“What is important about this collection is that it brings together basic expositions of the fundamental subjects of Sherlockiana. Here the reader will find, in one well-planned volume, how Conan Doyle regarded his extraordinary creation, and what contemporary and subsequent critical opinion has thought of his work. Here are early Irregular sketches, drawn from the Canonical evidence, of Holmes's and Watson's lives, and of Mycroft's and Moriarty's also. Here are the essential issues of Irregular historiography: the date of Holmes's birth, the identity of his university, the location of 221B Baker street, the layout of 221B, Watson's wounds, Watson's relationship with the Literary Agent, Holmes's origins, his use of cocaine, his personal life and professional life--inescapably, Rex Stout's durable challenge to the orthodox view of Watson's gender, followed by Julian Wolff's riposte--and more. ... This achievement is obviously valuable to those who are interested in Sherlockiana as outsiders.... Sherlock Holmes's grip upon the public has been astonishingly long, broad, and deep, and The Baker Street Reader should give popular culture interpreters some useful insight into why this has been so....â€?–Baker Street Miscellanea ( )