– 15 – A u g u s t 2 0 2 2 “Not Such A Hound As Mortal Eyes Have Ever Seen” 16. CONAN DOYLE, Arthur. The Hound of the Baskervilles. London, 1902. Octavo, original pictorial black- and gilt-stamped red cloth, custom slipcase. $11,000. First edition, first issue, of the third Sherlock Holmes novel, widely regarded as the best in the series, with 16 illustrations by Sidney Paget. Although Conan Doyle had killed off his most famous character by sending him over the Reichenbach Falls while grappling with Professor Moriarty in “The Final Problem” (December 1893), his readership demanded the sleuth’s return. The author obliged with this, the third—and still considered by many the best—Sherlock Holmes novel, carefully positioned on the title page as “another adventure” of Holmes. “But,” as Howard Haycraft notes, “the seed of doubt was planted”; and while the novel proved an immediate success, readers continued to press for more. Conan Doyle finally relented and engineered Holmes’ “resurrection” in 1903. The Hound of the Baskervilles remains “one of the most gripping books in the language” (Crime & Mystery 100 Best 6). First issue, with “you” for “your” on page 13, line 3 and the illustration facing page 76 reversed (as it was originally in the Strand Magazine, October 1901). Without extremely scarce dust jacket. Ink gift inscription. Interior generally fine, with little of the foxing typical for this book; only light wear to extremities, mild toning to spine, gilt quite bright. Near-fine condition.
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