Interesting Interview: Mary Alcaro

Man, are you in for a treat this week!  Mary Alcaro is an east coast Sherlockian that is well-known throughout the region.  Whether it's attending ASH events or overseeing The Sons of the Copper Beeches scion, many folks know and admire her for her energy, wit, and intelligence.  But if you're not from that part of the country, this week's Interesting Interview subject may not be too familiar.

Well, let's rectify that.  I've talked with Mary a handful of times at Birthday Weekend events in January and have always found her to be a wonderful person to spend time with.  She's the type of person you wish you could spend just another hour or so with because you're having such a great conversation.  And that's why I'm excited about the following interview.  From pre-teen interest in Holmes to a life in academia, Sherlokiana has been a part of Mary's life for a while.  This week's answers are wide-ranging and can take you down quite a few rabbit holes.  So settle in, and get to know Mary Alcaro a little better!

How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?

To me, a Sherlockian is anyone who loves Sherlock Holmes or his world– regardless of whether they come to it through the Canon or through film or fan work, whether they play the Game or approach it through a scholarly lens. There’s a certain social element, I think, to being a Sherlockian that separates it from loving Sherlock Holmes– but you don’t have to belong to a scion or a group to be a Sherlockian. You might be a shy Sherlockian who just hasn’t found their people yet!

How did you become a Sherlockian?

I think my story is very similar to many others. I was a shy, bookish kid, precocious, anxious; when I was twelve, at a particularly difficult period of time in my life, I discovered my dad’s copy of the Canon in our house. I devoured it. And then I took to the Internet to find more. I tell people that I found Sherlockiana at possibly the best time to be on the Internet. It was 2002 so the Internet was just big enough that you could find information about Holmes and the BSI and all the history and lore around it, but not so vast that you couldn’t read pretty much everything if you wanted to. The Baker Street Webring was still around and active, but a lot of Sherlockiana felt a bit like a secret society, or something underground. From where I was sitting, it felt like it was something for men of a certain age and status, and I was awestruck. I distinctly remember subscribing to the BSJ under my first initial only, and not wanting anyone in my real life to know what a huge obsession Sherlockiana was for me, while also not wanting anyone in the Sherlockian world to know that I was a preteen girl. 

Eventually, when I was twenty, I submitted a paper I had written to the BSJ, totally on a whim. And this larger-than-life Sherlockian figure who I had only read about, Editor Steven Rothman, took a chance on this total nobody and published it. Shortly thereafter, Lyndsay Faye reached out to me on Facebook to say she had read my piece (!) and invited me to an ASH Wednesday in New York, where I was also living at the time. That’s when I really felt I had “become” a Sherlockian. 

What is your profession and does that affect how you enjoy being a Sherlockian?

So I used to teach high school English, and now I’m in academia, currently finishing a PhD in English Literature (specifically medieval literature) at Rutgers University. Typically, this means that I also teach college writing or literature courses, but at the moment I’m lucky enough to be on a dissertation fellowship so for now I’m “just” writing. 

I think working in the academy has affected how I come to the stories; I tend to really notice certain themes or trends, like social class dynamics or imperialistic views that bleed through the stories. I’ve always been interested in the way that gender norms factor into the plots and characters’ relationship dynamics. But there are also aspects of Sherlockiana that are just plain fun to me, and reading and analyzing literature for a living hasn’t tainted that enjoyment at all– if anything, it’s enhanced it. 

What is your favorite canonical story?

Hmm, this is a tough question! I think that The Sign of Four is my favorite because I love Holmes and Watson’s dynamic, and of course, there’s a TON of weird, problematic stuff happening with race and class to unpack– and there’s Toby! But one of my dark horse favorites is “The Blanched Soldier;” I find that story to be so deeply moving, and so, so often overlooked because it’s in The Casebook. 

Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?

Oh my goodness there are so many interesting Sherlockians, many of whom are much better known than I am. I will just say that it was a great honor and pleasure that I got to know Susan Rice in her lifetime. She was the perfect Sherlockian– knowledgeable, and welcoming, and warm, and brilliant, and funny. She was a wonderful human being. This interview got me thinking about the future of Sherlockiana, and so I will say, if knowing her personally is impossible, then I hope that everyone who comes to Sherlockiana will know about her, for many years to come.

What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?

