Arthur Conan Doyle. The Mystery of Cloomber. London: Ward & Downey, Ltd., 1896.. Second edition. Signed by V...
Description
With Starrett's Signature, Holmesian Bookplate, and Bibliographic Pencil Notations
Arthur Conan Doyle. The Mystery of Cloomber. London: Ward & Downey, Ltd., 1896.Second edition. Signed by Vincent Starrett on the half-title page, with his bookplate affixed to the front pastedown and a short bibliographic notation by him written in pencil on the rear pastedown and signed "VS." Octavo. 151 pages plus fifteen-pages of publisher's ads.
Publisher's red blind-tooled floral cloth with gilt spine titles. Housed in a custom quarter leather slipcase and chemise. Moderate shelf wear. Spine sunned. Hinges starting. Spine cracked at p. 82. The thick stock of the pages are toned and somewhat acidified, but still strong. Previous owner's signature on the front free endpaper along with a Southsea retail stamp. All in all, a one-of-a-kind Starrett association copy in about very good condition.
"The Mystery of Cloomber was written between April and July 1888 [...] The subject owed a lot to the sensational literature of the time, especially to Wilkie Collins, though it also reflects some of the author's interests at Southsea" (Green and Gibson, A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle, p. 14).
More Information:
Vincent Starrett (1886-1974) was an author, book collector, bibliographer, and journalist based in Chicago. In addition to writing a regular column on the book world called "Books Alive" for The Chicago Tribune, he also wrote pulp fiction, mystery stories, and pastiches of and essays on Arthur Conan Doyle's famous super-sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. In fact, Starrett was a founding member of the Baker Street Irregulars and co-founder of the group's Chicago chapter, and he continues to be acknowledged as a preeminent Sherlock Holmes scholar. His works of Sherlockiana include 221B: Studies in Sherlock Holmes and, most notably, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, first published in 1933 and still an absolutely essential work for any serious student of the Sherlock Holmes canon.
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