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100-477: Fans of the literary detective Sherlock Holmes are widely considered to have comprised the first modern fandom, holding public demonstrations of mourning after Holmes was "killed off" in 1893, and creating some of the first fan fiction as early as about 1897 to 1902. Fans often play the Sherlockian game , analyzing the stories under the premise that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were real people and Conan Doyle

200-530: A knighthood "for services which may perhaps some day be described". However, he does not actively seek fame and is usually content to let the police take public credit for his work. The first set of Holmes stories was published between 1887 and 1893. Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in a final battle with the criminal mastermind Professor James Moriarty in " The Final Problem " (published 1893, but set in 1891), as Conan Doyle felt that "my literary energies should not be directed too much into one channel". However,

300-672: A literary society devoted to Sherlock Holmes and located in Toronto, Ontario , Canada. A number of fans of Sherlock Holmes participate in groups where they discuss theories and minutiae about the Sherlock Holmes stories. Some play the "Grand Game" by contending that Holmes and Dr. John Watson actually did exist and that the stories about them are largely factual accounts of their doings in Victorian and Edwardian Britain . The Bootmakers of Toronto are one such group. Established in 1972,

400-459: A " consulting detective " in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and logical reasoning that borders on the fantastic, which he employs when investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard . The character Sherlock Holmes first appeared in print in 1887's A Study in Scarlet . His popularity became widespread with

500-669: A "pilgrimage" to Meiringen , Switzerland, and the nearby Reichenbach Falls , where Holmes has his final showdown with Professor Moriarty in Doyle's short story " The Final Problem ". The Sherlock Holmes Society of London has organised group trips to the Reichenbach Falls intermittently since 1968. There is also a Sherlock Holmes museum in Meiringen, and another Sherlock Holmes museum in Lucens , Switzerland. The world's first statue of Sherlock Holmes

600-582: A Mark III Adams revolver , issued to British troops during the 1870s). Holmes and Watson shoot the eponymous hound in The Hound of the Baskervilles , and in "The Adventure of the Empty House", Watson pistol-whips Colonel Sebastian Moran . In " The Problem of Thor Bridge ", Holmes uses Watson's revolver to solve the case through an experiment. The Bootmakers of Toronto The Bootmakers of Toronto are

700-782: A Sherlock Holmes society based in Montreal, Canada, was founded in 1979. The Bimetallic Question of Montreal, together with the Reichenbach Irregulars of Switzerland, erected a plaque for Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls in 1992. There is also a Sherlock Holmes society in Vancouver, BC, Canada, known as the Stormy Petrels of British Columbia. It was founded in 1987. There are many other Sherlock Holmes societies in North America, including groups considered to be scion societies of

800-513: A Sherlock Holmes statue in London resulted in the unveiling of the statue of Sherlock Holmes in London. The society's events include discussions, lectures, film viewings, and Victorian cricket matches. The society also organises annual outings to areas related to Sherlock Holmes, typically to areas around the UK but also including "pilgrimages" to the Reichenbach Falls, such as the group's seventh pilgrimage to

900-481: A central theme of " The Yellow Face "). Though Holmes is famed for his reasoning capabilities, his investigative technique relies heavily on the acquisition of hard evidence. Many of the techniques he employs in the stories were at the time in their infancy. The detective is particularly skilled in the analysis of trace evidence and other physical evidence, including latent prints (such as footprints, hoof prints, and shoe and tire impressions) to identify actions at

1000-402: A crime scene, using tobacco ashes and cigarette butts to identify criminals, utilizing handwriting analysis and graphology , comparing typewritten letters to expose a fraud, using gunpowder residue to expose two murderers, and analyzing small pieces of human remains to expose two murders. Because of the small scale of much of his evidence, the detective often uses a magnifying glass at

1100-627: A fictional character but an actual individual; numerous literary and fan societies have been founded on this pretence . Avid readers of the Holmes stories helped create the modern practice of fandom . The character and stories have had a profound and lasting effect on mystery writing and popular culture as a whole, with the original tales, as well as thousands written by authors other than Conan Doyle , being adapted into stage and radio plays, television, films, video games, and other media for over one hundred years. Edgar Allan Poe 's C. Auguste Dupin

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1200-503: A glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain. All my years of humble but single-minded service culminated in that moment of revelation. After confirming Watson's assessment of the wound, Holmes makes it clear to their opponent that the man would not have left the room alive if he genuinely had killed Watson. Holmes' clients vary from the most powerful monarchs and governments of Europe, to wealthy aristocrats and industrialists , to impoverished pawnbrokers and governesses . He

