Since his first appearance in 1887 during the 50th year of Queen Victoria’s reign, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation Sherlock Holmes has been nothing short of a literary juggernaut. And the Great Detective who dazzled 19th-century readers is just as alive for their 21st-century counterparts, as is evident in the Grolier Club’s “beyond elementary" exhibition, on view from January 12 through April 16, 2022. Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects is the first comprehensive Sherlock Holmes exhibition in New York City in more than half a century, and features an unrivaled number of items in Conan Doyle’s hand.

Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects draws upon the preeminent collection assembled by Glen S. Miranker, rich in bibliographic rarities, manuscripts, books, correspondence, and artwork, all with intriguing stories to tell beyond their significance as literary and cultural landmarks. Named for the address of the detective’s Baker Street lodgings, the exhibition presents items that will intrigue bibliophiles, Sherlockians, and general audiences.

“I revel in the quest for things Sherlockian,” Miranker says; “for all manner of artifacts relating to Arthur Conan Doyle’s four Sherlock Holmes novels and 56 short stories. I also collect back stories about items in my collection, for what they reveal about the friendships, rivalries, ambitions, and business dealings at play as stories were written or published. And I care deeply about sharing my passion, not just for Sherlock Holmes, but for bookish discoveries in general and the unforeseen pleasures of reading.”

Highlights include leaves from The Hound of the Baskervilles; four short story manuscripts; original artwork by the British and American illustrators who created Sherlock’s iconic look for readers; a wealth of holograph letters from Conan Doyle to friends, colleagues, and well-wishers; a fascinating cache of pirated editions; the only known salesman’s dummy for the U.S. Hound; an “idea book” of Conan Doyle’s private musings, in which he (in)famously and laconically penned “Killed Holmes” on his calendar for December 1893; and a handwritten speech—never before displayed—with the author’s explanation for killing Holmes:

“I have been much blamed for doing that gentleman to death but I hold that it was not murder but justifiable homicide in self defence [sic] since if I had not killed him he would certainly have killed me.”

Visitors to the exhibition will see evidence of Miranker’s favorite collecting strategy: assembling ‘clusters.’ “I like to assemble objects that are more significant in a group than they are individually,” he explains. “They offer more insight together, imparting a more complete understanding than one object can do singly.”
Some examples:

• By itself, the Newnes Sixpenny edition of the Hound is a striking book, but its impact is more complete when one reads Conan Doyle’s note agreeing to its publication and also sees the original artwork for its cover. It’s a cluster that provides a richer view of a moment in the life of the author and in the ongoing publication history of the Hound.
• During the three decades that William Gillette performed in the play Sherlock Holmes, his phenomenal publicity machine cranked out all manner of souvenirs, posters, and programs—all represented in the collection. But for a human side to the business of show business, Miranker prizes Gillette’s correspondence with Conan Doyle, including a 1901 Christmas card with this note: “Did you ever imagine that Sherlock would be sending his compliments to his maker?”
• Over the years, the collector has assembled a cluster that attests to the frenzy accompanying Holmes’s return. It includes Conan Doyle’s letter updating P. F. Collier on his progress with his new stories for Collier’s Magazine; a wealth of original artwork that Collier’s commissioned from Frederic Dorr Steele; the manuscripts of four stories from The Return of Sherlock Holmes; and more.

The exhibition has a virtual component that can be viewed online. Accompanying the exhibition is a 168-page catalogue with 238 color images, published by the Grolier Club and distributed by the University of Chicago Press. Several public programs dovetail with Bibliography Week, January 24–29, 2022; also planned is a “Conversation with the Collector”; and a number of gallery tours led by Miranker.

CASE BY CASE – EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
The Hound of the Baskervilles in the UK

• Sidney Paget, original artwork for The Hound of the Baskervilles: Paget wisely doesn’t reveal the gigantic hound to readers until the story’s end. His work is restrained and dramatic: a slash of white sets the hound’s still-glowing muzzle apart from the dark moor with its clinging mist and threatening terrain.
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, original manuscript leaves: The Hound manuscript was broken up by American publisher S. S. McClure, Phillips & Co. for promotional purposes, with single pages displayed in bookshop windows. Only 37 leaves are known to survive. Note Conan Doyle’s addition of six words that have become one of Sherlock’s famous phrases: “You know my methods. Appy them!”
  
