The Narrative of John Smith would not have considered publishing this work, he continued to use quotes, character frames, and themes of "The Narrative of John Smith" in many of his other works, such as "The Stark Munro Letters", "Through the Magic Door", "A Study in Scarlet", and "The Hound of the Baskervilles". In 2004, the then untitled manuscript of Arthur Conan Doyle's rewritten unpublished first novel was purchased at auction by The British Library. It was first published in 2011 by The British Library, edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, and Rachel Foss. At the age of twenty-three when Conan Doyle wrote "The Narrative
Bertram Fletcher Robinson collaboration led only to Doyle's celebrated novel, "The Hound of the Baskervilles". Robinson also contributed an idea to the plot of a Sherlock Holmes short-story entitled "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder", which was first published in Collier's Weekly on 31 October 1903. Doyle is sometimes seen as downplaying the importance of Robinson's contribution to "The Hound of the Baskervilles". The literary scholar and critic, Professor William Wallace Robson wrote that it is 'impossible to determine' the precise extent of Robinson's role, but in all probability he merely acted as a 'creative trigger'. He adds that once the element of