THE
WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSETHE
WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE
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AN OVERVIEW OF KEY EVENTS IN THE WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE APPEARS IN BLACK TEXT - not intended as an all-inclusive history - for complete information refer to:
Philip José Farmer's Tarzan Alive, Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, and The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
William S. Baring-Gould's Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street and Nero Wolfe of West 35th Street
Professor H.W. Starr's articles A Submersible Subterfuge, or, Proof Impositive and A Case of Identity, or, The Adventure of the Seven Claytons (both articles included as addenda to Farmer's The Other Log of Phileas Fogg and Tarzan Alive, respectively)
Rick Lai's article The Secret History of Captain Nemo, Pulp Vault number 11, Tattered Pages Press
Peter Cannon's The Chronology Out of Time: Dates in the Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, Necronomicon Press, 1997
Daniel Harms' The Encyclopedia Cthulhiana, 2nd ed., Chaosium Books, 1998 (including the Timeline of the Cthulhu Mythos by Shannon Appel)
Chris Jarocha-Ernst's A Cthulhu Mythos Bibliography & Concordance, Armitage House, 1999
Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, volumes I and II and the annotations of volume I and volume II by Jess Nevins
other works cited on these pages
Sherlock Holmes and John Watson are reintroduced and take rooms at 221B Baker Street. Holmes formally begins his consulting detective practice. During a conversation in which Watson learns more about Holmes' penchant for the science of detection, Holmes makes desultory comments about his predecessors Dupin and Lecoq.
This is the first Sherlock Holmes novel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The complete Canon of Sherlock Holmes novels and stories is located here. C. Auguste Dupin, whose cases were recorded by Edgar Allan Poe, is also a Wold Newton family member, as is M. Lecoq. Lecoq's exploits were recorded by Emile Gaboriau.
May 1881-January
1882 - The events of Jules Verne's The School for Robinsons (aka The
School for Crusoes).
A FATHER'S TALE
Brigadier Donald Ffellowes relates a tale of his father's encounter with a man called only "Mr. Verner." The encounter occurred in the Fall of 1881 off the coast of Sumatra, and involved a group of man-rat creatures called the Folk, who were created by the Moreau-like experiments of a scientist called Cornelius Van Ouisthoven.
A short story by Sterling E. Lanier, in Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space, edited by Issac Asimov, Martin Greenberg, and Charles Waugh, Bluejay Books, 1984. "Verner" is obviously Sherlock Holmes, and this tale relates the story otherwise known as the "Giant Rat of Sumatra." Another "Giant Rat" story takes place in 1886, but its events are unrelated to this one, save that "Matilda Briggs" must have been a popular ship name in the 1880s. This story brings Lanier's Brigadier Ffellowes into the Wold Newton Universe.
Waxahachie Smith encounters Donald Garfew Beech, Head of the US Secret Service. Beech's grandson, Orville Garfew "Fluency" Beech would later meet Doc Savage. There is also a reference to Lord Maidstone, the son of Horatio Hornblower.
Novel by J.T. Edson confirming the Hornblowers in the Newtonverse. Smith is an associate of the Floating Outfit and a former Texas Ranger. Orville Garfew "Fluency" Beech is from Red Snow by Kenneth Robeson (Lester Dent). Please read Brad Mengel's The Edson Connection for more information.
Wu Chan, a mentor of The Lone Ranger and Tonto, loans them two books to assist in their quest to defeat an Aztec Mummy, who is really a brain-damaged visitor from the stars. One of the books is a copy of the Necronomicon.
A Lone Ranger and Tonto comics mini-series written by Joe R. Lansdale and published by Topps Comics, which links the Ranger with the Cthulhu Mythos.
Late
1882 - A.J. Raffles' earliest criminal exploit, as told by Raffles himself, in Le
Premier Pas (edited by E.W. Hornung, and appearing in The
Amateur Cracksman).
1883 - Birth of Dr. Caber, son of John Clay (see Watson's/Doyle's The Adventure of the Red-Headed League) and Urania Moriarty, grandson of the first Professor James Moriarty. Dr. Caber would become the nemesis of Wold Newton family member Joseph Jorkens. Lord Dunsany related their tales in three stories: The Invention of Dr. Caber (found in Jorkens Has a Large Whiskey), and The Strange Drug of Dr. Caber and The Cleverness of Dr. Caber (both in The Fourth Book of Jorkens). Please read Rick Lai's A Brief Biography of Dr. Caber for complete information.
Holmes and Watson endeavor to locate an artist named Vukcic, whose subject matter for the painting at the heart of this case is a farm woman in Montenegro. Holmes also refers to a "mastermind" behind the mystery, whose name he knows as well as his own, but Holmes declines to name the man at this time.
Short story by H. Paul Jeffers, in the anthology The Confidential Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, Marvin Kaye, ed., St. Martin's Press, 1998. One of Holmes' twin sons would later answer to the name Marko Vukcic, perhaps hinting that Holmes had a deeper relationship with the eponymous painter than is otherwise indicted. Both Marko Vukcic and his twin brother, Nero Wolfe, had close ties to Montenegro. The mastermind is, of course, Mycroft Holmes.
1883 - Denis Nayland Smith is born. Smith is the son of Sherlock Holmes' sister, Sigrina Holmes, and thus is the nephew of Holmes. Nayland Smith shares an interesting characteristic with another British detective, Solar Pons, namely, the habit of tugging on the left earlobe in times of stress or deep thought. Brad Mengel, in his The Family Tree of Sherlock Holmes, proposes that Nayland Smith and Solar Pons are distant cousins, related through Pons' mother, Roberta McIvor.
