This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/24/2025
DOYLE, Arthur Conan (1859-1930). The Coming of the Fairies. London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., [1922]. 8vo. Illustrated with 12 plates, including frontispiece. [iv], [1]-139, [1, blank] pp. Publisher's full blue cloth, front board ruled in blind, spine lettered in gilt (spine a bit toned, boards bowed outward and soiled at lower margins, some soiling, offsetting to endleaves, endleaves with sticker residue or embossed markings). Fair. FIRST EDITION, WITH PHOTOGRAPHIC PLATES OF THE FAMOUS COTTINGLEY “FAIRIES." Laid-in is a brochure for a spiritualism seminar, “The Invisible Foe" at the Majestic Theatre, featuring portraits of four speakers, including Doyle, Camille Flammarion, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Maurice Maeterlinck. The Coming of the Fairies is Doyle's defense of the authenticity of the “fairies" photographed by Elsie Wright and Francis Griffith. The two cousins produced photographic “proof" of tiny fairies taken near Cottingley in 1917 and displayed in 1919, creating a stir in the spiritualist world. Although these photographs were revealed to be a hoax in 1983, these photographs and the controversy they created became part of pop culture, with films, books, etc.