Elementary, my dear Watson!

[wellinghall]

No published Sherlock Holmes story by Arthur Conan Doyle uses this phrase. Saturday's Times has traced it back to Psmith, Journalist, by PG Wodehouse, first released in the United Kingdom as a serial in The Captain magazine between October 1909 and February 1910.

Comments

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Fascinating!

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I knew that! (Well, the first bit). Still haven't seen Sherlock, and (OMG shock horror) might not bother, as having trouble following series at the moment.

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I was reasonably certain I knew it was one of those phrases like "Play it again, Sam", but not that it had been traced back to Psmith!

[garamondbophin.livejournal.com]

Didn't know about the "Psmith..." connection, but Clive Brook used the phrase in the 1929 film "The Return of Sherlock Holmes", possibly inspired by the phrase "Oh, this is elementary, my dear fellow" from William Gillette's play "Sherlock Holmes, or The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner", which debuted in 1899.