1883-1885 - The events of She, as narrated by Ludwig Horace Holly, and transcribed by H. Rider Haggard. Holly, a Wold Newton Family member (click here for more information), scholar, and African explorer, is the guardian of Leo Vincey, the reincarnated love of She-who-must-be-obeyed, of the lost valley of Kôr. The date is derived from Ayesha: The Return of She.
October 1883-March 1885 - The events of R.L. Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
In this companion novel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson encounter Dr. Henry Jekyll and his alter ego, Edward Hyde.
This Holmes / Jekyll novel is by mystery writer Loren D. Estleman, published by Penguin Books in 1980.
Late 1883
ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE"Slim" and "Tubby" are American cops in London to study police tactics. After ending up in jail, they are bailed out by Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll has been murdering fellow doctors who laugh at his experiments, and has more murders in mind. At one point, the serum that turns Jekyll into the murderous Hyde gets injected into Tubby.
This film takes place during the events of Robert Louis Stevenson's book. These two bumblers would go on to meet Larry Talbot and Frankenstein's Monster, although they were using different names. Please read Dennis Power's Hyde and Hair for a further explanation of these events in the Wold Newton Universe. Dennis Power has also provided the solution to the mystery as to why these fellows appear to be so long-lived.
1884 - Kathryn Koluchy conducts her nefarious activities, as detailed in The Brotherhood of Seven Kings, by L.T. Meade and Robert Eustace.
THE DORRINGTON RUBY
SEAL (R. HOLMES & CO)Sherlock Holmes first encounters the "amateur cracksman," A.J. Raffles, who had stolen the Dorrington Ruby Seal seven months earlier, in January 1884. Holmes marries Raffles' sister Marjorie.
R. Holmes & Co. is a collection of inter-connected short stories by John Kendrick Bangs. It is speculated that Raffles Holmes was born in May 1885 and that Marjorie died in childbirth. Since it is doubtful that A.J. Raffles was old enough in 1884 to have a daughter of marrying age, Marjorie was more probably A.J. Raffles' sister, as stated here.
Late December 1884-Late March 1885 - The events of The List of Seven, as recounted by Mark Frost, in which an occult cabal known as the Seven is broken up by Jack Sparks and his friend Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle (Watson's literary agent).
Benjamin Barnett, a member of the first Professor Moriarty's crime family, has a secretary named Cecily Perrine, who describes her father as a man who is a student of languages and dialects, and who can place someone within two blocks in London after listening to them speak. Cecily's father is a Professor whose first name is Henry, and whom Sherlock Holmes expresses an interest in meeting. Holmes and Watson actually find themselves working on the same side as Moriarty. Writers Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw are also mentioned, as is a statue of Lord Hornblower.
This Professor Moriarty novel is by Michael Kurland, Signet Books, 1978. Hornblower is from C.S. Forester's nautical novels. Although Cecily's father is named as Henry Perrine, this is clearly a pseudonym for Professor Henry Higgins. George Bernard Shaw told the story of Professor Higgins in Pygmalion, also known as My Fair Lady. For an in-depth article on this entry by fellow Wold Newton fan Mark Brown, please click here.
1885
Waxahachie Smith works with the Floating Outfit and Theodore Roosevelt to protect those who can cure the Texas fever.
Novel by J.T. Edson. The Newtonverse version of Roosevelt worked with Sherlock Holmes and would also meet Indiana Jones.
1885 - Arronaxe Larsen, Doc Savage's mother, is born. She is the daughter of Wolf Larsen and Arronaxe Land.
1885 - Dr. Henry Frankenstein recreates his ancestor's experiments, as seen in the feature film Frankenstein (read Mark Brown's article for more information). The full cycle of adventures of this fifth Frankenstein Monster is as follows: Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Son of Frankenstein, The Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man, The House of Frankenstein, House of Dracula, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Return of the Wolf Man, The Devil's Brood, and The Devil's Night.
September-October 1885 - The Jekyll Legacy, a sequel to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as told by Robert Bloch and Andre Norton, in which Dr. Jekyll's niece, Hester, is involved in some terrifying events. The murderous culprit of the tale was obviously lying when elucidating on the theft of Mr. Hyde's corpse from its grave, since, unbeknownst to many, Jekyll / Hyde still lived at the conclusion of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (see Tooth and Nail, 1909). Click here for more information.
THE PURCHASE OF THE NORTH POLEThe members of the Baltimore Gun Club buy the North Pole at an international auction. The events surrounding the previous auction of a Pacific island are also mentioned. Also mentioned are the events of Hector Servadac and The Adventures of Captain Hatteras.
The Purchase of the North Pole (aka Topsy Turvy) is a novel by Jules Verne. The Gun Club was also mentioned in Verne's From the Earth to the Moon and Rosny & Farmer's Ironcastle. The Gun Club members are now twenty years older since the Moon project. The previous auction of the Pacific island occurred in Verne's The School for Robinsons (aka The School for Crusoes). Hector Servadac and The Adventures of Captain Hatteras are also novels by Jules Verne.
1886 - Events of the film Bride of Frankenstein (read Mark Brown's article for complete information).
1886 - Mycroft Holmes is appointed head of the British Secret Service, thus becoming the first "M." Subsequent "M"s will include Admiral Sir Miles Messervy and Barbara Mawdsley.
1886 - Birth of Dominick Medina, son of the third James Moriarty and Kathryn Koluchy.
Holmes is retained by Professor August Belknap for assistance in a case involving the Cthulhu Mythos.
