Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula (1978) "edited" by Loren D. Estleman—Post 5a

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Before I begin my comments on Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula, I want to apologize.  I had no sooner started this “Ruminations” book review blog in early December than I suffered two separate health emergencies. I posted my last review on December 27, 2018 and today is February 4, which means I lost 39 days while recovering. I also came to the understanding that it’s unrealistic for me to read one Sherlock Holmes book a week and post a review. Therefore, I will post new reviews only as I am able, or somewhat irregularly. Thank you for your continued interest.

So far in this column I've reviewed books that are historically important and/or not necessarily traditional Holmes. I view Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula by Loren D. Estleman to be untraditional—at least in its own day, having special significance today for at least three reasons:


(1)   The American paperback publisher of SHvD in 1978-1979 was Penguin Books, a company with big international connections. It appears that Penguin had a mystery line, if advertisements in the back pages for Georges Simenon, Graham Greene, Geoffrey Household, and Lionel Davidson are any indication. Nevertheless, the company's editorial focus for decades seemed to be mainly on public domain classics, for example Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Jack London, and Wilkie Collins.

Then in 1979, Penguin published the American mass-market paperback of Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula. This no doubt raised a few eyebrows for the reasons that (a) it was probably the company's first foray (if not THE first, then amongst the first) into uncharted new popular fiction by a contemporary author, (b) nevertheless, its design staff seemed to have been intransient regarding modernizing the company's decades-old cover design. Thus SHvD was released appearing no different from the company's titles for Poe, James, Twaine, London, ad infinitum. Still this may have been deliberate, as I will show in the second reason.

(2)  All the above notwithstanding, it cannot be denied that once Penguin committed to publishing SHvD, they provided at least one giant-sized wink to both players of the Holmes "Great Game" as well as to ordinary Sherlock Holmes fans who happened to be observant. Frankly this wink I find immensely pleasurable!

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. But a bit of preface is advisable first. Ordinarily the very first page of a book is called the "half title" page which merely presents the book title without reference to the author.  Hardcover books and trade paperbacks usually comply to this standard; however, the publishers of most mass-market paperbacks, long ago eschewed this practice, preferring to place countless glowing critics' reviews on the first pages. Penguin books has also consistently ignored common practice by—more staidly—dedicating the first page of its books, a practice continuing into the present, to thumbnail authors' biographical information.

Thus, for example, the first page of a book by M.R. James would display a note on James' life condensed down to 50 or 150 words. For instance, here is the real first page from a James' book:

As I said, co-oping the "half title" to display functional yet scholarly mini-biographies, has been a Penguin practice for decades. Thus when the time came to use in a functional manner that sacrosanct first "half title" page for its new acquisition, Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, by John H, Watson as edited by Loren Estleman, Penguin's editors, rather unstaid-like, placed their tongues firmly in their cheeks, and produced the classic mini-biographies that follow:

(3)    Further, it may well be that SHvD may be the first post-Seven-Percent pastiche to centrally feature another writer's fictional characters—if not the first, then certainly amongst the first, and, in any case, proving to be far more influential than not.

  To be continued and concluded in Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula by Loren D. Estleman—Post 5b.


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