Preface
Of all the conundrums that have puzzled Canonical scholars, few have been thornier than the eternally “vexed question” of John H. Watson’s wives.[1] Part of the problem is that the Doctor mentions only one by name. Even Mary Morstan is never called anything except “my wife” once she and Watson wed. Our confusion arises from references to “my wife” in stories that predate The Sign of Four. Nor is Sherlock Holmes of any help. While he tells us of his friend’s “desertion” for another wife by 1903, he provides neither the lady’s name nor the circumstances of their meeting. One would think the Literary Agent might have sorted out this mess, but Conan Doyle made no more effort to clarify the Doctor’s marital vagueness than to correct his errors or obfuscations of chronology.
In fairness to Sir Arthur, it was only in 1928 that Watson began to write of his first and final marriages. By that time, his relations with his long-time literary agent were no longer close. Indeed, the Doctor’s will named Holmes as his literary executor.[2] It is probable, therefore, that Doyle knew nothing of these late memoirs.
Who, then, were the all-but-unknown women who preceded and succeeded Mary Morstan? Wife One, Constance Adams, was identified by W.S. Baring-Gould in his joint biography of Holmes and Watson.[3] Unfortunately, he got most of the facts about her wrong, as shown by Watson’s portrait of Constance in “A Ghost from Christmas Past.” It seems the Doctor carried a lifelong sense of guilt about his young wife’s death, especially because her fate was intermingled with that of his brother Henry, who also met a tragic end. Little wonder Watson said nothing of his brief first marriage in the Canon, leaving readers to puzzle over such inconsistencies as “My wife was on a visit to her mother’s” when Mary’s mother died long before they met.
The Doctor’s last wife was a more substantial figure: an officer’s widow who earned the respect of even Sherlock Holmes, although her opinion of him was less admiring. Priscilla Prescott appears in several of the late-life stories. It is obvious that Watson loved her deeply, and their companionable years would surely have continued had not the Great War brought to a head their conflicting views about the army. Instead, the two-time widower endured another tragedy, which brought his forays into marriage to a final end.
And what of Mary Morstan, the wife we know, the wife with whom Watson enjoyed—“all too briefly”—“the harmony of two souls perfectly attuned”? Both the “Mary memoirs” included here require an explanation. The first was not written by the Doctor. No doubt he kept it in his tin dispatch box because, as Holmes remarked, it showed how clearly another woman central to his life had come to understand him. As for “The Adventure of the Tainted Canister,” it is considered by one of my Sherlockian colleagues to be a forgery. There is evidence for this conclusion: the story’s tone, and its characterization of Lestrade, differ markedly from others in this volume. The Doctor’s final tale takes him far beyond the brainless bumbler portrayed by Nigel Bruce, although another colleague believes that “Edward Hardwicke would have given his eyeteeth for this role!” Whether John H. Watson was truly capable of the act described I leave my readers to decide.
The remaining stories vary in content and chronology. A casual flirtation leads to complications once the young war veteran moves to Baker Street. In other cases, Our Heroes meet “The Great,” including William Ewart Gladstone, Joseph Chamberlain, Gustav Mahler, and Edith Wharton. One story ties up a loose end from my previous book, Sherlock Holmes and the Crowned Heads of Europe. In his declining years, the Great Detective reunites with an elderly spinster likewise worthy of the title, although copyright restrictions prevented me from giving this lady her well-known appellation.
All but one story appeared previously in the anthology The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories, or in other MX publications, between 2016 and 2023. Reluctantly, I eliminated most of the endnotes that cluttered the originals. Some remain as footnotes, and bibliographies are appended to several of the stories. All employ British spelling and American punctuation, an inconsistency some may deplore.
I must gratefully acknowledge the friendship and support of my Sherlockian colleagues. Publisher Steve Emecz has done his utmost to promote my limited output in the nine years of our relationship. David Marcum, Editor Extraordinaire, agreed to accept my other stories even after reading “Tainted Canister.” Marcia Wilson, Daniel D. Victor, Craig Stephen Copeland, S.F. Bennett, A.S. Croyle, Wendy Heyman-Marsaw, and Dick Gillman—all gifted pasticheurs—have assisted and encouraged my endeavors. The same is true of Derrick Belanger of Belanger Books, who recently published my essay in Writing Holmes! (2022), and of Brian Belanger, who provided the covers for this book and Crowned Heads. Keith Spilsbury did a masterful job of narrating both Crowned Heads and “Ghost.” Finally, as noted in the dedication, I owe to my wife Paula a debt that goes far beyond this book.
July 15, 2023
[1] Although the literature on this subject is immense, David Marcum has provided a thorough but palatable summary in his blog “A Seventeen Step Program” (http://17stepprogram.blogspot.com/2019/11/watsons-wives-and-question-of-chronology.html). He and I accept Baring-Gould’s conclusion that Watson had three wives. Others have posited as many as seven sickly brides, theorizing that the Doctor was a common-law bigamist, an inept physician, or a serial wife-killer.
[2] See “The Catastrophic Cyclist” and “The Adventure of the Lost Alliance” herein. The latter story mentions Watson’s irritation with Doyle as early as 1917. The final blow to their relationship is the subject of Marcum’s award-winning story “The Unintended Offenses,” in Steel True, Blade Straight (Belanger Books, 2022), pp. 192-218.
[3] Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street (Avenel, NJ: Wings Books, 1995 [1962]), pp. 67-70, 88, 91, 299-300, 302.
