FACTS ABOUT SHERLOCK HOLMES

1. On Dec. 1, 1887 the first Sherlock Holmes story appeared in print. Arthur Conan Doyle had been turned down by several publishers before he finally found someone to print it.  He was 27 years old and wrote “A Study in Scarlet” in three weeks.  It was not a success, but Doyle went on to write 56 stories and 4 novels.
2. Doyle considered the name Sherrinford before he settled on Sherlock. It may have been a combination of two cricket stars –  Sherwin and Shatlock.
3. He got the idea for Holmes’ deductive powers from a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Joseph Bell could diagnose patients on sight.  Actually, what Holmes does is abductive reasoning –  observing a situation and reaching a theory.  The other influence was Edgar Allen Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin.
4. Holmes never actually says “Elementary, my dear Watson”. Doyle borrowed the phrase “the game’s afoot” from Shakepeare’s “Henry V”.
5. The most popular story is “The Speckled Band”. Nobody seems to care that snakes can’t hear whistles and don’t drink milk.
6. For those who think the recent action hero Holmes is ridiculous, Doyle does mention that Holmes is a fencer and boxer. And he knows the martial art of bartitsu.
7. Holmes’ use of cocaine (“the seven percent solution”) reflected the view at the time that it was a miracle drug. When the facts came out, Doyle had Watson cure Holmes of his addiction.
8. Doyle became rich and famous from his detective, so he wanted to move on. On a hiking trip in Switzerland, he saw a picturesque water fall and decided to kill off the character at a water fall.  He was the only one who was happy about the death.  20,000 readers of The Strand cancelled their subscriptions to the magazine when the death was published in 1893.  After a few years, Doyle’s lifestyle needed more cash flow, so he revived the character.  The first new case was “The Hound of the Baskervilles” in 1900.
9. Holmes has appeared in more than 220 films. That is the most for any human character. Dracula has been in more than 270.

https://www.yours.co.uk/leisure/celebrity-tv/15-facts-about-sherlock-holmes/

https://interestingliterature.com/2013/05/ten-facts-about-sherlock-holmes/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63985/15-curious-facts-about-sherlock-holmes-and-sherlockian-subculture

https://www.factinate.com/things/mysterious-facts-sherlock-holmes-greatest-detective/