Sherlock Holmes

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This article is about the general Sherlock Holmes fandom. For the character, see Sherlock Holmes (character). For other uses, see Sherlock Holmes (disambiguation).
Fandom
Name: Sherlock Holmes
Abbreviation(s): SH
Creator: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930)
Date(s): 1887 – 1927
Medium: Literature; later plays, movies, and tv series as well
Country of Origin: UK
External Links: at Wikipedia
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.
art by Lorraine Brevig for the 2011 Sherlock Holmes Big Bang story "The Case of the Stolen Doctor" by flawedamythyst; the art is oil on canvas board and done in the style of Sidney Paget's illustrations of the canon stories.

Sherlock Holmes refers to the character of Sherlock Holmes and the stories about his detective work that began in 1887 with the first story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Since then, the stories have expanded into a large collection of literature, film, and television — some authorized by Conan Doyle's estate, some not,[note 1] however currently most -- if not all canon material by ACD -- has entered the public domain in several countries since 2023.

The stories had a huge fan base when they were being published, and have continued to in the century since. Several of the well known adaptations have also sparked their own separate fandoms.

Canon

The 56 short stories and 4 novellas that comprise the Holmesian canon were written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle between 1887 and 1927. During the past century they have been adapted into countless plays, films and TV shows.

Characters

See also: Category: Sherlock Holmes Characters

Adaptations

Many film and television adaptations of Sherlock Holmes have developed fandoms of their own:

Spinoffs

Inspired Adaptations

Sherlock Holmes has directly inspired other films and TV shows that aren't explicitly Holmesian:

Fandom

A New Phenomenon

Michael Saler discusses the paradoxes within the rise of Sherlock Holmes fandom as a phenomenon of modernity:

The wonderful irony of this situation is that at the same time that Doyle was criticized for claiming that fairies were real, many of his readers were claiming that Sherlock Holmes was real. Indeed, Holmes was the first character in modern literature to be widely treated as if he were real and his creator fictitious. (p. 600)[1]

This modern phenomenon, which he attributes in part to being a response to pessimism in modern intellectual life, can be seen as a universal phenomenon:

Sherlockian devotion is thus a departure from preceding public infatuations with fictional characters, and a template for succeeding public infatuations for the characters and worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien, Star Trek, Star Wars, and so on: as the New Tork Times reported recently, 'today there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, whose grasp of the history, politics and mythological traditions of purely imaginary places could surely qualify them for an advanced degree.' (pp. 601& 602)[1]

He concludes that modern fandom might be seen as a subversion and extension of other forms of past devotion, and that Sherlock Holmes was the crossover:

While there were those, like Arthur Conan Doyle, who found modernity disenchanting and turned to the security of premodern beliefs, others were content to relegate those pre-modern beliefs to imaginary fancies, and then to embrace imaginative fancy as a distinctly modern form of enchantment. (p. 622)[1]

History

flyer for a 1981 convention

At the time they were written, the stories were immensely popular; Conan Doyle famously became tired of his other work being overshadowed by his detective stories and finally killed Holmes off in "The Final Problem" (1893), provoking an intense public outcry. Many people wore black mourning bands,[2] newspapers around the world reported on Holmes' death or ran obituaries, and over 20,000 people cancelled their subscriptions to Strand Magazine,[3] in which the stories had previously been published. A decade later the author finally gave in and resurrected the detective for another three volumes' worth of adventures.

Conan Doyle generally wrote the Holmes stories quickly and with a minimal amount of editing, and as a result the canon contains a huge number of mistakes and inconsistencies. It was from these that the practice of "Holmesian speculation" arose, which consists of pointing out discrepancies in the canon and devising (sometimes reasonable, sometimes extremely outlandish) explanations for them. Frequently discussed problems in the canon include the chronology of the stories (Conan Doyle was very often careless about dates, leading to a number of puzzling inconsistencies); the number of times Dr. Watson was married (a topic heavily intertwined with the chronology problem); and the question of Watson's war wound (said to be in his shoulder in A Study in Scarlet and in his leg in The Sign of Four). The earliest recorded examples of this fannish activity are from 1902,[4] but the work that is considered to have really kicked off the fandom is Ronald Knox's 1911 essay, "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes," in which he satirized modern Biblical criticism by applying those same methods of analysis to Conan Doyle's stories.

