The Best of Sherlock Holmes

by Randall Stock

Holmes by Frederic Dorr Steele

This website is devoted to covering noteworthy items related to Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It includes lists of "the best" Holmes stories and quotations. It also includes information on Conan Doyle manuscripts, Beeton's Christmas Annual, Sherlockian and Doylean computer products, and more.

NEWS

Sherlock Holmes Manuscript Goes to Portsmouth

Dame Jean Conan Doyle, last surviving child of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, owned three Holmes manuscripts at her death. She bequeathed them to various institutions in the UK, and the last of these just went to Portsmouth, England. Read about "The Creeping Man" manuscript.

New Holmes Manuscript Facsimile is Published

Those who can't afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars for an original Holmes manuscript can still own an excellent copy. In May 2009 the Baker Street Irregulars published the manuscript of "The Three Students" in facsimile along with annotations and essays.

Even More About Manuscripts

There's more news about auctions of Conan Doyle material, including the sale of the manuscripts for "The Sussex Vampire" and "The Solitary Cyclist" in the Manuscripts section. It also has a checklist to more than 40 of ACD's other manuscripts, more information about Conan Doyle manuscript material and facsimiles, and links to five online photos of Holmes manuscripts.

Happy 150th Birthday Sir Arthur!

Conan Doyle was born 150 years ago on May 22, 1859. Harvard marked his sesquicentennial with a Symposium and and Exhibition, and there are many other events, news reports, and radio programs for Conan Doyle's 150th birthday.

Finding Beeton's Christmas Annual

What's the most desirable Sherlockian publication? Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 carried the very first Sherlock Holmes story and is the most expensive magazine in the world. Last year a copy donated to Oxfam sold for more than $36,000. Learn more about this rare magazine in the annotated Beeton's checklist and census.

Sidney Paget Original Artwork

Sidney Paget established the iconic picture of Sherlock Holmes with his illustrations for The Strand Magazine. Only a few of his original drawings are still known to exist, and they are described in this new census of Sidney Paget Original Drawings and Artwork.

Conan Doyle Letters Published and a Census

The Mystery Writers of America declared a volume of Conan Doyle's private letters to be the best critical / biographical book of the year. See details and a book review of Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. Some of these letters came from an important collection of his papers and personal effects sold by Conan Doyle's heirs in 2004. Now there is a revised Census of The Conan Doyle Collection with Ownership Records for these auction lots.

New Conan Doyle Biography

London's Sunday Telegraph calls Andrew Lycett's new Conan Doyle biography "hugely enjoyable" and "impeccably researched" while The Sunday Times of London says it's "undoubtedly the best account of Doyle to date." Novelist William Boyd chose it as his book of the year and the Mail on Sunday said it's "a model biography: lucid, fair, and unfailingly readable." The just-published American edition, The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Andrew Lycett includes corrections and new material not in the British edition. The publishers have an author Q&A and Chapter 1 online, and it's available on Amazon.

Notable Conan Doyle Biographical Novel
Several well-known Sherlockians have praised Arthur & George by Julian Barnes. It was short-listed for the prestigious Man Booker Prize and noted in the San Jose Mercury News under "What's hot in local bookstores." Its U.S. publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, has an interesting website for the book.

The Familiar Quotations of Sherlock Holmes
It's elementary that there are many excellent quotations in the Holmes stories. In fact, entire books of these popular passages have been published. But which of these are the most famous? Find out in The Ten Most Famous Quotations from the Sherlock Holmes Stories.

The Untold Tales Revealed
Do you remember reading about the case of the Giant Rat of Sumatra? Unfortunately Dr. Watson never provided the details to this or many other cases mentioned in the original stories. Now a poll of Sherlockian experts has identified the most interesting of these unreported cases. See the Best Untold Tales of Sherlock Holmes for details.

Computerized Holmes
Holmes is everywhere on the Internet, but what about computer products related to Holmes and Conan Doyle? The first complete computerized version of the Holmes stories appeared in 1987 and there have been a number of different editions since then. The e-World of Sherlock Holmes section on this website covers all sorts of Sherlockian computer products. It includes an In-Depth Review of the Sherlock Holmes Journal e-SHJ CD as well as Tips for Using the e-SHJ.

Best Holmes Stories
It's official! Sherlockian scholars have selected the best stories in the largest and most comprehensive appraisal ever made of the Sherlock Holmes tales. Poll results were published in the Baker Street Journal. Now you can read about that poll, plus many other polls over the years, at this site's section on The Best Sherlock Holmes Stories.

Steve Clarkson - A Special Sherlockian
Steve Clarkson was a mentor to many who studied and discussed the Holmes stories. He will be sorely missed. Paul Churchill delivered an excellent eulogy that vividly describes both the Sherlockian and the man. See a list of Steve's writings and read his essay on "My First Meeting with Sherlock Holmes."

Collect books? Check out my Sherlockian and Other Books for Sale

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