Chris Music’s New Book

FROM THE LOWER VAULT Edited by Chris Music

Now Available @ $25.00 Postage Paid
FROM THE LOWER VAULT: Treasures from the Archives of The Amateur Mendicant Society of Detroit; Edited by Christopher Music, JHWS “Russell,” BSI.

FROM THE LOWER VAULT is an archival history of one of the Baker Street Irregular’s oldest scion societies—The Amateur Mendicant Society of Detroit. With the encouragement of Vincent Starrett, the AMS was founded in 1946 by fellow newspaperman Russell McLauchlin of the Detroit News—and is still active and thriving today—nearly 70 years later.

The Amateur Mendicant Society of Detroit is very fortunate to have in its possession a rich archive of documents dating back to the 1940s—letters, scholarly papers, magazine and newspaper articles, dinner programs, photographs, and much more, and FROM THE LOWER VAULT highlights many of the most important items found in that archive.

FROM THE LOWER VAULT brings to light for the first time in decades the earliest documents from the club’s founding and early history. Contained are writings from Sherlockian giants like Russell McLauchlin, Bill Rabe, Robert G. Harris, Vincent Starrett, Edgar W. Smith & many others. It is also a look back to bygone era—a Golden Age in Detroit history—when fellow Sherlockians used typewriters, sent telegrams, handwrote letters, and met in long forgotten clubs in order to
discuss the most important issues of the day—Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson.

For more information email: amateurmendicantsociety@gmail.com · or visit www.amateurmendicantsociety.org

T: (248) 494-3473 · 6717 Snow Apple Drive, Clarkston, MI 48346

Congratulations to Four Society Members Receiving BSI Honours

The Society extends congratulations to Jacquelynn Morris “Daphne,” Harrison Hunt “Dash” and Christopher Music “Russell” on their investitures into the Baker Street Irregulars at last evening’s Annual Dinner in New York.  “Daphne” now adds  BSI “The Lion’s Mane” to her biography, “Dash” adds BSI “The Something Hunt” and Christopher adds BSI “Wagner Night at Covent Garden” to his.

The Society also congratulates Randall Stock “Brandy” on his great honour of having the Two Shilling Award bestowed upon him for his notable achievements.

All of the members of the Society join in extending our congratulations on this distinctive honour for all of you.

And Yet More Distinguished New Members!

The past week has brought the Society six new Charter Members. We now have sixty members total in less than ninety days since our founding. Clearly, the devotion to Dr Watson is far deeper than we ever imagined. We are most fortunate to have had such an outpouring of support and interest from our ever-growing membership. Thank you one and all!

Please welcome the following fellow Watsonians and extend to them our traditional greeting: “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”

BRUCE HARRIS “Scottie”

Mr Harris joins us from Scotch Plains, New Jersey. He writes:

“I’ve been a Sherlockian for many years. The time has come to add Watsonian. I am the author of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson: ABout Type, published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.”

Bruce has already submitted a most interesting paper for The Watsonian and we welcome more of his scholarly writings on the Canon, Dr Watson and Mr Holmes.

GEORGE GRUMBLES “Arthur”

Mr. Grumbles joins us from Huntsville, Alabama. He writes:

I became a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London about 30 years ago and have enjoyed the Sherlock Holmes Journal, through the years. I visited the Reichenbach Falls many years ago and shall always recall the steep climb and the frightening fall that could occur. I like many others have scoured Baker Street and many of paths he traveled in his adventures. It has been my belief that John Hamish Watson, MD was the Masters guiding light, without whom he would never have been known.

Like so many aficionados I have tried my hand at a pastiche or two, such as The Giant Maiwandian Cat. I would consider it a privilege to be associated with the John H. Watson Society.

HERBERT LINDER “Casey”

Mr. Linder comes to the Society from his home in Dallas where he is a member of the scion group, The Barque Lone Star. We hope to learn more of Herbert’s Canonical interests through his active participation in the Society activities.

We welcome Herbert and look forward to his contributions to the Quiz Page, the Treasure Hunt and with submissions to The Watsonian. We are beginning to develop quite a following in Texas.

