The Devon County Chronicle: Vincent Starrett Edition
Tributes by Sherlockian leaders from Chicago and beyond
The cover of the October 1965 special Vincent Starrett issue of Robert Hahn’s Devon County Chronicle.
Robert Hahn would probably do a backflip in his grave if he saw me refer to The Devon County Chronicle as a fanzine, but by today’s standards, that exactly what it was. Back in the day, from the 1960s to the 90s, Hahn and his readers referred to the Chronicle as a newsletter, which is also true. Whichever name you like, the fact is that Hahn recorded the world of Chicago-area (and beyond) Sherlockian activities for decades and was especially respectful of that city’s dean of Sherlockians, Vincent Starrett.
I recently was able to pick up the October 1965 issue of Chronicle, which is devoted entirely to Starrett. Here’s how Hahn opens the issue:
“Certainly, no one has carried the Holmesian banner with greater spirit and devotion, nor has any other Sherlockian produced more distinguished writings on the writings,” said Hahn in the issue’s introduction, noting that Starrett was a founding member of Chicago’s Hounds of the Baskerville (sic), and longtime member of Hugo’s Companions.
The first page of the Devon County Chronicle. Click the image to see a larger version.
“There is a special grace and felicity at the meetings attended by Vincent. Never does the always amazing but ever unostentatious literary acumen of this venerable bookman cast a pedantic cloak over the Sherlockian shenanigans. Rather, he brings with him the pleasant aura of the warm, quiet evenings in Baker Street; the easy social graces of the Victorian era.”
To create this special issue, Hahn sent out letters to the leading lights of the Sherlockian world and asked them to recount some Starrettian anecdote, memory or appreciation. The lineup of responses was a who’s who of the Sherlockian world at the time: William Baring-Gould, Nathan Bengis, August Derleth, W.S. Hall, Charles Honce, James Keddie Jr., Walter Klinefelter, Frank AND Felix Morley, Will Oursler, John Bennett Shaw, Rex Stout, Julian Wolff and several others. There’s not enough space to transcribe all the responses, but here are a few:
From John Bennett Shaw, then living in Tulsa:
Click for a larger image.
Unfortunately, I have met Vincent Starrett only a few times, but those occasions have been memorable. His influence upon me has been considerable for I have devoted countless hours, great mental effort and what loose money has come my way to building a large personal library and I have worked on the fringes of the exact science of bibliography. And in several of the areas in which I collect (G.K. Chesterton, Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Machen and Sherlockiana) his writing, both published and in letters, have been of real assistance.
I met his first in Ben Abramson’s wonderful Argus Book Shop in Chicago about 1936. I was then in college and went into the store with my good friend, and now noted author, Martin Gardner. Ben introduced us and we sat and talked, mainly about the Master and Starrett’s recent book, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. We had both read this and we mentioned that he had overlooked the correct number of times in which the color of Holmes eyes was described. He stated that we were only the last of many to point this out. I was, even then, collecting Starrett’s own works and I asked him if he had written a preface to some book or other by a contemporary Englishman. He replied he hadn’t but if we would stick around, he would.
I own most of his works and I have read them; and I have consulted him several times on some bibliographical problem and I have visited him several times.
He is most charming, gracious, witty, urbane and withal a damn perceptive critic. As a fellow member of THE BAKER STREET IRREGULARS and of THE HOUNDS OF THE BASKERVILLE (sic), I thank him for all the great service that he has rendered all these years to our scholarly cause and I wish him many more years of participation in this, the most delightful of pursuits.
William S. Baring-Gould opines from New York:
William S. Baring-Gould, whose Annotated Sherlock Holmes was a revelation to my young Sherlockian mind when I was able to scrape together the funds to buy a copy back in the day, comes this tribute:
It was my dear departed Aunt Mary who introduced me to the Writings man long years ago by sending me the Murray edition of the Complete Short Stories as a Christmas present—but it was Vincent Starrett who introduced me to the Writings About the Writings in his delightful and endearing book The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
Afterwards, I read Bell, Blakeney and Brend, Christ and Zeisler; Holroyd and Harrison. Great, all of them — but to me, the greatest always was and always will be Vincent Starrett. I have never yet had the opportunity of meeting Mr. Starrett face-to-face; I know him only through his volumes and the letters he has been kind enough to send me from time to time. Nonetheless, I would like to pay a personal tribute to Vincent. I can think of none more fitting than this line from “The Creeping Man,”
“I learned method among other things from my great teacher. . . .”
James Keddie Jr. sent this breathless homage from Boston:
Starrett, when I found him for myself in Penny Wise and Book Foolish and then began to collect him and now have just about all of him which appears in (Charles) Honce’s A Vincent Starrett Library except leaflets that appeared in quantities less than 10 copies, led me in reading and collecting paths which I never would have found for myself.
“Without a love of books, the richest man is poor” would apply here, for Starrett did me a favor with his varied and sundry reading pattern which I have tried to copy for myself. He is certainly the Doyen of Literature and Letters today, and while we have unfortunately never met, “I love that man.”
Rex Stout offered this from his home in Brewster, New York:
Vincent is a man of magic. The people who live and work in the world of letters have their full share, perhaps more, of such human facilities as envy and disdain and arrogance, but Vincent has been of that world all his life, and he has never given any man reason to charge him with mean or unfair treatment. Sweet, honest, perspicuous and acute, he has, and always has had, a tang; and that is magical.
And this excerpt from August Derlerth’s note, sent from the wilds of Sauk City, Wisconsin:
Vincent Starrett is sui generis. He surpasses comparison—but he belongs in a great tradition in English letters, one that is fading fast in our own time, unhappily, but one that will never belong to the past as long as Vincent is among us.
You get the idea.
Robert Walter Hahn
We’ll end with a well-written brief bio of Hahn, prepared by the industrious Julie McKuras for the Hounds of the Baskerville (sic) website. Many thanks to Julie for permission to reprint it here.
Robert Walter Hahn was born August 4, 1918 in Chicago, IL. He received his B.A. from Loyola University. Hahn moved to Sheboygan WI in early 1981 and was employed there as the international sales manager for at Thomas Industries, a position he held until his retirement in 1985. While still in Chicago, he pursued his childhood interest in Sherlock Holmes and joined Hugo’s Companions in 1960; he held the post of Sir Hugo for 9 years. Hahn founded the Chicago Silver Blaze in 1960 and hosted it for many years. In 1963 he received the investiture of “Colonel Ross” and the Two Shilling Award in 1981 from The Baker Street Irregulars. Hahn edited The Devon County Chronicle for over thirty years and was active in developing Sherlockian programs and exhibits. After his move to Sheboygan WI he founded The Merripit House Guests, acting as Sir Charles, and founded and acted as executive secretary for The Central Press Syndicate, a society for Sherlockian newsletter editors. Hahn was known for the Aunt Clara Sing Off held in New York during the BSI weekend. He contributed “The Irregulars’ Room” to the June 1964 Baker Street Journal, “Recount, Please, Mr. Holmes” in the December 1976 issue and “Sidelights on Starrett” to the September 1986 issue. In 1967 he wrote “The Adventure of the Copper’s Breeches.” His pastiche “The Adventure of the Mnenomic Norwegian” was published in the September 1986 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Hahn died on February 4, 1999 Sheboygan, WI.
A final thought from Bob Hahn:
“Deep, indeed is our debt to this gentle and unassuming Holmesian and when his non-Sherlockian writings and achievements are considered, the debt becomes truly staggering. ”