Saturday 6 May 2017

The Best And Wisest

How many references to Sherlock Holmes are there in Poul Anderson's works? See here and here.

I have found another. Anderson's Murder In Black Letter is dedicated:

To him whom I shall ever regard
as the best and wisest man whom
I have ever known

Sherlock Holmes fans should recognize this phrase and know to whom it refers.

See here for the publication order and dates of the four Trygve Yamamura works. This list confirms that there is only one Yamamura short story.

Romans in Britain wrote "IOM," which meant "Iupiter Optimus Maximus," - Jupiter, the Best and Greatest. This raises the question: which is preferable, to be the greatest or the wisest? Jupiter or Holmes?

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

We see lots of references and allusions to the Great Detective in Anderson's works! He was an enthusiastic fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories. And I certainly do recall the Holmesian origin of the dedication used by Anderson for MURDER IN BLACK LETTER. Was PA dedicating MURDER to Sherlock Holmes or a real world person?

I'm not sure "Dead Phone" was the only Trygve Yamamura short story pub. by THE SAINT MYSTERY MAGAZINE. If you will look at part III of my "The Uncollected Works of Poul Anderson" article, you will see four other stories by him which that magazine published. I can't help but wonder if one or more of them also featured Yamamura.

As for your last paragraph, I would vote for Sherlock Holmes being greater and wiser than Jupiter!

Sean

Anonymous said...

Kaor, Sean!

Perhaps it depends on which version of Zeus/Jupiter one wishes to consider. Sherlock Holmes would be a better and wiser person than a Jupiter portrayed as the boss god of a gang of Macedonian hill bandits, to echo something Mr. Stirling wrote. A Stoic's conception of Jupiter as an all-wise God (note change in capitalization) might be a different matter.

Best Regards,
Nicholas D. Rosen

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Nicholas!

Good to see you commenting again!

Yes, the Stoic conception of God/s, as seen in Marcus Aurelius' MEDITATIONS would be far worthier of respect than that gang of Macedonian hill bandits on Mt. Olympus. But I still find Sherlock Holmes better and wiser than any of those "children" on Olympus.

Regards! Sean