Sherlock Holmes

Guinness World Records acknowledges Sherlock Holmes as the "most portrayed" character in the history of literature. Nearly 100 actors (and one actress so far) have played him in major movie and television productions dating back to the very beginning of the mediums and on stage before that where William Gillette (pictured right) played him so famously that he forever cemented the image of Holmes smoking a calabash pipe in everyone's collective psyche - something he never actually did in Doyle's stories. Fun fact: Holmes never wore a deerstalker in the stories either. Sidney Paget's illustration that accompanied one of Doyle's stories is responsible for that, again, probably cemented in cultural memory by Gillette.

In addition to the original 60 stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle in the late 1800s and early 1900s, there have been countless spin-offs, "lost" tales and pastiches written featuring Holmes and his companion Doctor Watson. With so many works over so many years, it is understandable that the deerstalker and particular design of pipe were not the only details that have become accepted “canon” by many fans of the detective despite the fact that they were not in the original Holmes stories. William S. Baring-Gould is personally responsible for several of them, having written a fictional biography of the character 30 years after Doyle’s death that claims his full name is actually William Sherlock Scott Holmes, he has a second older brother named Sherrinford (the name Doyle was originally going to use before his wife and some publishers convinced him it was terrible) and he had a child with Irene Adler (which the writers of Star Trek used to claim Spock as a distant relative).

Another "fact" from Baring-Gould's book is Sherlock's birthday, which is never mentioned in any of Doyle's stories. He chose January 6 and many fans still acknowledge it. But even more prefer to celebrate May 22, Doyle's birthday, as "Sherlock Holmes Day".

The University of Minnesota boasts the largest collection of Sherlock Holmes and Doyle adjacent works. The collection is searchable but closed, with materials available for use in a special reading room by request. Our library’s collection is nowhere near as comprehensive, but we may be able to get you started if you want to venture into the world of the most famous literary detective.