His Last Bow

A 1917 anthology concluding with Holmes' war service, first printed in Collier's on 22 September 1917.

"His Last Bow: Some Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes" is a 1917 collection by Arthur Conan Doyle, featuring the titular story "His Last Bow. The War Service of Sherlock Holmes," first published in Collier's on 22 September 1917. Released in the UK by John Murray and in the US by George H. Doran Co. that same month, the anthology contains eight stories, six of which originally appeared in The Strand Magazine between September 1908 and December 1913.

A brief preface, attributed to "John H. Watson, M.D.," assures readers that Holmes, though long retired from detective work, is alive and well, with only a touch of rheumatism. The first US edition adjusts the subtitle to "Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes." The collection also contains "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box," a tale that was in the first American edition of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) but was dropped from later editions of that book.

Quick Facts

Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
Illustrator: Richard Gutschmidt
Cover artist: Joseph van Abbé
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Series: Sherlock Holmes
Genre: Detective fiction
Publisher: John Murray

Lore & Background

The collection brings together stories first published between 1893, the year of "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box," and 1917, the year of the title story. Six tales saw their initial appearance in The Strand Magazine between 1908 and 1913, including "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge," which the magazine originally titled "A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes" and split into two parts: "The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles" and "The Tiger of San Pedro."

Later printings of the collection corrected the spelling to "Wisteria." The anthology also includes "The Adventure of the Red Circle," "The Bruce-Partington Plans," "The Dying Detective," "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax," and "The Devil's Foot." These narratives, ranging from 1893 to 1917, were later adapted across film, radio, and television, with most receiving dramatisations by the BBC Sherlock Holmes series (1952–1969) and the Granada television series (1984–1994).

Reader's Guide

In The Strand, "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" was published as "A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes" and divided into two parts with titles of their own. Additionally, fans of earlier collections may be surprised to find "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" here; it appeared in the first American edition of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) but was omitted from subsequent editions of that volume until its inclusion in this 1917 anthology. For those seeking specific adaptations, the entire collection was adapted by the Sherlock Holmes Stoll film series (1921–1923), while "His Last Bow" specifically received a BBC Radio 4 dramatisation in 1994.