Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde

On 30^th August 1889 Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde met at a dinner organised by J. M. Stoddard, an American publisher and editor. Stoddard wanted to commission new stories for an English version of his monthly magazine Lippincott's (based in Philadelphia).

Of this event, Arthur later said ‘It was indeed a golden evening for me. Wilde …had an art of seeming to be interested in all we could say’.

Oscar Wilde was just one of the many writers who influenced Conan Doyle, others include Sir Walter Scott, Edgar Allan Poe, Emile Gaborian, Rider Haggard and Robert Louis Stevenson.”

As a result of this dinner Lippincott's subsequently featured 'The Sign of Four' by Conan Doyle and 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde.

The Sign of Four was eventually published in 1890 and is the second novel to feature Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. The Portrait of Dorian Gray is a gothic and philosophical novel also published in 1890 by Oscar Wilde. This is the only novel written by Oscar Wilde.