Long ago, in the far-off year of 2018, I interviewed my friend Brad Keefauver. He was the second Interesting Though Elementary participant and he has told me for years that he would like to redo his interview, now knowing how long this project would go on. I always told him he could redo his piece after my 100th interview. And since last month was interview number 100, it was time for me to make good on my promise.
How can I sum this guy up in a paragraph? I can't, but here are some highlights. Brad has been a Sherlockian since the 80s, and documented his early years in the delightful memoir, The Rise and Fall of an Eighties Sherlockian. He is the co-founder of The Sherlockian Chronologist Guild, slowly but surely bringing respectability to that branch of our hobby. He was the co-editor of The Monstrum Opus of Sherlock Holmes, and has written enough titles of his own that would make any author proud. But his highest achievement in my mind is that he is so forward thinking and open armed when it comes to Sherlockiana. Brad rarely shies away from trying new things or welcoming new people. For a hobby that has been around for a century or so, both of those aspects are vitally important to keep things fresh. So it's time to get some fresh answers from everyone's favorite Sherlockian, Brad Keefauver!
How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?
1. A sentient being who has made Sherlock Holmes an ongoing part of their existence. 2. A Holmesian being described by an American. 3. Something described as being like Sherlock Holmes or done in a fashion reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes.
How did you become a Sherlockian?
That evolution had so many steps that it’s hard to document. Reading “The Speckled Band” in junior high lit class didn’t spark it as much as the preview to The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes the next year. Having to write a high school term paper took me to the Canon for the first time, as Holmes seemed more interesting than other characters of classic fiction. And then in college, Sherlock Holmes’s War of the Worlds by Manly W. Wellman and Wade Wellman started me on a binge of all the pastiches in that publishing wave that came after The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. A French class field trip to Chicago put Michael Harrison’s anthology Beyond Baker Street in my hands for the whole bus trip home, which showed me that Sherlockians existed. And my longtime partner and spouse, the good Carter found a Sherlock Holmes society called the Double-Barrelled Tiger Cubs of Champaign-Urbana which became my entry point into the Sherlockian social world, at which point I finally acknowledged that, yes, I was that thing called a Sherlockian.
What is your profession and does that affect how you enjoy being a Sherlockian?
I’m a software analyst, which doesn’t affect how I enjoy being a Sherlockian as much as being a Sherlockian has helped me be a software analyst. I can honestly claim Sherlockian chronology helped get me a job, as part of the interview process was to do a presentation on the subject of your choice. Somehow that worked.
What is your favorite canonical story?
I don’t want to say “Illustrious Client.” But I think it’s “Illustrious Client.” So sensational!
Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?
The genius Paul Thomas Miller. Such a clever boy.
What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?
Sherlockians that are fun to go to breakfast, lunch, or non-banquet-dinner with. (Eight people at a table is just too many, though there have been exceptions!)
As one of the founding members of the Sherlockian Chronologist Guild, why should people pay more attention to the chronology of the Canon?
Pushing to put the stories into your own personal sequence reveals so much of what you think of Holmes and Watson’s lives. It’s not just about dates, it’s about their relationship and the influences other people had on it.
The Watsonian Weekly podcast has been around for more than 4 1/2 years, why do you think people find Dr. Watson so interesting after all of these years?
Well, that he’s Sherlock Holmes’s buddy, mainly. But we’re seeing more and more Watson-centered Sherlockian productions, especially in 2024 with Sherlock & Co. and the upcoming CBS Watson series because there’s so much uncharted territory to explore there. Watson is like bigfoot, an intriguing crypto-character whom we do not know nearly as much about as we’d like to.
What book would you recommend to other Sherlockians?
Okay, I hate to say it, but Angels of Darkness in the BSI Manuscript Series. It’s so terribly awful and a counterpoint to the genius Conan Doyle displayed in the Canon. But it gives us a pre-Canon Dr. Watson and a version of A Study in Scarlet that raises all sorts of questions. Sir Montague Brown could have been Sherlock Holmes in disguise for all we know!
Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 years from now?
More widespread and multi-channel than anyone can keep up with. A steadfast core of Sherlockian bees will still be buzzing around the classic hives, but new ideas and ways of celebrating Holmes and Watson will come from places we can’t yet imagine, even if we’re in a post-apocalyptic bunker community dependent upon Rusty Mason waving hand-drawn puppets on sticks around to adapt the Canon for feral children.
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