Samuel Rosenberg
Encyclopedia
Samuel Rosenberg was best known for his 1974 study of Sherlock Holmes
titled Naked is the Best Disguise
(subtitled The Death and Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes). His other notable book was The Confessions of a Trivialist (originally published as The Come As You Are Masquerade Party).
He was born in Cleveland, Ohio
, as the son of Jacob S. and Fanny Rosenberg. Jacob was a butcher who published songs. While in his twenties, Samuel migrated to New York City
and found employment reading plays for a producer on Broadway
. He collaborated with Jerome Weidman
on a play in 1936. Subsequently, his pattern-recognition ability led to his becoming a photographer and photograph analyst for the O.S.S.
during World War II
.
MGM
employed him to search literary sources and references in order to prevent lawsuits for plagiarism
. The knowledge that he gained from this activity led to the publication of his books. In these, he found hidden patterns and references that were formerly overlooked by readers.
In 1954, he was sent to Rosenlaui, Switzerland
, as a photojournalist
to interview Tenzing Norgay
. Though he had been one of the first to successfully climb Mount Everest
, Norgay had enrolled as a student in a mountaineering school. Rosenlaui's proximity to the Reichenbach Falls
led Rosenberg to begin his meditations on Sherlock Holmes, resulting in his most popular book. That steep waterfall was the scene of Holmes's final encounter with Professor Moriarty
.
He weighed over 300 pounds at a height of 6 foot 3 inches. He died at age 85 as a result of Parkinson's syndrome. His friend Buckminster Fuller
had humorously referred to him as a "pink mountain" (rosen berg) and "history's most massive reader."
The essay about Sidis was given emphasis in Amy Wallace's book The Prodigy: A biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy.
, Oscar Wilde
, Dionysus
, Christ
, Catullus
, John Bunyan
, Robert Browning
, Boccaccio
, Napoleon, Racine
, Frankenstein, Flaubert, George Sand
, Socrates
, Poe
, General Charles George Gordon
, Melville, Joyce
's Ulysses
, T. S. Eliot
, and many others. Rosenberg claimed that Doyle left open clues to his most hidden thoughts. Rosenberg also describes his discovery of the Doyle Syndrome. This repetitive narrative sequence reveals to him some deep characteristics of the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The pattern is associated with illicit love and contains such sequential story elements as:
As a result of this repeated pattern, Sherlock Holmes preserves Victorian morality.
Rosenberg's book may be criticized for its irreverence toward the Holmes stories and for its unprofessional use of psychoanalysis
with references to sexual activity. However, many readers may enjoy its unique associations and hypotheses.
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
titled Naked is the Best Disguise
Naked is the Best Disguise
Naked is the Best Disguise: The Death and Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes is a book by Samuel Rosenberg speculating on the alleged hidden meanings in the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and examining the influence of his writings on other works, especially James Joyce's Ulysses...
(subtitled The Death and Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes). His other notable book was The Confessions of a Trivialist (originally published as The Come As You Are Masquerade Party).
He was born in Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, as the son of Jacob S. and Fanny Rosenberg. Jacob was a butcher who published songs. While in his twenties, Samuel migrated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and found employment reading plays for a producer on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
. He collaborated with Jerome Weidman
Jerome Weidman
Jerome Weidman was an American playwright and novelist. He collaborated with George Abbott on the book for the musical Fiorello! with music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick...
on a play in 1936. Subsequently, his pattern-recognition ability led to his becoming a photographer and photograph analyst for the O.S.S.
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
employed him to search literary sources and references in order to prevent lawsuits for plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
. The knowledge that he gained from this activity led to the publication of his books. In these, he found hidden patterns and references that were formerly overlooked by readers.
In 1954, he was sent to Rosenlaui, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, as a photojournalist
Photojournalism
Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism...
to interview Tenzing Norgay
Tenzing Norgay
Padma Bhushan, Supradipta-Manyabara-Nepal-Tara Tenzing Norgay, GM born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer...
