The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

New York

Harper & Brothers Publishers

1894

First US edition, in dust jacket

The utilitarian dust jacket on this first edition—unadorned coarse brown paper—makes it at present a unique copy. Reflecting the practice of the time, when jackets were intended only to protect books on their journey from publisher to bookstore, this jacket has no decoration and no publisher’s name, simply the title on the spine. Unlike the UK edition, the first US book edition has 26 drawings, four by Paget and 22 by W. H. Hyde, who had illustrated the stories in Harper’s Weekly. In a more significant departure, the first edition, first state of the US Memoirs includes “The Adventure of the Card-Board Box.”