This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 2/15/2024
DOYLE, Arthur Conan (1859-1930). The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales. London and New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1890.
8vo. Half-title; 16pp. publisher’s ads at end. (Light spotting throughout). Original gilt-lettered black cloth over beveled boards, patterned endpapers (spine slightly skewed and a bit sunned); folding cloth chemise and morocco-backed slipcase.
FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, ONE OF 750 COPIES that were “sold out on the very first day”. In a later issue prepared during the same month, the publisher’s catalogue was dated on p. 12 and p. 16. “Of the stories collected in the volume, ‘J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement’ on the mystery of the Mary Celeste is the most notable. It was among the first of the author’s stories to be accepted by an important magazine [in Cornhill Magazine]” (Green and Gibson A5a). AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY.