Mystery of a Hansom Cab - precursor to Sherlock?

This was going to be a relatively short post, just to 'make a point'.

Fergus Hume's "Mystery of a Hansom Cab" was a massively successful murder-mystery novel, both in Australia and the UK. 

In doing some research on the story recently, I noticed a persistent statement: that Mystery of a Hansom Cab inspired Conan Doyle's creation of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Here are some examples of where that is stated:

- "The book is meant to have helped inspire Sherlock Holmes amongst others"
- "apparently was part of the inspiration for Conan Doyle to begin writing his Sherlock Holmes stories"

- Even Wikipedia: "This novel inspired Arthur Conan Doyle to write A Study in Scarlet, which introduced the fictional consulting detective Sherlock Holmes."

The story certainly pre-dates the publication of 'A Study in Scarlet', but did Doyle see the story before he'd written his first Sherlock novel? 

 

The first mentions of Fergus Hume's book in Australia newspapers.

'Mystery of a Hansom Cab' is believed to have been written towards the end of 1885 or early 1886. The first mentions of the book are unsurprisingly in Melbourne papers, the first on 21 Oct 1886, followed by two in November.

Melbourne Punch - Thu 21 Oct 1886

Of all the sensational novels I have ever read in my lfe nothing has ever impressed me so much as "The Mysteries of a Hansom Cab." It is all about a murder that has been committed in a hansom on the St. Kilda-road, and as all the incidents and places are local, one becomes intensely interested; besides which, the plot is capital, and the characters drawn with such life-like reality that, having once begun to read it, it is quite impossible to lay it down unfinished. It is a sensational, cleverly written, and entertaining novel by Mr. Fergus Hume, of Melbourne, who, as a writer, is well-known to the readers of many English and Colonial magazines.

The Australasian - Sat 6 Nov 1886 

A MELBOURNE NOVEL.*

* The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. By Fergus W. Hume, Melbourne; Kemp and Boyce.

Inasmuch as there is a run on sensational stories of the kind which the late " Hugh Conway " helped to bring into vogue, there is no reason why the demand for the article should not be supplied, in part at least, from local sources. And Mr. Hume's Mystery of a Hansom Cab is quite as good as the average of such productions, and better than a good many. The central incident of the novel is a murder committed between 1 and 2 o'clock in the morning, by means of chloroform, in a hansom cab, somewhere near the Church of England Grammar School on the St. Kilda-road. The writer ingeniously directs suspicion to two persons, each of whom eventually proves to be innocent, while both have private reasons for wishing to screen the real culprit from detection and punishment, and the mystery is skilfully maintained throughout. Indeed, Mr. Hume proves himself to have been an apt pupil of Mr. Wilkie Collins's methods of constructing a story, while his portrait of the lodging-housekeeper suggests that he has also been a diligent reader of Dickens. Indeed, Mrs. Sampson and Mother Guttersnipe are both of them Dickensish characters, with a dash of Mrs. Brown in the former. But we think the old woman, who is described as having "crackled" whenever she moved, so as to cause you to fear that one of her limbs would snap short, like the branch of a dead tree, is a freak ot the fancy, and by no means a portrait from life. We need not dwell, however, upon the blemishes of a story in which there is quite enough ability exhibited to justify the expectation of something still better from the writer's pen. Mr. Hume is a resident in Dunedin, we believe, and therefore has probably had no opportunity of correcting the proofs. Should his novel reach a second edition, as it probably will, he should remove such errors as "De mortius," " a number of people, some of which," "perepatetics," "which every one considers themselves bound to tell," " a malestrom," &c.

The Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran and South Yarra Guardian - Sat 13 Nov 1886 

PUBLICATION RECEIVED. - We have receive from Mr Thomas Marvin, the well-known book seller and news-agent of Chapel-street, Windsor, a sensational Melbourne novel entitled "The mystery of a Hansom Cab." The book is well written by Fergus W. Hume, a local author of some repute, who has made the story particularly sensational and interesting by treating with a realistic study of Melbourne social life, the tale being founded on an incident fresh in the memory of every one. It is a crown 8vo. of 245 pages, well printed, and is got up in a cheap form, the price being one shilling. The book is well worth reading and no doubt Mr Marvin will meet with a strong demand for this very interesting work. 

