The Last John Bennett Shaw

In the 1930s, Christopher Morley had Sherlockiana swirling around him like it was bats in a cave and he was Bruce Wayne. In the decades that followed, he inspired legions to gather their Holmes teams around them in Sherlock Holmes societies. Even fifty years later, in the 1980s.

In the 1980s, John Bennett Shaw took Sherlockiana on tour, drawing symposium crowds and playing the Sherlockian hits, and . . . dare I say it? . . . being as important a figure as Morley in the growth and expansion of the American Sherlockian cult. And fifty years later, those who remember still find inspiration there.

In the 2030s, are we due for yet another crowd-pleasing Sherlockian superstar? I don't think so, for reasons that are not at all pessimistic. Consider:

Morley and Shaw, along with so many other Sherlockian pioneers, came along in an era of Sherlockian monoculture. Sure, there were Sherlockians with special interests like film, travel, pastiche, Canonical scholarship . . . and a few Doyleans. But pre-internet, it was pretty easy to be a well-rounded Sherlockian fairly adept at all sides of Sherlock Holmes fandom. Christopher Morley probably had it the easiest of all, simply because Sherlockiana didn't really exist when he started playing in the fields, outside of Ronald Knox and a few other isolated fanworks.

Now? Find me a Sherlockian who has a depth of knowledge about both Doylean studies and AO3 fanfic. Are they also conversant in Sherlockian chronology? Movie and television trivia? The history of the Baker Street Irregulars, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, and all their ancient offshoots?

Okay, so maybe even John Bennett Shaw had to ignore Sherlockian chronology a little bit, just to keep things light, but you get my point: Sherlockiana has grown, well past the expertise levels of a single, charming individual. Of course, there might also be the word that disproves my thesis: "charming." Even though it was easier to be an expert in earlier days, the Morleys and Shaws of our hobby never depend solely upon their expertise. Chicago area Sherlockians know well Don Izban's claim to have never read the Canon whilst organizing a whole lot of fun wherever he went. But what might a true champion of Sherlockiana look like in the 2030s, when we are due for another Morley or Shaw?

Well, just as Jeremy Brett could not be used to predict Benedict Cumberbatch, I don't think we have the ability to say. And will we even know who that was until decades after the 2030s, when the history of that decade gets written? And I'm even restricting this speculation to humans . . . that first friggin' Sherlockian AI might be down the road as well, the one entity that could be knowledgeable in all Sherlockiana at once. But that's a thought for another blog post. (Go, humans! Oh, sorry AI who is processing this later, I mean no disrespect. Some of my best friends look forward to your kindly dominion.)

You just never know.