As Knox jokingly compared them to the Bible, the early fandom quickly took to referring to the collected works as the "Canon" or the "Sacred Writings" (in fact, Holmes fandom was the first to use the word canon in its fannish sense).

L. N. Rosales observes that Sherlockian literature escalated:

In his comprehensive social history of Sherlock Holmes, his afterlives, and the fan communities he inspired, Mattias Boström describes the context surrounding the birth of the first Sherlockian societies. Starting with a 1911 lecture republished by Ronald Knox in a book of essays in 1928, a domino effect occurred. S. C. Roberts, while reviewing the essay collection, fell down a slippery slope investigating the chronological problems in the Holmes stories and published a series of pamphlets in 1931.13 T. S. Blakeney followed with Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?, H. W. Bell with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson: A Chronology of Their Adventures, and Vincent Starrett with The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. It is not surprising that amid the backdrop of this deluge of scholarship, the world’s foremost Sherlockian societies were born. It is perhaps also not surprising that given the time required to put forth such scholarship, those who did so at this time were men of a particular social class. (p. 163)[5]

This energised public interest led to the establishment of fandom:

As the legend goes, the Baker Street Irregulars (BSI) evolved out of Christopher Morley’s lunch clubs. To celebrate the repeal of Prohibition as well as—by his tenuous estimation—Sherlock Holmes’s birthday, Morley organized an extravagant lunch event at the Duane Hotel’s restaurant for January 6, 1934. As a regular columnist for the Saturday Review of Literature, Morley printed information about the event, referring to it as the first meeting of the Baker Street Irregulars; under this heading he also published relevant texts from others, including a constitution for the club. Morley’s younger brother constructed an elaborate Sherlock Holmes crossword puzzle for use as an entry test into the club. Anyone able to successfully complete the puzzle within one month was considered eligible to join the BSI. Or almost anyone. Women, despite submitting perfectly solved crosswords, were not permitted entry. (ibid)[5]

Organized Sherlock Holmes fandom dates from 1934, when the Baker Street Irregulars were founded in New York City and the Sherlock Holmes Society arose in London. Both are active today, although the London organization was disbanded in 1937 and reformed in 1952. These groups expanded Holmesian speculation to create "the Great Game", which assumes that the stories are all accounts of true events written by Dr. Watson, and that Conan Doyle was merely Watson's literary agent. These assumptions, and the resulting scholarship, might be regarded as early manifestations of meta -- speculative or analytical material seeking to resolve apparent contradictions in Doyle's canon.

In 1941, Rex Stout first proposed his infamous "Watson Was a Woman" theory, in which he pointed to numerous instances of what, today, would probably be considered slashy subtext in order to conclude that Watson was really female and that she and Holmes were married. The Baker Street Irregulars were not amused, although Stout's essay was very obviously tongue-in-cheek. This is notable as an early fannish discussion of genderswap, and the concept has reappeared consistently both in modern fanfic and in television adaptations -- notably the 1987 TV movie The Return of Sherlock Holmes featuring Margaret Colin as Jane Watson, and the 1999 animated series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century, in which Inspector Beth Lestrade is a key character, and more recently in the television series Elementary, where John is changed to Joan Watson.

In 1947, Jay Finley Christ devised the system of abbreviation that is still in use in the modern fandom: each canon story is represented by the first four letters of the first "significant" word in the title: so "A Scandal in Bohemia" is SCAN, "The Adventure of the Empty House" is EMPT, and so forth.

In 1981, for the 100th anniversary of Holmes and Watson meeting, fans gathered for Sherlockon in Los Angeles.

