The Sign of Four
Spencer Blackett, 1890.
First edition, first state with 13 for 138 on p.[iii] and w shed on p.56. First issue binding stamped "Spencer Blackett's Standard Library". Original red cloth with black decorative border and gilt titles. Frontispiece by Charles Kerr. A very good copy indeed, light marks to the upper cover and small repairs to the corners at the head of the spine. Internally fine, with rear hinge starting. A tight and generally bright copy.
The second Sherlock Holmes novel owes its inception to a meeting between Doyle and J.M.Stoddart of Lippincott's Magazine, organized by Cornhill's James Payn, in which Doyle agreed to write a story for the magazine. Stoddart asked for a spicy title and Doyle replied, "I shall give Sherlock Holmes of "A Study in Scarlet" something else to unravel?".
The novel enjoyed modest success in America and the novel appeared in Spencer Blackett's Standard Library series in October 1890. Again sales were modest, but with the interest aroused by the Strand Magazine's serialising of The Adventures of Sherlock Homes, the book became a best seller.
The unsold sheets were bound up by Griffin Farrar when they took over Spencer Blacket in 1891, and form the secondary binding. Copies of the first issue in attractive condition are seldom encountered in commerce.
PROVENANCE: Adrian Homer Goldstone (noted collector and bibliographer, with his book plate).
Stock ID: 30816
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