The Sign of the Four, A Case of Identity, A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet

The Sign of the Four, A Case of Identity, A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, Sherlock Holmes, A Study in Scarlet

Cleveland

The Arthur Westbrook Company

undated

Flamboyant covers in the Great American Detective Series

Pirate publishers ingeniously exploited the popularity of Sherlock Holmes to sell books. Pricing was paramount, but eye-catching cover art was a crucial come-on. These Westbrook covers can’t be topped for color, drama, and their total disconnect from the titles’ storylines. No sulky, sultry woman ever landed in jail in The Sign of the Four. No couple came to blows in A Case of Identity. No one escaped on horseback in The Red-Headed League. No one used a telephone in the book Westbrook titled Sherlock Holmes (but which, between the covers, was actually A Study in Scarlet). And no bare-armed beauty figured in A Study in Scarlet.