. Though he had been one of the first to successfully climb Mount Everest
Mount Everest
Mount Everest is the world's highest mountain, with a peak at above sea level. It is located in the Mahalangur section of the Himalayas. The international boundary runs across the precise summit point...
, Norgay had enrolled as a student in a mountaineering school. Rosenlaui's proximity to the Reichenbach Falls
Reichenbach Falls
The Reichenbach Falls are a series of waterfalls on the River Aar near Meiringen in Bern canton in central Switzerland. They have a total drop of 250 m . At 90 m , the Upper Reichenbach Falls is one of the highest cataracts in the Alps...
led Rosenberg to begin his meditations on Sherlock Holmes, resulting in his most popular book. That steep waterfall was the scene of Holmes's final encounter with Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
.
He weighed over 300 pounds at a height of 6 foot 3 inches. He died at age 85 as a result of Parkinson's syndrome. His friend Buckminster Fuller
Buckminster Fuller
Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller was an American systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, futurist and second president of Mensa International, the high IQ society....
had humorously referred to him as a "pink mountain" (rosen berg) and "history's most massive reader."
The Confessions of a Trivialist
A shorter version of this 1972 book was first published as The Come As You Are Masquerade Party in 1970. Among its contents are essays on:- The FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
stories and movies, - William James SidisWilliam James SidisWilliam James Sidis was an American child prodigy with exceptional mathematical and linguistic abilities. His IQ was estimated to be between 250 and 300 - one of the highest ever recorded - he entered Harvard early at age 11, and as an adult was conversant in over 40 languages and dialects...
, the intellectual prodigy, - The original Santa ClausSanta ClausSanta Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...
, - A brief encounter with Albert SchweitzerAlbert SchweitzerAlbert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
, - Lot's wifeLot's wifeLot's wife is a person mentioned in the Book of Genesis who was turned into a pillar of salt for failing to heed the orders of the angels of deliverance from the city of Sodom."Lot's wife" may further refer to:-Geography:...
- Herman MelvilleHerman MelvilleHerman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
's private life.
The essay about Sidis was given emphasis in Amy Wallace's book The Prodigy: A biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy.
Naked is the Best Disguise
Published in 1974, this book relates the Sherlock Holmes stories in surprising ways to NietzscheFriedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and classical philologist...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Dionysus
Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c. 1500—1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in ancient Minoan Crete...
, Christ
Christ
Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...
, Catullus
Catullus
Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the Republican period. His surviving works are still read widely, and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.-Biography:...
, John Bunyan
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
, Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
, Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian author and poet, a friend, student, and correspondent of Petrarch, an important Renaissance humanist and the author of a number of notable works including the Decameron, On Famous Women, and his poetry in the Italian vernacular...
, Napoleon, Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
, Frankenstein, Flaubert, George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
, Socrates
Socrates
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
, General Charles George Gordon
Charles George Gordon
Major-General Charles George Gordon, CB , known as "Chinese" Gordon, Gordon Pasha, and Gordon of Khartoum, was a British army officer and administrator....
, Melville, Joyce
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
's Ulysses
Ulysses (novel)
Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...
, T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
, and many others. Rosenberg claimed that Doyle left open clues to his most hidden thoughts. Rosenberg also describes his discovery of the Doyle Syndrome. This repetitive narrative sequence reveals to him some deep characteristics of the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The pattern is associated with illicit love and contains such sequential story elements as:
- Detective goes to scene of crime,
- He conducts a vigil,
- Reference is made to written words that refer to illicit love,
- Reference is made to severe punishment and the deaths of many people,
- Arrival of violent person,
- Reference is made to reversal of sexes,
- Physical combat.
As a result of this repeated pattern, Sherlock Holmes preserves Victorian morality.
Rosenberg's book may be criticized for its irreverence toward the Holmes stories and for its unprofessional use of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
with references to sexual activity. However, many readers may enjoy its unique associations and hypotheses.