The 1887 edition’s main contribution was the short novel A Study in Scarlet. According to Boström: “The Beeton’s Christmas Annual was a yearly paperback magazine mainly containing prose, verse, and plays. On November 21, 1887, the Beeton’s Christmas Annual released the first Sherlock Holmes story to the people of Great Britain. A few magazine editors were the only ones who knew that he was talented.” Speaking of Conan Doyle’s initial anonymity, Boström elaborates, “People just hadn’t heard of him.
Boström is the author of the 2017 historical book, From Holmes to Sherlock, which chronicles the behind-the-scenes machinations of the original stories and novels, as well as every adaptation that followed. “He was practically unknown,” Mattias Boström tells Inverse. Just like Holmes would occasionally don an array of quirky disguises, the great detective’s creator had written other non-Holmes short stories anonymously. The first Sherlock Holmes was, for Doyle, a financial bust.īefore he went public with Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle had been hiding out for years. But, 130 years ago, the author of this great adventure - Arthur Conan Doyle - discovered he wasn’t going to make any money from this silly detective fiction stuff. John Watson (spoiler alert: it’s all because Watson needed a roommate) was depicted in the short novel A Study in Scarlet. The iconic origin story of Sherlock Holmes and his biographer Dr. But, fittingly, figuring out the exact publication date of A Study in Scarlet, creates a mystery worthy of Holmes himself. Normally, an anniversary of this stature would have a definitive, clear date attached to it. Today, November 21, is the 130th anniversary of the very first public appearance of the quippy detective known as Sherlock Holmes.