Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street

Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A Life of the World's First Consulting Detective is a 1962 novel by William S. Baring-Gould. The book purports to be a biography of Sherlock Holmes.^[1] It is considered to be the "definitive" biography of Sherlock Holmes.^[2]

Some aspects of the book were loosely based on the life of Baring-Gould's paternal grandfather, Sabine Baring-Gould.^[3] Many of the theories put forth by Baring-Gould have become accepted knowledge about Sherlock Holmes,^[2] such as the full name "William Sherlock Scott Holmes",^[2] which is used in the film Sherlock Holmes in New York starring Roger Moore^[4] and the episode "His Last Vow" from series 3 of the BBC television series Sherlock.^[5] Other details established by Baring-Gould, such as Professor Moriarty being Holmes' childhood mathematics tutor,^[6] that Holmes was once an actor,^[7] and the continuing affair and one-night stand with Irene Adler, leading up to the birth of a son (who is implied in the book to be Nero Wolfe),^[8] have continued to be a part of the Great Game and have been used in other Sherlockian pastiches.^[6] The book also offers one of the earliest versions of Sherlock Holmes meeting Jack the Ripper.^[9]

Five years later in 1967, Baring-Gould would go on to publish The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, which would also be considered definitive,^[10][11] at least until Leslie S. Klinger published The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes in 2004–2005.^[12][13] Baring-Gould used many biographical details that he invented in Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street for his two annotated volumes.^[11]

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