What is The Louise & Sherlock Project?
The Louise & Sherlock Project consists of a multi-faceted body of work to present and defend the audacious claim that it was Louise Conan Doyle née Hawkins, not Arthur, who created Sherlock Holmes and wrote the early adventures. My disruptive claim is not mere presumption. I present objective evidence in my semi‑technical, uber-boring companion piece, Stylometric Analysis of the Sherlock Holmes Canon.
More to the point of this newsletter, a critical reading of the early Holmes adventures reveals them to be rich in allusions, references, incongruities, conundrums, irony, satire, and other literary devices that point to someone entirely different than Arthur. Biographical and chronological fingers point instead to Louise. It is this wealth of non‑technical evidence that I intend to present herein.
Additionally, I am in the process of publishing fifty books in ten years at the rate of five books per year. Most of those books will belong to either of two Louise & Sherlock series.
The Louise & Sherlock Red Series will consist of one book for each of the early Holmes short stories that Louise wrote, and at least two volumes for each of the Holmes novels that Louise co-authored. Given that Louise wrote twenty eight of the fifty six short stories and co‑authored each of the four Holmes novels, the Red series will eventually, hopefully, number three dozen books. The first of them, Louise & Sherlock: A Scandal in Bohemia, is already complete.
The Louise & Sherlock Gold Series is to consist nominally of one book for each non‑Holmes story that somehow provides insight into the authorship dispute. The first book in the Gold series will be Louise & Sherlock: After Cormorants with a Camera, for reasons that will become abundantly clear upon reading the book. The Gold series will be of indeterminate length.
Each book in the Red and Gold series will consist of the story text, annotations, and essays. The story text and the corresponding annotations will appear on facing pages, story on the left and annotations on the right, thus to increase their correspondence while simultaneously allowing fluidity of reading. Vital information too extensive for even a full-page annotation will be included in one of the critical essays that follow the annotated story.
I will use this Substack account to provide background material, to pre-release selected content, and to recruit assistance in identifying more and more of the telltale allusions that hide in plain sight within the Holmes adventures.
I will also serialize herein two or three fictional murder mystery novels starring Louise. This first will be for Brimstone, already published. The second will be Gambit, completed but not yet published. The possible third will be Ember, not yet completed. If I do serialize Ember, I will be soliciting reader regarding major and minor plot elements.
Hopefully, this account will become a community clearinghouse for all those interested in finally granting Louise credit for her work, her creativity, and her brilliance.
By subscribing, you will get access to both the newsletter and the website. You won’t have to worry about missing anything. Every new edition of the newsletter will go directly to your inbox. Every past edition will be available in the Louise & Sherlock Substack archives.
I hope you will join us at The Louise & Sherlock Project.
John
