I’ve posted a few times about Solar Pons, whom Vincent Starrett called, “The best substitute to Sherlock Holmes known.” Since I created www.SolarPons.com and founded The Solar Pons Gazette, it’s fair to say I’m a big fan of the ˜Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street.’

August Derleth wrote seventy-something stories about his creation before passing away in 1971. Derleth’s Arkham House publishing company had printed some works by British horror author Basil Copper and Arkham editor James Turner, in response to a Pons-related letter from Copper, suggested that the British writer compile the entire Pons collection into a two-volume Omnibus. Copper did so, making some 2,000 edits to Derleth’s originals to ‘correct errors.’ Copper referred to this Omnibus as “a veritable feast for Pontine enthusiasts.”

Sure. Except that there was a major outcry from said enthusiasts at Copper’s hubris in rewriting the master’s work (reminds me of L. Sprague de Camp ‘revising’ Robert E. Howard’s original Conan writings). It seems to me that the split was never healed. Meanwhile, Turner asked Copper to continue the Pons saga. Copper wrote four collections of stories and one partially completed novel over the next few years (he would go on to release two more collections of originals and complete the novel).

Whereas Derleth had written Doyle-like short stories, Copper went with a more Rex-Stoutish (you know, that Nero Wolfe guy) novella format. The stories are longer and Copper is definitely a slower-paced writer. I like both approaches, though some of my fellow Ponsians do not like Copper’s wordiness. Here’s the opening to chapter eight of “The Adventure of the Crawling Horror”:

“Within some twenty minutes the landscape had again subtly changed: if anything, it had become even more bleak and somber than that surrounding Grimstone Manor. Though the sun still shone, the slimy ooze ever deepened about us as, the warmth melted the ice which lingered in the hollows and a clammy vapor hovered thickly over the surface.”

The typical Derleth story is about 20 to 28 pages in the Pinnacle paperbacks. The Pinnacle Coppers, using a slightly smaller font, resulting in more words per page, generally run between 40 and 70 pages. One certainly does have a different reading experience with Copper than with Derleth, though both work for me.

Baker Street fans certainly remember the beginning of “The Adventure of The Norwood Builder,” with the unhappy John Hector McFarlane bursting into Holmes’ rooms. That scene takes up the first few pages of the story, with Inspector Lestrade then arriving to arrest McFarlane. Copper uses a similar opening, with the unhappy Eustace Fernchurch interrupting Pons and Parker at breakfast. Inspector Jamison arrives to arrest Pons’ new client. Copper’s introduction covers eleven pages and two chapters! That example can be validly applied to how Copper and Derleth approached Pons.

Copper was unhappy with edits made to his stories by Pinnacle (that’s kind of ironic, eh?) and after that imprint collapsed financially, the Derleth Estate did not continue with any of the already completed Copper stories, nor the unfinished Solar Pons and the Devil’s Claw: neither through Mycroft and Moran or Arkham House.

Copper retained the rights to all of his Pons stories and would release two new collections through Minnesota’s Fedogan and Bremer. The finally-completed Devil’s Claw and Solar Pons: The Final Cases would be issued in very limited runs by Sarob Press. The Final Cases contained several of his previously published stories without the edits he sneeringly decried as “crass and stupid alterations.” Also, “editorial clown” was not used as a term of endearment by Copper in regards to the person at Pinnacle editing his texts. There was more vitriol in his letters to Turner.

Just as Derleth’s Pons stories have been out of print for decades now, Copper’s Pons tales can be a bit difficult to run down, though the Fedogan and Bremer paperbacks can be found online. But the two Sarob Press books are rare and in the case of the latter, ridiculously expensive.

Which brings us to PS Publishing’s two-volume, The Complete Adventures of Solar Pons, autographed and slip cased, in a limited run, 100 copy hardbacked edition (I have #34). I previewed this set here at Black Gate back in January. But now I have my copy. And it is as excellent as it is expensive (about $200).

The Art

The front and back inside cover of Volume I is Les Edward’s wonderful illustration for The Final Adventures (above: notice a bit of Peter Cushing, with some Christopher Lee hair?). This volume is autographed by Copper and editor Stephen Jones.

Volume II includes Edward’s marvelous painting for The Devil’s Claw (below: Pons definitely resembles Peter Cushing!). That volume is autographed by the six living artists who contributed to the project (sadly, Ben Stahl, who drew those marvelous Pinnacle covers, died in 1987). I’ve featured both Edwards paintings in The Solar Pons Gazette and they are simply outstanding.

I like the colorful yet shadowy front and back cover art by Thomas Gianni, though it’s a mix of a couple different scenes. The spine of Volume II is an excerpt from the cover of Volume I. And the spine of Volume I is an excerpt from the back cover of Volume II. It seems a bit strange to me. Still – neat stuff!

Gianni, Allen Koszowski, Bob Eggleton, Les Edwards and Randy Broecker provide what little interior art there is: four drawings in Volume I and two in Volume II. But it’s the stories that make this collection worth buying.

THE INTRODUCTION

Volume I opens with “Once A Pons a Time,” a twenty-three page essay by editor Jones.

THE STORIES – VOLUME I

Then follows four of the Copper collections, with eighteen stories covering over six-hundred fifty pages of Pons!

