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material about the stories and did some research of their own in compiling details about when and where every story was published, identifications of all the real people and places in the canon, speculations about the models for some of the fictional ones, historical information, opinions from doctors about Watson’s medical pronouncements, comparisons of things like weather, phases of the moon, and train schedules in the stories to the historical ones—no, there was no 9:13 train that night, but there was one at 9:15—and attempts to establish the internal dates of all the stories.

Dakin, D. Martin. A Sherlock Holmes Commentary. Newton Abbot, UK: David and Charles, 1972. Packed full of rewarding material.

Green, Richard Lancelyn, ed. The Uncollected Sherlock Holmes. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin, 1983. Contains all of Doyle’s writings about Sherlock Holmes, as well as comments of others such as J. M. Barrie.

———. The Sherlock Holmes Letters. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1986. Republishes a collection of public letters from readers about the stories.

Hardwick, Michael. The Complete Guide to Sherlock Holmes. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986. Solves many mysteries and satisfies many curiosities.

Shreffler, P. A. The Baker Street Reader: Cornerstone Writings about Sherlock Holmes. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984. A collection of essays.

Other Works Cited in the General Introduction

Doyle, Arthur Conan. Arthur Conan Doyle: Letters to the Press. Edited by John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1986.

Hoving, Thomas. Tutankhamun: The Untold Story. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978.

Other Works Cited in the Introduction to Volume I

Carr, John Dickson. The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Harper, 1949.

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. Edited and with an introduction by W. W. Robson. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

a

“The Adventure of the Cardboard Box” was part of the second series of twelve stories published in 1892 by the Strand. However, Conan Doyle prevented it from being included in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the book that in 1893 collected the stories from that series. The story was finally collected in His Last Bow, originally published in 1917.

b

Long, heavy Afghan musket.

c

Medical assistant whose duties include bandaging, or “dressing,” wounds.

d

Popular name for St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in central London.

e

Slang for navy tobacco.

f

From An Essay on Man (1733-1734; epistle 2, line 2), by English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744).

g

One-handed fencing stick fitted with a hand guard.

h

“Lieder Ohne Worte” (Songs without Words) of German composer Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847).

i

The London subway.

j

From the Bible, Ecclesiastes 1:9: “There is no new thing under the sun” (King James Version).

k

Watch chain with thick links, named for Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband.

l

Made from dark tobacco grown near Trichinopoly in the Madras district of India.

m

Cavalry of ancient Parthia were famed for shooting arrows as they retreated.

n

Gold coin worth half a pound.

o

Fourpence worth of gin with hot water and lemon.

p

What little thing indeed! Frédéric Chopin wrote nothing for solo violin.

q

Of international law; literally, of law among peoples (Latin).

r

The head of Charles I, king of England, was struck off in 1649.

s

The Union line sailed steamers to South Africa.

t

A fool can always find a bigger fool to admire him (French); from L’Art Poétique (1674; canto 1), by Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711).

u

Slang for “bootblack,” the servant who shined the boots of hotel guests.

v

Outside acceptable bounds; eccentric, bizarre (French).

w

Heber C. Kemball, in one of his sermons, alludes to his hundred wives under this endearing epithet.

x

Slang for “coachmen” or “cabdrivers.”

y

“The people hiss at me, but I applaud myself alone at home when I gaze on the coins in my strongbox” (Latin); from Satires, book 1, satire 1, lines 65-66, by the Roman poet Horace (65-8