H. P. Lovecraft: Baker Street Irregular

"As to "Sherlock Holmes" - I used to be infatuated with him! I read every Sherlock Holmes story published, and even organized a detective agency when I was thirteen, arrogating to myself the proud pseudonym of S.H. This P[rovidence] D[etective] A[gency] ... how many murders and robberies we unravelled! Our headquarters were in a deserted house just out of the thickly settled area ... I still remember my labours producing artificial "bloodstains on the floor !!!"

[5/17/1918 to Alfred Galpin, Lord of a Visible World, Joshi, 2000]

Lovecraft was snared by the publishing of Return of Sherlock Holmes. His creator killed him off in the 1893 tale ''The Final Problem" and in 1903, after years of receiving angry letters from readers, Doyle resurrected him (in the Strand). Doyle loathed Holmes and in his early writing career was quite a horror writer. One often thinks that Doyle was more content to BE Watson, the doctor.

The return of Holmes, though, was a fantastic success and millions of children were enraptured by the book.