In the summer and fall of 1999, Sherlockians from around the world selected the best Sherlock Holmes stories. This was the largest and most comprehensive survey on the topic ever conducted. I wrote a series of articles on this poll and on rating the Canon. These articles all ended up appearing in the December 1999 Baker Street Journal. They included the following:

"Irregular Participation"
I first became interested in conducting a new poll for rating the Canon in the fall of 1998. My research into prior polls lead me to send a proposal to Don Pollock, Editor of the BSJ, and to write this special investigation into the 1944 - 1959 polls. It clears up some mysteries surrounding these prior polls.

"Rating Sherlock Holmes"
The Baker Street Journal and the Sherlock Holmes Journal reported on four polls to rate the Canon from 1944 to 1989. My article covers the traditional topics, with perhaps a bit more analysis than before. It describes the overall results for the 1999 poll, including rankings for the short stories, the long stories, and the collected tales.

"A Study in Sherlockians"
I had never seen any demographic information on Sherlockians and thought that the 1999 poll offered a great opportunity to get a better sense of this community. I also wanted to see if a voter's experience or affiliations would relate to their choice of the best stories. This article covers both these topics for the first time.

"The Best of the Best"
After researching prior polls and conducting the 1999 effort, it was clear that each poll brought some unique Sherlockian insight to rating the Canon. This article summarizes the history of these appraisals and determines the all-time greatest stories.

More Information
This Web site provides supplementary information to the articles published in the December 1999 Baker Street Journal. Please refer to the original articles for the principle results and conclusions. However, some additional information is available here for people needing more details.

If you are interested in a specific cut on the poll results or demographics that is not included in the BSJ articles or on this site, please send me e-mail and I will see if I can generate it. My e-mail info is available by clicking on my name at the bottom of this page.

I am always interested in hearing about prior polls and welcome your e-mail on the topic. I am particularly interested in any ballots from the 1944 - 1959 polls and in story scores from the 1989 Sherlock Holmes Journal poll that were not published in the SHJ.

1999 Poll Summary Results
In case your December 1999 BSJ is not at hand, I've repeated the key results here.

The 1999 Poll Results

"Rating Sherlock Holmes" Supplement
The 1999 poll used a 12-point weighting method to rank the short stories. Since the number of first-place votes provides additional critical insight, this information was also listed in the article. There are, however, many other potential weighting models and some were mentioned in the article.

Appendix Table A2 lists the results using six different scoring models.

"A Study in Sherlockians" Supplement
Because of the large number of participants in the 1999 poll, it was worthwhile to compare the choices of various groups of voters. The BSJ article listed only the top choices from these groups. Complete story rankings are provided here for:

Invested BSI Members (Table 1)

Members of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London (Table 2)

Women versus Men (Table 3)

Men versus Women (Table 3b, each group sorted separately)

Publishing Experience (Table 4)

Regions - USA versus ROW (Table 5)

Countries (Table 6)

"The Best of the Best" Supplement
Results from five polls reported in the BSJ and SHJ between 1944 and 1999 were analyzed to determine the all-time greatest Sherlock Holmes stories. My December 1999 BSJ article listed only the top choices from these polls. The complete tables are provided here for:

Rankings by Story (Table 2)

Relative Story Scores by Poll (Appendix Table A1)

Thanks!
A special "thank-you" to everyone who participated in the 1999 poll. The response was outstanding! I especially enjoyed the notes many of you included with your ballots.

My first contact with the Sherlockian community was Donald Pollock. He helped to re-ignite my Canonical interests and his guidance is much appreciated. Thanks for being a great BSJ Editor!