The book is not mentioned in any newspapers in Dec 1886. In 1887 the story received only fifty mentions in newspapers (many advertisements of the book being for sale), and was published in a serialized form that year in a regional NSW paper called the 'Macleay Argus'. 

All in all then, the book didn't exactly take off, and the limited early print run may account for this. In fact the next article covering the 

Melbourne Punch -  Thu 5 May 1887 

I HEAR that the first edition of five thousand of "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" has been cleared out, and a second edition of a similar number is gradually being disposed of. The author ought to do pretty well out of this, but a better slice of luck has befallen him, so I am told, for a firm of London publishers—who have a branch in Melbourne—have taken the book up in order to produce it on the London market. It is a somewhat crude production, but shows great promise, and it may be that it will prove successful at 

home. At any rate, the author is to be congratulated on his success.

This article points to the beginning of the path to publication in the UK. And after 50 mentions in 1887, there are about 1,000 mentions in Australian newspapers in 1888 - partly because of the stage play the promptly followed, and partly due to the take-off in sales and readership as more copies became available.

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The first mentions of Fergus Hume's book in the UK newspapers.

And so to the UK, where the book must have been released  The first mentions of the book are unsurprisingly in Melbourne papers, the first on 28 Nov 1887, followed by two in November.

Western Morning News - Monday 28 November 1887

BOOK AND PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

"The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" by F.W. Hume. London: The Hansom Cab Publishing Co. 60 Ludgate-hill.

Croydon Times - Wednesday 30 November 1887
"THE MYSTERY OF A HANSOM CAB" - This is a sensational novel, a startling and realistic study of Melbourne social life. It is printed by The Hansom Cab Publishing Company, Ludgate-hill, London, and the price is 1s. 

Chelmsford Chronicle - Friday 02 December 1887

"The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" is the latest contribution to sensational fiction. The work is certainly remarkable one, and seems all the more so when one reflects that the author, Mr. F. W. Hume, a native Australia, not yet 22. The plot is laid in Melbourne. The book has had a most remarkable circulation in Australia, and a company has been formed ("Hansom Cab" Publishing Company, 60 Ludgate-hill, E.C.) for its sale in England. This sensational demand for a highly sensational and realistic tale is not altogether undeserved. The youthful author—although he exhibits a deep acquaintance with the works of Gaboriau, Hugh Conway, Edgar Allan Poe, and other sensation-mongers—is no plagiarist. He tells the story of a crime in vigorous English. As page after page is read, some new development unrolls itself, so that the interest is fully maintained to the last chapter. If we mistake not the book will sell readily in England. It is issued cheap form.

Hampstead & Highgate Express - Saturday 03 December 1887

"THE Mystery of a Hansom Cab." Sensational novel by Fergus W. Hume, Melbourne, Australia. (The Hansom Cab Publishing Company, 60 Ludgate-hill.) The work of fiction with this title emanates from the pen of a young Australian who was fortunate enough to find an appreciator of his story in the person of Mr. F. Trischler, a Melbourne publisher, by whom the story was promptly given to the reading world. So successful did the work prove that a London edition has just been issued. Making allowance for local enthusiasm about the ability of the novel it must be conceded that "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" embraces a series of incidents of very startling character, held together by a thread of literal narrative which imparts much realistic effect to it. A murder perpetrated under circumstances of peculiar mystery, involving the reputation of a gentleman innocent of the crime, and whose arraignment for it at the bar of justice is detailed with all the hard fidelity of a newspaper report, are features of the earlier portions of the novel. These points of interest, however, only lead up to the strange history of a man, the revelations of whose career, narrated in a document written by his own hand, reveals the motive of the murder. "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab" contains graphic scenes of Melbourne life, in which a degraded woman of the name of Sal Rawlins plays a role at once coarse and disgusting, and the love passages between Fitzgerald and Madge Frettlby are among the more pleasing parts of a story calculated to meet the requirements of readers who have taste for sensational literature.

