Title
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Coverage
New York
Publisher
McClure, Phillips & Co.
Date
1902
Subject
Salesman’s dummy
Description
It was long conjectured that McClure, Phillips & Co. had produced a “dummy,” a partially printed book, essentially a sample to help its salesforce sell the Hound to bookstores. Around 1960, Sherlockian collector Nathan Bengis found one. It has what was long thought to be a unique copyright notice. The second half of the novel (pages 113–249) appears first and is followed by six pages of ads and then by 108 blank pages. Bengis used the empty pages as a notebook for his Sherlockian musings, making his particular copy distinct. Alas, it has vanished, so the dummy shown here is the only one known at this time to exist.