Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

In early 1886, a young medical doctor, Arthur Doyle, decided to while away his all too many hours between patients by writing a story about a detective who would solve a case largely through his reasoning ability. Writing really wasn't too unusual for Arthur. He had, in fact, been writing (and publishing) stories since he was in college. He was serious about his literature career - actually more so than about being a doctor - and he kept plugging away with a mix of success and rejection.

Now Arthur modeled his character's brain power after his old medical professor at Edinburgh, Dr. Joseph Bell. Dr. Bell, Arthur remembered, could look at a patient and not only tell what was wrong with him, but could deduce the man's profession, background, and even where he was from. The detective protagonist, Arthur decided, would be someone who would have the powers of deduction as Dr. Bell. And the name? Sheridan Hope sounded fine, and he would have a friend and assistant named Ormond Sacker. Casting around for a title, Arthur chose "A Tangled Skein".

Happily by the time the story was was published at Christmastime of the next year in Beeton's Christmas Annual, Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker had become Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, and the story dubbed "A Study in Scarlet". The publisher of Beeton's required the copyright and paid Arthur 25 pounds. At no time, Arthur said, did he ever receive another penny for it. But after reading Study the publisher of Lippincott's magazine invited Sir Arthur to dinner (along with Oscar Wilde) and asked for a sequal. Sir Arthur then wrote The Sign of Four. He kept the copyright on that one.

As famous as the first two novels are today, at the time they did not enjoy much success. And Arthur wanted to be a writer, not a doctor. He realized the way to fame and fortune was to start selling short stories to the new popular magazines. The pay was respectable and if you got a popular series running you could be set for life. Sherlock provided the character, and rather than handle the hassles of finding the right magazine, Arthur hired an agent, A.P. Watt. Arthur then wrote the first Holmes short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia" and sent it to A. P., who in turn sent it to the Strand Magazine. Sherlock was a hit, and the publishers of the Strand saw they had a goldmine in Arthur Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. So Dr. Arthur Doyle, M. D., became (later Sir) Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous writer.

It's odd that the creator of the most famous character in literature soon came to hate his character. Sherlock Holmes and the fifty-six stories and four novels, thought Sir Arthur, were simply a fun read. But he wanted to write literature, and dammit, people kept pestering him about Sherlock Holmes. So in 1893, only a year after writing his first Holmes short story, he killed Sherlock off in The Final Problem. But whether due to public demand, the extra income, or some other reason, Sir Arthur returned to Sherlock ten years later in both the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and in the short story The Adventure of the Empty House. From then on Sir Arthur kept writing Sherlock Holmes stories until 1927, three years before he died.

But why should a fun read not be great literature? After all, of all the writings from the Victorian era, the Sherlock Holmes stories are among the few that a large number of people still read. Besides look at an excerpt from perhaps the most famous work of Sir Arthur's - quote - "great literature" - unquote - the historical novel, The White Company.

"I would fain know, father," asked the young man, "what there may be at the end of the world?"

"There are some things," replied the Abbot gravely, "into which it was never intended that we should inquire. But you have a long road before you. Whither will you first turn?"

"To my brother's at Minstead. If he be indeed an ungodly and violent man, there is the more need that I should seek him out and see whether I cannot turn him to better ways."

Now compare this to the famous passage from the Sherlock Holmes story "Silver Blaze".

"Is there any point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

"To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

"The dog did nothing in the night-time."

"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

Which story are you going to read?

Ultimately, like all writers Sir Arthur was best when he stuck to what was familiar to him. Even so his work (again in common with other authors of large output) was of decidedly unequal quality. And that includes Sherlock. Certainly he had trouble depicting people other than those from the middle and upper classes of Victorian England. His pictures of non-Europeans (particularly "savages") is decidedly embarassing by today's standards and even his characters from the lower strata of English society come off as stereotypes.

But it's clear that Sir Arthur preferred stories that were decidedly not about his own town, city, and country and that's true for the Holmes stories as well. He didn't want ot write about Holmes but that's what the publishers and magazine editors wanted. So he figured ways to at least mitigate against the two antagonoistic literary tugs.

One way was to write a Sherlock Holmes story but don't have much Holmes. That was best done in The Hound of the Baskervilles where Sherlock is in the first and last few chapters, but the middle part of the book is Dr. Watson on his own in Devonshire while Holmes (supposedly) was in London. Oddly enough, this is arguably the best of the Holmes stories.

