Among the lords of light literature, Sherlock Holmes towers. There is not much mystery about it, either. It is really quite “elementary, my dear Watson.”
“The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes,” published in 1892–93 in “The Strand Magazine” by Arthur Conan Doyle, are a collection of 12 remarkable cases in Mr. Holmes’ remarkable career. These include the nearest instance of the above popular misquote. “The Adventure of the Crooked Man” has the closest appearance of the “elementary” line in all of the 60 canonical Sherlock Holmes stories.
The popularity of Sherlock Holmes became widespread after his first appearance in The Strand Magazine in 1891. This September 1917 edition of the magazine, with the cover story, “Sherlock Holmes outwits a German spy,” was sometimes posted to troops free of charge. (Public Domain)
As excellent summer reading material, the “Memoirs” provide the canon’s most memorable summer description in the first lines of “The Adventure of the Cardboard Box”:…