contributes to... 'THE STRAND MAGAZINE'. Nos.285-293, ORIGINAL ISSUES IN WRAPPERS. 'The Valley Of Fear- A New Sherlock Holmes Story'.

[DOYLE, Arthur Conan]

London: George Newnes Ltd., September 1914-May 1915. These issues contain the FIRST APPEARANCE of the fourth full-length Holmes adventure in its entirety. Nine monthly parts, complete. Original magazine format, approx. 9.5 x 6.5 inches with pictorial covers, illustrated throughout. The first issue features a colour portrait of Holmes and a full page colour frontispiece of the great detective illustrated by Frank Wiles. The serial parts of this novel are illustrated throughout - the first edition in book form featured only a solitary frontispiece illustration. Very good, with some usual edge wear to fragile covers, a few small chips, some spine roll. Very good throughout. Whilst the hardbound six-monthly volumes survive comparatively well, these fragile single issues were not intended to be kept for posterity and are scarce; moreover, complete serials of Holmes title such as this are very rarely encountered. George Newnes' Strand Magazine (January 1891-March 1950) was the most popular and important British periodical of its time. Geared to the English Victorian middle class, the success of the Strand was intertwined with the writing of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and P.G.Wodehouse. The combination of fiction, current events, informative articles and the promised 'picture on every page' proved a winning formula for the magazine, which proved a popular source for the best in current fiction, featuring the works of some of the greatest authors of the 19th and 20th centuries including H.G Wells, Jules Verne, Leo Tolstoy, H Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, D.H. Lawrence, E.Nesbit, Winston Churchill, Graham Greene, J.B. Priestley, C.S.Lewis, W.E. Johns, and, of course, major contributors Doyle and Wodehouse. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was to prove one of the Strand's most popular (and prolific) writers. Right until his death in 1930, he was a regular and frequent contributor to the magazine, which featured not only his classic 'Sherlock Holmes' investigations but also a wealth of his other short fiction and serialized novels including the hugely successful 'Professor Challenger' stories, his historical fiction, spiritualism and military journalism. Continuing the tradition started by Doyle, the Strand became a source for new detective and adventure fiction from authors such as Agatha Christie (with Hercule Poirot), G.K. Chesterton (Father Brown), Margery Allingham (Mr. Campion), E.C. Bentley (Trent) 'Sapper' (Bulldog Drummond, Ronald Standish), Edgar Wallace, Leslie Charteris (the Saint), E.Phillips Oppenheim, Dorothy L. Sayers (Lord Peter Wimsey), Georges Simenon (Inspector Maigret), Eric Ambler and Carter Dickson. There were even detective stories from established authors otherwise unknown for their crime writing; notably W. Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley. Item #63995

Green and Gibson A39, DeWaal. BMC No.261, pp.62-73 'Collecting The Strand'.

Price: £7,500.00