1300-494: A group of five people who organised the Sherlock Holmes exhibition at the 1951 Festival of Britain , including Freda Howlett, who was at one time the last surviving founder; she remained a member until her death nearly seventy years later in 2020 and was once president of the society. One of the other founders was W. T. Williams , and among those present at the first meeting were Guy Warrack , Gerald Kelly , and Winifred Paget, daughter of Sidney Paget . The society's first president

1400-404: A knowledge of Latin . The detective cites Hafez , Goethe , as well as a letter from Gustave Flaubert to George Sand in the original French. In The Hound of the Baskervilles , the detective recognises works by Godfrey Kneller and Joshua Reynolds : "Watson won't allow that I know anything of art, but that is mere jealousy since our views upon the subject differ." In " The Adventure of

1500-538: A large Sherlock Holmes collection, which was bequeathed to the Portsmouth City Museum in Portsmouth, England. There is also a large collection of Sherlock Holmes memorabilia displayed in the London pub The Sherlock Holmes . Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes ( / ˈ ʃ ɜːr l ɒ k ˈ h oʊ m z / ) is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle . Referring to himself as

1600-510: A month. There are 196 episodes as of July 2020. People who have been interviewed on the podcast include Bert Coules , Laurie R. King , Leslie S. Klinger , and many others. The team behind I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere launched a separate podcast titled Sherlock Holmes: Trifles in 2017. Trifles is a shorter, weekly podcast presenting discussions about the original Sherlock Holmes stories, and has 187 episodes as of July 2020. The Baker Street Babes are an all-female Sherlockian group who host

1700-478: A person's clothes and personal items are also commonly relied on; in the stories, Holmes is seen applying his method to items such as walking sticks, pipes, and hats. For example, in "A Scandal in Bohemia", Holmes infers that Watson had got wet lately and had "a most clumsy and careless servant girl". When Watson asks how Holmes knows this, the detective answers: It is simplicity itself ... my eyes tell me that on

1800-510: A podcast that started in 2011. The podcast has 88 episodes as of July 2020, and features interviews and discussions. The group consists of 11 members, and has more than forty thousand followers on Twitter as of July 2020. Sherlock Holmes tours in London are a "thriving business" as of 2018. Most of these tours start at Piccadilly Circus and include nearby locations that are mentioned in the stories or have been used as filming sites for screen adaptations. Thousands of fans of Sherlock Holmes visit

1900-446: A salesman with a wager: "When you see a man with whiskers of that cut and the 'Pink 'un' protruding out of his pocket, you can always draw him by a bet ... I daresay that if I had put 100 pounds down in front of him, that man would not have given me such complete information as was drawn from him by the idea that he was doing me on a wager." Maria Konnikova points out in an interview with D. J. Grothe that Holmes practises what

2000-576: A strong aptitude for acting and disguise. In several stories (" The Sign of Four ", " The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton ", " The Man with the Twisted Lip ", " The Adventure of the Empty House " and " A Scandal in Bohemia "), to gather evidence undercover, he uses disguises so convincing that Watson fails to recognise him. In others (" The Adventure of the Dying Detective " and " A Scandal in Bohemia "), Holmes feigns injury or illness to incriminate

2100-493: A thumbprint to solve a crime in " The Adventure of the Norwood Builder " (generally held to be set in 1895), the story was published in 1903, two years after Scotland Yard's fingerprint bureau opened. Though the effect of the Holmes stories on the development of forensic science has thus often been overstated, Holmes inspired future generations of forensic scientists to think scientifically and analytically. Holmes displays

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2200-459: A year. The society continues to have around six meetings a year as of 2009. As is tradition with many Sherlockian societies, The Bootmakers of Toronto take their name from a reference in one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 's stories. The name of the group comes from a reference in The Hound of the Baskervilles . In the story, a boot belonging to Sir Henry Baskerville is retrieved from a bog and inside

2300-405: Is as inhuman as a Babbage 's Calculating Machine and just about as likely to fall in love." Holmes says of himself that he is "not a whole-souled admirer of womankind", and that he finds "the motives of women ... inscrutable. ... How can you build on such quicksand? Their most trivial actions may mean volumes". In The Sign of Four , he says, "Women are never to be entirely trusted—not

2400-460: Is by invitation only. Each member receives an "investiture" or a special title. The Baker Street Irregulars was an all-male group until 1991. Another Sherlock Holmes society based in New York City, The Adventuresses of Sherlock Holmes, or ASH, was founded in the late 1960s and was first led by Evelyn Herzog. It is the oldest women’s Sherlockian society. The group protested the exclusion of women from

