Saturday, December 1, 2018

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes - Post 9


Likely the first edition
Pantheon
Just as Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper is a distinct subgenre of Holmes literature, the Rivals of Sherlock Holmes is another distinct and multifaceted subgenre. A glance down this post should illustrate my point.  There have been at least 5 volumes assembled by different men for different publishers [sadly no women editors of RIVALS OF HOLMES that I am aware of. If someone knows differently, please let me know].


Then, of course, there are the many follow-ons both by Greene and some of the other editors.

The first thing I want to know when I pick up two or more of these books is if there is any commonality among the books. Unfortunately I do not have access to my complete collection, thus a sampling must do for now.

Alan K. Russell
The first and primary volume was edited by Hugh Greene, once a British journalist and a television executive, namely, Director-General of the BBC. Here are the contents of his first book in his Rivals series, published by The Bodley Head of the UK in hardcover in 1970, and quickly followed by the same book being published in the U.S. by Pantheon Books, a division of Random House. Some of the stories were subsequently adapted for a BBC [one wonders how much Greene was involved] television series of the same name, broadcast in 1971-73.

Author                          Story                                                               
Max Pemberton             The Ripening Rubies                                    

Arthur Morrison            The Case of Laker, Absconded 
                   
Guy Boothby                 The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds   
      
Arthur Morrison             The Affair of the 'Avanlanche Bicycle and Tyre Co. Ltd,'

Clifford Ashdown           The Assyrian Rejuvenator            

L. T. Meade and

Robert Eustace                Madame Sara            

Clifford Ashdown           The Submarine Boat            

William Le Queux          The Secret of the Fox Hunter            

Baroness Orczy               The Mysterious Death on the                                                                           Underground Railway                 

R. Austin Freeman          The Moabite Cipher            

Baroness Orczy               The Woman in the Big Hat

William Hope

Hodgson                          The Horse of the Invisible

Ernest Bramah                The Game Played in the Dark

The next big Rivals book was published by Barnes and Noble/Castle Books  in 1978 and was edited by Alan K. Russell. It contains 40 stories, while Greene included 13 in his volume.  As far as I can tell, "Madame Sara" by L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace is the only story in both volumes. Russell brought out RIVALS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES 2 two years later also from Barnes and Noble/Castle Books.

My intention here is merely to bring attention to the RIVALS series subgenre, in the event that some fans run out of deductive reading.
 

Greene eventually came out with at least three more follow-ons: The Crooked Counties, Cosmopolitan Crimes, and The American Rivals.

In the interim BBC broadcast its TV  version of the books [available in two DVD sets] with much success.

Eventually, 2013, Barnes and Noble released a new Rivals through its Fall River Publishing subsidiary edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz. 

There is yet another edited by Nick Rennison [2016] and still another edited by Graeme Davis. [2019].

2016
2019
I have read many of the stories included in most of these volumes, and they are delightful.  Conan Doyle not only created Holmes; in effect, he was responsible for the myriad exciting detectives that followed by diverse hands.