The Mysterious World of Sherlock Holmes

by Bruce Wexler

  For the Conan Doyle family, this could not be the end. Although he had departed on the “greatest and most glorious adventure of all,” they fully expected that he would communicate with them from beyond the grave. “I know perfectly well I am going to have conversations with my father,” maintained Adrian Conan Doyle. Mediums everywhere waited anxiously for Conan Doyle’s messages from “beyond the veil,” and his image began to appear in a flurry of dubious “spirit photographs.”

  The author as a young man, almost certainly in the 1880s, when he was just starting out on the road to become an author.

  Conan Doyle’s final resting place in Minstead Churchyard, Hampshire, England.

  A few days after his death, his family buried Conan Doyle near the garden hut at Windelsham, which he had so often used as a study. He had a simple oak marker, inscribed, at Jean’s insistence, with just his name, date of birth, and a four-word motto. The words were borrowed from Robert Louis Stephenson:

  Steel True

  Blade Straight

  ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

  Knight

  22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930

  In the light of their Spiritualist beliefs, the Conan Doyles refused any outward show of mourning, and Jean wore a flowered summer dress.

  This certainly seems a strange end for a man whose chief creation, the cornerstone of his great reputation, was the very personification of logical deduction based on the application of intellect and evidence. But as Conan Doyle had already told us, “the created is not the creator . . . The doll and its maker are never identical.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Sherlock Holmes: A Life in Print

  The first editions of Conan Doyle’s Sherlockian stories appeared over a protracted period of forty years. Holmes was the perfect detective for a rationalist age. All were published during the author’s lifetime. Several were also translated, and as well as being well known on both sides of the Atlantic, Sherlock Holmes had many European devotees. His fan base is now worldwide and there are Sherlockian Societies everywhere, including Japan, Russia, Australia, and India.

  A fragment of manuscript in the author’s handwriting contains the final eleven lines of the Sherlock Holmes Story The Adventure of the Reigate Squires.

  Despite the phenomenal success of the stories during Conan Doyle’s lifetime, since his death, an even more extraordinary publishing phenomenon has evolved. Not only have all the stories remained in print since they were first launched, but there is also a burgeoning market for Sherlockian literary collectibles of every description. Holmes bibliophiles collect a vast array of literary material featuring the great detective, some of which (especially rare and first editions) have become extremely valuable. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is said to be the only other fictional character to have generated a partially comparable ‘‘personality’’ cult. In addition to the enormous number of published editions of the works themselves, there is a massive array of other literary genres featuring Conan Doyle’s creation. These include critical essays, spoof Holmes adventures, ‘‘biographies’’ of various Sherlockian characters, illustrated novels, comic books, Conan Doyle pastiches, condensed versions, and biographies of the author himself.

  The American actor, William Gillette, was the first artist closely identified with the role of Holmes, but many other distinguished actors followed in his footsteps, including Basil Rathbone, John Geilgud, John Barrymore, Jeremy Brett, and Peter Cushing. It is said that more actors have played Sherlock Holmes than any other literary character.

  A Study in Scarlet

  The author’s copy of Ward Lock’s 1904 edition of A Study In Scarlet. It was awarded to his grandfather as a school prize in 1905, and is illustrated by George Hutchinson.

  The copyright page shows that this edition of the book had already reprinted twenty-one times in seventeen years. Notes by Dr. Joseph Bell were added in 1893. It is significant that although written as popular fiction, the Sherlock Holmes stories were deemed sufficiently “educational” to be given as school prizes. It has an embossed blue cloth binding, which is stamped in gold leaf.

  As well as the many private individuals nurturing large and specialized Holmes collections, such as the magnificent collection of Sherlockiana and original manuscripts amassed by Doctor C. Frederick Kittle, there are also public assemblages. The Toronto Reference Library and the University of Minnesota Libraries both have extraordinary collections of material about Conan Doyle and Sherlock, which is accessible to the public. The Toronto Reference Library houses a vast array of both primary and secondary source material, and has recently acquired an extraordinary set of manuscripts and documents that feature Conan Doyle’s connections to ‘‘Canada and the Empire.’’