In recent times, fandom can be found around the world:

While the BSI is the flagship Sherlockian society in the United States, dozens of localized scion societies have popped up in the past seventy years, as well as independent sister societies around the world. The Bootmakers of Toronto are the original Sherlockian organization in Canada, and the United Kingdom is home to the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, the Deerstalkers of Welshpool (Wales), and the Crew of the S.S. May Day (Northern Ireland). Non-UK European societies include the Reichenbach Irregulars in Switzerland, the Magyar Club in Hungary, the Baskerville Hall Club in Sweden, and Circulo Holmes in Spain, as well as others in France, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Germany. Both Japan and India have Sherlockian societies, and Australia hosts various regional groups. (p.164)[5]

Despite the huge numbers of Holmes fans around the world, the fandom's online presence was surprisingly small; small enough, at least, that up through 2011, it remained an approved fandom for the annual Yuletide rare fandoms fic exchange (In 2012, mainstream Holmes was ruled ineligible, but certain specific sub-fandoms continue to be permitted). Nonetheless, Holmes/Watson slash fan fiction has become increasingly popular in recent years, probably influenced heavily by the 2009 movie franchise which was heavy on homoerotic subtext, and the BBC Sherlock TV series which fans also read as having a great deal of subtext.

From 2012 to 2016, The Sherlock Seattle Convention that celebrates all things Sherlock was held in Seattle.

Vocabulary

Pastiche was the word for "fanfiction" in traditional Holmes fandom. Today the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably; but fanfic more often refers to works published online, especially those written within the context of the broader media fan community; while pastiche is more often applied to print publications.

The Hiatus is the fannish term for the three-year (or in the real world, ten-year) period between The Final Problem and The Empty House, during which Holmes was presumed dead. Fans have entertained themselves for decades speculating on precisely what he was really up to during this period.

The Master is an old fannish nickname for Holmes himself. It's not used very commonly in the modern Internet-based fandom, possibly to avoid confusion with the arch-villain from Doctor Who.

Sherlockian fandom has also given fandom in general the terms Watsonian vs. Doylist, as labels for different ways to interpret a source text, plus Garrideb Moment, to describe the moment one character's injury reveals the deep feelings of the other as they react.

Pairings

The slash pairing of Holmes/Watson tends to be overwhelmingly the most popular ship in the original book fandom and almost all of its adaptations. There is also a great deal of gen fanworks focused on Holmes and Watson's platonic relationship, similar to what we see in canon.

Fannish Online Discussion

Comments from Changes in Sherlock Holmes fandom over time,[6] posted by damned colonial to the queering_holmes dreamwidth community on May 14, 2010:

I started in Holmes fandom through Prodigy before the WWW, around 1993 IIRC. The group there seem to be transitional, mostly older, many involved in zines, amateur press associations, and local scion societies. I was totally unfamiliar with fandom, being 13 and new to the internet (as it was new to everyone--it was a few years before anything like a browser became usable with the system I was on, and at first email to user of, say, AOL or Compuserve was impossible), and my recollection was that I was welcomed with open arms and included in discussions about the Canon, pastiches, Jeremy Brett, and other like concerns. I think some of my companions wrote fanfiction, though i was unfamiliar with the term, but "fandom" as it currently exists in an ever-changing but loosely codified set of expectations, activities, and interactions was either outside my purview or didn't exist in the form it does today. By which I mean to say that internet Fandom today looks similar (in a general sense) from fandom to fandom across the internet, and skills or interests gained/learned/developed in one can be transferred easily to the next thing that pings your fannish radar.

Bringing this to Holmes, and queerness, it's my sense that at the time I heard little about slash or even sexuality in fannish circles. The discussion was mainly focused on stories, dates, speculation, new takes (film, novel, etc) on Holmes, and goings-on of local societies. I even went to a few dinners, which had quizzes based on whatever story was the pick of the night and general mingling.