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, first edition, inscribed. This first book publication of the Hound features a cover design by Alfred Garth Jones depicting a silhouette of the hound on the moor against a gilt moon.

The Hound of the Baskervilles in the US

• Advertising poster, The Hound of the Baskervilles: Promotional poster for the American release of the novel in the U.S. Strand Magazine, featuring artwork by Albert George Morrow.
• Frederic Dorr Steele, Night Had Settled Upon the Moor, original artwork, 1938: An eerie, blue-green illustration for the Hound, this is one of four illustrations by Frederic Dorr Steele in the pressbook for Twentieth Century-Fox’s 1939 Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce movie.
• The Hound of the Baskervilles, salesman’s dummy: The only copy known at this time to exist, the salesman’s “dummy” is a partially printed book intended to help McClure’s salesforce sell the Hound to bookstores. It is notable for its largely blank pages and peculiar copyright notice.

A Study in Scarlet

• A Study in Scarlet, first appearance, Beeton’s Christmas Annual: The Great Detective made his first appearance in this magazine of miscellany titled Beeton’s Christmas Annual, now incredibly scarce: just 34 copies are known, only 13 in private hands, and only 11 complete.
• A Study in Scarlet, first UK book edition, first state: The first book edition was illustrated with six drawings by the author’s father, Charles Altamont Doyle (1832–1893). The first state is distinguished by the word “younger” in the preface.
• A Study in Scarlet, first UK book edition, second state: The misprinted “youuger” in the preface distinguishes this volume as the second state. This sequence is counterintuitive: usually an error is corrected, not committed.

The Sign of Four

• The Sign of the Four, first appearance, Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine: Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde were commissioned in August 1889 by Philadelphia publisher J. B. Lippincott Company to write novels for its Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. The Sign of the Four appeared in February 1890, and Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray in July 1890.
• Holograph letter to R. Hemingsley, March 14, 1890: Conan Doyle was badly exploited by the publisher of A Study in Scarlet, but he emerged as an astute businessman with the appearance of his second Sherlockian novel, The Sign of the Four. Written to a critic with the Birmingham Daily Gazette, this letter reveals Conan Doyle’s determination to pursue and control serialization of the Sign.
• The Sign of the Four, pirated edition, inscribed, with ownership signature: Conan Doyle famously inveighed against pirate publishers, yet he signed this piracy at a party in his honor given by H. N. Higinbotham, a Chicago business magnate and president of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

Adventures & Memoirs

• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, first edition, in dust jacket: It was uncertain whether the first edition had been published in a dust jacket until this copy surfaced in the 1980s. Before it entered my library, it was owned by Mark Hofmann, not only the most notorious literary forger of the 20th century but also a murderer jailed for life for the bombing deaths of two people.
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, first edition, second issue, in dust jacket: As a collector, I stand on the shoulders of giants. This volume, a first edition, second issue of the Adventures in dust jacket, belonged to the legendary book dealer devoted to Sherlockian rarities, Lew David Feldman.
• Holograph letter to an unknown correspondent, July 28, 1892: Conan Doyle writes dismissively about his Sherlockian work in a letter to an admirer: “Then there is a little group of detective books, which arose from my irritation at the fact that the detective of fiction appears always to attain his results in a perfectly arbitrary fashion without any process of reasoning or thought. I only meant to write one little book ...”

The Death of Holmes & Rebirth of Conan Doyle

• Norwood Notebook No. 1, 1885–1896: Conan Doyle filled many notebooks over his long career, entering personal events, social encounters, and ideas, phrases, and research for his many literary endeavors. The Norwood Notebook, named for the community where he was then living, is a fascinating, wide- ranging collection of jottings. A few notes mention Sherlock Holmes while others range from thoughts about religion, poetic fragments, descriptive phrases, quotations from his reading, and snippets of dialogue, to oddities like figures on the UK’s arable acreage in 1896, and such bon mots as “R.S.V.P. Rump steak & veal pie.” When flipped and rotated, the notebook opens to calendar pages for 1885–1896, a trove of information for Sherlockians even though Conan Doyle’s entries reduce momentous events to single words or succinct phrases, including “Killed Holmes” for December 1893, when Holmes seemingly falls to his death in “The Adventure of the Final Problem.”
• The Work of Storytelling, eight-page holograph speech, June 29, 1896: Displayed for the first time, this eight-page holograph speech catches Conan Doyle at the midpoint of his life, and is akin to hearing Conan Doyle himself. It is personal, good-humored, appreciative of his literary heroes, full of anecdotes about his early, struggling years as a writer and his bemusement at the annoyances of celebrity, and offers kindly advice to fellow writers. It is rich in witty insights about what led him into detective fiction, his true feelings about his most famous creation, and more. There are few better says to fall under Conan Doyle’s spell than by reading this speech.

