Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes (1854–1957, according to William S. Baring-Gould) is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, created by British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Holmes is famous for his prowess at using logic and astute observation to solve cases.

Holmesian speculation

A popular pastime among fans of Sherlock Holmes is to pretend that Holmes and Watson were real people, and Arthur Conan Doyle merely Watson's "literary agent", and to attempt to "discover" new facts about them, either from clues in the stories or by combining the stories with historical fact.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

One influential player of the historical-Holmes game was William S. Baring-Gould, whose works on the subject included The Chronological Holmes, an attempt to lay out in chronological order all the events alluded to in the Sherlock Holmes stories; Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (1962), an influential "biography" of Holmes; and Nero Wolfe of West Thirty-fifth Street, a "biography" of Rex Stout's detective character Nero Wolfe which popularized the theory that Wolfe was "really" the son of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler. Stout's own tongue-in-cheek contribution to the field was the theory that Watson was a woman. Baring-Gould also edited The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (1967), which combines in two volumes the complete canon and a hundred thousand words of additional explanation and illustration drawn from the Holmesian literature. Dorothy Sayers, creator of the detective Lord Peter Wimsey, also wrote several essays on Holmesian speculation, later published in Unpopular Opinions, including an interesting discussion of Watson's middle name.

Related Topics:
William S. Baring-Gould - Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe - Dorothy Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 2005 The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes was published, edited by Leslie S. Klinger, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Holmes (on the most insubstantial evidence often given as January 6, 1854) and "reflect the spectrum of views on Sherlockian controversies" rather than "Baring-Gould's personal theories."

Related Topics:
January 6 - 1854

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Holmes family

One particularly rich area of "research" is the "uncovering" of details about Holmes's family history and early life, of which almost nothing is said in Conan Doyle's stories. In "The Greek Interpreter" Watson states: "I had never heard him refer to his relations, and hardly ever to his early life." But in that story, as well as introducing his brother, Holmes mentions the only facts about his family that are in any of the stories – "My ancestors were country squires... my grandmother... was the sister of Vernet, the French artist." (Presumably Horace Vernet). Beyond this all familial statements are speculation. For example, there is a certain belief that his mother was named Violet, based on Conan Doyle's fondness for the name and the four strong Violets in the canon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It is clear from references to "the university" in The Gloria Scott, The Musgrave Ritual, and to some degree The Adventure of the Three Students, that Holmes attended Oxford or Cambridge, although the question of which one remains a topic of eternal debate (Baring-Gould believed textual evidence indicated that Holmes attended both).

Related Topics:
Oxford - Cambridge

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The most influential "biography" of Holmes is Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street by Baring-Gould. Faced with Holmes's reticence about his family background and early life, Baring-Gould invented one for him. According to Baring-Gould, Sherlock Holmes was born in Yorkshire, the youngest of three sons of Siger Holmes and Violet Sherrinford. The middle brother, Mycroft, appears in the canon, but the eldest, Sherrinford Holmes, was invented by Baring-Gould to free Mycroft and Sherlock from the obligation of following Siger as a country squire. (In reality, "Sherrinford Holmes" was one of the names Arthur Conan Doyle considered for his hero before settling on Sherlock.) Siger Holmes's name is derived from The Adventure of the Empty House, in which Sherlock spends some time pretending to be a Norwegian mountaineer called Sigerson. (This hardly qualifies as a clue about the name of Sherlock's father, but in the absence of any genuine clues it was the best Baring-Gould had to work with.)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Sherrinford had a significant role in the Doctor Who crossover novel All Consuming Fire by Andy Lane, which also featured a cameo by Siger.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Some other versions of Sherlock's parentage:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Ian Charnocks's Watson's Last Case names his father as Sherlock Holmes, Sr.
• Robert D'Artagnan's Sherlock Holmes's Last Case names his father as Mark Moriarty and gives Sherlock's true name as Joseph Moriarty, explaining that he was adopted at age four by Gregory C. Holmes and his wife Lydia Mycroft Holmes. This would make him a younger brother of Professor James Moriarty.
• Michael Harrison's I, Sherlock Holmes names his father as Captain Siger Holmes of the British East India Company.
• Cass Lewis's Dead Man's Confession names his father as Robert Holmes and his mother Carla "Violet" Holmes.
• Mona Morstein's The Childhood of Sherlock Holmes names his father as David William Holmes and his mother Catherine Simone Lecomte-Vernet.
• Fred Saberhagen's The Holmes-Dracula File gives his true father as the lover of Mrs. Holmes: the vampire Radu the Handsome, a younger brother of Vlad III Dracula, who had succeeded him as a ruler of Wallachia. This would make Sherlock a nephew of Dracula.
• Christopher Leppek's The Surrogate Assassin named Sherlock's father as a younger brother of Mary Ann Holmes, a historical figure better known as the mother of John Wilkes Booth. This would make Sherlock a first cousin of Booth.

The Holmes family and the Wold Newton family

Based originally on the writings of Philip José Farmer, the concept of the Wold Newton family is the construction of a giant genealogical tree which connects many fictional characters to each other and to a number of historical figures. Additions to this tree are based on the writings of the original creators, pastiche writers, and "Wold Newton scholars". Sherlock Holmes has been one of the central characters of this tree. The Holmes family and its various generations have been the subject of many Wold Newton articles. Sherlock himself has been described as born as William Sherlock Scott Holmes on January 6, 1854 to Siger Holmes and his wife Violet Rutherford. One of eight siblings, including Mycroft. The descendants of those siblings include many other characters. Sherlock himself has been given as the father of at least eight children, including Nero Wolfe. Sherlock is also an ancestor of Star Trek's Spock through Amanda Grayson.

Related Topics:
Philip José Farmer - Wold Newton family - Fictional character - January 6 - 1854 - Star Trek - Spock - Amanda Grayson

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~