#vincent starrett

[letallthetrashraindown]

The history book on the shelf / is always repeating itself

John Steinbeck / Carolina Ebeid / Vincent Starrett, “211B” / Toni Morrison, “Beloved” / Vincent Starrett, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” / Matt Stover, “Revenge of the Sith”

[the-final-sentence]

'There'll be times when I'll be grateful for a good old Watson.'

Vincent Starrett, from "The Bloody Crescendo"

[holmesxwatson]

“But Watson, although he may have faltered, never actually blundered. Holmes knew the qualities of his assistant. No case was ever lost by Watson's failure. And his reward all that he ever asked or cared for—was an approving word or nod from Holmes. Did not he get them both, outside the record? During those nights in Baker Street, perhaps? After the problem had been solved forever—after the reader had put down the book?”

— Vincent Starrett, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

[sherlockianscholar]

through pure happenstance, i stumbled on this first edition (published 1940) of 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes at my local bookstore!! i am officially having the best birthday ever

[helloliriels]

Though the world

Explode

Yet these two survive,

And it's

Always

1 8 9 5

[solarotters]

"It was as if a god had been destroyed by treachery. So children mourn, perhaps, when Santa Claus is murdered by their elders" (from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes by Vincent Starrett about the public's reaction to Holmes' death)

This topic will always be interesting to me. This decision by Doyle is usually described as Doyle hating Holmes, though the truth was that the stories simply weren't what Doyle, as a writer, wanted to write. It's interesting how even when talking about Holmes' death as a character, he is described as a real human being; it's not "Doyle hated writing him", it's "Doyle hated him" (both aren't true, it's just if I were to simplify it). Starrett put it perfectly--at that moment, Holmes' death would've been like when kids found out that Santa Claus wasn't real, when people realize he's simply a character that the author can decide to discard at any moment. But Starrett also acknowledges that Holmes is more than that, he is beyond a fictional character. Doyle, without realizing, has lost control over this character that he has created. It doesn't belong just to him anymore. This writer is no longer the god of his creation, instead Holmes is the god and Doyle only brings upon the treachery.

Starrett also says that Holmes is "an illusion so real...that one might some day look about for him in Heaven, forgetting that he was only a character in a book."

[holmesoldfellow]

1940 Studies in Sherlock Holmes plaque

[macrolit]

Literary history that happened on 26 October