A Study in Scarlet” appeared in the magazine Beeton’s Christmas
Annual in 1887, introducing the iconic characters Sherlock
Holmes and Dr. Watson. Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, born in
Scotland in 1859, attended medical school and set up a medical
practice in Portsmouth, England in the 1880s. But he really
wanted to be an author, and his first novel, “A Study in
Scarlet” appeared in the magazine Beeton’s Christmas Annual in
1887, introducing the iconic characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr.
Watson (who, in earlier drafts of the story had been named
Sheridan Hope and Ormond Sacker). But the story didn’t attract
much attention. And, in most homes, Beeton’s Christmas Annual
was tossed out with other used magazines after the holidays.
When a second tale fizzled in early 1890, Doyle hired an agent
who brokered a deal with The Strand magazine to publish a series
of Sherlock Holmes stories. This time, a new illustrator, Sidney
Paget, was hired. Paget used his “strikingly handsome” brother
Walter as the model for the pipe-