Short story edited by Paula Volsky, from a manuscript by H.P. Lovecraft, based on the notes of Dr. John Watson, contained in the volume Resurrected Holmes, Marvin Kaye, ed., 1996; it is reprinted in Eternal Lovecraft, Jim Turner, ed., 1998. August Belknap must be a relative of H.P. Lovecraft associate and fellow writer Frank Belknap Long.
| 1886 - Events of Allan Quatermain, which features the title character's purported death, as related by H. Rider Haggard. Actually, Quatermain fakes his own death. Speaking of the events of Allen Quatermain, he states, "Only my demise was sham, a ruse to grant me freedom from my suffocating reputation." See Allan and the Sundered Veil, as told by Alan Moore. |  |
ROBUR THE CONQUERORThere are references to the cities Franceville and Stahlstadt, as well as to the power source of Captain Nemo's Nautilus. Scientists also mistakenly suspect Robur's ship of being Herr Schultze's projectile.
Robur-le-Conquérant (aka Clipper of the Clouds), like many of Jules Verne's stories, contains cross-references to his other novels, indicating that most if not all Verne stories take place in the Newtonverse. Franceville, Stahlstadt, and Herr Schultze's projectile are from 500 Millions of the Begum (aka The Begum's Fortune), while Nemo is from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
1886 - The Old Detective’s Pupil, Nick Carter's first case, by John Russell Coryell and Ormond Smith.
August 1886 - Leo Vincey and Ludwig Horace Holly set out for Central Asia on a quest to locate Ayesha; they will not succeed until 1903 (Ayesha: The Return of She).
December 1886 - The events of Sherlock Holmes and the Hands of Othello, as related by Alexander Simmons. Holmes helps Amanda Aldridge, the black actress and daughter of the famous "Negro Tragedian," the late Ira Aldridge. Holmes is hired by Thomas Kane (Amanda’s suitor) to investigate a strange series of events. Holmes also fights Phillipe Moreau, an assassin hired to kill Amanda Aldridge. The first duel between Moreau and Holmes ends in a draw. In the second duel, a sword fight, Holmes kills Moreau. (Further genealogical research may reveal a distant link between Solomon Kane and Thomas Kane, as well a connection between Dr. Moreau and Phillipe Moreau.)
December 1886 - The Adventure of the Red Leech, in which Holmes and Watson foil the first Professor Moriarty's plan to assassinate Queen Victoria (Detective Comics number 572).
The first Professor Moriarty concocts a scheme involving Her Majesty's Battleship Hornblower. Colonel Sebastian Moran continues to be a sometime-operative for Moriarty. Holmes and Watson also appear, as does the eighty-year-old Duke of Denver.
Michael Kurland's Professor Moriarty novel (Signet, 1982) most likely takes place in January, not March date listed, since the good Professor is otherwise occupied in February-April 1887. The ship is named after nautical hero Horatio Hornblower, thus confirming Hornblower in the Wold Newton Universe. The Duke of Denver seen here is probably the 14th, making him Lord Peter Wimsey's grandfather, George Wimsey (click here for more information). Kurland indicated that another Moriarty novel, The Murder Trust, was in the works; however, I believe it was never published.
In which Holmes and Watson encounter a mysterious traveler known as the Doctor (Who, that is, the Seventh) and together battle Azathoth, one of the Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos. Mycroft Holmes, Sherringford Holmes, Professor Moriarty and Professor Challenger's associate, Lord John Roxton, also appear, as does Inspector Cribb. Fu Manchu's Si Fan criminal organization, Professor Challenger, and Kolchak the Night Stalker are mentioned.
A Doctor Who novel by Andy Lane, part of The New Doctor Who Adventures series, Doctor Who Books, 1994. The Doctor visits the Newtonverse. It is also confirmed that the Cthulhu Mythos is associated with the Newtonverse. Given the differences between the history of Dr. Who's universe and that of the Wold Newton Universe, it is probable that the Doctor's native universe is an alternate or parallel timeline.
This novels brings in Peter Lovesey's detective, Inspector Cribb. Also of interest, Kim Newman's character from the Anno Dracula trilogy, the British agent Charles Beauregard who works for the Diogenes Club (British Secret Service), is mentioned in All Consuming Fire in the same role. This is a case of Newman's own practice of "borrowing" characters in reverse.
April 1887 - The events of Anthony Hope's The Prisoner of Zenda.
1887 - The events of H.G. Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau.
1887 - Birth of Charlie Chan, probable son of Fu Manchu (click here for more information).
May-November 1887 - The events of Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Samuel Clemens meets The Lone Ranger and Tonto.
Story found in Pure Imagination Comics' reprinting of Lone Ranger comic strips. Clemens, while in 1893 San Francisco, was accidentally transported to the U.S.S. Enterprise-D of the year 2368.
Holmes takes a case involving Lieutenant Richard Hornblower, great-grandson of Admiral Viscount Horatio Hornblower.
Short story edited by Peter Cannon, from a manuscript by C.S. Forester, based on the notes of Dr. John Watson. Contained in volume entitled Resurrected Holmes, Marvin Kaye, ed., 1996.
ADVENTURE OF THE SANGUINARY COUNT
Holmes and Watson fight against Dracula in this companion novel to Bram Stoker's Dracula.
The Holmes / Dracula novel is by Watson, edited by mystery writer Loren D. Estleman, published by Penguin Books in 1979. Dracula's encounter with Holmes places Dracula in the Wold Newton Universe. Therefore, Zorro gains entry through his battle with the Count in 1809. The Count Dracula featured here is the "real" Count, Dracula-prime, as opposed to one of his many "soul clones" (for more on this theory, please read Chuck Loridans' full account of the history of Count Dracula in the Newtonverse, Children of the Night). Although Watson dated these events in 1890, further research reveals that Dracula-prime was once again present in England in 1888, just prior to the Ripper murders (see entry for Dracula: The Suicide Club). Dracula: The Suicide Club also makes it clear that the events of Stoker's Dracula took place one year previous, i.e. 1887.
