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Arthur Bousfield is an historian and Chair of the Canadian Royal
Heritage Trust. As a distant relative of Jean Leckie, he will offer
some insights into the relationship between Arthur Conan Doyle and his
second wife and her somewhat scandalous antecedents. |
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Peter Calamai is an award-winning foreign correspondent, science
writer, political reporter and editor. He will be digging up some dirt
on the treatment of scandal in the Victorian press. |
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Nils Clausson is a professor in the English department at the
University of Regina, His subject is the debate surrounding the use
of mesmerism for the treatment of psychological illness in Victorian
England and Arthur Conan Doyle’s take on the subject in his short
stories. |
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Susan Dahlinger writes on William Gillette and is co-author of Sherlock
Holmes, Conan Doyle and The Bookman. She will offer her perspective on
scandal in 19th-century popular theatre and in her favorite melodrama. |
| Doug Elliott is the co-editor of Sherlock Holmes and Australia and the
author of The Curious Incident of the Missing Link: Arthur Conan Doyle
and Piltdown Man. Doug's new documentary that examines Conan Doyle's role in the Piltdown controversy will premiere at SinS. Watch the trailer here.
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| Lyndsay Faye is an actress and author of the critically-acclaimed novel
Dust and Shadow. She will examine the ongoing fascination with Jack the
Ripper as a cultural phenomenon and the difficulties inherent in
pairing an historical serial killer with the world’s first consulting
detective. |
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John D. Huston
has written, directed and performed in numerous productions, but is
perhaps best known for his rivetting one-man show "A Christmas Carol"
(in about 42 separate voices) as originally performed by Charles
Dickens, which has entertained audiences across Canada and the US over
400 times since 1992. He is thus eminently qualified to take on the
task of impersonating just three characters in our intriguing premiere
of The Crossing, a play by Barbara Rusch.
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| Hartley Nathan and Cliff Goldfarb practice law in Toronto and often
write and speak together. They propose to air the Doylean connection to
the dirty laundry of some prominent members of Victorian society, as
seen through the legal cases of Sir George Lewis, the “fixer” in
matters of litigious scandal. Cliff, Chair of the Friends, will also
speak briefly on ACD and the 1908 Olympic controversy. |
| Les Klinger is the award-winning editor of The New Annotated Sherlock
Holmes and one of the world’s foremost authorities on this most beloved
detective. We may have to cover our eyes as he exposes the scurrilous
underbelly of Victorian eroticism and its implications in the Canon,
including the truth behind the notorious photograph of Irene and the
King. |
| Bill Mason, former senior staffer to Vice-President Al Gore, is the
author of Pursuing Sherlock Holmes, a collection of essays, stories and
poetry. He will bring his expertise to bear on the painful subject of
Arthur Conan Doyle’s most egregious and unforgivable transgression: the
attempted murder of Sherlock Holmes. |
| Philip Parker is assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Wayne
State University School of Medicine. His contributions helped form the
ACD Collection at the University of Michigan Special Collections
Library and he is presently researching a book on the anti-Semitic
factors that played into the Oscar Slater case, the subject of his talk. |
| Dana Richards is a professor of Computer Science at George Mason
University and has been a frequent contributor to Sherlockian journals
and conferences. He will discuss Conan Doyle's commitment to
spiritualism and the reasons for his painful rift with Houdini. He will
also develop a case for the hazy practice of spirit photography. |
| Chris Redmond’s books include In Bed with Sherlock Holmes and The
Sherlock Holmes Handbook, and his website, www.Sherlockian.net , is
considered the place to begin an Internet search for the great
detective. He will offer an introduction to the Victorian culture of
scandal and the Sherlockian/Doylean connections. |
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Barbara Rusch
is Chair of the SinS conference and Vice-Chair of the Friends of the
Arthur Conan Doyle Collection of the Toronto Reference Library. She
will place Victorian fairy culture, and Conan Doyle’s contributions to
it, into their social and historical context.
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| Donald Zaldin is past Meyers of the Bootmakers of Toronto and a Toronto
divorce lawyer. He will explore one of ACD’s lesser-known causes
célèbres: his support for Sir Roger Casement, who was charged with
treason and hanged on a comma.
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