The Strand Magazine - photo 1

The Strand Magazine

Lot 121
06.10.2022 12:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Sold
$ 13 860
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 813731
Lot 121 | The Strand Magazine
Estimate value
$ 8 000 – 12 000
The Strand Magazine

Arthur Conan Doyle, c.1891-93

DOYLE, Arthur Conan, contributor (1859-1930) and George NEWNES, editor (1851-1910). [Adventures and Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.] The Strand Magazine. London: George Newnes, July 1891-December 1893.



The first appearances in print of the Sherlock Holmes stories that comprise The Adventures and The Memoirs. Strand editor Greenhough Smith recognized immediately the appeal that Sherlock Holmes would have for his readers. He would later describe his first package from Doyle's agent as, "a gift from Heaven, a godsend in the shape of a story that brought a gleam into the despairing life of this weary editor. Here was a new and gifted story-writer; there was no mistaking the ingenuity of the plot, the limpid clearness of style, the perfect art of telling a story." With encouragement from Newnes, Doyle delivered the first four stories of Adventures all within April 1891. Though Sherlock Holmes had already been introduced in A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four, it was not until his appearance in The Strand that he became a phenomenon. Conan Doyle himself was profiled as a celebrity in the December 1891 issue (Gibson & Green p. 130).



In addition to popularity, The Strand also provided Sherlock with a visual identity. Their chosen illustrator was Sidney Paget (1860-1908) who modeled Holmes after his younger brother Walter. (Walter was also an artist and numbered among those who continued to illustrate Holmes after Sidney's death.) It was Sidney who first supplied Holmes with a deerstalker cap, in the “Boscombe Valley Mystery” in October 1891. Doyle was pleased both with the illustrations and the success, but remained markedly ambivalent towards his leading character. In fact, without the cajoling of magazine editors and their willingness to pay ever-increasing advances, Doyle would never have obliged his public with as many Sherlock Holmes stories as he did. Green & Gibson A10, A14; Reginald Pound, The Strand Magazine, London, 1966.



25 volumes, quarto (245 x 168mm). Original blue-grey pictorial wrappers (some chipping at spines as usual and occasional repairs to backstrips, a little toning, overall very good). In custom Strand slipcases. Provenance: M. Wootin (inscription to July 1891 issue).

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