2500-422: Is generally acknowledged as the first detective in fiction and served as the prototype for many later characters, including Holmes. Conan Doyle once wrote, "Each [of Poe's detective stories] is a root from which a whole literature has developed ... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?" Similarly, the stories of Émile Gaboriau 's Monsieur Lecoq were extremely popular at

2600-731: Is generally not displayed. One of the largest collections of Sherlock Holmes items is the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library in Canada. The collection started in 1969 when the library purchased a large number of books from the estate of a private collector, and is displayed in a room styled after the study of Holmes's fictional Baker Street residence. The collection consists of more than 25,000 items, including materials related to Arthur Conan Doyle. During his lifetime, Richard Lancelyn Green gathered

2700-402: Is his most significant relationship. When Watson is injured by a bullet, although the wound turns out to be "quite superficial", Watson is moved by Holmes's reaction: It was worth a wound; it was worth many wounds; to know the depth of loyalty and love which lay behind that cold mask. The clear, hard eyes were dimmed for a moment, and the firm lips were shaking. For the one and only time I caught

2800-472: Is implied that wealthy clients habitually pay Holmes more than his standard rate. In " The Adventure of the Priory School ", Holmes earns a £6,000 fee (at a time where annual expenses for a rising young professional were in the area of £500). However, Watson notes that Holmes would refuse to help even the wealthy and powerful if their cases did not interest him. As Conan Doyle wrote to Joseph Bell, "Holmes

2900-620: Is kept alive by the photograph of Adler that Holmes received for his part in the case. Shortly after meeting Holmes in the first story, A Study in Scarlet (generally assumed to be 1881, though the exact date is not given), Watson assesses the detective's abilities: In A Study in Scarlet , Holmes claims to be unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun since such information is irrelevant to his work; after hearing that fact from Watson, he says he will immediately try to forget it. The detective believes that

3000-524: Is known only in select professional circles at the beginning of the first story, but is already collaborating with Scotland Yard . However, his continued work and the publication of Watson's stories raise Holmes's profile, and he rapidly becomes well known as a detective; so many clients ask for his help instead of (or in addition to) that of the police that, Watson writes, by 1887 "Europe was ringing with his name" and by 1895 Holmes has "an immense practice". Police outside London ask Holmes for assistance if he

3100-540: Is known to charge clients for his expenses and claim any reward offered for a problem's solution, such as in " The Adventure of the Speckled Band ", " The Red-Headed League ", and " The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet ". The detective states at one point that "My professional charges are upon a fixed scale. I do not vary them, save when I remit them altogether." In this context, a client is offering to double his fee, and it

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3200-441: Is maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson . Holmes works as a detective for twenty-three years, with Watson assisting him for seventeen of those years. Most of the stories are frame narratives written from Watson's point of view, as summaries of the detective's most interesting cases. Holmes frequently calls Watson's records of Holmes's cases sensational and populist, suggesting that they fail to accurately and objectively report

3300-707: Is nearby. A British prime minister and the King of Bohemia visit 221B Baker Street in person to request Holmes's assistance; the President of France awards him the Legion of Honour for capturing an assassin; the King of Scandinavia is a client; and he aids the Vatican at least twice. The detective acts on behalf of the British government in matters of national security several times and declines

3400-443: Is no known contemporaneous source for this; the earliest known reference to such events comes from 1949. However, the recorded public reaction to Holmes's death was unlike anything previously seen for fictional events. After resisting public pressure for eight years, Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles (serialised in 1901–02, with an implicit setting before Holmes's death). In 1903, Conan Doyle wrote " The Adventure of

3500-468: Is now called mindfulness, concentrating on one thing at a time, and almost never "multitasks". She adds that in this he predates the science showing how helpful this is to the brain. Holmes observes the dress and attitude of his clients and suspects, noting skin marks (such as tattoos), contamination (such as ink stains or clay on boots), emotional state, and physical condition in order to deduce their origins and recent history. The style and state of wear of

3600-471: Is often an aspect of Sherlockian fandom with a Sherlock Cosplay World Record attempted at UCL in 2014. Elements of Sherlock Holmes fandom have been explored in non-fiction books such as the 2015 book The Great Detective by Zach Dundas, and the 2017 book From Holmes to Sherlock by Mattias Boström  [ sv ] . Organisations have formed all over the world devoted to Sherlock Holmes. There are many Sherlock Holmes societies, though estimates of

