GREEN, Richard Lancelyn (1953-2004). A large collection of writings about Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. [V.p., ca. 1980s-2000s].
Nearly 70 books, magazines, chapbooks, and more. All in publisher’s bindings, and dust jackets (where called-for). Condition generally fine. Some titles are signed or inscribed by Green.
This collection spans the breadth of Green’s Sherlock Holmes writings. Green is considered to have been the world’s foremost expert on Sherlock Holmes. His father, Roger, was a popular author, known for adaptations of the stories of King Arthur, Robin Hood, the characters of Homer, his mother was a drama teacher. He was interested in Sherlock Holmes from an early age and spent his life collecting rare volumes by and about Doyle. He, along with co-writer John Michael Gibson, compiled the first complete bibliography about Doyle, A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle (1983, revised edition, 2000, both included herein), and collected some previously unpublished books by Doyle (The Unknown Conan Doyle series, including: Uncollected Stories (1982), Essays on Photography (1982), and Letters to the Press (1986), all are included herein). His contribution to Doyle and Holmes scholarship is unrivaled, having written or edited hundreds of books or articles. His collection of books and “Doyleiana” and Sherlockiana was one of the largest held in private hands. He was an active member of several Doyle or Holmes societies and was working on an in-depth biography of Doyle at the time of his death. His death involved suitably mysterious circumstances, with some considering his death suicide, but some believing it to be murder - not unlike the events of the Holmes story, The Problem of Thor Bridge (1922). Green’s death inspired a novel (The Sherlockian by Graham Moore, 2010), and a play (Mysterious Circumstances by Michael Mitnick, 2019, performed at The Geffen Playhouse starring Alan Tudyk - with Green’s alleged murder investigated by the great detective himself).
Some titles of this collection are: New Sherlock Holmes Adventures (Foreword); Sherlock Holmes Letters (signed); The Dying Detective (Calabash Press); The Blue Carbuncle (Calabash Press); The Lost Professor (Foreword); The Mystery of the Spot Ball (signed); Conan Doyle of Wimpole Street; The Toxicological Sherlock Holmes (Folio Society); A Full Report of a Lecture on Spiritualism (Afterword, signed); The Musgrave Papers (photocopies of 6 articles); My Evening with Sherlock Holmes; The Sometimes Elusive Quarry, and many more.