George Newnes, a British publisher, launched THE STRAND in 1891 as a new mass-market magazine in both Britain and America. The American edition at first generally carried the same material as the British edition, but one month later; but as time went by there were numerous items carried in one edition but not the other.

The description from the magazine biglist (covering both UK and US editions of the title) says: "It was the leading UK popular fiction magazine, and a major trendsetter; it published most of the famous writers of its day, in particular A. Conan Doyle (the “Sherlock Holmes” short stories, which set the fashion for series stories, especially those featuring a hero-and-sidekick), Grant Allen, E. W. Hornung, W. W. Jacobs, H. G. Wells, E. Nesbit, Rudyard Kipling, A. E. W. Mason, Anthony Hope, O. Henry, and P. G. Wodehouse."