The Play’s the Thing

• Frederic Dorr Steele, Gillette in Profile, original artwork, 1929: This profile of Gillette’s detective appears on the back cover of the souvenir programs for the play’s long-running Farewell Tour, 1929–1932.
• Frederic Dorr Steele, Gillette as Sherlock, original artwork, 1903: A reworking of the cover originally created for “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder” in Collier’s Weekly, this Steele was widely reproduced during Gillette’s Farewell Tour.
• William Gillette 1901 Christmas Card: Gillette produced a photo-filled Christmas booklet while performing in London, playfully annotating the back: “Did you ever imagine that Sherlock would be sending his compliments to his maker?”

Conan Doyle’s Return to Sherlock Holmes

• Holograph letters to A. P. Watt, May–November 1903: More letters from Conan Doyle to his literary agent Watt appear here than in any other area of the exhibition; reading them feels like eavesdropping on urgent telephone calls. They bring a sense of immediacy to the business of shepherding stories into print.
• Four original holograph Return manuscripts: Reading a Sherlock Holmes story in manuscript delivers an elemental thrill. It slows you down, making you especially susceptible to the storyteller’s art. Three of these manuscripts were bound at Conan Doyle’s behest in limp vellum, bearing added titling and inscriptions in his hand. “Black Peter” remains in its original form, written on 23 loose ruled pages, fastened with a brad at the upper left corner. Conan Doyle gifted the manuscript to publisher Peter F. Collier.
• Sidney Paget, “The Adventure of the Priory School”, original artwork: The Strand issued these four stories in the UK just a few days after their appearance in the U.S. in Collier’s Weekly with illustrations by the artist its readers expected and loved, Sidney Paget. This scene from “The Priory School” displays Paget’s quintessential artistry. It is dark, anxious, and suspenseful. With a single detail – a burst of light from a match – it captures a new twist in the story of a missing child.
• Frederic Dorr Steele, The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge, complete set of original artwork, 1908: There are only two Sherlock Holmes stories for which all of the Frederick Dorr Steele illustrations are known, and “Wisteria Lodge” is the only one for which all seven original illustrations are together in a single collection. They were among a group of 22 Sherlockian originals sold by Steele in 1922 for $300 to Dr. Gray Chandler Briggs, an early Sherlockian and longtime admirer of Steele’s work. Briggs never displayed the cover illustration for the story because his wife found it too spooky. I felt a special bond with my predecessor in collecting when my younger daughter was similarly distressed by the same drawing; as a consequence, it hung for years with a dishtowel draped over its frame.

Pirated Editions

• The Sign of Four, first US book edition, Collier’s Once A Week Library, March 15, 1891: The Sign made its first US book appearance in this 25¢ pirate imprint of Collier’s Once A Week Library, two years before Lippincott published the first authorized US book edition.
•  “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” first US magazine piracy, Arthur’s New Home Magazine: “The Speckled Band” appeared in one of the magazines published by T. S. Arthur, a leading figure in the American temperance movement, just two months after its first publication in the Strand. This is the only instance of the rarely pirated “Speckled Band” in my collection.
• The Sign of the Four | A Study in Scarlet, Red Seal Library of Standard Books: The lowest-priced piracies on my shelves; it is scarcely conceivable that they could be printed, distributed, and sold for just 2¢ apiece.
• The Sign of the Four, A Case of Identity, A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet, published by the Arthur Westbrook Company: Pirate publishers ingeniously exploited the popularity of Sherlock Holmes to sell books. Pricing was paramount, but eye-catching cover art was a crucial come-on. These covers can’t be topped for color, drama, and their total disconnect from the titles’ storylines.

VISITING THE GROLIER CLUB
47 East 60th Street  New York, NY 10022 
212-838-6690
www.grolierclub.org   

Hours: Monday – Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm
Admission: Exhibitions are open to the public free of charge    

For further information please contact:
Amanda Domizio
Public Relations Consultant
[email protected]

or

Jennifer Sheehan
Exhibitions and Communications Manager
212-838-6690 x 2
[email protected]