Sporting Life - Saturday 03 December 1887

The last sentence reminds me of a now novel that has been placed on the London market by a new publishing company, who adopt novel features of advertising, is sprung upon us this week with considerable prominence. The novel is called "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.” It is the first effort of the kind of an Australian not yet twenty-two years of age, Mr. Fergus W. Hume. The publishers have adopted the title of the novel as the title of their firm—with slight variation. The novel method of advertising consists, among other trade specialities, the "posting" and “sandwiching’’ our streets of coloured character portraits of the principal personages in the story —admirably designed by Mr. Matt Stretch—the latter system hitherto unknown in this country to the introduction of fiction, though not uncommon among publishers serial literature and the producers of the drama on the stage - the vendors of soaps and salts, condiments and embrocations. Mr. Hume’s novel written about a year ago had unprecedented circulation in Australia. It's sale in this country promises also to be a great success—at least, temporarily. It has already made a favourable start and a good impression. Although the season for shilling novels is practically at an end when shilling annuals of a first-class character appear, The Mystery of a Hansom Cab” will prove a welcome waif from the sea of books most attractive to family circles at Christmastide. The story is of the sensational kind. The plot is of an engrossing character, and the details are admirably worked out in a simple natural way. There are, as may expected, in so young an author signs of literary crudity here and there, but none in the ingenious evolution of a story of exceptional interest to readers of all classes. Mr. Hume has a future full of promise before him. A new novel from his pen is expected to follow at an early date.


From just 20 mentions in the last two months of 1887, to over 3,000 in 1888 ! The popularity of the book was remarkable in England.

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Could Mystery of a Hansom Cab have influenced Doyle?

'Study in Scarlet' first saw the light of day in Beeton's Christmas Annual released around November 1887. In other words, both books appeared on the scene in England around the same time. While Hansom Cub was published a year earlier in Australia, there were few copies published initially. 

By the time Doyle finished Study in Scarlet around April 1886 and was submitting it for consideration, Hume was seeking a publisher for Hansom Cab. But while Doyle's story was 'held over' for well over a year after being accepted later in 1886, Hume's story was going to the presses albeit at a limited print run of around 5,000.

Therefore, Doyle's novel could not have been inspired by Hume's novel. They were independently created, on opposite sides of the globe, and both arrived to a UK market that already enjoyed mysteries and detective stories.

Multiple sources state that Hume's novel outsold Study in Scarlet, and that might be reflected in the fact that while Hansom Cab had over 3,000 newspaper mentions in 1888, Study in Scarlet had just 20 !

One can imagine that Doyle may have been disappointed to have his brilliant new detective novel outsold by a colonial mystery novel. Perhaps this partially accounts for Doyle's dismissal of the 'Hansom Cab' story. He wrote to his mother on 1 March 1888, when Hansom Cab was being sold by the thousands:

"What a swindle 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab' is. One of the weakest tales I have read, and sold by puffing."

The public didn't agree with Doyle, nor did the reviews. Hume wrote a wonderful novel, but Doyle created an enduring character. And Doyle stuck with his character, and created a phenomenon that lasted four decades. Hume's story was sensational, but did not create a character who could be serialized - multiple parties worked to get to the bottom of the scandal and murderer in Hansom Cab - it was not a story built around a detective. In fact Hume never did create a recurring character across over 100 novels. 

Doyle and Hume had one more thing in common for their late 1887 mystery stories. Both sold their rights, and missed out on massive royalties in the years ahead !

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There is a very slight but delightful connection in the above articles. The English 'Sporting Life' article in late 1887 mentions that an advertising campaign was undertaken to sell 'Hansom Cab': "the "posting" and “sandwiching’’ our streets of coloured character portraits of the principal personages in the story —admirably designed by Mr. Matt Stretch...."

A set of those advertising posters exist - held by XXXX, and they are magnificent.

 

 

The name of the illustrator Matt Stretch might ring a bell - his name appears on the cover of the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual:

A Chat With Fergus Hume

 I've been revisiting Fergus Hume's "Mystery of a Hansom Cab". Published in 1886 - after Doyle wrote a Study in Scarlet but well before that book was published. Like Doyle, Hume couldn't have imagine the immense success - Mystery of a Hansom Cab surely outsold Study in Scarlet - and like Doyle he sold the rights for a relatively small sum, and therefore missed out on the potential riches.

Hume and Doyle's stories have another feature in common - their first editions are exceedingly rare. The Beeton's Christman Annual had perhaps 100,000 or more issued, but a few dozen exist. Hume's first edition was in 500 copies, and is considered to not exist.

I've been working on a project related to Hume, and enjoy this interview with Hume on his arrival in England. It provides an excellent first-hand summary of Hume's early career and publishing challenges, and a clear outline of the early publishing history of his sensational first novel.

While the interview is published in an Australian newspaper, it is re-printed from an English newspaper.