3700-470: Is really very showy and superficial." Nevertheless, Holmes later performs the same 'trick' on Watson in " The Cardboard Box " and " The Adventure of the Dancing Men ". Though the stories always refer to Holmes's intellectual detection method as " deduction ", Holmes primarily relies on abduction : inferring an explanation for observed details. "From a drop of water," he writes, "a logician could infer

3800-427: Is the frequent subject of pastiche writing. The beginning of the story describes the high regard in which Holmes holds her: To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex. It was not that he felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. ... And yet there was but one woman to him, and that woman

3900-512: The Diogenes Club . Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from his fellow university students. A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession. In the first Holmes tale, A Study in Scarlet , financial difficulties lead Holmes and Dr. Watson to share rooms together at 221B Baker Street , London. Their residence

4000-683: The Sherlock Holmes Museum each year. The museum officially has the address of Holmes's residence, 221B Baker Street . There is also a pub in London named The Sherlock Holmes , which is decorated with objects and photographs of Sherlock Holmes characters. It is located in Charing Cross. A statue of Sherlock Holmes is located outside Baker Street tube station in London, and was unveiled in 1999. Tours for fans of Sherlock Holmes are offered in Dartmoor , an area in southwest England which serves as

4100-557: The University of Edinburgh Medical School , is also cited as an inspiration for Holmes. Littlejohn, who was also Police Surgeon and Medical Officer of Health in Edinburgh, provided Conan Doyle with a link between medical investigation and the detection of crime. Other possible inspirations have been proposed, though never acknowledged by Doyle, such as Maximilien Heller , by French author Henry Cauvain. In this 1871 novel (sixteen years before

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4200-471: The "science" of his craft: Detection is, or ought to be, an exact science and should be treated in the same cold and unemotional manner. You have attempted to tinge it [ A Study in Scarlet ] with romanticism, which produces much the same effect as if you worked a love-story or an elopement into the fifth proposition of Euclid . ... Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them. The only point in

4300-549: The Baker Street Irregulars as well as other groups. An organisation named the Sherlock Holmes Society was formed in London in 1934, after the formation of The Baker Street Irregulars. It included scholars among its members such as Dorothy L. Sayers and Dick Sheppard . The group was later dissolved due to World War II. The organisation was succeeded by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, founded in 1951 by

4400-590: The Baker Street Irregulars. In 1991, some Adventuresses were among the first women to be invested as members of the BSI. That year, a few men were given honorary membership in the ASH. Men were admitted to full membership of the ASH in 2008. There are Sherlock Holmes societies located throughout the United States that are "scion societies" of the Baker Street Irregulars. Membership is open to anyone in many of these groups, for example

4500-480: The British war effort. Only one other adventure, " The Adventure of the Lion's Mane ", takes place during the detective's retirement. Watson describes Holmes as " bohemian " in his habits and lifestyle. Said to have a "cat-like" love of personal cleanliness, at the same time Holmes is an eccentric with no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order. Watson describes him as in his personal habits one of

4600-611: The Bruce-Partington Plans ", Watson says that "Holmes lost himself in a monograph which he had undertaken upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus ", considered "the last word" on the subject—which must have been the result of an intensive and very specialized musicological study which could have had no possible application to the solution of criminal mysteries. Holmes is a cryptanalyst , telling Watson that "I am fairly familiar with all forms of secret writing, and am myself

4700-541: The Cook Islands. Noted Sherlockian John Bennett Shaw, who received an investiture in The Baker Street Irregulars , at one time amassed the largest collection of Sherlock Holmes items in the world, including books, recordings, advertising, and other memorabilia. Shaw compiled a list of 100 books, pamphlets, and periodicals essential for Sherlockian study entitled The Basic Holmesian Library . Shaw's collection

4800-411: The Empty House "; set in 1894, Holmes reappears, explaining to a stunned Watson that he had faked his death to fool his enemies. Following "The Adventure of the Empty House", Conan Doyle would sporadically write new Holmes stories until 1927. Holmes aficionados refer to the period from 1891 to 1894—between his disappearance and presumed death in "The Final Problem" and his reappearance in "The Adventure of

4900-675: The Empty House"—as the Great Hiatus. The earliest known use of this expression dates to 1946. In His Last Bow , the reader is told that Holmes has retired to a small farm on the Sussex Downs and taken up beekeeping as his primary occupation. The move is not dated precisely, but can be presumed to be no later than 1904 (since it is referred to retrospectively in " The Adventure of the Second Stain ", first published that year). The story features Holmes and Watson coming out of retirement to aid

