Well, Well, Such is Fame! [EMPT]

According to Watson's narrative of "The Empty House," Sherlock Holmes returned to life and active practice in the Spring of 1894.  Yet this story wasn't published until September of 1903 in America and October of that year in England.  Why is the publication date important?  Because a look at the publication dates (or when they were allowed to be published) may give us insight into Holmes's true feelings of Doctor Watson's writing career.

As most Sherlockians know, Sherlock Holmes faked his death in 1891, specifically May 4, 1891.  But for the purpose of this post, that story's publication date of December 1893 is also important. 

A few other dates to note before we move on.  Most chronologists date that the Holmes and Watson partnership began in 1881.  So we can look at his active years as 1881-1891 and 1894-1903.

Now, let's look at the publication dates of Watson's narratives.

• A Study in Scarlet was published in 1887.
• The Sign of the Four was published in 1890.
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes were published between June 1891 and June 1892.
• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes were published between December 1892 and December 1893.
• The Hound of the Baskervilles was serialized from 1901–1902.
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes were published between October 1903 and December 1904.
• His Last Bow were published pell-mell throughout 1908–1917.
• The Valley of Fear was serialized from 1914–1915.
• The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes were published sporadically from 1921–1927.

So, only A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four were published during the first part of Holmes's active years.  Holmes "dies" and Watson publishes the 12 stories that make up The Adventures soon after.  

The first four or five stories of The Memoirs were also published after Holmes's "death."  We can presume that Watson was under contract to present 12 cases to readers of The Strand during this run.  Holmes reappears in 1893* during this run, and the other seven or eight cases of The Memoirs are published.  So there's a brief overlap of Holmes's return to active practice and Watson publishing in The Strand, but it's important to note that this collection ends with Watson publishing "The Final Problem," in which he tells the reading public that Sherlock Holmes had died.

Nothing else appears in print until 1901 when the serialization of The Hound of the Baskervilles begins, but in it Watson is careful to point out that this is a story that happened before Sherlock Holmes died.  

So remember readers, Sherlock Holmes is dead.

Holmes then retires in 1903, and we see the other 33 cases come into print.

So, out of the 60 stories that make up the Sherlock Holmes Canon, only 10 or 11 were published during his active years.  And of those, 7 or 8 of them were published right after Holmes's reappearance.  Why were so few cases made available during Holmes's active years?  I think it's because Sherlock Holmes did not want the publicity that The Strand Magazine was bringing him.

In fact, "The Empty House" gives us a specific quote that shows how Holmes felt about what Watson was publishing.  As they set up their vigil in Camden House, Holmes refers to Baker Street as "the starting-point of so many of your little fairy-tales."  

Ouch.

We often think of Doctor Watson's narratives as great publicity for the detective, but looking at the hard data, it seems as if the stories were almost purposely held back until Sherlock Holmes was not able to be engaged by every person who read about him in The Strand.

At the end of "The Empty House," Holmes gets the bad guy and everything is back to as it should be.  Holmes says, "Once again Mr. Sherlock Holmes is free to devote his life to examining those interesting little problems which the complex life of London so plentifully presents."

But just don't tell anyone he's back in town.

* David Marcum pointed out to me that this is a typo and should read "1894."  This actually negates what I said about stories from The Memoirs being published during Holmes's active years.  So even LESS stories were published while Holmes would have been able benefit from publicity.  Thanks for strengthening my argument!