THE BIG SIX #4: SHERLOCK HOLMES

The first appearance of Sherlock Holmes in the 1887 issue of Beeton's Christmas Annual. Considered the most expensive magazine in the world, a copy sold for more than $153,000 at Sotheby's in 2004.

The one and only Sherlock Holmes was the creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). The consulting detective began his career in print in the form of four novelettes and fifty-six short stories, mostly written from the point of view of Holmes's 'Boswell,' Dr. John H. Watson. A super-thinker bored with the mundane of everyday life, Holmes exalts at solving puzzles, and admits his attraction to the sometimes-dangerous life style. The 'sacred writings' were serialized, mostly in The Strand Magazine, and then later published in book form.