October 1887 - Paterson Erskine Guthrie takes a position as the confidential secretary to British spymaster Mycroft Holmes, essentially playing a Victorian Archie Goodwin to Holmes' Nero Wolfe (Against the Brotherhood by Guthrie, edited by Quinn Fawcett).
Late Autumn 1887
Holmes and Watson travel to April 24, 2010 to attend a wedding.
An original Dr. Who novel by Paul Cornell, featuring the Seventh Doctor. Presumably Holmes and Watson are returned to 1887 at the exact moment that they left. The year 2010 that they visit is probably in the mainstream Dr. Who Universe, which is parallel to the mainstream Wold Newton Universe.
MINA: THE DRACULA STORY CONTINUESMina (Murray) Harker, conducting an investigation in London, wonders, "What would Detective Holmes do?"
Novel by Marie Kiraly (pseudonym for Elaine Bergstrom). Although the novel also refers to the Holmes stories as being written by Doyle, everyone knows that Holmes was a real person and that Doyle served as Dr. Watson's editor and literary agent. For more information on Dracula, see Chuck Loridans' Children of the Night.
1888
- The events of Oscar Wilde's The
Selfish Giant.
1888 - Birth of Theodore Marley "Ham" Brooks, one of Doc Savage's five assistants.
1888 - Birth of Tara of Helium, daughter of John Carter and Dejah Thoris.
BLOOD TO BLOOD: THE DRACULA STORY CONTINUESArthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming, refers to Sherlock Holmes and his Baker Street Irregulars.
Novel by Elaine Bergstrom, a sequel to Mina: The Dracula Story Continues. Although the novel's events are dated to 1891, and there are references to the Jack-the-Ripper murders of late 1888, the larger Dracula chronology dictates setting these events in May-October 1888. For more on Dracula, see Chuck Loridans' Children of the Night.
1888
- Birth of Michael Lanyard, the Lone Wolf.
Dracula has become the President of London's Suicide Club. Sherlock Holmes, Dion Fortune, and Sir John Chandos also have roles in this case. A journalist named Milverton also briefly appears.
Comic mini-series published in 1992 by Adventure Comics, written by Steven Phillip Jones and illustrated by John Ross. The Suicide Club is derived from Robert Louis Stevenson's New Arabian Nights. Holmes makes an unnamed appearance, but the appearance is clear. There was a real English occultist and author named Dion Fortune, but she was born in 1890 and her true name was Violet Mary Firth; perhaps the Dion Fortune seen in this story is her mother, or at least an influence. (Interestingly, she studied studied occultism under Dr. Theodore Moriarty.) Milverton is probably not Charles Augustus Milverton, as seen on Watson's/Doyle's The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton (the descriptions do not match), but is almost certainly a relative. Sir John Chandos is undoubtedly a descendant of Sir John Chandos (Jean Froissart's Chronicles; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sir Nigel and The White Company); the relationship between the first Sir John Chandos and Richard William Chandos (Dornford Yates' Chandos series) has also been conclusively established by Brad Mengel in The Daring Drummonds. Dracula, based on a reading of Chuck Loridans' Children of the Night, appears to be Dracula-prime, and not one of his "soul-clones." This exploit concludes just as the Jack the Ripper murders are beginning.
THE ADVENTURE OF THE ARABIAN KNIGHT
Sherlock Holmes embarks to recover a stolen document on behalf of his client, Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton.
Story by Loren Estleman in Murder in Baker Street, 2001. Sir Richard Francis Burton translated the Arabian Nights and the Kama Sutra into English, and discovered the source of the Nile. He also figures largely in Philip José Farmer's Riverworld series, which may or may not be related to the Wold Newton Universe (see Dennis Power's Ozdyssey, or How the Yellow Brick Road Lead Me to the Riverworld).
Sherlock Holmes solves the Jack the Ripper slayings.
A novelization of the Holmes film, written by Dr. Watson and supplemented by Ellery Queen (Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay), Lancer Books, 1966. After reading Watson's manuscript in 1966, Ellery Queen had his own take on the Ripper case. But in 2265, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise encountered the energy being truly responsible for the murders, the life-form known as Redjac.
November 22, 1888 - Tarzan, Lord Greystoke (the future eighth duke of Greystoke), is born after his parents, Alice and John Clayton (the son of the fifth duke), are stranded in the jungle of French Equatorial Africa (Gabon). (Authorized books in the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan series are: Tarzan of the Apes, The Return of Tarzan, The Beasts of Tarzan, The Son of Tarzan, Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar, Jungle Tales of Tarzan, Tarzan the Untamed, Tarzan the Terrible, Tarzan and the Golden Lion, Tarzan and the Ant Men, Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, Tarzan and the Lost Empire, Tarzan at the Earth's Core, Tarzan The Invincible, Tarzan Triumphant, Tarzan and the City of Gold, Tarzan and the Lion Man, Tarzan and the Leopard Men, Tarzan's Quest, Tarzan and the Forbidden City, Tarzan the Magnificent, Tarzan and the Foreign Legion, Tarzan and the Madman, Tarzan and the Castaways, Tarzan and the Valley of Gold by Fritz Leiber, Tarzan: The Lost Adventure by E. R. Burroughs and Joe R. Lansdale, and Tarzan: The Dark Heart of Time by Philip José Farmer. There are many other Tarzan pastiches listed on this Chronology. Click here for a Chronology of Tarzan's adventures, based on and expanded from Philip José Farmer's timeline.)
