On Jay Finley Christ & Sherlock Holmes Abbreviations
Jay Finley Christ (1884-1963) gained membership into The Baker Street Irregulars via an invite from BMOC Vincent Starrett* which seems like a pretty big deal now, anyway. This, after Starrett's works whet Christ's Sherlockiana appetite. The two began a correspondence shortly after whetting, that ultimately led to not simply his investiture, but ultimately to Jay Finley Christ being regarded as the most scholarly of Starrett's rather scholarly brood. He was also a member of a few other scion societies including one which he began himself, The Illustrious Clients of Indianapolis.
It seems the majority of his Sherlockian scholarship flowed from him near-to and upon his retirement from the University of Chicago, where he was a professor of law from 1920 to 1950 and also gave occasional Sherlockian lectures. In addition, he published 127 Sherlockian articles in the Chicago Tribune from 1945 to 1951, 68 of which were edited and collected into five booklets between 1947 and 1963. Among many other contributions he made (this brief list is far from complete) he also penned the poem “The Old Tin Box” (1946) which is a personal favorite of mine.
Below is the full guide to those abbreviations. Then afterward, more great stuff to read!
The Adventure of the Abbey Grange [ABBE]
The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet [BERY]
The Adventure of Black Peter [BLAC]
The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier [BLAN]
The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle [BLUE]
The Boscombe Valley Mystery [BOSC]
The Adventure of the Bruce Partington Plans [BRUC]
The Adventure of the Cardboard Box [CARD]
The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton [CHAS]
The Adventure of the Copper Beeches [COPP]
The Adventure of the Creeping Man [CREE]
The Adventure of the Crooked Man [CROO]
The Adventure of the Dancing Men [DANC]
The Adventure of the Devil's Foot [DEVI]
The Adventure of the Dying Detective [DYIN]
The Adventure of the Empty House [EMPT]
The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb [ENGR]
The Adventure of the Final Problem [FINA]
The Five Orange Pipps [FIVE]
The Adventure of the Gloria Scott [GLOR]
The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez [GOLD]
The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter [GREE]
The Hound of the Baskervilles [HOUN]
A Case of Identity [IDEN]
The Adventure of the Illustrious Client [ILLU]
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax [LADY]
His Last Bow [LAST]
The Adventure of the Lion's Mane [LION]
The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone [MAZA]
The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter [MISS]
The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual [MUSG]
The Adventure of the Naval Treaty [NAVA]
The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor [NOBL]
The Adventure of the Norwood Builder [NORW]
The Adventure of the Priory School [PRIO]
The Adventure of the Red Circle [REDC]
The Red-Headed League [REDH]
The Adventure of the Reigate Squire [REIG]
The Adventure of the Resident Patient [RESI]
The Adventure of the Retired Colourman [RETI]
A Scandal in Bohemia [SCAN]
The Adventure of the Second Stain [SECO]
The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place [SHOS]
The Sign of the Four [SIGN]
The Adventure of Silver Blaze [SILV]
The Adventure of the Six Napoleons [SIXN]
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist [SOLI]
The Adventure of the Speckled Band [SPEC]
The Adventure of the Stockbroker's Clerk [STOC]
A Study in Scarlet [STUD]
The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire [SUSS}
The Problem of Thor Bridge [THOR]
The Adventure of the Three Gables [3GAB]
The Adventure of the Three Garridebs [3GAR]
The Adventure of the Three Students [3STU]
The Man with the Twisted Lip [TWIS]
The Valley of Fear [VALL]
The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger [VEIL]
The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge [WIST]
The Adventure of the Yellow Face [YELL]
There you go. All 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories, four novels, and their abbreviations. Some non-canonical entries also have their own abbreviations, but we don't get into that here. I sometimes will give my own (for what it's worth) seal of approval on a bit of pastiche in the form bestowing upon it an abbreviation; such as in the case of the new The Return of the Pharoah [PHAR] by Nicholas Meyer. But even fewer people care about that than what I grade a cigar.
To be clear, I included the full list and some well-deserved credit via woefully yet aptly abbreviated bio so that my new-to-Holmes readership has the handy-dandy reference at-hand, or at the least, vague remembrances of it. I should say I feel in reality that more-so than to facilitate Sherlockian Scholarship, although they are useful once acclimated to, these abbreviations act as some form of Sherlockian industry-insider, smart mark jargon. This plays no different in that manner than does calling Nicaragua [NICA] in the cigar industry, say.
Reference material:
I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere
The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
*"Vincent Starrett (October 26, 1886 - January 5, 1974) was born over his grandfather's Toronto bookshop and raised in Chicago. In the Windy City, he became a writer, newspaperman, and bibliophile. His other Sherlockian contributions include perhaps his more famous "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (1933) Starrett was also one of the founding members of The Hounds of the Baskerville (sic), a Chicagoan scion society of The Baker Street Irregulars.
As to this Unique Hamlet, just a couple more trifles of interest. Satiric becomes ironic, as its first edition is now quite rare and thus quite 'pricey,' we'll say. The book was (as noted) privately printed during the Christmas season of 1920 and it would seem, to merely be gifted to those scant few interested in Holmesian pastiche before there even was such a thing or even such (or enough) people." - Me, from The Adventure of the Unique Hamlet by Vincent Starrett | A Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Booklet Review, elsewhere in the rabbit-hole of a blog.
NOTE: in the brief Starrett bio above, I was embarrassingly remiss in not including his classic poem 221b.
** 12/22/2021 "Several times during the last three years I have taken up my pen to write to you." Says Holmes to Watson in The Adventure of the Empty House. I will make a note to investigate this further.
@kaplowitzmedia
Twitter | Instagram
for Frank Seltzer
::: very :::