Interesting Interview: Edith Pounden

This week we are getting to know Edith Pounden!  If you've been on a Zoom meeting in the past four years, you probably recognize the face because Edith is one of the most far-reaching meeting attendees.  In fact, her love of Sherlockian meetings led her to become one of the founding members of The Legion of Zoom scion society.  Since its formation, Edith has taken on the role of coordinating the group's annual conference.

But she isn't content with Arthur Conan Doyle's 60 Sherlockian tales.  Edith is also an active member of The ACD Society and is quick to point out that her home scion, The Bimetallic Question, routinely spends time discussing the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle.  And she know her stuff both in and out of the Canon!  Every time I've seen Edith speak up, you can count on people nodding their heads in agreement with her or watching the wheels turn as she gets folks to look at a topic from a new point of view.  So let's spend some time with her outside of the Zoom meetings in this week's Interesting Interview! 

How do you define the word “Sherlockian”?

To me, a Sherlockian is someone who has aspecial fascination with Sherlock Holmes. I don’t think there’s a particularrequirement for this, but it’s hard for me to imagine being deeply intoSherlock Holmes without eventually wanting to dive into the original stories.

How did you become a Sherlockian?

There are so many waypoints for this. I grewup with the Rathbone/Bruce films, and my sister lent me her Doubleday Book Club2-volume edition of the canon when I was still a kid (then made me return it,worse luck). So, I’d read many of the short stories before seeing the Granadaseries, and remember thinking at the time that Jeremy Brett was no Rathbone. I thinkreading Nicholas Meyer’s The Seven-Per-Cent Solution was what made me careabout what might be happening behind the page in the original stories. I was ateen in the 80s, so I found Doyle again through the stacks of New Age books inmy high school library. In one of these, there was a paragraph about Sherlockiansand the Great Game, and I remember thinking that I’d arrived too late to play,because surely everything must have been figured out by that time. (Reader, ithad not.)

I didn’t really pick up Sherlock Holmes againto read until my first hiking trip to New Hampshire with friends in the early 2000s.I found myself out of my depth, and rather than continue over Mt Washington asplanned, I returned to our starting point (which was overbooked) and hid out inthe library, where I picked out the now familiar cream-covered Oxford The Adventuresof Sherlock Holmes to read overnight (Steve Mason, if you are reading this,my chapter in Holmes and Me would have been called “A Study in Pinkham”for this reason, had I written it). I liked this edition so much that I soontracked down my own copy, as well as its mates, and finally read all 60 stories,along with the insightful annotations in that series. But I only startedactively playing the Game after watching the BBC series Sherlock, whichI think is criminally underrated.

What is your favorite canonical story?

My usual answer to this question is that Idon’t have one, but just for you, I’ll name “The Dying Detective,” because I’vebeen spending a lot of time with it lately. I will say that there is not asingle canon story that I would downrate; each of them offers pieces of thepuzzle.

Who is a specific Sherlockian that you think others would find interesting?

I will name fellow Bimetallic Question memberKristin Franseen, who is a musicologist and has a particular interest in a much-malignedprofessor of mathematics. She is full of good insights on the canon and, if Irecall correctly, was the original instigator of the “All of Doyle” BimetallicQuestion discussion group.

What subset of Sherlockiana really interests you?

Writings about the writings. I’ve been both abookseller and an academic, and I enjoy tracing ideas through publications.Cross-border shipping is lethal these days, so lately I’ve had to stopacquiring and focus on reading what I’ve got. I am also doing some writing ofmy own, which should shape itself into a book before too long.

Your interest in Arthur Conan Doyle iswell-known.  What would you say to Sherlockians to convince them to spendmore time with Doyle outside of the Sherlockian Canon?

I would say that Doyle’s non-Sherlockianwriting strongly complements his Sherlockian writing. The characters and tropesthat draw people to the canon also appear in these other stories, although thegenres may shift. I would turn to these stories before pastiche to satisfy theneed for more than sixty Holmes and Watson adventures.

As an officer of the Legion of Zoom, whatare some highlights you've experienced from this digital age of Sherlockiana?

Sherlockian Zoom meetings during the pandemicintroduced me to a much wider community of Sherlockians than I had previouslybeen acquainted with. I was suddenly in contact with people I had known onlythrough their writing, and I feel fortunate to call many of these people myfriends now. And being involved in the founding of the Legion of Zoom andorganizing its annual conference has been an absolute blast. I’m glad thatseveral societies have maintained an online presence so that those of us whocan’t travel may participate in meetings held by a variety of Sherlockiangroups. Each has its own distinct character, and offers different perspectiveson the canon.

What book would you recommend to otherSherlockians?

One book—you are killing me here. I have greataffection for The Case Files of Sherlock Holmes, which was a series edited byChristopher and Barbara Roden in the 1990s. These books are a delight to read bothfor their ideas and high production quality. Sadly, only four were produced, on“The Blue Carbuncle”, “The Speckled Band”, “The Musgrave Ritual”, and “TheDying Detective”. More recently, I’ve been enjoying Trevor Hall’s books(currently reading Sherlock Holmes and His Creator).

Where do you see Sherlockiana in 5 or 10 yearsfrom now?

Five to ten years is not so long; I thinkthings will be more or less the way they are now, with BSI-type societiesmeeting either in person or online (or both), and a parallel social media-basedSherlockian community, each offering different perspectives on the canon. Thereis already some traffic between these communities; I’m sure that will continue.