and for Sherlock Holmes fans . . .

too many links embedded in this MetaFilter entry to post them all . . . so here's the original post which includes information about an auction of Doyle's papers and, among other things, a link to the following story about the mysterious death of a leading Holmes scholar . . .

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/33189

Bizarre death surrounds Conan Doyle auction
Sherlock Holmes scholar founded garroted with a shoelace
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:24 p.m. ET May 14, 2004

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4981210/

Green, 50, was found dead in his bed on March 27, garroted with a shoelace tightened by a wooden spoon, and surrounded by stuffed toys.

At an inquest last month, Coroner Paul Knapman said suicide was the most likely explanation, but he acknowledged there was no note, that garroting was a painful way to kill oneself, and that it therefore had been a “very unusual death.” He said the deceased had been acting paranoid, but that people assumed it was baseless.

Family and friends said Lancelyn Green had become fixated on the Conan Doyle archive, believing it should be available to students and scholars, not sold and dispersed.

“He might have been in the prime position to write the definitive biography of Conan Doyle,” said his friend, Nicholas Utechin, editor of The Sherlock Holmes Journal.

- more . . .

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4981210/