The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser

Sat 18 Aug 1888 

A Chat with Mr. Fergus Hume.

The author of a book that has sold to the extent of 300,000 copies in England alone, not to mention an enormous sale in Australia and America, and that has been so much talked about as "The Mystery of a Hansom Cab," may fairly claim a niche in the temple of, at least, ephemeral fame. Consequently, hearing of Mr. Fergus Hume's arrival in England from Australia, a representative of the Sunday Times waited upon him with the object of "drawing him out."

Mr. Fergus Hume, we are told, is a young man, in his twenty-fifth year, with a bright intelligent face, keen eyes, a dark moustache, and of middle height. His manner is quiet and unassuming, and his accent in speaking is somewhat provincial.

"I have been just twelve days in London," says Mr. Hume, " but have seen very little of it as yet, though I am just longing to see all the sights. But we— that is, my friend Philip Beck and I— have been working so hard to finish the adaptation of my new book, Madame Midas,' as we want to produce the play, for copyright purposes, before the publication of the book on July 7."

"That will be sharp work."

"Ah, thank goodness, the play is now finished."

"'Madame Midas' is also a story of Australian life, is it not ?"

"Yes; and chiefly concerned with the mining interests in the Colony. You see, Farjeon and Marcus Clarke, our two Australian novelists, have dealt with the Australia of a past day— the rougher times of the Colony. But my desire is to picture the Australia of to-day, to destroy a common impression in England that the miners are still the lawless haphazard diggers of the past, and to convey a true knowledge of the mining industry, which is now carried on on the most scientific principles. To this end I spent some weeks at the Midas mine— one of the best conducted and most promising in the Colony— and studied the whole scientific system of gold mining, so as to make my story as realistic as possible. My heroine I have partly drawn from life, being a lady who has become famous in Australia on account of her gold-mining successes. She is an owner of many mines, and works them herself, and in the colony she is known as 'Madame Midas.' Of course, the incidents of the plot, though in the main based on fact, are highly-coloured and elaborated according to the requirements of the story. The first part is laid at the mines, and subsequently the story deals with the stock and share markets in Melbourne. There is an interesting case of poisoning, and the heroine's love story is quite romantic."

" Is the story dramatic ?"

" I think so—very. And it is also, I hope and believe, a great advance in every way on 'The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.' That book I wrote when I was very ill and hard-up, not very encouraging conditions for an unknown author to write under; and I know there is consequently some very slippery writing in the book. It was six months before I could get any publisher to take it up, and then a Mr. Trischler, who was connected with a publishing firm in Melbourne, took a fancy to the story, and undertook to arrange for its publication. The Melbourne publishers expected only five hundred would be sold in six months, but Mr. Trischler believed in the book, and an edition of 5000 copies was accordingly printed. These were sold out in eleven days, and the type having been distributed it was two months before the second edition came out, and then they soon sold 30,000 copies. So successful was the book that Mr. Trischler formed 'The Hansom Cab Publishing Company,' and, publishing the book over here, they have made no end of money out of it."

"I trust you have shared financially in this success ?"

"I can't complain ; they gave me a good sum down for the copyright, though had I known that the success was going to be so immense, I would never have parted with the book. However, for ' Madame Midas' they have given me very handsome terms, and I need hardly say how anxious I am about its success. I should hate to be known as a 'one book man.' Consequently I have put my best into this work."

"Was the ' Hansom Cab' your first literary work ?"

"No. I had been dabbling in literature for some time, though intended for the law, and engaged in a lawyer's office. While living in New Zealand I wrote several stories for the newspapers, and one of these—a psychological romance—attracted some attention. Then I wrote two or three plays for Australian theatres, one of which, ' A Woman Scorned,' was produced by Miss Marie de

Grey."

" Are you a native Australian ?"

" No, but I have lived in the Colonies since I was two years old. My parentage is a mixture of Scotch and Irish. Till I was twenty-one I lived in New Zealand, where I was admitted to the Bar, but never practised as a barrister, and for the last three years Melbourne has been my home, and there I have spent my time between literature, the law, and the Stock Market."

"And now you are fairly launched on the career of a novelist?"

"And playwright. In that connection I have entered into a partnership with Mr. Philip Beck, the actor, who has been playing in Melbourne for the last two years, and who has just returned home with me. The play of 'Madame Midas' is our joint work."

