Arthur Conan Doyle - A life in letters.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 1.] FINE/VG++. No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj.However,to the half-title and to the repeated title separator page,there is a very faint 'ghost' of written text which to me,looks similar to some of the subject's printed facsimile writing examples,a few sentences both above and below the publisher's printed text on those pages.Have used an eraser,but still in situ and there's no evidence of any indent impressions as a result,if this was handwritten,to the text.???? Print bleed in the production of the book?
Matt,lightly dulled,wrap-around pale blue background with subject's black line caricature portrait to lower edge and right-hand corner of front panel of dw/dj,along with the 3 editors' green-lettered names and b/w lettered title,similarly coloured lettered spine/backstrip,rear panel with subject's (ACD) contemporary b/w portrait photograph with white- lettered Stephen Fry quote.Negligible shelf-wear to lower edges and corners,top edges with minor edge-wear,creasing and minimal bumping at head of spine with a couple of tiniest of nicks to same,and towards the rear top corner, an approx. 0.5cm vertical closed tear - but no other major nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean without foxing/spoting; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - near pristine - accidental and not intentional,top corner tips with tiny dog-ear creases to pp5-10 - otherwise appears unread,other than my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp,unblemished and clean, sharp-cornered,original plain black cloth boards with bright,crisp, blocked silver gilt lettered spine/backstrip,a black+silver striped headband with a sewn-in silvery grey ribbon bookmark and clean,plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,2-710pp [paginated] includes an introduction,13 chapters/sections and an Epilogue, profuse contemporary b/w thumbnail and full page photographs biographical+scenic,b/w facsimile documents/letters etc,and b/w illustrations throughout the text and the book,acknowledgements and an Index; plus [unpaginated] half-title with b/w portrait photograph to its verso,title page,a dedication with blank verso,contents list/table, another title separator page also with blank verso,and to the rear, Picture credits with blank reverse.
Visually the exterior appearance is acceptable,and even internally, the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation for a book's age. It is only the exterior faults described that prevents a slightly higher grading for the dw/dj. Despite them,it really is an exceptional copy for its cleanliness and brightness. More than 75 years after his death,Arthur Conan Doyle remains one of the world's best-loved authors.Famed as the creator of Sherlock Holmes,Conan Doyle was a fascinating man in his own right - physician,sportsman,crusader for social justice and war correspondent.From his early whale-hunting days to his later celebrity,Conan Doyle's life was as gripping as his own adventure tales.Throughout,his mother Mary Foley was his principal confidante, the recipient of a stream of startlingly frank letters from her devoted son.Over a thousand letters between them survive from the time Arthur was sent away too boarding school in 1887 until her death in 1920.His letters to her,and to some other family members and friends, reveal a man whose early career was marked by a distinct lack of success as Conan Doyle struggled to establish a medical practice of his own,filling days by scribbling short stories that would result in the creation of Holmes.
In later years,Conan Doyle evolved into an impassioned public figure.A deeply moral man of uncompromising political oipinions,he nevertheless spent much of his married life passionately in love with another woman.His Catholic mother sympathised with her son and encouraged him.And yet neither she nor public ridicule could convince him to abandon the eccentric Spiritualist beliefs he embraced in later life,
This stunningly candid volume of never-before-published letters sheds fascinating light on a man who has remained largely hidden behind his most famous character.Gracefully written and consistently revealing,these letters illuminate Conan Doyle's life,character and career as never before. Llelenberg is the editor of the biographical study 'The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle',and the agent for the Conan Doyle Estate in America.A Baker Street Irregular,he is also a long-time member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London,and a frequent contributor to its Sherlock Holmes Journal,as well as to other publications.
Stashower is the author of the Edgar Award-winning 'Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle',and 'Edgar Allen Poe & The Murder of Mary Rogers',amongst many other works of fiction and non-fiction.Like his co-authors,he is a member of the Baker Street Irregulars. Charles Foley is the great-nephew of Arthur Conan Doyle and great-grandson of mary Foley Doyle.The present executor of the Conan Doyle Estate,he is also a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London,and Baker Street Irregulars,and the Arthur Conan Doyle Society founded in England in 1989.
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