Along with being the birth of our nation, in my family, the forth of July has always been the celebration of my sculptor uncle, Octavio Mastrovito, better known as the man who built the golden statue of Prometheus at Rockefeller Center in New York. He also named me Gretchen. And I have always felt the kinship that artists share. He was a spectacularly talented, tall, dark, handsome and generous gentleman. We were very close in my formative years. Yet, he left the east to pursue his career in the west when I was 5. Probably why I discovered Sherlock Holmes the next year. He would have been 110 today. I have immortalized him as one of the main characters in my novel, These Scattered Houses.
The sculpture was installed in 1934. Paul Manship is the sculptor. But my uncle built it for him and cast it in bronze, gilded by hand in 24K gold leaf. So we feel it’s ours.
Gretchen Altabef is an award-winning author of new Sherlock Holmes mysteries, sci-fi and historical stories. Her books brim with imagination and a news reporter’s excitement for the true history of the day. THESE SCATTERED HOUSES brings Holmes to New York during his ‘great hiatus’. REMARKABLE POWER OF STIMULUS follows in London. During the investigation of a gruesome murder, Holmes is given a second chance with the woman. The trilogy continues with FIVE MILES OF COUNTRY, where Holmes returns to New York to solve a murder in Thomas Edison’s moving picture studio, and Mrs Irene Adler-Holmes takes on Broadway. THE KEYS OF DEATH is a genesis story of the world’s most famous address, 221B Baker Street, and it’s landlady, Mrs Hudson.
Features of Interest 