On October 14, 1892, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle was published, marking a turning point in literary history. The book collected twelve of Doyle’s earlier short stories featuring the brilliant detective and his loyal companion, Dr. John Watson. Though Sherlock Holmes had already appeared in magazines since 1887, this was the first time readers could hold a collection of his adventures in one volume — and the beginning of his transformation into a global icon.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s path to literary fame began while he was still studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in the late 1870s. Inspired by his professor, Dr. Joseph Bell — whose keen powers of observation and logical deduction were legendary — Doyle crafted Holmes as a fictional detective who could solve crimes through reasoning and detail. His first Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887), introduced readers to the detective who used science and logic to crack mysteries — and was notably the first fictional sleuth to wield a magnifying glass.
After a sequel, The Sign of the Four, Doyle turned to short stories, publishing them in The Strand Magazine starting in 1891. Their success was immediate — Doyle was soon able to leave medicine behind and write full-time. Over the next few decades, he produced a total of four novels and fifty-six short stories featuring Holmes.
The detective’s popularity gave rise to one of the earliest examples of modern fandom. When Doyle “killed off” Holmes in 1893, heartbroken fans wore black armbands, held public mourning demonstrations, and even wrote early fan fiction to keep their hero alive. Today, those devotees — known as Sherlockians or Holmesians — continue to thrive, with hundreds of Holmes societies around the world, including the exclusive Baker Street Irregulars in New York.
Sherlock Holmes has also blurred the line between fiction and reality. Letters addressed to “221B Baker Street, London” still arrive, often from fans who believe Holmes truly lived there. The Sherlock Holmes Museum now receives that correspondence — a testament to the enduring illusion Doyle created.
And though “Elementary, my dear Watson” has become synonymous with Holmes, the exact phrase never appears in any of Doyle’s original stories. Still, Holmes’s influence is undeniable. With over 25,000 adaptations across stage, screen, and print, and recognition from Guinness World Records as the most portrayed human literary character in history, Sherlock Holmes remains — more than a century later — the world’s greatest detective.