The Game's Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays (2012)

Not a Sherlock Holmes story per se, but a clever Holmesian pastiche nevertheless. Winner or the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Play.

It is December 1936 and Broadway star William Gillette, admired the world over for his leading role in the play Sherlock Holmes, has invited his fellow cast-members to his Connecticut castle for a weekend of revelry. But when one of the guests is stabbed to death, the festivities in this isolated house of tricks and mirrors quickly turn dangerous. Then it's up to Gillette himself, as he assumes the persona of his beloved Holmes, to track down the killer before the next victim appears. The danger and hilarity are non-stop in this glittering whodunit set during the Christmas holidays.

Title: The Game's Afoot or Holmes for the Holidays
Author: Ken Ludwig
Year: 2012
Publisher: Samuel French
Purchase: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes (1916) screens in San Francisco

William Gillette's recently discovered 1916 silent film version of his famous stage play Sherlock Holmes screened at the Castro Theatre in San Fransisco last Sunday. I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere has a full report and review. The film will be released on Blu-ray in October.

Read Sherlock Holmes in San Francisco: The Triumph of William Gillette at I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere.

Pre-order Sherlock Holmes on Blu-ray at Amazon.

Sherlock Holmes: A Play (1974)

Was William Gillette's play Sherlock Holmes the very first Holmes pastiche? I'm afraid I'm not Sherlockian enough to answer that question, but it may have been the first officially sanctioned non-canonical adventure. When Gillette wrote to Doyle asking if he could marry off Holmes, the author responded, "You may marry him, or murder or do what you like with him."

Below is the play in a limited edition hardcover from 1974.

Based upon the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, William Gillette's play in a book edition, illustrated by Frederic Dorr Steel–with his Reminiscent Notes–and the Introduction by Vincent Starrett, was first published by Doubleday Doran in 1935, and although differing somewhat from the Samuel French Play Edition, 1922, which gives both William Gillette and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as authors, subsequently became a coveted and scare book. The present edition is printed from the original Doubleday Doran plates, including illustrations and dust jacket.

Besides Gillette himself (below), the famous play has seen many notable actors playing Holmes, including: H. A. Saintsbury, John Barrymore (on film), John Wood, Leonard Nimoy, and Frank Langella. Gillette's own 1916 silent film adaptation, long thought lost, was discovered in 2014.

Title: Sherlock Holmes: A Play

Author: William Gillette

Year: 1974

Publisher: Helan Halbach

Purchase: Amazon.

R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy in a 1975-6 revival of William Gillette's play, Sherlock Holmes.