Our View: Help save the home where Sherlock Holmes was created.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is responsible for creating Sherlock Holmes, one of the most widely recognized, well-loved literary characters in modern history. And now, his last remaining home, Undershaw, where he wrote much of his most famous work, is in danger of being remodeled into high-class flats.
OU professional writing professor Jim Davis is helping lead efforts to petition the city of Hindhead in Surrey, England, to protect the home and keep it available for public access, The Daily reported today.
But there’s a lot more Sooners can do to help save this important historical landmark.
This issue may not seem to be as important as many we have highlighted in this space. After all, just this month, we’ve urged you to help fight racial inequality, to bring equal rights to gays in Norman and to demand free speech online.
So maybe this issue isn’t going to save lives or improve the lives of a repressed minority. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important.
Preserving the homes of literary greats is about more than just protecting a part of history or honoring their accomplishments. It’s about giving the public a space where they can go to contemplate the importance of literature. It’s about maintaining a hallowed ground where anyone can go to feel the touch of genius.
It’s about dedicating a monument to intellect and art and everything else that gives meaning to the daily toil of human existence.
These things are worth protecting. They’re worth honoring. Humans need spaces that take us out of the little stresses and great hardships of everyday life and allow us to think about culture, human accomplishment and society’s legacy.
These spaces are like churches for the intellect, and no group should be more dedicated to their importance and protection than a university campus like our own dedicated to the pursuit of learning, truth and art.
In the U.S., we have preserved Edgar Allen Poe’s home in Baltimore and Ernest Hemingway’s home in Key West, Fla., among many others. If you’ve never had the opportunity to visit these places, we urge you to make one a pit stop — or a main destination — on your next vacation.
And while you’re there, drop a few dollars in their donation tin.
And if you’re a believer in the importance of literature to our society, or you just so happen to be a fan of Sherlock Holmes in any of his incarnations, you can find out more about the campaign to save Doyle’s home at SaveUndershaw.com.
From there, you can sign the petition, find out more about the threat to Undershaw, see what celebrities who endorse the project have had to say about the importance of the home and find other ways to help the cause.
So like the campaign’s page on Facebook, follow its Twitter feed and share the issue with your friends — the real and the virtual.
It may not be the flashiest or most pressing issue of our time, but if those of us spending time and money in the pursuit of an education don’t recognize the importance of preserving this intellectual legacy, who will?
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JacquelynnM 3 months, 3 weeks ago
Nice article, but I'm a bit confused. I'm an ambassador with The Undershaw Preservation Trust and the petition on saveundershaw.com is one I created several months ago. While it is wonderful that Mr. Davis is a supporter of The Undershaw Preservation Trust's campaign to save Undershaw, he was not involved with the petition.
Thank you, though, for bringing the threat to Undershaw to public attention in your area. Anyone can sign the petition, become a Facebook friend to The Undershaw Preservation Trust, and show their support on the website at saveundershaw.com. The next few months before the Judicial Review are crucial to get the word out and show international support for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's home.
I'd like to refer your readers to more in-depth information in an article I wrote on Undershaw at the Baker Street Blog at http://www.bakerstreetblog.com/2011/03/effort-to-preserve-it-iden.html.
Thank you again. Save Undershaw!