# On "DID SHERLOCK HOLMES REALLY EXIST?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [March 20, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163 "2009-03-20T14:36:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CallumJStewart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@CallumJStewart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CallumJStewart)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/1 "2009-03-20T14:36:55Z")
“Many authors bring Holmes into contact with real-life contemporary people, such as Sigmund Freud or Oscar Wilde or Jack the Ripper or Harry Flashman, or even with fictional characters such as Tarzan, the Loch Ness monster, or Dracula.” You do realise that Harry Flashman is as fictional as Holmes, right? ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/2 "2009-03-20T14:51:42Z")
Welcome to the boards. 🙂 It helps if you can supply [a link to the Staff Report](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2088/did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist) you’re discussing. And you are correct that Flashman is fictional, although the books about him by [George MacDonald Fraser](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_MacDonald_Fraser) are both highly entertaining and informative. I now understand the [Schleswig-Holstein question](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schleswig-Holstein), thanks to Flashman! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/3 "2009-03-20T15:28:34Z")
Two comments: 1. Of course Sherlock Holmes was real: he was a relative of Doc Savage, fer cryin’ out loud! (Heh.) 2. George MacDonald Fraser’s **The Pyrates** is a buncha fun. RR ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/4 "2009-03-23T21:18:58Z")
I wrote that Staff Report when I was young and still had a sense of humor. True, I felt a little twinge of contrition when I wrote it, but I also figured, the hell with it. After all, the whole thing is about taking fictional characters as if they were real and dealing with them on that basis, right? I find the whole Sherlock Holmes game to be enormously fun, and I couldn’t resist adding ol’ Flashy to the list of “real-life” contemporaries… especially against such obvious fictional characters as Tarzan or the Loch Ness Monster. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/5 "2009-03-24T06:47:07Z")
> [@CallumJStewart](#): > > “Many authors bring Holmes into contact with real-life contemporary people, such as Sigmund Freud or Oscar Wilde or Jack the Ripper or Harry Flashman, or even with fictional characters such as Tarzan, the Loch Ness monster, or Dracula.” > > You do realise that Harry Flashman is as fictional as Holmes, right? Differentiating between the real and the fictional isn’t quite as easy as you might think. In _Father Ted_, Dougal McGuire constantly gets himself so confused on the subject of reality versus fiction that Ted makes him keep a pull-down list of things that don’t exist on the wall by his bed. Entitled ‘They Don’t Exist’, the list comprises _The Loch Ness Monster, Frankenstein, Magnum P.I., Non-catholic Gods, Darth Vader, The Beast_, _and_ The Phantom of the Opera\*. Perhaps Dex could keep this list by _his_ bed remembering, of course, to add Harry Flashman to it before he goes to sleep tonight. . . . \*A fearsome cat-like sheep-worrier which, instead of a mouth, has four arses. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/6 "2009-03-24T10:24:07Z")
Who says Nessie ain’t real??? :mad: ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/7 "2009-03-24T11:50:30Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > I wrote that Staff Report when I was young and still had a sense of humor. True, I felt a little twinge of contrition when I wrote it, but I also figured, the hell with it. After all, the whole thing is about taking fictional characters as if they were real and dealing with them on that basis, right? I find the whole Sherlock Holmes game to be enormously fun, and I couldn’t resist adding ol’ Flashy to the list of “real-life” contemporaries… especially against such obvious fictional characters as Tarzan or the Loch Ness Monster. I forgive you. 🙂 What a swell party this is! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/8 "2009-03-24T13:14:02Z")
Sherlockian Dopers like me must confess a certain sense of divided loyalties, with Mr. Holmes and Mr. Adams both making a fair claim to the title of Perfect Master. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2009, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/9 "2009-03-24T14:48:39Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Sherlockian Dopers like me must confess a certain sense of divided loyalties, with Mr. Holmes and Mr. Adams both making a fair claim to the title of Perfect Master. Hmmm. Have you ever seen the two of them together? … ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/10 "2009-03-28T01:34:20Z")
> [@Chez\_Guevara](#): > > A fearsome cat-like sheep-worrier which, instead of a mouth, has four arses. **Chez** : Craggy Island itself is, of course, fictional. Er, real. Er, fictional. ---
**Author:** ![SeanArenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeanArenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeanArenas)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/11 "2009-03-28T08:55:45Z")
> [@glee](#): > > What a swell party this is! It’s great, it’s grand! It’s wonderland! ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/12 "2009-03-28T17:04:43Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > **Chez** : Craggy Island itself is, of course, fictional. Er, real. Er, fictional. Great. I’ll have to add that to my own ‘They Don’t Exist’ list tonight, along with fairies, Cecil Adams, and future prospects for financial stability. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/13 "2009-03-28T17:40:36Z")
> [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](#): > > **Chez** : Craggy Island itself is, of course, fictional. Er, real. Er, fictional. Yeah, sure. That’s just what the Grice Patersons thought about the island of Uffa. ---
**Author:** ![Khampelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Khampelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khampelf)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/14 "2009-03-28T21:55:24Z")
Isn’t anyone going to talk about Dr. Bell, said to be an inspiration for Holmes? I recall some wierd story about footprints on a beach, missing a toe, that led said Dr. Bell to realize he, himself, was committing somnambulistic murders. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/15 "2009-03-28T23:22:39Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > Who says Nessie ain’t real??? :mad: Of course he is! Everyone knows that he’s currently [working as a door-greater at Mr. Burns’s Casino](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v220/Guinastasia/Odds%20and%20Ends/Aabf17.jpg)! Duh. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/16 "2009-03-29T00:10:00Z")
> [@Khampelf](#): > > I recall some wierd story about footprints on a beach, missing a toe, that led said Dr. Bell to realize he, himself, was committing somnambulistic murders. A story [usually told about a French detective called Robert Ledru](http://siko-anewthingeveryday.blogspot.com/2008/10/number-5-cops-socks.html), rather than Bell. No idea whether it’s actually true or not. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/17 "2009-03-29T02:20:15Z")
Robert Ledru’s story sounds familiar; I think a similar plot (policeman deducing that he committed a murder while sleepwalking) was used by someone in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine recently. ---
**Author:** ![critter42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@critter42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/critter42)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/18 "2009-03-29T03:45:32Z")
The story I heard about Bell (it was from a “The Rest of the Story” compilation book - \which we all know is a REAL bastion of fact checking\) was that using forensics, he discovered his son was the criminal ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-did-sherlock-holmes-really-exist/490163/19 "2009-03-29T04:07:37Z")
> [@LurkMeister](#): > > Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine I’d still read it, were it not for the [del]faggy[/del] name. 😉 I wanted to submit one to Alfred Hitchcock’s, as it were full of silliness and all, but a friend pointed out enough crappiness (which I thought artistic) that I chose not to submit. ☹ Er, that strikethrough is obvious enough that I won’t get Pitted, right?