Watson's Diary
Genius recorded in ink by a loyal friend.
Watson's Diary stands for the notes and records that Dr. John H. Watson keeps of the cases he shares with Sherlock Holmes. Throughout Conan Doyle's novels Watson is presented as the detective's biographer, and he is the narrator of the first of them, A Study in Scarlet.
Quick Facts
- Owner
- Dr. John H. Watson
Lore & Background
Watson repeatedly refers to "notes of many hundreds of cases to which I have never alluded", held back because Holmes, after his retirement, was reluctant to see more of his experiences published. In "The Problem of Thor Bridge" he says that his dispatch box is labelled "John H. Watson, M.D.". Holmes is not an uncritical reader: in "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" he says he has often pointed out to Watson how superficial his accounts are and accused him of pandering to popular taste. Even so he regularly calls Watson his "faithful friend and biographer" and once exclaims, "I am lost without my Boswell".
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