The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (Otto Penzler’s Sherlock Holmes Library)

Review: Possibly the finest book of Sherlockiana written and one every Holmes fan should own.

One of the cornerstone books in any serious Sherlockian bookshelf, and my copy is personally inscribed by Otto Penzler. It doesn’t get much better than that! This is one of the books in Otto Penzler’s Sherlock Holmes Library, a reissue of eight previously hard to find classics from the earlier age of Sherlockiana, it was originally published in 1933.

Starting with part of the classic Dorr Steele color illustration for The Norwood Builder, this one just feels like a classic (a word I don’t use often, but seems perfect for this review!). Keep in mind that what is now common knowledge in 2003 was not nearly as widely known and certainly not as disseminated in 1933. Starrett opens with mention of Joseph Bell’s influence on Doyle and then discusses the publication of A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four. Already the reader is interested.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a nice piece about the Reichenbach Falls and “bringing back Holmes” but not reviving him for The Hound. No. 221-B Baker Street is one of my favorite essays, complete with a reproduction of Gray Chandler Briggs’ hand-drawn map of the famous neighborhood.

The book’s title chapter is more about Holmes’ social life and hobbies and fun reading. The Real Sherlock Holmes discusses Doyle’s true-life crime investigations, a subject which has since resulted in several detailed books.

Impersonators of Mr. Sherlock Holmes is a great chapter, discussing William Gillette’s famous play, plus a few others and then moving onto similar fiction. Starrett praises Arthur Wontner (one of my personal favorites) with the sentence: “Surely no better Sherlock Holmes than Arthur Wontner is likely to be seen and heard in pictures, in our time.” Fine words, indeed! There follows an essay discussing parodies and burlesques.

An absolute gem is The Evolution of a Profile. This look at how the illustrated image of Holmes developed would be the standard on the subject until Walter Klinefelter’s marvelous Sherlock Holmes in Portrait and Profile (also reviewed on this site). Of Frederic Dorr Steele Starrett says, “Sixty tales, in all, comprise the saga of Sherlock Holmes, and Dorr Steele has illustrated twenty-nine. While he yet lives and loves, and lifts his pencil, will he not do the other thirty-one?”

That sentence conveys one of the strengths of this book. Starrettt had a wonderful writing style. That he was a scholar on the subject of Sherlock Holmes is indisputable. But he never “writes down” to the reader. Instead, he is intent on sharing something he truly loves. I have yet to encounter an author of Sherlockiana that has as perfectly captured this trait as Starrett.

There are two “examinations,” an appendix and a short bibliography to round out the book.

At 214 pages, this is the second longest book of the series (Starrett’s 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes comes in at 247). I would also venture to say that seventy years after it’s publication, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes is one of the finest pieces of Sherlockiana ever written.

Reviewed by: Bob Byrne, July 2003