Book Donation

[Max Magee]

Hello, all—

As mentioned in a previous message, Bob Ristau recently passed away. I was contacted by his family about distributing finding homes for the Sherlockian items from his modest Sherlockian collection. There are books, magazines (of particular interest are about 10 issues of the 1990's Sherlock Holmes Gazette), postcards, and even a 221b bookend that I would consider adding to my own collection if no one else wants it.

I wanted to put some feelers out to see if any of our local group would be interested in adopting some of this very personal collection—"first dibs" so to speak. Following this, I'll be casting a wider net.

See this Google album for photos of all items. If you need more detailed information, I'm happy to provide better images or bring them to our meeting today (I'll be bringing some choice items in to the meeting).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/N5bRJWCJBadikDAG7

In addition, when I was discussing Bob's Sherlockian career, his daughter mentioned that Bob had written a pastiche. I was very curious if there was a copy available, and she was able to dig up a digital manuscript of SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE WISCONSIN CAPER: THE ADVENTURE OF THE IRON MAIDEN. I've attached it to this email, and so although Bob has passed beyond the Reichenbach, his words and ideas will live on! Please do not distribute this, as copyright is retained by his family, but I was given permission to share it with our group.

From his daughter Susan's message:

Attached is the pastiche my father wrote, The Case of the Iron Maiden. The first computer version I have is dated February 2003. The attached file is dated February 2010.  As I think was mentioned earlier, my father was from Appleton, Wisconsin, and was a fan of Houdini.  Blending those two favorites, Holmes and Houdini, must have been enjoyable for him in this writing.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

Susan Haugen

Max

Max "Magic Jezail Bullet" Magee

"I had remained indoors all day, for the weather had taken a sudden turn to rain, with high autumnal winds, and the jezail bullet which I had brought back in one of my limbs as a relic of my Afghan campaign, throbbed with dull persistency."