Editing The Final Problem (section)

==Background==
[[File:ReichenbachWaterFall.jpg|thumb|upright=.9|The [[Reichenbach Falls]], near [[Meiringen]], Switzerland]]
"The Final Problem" was intended to be exactly what its name says. Doyle meant to stop writing about his famous detective after this short story; he felt the Sherlock Holmes stories were distracting him from more serious literary efforts and that "killing" Holmes off was the only way of getting his career back on track. "I must save my mind for better things," he wrote to his mother, "even if it means I must bury my pocketbook with him."

Doyle sought to sweeten the pill by letting Holmes go in a blaze of glory, having him rid the world of a criminal so powerful and dangerous that any further task would be trivial in comparison; indeed, Holmes says as much in the story.

In 1893, Doyle and his wife toured Switzerland<ref name="swissinfo">{{cite web|url=http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/specials/extraordinary_exiles/Sherlock_Holmes_success_no_mystery.html?cid=12820 |title=Sherlock Holmes success no mystery |publisher=swissinfo.ch |date=19 May 2006 |access-date=5 November 2012}}</ref> and discovered the village of Meiringen in the Bernese Alps.<ref name="swissinfo" /> This experience fired Doyle's imagination.

{{quote|"In 1893 he wrote in his diary, which still exists, that he wanted to kill Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls," says Jürg Musfeld, director of the Park Hotel du Sauvage, where Doyle is believed to have stayed during his visit to the village.<ref name="swissinfo"/>}}