Elementary facts about Sherlock Holmes Published July 3, 2013 By Airman 1st Class Preston Webb 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs RAF MILDENHALL, England -- In the late 1880's, a young doctor wrote stories while waiting for patients to visit his practice. The eventual product revolutionized the genre of crime fiction. The young doctor created the infamous sleuth many know today as Sherlock Holmes. King Edward VII later knighted the young doctor, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, for his writing. 1. Holmes is often misquoted as saying "Elementary, my dear Watson." In Doyle's original 60 Holmes stories he frequently refers to his observations as "elementary" and to Dr. John Watson as "My dear fellow," or as "My dear Watson" in "The Red-Headed League," but he never combined the two phrases to create the quote in question. 2. Doyle received only £25 for his first Holmes story, "A Study in Scarlet." 3. Holmes, Doyle's most widely known character, is partially based on Doyle's college professor, Dr. Joseph Bell, while Holmes' nemesis, Professor James Moriarty, is also based off a real person, Adam Worth, and even shares his nickname -- the "Napoleon of Crime." 4. Holmes became so popular that his address, 221B Baker Street, received enough letters from fans that the owners of the property had to hire a full-time real-life secretary to handle the fictional sleuth's mail. 5. Holmes was not believed to be religious since he preferred not to involve himself with anything that didn't directly pertain to his work. This greatly contrasted his creator, Doyle, who was an avid spiritualist. 6. Watson, Holmes' faithful friend and biographer, narrates nearly all of the 60 Holmes stories. Two stories, "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" and "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane," are told by Holmes himself. Two others, "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone" and "His Last Bow," are told in third person. 7. Doyle attempted to kill-off Holmes in "The Final Problem," so he could focus on writing historical novels. After eight years, referred to as "The Great Hiatus," pressure from the public caused Doyle to write another Holmes story, "The Hound of the Baskervilles." 8. Holmes, having been portrayed by more than 75 actors in over 200 films, consistently earns the Guinness World Records title of "Most Portrayed Literary Human Character in Film and TV." 9. "Sherlock Holmes Baffled," a silent film from 1900, featured the infamous sleuth in the earliest recorded detective film of all time. 10. Founded in 1934, "The Baker Street Irregulars," a group of Holmes enthusiasts, named for a group of sea urchins from the Holmes stories, published the leading publication on Holmes, "The Baker Street Journal" since 1946. *Editor's note: There is no intended endorsement of Sherlock Holmes or the works related to its author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.