Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and the colour green

While trawling through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's essay collection Through the Magic Door, I noticed that he mentions the colour green many times. 

This gave me the idea of looking for occurrences of this colour in Conan Doyle's life. I found more green connections than I was expecting, including some for Sherlock Holmes, and have summarised my findings here. The people, places and other items in the list may not seem particularly significant, but they certainly are interesting. 

Could it be more than just coincidence that some of Conan Doyle's work was probably inspired well before it started by someone called Green, was definitely documented long after after it ended by another person with the name of Green, and during the productivity period in the middle was edited by a man with Green in his name and published by a company with Green in its name?

Anna Katharine Green: the inspirer

Anna Katharine Green (1846 – 1935) was an American writer of pioneering detective fiction. She invented many standard features of the modern detective story; she has been called the mother of the detective novel. Her first, and best-selling, book The Leavenworth Case appeared around nine years before the first Sherlock Holmes story was published. She is believed to have inspired Conan Doyle, who was a fan of hers and corresponded with her.

Mystery writer Patricia Meredith has written and spoken about this connection:

Richard Lancelyn Green: the documenter
Richard Lancelyn Green (1953 - 2004) was considered to be the world's foremost scholar and leading authority on the topics of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He collected much material and produced extensive notes for a three-volume biography of Conan Doyle, but died in mysterious circumstances before it was finished.

He collected and introduced some Sherlock Holmes tribute stories: 

Today is Rafael Sabatini’s birthday

The novelist Rafael Sabatini was born on this day, April 29th, in 1875 in Italy.

I have always thought of Rafael Sabatini as a member of a special trinity. Like the other two members John Buchan and Anthony Hope, he provided food and fuel for the imagination and a chance to escape from the mundane world. He gave a taste of romance, excitement and adventure, often in glamorous and historic settings, to people who had little chance of getting anything like it in real life.

John Buchan was also born in 1875, and by coincidence there are significant occasions in February for all three men: Anthony Hope was born on February 9th; John Buchan died on February 11th and Rafael Sabatini died on February 13th.

I put Rafael Sabatini above Anthony Hope and below John Buchan when it comes to both my enjoyment of their books and finding them a good source of material for articles about unseen influences.

Previous references

Although his books do not inspire commentary the way John Buchan’s do, Rafael Sabatini has been mentioned in a few articles. His wise words about equality have been quoted; the tragic deaths of his son and step-son and his obvious favouring of heroes with black hair over their rivals with blond hair have also been discussed.

To mark the occasion, I want to say a little more about Sabatini and his books.