5000-581: The Falls, which occurred in 2012. As of 2012, the society has nearly 1,200 full members and more than 200 associate members. Membership is open to anyone. There are also other Sherlock Holmes societies in the UK, such as The Crew of the S.S. May Day, founded in 1992 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Other Sherlock Holmes societies in the UK include The Deerstalkers of Welshpool, based in Welshpool, Wales and founded in 2001, and

5100-639: The Italian society Uno Studio in Holmes, founded in 1987, the Société Sherlock Holmes de France (Sherlock Holmes Society of France), founded in 1993, and the Deutsche Sherlock-Holmes-Gesellschaft (German Sherlock Holmes Society), founded in 2010, among many others. The Japan Sherlock Holmes Club was founded in 1977. This has been described as the largest Sherlock Holmes society, though various sources give greatly different estimates of

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5200-743: The Japan Sherlock Holmes Club wrote a book on Sherlock Holmes which was published in 1987. The club commissioned a statue of Sherlock Holmes in Karuizawa , Japan, in 1988. There are other Sherlock Holmes societies around the world, including The Sydney Passengers, founded in Sydney, Australia in 1985, and the Sherlock Holmes Society of India, founded in 2001, in addition to other societies. As of 2009, there are several major websites devoted to Sherlock Holmes such as Sherlockian.net , The Best of Sherlock Holmes , Camden House , and others. Sherlockian.net

5300-537: The London slavey. In the first Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet , Dr. Watson compares Holmes to C. Auguste Dupin , Edgar Allan Poe's fictional detective, who employed a similar methodology. Alluding to an episode in " The Murders in the Rue Morgue ", where Dupin determines what his friend is thinking despite their having walked together in silence for a quarter of an hour, Holmes remarks: "That trick of his breaking in on his friend's thoughts with an apropos remark ...

5400-514: The Missing Three-Quarter ", Watson says that although he has "weaned" Holmes from drugs, the detective remains an addict whose habit is "not dead, but merely sleeping". Watson and Holmes both use tobacco, smoking cigarettes, cigars, and pipes . Although his chronicler does not consider Holmes's smoking a vice per se , Watson—a physician—does criticise the detective for creating a "poisonous atmosphere" in their confined quarters. Holmes

5500-646: The Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, a scion society of the BSI which was founded in 1948. In 1957, together with the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, the Norwegian Explorers unveiled a commemorative plaque for Sherlock Holmes near the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland. The Bootmakers of Toronto is a Sherlock Holmes society based in Toronto, Canada. The society was established in 1972. The Bimetallic Question,

5600-557: The Self-Important Scotland Yarders, the Sherlock Holmes society of Scotland, founded in 2010. The Reichenbach Irregulars, the Sherlock Holmes society of Switzerland, was founded in Meiringen in 1989. In 1992, together with the Bimetallic Question of Montreal, the Reichenbach Irregulars erected a plaque at the Reichenbach Falls commemorating Holmes's defeat of Professor Moriarty. The Hungarian Sherlock Holmes Club

5700-418: The absence of stimulating cases. He sometimes used morphine and sometimes cocaine , the latter of which he injects in a seven-per cent solution; both drugs were legal in 19th-century England. As a physician, Watson strongly disapproves of his friend's cocaine habit, describing it as the detective's only vice, and concerned about its effect on Holmes's mental health and intellect. In " The Adventure of

5800-484: The address of 221B Baker Street , London, where many of the stories begin. Though not the first fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes is arguably the best-known. By the 1990s, over 25,000 stage adaptations, films, television productions, and publications had featured the detective, and Guinness World Records lists him as the most portrayed human literary character in film and television history. Holmes's popularity and fame are such that many have believed him to be not

5900-503: The author of a trifling monograph upon the subject, in which I analyse one hundred and sixty separate ciphers." Holmes also demonstrates a knowledge of psychology in "A Scandal in Bohemia", luring Irene Adler into betraying where she hid a photograph based on the premise that a woman will rush to save her most valued possession from a fire. Another example is in " The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle ", where Holmes obtains information from

6000-541: The best of them", a feeling Watson notes as an "atrocious sentiment". In "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", Holmes writes, "Women have seldom been an attraction to me, for my brain has always governed my heart." At the end of The Sign of Four , Holmes states that "love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true, cold reason which I place above all things. I should never marry myself, lest I bias my judgement." Ultimately, Holmes claims outright that "I have never loved." But while Watson says that

6100-410: The case which deserved mention was the curious analytical reasoning from effects to causes, by which I succeeded in unravelling it. Nevertheless, when Holmes recorded a case himself, he was forced to concede that he could more easily understand the need to write it in a manner that would appeal to the public rather than his intention to focus on his own technical skill. Holmes's friendship with Watson

