The Best of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes and "The Illustrious Client" Manuscript:

A Gift to the National Library of Scotland

The late Dame Jean Conan Doyle, the last surviving child of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, bequeathed her father's original manuscript for "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" to the National Library of Scotland. The executor of her estate, Charles Foley, turned the holograph manuscript over to the National Library of Scotland on 30 June 2006. It's one of the last Sherlock Holmes story manuscripts owned by the Conan Doyle family.

Collier's Weekly first published this story in November 1924. A British version appeared three months later in The Strand Magazine. It was included in the final collection of Holmes short stories, The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes, in 1927.

The National Library of Scotland also holds the original Conan Doyle manuscript for "The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe" and around 60 Conan Doyle letters.

Index

Manuscript Description

Online news articles about the manuscript

Other NLS Conan Doyle material

Illustrious Client Manuscript Description

The 38-page autograph manuscript is written in black ink on lined paper. It's signed at end and dated as "Windlesham | Crowborough | July 1924." Text appears on one side only and pages are numbered in pencil as 1-23, 23a, 24-29, 29a, and 30-36. Most pages are 255mm x 200mm. It's bound in white vellum with gilt titles and with one free endpaper at the beginning and end. While it is a typical Conan Doyle manuscript in that there are no major plot or narrative revisions, there are more than 100 changes to the text and an alternate title ("The Adventure of the Blue Saucer") appears at the beginning of the manuscript.

For more details about the manuscript, see the following articles:

The Baker Street Journal, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Autumn 2007), pp. 44-51.

An Illustrious Manuscript by Randall Stock

Compares the manuscript with the published text and the manuscript for "The Three Garridebs," and discusses Conan Doyle's writing process.

Discover NLS, issue 3, winter 2006, pp. 14-17.

Forensic evidence from the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Owen Dudley Edwards

Details and commentary on "The Illustrious Client" manuscript, with photos.

http://www.nls.uk/about/discover-nls/issues/discover-nls_03.pdf (PDF: 17 pages; 1 MB)

AMARC newsletter, Issue No. 47: October 2006, pp. 2-3.

"The adventure of the illustrious client" by Murray Simpson

The Head of Manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland writes about getting the manuscript.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.kidd20/amarc/Newsletter47.pdf (PDF: 188K)

Library website: http://www.nls.uk/

Library press release: http://www.nls.uk/news/press/2006_06_30.html

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Online news articles about the manuscript

The following reports were available online.

National Library of Scotland media release, 22 October 2007

Crime Scene Edinburgh: 20 Years of Rankin and Rebus

A Sherlock Holmes manuscript is part of an exhibit from 24 October 2007 to 13 January 2008.

http://www.nls.uk/news/press/2007-10-22-rebus.html

The Evening News (Edinburgh), 22 October 2007

Murder in the library at Rebus exhibition by Brian Ferguson

Another mention of the manuscript to appear in the exhibit.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1684822007

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1684822007

Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press, March 2007 page # 1

[Further to the report on the manuscript...] by Peter Blau

http://members.cox.net/sherlock1/scuttle.htm

Discover NLS, issue 3, winter 2006, pp. 14-17.

Forensic evidence from the Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Owen Dudley Edwards

Details and commentary on "The Illustrious Client" manuscript, with photos.

http://www.nls.uk/about/discover-nls/issues/discover-nls_03.pdf (PDF: 17 pages; 1 MB)

AMARC newsletter, Issue No. 47: October 2006, pp. 2-3.

"The adventure of the illustrious client" by Murray Simpson

The Head of Manuscripts at the National Library of Scotland writes about getting the manuscript.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.kidd20/amarc/Newsletter47.pdf (PDF: 188K)

Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press, July 2006 page # 3

[The manuscript of "The Illustrious Client" was owned...] by Peter Blau

http://members.cox.net/sherlock1/scuttle.htm

The District Messenger, no. 263, 22 July 2006, p. 1

[Big things have happened within the past few weeks...] by Roger Johnson

http://www.sherlock-holmes.org.uk/pdf/DM264.pdf

National Library of Scotland media release, 30 June 2006

Sherlock Holmes manuscript comes to the National Library

http://www.nls.uk/news/press/2006_06_30.html

National Library of Scotland website news page, 30 June 2006

Sherlock Holmes' manuscript donated by Conan Doyle estate

http://www.nls.uk/news/index.html

BBC News, 29 June 2006

Library to get rare Holmes story

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scotland/5131336.stm

NEWS CLIPS

Radio Telefís Éireann RTE Guide, 3 July 2006

Rare Sherlock Holmes story donated to library

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2006/0703/conandoylea.html

Daily Record, 1 July 2006

Sherlock Home

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=17317338%26method=full%26siteid=66633-name_page.html

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Other NLS Conan Doyle material

The National Library of Scotland also holds the original Conan Doyle manuscript for "The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe." Conan Doyle wrote the story in the late 1870s and sent it to Blackwood's Magazine in Edinburgh. Blackwood's never published the story and kept the 24-page handwritten manuscript in its files. These files went to the National Library of Scotland in 1942, but it was not until December 2000 that the story was published.

The story finally appeared in a special edition of 500 copies from Ash-Tree Press. The book is now out of print, but it was a 72-page hardcover with ISBN: 155310014X. It includes a reproduction of the first page of the manuscript.

Quarto, Newsletter of the National Library of Scotland, Summer 2001, Number 10

The Mystery of MS.4791

http://www.nls.uk/news/quarto/issues/quarto10.pdf [note: PDF file]

BBC News, 30 March 2001

Book that 'inspired' Sherlock published

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1251085.stm

Scuttlebutt from the Spermaceti Press, November 2000 page # 2

[Arthur Conan Doyle wrote...] by Peter Blau

http://members.cox.net/sherlock1/scuttle.htm

Publisher's Website (Ash-Tree Press)

http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/acdspubs.htm

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My thanks to Dr. Murray Simpson and Derek Oliver from the National Library of Scotland for their assistance with my research on "The Illustrious Client" manuscript.

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