July 2025 - some finds at Denny's

On the weekend I went to Denny Dobry's open house, to celebrate the closure of his 221B study, and to look over the books and items being sold. Along with books, there was an opportunity to buy one of the few items from the study not being donated to the University of Minnesota library.

A summary of the day with lots of photos of the study will be posted soon, but I also wanted to make a short post showing a few things I picked up at Denny's.

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The first item is one of three bound Strand Magazine volumes I picked up on the day. Two had no Doyle content, but I've added them to the collection. 

The third is Volume 5, containing quote a few stories from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The volume is not in amazing condition at all, but I was attracted to a lovely chain of provenance.

The book contains a bookplate from the Marquis of Donegall - Edward Chichester, 6th Marquess of Donegall. He was a dashing journalist, and editor of the Sherlock Holmes Journal. He famously owned a copy of the 1887 Beeton's. 

Along with the bookplate, pasted on the facing page is a curious document to retain: a fform letter from the Lord Great Chamberlain to the Marchioness that she has not been successful in the ballot to obtain seats for the 1953 opening of Parliament. Why was this pasted into the copy?

What makes this copy more fun, is a provenance slip. The Marquis died in 1975. The provenance slip states "This book was given to me in about 1990 by Jim Hallett of the Scandalous Bohemians of Akron, Ohio. I am passing it, as a gift from Jim Hallett, to my friend Bill Vande Water, BSI. Signed by Hugh T. Harrington BSI, November 3, 2014."

So the may passed from the Marquis of Donegall (up to 1975), to Jim Hallett (up to 1990), to Hugh T. Harrington BSI (up to 2014), to Bill Vande Water BSI (passed beyond the Reichenbach 2024), to me in 2025 via Denny Dobry's parnassus on wheels. That's pretty cool!

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I'd been looking for these three items below -and was pleased to find them all at once. Picklock Holes was one of the first Sherlockain pastiches, published in Punch Magazine.  The initial series of stories were re-published in the 1970s, then a second series of stories (1903) and one final story in 1918. These also were re-published in the 1970s. And so, the 'Picklock Holes Canon' is distributed across three small publications, as each series/article was identified independently.

The author, R.C. Lehman, (Rudolph Chambers Lehmann (1856 – 1929)), was an English writer, and politician in the House of Commons from 1906 to 1910. That means he was not a sitting politician when he wrote the first two Picklock series (pre 1910) and then the final story (1918). He was a major contributor to Punch magazine for many decades.

On the last story, it's a wonderful title - 'His Final Arrow' is a direct response to 'His Final Bow', and picked up almost instantly that it may now have been the verb 'bow' but the noun from 'bow and arrow'. Absolutely brilliant. 

Publications details, left to right:

Title: The Adventures of Picklock Holes

Softcover (there were 250 copies published in hardcover with a dustjacket also)

Publisher: Aspen Press (Colorado), 1975

Title: The Return of Picklock Holes

Softcover, with introduction by Brian R. MacDonald 

Publisher: Magico Magazine (NY), 1980

Title: His Final Arrow

Softcover, with introduction by Brian R. MacDonald 

Publisher: Magico Magazine, 1980

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The next item is, on its face value, a copy of the Sherlock Holmes Journal, published by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London. This edition was published in 1987, to celebrate the centenary of Sherlock Holmes, and therefore the centenary of 'A Study in Scarlet'. This is an outstanding volume, and I wish I'd known about it to cite it when I wrote my recent article on Doyle's 1885 letter. 

The edition includes a deep analysis of the locations in London, an summary of Doyle's life at the time of writing the book, and an overview of the early editions of Study in Scarlet that were published.

Publications details:

Title: The Sherlock Holmes Journal ; 1887-1987 ; A Study in Scarlet Centenary Special

Softcover

Publisher: Sherlock Holmes Society of London (London), 1987

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The next item has been on my list for quite a while! The Oxford Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Short Stories in 9 Volumes shipped in a handy box. Along with the canon, each volume contains a series of notes in an appendix. I've heard from Sherlockians that use these volumes as their 'reading copies' that the binding is not strong and that pages detach.

Publications details:

Title: The Oxford Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Novels and Short Stories in 9 Volumes Hardcover in dust jackets

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1993

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I LOVE THIS POSTER. I found it against a wall behind a bookshelf, it's a thick card poster, and the corners are bumped, but it's a poster for what we now might call the 'Sherlockian Saturdays at the Pratt', or the  'Saturday With Sherlock Holmes' program at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, MD.