BILL BERG, MD, JHWS “Lucky”

Dr Berg joins us from Salinas, California where he is a diagnostic radiologist and a long time Sherlockian (interesting: both are detectives). His telephone call to Buttons was most enjoyable and later he sent along the following:

“My wife, Lynda, and I have a horse ranch of Tennessee Walker and Peruvian Horses. I belong to the Diogenes Club of Carmel-by-the-Sea. I am past-Persian Slipper, past-Tantalus, and past-Gasogene, as well as Quiz Master.

My day job is with the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, where I am a diagnostic radiologist.

I am very excited to become a member of the Watson Society!”

And we are most grateful to have your support and interest in the Society. We hope you will become a regular contributor to our Quiz Page, perhaps creating questions to stump our insightful members. And we also appreciate your interest in oenology.

GEORGE HARLEM, JHWS “Beau,” SHSL

Mr Harlem lives in Acton, Massachusetts and is a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and The John H Watson Society. We are most proud he chose us as his first interest after which he joined SHSL. He writes:

“The John H. Watson Society is my first Sherlock Holmes society membership, although I have been an avid Sherlockian for over sixty years, albeit in quite a casual way. From my first volume, the Morley-prefaced Doubleday, I have assembled a modest collection of Holmes books, including a couple of original illustrated Strand facsimiles, plus works by Adrian Conan Doyle, William Baring-Gould, several Doyle biographies, many pastiches of widely-ranging quality, the complete Jeremy Brett Granada TV series on DVD, and a number of framed Strand cover reproductions that I found at a little shop in Charing Cross Road.

A two-time retirement flunkout, I made a segue from 35 years in high-tech to my present career in real estate. I am very much looking forward to this new adventure as part of the John H. Watson Society!”

A we look forward to your journey on the adventure with us! Welcome, “Beau”!

CHRISTOPHER MUSIC, JHWS “Russell,”

Mr Music joins us from Clarkston, Michigan where he is a long time, distinguished Sherlockian. He writes:

A Detroit native, I am currently the Commissionaire of the Amateur Mendicant Society of Detroit (established 1946), where I also serve as the archivist, head of the planning committee, contributor to our newsletter The Beggar’s Cup, and webmaster for our site www.amateurmendicant.blogspot.com.

I am also an active member of the Ribston-Pippins scion in Michigan, a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and a member of the Clients of Adrian Mulliner (Sherlock Holmes/PG Wodehouse scion).

I enjoy travelling the Sherlockian circuit and frequently attend gatherings of the Hounds of the Baskerville (sic) in Chicago, the ACD/SH Newberry Library Symposium, the Dayton Symposium, the BSI’s Silver Blaze, and the annual BSI weekend festivities in New York, among others.

In addition to my enjoyment studying the Canon and playing “The Game”, I take a particular interest in studying and researching the history of the BSI, the Amateur Mendicant Society, and our early founders.

Don Yates, our Founding Chair, has conferred upon Christopher the moniker “Russell” in honour of the great Russell McLauchlin (“Naval Treaty”, BSI 1949) who founded the Amateur Mendicant Society in 1946.

We look forward to Christopher’s scholarly and historic contributions to The Watsonian in future.

BRENDA ROSSINI, JD, JHWS “Ginger”

Ms Rossini joins us from Winnetka, Illinois where she pursues her legal career and her deep interests in all things Watsonian and Holmesian.

She is a member of the Devon Street Beggars, the Criterion Bar, the Scotland Yarders, and the Torists. And, now we welcome her to the Society of Watsonians.

Welcome to Brenda. We look forward to your active participation in our activities and scholarship.
https://www.johnhwatsonsociety.com/tag/russell/
www.johnhwatsonsociety.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2020-29
94570
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:T6OB6SDA5P7SLTIJZ2UAWHSV3UXFVWJP
<urn:uuid:b5cdc699-4ac7-4732-92b3-657b79cc5eaf>
2020-07-06T04:50:14Z
64.90.57.85
text/html
sha1:W3WCB4WKT366OS3ABURCLECKNOZQBCPM
<urn:uuid:113ff734-2305-4cc6-94e5-48a14fb45cc4>
https://www.johnhwatsonsociety.com/tag/russell/
response
<urn:uuid:9524a234-be8b-43e5-b27a-d5f09ad0a4c2>
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2020-29
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for July 2020
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-67-67-147.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.17 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 1.2-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/