If I encountered fiction in the zines or online, it was mostly gen. This is not at all a comprehensive study, but it's what I personally encountered. I was, as yet, unfamiliar with slash/erotica/porn/whatever you want to call it, and wasn't looking. I'm not sure what I would have thought if I'd seen it. I worked Holmes into stories and nonfiction I wrote about the Phantom of the Opera. But no one (in my recollection) really talked sexuality.[6]

Not sure whether this is what you want, but, as someone who first read Holmes when I was 12 (12 is the 'golden age' for genre literature!) back in 1965, and then, because the canon, while long by most fandom standards, wasn't long enough for me, went out and found as much periperal/transformative work as I could. Ellery Queen's 'Misadventures' collection, August Derleth's 'Solar Pons', and various of the 'Irregulars' fictional pieces.

All of these focussed far more on the detective problems than on Holmes and Watson's relationship. But by the 70s there were some small press 'relationship' works. Even among the canon purists who claimed that Holmes was never the same after the Reichenbach Falls incident, didn't want to give up on Watson's faint in 'The Empty House', or Holmes' panic when he thinks Watson is wounded in 'Three Garridebs' - so no-one was very surprised when Rohase Piercy's 'My Dearest Holmes' hit the (gay) bookshops in 1988.

By then I was reading (and writing) a lot of slash in TV fandoms (Trek, The Professionals, Blakes Seven), but even the advent of the Brett TV series didn't seem to trigger a lot of slash contributions to the multi-media slash zines - though there were probably dedicated Holmes slash zines circulating these seemed to be wholly among the book-fandom itself and not among the wider sf/detective fiction slash community.[6]

Published Pastiches

Extra-canonical Sherlock Holmes literature is unusual, in that it includes both a large body of fan-produced work and a large body of professionally published material, much of the latter written by highly respected authors -- all of it arguably falling under the fanfiction umbrella. Sherlockian journals (the fandom's equivalent of fanzines) have existed for nearly a century, featuring both fiction and scholarly articles; according to some accounts, apocryphal Holmes stories comprise more than half of all English-language literary pastiches.[7]

In one notable example, Dorothy Sayers, author of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, once wrote a crossover in which an eight-year-old Peter Wimsey enlisted the help of Sherlock Holmes to find a lost kitten. [8] When copyright was still in effect some of these derivative works, like Shadows Over Baker Street were approved by the Holmes estate, while others are not.

A sampling of professionally published Holmes-related fiction includes:

  • The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
  • The Last Sherlock Holmes Story by Michael Dibdin (about Holmes' involvement with Jack the Ripper's killings)
  • The Irene Adler series by Carole Nelson Douglas (beginning with Good Night, Mr. Holmes)
  • The Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King (beginning with The Beekeeper's Apprentice)
  • The Doctor's Case, by Stephen King
  • The Professor Moriarty series by Michael Kurland (beginning with The Infernal Device)
  • The Seven-Per-Cent Solution by Nicholas Meyer (a crossover in which Holmes meets Sigmund Freud)
  • Shadows Over Baker Street: New Tales of Terror! edited by Michael Reaves and John Pelan, an anthology of crossovers with the Cthulhu Mythos. (Contains A Study in Emerald by Neil Gaiman, which won a Hugo Award for Best Short Story.)
  • The Holmes-Dracula File, by Fred Saberhagen (first of several Holmes pastiches in Saberhagen's "Dracula" series)

A sampling of extra-canonical works derived from the Holmes mythos is listed on Wikipedia. [9] A considerably more complete bibliography is The Universal Sherlock Holmes, hosted by the University of Minnesota Library's Special Collections.[10]

Some pastiches (notably the Mary Russell series and Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald") have spawned their own sub-fandoms, in which fanfic writers create stories that take place in the alternate universe established in the relevant source pastiche. Crossovers are a well-established trope in the fandom; Holmes has apocryphally encountered almost any real person or fictional character of the late 19th century one might care to name. In particular, having Holmes tackle the case of the Jack the Ripper murders is an extremely popular premise which has been used numerous times in books, film and video games. The detective has also been pitted against Count Dracula in multiple pastiches.[11] The crossover tradition stretches back to one of the very earliest works of Sherlockian pastichery, John Kendrick Bangs' Pursuit of the House-Boat (1897), in which the ghosts of various real people, mythological figures and fictional characters mingle in the afterlife. This is also a rare example of a Holmes fic that was actually Jossed, as it was written during the period when Holmes was presumed dead after his battle with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.