THE TANGLED SKEINHolmes and Watson once again meet Dr. Abraham van Helsing. Van Helsing enlists their aid in tracking down Dracula, who has returned to England. Stapleton, the villain who attempted to terrorize Sir Henry Baskerville, also makes an appearance.
Novel by Dr. John H. Watson, edited by David Stuart Davies, 1992. The novel, a sort-of sequel to Watson and Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles, treats this as the first encounter between Holmes, van Helsing, and Dracula. It even recounts the facts of Dracula's arrival in England aboard the Demeter. This would lead one to assume that the events of this case would parallel those related in Bram Stoker's Dracula, as does Watson and Estleman's Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula. However, this is not the case, as none of the remaining events recounted in The Tangled Skein parallel those in Dracula. Therefore, these events can be seen as a subsequent meeting of Holmes and Dracula, rather than the initial one. Watson must have had his own reasons for confusing the facts of this case, one which, of course, "the world is not yet prepared."
Sherlock Holmes receives the Maltese Falcon as a gift for successfully concluding this case. The Maltese Falcon will become the object of great pursuit in forty years, embroiling San Francisco detective Sam Spade (and his son) in much intrigue.
Short story edited by Carole Buggé, from a manuscript by Dashiell Hammett, based on the notes of Dr. Watson. In the volume Resurrected Holmes, Marvin Kaye, ed., 1996.
1889
Allan Quatermain ingests the narcotic taduki and enters a state akin to the Dreamlands, a land where linear time does not exist. Indeed, there he meets the astral projection of Randolph Carter, who has come from the early 20th century. He also meets Randolph's great-uncle, John Carter, who, on his way to Barsoom from the Arizona cave where he lay dying in 1866, has been diverted to this realm. At the end of the second chapter, as the three are about to be attacked, The Time Traveler appears to rescue them. It is also revealed that the Morlocks of the far future are related to the Mi-Go of the Cthulhu Mythos.
Novella by Alan Moore, serialized in the six issues of the comics mini-series, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Allan Quatermain was established as part of the Wold Newton Family by Philip José Farmer, as was Wells' Time Traveler (aka Bruce Clarke Wildman). (For an excellent article on the Time Traveler, please read Travels in Time by Loki Carbis.) This crossover confirms that E.R. Burroughs' John Carter was originally an inhabitant of the Newtonverse, before he took up permanent residence in the dimension containing the planet Barsoom. It also relates John Carter to H. P. Lovecraft's Randolph Carter, who appeared in such classics as The Statement of Randolph Carter, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, and The Silver Key.
1889 - Events of Rudyard Kipling's Soldiers Three.
1889 - Birth of Carl Peterson, arch-enemy of Bulldog Drummond. Peterson is the second son of John Clay and Urania Moriarty, making him the grandson of the first Professor James Moriarty and the brother of Dr. Caber.
November 21, 1889 - Upon the death of the fifth duke of Greystoke, his brother, William Cecil Clayton, becomes the sixth duke.
SHERLOCK HOLMES i
LIVSFARERaffles, in London, steals a pearl necklace, only to be apprehended by Sherlock Holmes. Raffles, piqued, appeals to Professor Moriarty to have Holmes eliminated.
Danish silent film, 1908, aka Sherlock Holmes in Danger of His Life.
1890 - Birth of Wold Newton Family member Lord Peter Wimsey (click here for an in-depth article).
1890 - Sir Thomas
Bulfinch’s My Heart’s In the Highlands.
October 1890 - The events of Anthony Hope's Rupert of Hentzau. Death of Rudolf Rassendyll.
It is stated that the Sherlock Holmes mysteries are happening concurrently with these events in Narnia.
In C.S. Lewis' Narnia book, The Magician's Nephew, it states: "In those days Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street...." Since Narnia is clearly not part of "our" universe, The Wold Newton Universe, it must be another parallel reality. (See also Alternate Universes.) The date is based on educated guesswork.
1890-1891
Alie Dunbar is a female pirate in the Pacific, of the Robin Hood variety. A man named Benwell appears briefly.
Novel by Guy Boothby. Benwell was a also minor character in Guy Boothby's novel Dr. Nikola, thus linking this novel to the Nikola series. Nikola is in the Wold Newton Universe through references to Lecoq and Sherlock Holmes, and an appearance in the Doc Savage comic mini-series Doom Dynasty. For complete information, please read Rick Lai's The Life of Dr. Antonio Nikola (1856-1898?).
1891 - Birth of Richard Wentworth (The Spider), son of Lord John Roxton, who is, in turn, a descendant of Lord Byron.
1891 - Keith Hilary Pursuivant is born in Pursuivant Landing, KY.
In this novel, the first Professor Moriarty is described as being either the head of a vast criminal network, or the head of the British Secret Service, or both. Of course he denies it. There is a Fat Man named Gottfried Kaspar. In the same chapter we also see a man posing as a priest named Father Ugarti. One of the amateur spies playing at the "Great Game" is named Charles Bredlon Summerdale, who is the second son of a duke. Although she does not appear "onscreen," it is mentioned that Summerdale has a sister named Lady Patricia Templar. She is described as being married to "an energetic young prelate destined someday to become an archbishop, or even, if he had his way, a saint."
A Professor Moriarty novel by Michael Kurland, St. Martin's, 2001. Gottfried Kaspar is obviously based on Sydney Greenstreet's Caspar Gutman from John Huston's filmed version of The Maltese Falcon. For our purposes, we may postulate that the man in The Great Game is the father of Caspar Gutman. The variations on the name "Caspar" can be viewed as a series of aliases used by this father and son throughout their shady careers. Ugarti is the name of Peter Lorre's character in Casablanca. Again, it can't be the same man, but is likely his father. Thus, there are crossover connections between this novel, The Maltese Falcon, and Casablanca.
