Sherlock
Holmes and The Strand Magazine had something
of a symbiotic relationship.
The
great detective’s fame and popularity began not with the first two novels but with
the short stories that began running in The
Strand during the magazine’s inaugural
year of publication. So if it hadn’t been for the magazine, Holmes may have
been a footnote in detective story history.
But
if it hadn’t been for Holmes, The Strand may
have never achieved such great success in 1891. Arthur Conan Doyle conceived,
and editor H. Greenhough Smith accepted, the innovative notion of a series of
stories featuring continuing characters but complete in each issue. The idea
was a winner.
It’s
always been hard for me, therefore, to remember that The Strand was – and is – more than just Sherlock Holmes. Detective Stories from the Strand Magazine
may have changed that. I picked up the book recently a library sale. What a
happy purchase!
Not
only are the stories great, but they represent the work of some of top talents in
both detective fiction and wider literature – G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie,
A.E.W. Mason, E.C. Bentley, Somerset Maugham, Sapper, Aldous Huxley, Edgar
Wallace, and Quentin Reynolds to name a few.
The
tales are conveniently divided into categories, such as “The Great Detectives,”
“Legal Niceties,” “The Twist,” “Rogues, Knaves, and Fortune-Hunters,” and “Mostly
Murder.” The sixth section, appropriately called “The Master,” includes three
Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and an excellent pastiche by
Ronald A. Knox.
The
ACD stories are interesting because the editor, Jack Adrian, deliberately shied
away from the more familiar and frequently anthologized adventures of the
Master. Instead he included “Charles Augustus Milverton,” “The Creeping Man,”
and “The Lion’s Mane.”
At
the time this book was published in 1991, The
Strand was dead. Happily, like Sherlock Holmes, it came back to life. That’s
interesting story in itself.
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