So when was this poster from? There's so much detail, but there's NO YEAR! For an answer, I turned to the current organizer of the Pratt event each November:

"It is during the early years, as it is advertising the earlier two-day event format. This was changed to a one-day meeting in 1996. I Googled which years had November 10 as a Saturday since 1980, and it came up as 1984, and 1990. So, it was either of those two years. However, William Donald Schaefer (fine print at the bottom of the poster) was the Mayor of Baltimore from 1971 to 1987. So, the answer is...drumroll...1984."

Thanks Andy!

Watson's Tin Box meeting brief report - 21 July 2025

Each third Monday of the month, the Watson's Tin Box of Ellicott City scion meets - usually in person. But for July 21, we decided to roll back the clock to COVID days, and host a virtual meeting. It was a risk, but the meeting worked out well, and we'll definitely consider hosting one or two meetings a year that way.

We had a great turnout for the meeting - up to forty attendees at any point. We opened up the Zoom room half an hour early to allow people to re-connect, and people from afar were clearly pleased that they could re-connect with the scion following the remote meetings of 2020-22. We had attendees from right across the US, Edith Pounden was there from Canada, and even Bill Barnes from Australia!

The story of the meeting was The Final Problem, and as we hosted a virtual meeting, we could invite a speaker from.... ANYWHERE. And that's what we did, with Burt Wolder making a wonderful presentation. 

I prepared some slides (because it's Zoom!) and these captured the meeting agenda, and some history of the scion:

The Tin Box shown at right is a still from the movie 'The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes', but I did show the Gasogene 'Tin Box' to our members also. The slides below show some of the background and history of the scion, and the Evidence Boxes that are an important part of our scion's identity.

I also shared the exciting news that both issues of Irene's Cabinet, and information on the contents of every Evidence Box, are available on our web site. After a hiatus, the scion is preparing a new issue of Irene's Cabinet as a tribute to the founding editor Beth Austin, who sadly passed away in 2020.

We then proceeded to the toast, where Liane Luini toasted "The Woman", using a toast created by Deborah Belchis, and published in Irene's Cabinet (Volume 9, 2011 page 39):

This was followed by Tom Fahres delivering the traditional Haiku related to the story of the month:

No shabby cabby

Black cloak with red tipped collar

Mycroft has the reins

We then moved on to the story. First, the Evidence Box for The Final Problem. Rather than hold items up for the camera, but we decided to look at some items from the DIGITAL version of the Evidence Box for this story, which can be accessed on our site.

Here are the items I decided to highlight for everyone on slides - a nice range of examples:

As always, amazing imagination and creativity from Paul Churchill. The shards of brick, for example. It would never occur to me if I was reading the story and looking for items, that the remains of the shattered brick were a physical item. Remarkable.

And so to the discussion of the story:

As a starting point, I shared a few points. One was the illustration by Paget ('the death of Sherlock Holmes') - truly iconic - that was something of a plot-spoiler for anyone flicking through the story when they opened it in the Strand. The center illustration was a wise response from 'To-day' magazine upon Holmes' death. Newnes says "Great Scott! Doyle, is he dead?" to which 'The Corpse' (Holmes) replies "It's all right, guv'nor' ; the doctor knows what to do when you want me'". Furthermore, 'The Adventures of Picklock Holmes' in 'Punch' for the same date was the final story - and my recent blog post transcribes their prescient observation that Holmes may well return!

The group discussion focused on the relationship between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. We explored questions about Watson's reliability as a narrator, whether Watson ever actually saw Moriarty (was it all in Holmes' head?), and the implications of Holmes's actions in Europe. The participants debated whether Holmes's flight from Moriarty ruined a police sting operation - as Moriarty chased Holmes out of England and out of their jurisdiction. We also discussed the narrative technique used by Conan Doyle, and the possibility of Moriarty's escape. Certainly when I first read the Canon I kept waiting for Moriarty to turn up again - after all, Holmes did!

We also dropped "the game" briefly and discussed the real-life inspiration for the setting in Switzerland and the narrative choices made by Arthur Conan Doyle. We wondered whether  Doyle drew from his own experiences with his wife's illness and the town of Davos - for the fake patient that decoyed Watson back to the hotel. The conversation also touched on the mention of an air gun in the story and its potential significance for future plot-lines. Surely Doyle planned a future story - amazing really to think of it - by mentioning the air gun in this story.

