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Baker Street Irregulars
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Baker Street Irregulars
Sherlock Holmes character
Created by
Arthur Conan Doyle
Information
Nationality
British
The Baker Street Irregulars are any of several different groups, all named after the original, from various Sherlock Holmes stories in which they are a gang of young street children whom Holmes often employs to aid his cases.
Contents
1 Original
2 Special Operations Executive
3 Modern organizations
4 Influence on other popular culture
5 References
6 External links
[edit] Original
Figure of a "Baker Street Irregular" at the Sherlock Holmes Museum, London
The original irregulars were a group of fictional characters featured in the Sherlock Holmes stories. They were a group of street urchins who helped Holmes out from time to time. The head of the group was called Wiggins. Holmes paid them a shilling a day (plus expenses), with a guinea prize (worth one pound and one shilling) for a vital clue. They first appeared in Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes story, A Study In Scarlet (written 1886, published 1887). They also appear in the next novel, The Sign of the Four; one of the chapters from this book is called The Baker Street Irregulars.
[edit] Special Operations Executive
The Special Operations Executive (SOE), tasked by Winston Churchill to "set Europe ablaze" during World War II, had their headquarters at 64 Baker Street and were often called "the Baker Street Irregulars"[1] after Sherlock Holmes's fictional group of boys employed "to go everywhere, see everything and overhear everyone," as they spied about London.[2]
[edit] Modern organizations
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The Baker Street Irregulars is also the name of an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Doubleday Editor Christopher Morley. Formal members are known as "investitures" and bear club titles derived from the Holmes stories.
The organization convenes every January in New York City for an annual dinner, which forms part of a weekend of celebration and study involving other Sherlockian groups and enthusiasts. The present leader (referred to in group jargon as the "Wiggins") is Michael Whelan of Indianapolis, Indiana. The leader is elected for life and selects his successor.
The BSI, as it calls itself, was once considered the preeminent Sherlockian group in the United States. There are also "scion societies" approved by the BSI in dozens of local communities. (A list of these scions is maintained on Sherlocktron.) While most of the scion societies welcome new members, the BSI does not accept applications for membership. Instead, membership and the awarding of an "Irregular Shilling" are offered to those who have made a name for themselves in local groups or in Sherlockian publications. A list of inductees can be viewed here. The group has published The Baker Street Journal, an "irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana", since 1946.
Because the BSI refused membership to women until 1991, the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, or ASH, was formed in the late 1960s. Its quarterly journal is entitled The Serpentine Muse. Membership in ASH, like that of the BSI, is by invitation only. In recent years, both clubs have tended to induct the same members. As a result, the ASH now functions as an appendage of the larger organization rather than an independent group.
The BSI does not provide any support to its numerous "scion societies". Nevertheless, these societies continue to flourish throughout the U.S. They sponsor various events throughout the year and often feature original works of Sherlockian scholarship.
Some notable BSI members have included:[3]
Honorary members include Holmes-enthusiast Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.[4]
Mystery writers and critics
William S. Baring-Gould
Leslie S. Klinger
Anthony Boucher
Frederic Dannay
August Derleth
John Gardner
Richard Lancelyn Green
Howard Haycraft
Rex Stout
Science fiction and fantasy writers
Poul Anderson
Fletcher Pratt
Isaac Asimov
Neil Gaiman
Others
US drug-policy expert David F. Musto, M.D.
Sportswriter Red Smith
Mathematician Banesh Hoffmann
Actors Douglas Wilmer and Curtis Armstrong
Illustrator Jean-Pierre Cagnat
[edit] Influence on other popular culture
The Irregulars appear as the main characters in Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars: The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas, a 2006 novel by Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin. Wiggins is again the leader of a gang of street urchins. Other major characters include Ozzie, a scrivener's apprentice; Rohan, an Indian boy; Elliot, from an Irish tailor's family; Pilar, a Gypsy girl; and little Alfie. The Irregulars help solve the mysterious deaths of three tightrope walkers at a circus.
Two BBC television series have been made starring the Irregulars: The Baker Street Boys (1983) and Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars (2007).
Comics involving the Irregulars include The Irregulars from Dark Horse Comics (ISBN 978-1-59307-303-9),[5] and Les Quatre de Baker Street (ISBN 9782749304373)[6]
In June 2010 it was announced that Franklin Watts books, a part of Hachette Children's Books are to release a series of four children's graphic novels in spring 2011 called Sherlock Holmes: The Baker Street Irregulars] set during the three years that Sherlock Holmes was believed dead, between The Adventure of the Final Problem and The Adventure of the Empty House by writer Tony Lee and artist Dan Boultwood.
[edit] References
^ Sweet-Escott, Bickham, Baker Street Irregular, London, Methuen, 1965.
^ Holmes quote from The Sign of the Four
^ Alexian Gregory. "Sherlockian.Net: Baker Street Irregulars investitures". Retrieved 2009-10-06
^ David Mehegan. "Guilt by association: For 65 years, a Boston club has made Sherlock Holmes mysteries a scholarly pastime." The Boston Globe. November 28, 2005. Retrieved 2009-10-06.
^ The Irregulars at Dark Horse Comics
^ Les Quatre de Baker Street at Bedetheque (French)
[edit] External links
The Baker Street Journal is "an Irregular quarterly" of Sherlockiana, published by the Baker Street Irregulars.
Collection Guide to Baker Street Irregulars Papers, MS Am 2717, Houghton Library at Harvard University
v
d
e
Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Novels
A Study in Scarlet (1887)
The Sign of the Four (1890)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
The Valley of Fear (1915)
Story
collections
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
His Last Bow (1917)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)
Characters
Sherlock Holmes
Doctor Watson
Professor Moriarty
Sebastian Moran
Irene Adler
Inspector Lestrade
Mycroft Holmes
Baker Street Irregulars
Minor characters
Related topics
Canon of Sherlock Holmes
Cases
221B Baker Street
List of investigators
Adaptations of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlockiana
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