Outside of the English-Speaking World

Judith May Fathallah has suggested that Sherlock Holmes represents a public discourse of white, British masculinity: "The position of White masculinity in Sherlock, particularly in relation to women and other ethnicities, is primarily one of command and mastery."[12] She explores how fanfiction and fandom have subverted and played with that template.

The Holmes stories have been quite popular in translation all over the world, and many popular adaptations and published pastiches exist in languages other than English.

  • In Brazil, a book and a film were produced with Sherlock and John visiting Rio de Janeiro in order to investigate a mysterious murder, entitled "O Xangô de Baker Street" by Jô Soares in honor of African-based religions and their Orixás (The Xangô)
  • The Sherlock Holmes stories were quite popular within Russia, and the later Soviet Union,[13] and spawned a variety of Russian pastiches,[14] one example being Sherlock Holmes in Downing Street a story from 1937.[15]
  • Sherlock Holmes has inspired a variety of anime/manga, such as Sherlock Hound, Detective Conan, and various doujinshi.
  • There were many French pastiches in the first half of the 20th century, such as La Dernière aventure de Sherlhock Holmès (The Last Adventure of Sherlhock Holmès), which includes a misspelling of Sherlock's name,[16] and a few parody comic strips, like Le Fils de Sherlock Holmes (The Son of Sherlock Holmes).

Connections to Other Fandoms

Sherlock Holmes is at least mentioned in an episode of most (if not all) of modern day crime dramas, and is occasionally central to episodes in a variety of other shows:

  • CSI episode "Who Shot Sherlock" is about Holmesian cosplaying roleplayers and a mysterious murder among them.
  • Doogie Howser episode "The Adventure of Sherlock Howser"
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation has a two-episode arc about Moriarty (see below).
  • Sesame Street has a muppet spoof character named Sherlock Hemlock.
  • Futurama episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up A Notch" - a glitch in the "holoshed" leads to an appearance by Moriarty, a la the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.
  • Wishbone has two Sherlock Holmes episodes: "The Slobbery Hound" (based on The Hound of the Baskervilles) and "A Dogged Expose" (based on A Scandal in Bohemia).
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode "Elementary, My Dear Turtle" takes the turtles back in time to meet Holmes and help fight Moriarty.
  • The Real Ghostbusters episode "Elementary My Dear Winston" features Holmes and Moriarty being made manifest by belief.

For more on Sherlock Holmes' connections to Star Trek, see Sherlock Holmes and Star Trek.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

The Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship in a Bottle" feature the character of Professor James Moriarty (introduced in the canonical story "The Final Problem"), as re-created by the holodeck computer on the USS Enterprise-D. The latter episode occurs several seasons after the first; the show's producers had initially assumed that Moriarty's character was in the public domain, but were contacted by the Doyle estate after "Elementary, Dear Data", which believed otherwise and sought payment for Moriarty's appearance.[17]

House, M.D.

The character of Dr. Gregory House who solves medical mysteries in the TV show House, M.D., is a conscious echo of, or homage to, Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. His friend Dr. James Wilson bears some resemblances to Watson in the Sherlock Holmes stories.[18]

Fanworks

Fanzines and Journals

See List of Sherlock Holmes Zines for a complete list of Sherlock Holmes fanzines on Fanlore

See also:

Doujinshi

See List of Sherlock Holmes Doujinshi for a complete list of Sherlock Holmes doujinshi on Fanlore

Vids

Until the premiere of Sherlock Holmes (2009), the few vids available online were mostly from the Granada series with Jeremy Brett. However, more vids are now being made from a number of different adaptations. See Sherlock Holmes (Granada) and Sherlock Holmes (2009) for examples. Lots of fans are also vidding Sherlock (BBC).

