I do buy books that are not gun books. As a matter of fact, I’m quite fond of Sherlock Holmes. I don’t expect an invitation to join the Baker Street Irregulars, but I have both annotated versions of Holmes, and I enjoy reading about Holmes, Doyle, and related subjects.
I picked up two Holmes related books recently. One purchase was prompted by a Doyle-related book I recently finished, while the other was a word-of-mouth purchase. Since this is kind of long, I will put a jump here. For those who are not interested in bibliophilia or Holmes, another post should be coming along eventually.
Sherlock Holmes In 221 Objects: From the Collection of Glen S. Miranker, The Grolier Club, 2022.
Glen S. Miranker is a prominent Sherlock collector. He was invited to do an exhibition of items from his collection at the Grolier Club. (If you live in or are visiting New York City, that exhibition runs through April 16th of this year. There is also an online version.) This book is a catalogue of the exhibition.
I know I say this often, but the book is one of those beautiful objects, filled with color photos and well put together. Mr. Miranker’s collection is quite interesting. One of his areas of specialty is “pirate” editions of Holmes, of which he has a large collection. He also has quite a few items related to William Gillette, who played Sherlock Holmes on stage for 32 years. There are also original manuscript pages, a collection related to Doyle’s decision to kill off Holmes, and even one rare item associated with a notorious 20th century murderer.
I have only had a chance to flip through it, not do a detailed reading, but I think this is a swell book that looks good on a coffee table.
If you want your own copy, I wish you the best of luck. There were apparently 500 copies printed. I missed purchasing when Mysterious Bookshop got their first batch, because I wasn’t sure I really wanted a copy. When Lawrence let me know they’d gotten in a second batch, I’d already made up my mind I wanted one. But the second batch was already sold out on their website. I ended up actually calling! The Mysterious Bookshop! On the phone! And speaking with a human! Luckily, they had a couple of copies on hand. So you could try calling (212) 587-1011 and talking to one of those kind people, just to see if they have any copies under the counter.
The Grolier Club has a link to order copies from the University of Chicago Press, but they are currently back-ordered. I have no idea if there will be a reprint. Amazon has a listing (affiliate link), if you want to try your luck there.
Personally, I think your best bet is to try your favorite independent book dealer and see if they can obtain a copy for you. If you don’t have a favorite independent book dealer, get one: you’ll love doing business with Western.
The Case of the Conan Doyle Crime Library, Walter Klinefelter. Sumac Press, 1968.
This requires a little bit of background.
Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach was a very famous book dealer and collector through the middle of the 20th century. He’s famous enough that there’s a Wikipedia entry for him, so (in the interest of keeping this shorter) I won’t detail all of his accomplishments here.
In 1930, he bought at auction “one hundred and some odd” volumes of crime books that Arthur Conan Doyle had consigned to Sotheby’s. He paid 95 pounds for the lot. (The Bank of England says this equals 6,607 pounds in 2021 money, or $8,655 USD at the current exchange rate.) Many of these books were actually bought by Doyle from the estate of W. S. Gilbert, which is a nice associational touch.
The first eight pages of this 28 page booklet are a reprint of an article from the March 1962 “Baker Street Journal”. Mr. Klinefelter went to visit Dr. Rosenbach in November of 1936 hoping to be allowed to examine the Doyle crime library.
This article is a weird mixture of shaggy dog story and sour grapes. Mr. Klinefelter recounts waiting at the office for Dr. Rosenbach to arrive, and being well taken care of by the other employees. While he was waiting, the office staff allowed him to look at the shelves, but not to examine any of the books. When Dr. Rosenbach did arrive, Mr. Klinefelter asked to examine the library…
…and Dr. Rosenbach turned down his request. The story gets even shaggier from there: Dr. Rosenbach was an admirer of Benjamin Franklin, and privately printed a small book called The All Embracing Doctor Franklin. Mr. Klinefelter somehow obtained a copy, which he brought with him and asked Dr. Rosenbach to sign.
He was curious as to how I had come by the book, saying that it sold at $40 to $60 [1936 dollars, $810 to $1,214 in 2022 – DB] on the rare occasions on which it turned up at book auctions. When I revealed its source, he lost his temper, and for some moments the thunderbolts fell thick and fast. He fulminated quite convincingly, too, though I am afraid the intended effect of his performance was mostly lost on me, since I rather enjoyed it. “God damn,” I was given to understand, “that book was printed solely for my friends, and Mr. X had no…” and so on.
The story has a mildly happy ending: Dr. Rosenbach eventually calmed down and even smiled, signed the author’s book, and talked Mr. Klinefelter into ordering a copy of his then-forthcoming book, A Book Hunter’s Holiday before he left.
The sour grapes part: Mr. Klinefelter goes out of his way to note that Dr. Rosenbach was not a Sherlockian (from the Wikipedia entry, he seems to have specialized in children’s literature), and speculates that the doctor bought the books thinking he’d find the source of Sherlock Holmes within their pages. At the time, Sherlock scholarship was in the early days, and it was not well known that Dr. Joseph Bell was the basis for Holmes until people like Vincent Starrett and others published in the early 1930s.
Additionally, Mr. Klinefelter notes that all of the books appear to have been purchased between 1911 and 1929, after many of the Holmes stories were written. And finally, the collection itself was already broken up: Dr. Rosenbach’s staff told Mr. Klinefelter that he’d put “a number of the choicer volumes” into his personal library.
Mr. Klinefelter’s article amounts to: “I didn’t get to look at the books, but it doesn’t matter, because they were of no value to serious Sherlockians, and anyway all the good stuff was gone.” Oh, and also: Dr. Rosenbach was a curious character.
Dr. Rosenbach died in 1952. Before his death, he offered to sell the collection as a whole, but had no buyers. About eighty of the books were offered for sale individually in 1955. The remaining 20 pages of the booklet are a listing of those books, taken from the dealer’s catalog, with bibliographical information and a few notes covering inscriptions and other details. (Prices and conditions are not listed.)
I first ran across this book in Margalit Fox’s Conan Doyle for the Defense (affiliate link), a book which I recently finished and enjoyed. Surprisingly for a small pamphlet published in 1968 in an edition of 300, you can actually find copies on ABE Books for a price that doesn’t break the bank.
I think it would be interesting to try to duplicate those 80 books in one’s own library. It would at least be interesting to attempt to come up with a total cost to duplicate the library in first editions. I don’t have time to do that now, but perhaps at some point in the semi-near future. The first book listed, Women and Crime, is selling for $69 at the moment on ABE: the last book listed that I can find, The trial of Edward Gibbon Wakefield is nearly $700 plus shipping from the UK.
I don’t think that’s a project I want to pursue in any systematic way right now, since I’m still trying to complete my collection of Samworth books, and my next priority after that would be the “Notable British Trials” series and firsts of all the Edgar winners in true/fact crime. But perhaps, in the distant future, if we all live that long: it seems like the kind of thing that might get you an exhibition at the Grolier Club.
Dr. Rosenbach’s two publications on his adventures in the book trade, A Book Hunter’s Holiday: Adventures with Books and Manuscripts and Books and Bidders :The Adventures of a Bibliophile can also be found on ABE Books, but they are just a little bit expensive for my tastes.
You can also find The All Embracing Doctor Franklin: at the moment, there’s one print-on-demand reprint, one book with that title I’m unclear on, and two numbered firsts at prices that are too rich for my blood. Especially if I can’t be entertained by watching Dr. Rosenbach fulminate. (He did sign one of the two numbered firsts, which is currently marked at $825.)
(All references to ABE Books entries are based on the state of listings as I write this. As books sell, these listings are subject to change.)