“I stopped in some confusion” [REIG]
For those who have followed the evolution of Sherlockian scholarship or — “writings about the writings” — is that since its early days, one of the elements of playing the Game has been to acknowledge that Watson was the true author of the stories and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was his “literary agent.”
This relegation of Conan Doyle to the role of literary agent irked some — in particular, his two living sons in the 1940s: Denis and Adrian (or “Adrenaline,” as Edgar W. Smith called this short-tempered scion). Both wanted to see Sir Arthur recognized for the genius of his creation. (No doubt they also wanted to see some of that sweet royalty money for the estate, but that's a story for another time.)
But doesn't our assignment of Watson as the author acknowledge the true genius of Conan Doyle?
His ability as a storyteller was so skilled that in some cases, contemporary readers couldn't discern fact from fiction. And more than a century later, we honor his skill with a tongue-in-cheek continuation of that tradition of confusion.
If we're to believe the origin story of that arrangement, Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle got the better part of the bargain, given that he reaped the financial reward and avoided all of the physical danger of accompanying Sherlock Holmes.
Let's see how it all began at Baker Street Elementary...
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at www.bakerstreetelementary.org.
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