Vids featuring clips from multiple adaptations are also emerging, including:

  • Whole New Way - by mresundance for Bascon (2010) - This fits Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes (2009), the original stories, and the fandom itself into one slash vid.
  • Something Good (Will Come From That) - by sanguinity for Holmestice (summer 2016) - This ambitious - not to say monumental - vid celebrates the full breadth of Holmes fandom, incorporating images from literally dozens of unique Holmesian adaptations. The AO3 archive includes commentary and a full list of sources by timestamp.
  • Stranger Things by rachelindeed for Holmestice (summer 2019) - Aptly subtitled "an ode to bonkers Holmesiana" by its creator; includes images of aliens, dogs, dinosaurs, mice, Muppets, ferrets, vegetables, and more

Fanart

Gallery of Sherlock Holmes Fan Art

Meta/Further Reading

Archives, Communities, and Links

Fanart links

Fanfiction links

Fannish Resources Online

Notes

  1. ^ The current copyright status of Sherlock Holmes was contested, in part because one collection of Conan Doyle's stories was still under copyright in the United States until 2023. According to Sherlockian.net, all the stories are in the public domain in Canada and the United Kingdom. See Sherlockian.net's Copyright Summary, The New York Times article, and Techdirt's critique of that article.

References

  1. ^ a b c Michael Saler, “'Clap If You Believe in Sherlock Holmes': Mass Culture and the Re-Enchantment of Modernity, c. 1890-c. 1940”, The Historical Journal, Vol. 46, No. 3 (September 2003), pp. 599-622 (JSTOR).
  2. ^ Marlene Aig (1991-06-02). "Conan Doyle Had No Clue of Holmes' Popularity : Mystery: The author k…". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2021-08-03.
  3. ^ "Discovering Sherlock Holmes - A Community Reading Project From Stanfo…". Archived from the original on 2007-02-24.
  4. ^ "The Straight Dope: Did Sherlock Holmes really exist?". 2003-04-08. Archived from the original on 2010-02-04. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  5. ^ a b c L. N. Rosales, “Fannish Sensibilities”: Fissures in the Sherlock Holmes Fandom, in Bridget Kies & Megan Connor (eds.), Fandom, the Next Generation, University of Iowa Press, 2022, pp. 161-171 (JSTOR).
  6. ^ a b c "Changes in Sherlock Holmes fandom over time". Archived from the original on 2013-07-30.
  7. ^ Sue Clerc. "Neverending Stories: Professional Fan Fiction: Introduction". Archived from the original on 2007-11-23. Retrieved 2009-04-22.
  8. ^ mayhap (2006-02-16). "DLS does crack; or, The Young Lord Peter Consults Sherlock Holmes". Livejournal. Archived from the original on 2021-01-11. – twice crossposted in DW, access DLS does crack
  9. ^ See Non-canonical works related and derived from Sherlock Holmes, the Wikipedia Article for more informations.
  10. ^ "The Universal Sherlock Holmes: Introduction". Archived from the original on 2010-05-12. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  11. ^ "Sherlock Holmes Pastiche Characters - Index". Archived from the original on 2007-12-14.
  12. ^ Judith May Fathallah, The White Man at the Centre of the World: Masculinity in Sherlock, in Elizabeth Carolyn Miller (ed.), Fanfiction and the Author, Amsterdam University Press, 2017, p 59. (JSTOR)
  13. ^ Lance Parkin (2013-01-24). "RUSSIAN SHERLOCK HOLMES". WordPress. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08.
  14. ^ "Vasily Livanov and Vitaly Solomin: The Russian Holmes and Watson". The Singular Society of Baker Street Dozen. Archived from the original on 2002-03-01.
  15. ^ A. Abramov (1937-10-06). "Sherlock Holmes in Downing Street". The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2023-09-29.
  16. ^ Georges Avryl (1929-01-01). "La Dernière aventure de Sherlhock Holmès …". The Arthur Conan Doyle Enciclopedia (in français). Archived from the original on 2024-02-29.
  17. ^ "Elementary, Dear Data (episode)". Memory Alpha. Archived from the original on 2019-02-15. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  18. ^ "How Dr. Gregory House is like Sherlock Holmes". Archived from the original on 2005-11-24. Retrieved 2010-09-04.
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