Another and generally less satisfactory solution Conan Doyle used for having a Holmes-away-from-Holmes tale was to slip in the occasional story within a story. And as expected, those sections are the most artificial, trite, and boring parts of the sagas. The American interlude in A Study in Scarlet has been likened to Bret Harte writing at his worst, and the portrayal of the Mormons is not only politically incorrect but socially and historically inaccurate to the point of laughability. In the last (and worst) Sherlock novel, The Valley of Fear, there is also a sub-story set in America and - hard to believe - it's even worse than the one in Scarlet.

The truth is Sir Arthur had a lot of trouble in putting into his stories any Americans, whom he thought all sported nicknames like "Abe" and "Birdy" and had some psychological compulsion to speak nothing but slang. One of the least convincing passages in the Sherlockian canon is from "His Last Bow" where Holmes, now in his sixties, has gone undercover to rout out a German spy. Holmes posed as an Irish-American double agent, and (as Vincent Starrett put it in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes), he seems to have learned his American slang all at one sitting and was determined not to omit a single word.

"Well?" asked Von Bork eagerly, running forward to meet his visitor.

For answer the man waved a small brown-paper parcel triumphantly above his head.

"You can give me the glad hand tonight, mister," he cried. "I'm bringin' home the bacon at last."

The American held the small parcel in his hand, but made no motion to give it up.

"What about the dough?" he asked.

"The what?"

"The boodle. The reward. The five hundred pounds. The gunner turned durned nasty at the last, and I had to square him with an extra hundred dollars or it would have been nitsky for you and me. 'Nothin' doin'!' says he, and he meant it too, but the last hundred did it. It's cost me two hundred pounds from first to last, so it isn't likely I'd give it up without gettin' my wad."

Perhaps Sherlock knew that Von Bork wouldn't recognize the Americanisms were somewhat out of kilter regarding their usual meaning. Most Americans, though, will wonder exactly what the heck Sherlock was trying to say. Fortunately, though, when Holmes reveals his true identity, he comes back to form. After he and Watson capture Von Bork and have the German tied up, the repartée is vintage Sherlock.

"You are a private individual [said von Bork]. You have no warrant for my arrest. The whole proceeding is absolutely illegal and outrageous."

"Absolutely," said Holmes.

"Kidnapping a German subject."

"And stealing his private papers."

Fortunately the way around Sir Arthur's attempts at slipping - quote - "great literature" - unquote - into the Holmes stories is simply to skip the unnecessary parts. Since the substories are self contained they aren't important to what Holmes and Watson are doing anyway. In fact, the American part of Scarlet is cut out entirely in "The Boy's Sherlock Holmes", a book that also avoids corrupting the youth of the world by omitting the first and last parts of The Sign of Four. Those passages, of course, are where Sherlock mainlines cocaine.

Conan Doyle himself became something of a sleuth when he reviewed the cases of two men, George Edalji, and the separate case of Oscar Slater. Edalji had been convicted of mutilating farm horses, an absolutely absurd charge against a man who had always been a law abiding English citizen and was a successful solicitor. George was, though of Indian ancestry and it is certain that prejudice played a major role in the conviction. But when Sir Arthur wrote an article about the case, noting major discrepancies and contradictions in the prosecutor's case, the notoriety generated was sufficient that eventually George was freed. The case of Oscar, though, didn't go so well. Although Sir Arthur published an article which again pointed out how weak the case had been, Oscar stayed in jail.

The story that Sir Arthur turned to spiritualism after his Arthur's son, Kingsley, died of pneumonia during World War I isn't exactly true. Sir Arthur and his second wife Jean had been involved with psychic and spiritual phenomenon well before the war. In any case, the Doyles became leading proponents of spirtualism, beliefs which eventually brought Sir Arthur to a cordial, if not close, friendship and later to a bitter hostility with the American escape artist and magician Harry Houdini. Sir Arthur was unable to recognize (as Houdini easily did) that the spirit manifestations that cemented his beliefs were simply conjuring tricks. Believing simply because he wanted to believe, Arthur's critical facility left him so completely that he ultimately came to state that the tricks of Houdini were supernatural phenomenon - even though Harry assured him they weren't.

In the end, Sir Arthur achieved literary immortality as the creator of Sherlock Holmes and nothing else. If a measure of literary greatness is (as one Nobel Prize winning author stated) directly measured by its ability to be parodied, then the Sherlock Holmes stories are indeed among the greatest stories ever written. The first Holmes short story "A Scandal in Bohemia" appeared in The Strand Magazine in 1892. But in 1893 British novelist Robert Barr (writing under the pseudonym - get this - Luke Sharp) wrote "Detective Stories Gone Wrong: The Adventures of Sherlaw Kombs" which appeared in his own magazine The Idler. Satires and pastiches appeared and have continued to appear ever since. Some are a bit crass even by today's standards:

"So, Watson," Holmes said as we walked down Oxford Street, "you decided to wear your new silk boxer shorts today?"

