The Crowborough Edition of the Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

The Crowborough Edition of the Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a series of 24 volumes of works written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in USA by Doubleday, Doran & Co. in 1930.

The collection includes 20 novels, 161 short stories and 1 auto-biography written by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Note that the novel The Mystery of Cloomber was not included.


Doubleday, Doran & Co. (1930)


Stories


Photos

  • Title pages
  • Volume 01

    Volume 01

  • Volume 05

    Volume 05

  • Volume 20

    Volume 20


Preface

Extract

My first long story was The Firm of Girdlestone, which stands for that crude and imitative stage through which an undeveloped writer may pass. It is a book which I could eliminate from my list without compunction. And yet I find that it appeals strongly to a certain type of reader who tunes in to my own mind at that point. It was mostly written before many of the 'Polestar' stories, though published much later.

I then, in 1887, wrote A Study in Scarlet, in which I first evolved the character of Sherlock Holmes with his faithful chronicler Watson. Having met with approbation, I two years later wrote another little book, The Sign of Four, about Holmes. Shortly afterwards, having started as an eye surgeon in London, I found much time upon my hands, and in my deserted consulting room I began that series of short stories about Holmes which ran eventually to such an unconscionable length, my only excuse being that the demand was always greater than the supply. This covers The Adventures, The Memoirs, The Return, and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, together with The Hound of the Baskervilles, His Last Bow, and The Valley of Fear. As most of these books have a preface of their own I need not enlarge. I might remark, however, that it had long struck me that a serial story in a magazine was a mistake, since if a single number was missed, the interest was gone. A series in which each was complete in itself seemed to me to be the ideal, and as far as I know I was a pioneer in this direction.

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex.
December, 1929.



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