Tag: Tit-Bits

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On May 25th…

Readers all over the world endured the death of the great Sherlock Holmes, who had become so loved and popular to fans, in the last story in the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1893. A storm of protest could not change the mind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Even his Mother, according to stories passed around, could not bring Holmes back.

Advertising broadsheet for The Hound of the BaskervillesThen, on May 25th, 1901, Newnes’s weekly publication, Tit-Bits (sister publication to The Strand) announced, “Revival of Sherlock Holmes”.

Never mind that the story being published was to be an earlier case of Holmes’s before his fatal encounter at the Falls.

Holmes was coming back.

His most exciting case yet, The Hound of The Baskervilles began appearing in The Strand in August of 1901 and was published as a novel in 1902.

The hope of Holmes was back and hopefully would never go away.

This information comes from A Curious Collection of Dates: Through the Year with Sherlock Holmes by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”).

We’ll close with the dedication that appeared in the original book. [Interesting that now there are those scholars who do not believe that this was true in the creation of this tale. -Chips]

This story owes its inception to my friend, Mr. Fletcher Robinson, who has helped me both in the general plot and in the local details.

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On March 13th… Tidbits is Born (Sort of)

Portrait of George Newnes

Sir George Newnes was born March 13, 1851, in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire. In 1881, he founded a new magazine that would include small articles (“tit-bits”) reprinted from other publications. He called it, of course, Tit-Bits. (Or, to give it its proper full title: Tit-Bits from all the Most Interesting Books, Periodicals and Newspapers in the World.)

Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”) write in A Curious Collection of Dates:

Tit-Bits from all the Most Interesting Books, Periodicals and Newspapers in the World, Issue 1

The new magazine entered the marketplace at the perfect time: literacy rates had grown in England thanks to the Compulsory Education Act of 1870, and an increasingly urban, commuting public welcomed interesting train reading that did not require the commitment of a lengthy serial. It didn’t hurt that Newness was an expert promoter: Tit-Bits offered train insurance, contests for everything from cash to a house – even, in 1903, buried treasure.

He went on to found The Strand Magazine in 1891, which stated in its first issue, “It will contain stories and articles by the best British writers, and special translations from the first foreign authors. These will be illustrated by eminent artists.” The July 1891 issue contained the first appearance of “A Scandal in Bohemia”.

“Chips” notes: I think this is where the name of our column came from back when I
first joined this world of 1895 at about the age of 11.

Sources:

Information provided by the volume A Curious Collection of Dates by by Leah Guinn (JHWS “Amber”) and Jaime N Mahoney (JHWS “Tressa”). Digitized copy of the first volume of The Strand: An Illustrated Monthly held by the University of California available via Google Books.

Posted by The Dynamic Duo: Ron (JHWS “Chips”) and Beth (JHWS “Selena Buttons”)