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"For the first time in decades, we can hear Vincent Starrett reciting his poem '221B', Felix Morley recalling his brother Christopher,
James Montgomery singing 'We Never Mention Aunt Clara'... plus the voices of Rex Stout, Edgar W Smith, John Bennett Shaw, Anthony Boucher, Basil Davenport, Julian Wolff, Isaac Asimov, Nathan Bengis,
Basil Rathbone and a cast of what seems like hundreds. Newly recorded introductions by Mark Gagen put each recording in its context. It's an entertainment and a scholarly resource."
Roger Johnson
The District Messenger
Sherlock Holmes Society of London
"Sherlockian Bill Rabe was a broadcaster and in the 1950s started taking recordings at meetings of the Baker Street Irregulars and
several scion societies. In 1961 an LP from this material was issued, and 1965 a second appeared. In 1981 these recordings and newer ones were issued as a four volume set. Now all of them are
here on a digitally remastered two CD collection. The recording quality is excellent and there is a newly recorded explanatory introduction both to the collection overall and to each of the
38 individual recordings.
The general tone of the recordings is self-deprecating humour and many of the pieces are very funny. Here is a chance to hear the voices of such luminaries as Rex Stout, Anthony Boucher,
Vincent Starrett, Basil Rathbone - talking about how the films came about and came to an end, Isaac Asimov, Herbert Brean - who hilariously, in the style of Bob Newhart, imagines
J. Edgar Hoover's concerns about Rex Stout following the publication of The Doorbell Rang in which Nero Wolfe bests the F.B.I., Will Ousler, Julian Wolff, John Bennett Shaw,
and William S. Baring-Gould, whose reporting of press coverage of his book Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, is a comic masterpiece of wit and timing.,
I expected to get some moderate interest from these recordings but instead I thoroughly enjoyed them and recommend then heartily and thank Wessex Press for making them available again."
Geoff Bradley
CADS 56 (June 2009)
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Voices from Baker Street -- 2-Disk Audio CD
"I often ponder what historians of the distant future might speculate concerning these recordings."
--W.T. Rabe, Voices from Baker Street, 1961
Voices from Baker Street was originally issued in 1961 as long-playing, 12-inch vinyl records. It was followed up four years later with Voices from Baker Street II. Within a few years
they were out of print. in 1981, Voices from Baker Street was reissued with additional recordings, but it too is now a collector's item. But now, these historic recordings are available
once again in a digitally remastered 2-CD set!
Through this amazing deposit of recordings, listeners are transported to an earlier age. You are there with the Giants of Sherlockian History. Starrett. Smith. Baring-Gould. Wolff. Rage.
Rathbone. And many, many more. We hear the distant view-halloo. The Game is Afoot once more!
2-Disk Audio CD, Digitally Remastered with New Introductory Material, $18.95
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