If You Want To Be Smart, Read Sherlock Holmes!

Harlan Ellison – If You Want To Be Smart, Read Sherlock Holmes

The late Harlan Ellison, fantasy writer, during the Dark Dreamers Interview (S01E08) said:

“I can give them this truth, you want to be smart? Don’t read The Bible. Don’t read The One Minute Manager. Uh, don’t read How to Influence Friends and make people, you know, kiss your ass. The what you read is you read the Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories. You read the entire canon. And you will be smarter than you ever need to be, because every one of them is based on the idea of deductive logic. Keep your eyes open and be alert. That’s what all good writing says; wake up and pay attention, pay attention, pay attention..”

Title page to Volume 2 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories donated by Dr Lionel Fredman in August 2003. — Title page to Volume 2 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Donated by Dr Lionel Fredman in August 2003.

And Here’s Sherlock Holmes, thanks to Dr Lionel Fredman

The late Dr Lionel Fredman donated his personal set of three Sherlock Holmes volumes to inspire a collection of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes.

Three volumes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes stories donatd by Dr Lionel Fredman in August 2003.

Lionel’s Dream

Lionel’s dream was to gather the Library’s collection of Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes works into a separate collection to be housed in Rare Books.

This proposal would then be supplemented by his long term gift to the library of the remainder of his ACD/SH Collection.

There were then around 109 titles in the Library’s collection at the time that could have been easily relocated. Unfortunately the idea did not proceed, but his donation did.

They are located in Special Collections, General Rare Books:

823.8 DOYL-1 LATE 1980
823.8 DOYL-1 ADVE 1981
823.8 DOYL-1 FINA 1995

Personalised bookplate "Published Expressly for the Personal Library of Lionel Edward Fredman, The Easton Press" — Personalised bookplate “Published Expressly for the Personal Library of Lionel Edward Fredman, The Easton Press”

Dr Fredman’s Active Interest in the University

Lionel, at the time was nearly crippled by Parkinson’s Disease but nevertheless remained keen to keep abreast of developments at the University at the time (2003).

He was present at the gathering of the founding mothers and fathers of the University in 2005, the Chasing Our Pioneering Tales Event.

UON60: Chasing Our Pioneering Tales – Founding Mothers & Fathers Speak!

The Idea of a Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes Collection

He canvassed the idea of a Conan Doyle/ Sherlock Holmes collection with Gregg Heathcote and myself on one of our trips to visit him. He was then a resident of the Hillside Nursing Home at 3 Violet Town Road, Mt Hutton. It was during these visits that he donated the three volumes of Sherlock Holmes stories to be placed in Rare Books, which we kindly accepted.

Motif Decorations of deerstalkers, magnifying glasses and pipes adorn the leather bound volumes.

Dr Lionel Edward Fredman

Lionel was a highly distinguished, long-serving academic staff member of this University who retired from his position in the History Department many years ago. Photographs of him are rare.

But luckily, Dr Fredman was captured by the camera operators at the close of the Chasing Our Pioneering Tales event. So, we were able to extract screenshot images to remember him.

Dr Lionel Fredman attending the Chasing Our Pioneering Tales event in the Auchmuty Library's Archives Rare Books & Special Collections, 16 February 2005. — Dr Lionel Fredman (with Aunty Nola Hawken in the background) attending the Chasing Our Pioneering Tales event. Auchmuty Library’s Archives Rare Books & Special Collections, 16 February 2005.

Obituary – Dr Lionel Edward Fredman
(Courtesy Australian Jewish Historical Society)

Obituary – Dr Lionel Edward Fredman 19th July 1931 – 20 April 2008

Sound Advice

So, if you want to be smarter that you will ever need to be. Take the advice of Harlan Ellison and Dr Lionel Fredman and read Sherlock Holmes.

Gionni Di Gravio OAM
University Archivist & Chair Hunter Living Histories

Hunter Living Histories

University of Newcastle