Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes

XIII: El perro de Baskerville

As an avid collector, I am constantly discovering ‘new’ editions. New being a relative word – some of the ‘new’ items I find might be decades old. Many of the things I find are quite mundane yet every once in awhile I come across something that really catches my eye. This is the case of a book I found nearly four years ago. I bought a copy of El Perro de Baskervilles with a very unusual cover. Much to my delight,when the book arrived I discovered it was volume XIII of a series called “Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes.” XIII is 13 for you folks that are Roman Numerically challenged.

I promptly begin searching for others in the series and over the next few months located and bought four more books from the series – III, VII, VIII, and XV (3, 7, 8, and 15). I also found cover images of three others – IV, X, and XI (4, 10, and 11). That is when the efforts to find more ran dry. Every few months I run searches and nothing ever turns up. The covers of these books are very stylized, sort of like El Greco meets Frederick Dorr Steele. But sadly the publisher gave no credit to the artist nor does the artist put their name any place visible on the cover art. Efforts to identify this wonderful artist have produced nothing.

VII: Sherlock Holmes sigue triumfando

VIII: El invincible Sherlock Holmes

1940s Zig-Zag Series

“Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes” was published by Editorial Zig-Zag in Santiago, Chile. This particular series came out in 1935. The publisher is still in business and throughout the years has done some remarkable series. One of their more interesting series, published in the mid 1940s, was “Coleccion “La Lantern”.”  This series also featured some very intriguing artwork. I will write more on this series at a later time.

XIV: La Banda moteada

Then last week, out of the blue, a book scout I use in Santiago, Chile emailed me. He had come across a copy of La Banda Moteada, volume XIV (14) in the series and asked if was I interested in buying it. Of course I replied and just yesterday the book arrived. Now I have six of the fifteen sitting on my shelves and it has renewed the challenge to find the missing nine volumes. These are the types of challenges that collectors love and are what stokes the fire even hotter. I know that one day I will complete this task but I also know, as a collector, there will always be more books to finds! 

Here is the complete of Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes and the rest of those wonderful covers:

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes I: Un Crimen extraño

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes II: Triumfo de Sherlock Holmes

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes III: Nuevos triunfos de Sherlock Holmes

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes IV: El ciclista fantasma\

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes V: Cinco Hazañas de Sherlock Holmes

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes VI: La Mas famosos hazañas de Sherlock Holmes

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes VII: Sherlock Holmes sigue triumfando

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes VIII: El invincible Sherlock Holmes

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes IX: Policia fina

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes X: Nuevas y últimas aventura de Sherlock Holmes

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes XI: El problema final

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes XII: La Resurreccion de Sherlock DH1

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes XIII: El perro de Baskerville

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes XIV: La Banda moteada

Aventuras de Sherlock Holmes XV: La Marca de los cuatro.

IV El ciclista fantasma

XI: El problema final

XV: La Marca de los cuatro

X: Nuevas y últimas aventura
de Sherlock Holmes

Happy Blogging!!

* These books are in my collection

** I just have cover scans of these books.  

Sherlocking at the Perot Museum of Nature & Science

When the Perot Museum of Nature and Science contacted the Crew of the Barque LONE STAR  Dallas’ Premiere Sherlockian Society about hosting a Murder Mystery for their Thursday hands-on lab night, the Crew jumped at the opportunity. After months of preparation, Thursday August 07 was when the fun began. The murder mystery created by the Crew’s Third Mate, Steve Mason, involved the murder of one of the museum’s wealthy donors. The participants were each given one of five packets. These packets contained clues including blood splatter patterns and fingerprints that help clear a suspect or indict them.

http://www.perotmuseum.org/

The evening started with a display table featuring all sorts of Sherlockiana. The next table was occupied by a team of Dallas Police Department fingerprint specialists. They were kept busy with a continuous line of youngsters waiting their turn to be fingerprinted. Oddly enough not very many adults opted for this part of the program. Steve gave a 15-minute slide-show on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. More than a dozen members of the Crew of the Barque LONE STAR were on hand to help with the arrangements and be stationed at various locations throughout the museum to help participants should they become stuck and need help. 

The Perot Museum is a modern four-story building, celebrating its 2^nd anniversary. The first part of the murder mystery packet was a trip to the 4^th floor. There the participants, according to the Inspector’s name on their individual packet, looked for their first clue on one of five montages of characters. Each montage included a single image of Sherlock Holmes, a Sherlockian version of ‘Where’s Waldo.’ Once found, this allowed the 'Inspectors' to travel from floor to floor where they had to match fingerprints and blood splatters  from their packet with one of five on other floors. Each correct match revealed another clue.

The final part was traveling to each of the nine halls in the museum. On each packet, there were clues written down and beneath these clues were numbered spaces. The answers were found in each hall. The corresponding letter for each numbered space was written in the solution space at the bottom of the packet, like an acrostic puzzle. This revealed the murderer. It was very clever and the more than one-hundred participants seemed to enjoy themselves. With ages ranging from four to the eighties, it was quite a feat but then again, we are talking about it's creator being a Sherlockian so it should not be that much of a surprise..

We passed out free Sherlockian-related books and invitations to our monthly meeting. Ironically, the most liked feature of the evening was not the fingerprinting or even Sherlock Holmes. It was the green-taped outline of the murder victim. Nearly every child took their turn lying down inside the figure and trying their best to contort their bodies to match the figure outlined on the floor. It reminded me of Christmas when the kids had more fun with the box the toy came in than the toy itself.

It is our sincere hope to spark the interest in Sherlock Holmes and maybe even add a few new members to the Crew. Only time will tell.

Taped outline of the murdered, wealthy patron....awe.

The Crew of the Barque LONE STAR : Don Casey, Rusty Mason, Steve Mason, Marland Henderson, Stu Nelan, Finger Sherlock,  Bailey Bates, Don Hobbs, Heather Mason, Pam Mason, Jenny Bates, Brenda Hutchinson, Sharon Lowry.

Happy Blogging !!