In 1950, Karen Anderson, a D.C. high school student and Holmes enthusiast, founded The Red Circle Society with the help of three other Washingtonians. She said they took its name from the title of a story in the Conan Doyle book, "His Last Bow." The name also was intended to show defiance against the anti-communist baiters of the time, Anderson said. The club took a hiatus in 1955 when Anderson moved to California. But in 1970 it was resuscitated by Peter Blau, a recent arrival to the capital. Blau had been obsessed with the tales since he was 14, when his father's book-dealer friend introduced him to "The Baker Street Journal," a periodical dedicated to all things Sherlockian. "Washington was too big of a city not to have a Sherlockian society," said Blau, 65, now the chief organizer of the District-based society. Anderson, now a science fiction writer, remains the ceremonial president.