenas, gave

  Whitaker, now deceased, had written this pastiche,

  us, in 1945, after their publication in part in national

  had sent it to Sir Arthur, and had received from him,

  magazines, his magnificent “In Re: Sherlock

  in return a small but generously-minded solatium;