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6200-602: The city's underclass. These agents included a variety of informants , such as Langdale Pike, a "human book of reference upon all matters of social scandal", and Shinwell Johnson, who acted as Holmes's "agent in the huge criminal underworld of London". The best known of Holmes's agents are a group of street children he called "the Baker Street Irregulars ". Holmes and Watson often carry pistols with them to confront criminals—in Watson's case, his old service weapon (probably

6300-423: The detective becomes engaged under false pretenses in order to obtain information about a case, abandoning the woman once he has the information he requires. Irene Adler is a retired American opera singer and actress who appears in " A Scandal in Bohemia ". Although this is her only appearance, she is one of only a handful of people who bests Holmes in a battle of wits, and the only woman. For this reason, Adler

6400-404: The detective has an "aversion to women", he also notes Holmes as having "a peculiarly ingratiating way with [them]". Watson notes that their housekeeper Mrs. Hudson is fond of Holmes because of his "remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women. He disliked and distrusted the sex, but he was always a chivalrous opponent." However, in " The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton ",

6500-577: The detective. A statement of Holmes' age in " His Last Bow " places his year of birth at 1854; the story, set in August 1914, describes him as sixty years of age. His parents are not mentioned, although Holmes mentions that his "ancestors" were " country squires ". In " The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter ", he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this

6600-488: The development of the character in 1912, Conan Doyle wrote that "In the first one, the Study in Scarlet , [Holmes] was a mere calculating machine, but I had to make him more of an educated human being as I went on with him." Despite Holmes's supposed ignorance of politics, in "A Scandal in Bohemia" he immediately recognises the true identity of the disguised "Count von Kramm". At the end of A Study in Scarlet , Holmes demonstrates

6700-513: The doctor that during two years at college he made only one friend: "I was never a very sociable fellow, Watson ... I never mixed much with the men of my year." The detective goes without food at times of intense intellectual activity, believing that "the faculties become refined when you starve them". At times, Holmes relaxes with music, either playing the violin or enjoying the works of composers such as Wagner and Pablo de Sarasate . Holmes occasionally uses addictive drugs, especially in

6800-477: The end of each day. The Hounds is hosted by the University of Edinburgh. The current Listmaster is Alexander Braun. I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere is a podcast and website devoted to Sherlock Holmes news and popular culture. Its first episode was released in 2007, and it has more than ten thousand followers on Twitter as of 2020. The podcast features interviews and reviews, and episodes are currently released twice

6900-516: The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes), Henry Cauvain imagined a depressed, anti-social, opium-smoking polymath detective, operating in Paris. It is not known if Conan Doyle read the novel, but he was fluent in French. Details of Sherlock Holmes' life in Conan Doyle's stories are scarce and often vague. Nevertheless, mentions of his early life and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of

7000-545: The first series of short stories in The Strand Magazine , beginning with " A Scandal in Bohemia " in 1891; additional tales appeared from then until 1927, eventually totalling four novels and 56 short stories . All but one are set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras between 1880 and 1914. Most are narrated by the character of Holmes's friend and biographer, Dr. John H. Watson , who usually accompanies Holmes during his investigations and often shares quarters with him at

7100-519: The guilty. In the latter story, Watson says, "The stage lost a fine actor ... when [Holmes] became a specialist in crime." Guy Mankowski has said of Holmes that his ability to change his appearance to blend into any situation "helped him personify the idea of the English eccentric chameleon, in a way that prefigured the likes of David Bowie ". Until Watson's arrival at Baker Street, Holmes largely worked alone, only occasionally employing agents from

7200-548: The inscription on the statue. Some fans of Sherlock Holmes are collectors. Such collectors often have wide-ranging collections of books and objects related to Sherlock Holmes, though some only collect specific items such as first editions or foreign language translations of Holmes stories. For stamp collectors , there are Holmesian stamps from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and other countries and territories, and for coin collectors , there are Holmesian coins from Gibraltar and

7300-403: The inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it. Hence, you see, my double deduction that you had been out in vile weather, and that you had a particularly malignant boot-slitting specimen of

7400-462: The law as a means for righting a wrong, contending that "there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge." His companion condones the detective's willingness to do this on behalf of a client—lying to the police, concealing evidence or breaking into houses—when he also feels it morally justifiable. Except for that of Watson, Holmes avoids casual company. In "The Gloria Scott " , he tells

7500-469: The mind has a finite capacity for information storage, and learning useless things reduces one's ability to learn useful things. The later stories move away from this notion: in The Valley of Fear , he says, "All knowledge comes useful to the detective", and in "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane", the detective calls himself "an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles". Looking back on

