The British Library Acquires Five Brigadier Gerard Manuscripts

By Randall Stock, November 17, 2018

The British Library has acquired Conan Doyle's original manuscripts for five of the first eight Brigadier Gerard tales, including the very first story.

 

 

Introduction

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous characters include Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger, and Brigadier Etienne Gerard.  The Brigadier featured in 18 short stories in The Strand Magazine, and has won praise from Michael Chabon and George McDonald Fraser.

 

Conan Doyle's first set of Brigadier Gerard stories consisted of eight tales that were originally published in magazines, and then collected in The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard.  Until recently, the manuscripts for most of those initial stories were unrecorded and feared lost forever. 

 

Although it was not generally known, a private collector and his heirs owned five of these manuscripts for many years.  In late 2015, James S. Jaffe Rare Books offered the manuscripts for sale.  The British Library purchased them in March 2018.

 

According to Laura Walker, a Lead Curator at the British Library, the manuscripts could be used with the library's other Conan Doyle holdings to analyze the author's creative processes.  Some of the British Library's other Conan Doyle material includes many items from the Conan Doyle Collection offered at Christie's in 2004, as well as two Sherlock Holmes manuscripts.

 

See below for manuscript descriptions, publication details, and ownership history.

 

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Manuscript Description Summaries

These five Brigadier Gerard manuscripts exist in two volumes:

 

"The Medal of Brigadier Gerard" Manuscript

Four Brigadier Gerard Manuscripts Bound Together

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Publishing History

Conan Doyle wrote his first Brigadier Gerard story in 1894 as a standalone tale, and later decided to write an entire series.  Those later stories appeared under the series title "The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard," and used Roman numerals starting with "I" despite the prior publication of that first tale.

 

The first set of Brigadier Gerard stories appeared in The Strand Magazine as follows:

 

 

These Gerard stories also appeared at roughly the same time in the New York edition of The Strand Magazine as well as various American newspapers.

 

George Newnes published the first British book collection of the stories as The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896).  The title of the first tale was changed to "How the Brigadier Won His Medal."  The book arranged the stories in a different order than their publication sequence, and renumbered them as "I." to "VIII."

 

For story recommendations and more about the character, see About the Brigadier Gerard Stories.

 

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Manuscript Ownership History

These five Brigadier Gerard manuscripts are bound in two volumes that both include a presentation inscription from Irving Bacheller to Herbert F. Gunnison.

 

Irving Bacheller (1859–1950) was an American journalist and novelist who also founded the first modern newspaper syndicate in America.  The Bacheller Syndicate provided stories and other material to many newspapers.  The first American book edition of The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard cites Bacheller on the copyright page for six of the eight stories, including all five of the tales represented in these manuscripts.  Bacheller probably received Conan Doyle's manuscripts as part of syndicating those stories in America.

 

Herbert Foster Gunnison (1858–1932) started with the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1882 and eventually became its President in 1924.  He and Bacheller were friends since their college days at St. Lawrence University.  Bacheller presented other manuscripts from his syndicate's stories to Gunnison, including at least two by Sarah Orne Jewett.  It's not clear when Gunnison received the Brigadier Gerard manuscripts, but in 1925 he loaned them to St. Lawrence University for an exhibition.

 

Bacheller inscribed both volumes on a preliminary blank, presenting them to "Herbert F. Gunnison" and signing as "warm regards of Irving Bacheller."  Both volumes also include the bookplate of Herbert Foster Gunnison on the front pastedown.

 

James S. Jaffe's 2015 Fall-Winter catalogue gives the provenance as "by descent from Herbert F. Gunnison."  The British Library purchased the manuscripts from Jaffe on March 15, 2018.

 

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Catalogue Information

The British Library

BL online catalogue: Add MS 89337 (Arthur Conan Doyle: Brigadier Gerard stories)

The manuscripts are available to researchers in the BL Manuscripts Reading Room under the reference Add MS 89337.

 

Fall-Winter 2015 James S. Jaffe Catalogue (PDF)

Item 19 (pp. 23-31) includes the following manuscript photos:

 

Original post about the James S. Jaffe sale of Brigadier Gerard manuscripts

 

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Acknowledgements and Page History

Photos courtesy of James S. Jaffe Rare Books

 

My thanks to James Jaffe for details and photos of the manuscripts, and to both Laura Walker at the British Library and to Jon Lellenberg for their assistance.

 

The first version of this report appeared November 17, 2018.

 

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Related Pages

Links to the above five individual manuscripts

 

Manuscript of "The Marriage of the Brigadier"

 

Checklist of non-Sherlockian Conan Doyle Manuscripts

 

Census of Sherlock Holmes Manuscripts

 

Lists of each year's best Sherlock Holmes books & DVDs, the most famous Sherlock Holmes quotes, and more Top 10 Lists.

 

 

 

Return to Manuscripts Home page and Introduction

 

 

 

Vers. 2.1ax-RN Original work
Copyright ©2018  Randall Stock. All Rights Reserved.