  Toronto’s Arthur Conan Doyle Collection also encompasses stage and screen adaptations of the Sherlockian works. This is particularly relevant, as it was only a few years following their original composition that Conan Doyle’s stories were brought to life on stage, and only a couple of decades until Holmes and Watson appeared on screen. The American actor, William Gillette, was the first artist closely identified with the role of Holmes, but many other distinguished actors followed in his footsteps, including Basil Rathbone, John Geilgud, John Barrymore, Jeremy Brett, and Peter Cushing. It is said that more actors have played Sherlock Holmes than any other literary character. The Marylebone Library in London also possesses a substantial Sherlock Holmes Collection. The Library’s aim is to collect as much material as possible about both the great detective and his creator, and to make it freely available. Their collection includes several rarities, including Conan Doyle’s original manuscripts of ‘‘The Dying Detective’’ and ‘‘The Lion’s Mane.’’

  A Study in Scarlet first appeared in Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887. Copies of this edition are extremely prized by collectors, and very valuable.

  Other collectors specialize in acquiring the translated editions of Conan Doyle’s Holmesian oeuvre. It is estimated that the stories appear in eighty-two different languages, including Braille, several obscure Indian dialects (including Teluga, Kannada, Oriya, and Sindhi), Azeri, Cyrillic, Hindi, Mongolian, Pitman Shorthand, Dancing Men, Esperanto, and Pig Latin.

  The Holy Grail for the Sherlock bibliophile is the first published edition of the very first tale. The great detective first materialized in Beeton’s Christmas Annual for 1887 in the story, ‘‘A Study in Scarlet.’’ The magazine still bore the name of its original publisher, Sam Beeton (husband of the famous cookery writer Mrs. Beeton), but by this time the masthead was owned by Ward, Lock & Co. Beeton’s Christmas Annual had a color picture ‘‘wrapper,’’ and was priced at a modest shilling. It was highly successful and sold out well before that Christmas. Original copies of this issue are now among the most valuable magazines in literary history. In June 2007, Sotheby’s of New York sold a copy of the magazine for $156,000, despite the fact that it was creased, worn, and had a small hole in the front wrapper.

  The popularity of Sherlock Holmes’s adventures guaranteed that they would be translated into many languages, as these two dramatic Spanish-language magazine covers demonstrate.

  Even during his lifetime, several translated versions of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock stories were published, but his original, and perhaps most important audience, remained either side of the Atlantic. A Study in Scarlet, volume form, appeared in 1888, published by Ward, Lock & Co. This set the pattern for the publication of almost all of the Sherlock Holmes stories in Great Britain, and meant that Conan Doyle was paid at least twice for all his published work.

  But Conan Doyle’s most important publishing relationship was with the Strand magazine. His literary agent, A. P. Watt, who made a deal with the Strand to publish Conan Doyle’s first six Sherlock Holmes short stories, initiated this partnership. Starting with ‘‘A Scandal in Bohemia’’ in July 1891, they continued to publish first editions of his Sherlock Holmes stories until ‘‘Shoscombe Old Place’’ in April 1927. A complete set of original Strand magazines in
which the illustrated stories first appeared would be an extremely rare and desirable item of ‘‘Sherlockiana.’’

  The first edition of the Strand had appeared in January 1891. Founded by publisher George Newnes, the magazine was aimed at a middle class family audience, and became the most popular and important periodical of the day. Its winning formula consisted of a lively mixture of fiction, current affairs, and informative articles, complete with ‘‘a picture on every page.’’ The Strand was priced at a humble sixpence, half the price of most similar publications, and was published monthly. Conan Doyle deliberately tailored his writing to the publishing format of the magazine, and his work appeared in almost every monthly issue until his death in 1930. This was a hugely beneficial relationship that made a fortune for both parties. The Strand itself survived until 1950. Besides Conan Doyle, its famous contributors included Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill, D. H. Lawrence, G. K. Chesterton, Leo Tolstoy, H. G. Wells, Agatha Christie, and mystery writer Margery Allingham.

