untitled Page 5
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;