In the first place I had to read the stories myself with some care. In practice I found that I had engaged myself in a serious task. When this competition was first mooted I went into it in a most light-hearted way, thinking that it would be the easiest thing in the world to pick out the twelve best of the Holmes stories. The list appeared with Conan Doyle’s explanations: In June of 1927, the Editor (presumably) opened the envelope. I have left my list in a sealed envelope with the Editor of the Strand.” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself would select the very best (that is, his own favorite) Holmes stories, and whichever fan guessed the author’s list “most nearly” would win £100 and an autographed copy of Conan Doyle’s Memories and Adventures. “It is as a little test of the opinion of the public that I inaugurate the small competition announced here,” Conan Doyle wrote in the Strand. “I have drawn up a list of the twelve short stories contained in the four published volumes which I consider to be the best, and I should like to know to what extent my choice agrees with that of Strand readers. In March of 1927, just before the final volume of Sherlock Holmes stories, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, was due to be published in book form, the Strand introduced a competition for its readers.
( A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four, both novels, had already been printed elsewhere.) Readers loved it, magazine sales soared, and Conan Doyle would go on to publish a total of 4 novels and 56 short stories about Sherlock Homes, with most of the stories published in the Strand between 18. In June of 1891, “A Scandal in Bohemia,” the first short story featuring everyone’s favorite consulting detective Sherlock Holmes, was published in The Strand Magazine.
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