The Dossier of Solar Pons was the first Copper collection, published by Pinnacle in 1979. The largest of the bunch, it included six stories (four would be the norm) and an Explanation by Dr. Parker at the front. “The Adventure of the Six Gold Doubloons” is one of my favorite Pons stories by Copper. This collection includes the intriguingly titled “The Adventure of the Hammer of Hate.”

“The Sealed Spire Mystery” is one of only three Copper short stories to not follow the standard “The Adventure of…” naming convention.

The Further Adventures of Solar Pons (also a 1979 Pinnacle release) follows. I like “The Adventure of the Shaft of Death,” and “The Adventure of the Missing Student” has a definite Sherlock Holmes feel to it. “The Adventure of the Baffled Baron” was Copper’s original version of “The Defeated Doctor” and is included here. James Turner had suggested swapping out Baron Kroll for the unidentified Doctor Fu Manchu and Copper agreed. It was “The Defeated Doctor” that appeared in the Pinnacle paperback and is included later in Volume II.

A third release (and #10 in the Pinnacle Pons series) was yet another 1979 publication, The Secret Files of Solar Pons, with four more stories, making 14 new Copper tales for the year. It was a good year for fans of the Praed Street Detective. “The Adventure of the Crawling Horror” introduces miserly, moldy Silas Grimstone, one of my favorite clients in the entire Pontine Canon. You want to talk about a guy who could stretch a pence! James Turner said “Silas Grimstone is one of the best-delineated secondary characters in any of the ninety-odd Pons adventures written thus far.” The story clearly drew on the end of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

1980 saw four more stories in The Uncollected Cases of Solar Pons, with “Murder at the Zoo” being the second tale to drop “The Adventure of…” from the title. “The Adventure of the Singular Sandwich” was an certainly an oddly named mystery.

Pons went on hiatus, which leads us to:

THE STORIES – VOLUME II

Minnesota’s Fedogan and Bremer published The Exploits of Solar Pons in 1993, ending a thirteen-year Pons drought. It included four new stories.

Two years later, Fedogan and Bremer followed up with The Recollections of Solar Pons in 1995, featuring three new stories and “The Adventure of the Singular Sandwich.” This version contained Copper’s original text, which had apparently been “much bowdlerized and altered” for the prior paperback publication.

Solar Pons & the Devil’s Claw is included with The Recollections in Volume II, though it was issued in a standalone edition by Sarob Press.

A mishmash of Ponsiana follows under the title The Solar Pons Companion. It includes a foreword written by Copper but never used; a summary of the plots of the Copper stories, an index of characters, and some quotes by Pons. There are also some plot and dialogue notes, with facsimiles of Copper’s papers. This is followed by “The Adventure of the Northleach Stocks.” James Turner had sent Copper copies of two documents that Derleth had filed for future use in a Pons story. Finally, there is some info on Ben Stahl, with black and white reproductions of his four Pinnacle Covers for the Copper collections.

The Final Cases rounds out the book. As mentioned previously, “The Adventure of the Defeated Doctor” had appeared in the Pinnacle release of The Further Adventures, but was switched out in Volume I for its original version, “The Baffled Baron.” “Doctor” is included in this section.

“The Adventure of the Anguished Actor,” from The Secret Files of Solar Pons (Volume I) was originally “The Adventure of the Agonised Actor,” and the latter version is found here.

The collection closes out with Copper’s Holmes tale, “The Adventure of the Persecuted Painter.”  No Pons connection, other than the similarity between the two detectives.

Over 1,350 pages of Basil Copper’s Solar Pons, all in one place. While the collector’s price tag for the limited run of 100 signed editions was prohibitive for most Pons, PS plans on issuing paperback editions of Copper’s stories, though not in the two-volume Collection format. The original plan was for an unsigned (and presumably less expensive) edition of the Collection, but that was abandoned.

August Derleth was the creator of Solar Pons and the best writer of the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’ we can ever expect to see. However, Basil Copper was a worthy successor and did an admirable job of carrying on the Pontine Canon. There is no doubt the stories take longer to read and are slower paced, but they do not feel out of place to me.

This Fall, David Marcum’s new collection, The Final Papers of Solar Pons (including an introduction from yours truly), will be published and we can compare his new tales to those of Basil Copper.

UPDAT E 9/13/17 – You can now go to the PS Publishing website and order the Copper stories in paperback! The stories, with some extras, are spread across seven books. You can search ‘Solar Pons’ at their website to call all of them up. Here’s a link to the first volume.

Other Solar Pons posts at Black Gate:

A New Solar Pons Omnibus
Meet Solar Pons
The Science Fictional Solar Pons
Solar Pons & Cthulhu
Solar Pons & The Dead Fishmonger
Solar Pons & The Dorak Affair
The Solar Pons – Fu Manchu Connection (by William Patrick Maynard)
Solar Pons: Who Needs a Hardboiled Detective?
Vincent Starrett’s Intro to ‘The Adventures of Solar Pons’
Why Solar Pons?

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Bob Byrne’s ‘The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes’ column ran every Monday morning at Black Gate  from March 10, 2014 through March 20, 2017. He also organized Black Gate’s award-nominated ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series.

He is a member of the Praed Street Irregulars, founded www.SolarPons.com, the only website dedicated to the ‘Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street’ and blogs about Holmes and other mystery matters at Almost Holmes.

He has contributed stories to The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories – Parts III, IV and V and VI and will be in IX if he quits having fun writing Black Gate posts and works on a story!