Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described how he was commissioned to write the story over a dinner with Joseph Marshall Stoddart, managing editor of the American publication Lippincotts Monthly Magazine, at the Langham Hotel in London on 30 August 1889. Stoddart wanted to produce an English version of Lippincott’s with a British editor and British contributors. The dinner was also attended by Oscar Wilde , who eventually contributed The Picture of Dorian Gray to the July 1890 issue. Doyle discussed what he called this "golden evening" in his 1924 Autobiographies/ Memories and Adventures.

The novel first appeared in the February 1890 edition of Lippincott's Monthly Magazine as The Sign of the Four; or The Problem of the Sholtos, appearing in both London and Philadelphia. The British edition of the magazine originally sold for a shilling , and the American for 25 cents. Surviving copies are now worth several thousand dollars.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written  by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialized in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely in Dartmoor, Devon, in England's West Country and follows Holmes and Watson investigating the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. This was the first appearance of Holmes since his apparent death in "The Final Problem", and the success of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.

One of the most famous stories ever written, in 2003, the book was listed as number 128 of 200 on the BBC's  poll of the UK's "best-loved novel".

Bertram Fletcher Robinson was a writer who was a friend of Doyle’s. Shortly after his return from the Boer War, Robinson invited Doyle to visit him at Ippleton in Devonshire. Supposedly, Robinson had been working on a story about the moor based on a 17th century legend with a demon hound. Doyle who had killed off Sherlock Holmes in “The Final Problem” was faced with a public outcry to produce more Holmes stories and quickly.

There is speculation that Doyle may have tried to adapt Robinson’s story into a tale of Sherlock Holmes and that would explain why the great detective appears so little in the story. In the late Fifties, Doyle’s son responded to such charges by stating: “Fletcher Robinson wrote not one word of the story. He refused my father’s offer to collaborate and retired at an early stage of the project.”

What all the sources agree on is that Doyle did indeed take a coach ride with Robinson over the moor to get the atmosphere of the place while Robinson recounted the story of Sir Richard Cabell, Lord of the Manor of Brooke. Lord Cabell was a man of well known evil repute. He was a very jealous man and one night he viciously accused his wife of having an affair.

Lady Cabell denied it. Enraged, Cabell beat her mercilessly. Somehow, she was able to break away from him and ran from the house, hoping to escape in the surrounding moors. The moors were a cold, desolate place. Lord Cabell caught up to her and in his enraged state killed her with one of his hunting knives.

Suddenly, a huge hound appeared. It was Lady Cabell’s own faithful dog and it had followed the couple onto the moors. Seeing his mistress killed, the hound savagely attacked Cabell and after a fierce struggle, slaughtered the evil man. However, the hound itself had been fatally wounded by Lord Cabell’s knife and in the morning the villagers found the poor animal lying dead beside his slain mistress.

According to local legend, the ghost of Lady Cabell’s hound still roams the moors on the nights of the full moon, howling mournfully for its dead mistress. Another legend claims that on the night of Lord Cabell’s death, black hounds breathing fire and smoke raced over nearby Dartmoor and howled around his manor house.

Lord Cabell’s death took place in 1677. A small pagoda-like building called “The Sepulchre” was put over his grave to prevent him from returning to cause even more evil. “It is said that he will gnaw your finger if you venture to insert it in the keyhole of the locked door,” wrote the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould.