Lot 293
Doyle, Conan. The Hound of the Baskervilles. George Newnes, Limited, London, 1902. First edition, with frontispiece and 15 full-page illustrations by Sidney Paget, 359 pp. Hardcover, 8vo, bound in the original red cloth stamped in gilt with elaborate floral design and pictorial hound in black, signed A.G.J. Former owner's name, city, and date ("26/3/02") inked to the front flyleaf. The binding is tight and the boards are crisp with only very slight wear to the spine. No jacket; else fine.
The Hound of the Baskervilles was based on an idea given to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Bertram Fletcher Robinson, who was a nephew of Sir John Robinson and a correspondent for "The Daily Express" during the Boer War. The two men struck up a friendship when travelling back on the same ship from Cape Town. They spent four days together on a golfing holiday at Cromer in March 1901, and it was then that Robinson mentioned the legend that inspired the mystery, possibly of the story of the Black Hound of Hergest that was associated with the Vaughan family of Hergest Court in Herefordshire. Doyle told his mother: "Fletcher Robinson came here with me and we are going to do a small book together 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' -- a real creeper." The serial publication of the mystery in "The Strand Magazine" was an unprecedented success: It was the only occasion in the magazine's history that a seventh printing was needed to meet the tremendous demand.
The third of the crime novels written by Doyle to feature the detective Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. It is up to Holmes and his companion, Dr. Watson, to solve the case. $3,000 - 6,000
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