The book was published in the UK by John Murray in October 1917, and in the US by George H. Doran Co. that same month.[1]
The collection contains "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", which was also included in the first edition of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894) but was dropped from later editions of that book.
Six of the stories were published in The Strand Magazine between September 1908 and December 1913.[2][3] The Strand published "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" as "A Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes" and divided it into two parts, called "The Singular Experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles" and "The Tiger of San Pedro".[4] Later printings of His Last Bow correct Wistaria to Wisteria.
The final story, "His Last Bow. The War Service of Sherlock Holmes" (1917), an epilogue about Holmes' war service, was first published in Collier's on 22 September 1917—one month before the book's premiere on 22 October.[2][3]
