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Sherlock Holmes and "The Crown Diamond" Manuscript:
A Gift to Toronto
September 2010
The original manuscript of "The Crown Diamond," a
Sherlock Holmes play, now resides in the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the
Toronto Public Library in Canada. Anna Conan Doyle, widow of the author's
youngest son, bequeathed several of Sir Arthur's manuscripts to the library and
her estate delivered three of them in September 2010.
Toronto also holds many other rarities in their Arthur Conan Doyle Collection.
News articles about the manuscripts
Other Toronto Conan Doyle material
The Crown Diamond Manuscript Description
Autograph manuscript signed of a one-act play, here entitled on the first leaf "The Crown Diamond: An Evening with Sherlock Holmes in one act." It is written in black ink in an "Eclipse" Exercise Book on 25 ruled leaves of 8 x 6 1/2 inches. The cover of the exercise book is signed "A Conan Doyle" and titled "The Crown Diamond: An Evening with Sherlock Holmes." No date or place of writing is given.
The play, starring Dennis Neilson-Terry and Rex Vernon Taylour, first appeared at the Bristol Hippodrome on 2 May 1921. The Holmes story "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone," which is nearly identical to the play, appeared a few months later in the October 1921 Strand Magazine. The play itself was first published as The Crown Diamond: An Evening with Sherlock Holmes: A Play in One Act by The Baskerrette Press in 1958.
Library Catalog Record: 822.912 D598.2 1921
Some Personalia About Sherlock Holmes Manuscript Description
Autograph manuscript signed of an article, here entitled on the first leaf "Some Personalia About Mr. Sherlock Holmes." It is written in black ink on the rectos only of 10 ruled sheets of 13 x 8 inches, and signed at end as "Arthur Conan Doyle | Crowborough | Sept 9."
This article first appeared in the December 1917 Strand Magazine on pp. 531-535. It described the public's reaction to the Holmes stories and some of Doyle's real-life attempts at detection.
Library Catalog Record: 823.91 D598 D598.103
An Essay on Intemperance Manuscript Description
Autograph manuscript of an essay, here entitled on the first leaf "An essay On the Intemperance of our Country, the Cause of its Prevalence and the Means to be Adopted for its Suppression." It is written in black ink on the rectos only of 42 ruled sheets of 7 3/4 x 6 inches. The 42 sheets are sewn together by hand. It is not signed, and no date or place of writing is given.
A nearly-identical copy of the first page with a slight variant title and a capital letter "B" in the upper left corner accompanies the sewn sheets and may have originally been part of the bundle. At the top of this page, above the title, appears "The first essay that Arthur ever wrote for print" in what is probably the hand of Jean Leckie Conan Doyle, his second wife.
Library Catalog Record: 178.10942 D598
Donation History
Sir Arthur's three youngest children acquired the bulk of his papers after their mother, Jean Leckie Conan Doyle, died in 1940. Adrian Malcom Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur's youngest son, married Anna Charlotte Anderson on 23 May 1938, and passed on his share of Sir Arthur's papers to her upon his death on 3 June 1970. Anna soon offered much of this material for sale to the Toronto Library. Although the library was unable to raise the funds to purchase the papers, Anna gained a positive impression of their Arthur Conan Doyle Collection and developed a good relationship with the Library staff.
Anna Conan Doyle died in 1990 and bequeathed a number of manuscripts to the Toronto Library. The first of these, for the Holmes-related play Angels of Darkness, arrived at the library in 1992. The three manuscripts noted above came to the Collection in September 2010.
News Articles About the Manuscripts
Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press, October 2010, page # 3
[News from Toronto: three manuscripts...] by Peter E. Blau
http://members.cox.net/sherlock1/scuttle.htm
Shelf Life: Toronto Public Library News & Views, September 2010, pp. 1, 4.
Rare Sherlock Holmes artefacts enrich library’s special collections
Similar article to the announcement below in "The Magic Door"
The Magic Door, Fall 2010, v. 13, n. 1, p. 1
New to the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection by Peggy Perdue
Announces the arrival of the three manuscripts, includes photo of shipping crate received by library
Other Toronto Conan Doyle Material
The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at
the Toronto Public Library has superb holdings of Conan Doyle material,
including many items related to Sherlock Holmes. In addition to the three
Conan Doyle manuscripts noted above, some of their rarities include:
Another donation by Anna Conan Doyle: the manuscript of Angels of Darkness, a play related to the first Sherlock Holmes story (with photos on the Toronto website)
A copy of Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887 with the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes, which is more fully described as copy R15 in my Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 Checklist and Census.
An original Sidney Paget drawing for "The Cardboard Box," a Sherlock Holmes story first published in 1893 in The Strand Magazine
Copy WMH22 of the first edition of "The Unique Hamlet", a Sherlock Holmes pastiche by Vincent Starrett
Various notebooks and letters by Conan Doyle sold with the Conan Doyle Collection at Christie's in 2004
Online exhibits and photos at the Toronto website include:
Sidney
Paget: Iconic Illustrator of Sherlock Holmes (2010)
A Case of Considerable Interest (2006)
Footprints of the Hound (2001)
Rarities in the ACD Collection (part of Collected Works: A Public Legacy)
Lady Conan Doyle's 1914 trip diary (Flash required) as part of their Curator's Showcase
Other useful links to Toronto resources
Toronto Public Library Home page
The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection main page
Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection
My thanks to Peggy Perdue at the Toronto Public Library and to Cliff Goldfarb for their assistance with my research. Photos courtesy of Peggy Perdue.
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Copyright © 2010 Randall Stock. All Rights Reserved.