His Last Bow: The Reminiscence of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of eight short stories that were previously published between 1908–1917. The collection was originally called Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes and did not contain the short story His Last Bow, which appeared after the fourth and last novel, The Valley of Fear, was published. This volume concludes with Watson’s statement explaining that Sherlock Holmes has retired, and forbids Watson from publishing any more stories.