Aficionados of Sherlock Holmes are prone to forming groups where they discuss theories and minutiae about the most famous detective who never lived. Indeed, some even “Play the Grand Game” by contending that Holmes and Dr. John Watson actually did exist and that the stories about them are largely factual accounts of their doings in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.
The ranks of the Bootmakers of Toronto, the premier Sherlockian society in Canada, contain representatives of both types of Sherlockians …. and other varieties as well. Many members also devote attention to Arthur Conan Doyle, as the author of the stories. Such a remarkable mixture guarantees a combination of scholarship and whimsy at the regular meetings.
The idea of forming a Sherlock Holmes society in Toronto was born in December 1971 during a conference called “A Weekend With Sherlock Holmes,” held at the Metro Toronto Central Library. That conference was organized by Cameron Hollyer, the librarian who had acquired a major collection of Doylean and Sherlockian materials for the Central Library. The inaugural society meeting was held in February 1972 in Hart House at the University of Toronto.
What is the origin of the Bootmakers name? In The Hound of the Baskervilles, one of the best-known Sherlock Holmes adventures, a boot is stolen from Sir Henry Baskerville. Readers learn that scent from the boot was intended to let a fierce hound to track and kill Sir Henry. In the story the boot was fashioned in Toronto by a bootmaker named Meyers. So the society is named The Bootmakers of Toronto and each year the leader of the society is called Meyers.
The society typically organizes eight or more events a year. Regular meetings, held at the Toronto Reference Library, focus on one of the fifty-six short stories and four novels which comprise the Sherlockian Canon. Activities at these meetings include scholarly lectures, slide shows, quizzes about the stories, musical interludes, and refreshments.
The reference library also houses the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection which has its own designated showroom, due to reopen in May 2014 after extensive remodelling. The collection is the world’s largest of Doylean material and one of the three largest holdings worldwide of Sherlockian material which Bootmakers and other Sherlockians around the world value for their research as they “Play the Grand Game.”
Other Bootmaker events during the year include an annual dinner in January, a games night and an racetrack outing to commemorate the adventure called “Silver Blaze” featuring skullduggery about a thoroughbred race horse.
Members of the Bootmakers also receive Canadian Holmes, the Society’s quarterly journal which ranks among the top publications worldwide for Sherlockian scholarship. In addition to material which “plays the game” of Holmes and Watson being real people, Canadian Holmes also publishes articles that look at the Holmes stories as literature, with Arthur Conan Doyle as their creator. Issues run to 40 pages and are available in both print and electronic format.
At the January annual dinner, awards are given for the best paper presented at a meeting, for the best article published in Canadian Holmes and for contributions other than a formal paper. In addition members may also be awarded the status of Master Bootmaker, recognition for sustained, varied and lasting contributions to the Bootmakers and the Canadian Sherlockian movement. Master Bootmakers are entitled to wear a silver shoehorn.
Starting in 1990, Bootmakers have also organized – or helped organize – five conferences about Holmes or Conan Doyle which drew aficionados from across Canada and the United States, as well as Europe and Australia.
Prominent past members of the Bootmakers have included Eric Silk, the commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police; True Davidson, the mayor of East York; Les Shemilt, dean of engineering at McMaster University; Derrick Murdock, journalist and book reviewer; and William Sarjeant, Canada’s preeminent paleoichnologist.
The current diverse membership includes writers, educators, lawyers, those interested in crime or crime fiction, and those fascinated by the Victorian era. Recent Hollywood movies and TV serials about Sherlock Holmes have brought an influx of new members who are now discovering the depths of the written stories.
Sherlockian societies in five other Canadian cities are formally “scions” of the Bootmakers – the Spence Munros of Halifax, the Bimetallic Question of Montreal, the Stratford (ON.) Sherlock Holmes Society, the Singular Society of the Baker Street Dozen of Calgary and the Stormy Petrels of British Columbia.
Website: www.torontobootmakers.com