Burt Wolder [RP 2015]

First name: Burt ;
Middle name:  ;
Last name: Wolder ;

Member: Resident patron member ; 
Begin: 2015
End:  n/a ;

 

Biography:

“Look, Mrs. Ricci: heavy reading,” the boy said, lifting the book with both hands. To Burt Wolder’s fifth grade mind, this was a terrific joke. A hefty volume from the school library was great fun, especially when the book was two inches thick, full of illustrations, and all about an English detective from the 1890’s.

Burt’s main library had The Count of Monte Cristo, The Man in the Iron Mask and The Three Musketeers, and by the time he was thirteen or so he had read through Dumas and Dickens and more. But the early joy of meeting Sherlock Holmes outlived all of his other literary enthusiasms. When William S. Baring-Gould’s The Annotated Sherlock Holmes appeared, he discovered he was not alone in his love of Baker Street (“A Singular Set of People, Watson…”). A letter to Julian Wolff referred Burt to Steve Clarkson, mentor to young Sherlockians (see the 2003 BSJ Christmas Annual). Steve introduced Burt to Andy Page, Andy Peck and others and brought him to his first BSI dinner. Those early dinners introduced Burt to Al Silverstein, Jan Prager and Chris Steinbrunner, and the scion societies The Cornish Horrors, The Men on the Tor, The Speckled Band of Boston, The Sons of the Copper Beeches and more. Through the New England scion societies, Burt met his good friend and podcast partner Scott Monty.

Over the years Burt wrote more than 20 short plays for The Cornish Horrors, all Holmesian comedies. As a result, he received his BSI investiture from Tom Stix as the vaguely theatrical “Third Pillar from the Left” in 1988. In 2004 Burt’s admiration of Christopher Morley’s life and writings led him to reestablish the Three Hours for Lunch Club, which now meets annually at The Players in memory of Frederick Dorr Steele, and irregularly elsewhere.

 

Related documents:

 

Document information

Document permalink:
http://salmagundi.org/artist/?p=75262

Digital-born document number:
SAL.2019.75262

Record birth date:
December 28, 2019

Last updated: July 28, 2022 at 10:29 am