  Two Spanish versions of the German-language pastiches of the Holmes stories, which were first published in 1907. They were printed in the “nickel thriller” format and remained in print, selling to Spanish-speaking Americans, until the 1980s.

  The Strand published the first editions of the Holmes stories between 1891 and 1927. Conan Doyle tailored his writing to fit the format of the magazine. Here is the April 1902 edition, featuring The Hound of the Baskervilles with Sidney Paget’s illustrations.

  In volume form, Conan Doyle’s work appeared on the lists of several reputable British companies. Spencer Blackett published The Sign of Four in 1890, while George Newnes, Ltd. published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905). Smith, Elder & Co. of London became Conan Doyle’s volume publisher in 1915 with the release of The Valley of Fear, but with the launch of His Last Bow in 1917, Conan Doyle moved to John Murray (of London). Murray also published his final volumes, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927), The Complete Short Stories of Sherlock Holmes (1929), and The Complete Long Stories of Sherlock Holmes (1929).

  Just as in the UK, many Conan Doyle stories were first published in America in serial form, appearing in various magazines, then re-launched in volume form. Once published, the stories often fell victim to America’s rather loose copyright laws. The work of Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, and Charles Dickens was all republished without their consent, or (far worse) any payment. Charles Dickens particularly resented the loss of income that this infringement caused. An American copyright law was introduced in 1891, but it did not cover material already published, and pirate editions of Conan Doyle’s work continued to appear until 1930.

  Philadelphia–based Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine was one of the first publishers to feature the Holmes stories in the United States.

  Conan Doyle’s first American publisher was J. B. Lippincott and Co. of Philadelphia and New York, who published A Study in Scarlet in book form in 1890. Bookstall operators Benjamin Warner and Jacob Johnson had founded the company in Philadelphia in 1792. By the mid-nineteenth century, it was one of the biggest publishers in the English-speaking world. But while J. B. Lippincott picked up a story that had already been published in England, magazine proprietor Joseph Marshall Stoddart commissioned The Sign of Four, to be serialized in his Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. The magazine was published in Philadelphia between 1868 and 1915, when it relocated to New York and became McBride’s Magazine. As well as publishing Conan Doyle, Lippincott’s also published Rudyard Kipling’s The Light that Failed and Oscar Wilde’s Picture of Dorian Gray.

  With the 1892 publication of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Harper’s Weekly took over the role of Conan Doyle’s magazine publisher in America. Fletcher Harper founded the magazine in 1857, impressed by the success of the Illustrated London News.

  McClure’s Magazine published several Conan Doyle stories, beginning with ‘‘The Final Problem’’ in December 1893. Irish-American Samuel Sidney McClure had founded the magazine that year, and sold it at a reduced price of fifteen cents an issue. McClure’s also published other prominent authors of the day, including Rudyard Kipling.

  It was Collier’s that was to become most closely associated with publishing the Holmes stories in magazine form for American readers. Frederic Dorr Steele’s highly distinctive illustrations graced Collier’s covers.

  It was Collier’s Weekly that was responsible for introducing most of the Sherlockian ‘‘middle canon’’ to America. Peter Fendon Collier had founded the magazine in 1888, and it had been almost immediately successful, quickly building a monthly circulation of around 250,000 copies. At the time, this was one of the largest in America. Collier’s began their association with Conan Doyle in February 1893 with the publication of ‘‘Silver Blaze,’’ and continued to publish new Holmes stories until ‘‘The Illustrious Client’’ appeared in November 1924.

