2017 is the 130th anniversary of the publication of A Study in Scarlet, the first recorded adventure of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John H. Watson. What an amazing journey it's been! In addition to the pitifully few sixty tales originally presented in The Canon, published between 1887 and 1927, there have been literally thousands of additional Holmes adventures in the form of books, short stories, radio and television episodes, movies, manuscripts, comics, and fan fiction. And yet, for those who are true friends and admirers of the Master Detective of Baker Street, where it is always 1895 (or a few decades on either side of that!) these stories are not enough. Give us more!
In March 1998, legendary radio dramatist, producer, writer, director, and founder of Imagination Theatre listened to this request and broadcast the first of an astounding number of Holmes radio shows over their United States network of stations. In the intervening years, 128 original Holmes episodes (and one recently found "lost" episode") were broadcast before Imagination Theatre closed its doors in early 2017. Additionally, the cast and crew performed their version of the entire Holmes Canon between 2005 and 2016, featuring the same actors as Holmes and Watson, (John Patrick Lowrie and Larry Albert, respectively, ) as well as having every script adapted by the same author, M.J. Elliott - something that has never been done before.
Astonishingly, this great number of episodes were written by a relatively small group of dramatists. Imagination Theatre's departure from the airwaves left a great void, both in terms of those seeking "movies for your mind", but also those wanting new quality stories about the true Sherlock Holmes, set in the correct period, and featuring tales that truthfully represented Holmes and Watson.
This book serves both to honor Jim French and his lifetime of achievements, and also Mr. Sherlock Holmes, along with the dramatists, cast, and crew who brought the new adventures to life. Inside this volume, you will find a script by every one of the authors who wrote about Holmes for Imagination Theatre, representing some of the finest new Holmesian storytelling to be found, and honoring the man described by Watson as "the best and wisest . . . whom I have ever known."
All royalties from this collection are being donated by the writers for the benefit of the preservation of Undershaw, one of the former homes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Featuring fourteen scripts from every writer who contributed to the series run of Imagination Theatre's Sherlock Holmes
Jim French, M.J. Elliott, Lawrence Albert, John Patrick Lowrie, Gareth Tilley, Matthew Booth, J.R. Campbell, Jeremy Branton Holstein, Roger Silverwood, Teresa Collard, John Hall, Steven Phillip Jones, David Marcum, Iain McLaughlin and Claire Bartlett, and Daniel McGachey, and with forewords by David Marcum, Jim French, Lawrence Albert, John Patrick Lowrie, M.J. Elliott, Dennis Bateman, Rick May, and David Natale.
