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 couldn't have cared less. But when he wrote a historical novel called
Micah Clarke it became a best-seller. Joseph M. Stoddard, the publisher of
Lippincott's Magazine, had published
Study in Scarlet in America. He was visiting England that summer, and noted the popularity 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, Stoddard invited another writer to the event, one who became immediate friends with Doyle - a very unlikely pair. Stoddard suggested
that other man write something for the magazine as well. So Oscar Wilde produced
The Portrait of Dorian Gray.
Must have been quite an evening.
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