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DOYLE, Arthur Conan (1859-1930). The Mystery of Cloomber. London: Ward and Downey, 1889 [i.e. 1888].
8vo. ORIGINAL PICTORIAL WRAPPERS with a full-page wood-engraving on the upper cover initialed WGRB, endpapers with the publisher’s and other advertisements (spine perished, upper cover mostly detached, covers soiled; folding box. Provenance: Vincent Starrett (1886-1974), ownership signature on title-page. Starrett was a mystery and supernatural fiction writer for pulp magazines during the 1920s and 1930s. He is best-known for his work “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes” published in 1933 which is considered the first book on Sherlock Holmes scholarship and a cornerstone of Sherlockiana. It has also been credited with jumpstarting the creation of Sherlockian Societies.
FIRST EDITION OF THE AUTHOR’S SECOND BOOK. Green and Gibson distinguish two variants of the upper endpaper; this copy shows the earlier variant (with Aspinall’s enamel rather than Ward and Downey’s new books advertised on the pastedown) but with an issue point unknown to Green and Gibson (Ward and Downey’s novels listed as three and sixpenny instead of two-shilling; the rear ad lists Ward and Downey’s humor books instead of illustrated books). “The Mystery of Cloomber was written between April and July 1888. It was not among the author’s favourite works, as he considered it very immature. It was the only novel excluded from the Crowborough Edition. 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. The Scottish setting was based on his experiences at Edinburgh and the walking holidays he took at that time” (Green and Gibson A2a). Locke 26 (describing a slightly different binding, with a cloth spine).