The Mind Creative March 2014
Sherlock Holmes made his debut in 1887 in the novel A Study in
Scarlet and earned Conan Doyle a flat 25 pounds without royalties
for his effort. The story was a mild success which inspired Doyle to
write one more novel before delving into a series of short stories
for The Strand magazine. These stories, propelled the fictional
detective Holmes and his creator into celebrities; a status that would
soon be a cause of dislike for Doyle.
Doyle’s primary interest was history and he always wanted to be
historical novelist; a far cry from a writer of crime fiction. He soon
decided to end Holmes’ career and then pursue his original creative
passion. This was a venture that would prove to be much harder than
he had imagined.
Initially, after a few years writing Holmes stories for The Strand,
Conan Doyle tried to jolt them with a demand of 50 pounds per story;
a very large amount in those days. The most unexpected thing
happened thereafter. The Strand accepted his offer and signed him
up for six more short stories! At the end of the new contract, Doyle
apparently told his mother that Holmes “takes my mind away from
better things” and that he had decided to stop writing stories featuring
the detective. When his contract was up for renewal, he tried to
damage his next contract by demanding a thousand pounds for twelve
stories. He could hardly believe it when The Strand consented to his
new demand.
Conan Doyle soon realized that in order to stave off any further
contracts, he needed to kill Holmes in a story. His twelfth story was
written with the title “The Final Problem” and in order to destroy
Sherlock Holmes, he created the perfect foil for Holmes – the master
criminal Professor Moriarty. The story ends with Holmes and Moriarty
fighting over a waterfall and then falling off the edge into the watery
abyss. This was Doyle’s final card. He had killed off Sherlock Holmes.
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