7600-528: The monument. In 2019, a statue of Holmes titled "Sherlock & Segar" was unveiled in Chester, Illinois, United States, as part of the Popeye & Friends Character Trail , a series of statues honouring the work of American cartoonist E. C. Segar . The face of the sculpture was based on that of Segar himself. The statue was erected as a tribute to Segar and his "compelling interest in the master detective", according to

7700-407: The most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. [He] keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle , his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece. ... He had a horror of destroying documents. ... Thus month after month his papers accumulated, until every corner of the room

7800-552: The number of groups vary; one source published in 1999 states that there are 375 such groups, another source published in 2001 estimates the number of societies is at least 250, and a different source published in 2009 states that there are more than 400 active Sherlock Holmes societies. In many of these groups, members often play the Sherlockian game , analyzing the stories under the premise that Holmes and Watson were real historical people. Members of these societies also participate in many other activities such as discussing adaptations of

7900-399: The number of members, with several but not all sources giving estimates of around one thousand. Roger Johnson, a recipient of an investiture in the BSI and the ASH, wrote in 2018 that of the Sherlock Holmes societies around the world, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club "probably have the largest membership, with well over a thousand members each". Members of

8000-499: The possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other." However, Holmes does employ deductive reasoning as well. The detective's guiding principle, as he says in The Sign of Four , is: "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Despite Holmes's remarkable reasoning abilities, Conan Doyle still paints him as fallible in this regard (this being

8100-480: The reaction of the public surprised him very much. Distressed readers wrote anguished letters to The Strand Magazine , which suffered a terrible blow when 20,000 people cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine in protest. Conan Doyle himself received many protest letters, and one lady even began her letter with "You brute". Legend has it that Londoners were so distraught upon hearing the news of Holmes's death that they wore black armbands in mourning, though there

8200-454: The scene and an optical microscope at his Baker Street lodgings. He uses analytical chemistry for blood residue analysis and toxicology to detect poisons; Holmes's home chemistry laboratory is mentioned in " The Naval Treaty ". Ballistics feature in "The Adventure of the Empty House" when spent bullets are recovered to be matched with a suspected murder weapon, a practice which became regular police procedure only some fifteen years after

8300-412: The setting for much of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Hound of the Baskervilles . Another place associated with Sherlock Holmes that fans can tour is Undershaw , which was once the home of Arthur Conan Doyle and is located in southeast England. A statue of Sherlock Holmes, sculpted by Gerald Laing , was installed in 1989 in Edinburgh, Scotland, near Arthur Conan Doyle's birthplace. Many fans have made

8400-493: The society at one point boasted some 350 members according to one source or more than 200 according to another source, and at one time drew 80 to 100 members or more than 100 members to its regular meetings, but more recently has fewer members and draws about 50 members to its regular meetings. At their high point in the 1990s, the society was the largest active Sherlockian society in North America with five to seven meetings

8500-554: The stories and organising events. Many Sherlock Holmes groups are based in geographical areas, though these groups often have an online presence. Some groups are based online, such as the longest established online Sherlock Holmes discussion group, the Hounds of the Internet mailing list, which has existed since 1992, and the John H Watson Society, a worldwide online society established in 2013, which

8600-417: The stories in magazines. Some Sherlock Holmes societies such as the Sherlock Holmes Society of London also have websites with resources and information related to Sherlock Holmes. The Hounds of the Internet is a Sherlockian listserv which was founded in the early 1990s and is open to anyone with an interest in Sherlock Holmes. Messages from some of the 170+ members are posted (in English only) in digest form at

8700-406: The story was published. Laura J. Snyder has examined Holmes's methods in the context of mid- to late-19th-century criminology, demonstrating that, while sometimes in advance of what official investigative departments were formally using at the time, they were based upon existing methods and techniques. For example, fingerprints were proposed to be distinct in Conan Doyle's day, and while Holmes used

8800-503: The time Conan Doyle began writing Holmes, and Holmes's speech and behaviour sometimes follow those of Lecoq. Doyle has his main characters discuss these literary antecedents near the beginning of A Study in Scarlet , which is set soon after Watson is first introduced to Holmes. Watson attempts to compliment Holmes by comparing him to Dupin, to which Holmes replies that he found Dupin to be "a very inferior fellow" and Lecoq to be "a miserable bungler". Conan Doyle repeatedly said that Holmes

