August 30, 1889. A major literary event happened on this night, which had great import for the mystery field. You see, when Arthur Conan Doyle introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world in
A Study in Scarlet the world wasn't much interested. But when he wrote a historical novel called
Micah Clarke it became a best-seller. Joseph M. Stoddard, the publisher of
Lippincott's Magazine, which published
Scarlet in America, happened to be visiting England that summer, and saw the pupularity of
Clarke. So he invited Doyle to a dinner at the Langhorn Hotel and suggested he give Holmes another shot. This led to
The Sign of Four, and eventually to the short stories that made Holmes a household word. Oh, Stoddart invited another writer to the event and suggested he write something for the magazine as well. So Oscar Wilde produced
The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
Must have been quite an evening.
And I think the hotel is still standing! I was trying to remember the name of the place just the other day! I am a big Doyle fan and not just of his Sherlock Holmes stories!
ReplyDeleteTo be a guest at that dinner!
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