Arthur Conan Doyle: First edition, first printing of the first Sherlock Holmes stories

The Death of Sherlock Holmes, by Sidney Paget

“In January 1891 The Strand Magazine began to appear in parlors throughout the Empire and quickly established itself as the Life of its era, offering copious illustrations, sketches, and fiction of interest to late Victorians. [Doyle’s] 'A Scandal in Bohemia'… found its way into its pages in June, and a literary marriage was consummated that would last well into the new century. Today it is impossible to think of The Strand without thinking of Sherlock Holmes, and difficult to think of Sherlock Holmes without thinking of The Strand.” –Loren D. Estleman

DOYLE, Arthur Conan, et al. The Strand Magazine. Volumes 1 –6. London: George Newnes, 1891 – 1893. Octavo, original publisher's blue pictorial cloth. $1850.

First appearances of the first twenty-four Sherlock Holmes stories to appear in The Strand Magazine; includes all of the stories that would later be collected in book form in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. With the original Sidney Paget illustrations.

The Strand was essential to the creation of the format of the classic Holmes story; indeed without The Strand, it is questionable whether the Holmes adventure story (excluding the longer novels) would ever have existed. As Doyle explained, “Considering these various journals with their disconnected stories, it had struck me that a single character running through a series, if it only engaged the attention of the reader, would bind that reader to that particular magazine. On the other hand, it had long seemed to me that the ordinary serial might be an impediment rather than a help to a magazine, since, sooner or later, one missed one number and afterwards it had lost all interest. Clearly the ideal compromise was a character which carried through, and yet installments which were each complete in themselves, so that the purchaser was always sure that he could relish the whole contents of the magazine. I believe that I was the first to realize this and The Strand Magazine the first to put it into practice” (Pearson, Conan Doyle). The first six volumes of The Strand follow Sherlock Holmes from the first story (following the novels A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of the Four), "A Scandal in Bohemia," through to his supposed death at Reichenbach Falls in "The Adventure of The Final Problem."

When volumes of The Strand Magazine are encountered in the original cloth, they are often in poor condition; in general this set is in an exceptional state of preservation with only light soiling to the cloth and the gilt very bright (vol 2 spine label a little dull). Overall, a very handsome and desireable set. Rare in this condition.