Brian Leno noticed a copy of my 1984 litcrit anthology on Robert E. Howard — The Dark Barbarian — on the block at eBay for $150 or make an offer. Hunt around and you can find copies much cheaper, but those copies are not this copy, inscribed to Ted Schulz in the year of publication.
Ted was a bigwig Sherlockian in the Bay Area, and in that era in the early 1980s I often attended meetings of the local Baker Street Irregulars club, known by the handle The Scowrers and the Molly Maguires (if memory serves). Ted was ex-military and used his connections to host meetings in the old Officers Club in Fort Mason.
I said at the time— and still think — that Ted must have been the nicest guy I ever met. He radiated niceness.
He was, however, a crummy driver (like many guys I’ve encountered from the military). Made me nervous as hell. Clutching the seat with clawed fingers stuff.
Once we were heading to SFO to pick someone up — I think it was Jon Lellenberg. Jon was another bigtime Holmesian, from around D.C, I think — some sort of government work, the detail I remember was that he had just spent a few weeks or months at the Arctic Circle staring down the throat of “the Russian Bear.” Another nice guy. Hosted a Bouchercon once. You may have seen his name recently because John D. Haefele singles him out in his Firsts article on modern Arkham House ephemera as the author of what — currently — is the final book published under the Arkham banner: Baker Street Irregular.
So, we drifted toward SFO with Ted at the wheel, just poking along, wandering across lanes, and finally I couldn’t take it any more and said something like, “Jeez, Ted, you drive like a mother-in-law.”
Ted took his eyes off the road and just beamed at me.
He said, “You know, I like my mother-in-law.”