8900-406: Was Claude Joseph , Carle , or Horace Vernet . Holmes' brother Mycroft , seven years his senior, is a government official. Mycroft has a unique civil service position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. Sherlock describes his brother as the more intelligent of the two, but notes that Mycroft lacks any interest in physical investigation, preferring to spend his time at

9000-461: Was Sydney Castle Roberts . In 1957, the society unveiled a commemorative plaque for Sherlock Holmes near the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, together with an American Sherlockian society, the Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota. The London society also unveiled the world's first statue of Sherlock Holmes in Meiringen , Switzerland, near the Reichenbach Falls, in 1988. In 1999, the society's campaign for

9100-470: Was bequeathed to the University of Minnesota upon his death in 1994. The university had already housed the largest public Sherlock Holmes collection. In 1995, Shaw’s collection was formally dedicated at the University of Minnesota. As of 2015, the University of Minnesota's Sherlock Holmes Collections constitute the world's largest archive of Sherlock Holmes materials, containing over 60,000 items. The collection includes objects related to Arthur Conan Doyle, and

9200-428: Was established in 1994 as the first online resource for information about Sherlock Holmes. The website The Best of Sherlock Holmes contains information about items related to Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, and includes "best" lists such as a list of the best Sherlock Holmes stories. Camden House is an online collection of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and the illustrations which were originally published with

9300-701: Was established in 2011 and is based in Budapest, Hungary. Actor László Tahi Tóth , the Hungarian voice of Jeremy Brett for the Hungarian dubbed version of the Granada Sherlock Holmes television series , was once president of the club. Other examples of Sherlock Holmes societies in Europe include the Danish Baker Street Irregulars, founded in 1950, The Baskerville Hall Club of Sweden, founded in 1979,

9400-528: Was founded mainly by members of existing American Sherlock Holmes societies. The oldest Sherlock Holmes society is the Baker Street Irregulars, based in New York. In 1934, Christopher Morley hosted a dinner in New York City in honour of Sherlock Holmes which led to the formation of The Baker Street Irregulars , or BSI. Unlike most Sherlock Holmes societies, membership in The Baker Street Irregulars

9500-463: Was inspired by the real-life figure of Joseph Bell , a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh , whom Conan Doyle met in 1877 and had worked for as a clerk. Like Holmes, Bell was noted for drawing broad conclusions from minute observations. However, he later wrote to Conan Doyle: "You are yourself Sherlock Holmes and well you know it". Sir Henry Littlejohn , Chair of Medical Jurisprudence at

9600-720: Was merely Watson's literary agent. Many authors have authored "biographies" of Sherlock Holmes such as William S. Baring-Gould 's Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (1962) and Nick Rennison's Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography (2005). Various cookbooks with a Victorian era Sherlockian theme have been published over the years. 1976 brought both Dining with Sherlock Holmes: A Baker Street Cookbook by Julia Rosenblatt and Frederic H. Sonnenschmidt as well as Sherlock Holmes Cookbook by Sean M. Wright and John Farrell. The latter two authors have both received investitures in The Baker Street Irregulars . William Bonnell authored The Sherlock Holmes Victorian Cookbook in 1997. Cosplay

9700-630: Was sculpted by Yoshinori Satoh, and has become well-known since it is mentioned in many of the local guidebooks for tourists. A sculpture depicting both Holmes and Watson was unveiled in Moscow, Russia, in 2007. It is located outside the British embassy. The figures were based on both Sidney Paget 's illustrations and the portrayals of the characters by actors Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin , who played Holmes and Watson respectively in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson . Livanov helped design

9800-412: Was stacked with bundles of manuscript which were on no account to be burned, and which could not be put away save by their owner. While Holmes is characterised as dispassionate and cold, he can be animated and excitable during an investigation. He has a flair for showmanship, often keeping his methods and evidence hidden until the last possible moment so as to impress observers. Holmes is willing to break

9900-508: Was the late Irene Adler, of dubious and questionable memory. Five years before the story's events, Adler had a brief liaison with Crown Prince of Bohemia Wilhelm von Ormstein. As the story opens, the Prince is engaged to another. Fearful that the marriage would be called off if his fiancée's family learns of this past impropriety, Ormstein hires Holmes to regain a photograph of Adler and himself. Adler slips away before Holmes can succeed. Her memory

10000-522: Was unveiled in Meiringen in September 1988, by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, which also unveiled the statue in London in 1999. John Doubleday sculpted both of these statues. The world's second statue of Sherlock Holmes was erected in October 1988 in Karuizawa , Japan, by the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club, to commemorate Ken Nobuhara, who was the first to translate all the stories into Japanese. The statue

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