Editing Sherlock Holmes (section)

===Family and early life===
[[File:A Study in Scarlet from Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887.jpg|thumb|upright|right|alt=Magazine cover featuring ''A Study in Scarlet'', with drawing of a man lighting a lamp|The cover page of the 1887 edition of ''[[Beeton's Christmas Annual]]'', which contains Holmes's first appearance (''[[A Study in Scarlet]]'')]]

Details of Sherlock Holmes' life in Conan Doyle's stories are scarce and often vague. Nevertheless, mentions of his early life and extended family paint a loose biographical picture of the detective.

A statement of Holmes' age in "[[His Last Bow]]" places his year of birth at 1854; the story, set in August 1914, describes him as sixty years of age.<ref>Klinger II, p. 1432—"[[His Last Bow (short story)|His Last Bow]]"</ref> His parents are not mentioned, although Holmes mentions that his "ancestors" were "[[Landed gentry|country squires]]". In "[[The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter]]", he claims that his grandmother was sister to the French artist Vernet, without clarifying whether this was [[Claude Joseph Vernet|Claude Joseph]], [[Carle Vernet|Carle]], or [[Horace Vernet]]. Holmes' brother [[Mycroft Holmes|Mycroft]], seven years his senior, is a government official. Mycroft has a unique [[civil service]] position as a kind of human database for all aspects of government policy. Sherlock describes his brother as the more intelligent of the two, but notes that Mycroft lacks any interest in physical investigation, preferring to spend his time at the [[Diogenes Club]].<ref>Klinger I, pp. 637-639—"[[The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter|The Greek Interpreter]]"</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/mycroft-holmes|title=Mycroft Holmes|last=Quigley|first=Michael J.|website=The Official Conan Doyle Estate Ltd.|access-date=27 December 2019|archive-date=27 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227073317/https://arthurconandoyle.co.uk/character/mycroft-holmes|url-status=live}}</ref>

Holmes says that he first developed his methods of deduction as an undergraduate; his earliest cases, which he pursued as an amateur, came from his fellow university students.<ref>Klinger I, pp. 529-531—"[[The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual|The Musgrave Ritual]]"</ref> A meeting with a classmate's father led him to adopt detection as a profession.<ref>Klinger I, pp. 501-502—"[[The Adventure of the Gloria Scott|The ''Gloria Scott'']]"</ref>