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DOYLE, ARTHUR CONAN Strand Magazine, TheThe First Appearances of the First Twenty-Four Sherlock Holmes Stories Later Collected in the 'Adventures' and 'Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes' [DOYLE, Arthur Conan]. The Strand Magazine. Volume I, No. 1 (January 1891)- Volume XVIII, July-December 1899. London: George Newnes, 1891-1899. First edition. Eighteen octavo volumes (9 3/8 x 6 3/8 inches; 239 x 163 mm.). Woodcut illustrations throughout. Text in double columns. Original light blue cloth over bevelled boards. Front covers pictorially stamped and lettered in black. Spines decoratively stamped and lettered in black and gilt. All edges gilt. Floral-patterned endpapers in Volumes I-VIII, yellow coated endpapers in Volumes IX-XII, and pink coated endpapers in Volumes XIII -XVXVIII. Binding extremities slightly rubbed, small tears at head of spine of two volumes expertly repaired, a few hinges expertly repaired. Overall, an excellent copy of this run of The Strand Magazine, which shows very well"the gilt is nice and bright. The first eighteen volumes of The Strand Magazine, containing the first appearances of the first twenty-four Sherlock Holmes stories that were subsequently collected inbook form in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Volumes II-VI). Also includes Doyle’s Rodney Stone (Volumes XI-XII), The Tragedy of the Korosko (Volumes XIII-XIV), Round the Fire Stories (Volumes XV-XVIII), and Exploits and Adventures of Gerard (Volumes VIII-X). 'For sixty years (1891-1950) The Strand Magazine was a popular source for the best in fiction, featuring the works of some of the greatest authors of the 20th century including Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Rudyard Kipling, G.K.Chesterton, Leo Tolstoy, Georges Simenon and, of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Founded by George Newnes in 1890 and edited by H Greenhough Smith from 1891 to 1930, the Strand aimed at a mass market family readership. The content was a mixture of factual articles, short stories and serials most of which were illustrated to some extent. Despite expense and production difficulties, Newnes aimed at having a picture on every page - a valuable selling point at a time when the arts of photography and process engraving were in their infancy...When the first Sherlock Holmes short story" ‘A Scandal in Bohemia’"was published in the July 1891 issue of the Strand Magazine, circulation rose immediately. Arthur Conan Doyle had already published two full-length Holmes stories, A Study in Scarlet and the Sign of Four, neither approaching the success of the short stories which were to follow. Indeed, when The Sign of Four was published in book form in 1890, the Athenaeum commented that ‘Dr Doyle’s admirers will read the little volume through eagerly enough, but they will hardly care to take it up again’. However, within two years, the combination of Sherlock Holmes and the Strand had made Conan Doyle one of the most popular authors of the age. Fifty-six Holmes stories appeared in the magazine from 1891 to 1927, many of them illustrated by Sidney Paget’s now famous drawings...Conan Doyle was to prove one of the Strand’s most popular (and prolific) contributors. From mid-1891 until his death in 1930, there was scarcely an issue which did not contain at least one of his stories or articles. The serialisation of The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901-1902 was estimated to have increased the magazine’s circulation by 30,000"with Conan Doyle being paid £480-£620 per episode. The Strand also published Conan Doyle’s historical fiction such as Rodney Stone and The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard. An illustrated interview with him in 1892 included a postscript by Conan Doyle’s former teacher, Joseph Bell, the supposed ‘original’ Sherlock Holmes' (Chris Willis, 'The History of the Strand,' at http://www.strandmag.com/hist.htm).
Offered for US$ 2950.00 by: David Brass Rare Books (ABAA/ILAB) - Book number: 00781