Baker Street Irregulars - Modern Organizations

Modern Organizations

The Baker Street Irregulars is also the name of an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Doubleday Editor Christopher Morley. Formal members are known as "investitures" and bear club titles derived from the Holmes stories.

The organization convenes every January in New York City for an annual dinner, which forms part of a weekend of celebration and study involving other Sherlockian groups and enthusiasts. The present leader (referred to in group jargon as the "Wiggins") is Michael Whelan of Indianapolis, Indiana. The leader is elected for life and selects his successor.

The BSI, as it calls itself, was once considered the preeminent Sherlockian group in the United States. There are also "scion societies" approved by the BSI in dozens of local communities. (A list of these scions is maintained on Sherlocktron.) While most of the scion societies welcome new members, the BSI does not accept applications for membership. Instead, membership and the awarding of an "Irregular Shilling" are offered to those who have made a name for themselves in local groups or in Sherlockian publications. The group has published The Baker Street Journal, an "irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana", since 1946. Scion societies of the BSI are located around the world.

Because the BSI refused membership to women until 1991, the Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, or ASH, was formed in the late 1960s. Its quarterly journal is entitled The Serpentine Muse. Membership in ASH, like that of the BSI, is by invitation only. In recent years, both clubs have tended to induct the same members. As a result, the ASH now functions as an appendage of the larger organization rather than an independent group.

The BSI does not provide any support to its numerous "scion societies". Nevertheless, these societies continue to flourish throughout the U.S. They sponsor various events throughout the year and often feature original works of Sherlockian scholarship.

Some notable BSI members have included:

• Honorary members include Holmes-enthusiast Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

• Mystery writers and critics
  • William S. Baring-Gould
  • Leslie S. Klinger
  • Anthony Boucher
  • Frederic Dannay
  • August Derleth
  • John Gardner
  • Richard Lancelyn Green
  • Howard Haycraft
  • Rex Stout

• Science fiction and fantasy writers
  • Poul Anderson
  • Fletcher Pratt
  • Isaac Asimov
  • Neil Gaiman

• Others
  • US drug-policy expert David F. Musto, M.D.
  • Sportswriter Red Smith
  • Mathematician Banesh Hoffmann
  • Actors Douglas Wilmer and Curtis Armstrong
  • Illustrator Jean-Pierre Cagnat