Wold Newton researcher Dennis Power postulates that Summerdale's sister and her husband, Mr. Templar, must have emigrated to South Africa sometime between 1891 and the Boer War. The young prelate, Mr. Templar, died in the Boer war in 1899. His widow, Mrs. Templar, took up with A.J. Raffles and bore a child, giving him the name Simon Templar. Please follow this link to Dennis Power's site for more information; see also Brad Mengel's The Incredible Raffles Clan. Thus, the young prelate has no connection to Simon Templar other than his name and the allusion that Kurland makes by using the name Templar.
Moriarty denies being the head of the British Secret Service, but if his denial is false, it certainly dovetails nicely with the events revealed in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (1898) and also fits in with a theory of layers upon layers within the British Secret Service.
In The Great Game, the British Secret Service in 1891 is practically non-existent. A high British official says that since Britain is not training and fielding real agents, many young men of idle means have stepped up to become "amateur" agents in foreign lands, operating with the knowledge of Britain, but without a truly official sanction. That's the first layer.
I would postulate that the second layer is the group headed by Mycroft Holmes and sometimes headquartered at The Diogenes Club. This is the same operation seen at work in the Quinn Fawcett books, as well as in Andy Lane's All Consuming Fire and in Kim Newman's Seven Stars. Charles Beauregard is also a part of this group. This operation is fairly secret and is not widely known even among most high British officials. Hence the British official's contention in The Great Game that Britain is fielding only amateur agents.
Next is the third layer, which is the ultra top secret "black ops" Secret Service group controlled by the first Professor Moriarty, as seen in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Before 1891, Moriarty never had any offices in any official British building and operated out of his home on Russell Square, as seen in The Great Game (as well as many more secret lairs). Before 1891, he was both a criminal mastermind and in charge of the British black ops group. After 1894, Moriarty moved into the offices at Whitehall (seen in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) and his activities became more open, so that by 1898, Mycroft Holmes knew of Moriarty's role in the Secret Service, although he was powerless to do anything about it. For more on the British Secret Service, please see Brad Mengel's Keeping Secrets.
| May 1891-April 1894 - The Great Hiatus: Both Holmes and the first Professor Moriarty are erroneously believed dead after their encounter at Reichenbach Falls (Watson's The Final Problem). Holmes travels the world. Meanwhile, the third Moriarty brother (also named James, herein referred to as the second Professor Moriarty) has recruited followers from his not-so-late elder brother's criminal organization for his own purposes. |  |
John Macklin, an English albino dwarf, commits a series of crimes throughout the world. Count de Panuroff of Thursday Island also appears.
Novel by Guy Boothby. Count de Panuroff was mentioned by a character in Boothby's Nikola novel A Bid for Fortune, placing the events of this novel in the same continuity as Nikola, and thus in the Wold Newton Universe. For more details, please see Rick Lai's The Life of Dr. Antonio Nikola (1856-1898?).
1891
- The affair of Jules Verne's Le
Château des Carpathes (The Castle of the Carpathians).
Sherlock Holmes, while living in Paris during the Great Hiatus and using his "Sigerson" identity, matches wits with Erik, the Opera Ghost. Irene Adler also appears in this case.
A novel by Nicholas Meyer. Meyer also "edited" The Seven-Percent Solution, a Holmes novel and film wherein Moriarty was not a villain, but was an innocent unjustly persecuted by Holmes. I discount Meyer's references to the events of The Seven-Percent Solution, following Wold Newton scholar Mark Brown's theory that Meyer was fooled by the Seven-Percent manuscript, which was a hoax perpetrated by the second Professor Moriarty. The events of The Canary Trainer also appear to be a sequel or "copycat" incident of some sort, since the original case of The Phantom of the Opera took place in 1880. Following these events, Holmes pursued Irene Adler to Montenegro, a decision which would culminate in the birth of twins Nero Wolfe and Marco Vukcic the next year.
During the Great Hiatus, Ludwig Horace Holly and Leo Vincey are conducting research in the monasteries of Tibet, when they meet another European, a Norseman by the name of Sigerson (Sherlock Holmes's identity during this time period). Sigerson solves the murder of the head librarian of one of the monasteries.
A novella by Leo Vincey, edited by Thomas Kent Miller. Holly (from H. Rider Haggard's She) and Holmes are Wold Newton Family members, and this manuscript confirms that they actually knew each other.
1892 - First documented appearance of Arsène Lupin, as told by Maurice Leblanc. Other Lupin books are The Crystal Stopper; Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Cambrioleur; Arsène Lupin Versus Herlock Sholmes; The Hollow Needle: Further Adventures of Arsène Lupin;813; and many others.
Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes go up against international criminal Adolphus Zecchino. A.J. Raffles also appears in the case under the alias "Mr. Maturin."
The date is not a mistake: the story does take place during The Great Hiatus. Adolphus Zecchino went to America and continued his criminal career as Arnold Zeck. Holmes' son Nero Wolfe clashed with criminal mastermind Zeck for several years before Zeck's death in 1950 (Rex Stout's novel In the Best Families). The tales of Raffles, a Wold Newton Family member, were told by E.W. Hornung. This short story is edited by Marvin Kaye, from a manuscript by Rex Stout, based on the notes of Dr. Watson, and can be found in the volume Resurrected Holmes, Marvin Kaye, ed., 1996. Raffles did not put his "Maturin" alias into regular use until 1895 or 1896; this incident must constitute a very early use of the identity.
