The Case of the Lost Sherlock Holmes Tale

February 20, 2015 11:22 AM

Half a century ago, a Selkirk historian received, then forgot about, and only now remembered, a 1904 charity pamphlet that may contain a lost Sherlock Holmes story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The anonymous story entitled "Sherlock Holmes: Discovering the Border Burghs and, by deduction, the Brig Bazaar" revolves around Holmes deducing Watson's upcoming visit to Selkirk, which coincides with Conan Doyle's real-life one as a guest of honour to help the Border town raise funds to build a new bridge. But if it's not by him, then who wrote it?
posted by Doktor Zed (15 comments total)

Okay, now I'm thinking we're all just being trolled.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:24 AM on February 20, 2015 [2 favorites]

Pretty much the plot to the Hemingway Hoax by Joe Haldeman.
posted by cjorgensen at 11:30 AM on February 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wonder if he'll be able to legally publish the story. Another copyright link.
posted by cjorgensen at 11:34 AM on February 20, 2015

Hmm, I've made a fair study of Conan Doyle's Holmes stories for pastiches of my own, and offhand this doesn't quite read as his normal writing on Holmes to my eyes, intro excluded of course (nothing conclusive, but things that make you wonder). But then again it's under unusual circumstances, and an author might feel free to stretch his wings a bit in such a case.

We'll probably never know.
posted by Palindromedary at 11:45 AM on February 20, 2015

The story to compare this to is probably not anything in "the canon," but something definitely by ACD and written under similar circumstances: "The Adventure of the Field Bazaar." (The self-parody "How Watson Learned the Trick" had to be written to fit a miniature book destined for the Queen's Doll House, and so is not a good example of Doyle's usual style.)
posted by thomas j wise at 12:18 PM on February 20, 2015

But if it's not by him, then who wrote it?

Oh wait! I know this one! Sir Francis Bacon.
posted by infinitewindow at 1:24 PM on February 20, 2015 [3 favorites]

And now, Njorl's Saga, brought to you by the North Malden Icelandic Saga Society.
posted by charlie don't surf at 1:46 PM on February 20, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have read every single piece of Sherlock Holmes writing from Doyle multiple times and I would stake my honour this was not written by him.
posted by StephenF at 2:59 PM on February 20, 2015

It must be J.M. Barrie!
posted by betweenthebars at 3:50 PM on February 20, 2015

"We know that Pons is physically slender and that he smokes a pipe filled with 'abominable shag'"
posted by clavdivs at 5:00 PM on February 20, 2015

I'd kill to get a copy of the Pons collection, either one of them, but they're damn hard to come by. I've never had the chance ot read any of it.
posted by Palindromedary at 8:05 PM on February 20, 2015

I started one, eh.
All over Amazon I see.
You might like this thread.

I call it "Michigan Yellow"
posted by clavdivs at 8:26 PM on February 20, 2015

I agree that this does not read like ACD's style at all.
posted by Man-Thing at 4:59 AM on February 21, 2015

Another vote here for not Conan Doyle's --- don't know who did write it, but not ACD.
posted by easily confused at 5:14 AM on February 21, 2015

Even as the general media continue to hype this story, the I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere blog takes a sceptical view.
posted by Doktor Zed at 5:29 PM on February 21, 2015