Canon of Sherlock Holmes
Traditionally, the canon of Sherlock Holmes consists of the 56 short stories and four novels written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Many editions of His Last Bow have eight stories, with "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" being a part of this collection rather than in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
[4] Rumours have always surrounded lost works,[1] and in recent years further investigations have revealed more to the traditionally collected canon.
An explanation is offered by an unnamed "well-known criminal investigator", but the narrator notes that it is flawed, as it doesn't take into account all the facts.
A man involved in the accidental murder of the victim writes a letter to the detective, saying that it was a "mighty ingenious" solution but entirely incorrect and continues to share the true events of that day.
After the mystery is described in full, it is stated that a letter appeared in the press, giving a proposed solution from "an amateur reasoner of some celebrity".
As with "The Story of the Man with the Watches", it is possible, and has been proposed by Haining, Tracy, and Green, amongst others that this "amateur reasoner" was Sherlock Holmes.
Haining suggested that Doyle was "getting out some Holmes" during the series hiatus, but given the failure of the unnamed detective it appears he was parodying his most famous creation.
[10] Various authors have attempted to complete the story (named "The Adventure of the Tall Man" by Peter Haining) and put it alongside the canon.
Doyle wrote a short Sherlock Holmes story, just 503 words long, onto the tiny pages of a specially constructed miniature book: "How Watson Learned the Trick".
Like "The Field Bazaar", this story is a breakfast scene, during which Watson attempts to mimic Holmes' style in guessing his thoughts.
It is essentially a rewrite of the American chapters of A Study in Scarlet, with the London action moving to San Francisco.
[citation needed] The original Sherlock Holmes play written by Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gillette had a successful run of over 30 years.
[14][15] While Doyle wrote the original version, it is unclear how much of his material survived in the play as performed, which was written by Gillette.
[citation needed] Around 1902, Doyle wrote and produced a play based on his short story "The Adventure of the Speckled Band".
It premièred 8 years later, at the Adelphi Theatre, London on 4 June 1910, with H. A. Saintsbury as Sherlock Holmes and Lyn Harding as Dr. Grimesby Roylott.
The play, originally entitled The Stonor Case, differs from the story in several small details, such as the names of some of the characters[16] and the timeline is also changed.
Holmes mentions Mary Morstan, who had already proposed Dr. Watson, twice and Charles Augustus Milverton also appears as a character.
"The Crown Diamond" is an alternate version of the short story "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" though it predates its counterpart by some time,[17] The play was first performed as "Evening with Sherlock Holmes" on 2 May 1921.
[20] The list is as follows: Richard Lancelyn Green's The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes also includes five prefaces to the various editions of Sherlock Holmes stories and novels, Doyle's speech at the Stoll Convention Dinner (1921), some chapters from Doyle's autobiography Memoirs and Adventures, and several interviews.
[24] After seeing it attributed to Sir Arthur in the Sunday Dispatch, Whitaker wrote a letter to Denis Conan Doyle explaining the true authorship.
Denis forwarded the letter to his brother Adrian, who became angry, demanded proof, and threatened legal action.
(Perhaps contributing to this misconception is the fact that the story appears for the first time only in a work of Doyle's, and all subsequent printings are from that source.)
However, no manuscript exists in Doyle's hand, and no reference of the play is left by him, it has been assumed by most that it is little more than a William Gillette curiosity.
In 2011, a new Sherlock Holmes novel written by British author Anthony Horowitz was published, entitled The House of Silk, it was the first official sequel authorised by the Conan Doyle Estate.