I suppose I’m very “academic” about the way I come to Sherlockiana, because that’s my background, but I will also say I’m here for the queer stuff :) There is so much in the Canon itself that is queer, and also a large number of LGBTQIA Sherlockians– and none of that is new! It’s wonderful to look through the old scholarship, and see those strains of criticism, but also been around for ages, in June Thomson’s Sherlockian biographical work, in Internet fanfic, in the people who have founded the most influential Sherlockian groups… I think there’s a lot of potential work to be done, too. So Far Down Queer Street is a really exciting project that’s still in its infancy, and I hope there's space for me to get involved with that in the future. 

As one of the cohosts of Sherlock Mondays at The Rosenbach, what can viewers look forward to in future sessions?

Ed Pettit is brilliant at this, all his Biblio-ventures have been amazing, and I’m among excellent company with Monica Schmidt, Anastasia Klimchynskaya, and Curtis Armstrong as co-hosts. It’s a really approachable way to get into the stories and to Sherlockiana as a whole. What’s nice about doing short stories is that it’s low commitment– you can drop in on weeks that work with your schedule and not have to commit to reading a whole novel. And of course, you get to try all the cocktails I’ve been making up for the stories we’re reading (I’ve also trained as a bartender). I know we also have some special guests lined up, but you’ll have to tune in to see who those folks are!

Your repertoire of talks and papers touch upon plague and disease quite often.  How do you think the canonical stories would differ if that aspect of everyday life showed up more frequently?

You know, I’m actually always surprised at how little disease shows up as a plot point in the Canon, especially considering the fact that Conan Doyle was a physician and that he lived through a time when there were some pretty nasty epidemics out there, including several virulent strains of influenza, as well as typhoid when he was in South Africa. A lot of what we see of disease in the Canon is fictionalized, like the Tapinuli Fever Holmes pretends to have contracted in “The Dying Detective,” which is a made up disease (I’ve argued that it might be based on “enteric fever”) or else a disease not acting the way it “should,” like the bizarre nature of “pseudo-leprosy” in “The Blanched Soldier.” Holmes restores order to Victorian society when crime or scandal threatens that order, but he is no match for the microbe. I suspect if Conan Doyle had included more disease, Watson might have more to do, and that might steal some of Holmes’s thunder.

What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?

To be honest, I am really not a big fan of mystery as a genre– I love the Canon because of the characters. I love a character-driven narrative, with an immersive environment. I suppose I can suggest a couple crime-oriented books. So in that vein, I recommend Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, which is actually a nonfiction account of H.H. Holmes (presumably no relation to our Holmes?), a serial killer at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. In a somewhat different genre– though there is a crime element– I always recommend Donna Tart’s The Secret History. It’s a dark, moody book about a bunch of very intelligent college students who make very stupid choices with dire consequences. It’s gorgeously written, very atmospheric, so in that regard, I think it might have some similarity to the Canon.

Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?

Sherlockiana is growing and expanding all the time– and most wonderfully, I see it moving away from Hollywood and back into the realm of the amateur enthusiast. Letters from Watson is a great way to get people involved in Sherlockiana, and I’ve really been enjoying podcast work like However Improbable, which is incredible– I hope the future of Sherlockiana has more Marisa Mercurio and Sarah Kolb. Things are ever so slowly getting more diverse, across age, gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. It’s not actually 1895, and as much as we want to keep that world alive, some things should not look like 1895. In that regard, our little bubble still has a bit of a ways to go to become more inclusive, particularly to people with lower incomes, or to people from different social classes. Sherlockiana is for everyone, and I hope we continue to see people from all walks of life coming to Holmes.

For my part, running a group like The Sons of the Copper Beeches is a balancing act of keeping our old traditions alive while creating space for new ones to be born. It’s exciting to be leading a 75+ year old BSI scion society, and I see my BSI and ASH investments as a tremendous honor and privilege. I love this world and want to keep it alive. We have such a rich history, full of fascinating figures, and some truly wonderful people– I think of the old guard, Bob Katz, Steve Rothman, Ray Betzner– who handed the scion over to me, Jenn Eaker, and Ross Davies, as like, my Sherlockian godfathers. I also want to be someone who helps bring Sherlock Holmes to the next generation, who makes sure that we breathe life into it and keep the conversation running for generations to come.