Seventy two guests attended the festivities commemorating Sherlock Holmes’s 109th Birthday, under Rex Stout’s direction. Irregular tradition carried the evening: the Constitution and Buy-Laws were read aloud; the four Canonical toasts and the four Irregular toasts (to Edgar W. Smith, Christopher Morley, James Montgomery and Sherlock Holmes) were proffered; and Sherlock Holmes’s prayer, the Musgrave Ritual, Readings from the Writings, and the Challenge in the Canon were all satisfactorily delivered. Five new members were invested.
The absence due to illness of the Marquis of Donegall, of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, was regretfully noted. S. Tupper Bigelow saw his proverbial cup runneth over when, in addition to securing the Morley-Montgomery Award for best article published in the Baker Street Journal the previous year, he won a token from the Journal’s editor for the “physical excellence of his manuscripts.” William Baring-Gould, “author of one of the most remarkable books ever penned,” was given the Irregular Two-Shilling Award. The evening closed with reports from Scion societies, the expected intellectual disputation, and the news that a testimonial dinner to Vincent Starrett is scheduled to take place that March in Chicago.
Dinner Details: January 4, 1963
Cavanagh’s Restaurant, 258 West 23rd Street, New York
Dinner Photo Information
Click on the above photo to see a larger version of it, and maximize your browser window to see the most detail.Key to People in the 1963 BSI Dinner photo (PDF)
BSI Honours List
Investitures:Edward F. Clark Jr. as The Matter of the French Government
Stillman Drake as Porlock*
Ralph E. Edwards as Dr. Barnicot
Robert W. Hahn as Colonel Ross*
Banesh Hoffmann as The Dynamics of an Asteroid
James Edward Holroyd as The St. Pancras Case*
William D. Jenkins as Sahara King
Philip Kasson as The Dundas Separation Case
Charles O. Merriman as Colonel Hayter*
* received Investiture at another event during the year
What is an Investiture?
Two-Shilling Award:
William S. Baring-Gould
Vincent Starrett*
* received award at another event during the year
What is a Two-Shilling Award?
The Woman:
Marjorie (Mrs. William S.) Hall.
What is The Woman honour?
"Stand with me here upon the terrace..."
(as named at this Dinner, not their year of passing)
None listed in the 1963 BSJ report.
What is the origin of “standing on the terrace?”
Morley-Montgomery Award:
S. Tupper Bigelow, "The Hoof-Marks in The Priory School”
The Baker Street Journal v12 n3 (September 1962) pp. 169-174. (available in the eBSJ)
What is the Morley-Montgomery Award?
Reports on the Dinner
The Baker Street Journal v13 n1 (March 1963) pp. 59-60. (Available in the eBSJ)List of 1963 BSI Dinner Attendees (PDF)
Key to People in the 1963 BSI Dinner photo (PDF)
Recordings
Sidelights on Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (audio at YouTube)William S. Baring-Gould discusses press reviews of his book Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street during the 1963 BSI Dinner.
Related Material
1963 BSI Dinner Menu (digitized image at Harvard)Interior and cover and back. Sequence 13-14.
Previous dinner: the 1962 BSI Dinner
Next dinner: the 1964 BSI Dinner
For an index to all BSI Dinners and photos, see our BSI Dinner Summary list.
The BSI Archive is located at the Houghton Library at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Archival material may be used by any qualified scholar, subject to the normal rules and regulations of the Library. For links to a detailed finding aid and related information, see our BSI Archive at Harvard page.
Page composed on 2/24/15 by Tamar Zeffren
Page updated 8/15/15 by Andrew Solberg.
Page updated 6/23/19 by Randall Stock.
This page last updated 1/30/20 by Randall Stock.
