Gerry Baker is Editor at Large of The Wall Street Journal ... Expression" where he speaks with some of the world's leading writers, influencers and thinkers about a variety of subjects.

and the same one that would eventually describe the man working from 221B Baker Street. Some, most notably author Michael Harrison, argue that Scherer, not Bell, was the model for Sherlock Holmes.

In 1971, Baker was 16 and listening to Arvella Gray, a blind blues artist, play on Chicago's Maxwell Street. Thirty-five ...