Arthur Conan Doyle, Edited by John Michael Gibson; Richard Lancelyn Green. Essays on Phototgraphy SIGNED BY JOHN GIBSON - The Unknown Conan Doyle , London: Secker & Warburg, 1982.

First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo 0436133024 Inscribed By Author Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Green cloth with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership inscription. xxi, 128 pages slight yellowing to page edges, clean and tight. Between 1881 and 1885, between taking his degree and getting married, Conan Doyle contributed a series of articles to the leading photographic journal of the day. During the intervening century, there has only been one reference to these articles, and that in an obituary note in the same journal. This volume, the first publication in book form of Doyle's contributions, remedies that neglect, and modifies the received image. The reflex response to the words "Doyle" and "photography" conjures up images of the debate on spiritualism, of controversies that surrounded the creator of Sherlock Holmes in the latter phases of his public career. But for over a century, Doyle's real contributions to the art - the sport, almost - have been entirely unrecognized. These essays, contributions to a significant series on a developing pastime, show Doyle to be a first-rate reporter, an expert practitioner of the emerging art of dry-plate photography, an adventurous traveller, and an expert in the deployment of railway timetables. There are nuggets here for the dedicated Sherlockian, although the first time the name Holmes appears in Doyle's published work it is to denote a potential travelling companion rejected on the grounds that he is a non-smoking teetotaller. It is above all in the descriptions of scenery, in the crisp recording of dialogue, the shaping of anecdote, that the craftsman's hand grows visible. These are the apprentice works of a supreme professional, and make absorbing reading in their own right: the echoes they evoke are a bonus. (Book ref. 129859)  £20.00

The payment methods accepted by the seller, Charles Bossom , are shown in the right-hand column.

Click here to order

Back to search