300px|thumb|upright=1.1|The Baker Street Irregulars meeting on January 30, 1940. Those pictured include [[Christopher Morley, Frederic Dorr Steele, Robert Keith Leavitt, and David A. Randall, among others.]]
The Baker Street Irregulars is an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley. As of 2015, the nonprofit organization had about 300 members worldwide.
The group has published The Baker Street Journal, an "irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana", since 1946. which postulates that Holmes and Doctor Watson were real and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was merely Watson's "literary agent". The inaugural meeting of the BSI was held in 1934 at Christ Cella's restaurant in New York City. Initial attendees included William Gillette, Vincent Starrett, Alexander Woollcott, and Gene Tunney.
In February 1934, Elmer Davis, a friend of Morley, wrote a constitution for the group explaining its purpose and stating that anyone who passed a certain test was eligible to join. This test, a crossword puzzle by Morley's younger brother Frank, was published in the May 1934 issue of Saturday Review of Literature. From 1986 until 1997, Thomas L. Stix Jr. was the leader of the organization, and used the title "Wiggins". The BSI invested its first woman in 1991: She was followed by Katherine McMahon, the first woman to solve the crossword puzzle. and Michael Kean in 2020.
Membership
Membership is by invitation only
Notable members
Among the members of the Baker Street Irregulars, past and present:
- Karen Anderson
- Poul Anderson
- Isaac Asimov
- Terry Belanger
- Frederic Dannay
- Michael Dirda
- Robert L. Fish
- John Gardner
- Michael Harrison
- Jeffrey Hatcher
- Nicholas Meyer
- Lenore Glen Offord
- David A. Randall
- Red Smith
- Frederic Dorr Steele
- Chris Steinbrunner
- Harry Truman (honorary)
- Manly Wade Wellman