  The American Magazine, Hearst’s International, and (to a far greater extent) Liberty magazine were responsible for serializing the later Sherlock works in America. The American Magazine published just one Holmes story, ‘‘The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax’’ in 1911. The magazine was founded by ex-McClure’s Magazine staff in 1906 and became a feature of the American literary landscape until it failed half a century later, in 1956. Hearst’s International was originated by an Episcopal bishop in 1901, and was acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1912. It retained its devotion to current affairs, but with an admixture of fiction. Between 1921 and 1924, the magazine published four original Sherlock Holmes stories. Liberty started publication in 1924, and was said to be the ‘‘second greatest magazine in America,’’ only less popular than the massively successful Saturday Evening Post. It was a general interest publication, but also published fiction by the finest writers of the period, including Sherlock Holmes stories (in 1926 and 1927), and the early novels of P. G. Wodehouse.

  Samuel Sidney McClure published The Final Problem in his magazine in 1893, at the special price of 15 cents.

  Two examples of the Classic Comics versions of the Holmes stories, which appeared when the copyright expired in the 1940s. The cover artwork is by H.C. Keifer.

  In volume form, Conan Doyle’s work appeared on a number of American publishers’ lists. J. B. Lippincott Co. was the first (A Study in Scarlet, 1890). The next was P. F. Collier, who published The Sign of Four in 1891, followed by Harper & Bros. of New York, who released The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in 1892 and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes in 1894. McClure, Phillips & Co. of New York became Conan Doyle’s publisher in 1902, when they released The Hound of the Baskervilles, and continued with The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 1905. George H. Doran of New York launched The Valley of Fear (1915), His Last Bow (1917), and The Case-book of Sherlock Holmes (1927). Doubleday, Doran & Co. of Garden City issued Conan Doyle’s final collection of Holmes material as The Complete Sherlock Holmes in 1930.

  Inevitably, the extensive number of first editions, and the plethora of re-issues and new material that has been published since Sherlock Holmes made his first appearance, have built up into an mammoth volume of collectible material. The huge interest in collecting Sherlockian literature has resulted in several bookshops and internet retailers that specialize in this field. Philip Gold, the proprietor of 221 Books of Westlake Village, California, has some interesting tips for anyone wanting to start a collection of Holmes books and ephemera:

  “Assembling a collection of cornerstone titles will be a challenging, and perhaps a lifelong endeavor. But don’t fail to inject some of your own interests and perspectives into the process. That’s the secret to assembling a unique and significant collection. Books about the world’s first consulting detective, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, have been a consistently popular collecting genre.’’

  Sidney Paget’s fine illustration of a rather dapper Homes and Watson in their city wear; top hats and conventional o
vercoats. Note that Holmes and Watson are correctly shown as being around the same age (Watson was actually two years older than Holmes). Some film characterizations depict Watson as a bumbling older man.

  Holmesian Illustrators

  ‘‘His very person and appearance were such as to strike the attention of the most casual observer. In height he was rather over six feet, and so excessively lean that he seemed to be considerably taller. His eyes were sharp and piercing . . . and his thin hawk-like nose gave his whole expression an air of smartness and decision. His chin, too, had the prominence and squareness which mark the man of decision.’’

  Although Conan Doyle’s portrait of Sherlock is highly evocative, the various illustrators that brought his work to life have made a great contribution to the indelible popular image of the great detective. At least thirty illustrators were commissioned to illustrate the English-language editions of Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories during the author’s lifetime. Their work has ensured that Sherlock is one of the few literary characters that is fixed in the popular imagination.

  Sidney Paget’s illustration of Holmes staring into the fire in “The Five Orange Pips.”

  Perhaps the greatest contributor to the universal image of Holmes is Sidney Paget, who first brought Holmes to life in the Strand. Sidney’s brother, Walter, had already illustrated Robert Louis Stevenson’s Robinson Crusoe, and was chosen by George Newnes (the proprietor of the magazine) to work on Conan Doyle’s stories. But the hand of fate intervened, and the commission was sent to Sidney in error. Conan Doyle maintained that Paget’s Holmes was too good-looking, but it was Sidney that fixed the image of the detective in the public imagination, with Holmes’s signature deerstalker and his distinguished, fiercely intense demeanor.