Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was so beset by the character he created, fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, that he attempted to kill the character only to find the public demand for further adventures of the hero so great that he had to restore him to life. There are many different versions of Sherlock Holmes, in the original stories he possesses great physical strength (sufficient to straighten a bent fireplace poker) and is capable with his fists and several weapons. As portrayed for years by Basil Rathbone these attributes are marginalized.
Conan Doyle based the character on a Scottish surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh named Joseph Bell. As a young man Doyle clerked for Bell, and the two maintained a correspondence throughout the remainder of Bell’s life. Holmes’s ability to draw conclusions from the observation of what most would consider to be minutiae, if they were noticed at all, was one practiced and often demonstrated by Bell.
Bell was a noted physician in his day, serving as the personal physician to Queen Victoria whenever Her Majesty was in Scotland. In his lectures to students and in personal training while making rounds of the hospital he stressed the importance of observation prior to making a diagnosis, a trait reflected in Holmes analysis of crime scenes or reports.
Bell was a pioneer of forensics and was occasionally consulted by the local police in Edinburgh on criminal investigations. Bell often worked with Henry Littlejohn, a Professor of Forensics at the University of Edinburgh. Doyle used aspects of Littlejohn’s work in Holmes’ character and cases, citing him as a partial inspiration for the detective. At the request of Scotland Yard, Bell prepared a briefing paper covering the Jack the Ripper murders.
Although Doyle stressed that Bell was the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Bell himself disagreed. Having read the stories as avidly as any fan, Dr. Bell once wrote to Doyle, “You are yourself Sherlock Holmes, and you know it.” Interestingly, Doyle wrote sixty stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, the character which he created. Not once in any of them does the great detective state, “Elementary, my dear Watson.”