The Best of Sherlock Holmes

Quotations by Conan Doyle & Contemporaries

(sorted by year of birth)

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			1891	1914	1937	1948	1955	1968	1980	1992	since 12	since 12	since 11
B	D	Contributor	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Avg	growth	growth
1812	1870	Dickens, Charles	11	21	104	104	117	110	134	129	119	24%	24%
1832	1898	Carroll, Lewis	0	8	27	27	79	75	76	76	67	181%	181%
1835	1910	Twain, Mark	0	10	40	40	116	113	119	82	94	105%	105%
1850	1894	Stevenson, Robert L.	0	12	65	65	76	57	55	47	60	-28%	-28%
1854	1900	Wilde, Oscar	0	8	52	52	58	57	54	48	54	-8%	-8%
1856	1919	Baum, L. Frank	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	3	1	nm	nm
1856	1950	Shaw, George B.	0	6	48	48	59	52	52	44	51	-8%	-8%
1857	1924	Conrad, Joseph	0	0	41	41	41	29	29	23	33	-44%	-44%
1859	1930	Doyle, A.C. (1)	0	0	4	10	10	12	13	18	13	80%	350%
1862	1910	Henry, O.	0	0	13	45	42	19	13	11	26	-76%	-15%
1863	1952	Santayana, George	0	0	25	25	23	20	29	23	24	-8%	-8%
1865	1936	Kipling, Rudyard	0	24	211	211	180	123	97	80	138	-62%	-62%
1865	1947	Orczy, Baroness	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	nm	nm
1866	1946	Wells, H.G.	0	0	8	17	15	15	15	12	15	-29%	50%
1874	1936	Chesterton, G.K.	0	0	37	41	31	24	16	13	25	-68%	-65%
1888	1959	Chandler, Raymond	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	3	1	nm	nm
1890	1976	Christie, Agatha	0	0	0	1	1	1	7	5	3	nm	nm
1893	1957	Sayers, Dorothy	0	0	2	15	2	0	1	1	4	-93%	-50%

		TOTALS	11	89	677	742	850	709	714	619	727	-17%	-9%

1859	1930	Doyle, A.C. (2)	0	0	6	12	12	13	14	18	14	50%	200%
1859	1930	Doyle, A.C. (3)	0	0	13	19	17	15	16	18	17	-5%	38%

Notes:

Table is based on citations in Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett for the 9th - 16th editions (1891 - 1992). Bartlett ascribes all passages from the Sherlock Holmes stories to Conan Doyle. The tallies in the main table reflect primary references and do not include items that appear in footnotes to quotations by other people.

(1) ACD note: Counts quotations from Sherlock Holmes stories (no footnote references).

(2) ACD note: Counts quotations from Sherlock Holmes stories, including footnote references.

(3) ACD note: Counts all quotations ascribed to Conan Doyle, including footnote references.

Additional details are provided in the monograph "Quoting Sherlock Holmes: Some Observations on the Most Popular Passages" by Randall Stock.

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Definitions

Avg since 12: the arithmetic mean from tallies for the 12th - 16th editions

Growth since 12: the percentage change between the 12th and 16th editions

Growth since 11: the percentage change between the 11th and 16th editions

nm: not meaningful, zero or one as basis