My Post No. 1 pointed out that the modern era of Sherlock
Holmes fandom began—gaining overnight an unprecedented popularity—when Nicholas
Meyer and Dutton Publishers brought out The
Seven-Per-Cent Solution in 1974. Of course, for decades before then, many Sherlockian
organizations existed with local branches all over the world. Yet these Baker
Street Irregulars, as they were sometimes called, in whole or in part, had an
underground existence with members from all walks of life, which members
consistently wrote, according to the authors of Dining with Sherlock Holmes, "volumes about the experiences
and habits of the Great Detective of Baker Street. The literature of the field
known as the Writings on the Writings or the Higher Criticism has spawned
endless discourse over the most minute details of Holmes' life and
'death.'"
Throughout the year, both then and now, in the USA and
overseas, regular celebrations and parties and tributes and gatherings were
held to honor Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and their noted agent Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle. Restaurants were sometimes dressed to recreate the famous rooms at
221B Baker Street. From more pipes and cigars than any ordinary person would
ever encounter in one place, wafted vast columns and volumes of noxious smoke,
for the attendees of these functions cherished and emulated Holmes' use of
tobacco. The irony is that these attendees more often than not were
professionals, including all kinds of doctors of medicine.
Further, these get-togethers usually included elaborate illustrated formal presentations
wherein the presenters gave dead-serious analysis of why Holmes was tall and
angular, or why Watson couldn't remember where his war wound was located, or,
for that matter, why it was that he sometimes lost track of his various
marriages.
Similarly, from this environment issued countless volumes of
specialized reasoning, published in small batches destined for the confreres of
this esoteric order.
Yet, as busy and as devoted as this widespread clique of
fans were, their activities were known mainly to themselves. Yes, of course,
there were countless Holmes movies that kept the character's flame alive. Nevertheless, the more serious-minded
tended to look disdainfully at these celluloid outings. The Seven-Per-Cent Solution changed all that. Overnight, Holmes
became big business and a household word. A torrent of books, novels, and story
anthologies quickly issued from the publishing industry, and I must admit that
when I picked up this cookbook and saw that it was published in 1976, a mere
two years after The Seven-Per-Cent
Solution, I naturally believed it was yet another volume to hop on the
Sherlock Holmes bandwagon. Yet as I investigated the book, the more I realized
that it was more likely that this book was in the process of development long
before 1974 and that it was, in fact, meant to be one of those specialized
volumes for the Irregular community, but was deemed complete enough and
singular enough that it was granted a broader distribution and became a part of
the post-Seven-Per-Cent Solution wave
in any case.
The purpose of this book is to provide recipes for the many
meals that Mrs Hudson cooked for her illustrious boarders, as well as for
dozens of other meals that appear in the Canon. Some examples: stuffed lemon piquant, spinach tarts,
roast chicken Lestrade, English dill loaf, cold woodcock, bread pudding, white
wine sherbet, glazed turnips, and, my personal favorite beefsteak and kidney
pie, and 220 pages of such delights.