"Good heavens, Holmes," I cried in amazement. "How did you deduce that?"

"Elementary, my dear Watson," he said chuckling. "You forgot to put on your trousers."

(And yes, we know Sir Arthur never had Sherlock say, "Elementary, my dear Watson.")

But the Holmes satires really hit their stride in mid-century with the appearance in 1953 of Mad Magazine's "Shermlock Shomes!" and its sequel "The Hound of the Basketballs" the following year, both drawn by the comic book maestro Bill Elder. But the best of the mock-Holmes stories came in the 1960's with the adventures of Schlock Homes and his assistant Dr. Watney, penned by the mystery writer Robert L. Fish.

Perhaps one of the reasons for Holmes literary longevity is how easily the character could be adapted for visual media. Holmes on the screen was a hit from the first, and the Greatest Generation and their Baby Boomers offspring well remember the movies with Basil Rathbone playing a mid-20th Century Holmes assisted by Nigel Bruce portraying - to quote Sir Arthur's son Adrian - a bumbling ass Dr. Watson. In the radio adaptations, though, Nigel portrays a far more savvy sidekick.

Holmes hit the small screen in 1954 in the series starring Ronald Howard (son of Leslie Howard of "Scarlet Pimpernel" fame). Ronald's Sherlock was the quick witted and intelligent detective everyone expected, but also had a sense of humor which made for more light-hearted shows although they were still drama. The series lasted for two years and taking into account the technology and acting style of the era hold up quite well.

The best Holmes on screen, though, has to be Jeremy Brett who in the ten years from 1984 to 1994 starred in 41 out of a possible 56 canonical (or is it Conanical?) tales which amazingly (for television) stuck closely to the original plots, and in some cases improved on them. It's hard to say what's more amazing. That after a hundred years a character of Victorian fiction is more popular than ever or that television producers didn't feel they had to butcher the literary stories to make them more "relevant" for modern audiences. But for whatever reason, they didn't and they still are.

But the first visual popularization of Holmes? That was back in 1898 when William Gilette played the detective on Broadway. Surprisingly, Sir Arthur, by then fed up with Holmes, liked the play and thought it a success - certainly from a pecuniary standpoint.

The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, John Dickson Carr, Vintage Books (1974). The classic biography.

Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle, Saniel Stashower, Holt (2001). A more modern biography. Not only do we learn Sherlock Holmes was originally Sheridan Hope, but our famous detective also had a transitory literary monicker of "Sherringford Holmes". And Dr. Watson? That was even worse. He was first dubbed "Ormand Sacker".

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, Vincent Starrett, Pinnacle Books, (1975). A number of editions of this classic work are available. This was the one released after Vincent went to the great sitting room in the sky. The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes may arguably be what started the game of studying Sherlock as if he was a real person and the "scholarly" discussions of understanding all the apparent contradictions in the stories.

For instance, why in the story "The Man with the Twisted Lip" did Watson's wife, Mary, talk about "sending James off to bed" when Watson's name was "John"?

Hmmmm. Makes you wonder what were the names of the husbands of some of their friends?

Oh, yes. Vincent mentions "Sherringford", too.

The Incredible Schlock Homes: 12 Stories from Bagel Street, Robert L. Fish, Avon Books (1976). The first compilation of the Schlock Homes stories. The introduction by Tony Boucher outlines the history of the Homes satires.

Houdini: The Untold Story, Milbourne Christopher, Thomas Cromwell Company, 1969. Any good biography of Houdini will tell the story of Sir Arthur's friendship and later animosity toward the American escape artist and magician. This is CooperToons' personal favorite.

The Official Website of the Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Web Estate. "http://www.sherlockholmesonline.org/Biography/index.htm. Of the various on-line sites this has one of the most complete biographies.

"Discovering Arthur Conan Doyle" http://sherlockholmes.stanford.edu/ Good heavens, Holmes! A Sherlock Holmes website at Stanford University? Quite so, my dear Watson, with a very nice section about life in Victorian Londan. No flashing unnecessary ads, no ridiculous animation, just an excellent web site for Sherlock fans. Most recommended. (Slight criticism: Pages formatted to a given width. Better to make them where the text will shrink and exand as the does the window.)

The Sherlock Holmes stories are almost all on-line. A good place to read those whose US copyright has expired in at http://www.221bakerstreet.org, some of which are posted along with .pdf files of the original Strand articles, complete with illustrations. (Warning: It is illegal for Americans to access and read posted stories that are still in copyright in the US, even if the website is in a country where the articles are in public domain.)