were an important name on the publishing scene." Ebenezer Ward retired in 1883 and died in 1902. George Lock had died in 1891. None of Ward's children went into business. But Lock's family continued the business. “After George Lock’s death the firm was carried on for two years by James Bowden and John Lock under the title of Ward Lock, Bowden & Company. Then, in 1893, it was converted into a limited company with the title of Ward Lock and Bowden Ltd.” In the 1887 Beeton's Christmas Annual (published in November) Arthur Conan Doyle's first detective novel, A Study in Scarlet, was published, introducing the consulting detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler Dr. Watson. Ward Lock and Bowden's business in New York and Melbourne were doing well and in the mid-1890s, the company opened an office in Toronto, Canada; however, this was closed in 1919. The books published by the firm reflected the changes in English life. These included Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, George Meredith’s The Tragic Comedians, Joseph Hocking’s All Men are Liars, Guy Boothby’s In Strange Company and George Hutchinson’s Winning a Wife in Australia. Besides fiction, the firm also published educational material. They were involved in “popularizing general and specialized knowledge”, publishing material such as Illustrated History of the World, Self-culture for All, The World’s Inhabitants, Worthies of the World and more. Responding to the growth in railway lines and love for travel, Ward Lock and Bowden introduced their series of guides books to the British Isles in 1896. They were priced at a shilling. As of 1954, some 136 Ward Lock travel guides, also known as Red Guides, existed. In 1900, the firm bought A.D. Innes and Company – famous for publishing sports books. In 1895, the company launched The Windsor Magazine – it introduced to the public a new style of magazine, that was for everyone, not just the upper or upper-middle classes. The magazine continued for nearly 45 years. The Windsor Magazine published novels in installments and also verse and was one of the firm's biggest successes. James Bowden retired in 1897. By 1901, the firm went by Ward, Lock & Co., Limited. Its motto was “full steam ahead”. The firm published major authors, but also took a “middle-brow” approach to fiction. They published in book form the novels of authors which had been published in installments in The