'The Unique Hamlet' has a birthday party
A Starrett masterpiece turns 100
The spine of a storage box housing an original copy of “The Unique Hamlet,” which is 100 years old.
(To be clear: The booklet inside is 100 years old, not the box.)
One hundred years ago, during his first flush of success as a writer of poetry, short stories, bookish essays and bibliofoolery, Vincent Starrett penned “The Unique Hamlet.” It was a Sherlock Holmes pastiche/parody, intended to tweak the wealthy book collectors Starrett begrudgingly admired and envied.
After more than a decade of planning, Dr. Richard Sveum’s tribute to that beloved story is here as The Baker Street Journal 2020 Christmas Annual: The 100-year Adventure of The Unique Hamlet.
It is a volume worthy of the original.
The title page to the centennial celebration issue of The Baker Street Journal 2020 Christmas Annual.
A few confessions before we go further:
First, when it comes to Vincent Starrett, Dick Sveum is the real deal. This blog has helped me gain some attention as a Starrettian. The truth is Dick’s been an admirer of Starrett for more years, knows more about the man and has a Starrett collection more awe-inspiring than my own.
The biggest difference is that he is not a show off, unlike your not-so-humble correspondent.
Dick is also “Dr. Hill Barton,” in the Baker Street Irregulars, a longtime leader in the Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota and the Friends of the Sherlock Holmes Collections at the University of Minnesota. He has been a friend and his Starrettian knowledge is vast.
Second, my opinion about this year’s Christmas Annual is influenced by the fact that I am a contributor. It was an honor to be asked for an article about Starrett and “The Unique Hamlet.” It was an equal joy to discover so many good folks would join in the same issue.
Last, “The Unique Hamlet” is perhaps the most frequently republished non-Doyle story about Sherlock Holmes out there. If you don’t have access to a copy of the original, you can read it online in this digital version.
I’m not going to cover the same territory here that I do in the Annual, but I did want to take a few minutes to appreciate this addition to the library of publications about Vincent Starrett.
Let’s start with that striking cover. If you have been paying attention, you will have some idea of where the profile photo of Starrett came from. I first saw it in a 1929 clothing catalogue, of all places. It was very small, maybe 1.5 by 1.5 inches. I had not seen it reproduced anywhere else, which is part of the reason why I adopted it for the Studies in Starrett blog.
Many years after acquiring the clothing catalogue through eBay, I was given an album of Starrett family photos and was stunned to see the original was tucked inside, this time a roughly 8X10 version with a lot more detail.
I scanned that larger photo (seen here) and sent it to the good folks at the The Baker Street Journal for their use. The photo was taken by Eugene Hutchinson at some point in the 1920s after Starrett had written “The Unique Hamlet.” I feel certain this is how Starrett looked about the time the original was published in 1920. Handsome devil, wasn’t he?
The full-sized illustration of a young Vincent Starrett by Eugene Hutchinson.
I had no idea exactly how the portrait would be used until I saw a photo of the cover on social media last month. WOW! What a great idea, and it was beautifully executed. I don’t know whose arm and hand that is, but it was carefully integrated into the Starrett portrait to produce a striking illustration. Overall, it is a truly original and dramatic cover.
I won’t spoil the contents for those who haven’t received or read their copy yet. I will say that it is wonderful to once again hear Susan Rice’s voice come through in her essay. If Dick Sveum’s collection is first rate, Susan’s love and knowledge of the Starrett corpus was equally top shelf.
The Table of Contents for the 2020 Christmas Annual. It’s quite a line up.
Very often over the decades I would find something new or wonderful about Starrett, only to discover that Susan had gotten there first. She spoke or wrote about Starrett’s work with precision, flare and good humor. Her work remains a model for me and others. I only hope to someday match her skill.
It is altogether right that her essay should lead the book, coming just after Starrett’s story itself.
The other contributions are detailed and refreshing, approaching the topic from a variety of perspectives. The essays by Dick Sveum, Randall Stock, Julie McKuras and Michael Meer are all valuable contributions.
To all those who worked behind the scenes to make this issue a reality, please accept my greatest congratulations.
Some of you will ask how you can get a copy of this special Christmas Annual. I’m sorry to say that unless you were a subscriber to The Baker Street Journal last year, you can’t get a copy.
(This is why you should be a subscriber my friends. You don’t want to miss out on other goodies. Here’s the link. Do it now. I’ll wait.)
And yes, I know some of you subscribers have not yet gotten your copies. I can’t explain why mine was delivered and yours is still wandering the post offices, but I’m sure you know the U.S. Postal Service went haywire in November and December and has yet to recover.
A bit of news
Here is as good a place as any to out myself as the owner of one of the rare copies of the original “The Unique Hamlet.” I was able to purchase a copy recently and it immediately became one of the high points of my shelves.
I have been reluctant to go public with the purchase for no good reason that I can identify. But with the publication of the Christmas Annual devoted to “The Unique Hamlet,” the time seems right to out myself. The fact is that I never expected to own a copy, but the opportunity came up and I took the plunge.
The copy I own is clean and well cared for, and came with its own little box. You can see the box’s spine at the top of this column.
As glorious is as it is, I must acknowledge it is not special in any way. It is one of the copies printed for Walter M. Hill, and not one of the far more rare copies which was done expressly for Starrett. If you want to know more about these variants, you can refer to Randall Stock’s census, available online.
My copy is neither signed nor inscribed. But for the time being, it’s mine.
When I turn around and glance at the shelves, there it is. Sometimes I pull it off, open the box and slide the slim volume out to slowly slip my fingers through the pages, as I marvel that it lives here.
As Starrett said, “When we are collecting books, we are collecting happiness.”