Raffles Holmes was a detective and thief whose cases were chronicled by John Kendrick Bangs, collected in the volume R. Holmes & Co. Raffles Holmes is a young man who claims Sherlock Holmes for a father and A.J. Raffles as grandfather.
Wold Newton researcher C. Richard Davies is generally credited with the observation that Raffles would not be old enough to have had a grown-up daughter contemporary with Holmes, his solution being that Raffles Holmes was actually Raffles's nephew.
It is a popular misconception that Raffles Holmes is part of the original Wold Newton Family trees devised by Philip José Farmer or was created by subsequent researchers in the field. Although Farmer was clearly familiar with Bangs's work, Raffles Holmes - created by Bangs in 1905 - is not mentioned in his writings. Brad Mengel identifies some offspring of Raffles Holmes in his article The Incredible Raffles Clan.
External Links
- "R. Holmes & Co." by John Kendrick Bangs - scanned text at the Internet Archive
- "Watching the Detectives" by Brad Mengel (original text)
- "The Incredible Raffles Clan" by Brad Mengel
- A Reply to “The Wold Newton Theory Alternative Universe” by Win Eckert et. al.
- In Defense of "The Incredible Raffles Clan" by Brad Mengel