1. At first Arthur Conan Doyle wanted to name his most celebrated character...Sherrinford. Sherrinford Holmes. And Dr. Watson would have been Ormond Sacker, or at least that was written in the first notes for the following stories. 2. And no, in the original stories not even once does Holmes say "Elementary, my dear Watson." Never, as the hardened fans and readers know very well. The very first time that the phrase was used was in a 1929 movie, The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
3. The first Sherlock Holmes book, A Study in Scarlet, was actually a financial failure and the author almost gave up on the character. He would change his mind some time later, after a long conversation with no other that Oscar Wilde. It was Wilde who convinced Doyle to writer another story with the brilliant detective, and publish it in serial in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. It was in the very same magazine that Wilde himself would publish The Picture of Dorian Gray.
4. There are about 300 movies and series about Sherlock Holmes, who has been played by 90 actors.
5. The famous detective used to play his violin when he just couldn't find the answer to one of the enigmas, and it was a sure way of solving the mistery. Among his most prized posessions was a priceless Stradivarius violin.
6. If in the beginning Sherlock Holmes was not a very popular character, it wasn't long before he became a huge success. Although at one point even Arthur Conan Doyle was simply tired of Holmes and simply killed him in a story, only to bring him back after a short while, due to public pressure and financial offers. Until the end of his life the writer was thinking about giving up on Sherlock Holmes, but still didn't.
7. Arthur Conan Doyle eventually published four novels and 56 stories with Sherlock Holmes. But the number of Sherlockian fiction written over the years is hard, next to impossible to calculate, but surely it amounts to tens or even hundred of thousands of stories, comics or novels.
Photo: afi.com