Frederick Dorr Steele's Illustration Legacy

Finally, Burt Wolder BSI presented a comprehensive overview of Frederick Dorr Steele's life and work, highlighting his contributions to illustration and his iconic depictions of Sherlock Holmes. Steele's innovative use of color and his ability to bring characters to life through illustration were emphasized. Burt also discussed Steele's connections to other artists of the time and his influence on the visual representation of Holmes in America. 

Burt ended his presentation describing Steele's legacy, and ongoing efforts to honor his work through the Frederic Dorr Steele Memorial, where you can learn more.

A 1980 Sherlockian presentation - THE PROBLEMS WITH THE FINAL PROBLEM

In a batch of Sherlockian items I'd acquired in Australia were some items mailed from the US. Among them were this double-sided sheet of paper - a paper presented at a Sherlockian meeting in Illinois that somehow ended up in Canberra, Australia. 

So let's take a look at a 45 year-old piece of scholarship, one that touches on chronology, and takes three very neat Sherlockian approaches to understanding the Final Problem.

  

Transcript:

THE PROBLEMS WITH THE FINAL PROBLEM

I. JOHN H. WATSON'S PROBLEMS:
This is one of the few stories in which Watson's dating is not questioned by the chronologists. All but Blakoney, Brond and Christ accept Watson's, April 24, 1891. (Blakeney doesn't contradict, just says Spring 1891, Beond says April 1891 and Christ suggests 10 days earlier, April1 14).

Now stop for a moment and consider this date. Only STUD and SIGN have been published before this. THE STRAND MAGAZINE had brought out its first issue in January, just four months earlier. SCAN was to appear in the July issue just two months after the events in Fina. With the customary lead time Scan must have been written well before the events recounted in Fina. Probably all of the stories in THE ADVENTURES had been written by then. In the very first paragraph of Fina, Watson mentions the Reuter's dispatch carried in the English papers on May 7, 1891 presumably reporting Holmes' death. Yet there is not one word of it in the STRAND issue for July or in any of the other STRAND issues carrying Holmes stories from August through Novenber 1893.  This was a mere six months before Holmes' return in April 1894 which was not announced until October 1903. There is something fishy about all of this.

Watson has a Moriarty problem. On the second page of Fina (in STRAND) Holmes explains, "You have probably never heard of Professor Moriarty?" Watson answers, "Never." Yet in VALL which is presumed to have taken place several years earlier Watson knows about Moriarty. Much has been written on this problem and there is no solution which will satisfy every-one. If the tragedy at Birlstone did not occur until 1899 as is maintained by Ian McQueen, and I agree with him, then Moriarty did not die at Reichenbach. This makes Fina look like the hoax that many believe it to be. If it was a hoax, who perpetrated it and who was the victim? The entire trip to Switzerland seems rather thin and senseless. But was Watson taken in by Holmes or by Moriarty through his agent, the swiss lad? Or was Watson the one who was cruel enough to make up a crude story that would cause so much consternation among his thousands of readers? If so, who was the one who put him up to it? Was it Sherlock Holmes or was it Conan Doyle?
Both of them also had problems.

II. SHERLOCK HOLMES' PROBLEMS:
What happens when a private investigator gets too much publicity? Walter Paget found, to his sorrow, that public appearances could be painful. More than once in theater lobbies and restaurants he was pointed out as Sherlock Holmes and subjected to unwanted attention. The true Holmes must have faced a similar problem. The two stories that had already been published had brought him fame and numerous clients. But they had not disclosed his appearance. In Beeton's D. I. Friston showed a Holmes that looked nothing like him. Conan Doyle's father, Charles Doyle, illustrated the first editions of STUD in book form. His pictures did not look the least like

Holmes. The third edtion, profusely illustrated by George Hutchinson showed a barely recognizable Holmes, but not one that would allow anyone to positively identify him. And so, although Holmes was a master of disguise he was still able to go about London without a disguise and without being accosted as a celebrity.

But now the new STRAND MAGAZINE was about to run a series of stories and Greenhough Smith and W. H. J. Boot had engaged Sidney Paget to illustrate them. Paget's skill far surpassed that of his predecessors. He made Holmes look lile Holmes and so there was a problem in the offing. It has been said that Sidney Paget used his brother Walter as a model but Sidney's daughter denies this. Certainly there to a resemblance just as there is a resemblance to Basil Rathbone who was a Paget relative. (See Ann Byerly's articles, BSM 13, P 1 and BSM 16, P 1.)