Mid 1892 - Birth of twin bothers Nero Wolfe (aka John Hamish Adler, aka Auguste Lupa) and Marko Vukcic (aka Scott Adler). Their parents are Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler.
1892
- A comical character
attempts to travel around
the world in 37 days, as told by Jules Verne in Claudius
Bombarnac.
1892 - Doc Savage's great uncle, Bruce Clarke Wildman, begins his strange adventures through time (The Time Machine, as related to H.G. Wells; for more information, read Travels in Time by Loki Carbis). Pastiche continuations of The Time Traveler's story are (in no particular order): The Return of the Time Machine by Egon Friedell, Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter, The Space Machine by Christopher Priest, The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter, The Case of the Inertial Adjustor by Stephen Baxter (in The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories), The Richmond Enigma by John DeChancie (in Sherlock Holmes in Orbit), Allan and the Sundered Veil by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill (in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Die Unter Und Uber Der Erde by Robert Heymann (in Wunder Der Zukunft number 3, 1909), and The Rook comic series.
1892 - Alexander Waverly is born in Northampshire, England.
1892 - Birth of Kent (The Shadow) Allard, half-brother of Richard Wentworth (The Spider).
1893 - First recorded exploit of Dr. Nikola, A Bid for Fortune, Or Dr. Nikola's Vendetta, as recounted by Guy Boothby (click here for more information). Other books in the series are: Dr. Nikola Returns, The Lust of Hate, Dr. Nikola's Experiment, and Farewell, Nikola!.
1893 - First case of detective Sexton Blake, The Missing Millionaire, as related by Harry Blyth (click here and here for more information).
THE SPACE
MACHINEEdward Turnbull and Amelia Fitzgibbon use Sir William Reynolds' combination Time/Space Machine. They initially travel to August 1898 and witness a Great Britain devastated by the Martian Invasion. Escaping back in time, they are accidentally deposited on Mars, approximately ten months before the August 1898 arrival of the Martian Invaders on Earth.
A novel by Edward Turnbull, edited by Christopher Priest, Popular Library, 1978, combining elements of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds. On Mars, Turnbull and Fitzgibbon encounter red-skinned humans who are enslaved by the invaders. Therefore it is likely that Turnbull and Fitzgibbon were deposited on Barsoom, which exists in a universe parallel to the Wold Newton Universe. The Martian Invasion on Earth was launched from Barsoom, as seen in Mars: The Home Front (August 1898) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen II (August 1898). The 1903 date attributed to the Martian Invasion in Turnbull's account is inaccurate. For more on Sir William Reynolds and the various time travelers, read Loki Carbis' first-rate Travels in Time.
1893 - During The Great Hiatus, Sherlock Holmes visits a realm known in this world only as "Wonderland" (The Case of the Detective's Smile).
1893 - Events of The Sea Wolf by Jack London; Wolf Larsen is the father of Mr. Moto (click here for more information) and the grandfather of Doc Savage.
1893 - Samuel Clemens makes a brief excursion to the future and visits the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-D. In San Francisco, Lt. Commander Data of the Enterprise encounters Jack London, who will go on the chronicle the exploits of several Wold Newton family members (the events of Time's Arrow).
Mycroft Holmes refers to his contemporary, Professor Challenger.
This is the fourth in a series of books about British spymaster Mycroft Holmes. The adventures were recorded by Holmes' confidential secretary, Patersine Erskine Guthrie, and edited for publication by Quinn Fawcett.
Simon Carne, a clever criminal, adopts the identity of private detective Klimo, and is soon lauded by the British public as being "as great as Lecocq, or even the late lamented Sherlock Holmes." The Earl of Amberley also appears.
Collection of interconnected short stories by Guy Boothby, also published under the title The Viceroy's Protégé. The Holmes reference is in the tale "The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds." Of course this reference is made whilst Holmes is still thought dead. Lecocq is meant to refer to Emile Gaboriau's detective Lecoq. Per Philip José Farmer, both Holmes and Lecoq are in the Newtonverse, so this reference brings in Carne/Klimo. The Earl of Amberley was also seen in Boothby's first Dr. Nikola novel, A Bid for Fortune, thus connecting Carne/Klimo to Nikola. For a complete biography of Dr. Nikola, please read Rick Lai's superb The Life of Dr. Antonio Nikola (1856-1898?).
1894 - Events of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book (click here for more information).
1894 - Birth of Mr. Moto.
The "brawl" in Baker Street: Harry Flashman goes up against Colonel Moran. The final events of this conflict occur concurrently with Watson's The Adventure of the Empty House.
Novel by G.M. Fraser. Apparently Flashman and Moran had also previously met briefly in Flash for Freedom! Follow the link at Chronology Central to the Flashman Chronology for a much more detailed account of this meeting.
April 1894 - Holmes returns to England (Watson's The Adventure of the Empty House). The second Professor Moriarty masquerades as the first Professor Moriarty and rebuilds his elder brother's criminal empire, while at the same time coming to terms with Holmes and creating a truce of sorts. However, the second Professor is quickly driven out of England (The Return of Moriarty). Unknown to all, the first Professor Moriarty also survived Reichenbach Falls and spends several years recovering from the fall (see Sherlock Holmes in New York and The Earthquake Machine); he allows his younger brother to continue with his own criminal escapades as Professor Moriarty in order to confuse and confound Holmes. This is in conflict with the younger Moriarty's falsified accounts in the so-called "Moriarty Journals," in which the second Professor describes his 1888 murder of his entirely innocent and somewhat downtrodden older brother, the original Professor Moriarty. The second Professor was also responsible for other fabrications in the two published volumes of the "Moriarty Journals" (The Return of Moriarty and The Revenge of Moriarty, edited by John Gardner), such as his account of the incident at Reichenbach Falls.
