Original photo by Jim Holden/ Alamy Stock Photo
It takes a little sleuthing to deduce that the iconic phrase “elementary, my dear Watson” never actually appears in any of the original Sherlock Holmes books. This oft-repeated misquote is generally believed to be what Holmes said to his trusted assistant, Dr. John Watson, when explaining how he’d solved a crime. But Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — who created the character of Sherlock Holmes and penned all the original stories — never wrote those four words in that exact order. The closest instance can be found in the 1893 short story “The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” where the phrases “my dear Watson” and “elementary” appear 52 words apart. The line “exactly, my dear Watson” is used in 1904’s “The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter,” but that too falls short of the famous quote.
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It's a factOne of the most common movie misquotes comes from the 1980 “Star Wars” film "The Empire Strikes Back." During a climactic confrontation between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, Vader says the line, “No, I am your father,” but does not address Luke by name.
The reason “elementary, my dear Watson” came to be associated with Holmes likely has to do with the phrase popping up in various newspapers, novels, and films in the early 20th century when referencing Doyle’s character, who had already become a fixture of pop culture by that point. An exact match for the line, and perhaps the earliest example, appears in a 1908 edition of The Globe and Traveller in an article about a sleuthing legal counsel. The phrase was later penned in a 1915 book by P.G. Wodehouse titled Psmith, Journalist, as well as in Agatha Christie’s 1922 novel The Secret Adversary. And the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock Holmes ends with the line, “Elementary, my dear Watson, elementary.” All these instances, and many more, have made it impossible to separate the quote from the character, despite it never appearing in Doyle’s original oeuvre.
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Sherlock Holmes’ archnemesis was named ______.
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Sherlock Holmes’ archnemesis was named James Moriarty.
Sherlock Holmes was based on a real-life surgeon.
Though the name “Sherlock Holmes” is entirely fictional, the character’s mannerisms were partially modeled after a real surgeon named Joseph Bell. While attending medical school at the University of Edinburgh, Arthur Conan Doyle took classes under Bell, who was said to possess an inherent ability to diagnose various diseases. He was also known for studying a patient’s appearance and making educated assumptions about their personal lives, such as their occupation.
Doyle drew inspiration from these traits as he conceived of Sherlock Holmes — a character renowned for deducing answers to complex mysteries through simple observation. In 1892, five years after the first Sherlock Holmes story was published, Doyle wrote a letter to Bell saying, “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes.”
Bennett Kleinman is a New York City-based staff writer for Optimism Media, and previously contributed to television programs such as "Late Show With David Letterman" and "Impractical Jokers." Bennett is also a devoted New York Yankees and New Jersey Devils fan, and thinks plain seltzer is the best drink ever invented.
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