Description

Rupert Hart-Davis, 1962. Hardcover, 284 pp. No other printings listed. With 9 Portraits, a facsimile of the alleged will and 21 other illustrations. Acceptable+ in good dust jacket. Blue textured Paper over Boards with silver lettering on spine. Light scuffing, fading and soiling to edges of covers. Binding tight. Previous owner's name and address stamped on front free end paper. Age spotting and light soiling to edges of papers throughout with heavier spotting to first and last few pages. Otherwise pages are unmarked. Dust jacket has several small nicks and tears and creasing along edges. light overall scuffing, aging and soiling to jacket as well. NOT price clipped Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. [From front jacket flap] This first comprehensive biography of the great detective is in the best traditions of modern scholarship combining scrupulous accuracy and painstaking thoroughness with a warm and infectious enthusiasm. Hitherto we have had to rely for our information unduly on the writings of Dr John H. Watson who, as Mr Baring-Gould shows so convincingly, is often, through natural delicacy or fear of embarrassing his second wife, intentionally misleading about the facts of Holmes's life, and sometimes sensationalizes them unduly. The author is also able to fill in most if not quite all of the gaps in our knowledge of Holmes, tracing his parentage, his somewhat erratic career at Oxford, Cambridge and Bart's, as well as his interlude on the stage in Britain and America, all of which helped to prepare him for his future vocation. He reveals Holmes's hitherto little-known relationships with other celebrities of the time - such important figures as King- Edward VII, Karl Marx, Lewis Carroll and Bernard Shaw, to say nothing of Jack the Ripper and the Abominable Snowman - and goes far towards elucidating the mystery of Holmes's missing years. The book thus provides a narrative that, while retaining much of the most interesting old material, explores territory that may be new even to the most dedicated student. Until Holmes's own Whole Art of Detection is published it will certainly remain the definitive work on the subject. Jacket design by Graham Oakley