Login
Login

The Baker Street Irregulars

{{short description|Literary society}}

{{about|the literary society|the fictional characters |Baker Street Irregulars}}

File:The Baker Street Irregulars 1940.jpg, Frederic Dorr Steele, Robert Keith Leavitt, and David A. Randall, among others.{{cite web |url=https://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Ent_%26_Fan.html |title=Entertainment and Fantasy": The 1940 Dinner |website=BSI Archival History |access-date=19 November 2020}} See the section "A Picture of the Crowd".]]

The Baker Street Irregulars is an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley.{{cite web |url=http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hou02178 |title=Baker Street Irregulars 1923-2007: Guide |author= |website=Houghton Library, Harvard Library |publisher=Harvard University |access-date=2015-03-25}} As of 2015, the nonprofit organization had about 300 members worldwide.{{cite news |date=March 2015 |title=The Baker Street Irregulars Trust |publisher=ZoomInfo}}

The group has published The Baker Street Journal, an "irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana", since 1946. Members of the society participate in "the game"{{cite web |last=Dirda |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Dirda |date=February 2, 2012 |title=Sherlock Lives! |url=http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2012/02/02/sherlock-lives/ |accessdate=January 3, 2018 |work=The New York Review of Books}} which postulates that Holmes and Doctor Watson were real and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was merely Watson's "literary agent".

History

File:BSI-Pratt-Morley-Stout-1944.jpg, Christopher Morley and Rex Stout (1944)]]

The BSI was an outgrowth of Christopher Morley's informal group, "the Three Hours for Lunch Club," which discussed art and literature.{{cite book|last1=Conan Doyle|first1=Sir Arthur|author-link1=Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|last2=Klinger|first2=Leslie S.|author-link2=Leslie S. Klinger|title=The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|year=2005|pages=lxiii-lxvi|isbn=0-7394-5304-1}} The inaugural meeting of the BSI was held in 1934 at Christ Cella's restaurant in New York City.{{cite book|last=Bunson|first=Matthew|author-link=Matthew Bunson|title=Encyclopedia Sherlockiana: an A-to-Z guide to the world of the great detective |year=1997 |publisher=Macmillan |pages=20–21 |isbn=0-02-861679-0}} Initial attendees included William Gillette, Vincent Starrett, Alexander Woollcott, and Gene Tunney. Morley kept meetings quite irregular, but after leadership passed to Edgar W. Smith, meetings became more regular.{{cite web|last=Faye|first=Lyndsay|title=Inside the Baker Street Irregulars|url=https://www.tor.com/2012/03/22/inside-the-baker-street-irregulars/|website=Tor.com|date=March 22, 2012|accessdate=January 3, 2018}}

In February 1934, Elmer Davis, a friend of Morley, wrote a constitution for the group explaining its purpose and stating that anyone who passed a certain test was eligible to join.{{cite book|last=Boström|first=Mattias|title=From Holmes to Sherlock|publisher=Mysterious Press|year=2018|pages=206–207|isbn=978-0-8021-2789-1}} This test, a crossword puzzle by Morley's younger brother Frank, was published in the May 1934 issue of Saturday Review of Literature.

Edgar W. Smith led the BSI from 1940 until 1960, initially using the title "Buttons" and later "Buttons-cum-Commissionaire".{{cite web |url=https://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/EWS_pt._5.html |website=BSI Archival History |year=2015 |title=Edgar W. Smith: Prolegomena to Any Future Biography, Part 5 |last=Lellenberg |first=Jon |access-date=February 13, 2021}} Julian Wolff was the head of the BSI from late 1960 to 1986, and used the title "Commissionaire".{{cite web |website=BSI Archival History |url=https://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/Wolff.html |title=Wolff and Still Waters |access-date=February 13, 2021 |date=December 2010}} From 1986 until 1997, Thomas L. Stix Jr. was the leader of the organization, and used the title "Wiggins".{{cite web |title=The March of Time |last=Lellenberg |website=BSI Archival History |first=Jon |url=https://www.bsiarchivalhistory.org/BSI_Archival_History/March_of_Time.html |access-date=February 13, 2021}} The title "Wiggins" has since been used for the leadership position.

The organization long resisted admitting women, a policy which spawned a female-centered organization, the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, whose founders had picketed an all-male BSI gathering.{{cite book|last=Dundas|first=Zach|title=The Great Detective|publisher=Mariner Books|year=2015|page=135|isbn=978-0-544-70521-0}} The BSI invested its first woman in 1991: Dame Jean Conan Doyle.{{cite book|last=Boström|first=Mattias|title=From Holmes to Sherlock|publisher=Mysterious Press|year=2018|pages=428–429|isbn=978-0-8021-2789-1}} She was followed by Katherine McMahon, the first woman to solve the crossword puzzle. McMahon was followed by Edith Meiser, who wrote numerous Holmesian radio scripts for The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Leadership of the BSI passed to Michael Whelan in 1997{{cite web |url=http://www.bsitrust.org/2016/07/the-1997-bsi-dinner.html |title=The 1997 BSI Dinner |website=The Baker Street Irregulars Trust |date=July 29, 2016 |last=Zeffren |first=Tamar |access-date=February 13, 2021}} and Michael Kean in 2020.{{cite web |url=https://bakerstreetirregulars.com/2020/01/29/the-2020-bsi-weekend-report/ |title=The 2020 BSI Weekend Report |website=The Baker Street Irregulars |date=29 January 2020 |access-date=February 13, 2021}}

Membership

Membership is by invitation only based on criteria unknown to the public. Members take on a name inspired by the canon with the head of the organization known as "Wiggins". As of 2020, the organization has had a total of 701 members, whose names, years of investiture, and pseudonym are listed in the reference volume Sherlock Holmes and the Cryptic Clues.{{cite web |title=THE INVESTITURED (OR INVESTED) IRREGULARS |url=http://sherlocktron.com/invest.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722120155/http://www.sherlocktron.com/invest.pdf |url-status=usurped |archive-date=July 22, 2013 |website=Sherlocktron |accessdate=5 February 2020}}

=Notable members=

Among the members of the Baker Street Irregulars, past and present:

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

{{div col end}}

''The Baker Street Journal''

The group publishes a periodical, The Baker Street Journal. The original series of the BSJ was started in 1946, but it ceased in 1949. In 1951, Edgar Smith began publishing it again as a quarterly; it has continued publication since that time.

Scion societies

The BSI has spawned numerous "scion societies", many of which are officially recognized by the BSI. The first was The Five Orange Pips of Westchester County, New York, in 1935. Independent Sherlockian groups include the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, the U.K.’s Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and Canada's The Bootmakers of Toronto.

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.bakerstreetirregulars.com/ The BSI website]
  • [http://www.bsitrust.org/ Baker Street Irregulars Trust]
  • [http://www.bakerstreetjournal.com/ The Baker Street Journal]
  • [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL.Hough:hou02178 Collection Guide to Baker Street Irregulars Papers 1923–2007] (MS Am 2717), Houghton Library, Harvard Library, Harvard University

{{HolmesNovels}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker Street Irregulars, The}}

Category:Sherlock Holmes

Category:Literary fan clubs

Category:Literary societies

Category:Organizations established in 1934