May 1894-August 1896 - The second Professor James Moriarty is in America, plotting his return to England (The Revenge of Moriarty). During this period, in the year 1895, the second Professor Moriarty and Kathryn Koluchy establish their own criminal league/terrorist cult, the "Circle of Life" (see The Second War of the Worlds). Over the years, this organization will evolve and come to be known as Krafthaus (see The Power-House), and later THRUSH (see The Dagger Affair).
Brisco County, Jr., transports a British female espionage agent to Mexico for a prisoner exchange. The woman's name is Emma Steed. An American agent named Ashenden also appears.
Episode of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. Emma Steed and Ashenden are most likely ancestors or relatives of British secret agent John Steed (The Avengers) and W. Somerset Maugham's Ashenden, respectively, both of whom are already in the Wold Newton Universe. This crossover places Brisco County, Jr., in the Newtonverse. Researcher Dennis Power has uncovered Brisco's genealogy, which is revealed here.
Holmes is on the Continent, investigating the assassination of the President of France. He works with Monsieur Dubuque of the Paris police, and crosses paths with the infamous thief Arsène Lupin.
Novel by Watson, edited by John Hall, Breese Books, 1998. Dubuque was first introduced in Watson's / Doyle's The Second Stain (not to be confused with Too Many Stains (The Adventure of the Second Stain)), and Holmes would work with him again during the case of The Pandora Plague. In this account Lupin is referred to as "Jupin," but there can be no doubt as to his true identity.
1894 - Birth of Bruce Hagin Rassendyll (G-8), who will later use the identity Jim "Red" Albright (Captain Midnight), brother of Kent Allard (The Shadow) and half-brother of Richard Wentworth (The Spider). G-8's and The Shadow's father, Ralph Rassendyll, is the cousin of Rudolf Rassendyll (from The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau).
1894 - Birth of Andrew Blodgett "Monk" Mayfair, nephew of Professor George Edward Challenger, and one of Doc Savage's fabulous five.
1894 - Scientist Abednego Danner creates a serum designed to give great strength to human beings, and tests it on his unborn son (Philip Wylie's Gladiator). Danner's son, Hugo, would grow up to have powers similar to those of Clark Kent; however, eventually Danner would become a social outcast, turning to crime, going into seclusion, and finally meeting death by lightning in South America.
1894 - The events of Lieut.
Gulliver Jones: His Vacation (aka Gulliver of Mars) as
related by Edwin L. Arnold, in which Gulliver Jones is carried to
Mars, braves several adventures, and eventually marries a Martian princess.
September 1894 - Arthur Conan Doyle and his sometime partner, Jack Sparks, share an adventure in America in The Six Messiahs, as told by Mark Frost.
October-November 1894 - Holmes first discovers that the first Professor Moriarty is still alive and is resuming his criminal activity, as told in The Star of India, by John H. Watson, edited by Carole Buggé.
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF
EDWIN DROODMr. John Jasper consults Sherlock Holmes regarding the disappearance of his nephew, Edwin Drood. In Cloisterham, Dr. Watson drops that they are visitors from Baker Street, and the news quickly spreads that Sexton Blake is in town.
A novel by Watson, edited by Peter Rowland, Constable Crime Books, 1991. This novel is a follow-up to Charles Dickens' incomplete novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Although Watson dismisses Sexton Blake as a fictional creation, we know better. Even though this case takes a year to solve, Holmes is involved in many, many different unrelated cases during this time period.
On the trail of a murderer, Holmes and Watson cross paths with many London luminaries, including George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, actress Ellen Terry, Gilbert (of Gilbert and Sullivan), and Bram Stoker.
Novel by Watson, edited by Nicholas Meyer. It is interesting to note that several of the authors Holmes met were historians who brought to light many interesting people and events of the Wold Newton Universe.
Sherlock Holmes again crosses paths with the notorious thief (and his former brother-in-law), A.J. Raffles, on the trail of a "worm unknown to science."
This is a short story by Raffles' partner, Harry "Bunny" Manders, edited by Philip José Farmer, found in Riverworld and Other Stories, published by Berkley Books, 1979; and Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space, edited by Issac Asimov, Martin Greenberg, and Charles Waugh, Bluejay Books, 1984. See also the entry for Escape From Loki, 1918, and click here to read three articles related to this subject by Christopher Carey.
1895 - John Kirowan is born.
Holmes, in the course of solving this mystery, evinces knowledge of a race of "Great Apes" (Mangani) of Africa and hints that during The Great Hiatus he observed Mangani capable of raising a human being from infancy.
Apparently Holmes has some knowledge of the details of Tarzan's birth. Short story edited by Craig Shaw Gardner, from a manuscript by Edgar Rice Burroughs, based on the notes of Dr. Watson. In the volume entitled Resurrected Holmes, Marvin Kaye, ed., 1996.
Late October 1895
Writer H.G. Wells brings the murder of an innovative scientist to Sherlock Holmes' attention.
Short story by Stephen Baxter in The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures, Mike Ashley, editor, Carroll & Graf, 1997. The date given is 1894. However, Holmes is familiar with Wells' account of The Time Machine; therefore, I have adjusted the date to 1895.
James Jorkens and Sherlock Holmes share an adventure together.
The narrator of this story must be the father of Joseph Jorkens, a Wold Newton Family member. Short story edited by Darrell Schweitzer, from a manuscript by Lord Dunsany, based on the notes of Dr. Watson. In the anthology Resurrected Holmes, Marvin Kaye, ed., 1996.
