Young Sherlock Holmes is on t.v. right now, and it got me thinking…did Doyle ever write any stuff about Holmes’ early years before Watson?
No, he didn’t, although there have been several Holmes pastiches (i.e., fictional work about Sherlock Holmes written by someone other than Doyle) in which Holmes as a child (well, to be precise, as a teenager) solves a crime.
Yes, he did. “The ‘Gloria Scott’” and “The Musgrave Ritual,” both from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes were set mostly before Holmes and Watson met. They were mostly narrated by Holmes, to Watson.
“The ‘Gloria Scott’” was set in Holmes’s college days (which college is not revealed) and recounts his first case, and mentions how he decided to become a detective. “The Musgrave Ritual” is set in the early days of Holmes’s private practice, before he became successful and moved to Baker Street.