In the United States Allan Pinkerton solved the problem of ready identification by founding an agency and hiring numerous operatives. In later years Nero Wolfe remained at home most of the time and had Saul Panzer and others to do his leg work.

But Holmes had a different solution - temporary retirement under the mask of death, and, after three years only a very few would know of his return until STRAND published Empt in October 1903. By that time Holmes was ready to permanently retire to his bee farm in Sussex. This was broken but briefly by his service at the outbreak of the Great War.

III. ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE'S PROBLEM:
In 1890 England everybody who was anybody read PUNCH. Only Colonel Blimp, Lord Plushbottom, Mrs Grundy, the uneducated and the uncouth failed to read PUNCH as each weekly issue appeared.

Consider then, the plight of the literary agent as the issue for August 12, 1893 reached its readers. Few, if any, failed to read "The Bishop's Crime, Number I" of "The Adventures of Picklock Holes", by "Cunnin Toil." A week later there was II: "The Duke's Feather" followed by III: "Lady Hilda's Mystery" and IV: "The Escape of the Bull-dog." They were coming every week and the clever parodies on the master detective were swamping him as he appeared in Rosi and Gree in THE STRAND. After a four week rest Picklock was back on October 7 in "The Hungarian Diamond" another four weeks passed and November 4 brought "The Umbrosa Burglary." The Picklock Holes stories were written for PUNCH by R. C. Lehmann a staff writer and a member of "The Punch Table." Jon L. Lellenberg says he was "one of the best British parodists" and "the kind of parodist that sensitive authors must have dreaded" -- (BSM 2, p 15). But well before the final installment of Picklock the decision had been made. The sly digs and hearty guffaws could be endured no longer and Holmes had to go. We know now that he did not die but in the fall of 1893 nothing less than death would not stop the nuisance and so "The Final Problem" was hastily written to appear in THE STRAND for December. And on December 30 the second part of "The Stolen March" closed with an editorial note: "There is no proof positive given by any eye-witness whose veracity is unimpeachable of the death of the great amateur detective as it has been described in the STRAND MAGAZINE for this month. Where is the merry Swiss boy who delivered the note and disappeared? What was the symbolic meaning of the alpenstock with the hook at the end, left on the rock? Why, that he had not "taken his hook," PICKLOCK HOLES has disappeared, but so have a great many other people. That he will turn up again no student of detective history and of the annals of crime can possibly doubt. Is it not probable that he has only dropped out of the STRAND MAGAZINE? And is it not equally probable that under some alias he will re-appear elsewhere? Verb. sap. - ED.

How prophetic! With Holmes gone VIII: "Picklock's Disappearance" was in PUNCH for January 13, 1894. Note "disappearance" not "death." A cartoon "Dropping an 'H'" showed Picklock lowering Sherlock with a rope over the edge of a cliff. The editor commented "-- and when either "SHERIOCK HOLMES" or "PICKLOCK HOLES" may be "wanted," we undertake to produce both or either of them." For years Sherlockians thought that that was the end of Picklock. But recently we have found that he was back in the pages of Punch from October 14, 1903 to March 2, 1904 or just a few weeks after the return of Holmes.

Who among us knows which of the problems was THE problem of "THE FINAL PROBLEM."

Presented by Newt Williams to the Occupants of the Empty House meeting on Friday, June 6, 1980.

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What a delightful read. 'Newt Williams' was Newtown M. Williams. He was a member of the Baker Street Irregulars as "The Netherlands-Sumatra Company", and he died in 1986.

The obituary mentions that Newt was a key early member of the Occupants of the Empty House of Southern Illinois, and founded their journal - The Camden House Journal. 

Brad Keefauver's blog notes that the scion held its last meeting in 2022.

I checked Wessex Press book 'Commanding Views of the Empty House', which published some collected writings from The Occupants of the Empty House. 

LUCKILY, this very article by Newt Williams is included in the book! The text is slightly different to that I've transcribed above, but it provides some answers in the brief introduction to the article:

The following article was presented to The Occupants of the Empty House at one of our early meetings. When Newt passed away in January 1986, the article was printed in tribute to his many insightful essays. It appeared in The Camden House Journal for March 1986.