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Sherlock Holmes and "The Crown Diamond" Manuscript:
A Gift to Toronto

By Randall Stock, June 1, 2015 (first version: September 2010)

 

The original manuscript of "The Crown Diamond," a Sherlock Holmes play, now resides in the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Public Library in Canada.  Anna Conan Doyle, widow of the author's youngest son, bequeathed several of Sir Arthur's manuscripts to the library and her estate delivered three of them in September 2010.

 

 

"The Crown Diamond" Manuscript Description

Autograph manuscript signed of a one-act play, here entitled on the first leaf "The Crown Diamond: An Evening with Sherlock Holmes in one act."  It is written in black ink in an "Eclipse" Exercise Book on 25 ruled leaves of 8 x 6 1/2 inches.  The cover of the exercise book is signed "A Conan Doyle" and titled "The Crown Diamond: An Evening with Sherlock Holmes."  No date or place of writing is given.

 

The play, starring Dennis Neilson-Terry and Rex Vernon Taylour, first appeared at the Bristol Hippodrome on 2 May 1921.  The Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone," which is nearly identical to the play, appeared a few months later in the October 1921 Strand Magazine.  The play itself was first published in 1958, by The Baskerrette Press, as The Crown Diamond: An Evening with Sherlock Holmes: A Play in One Act.

 

Library Catalog Record: 822.912 D598.2 1921

 

Provenance: See the donation history below.

 

Exhibited: Adventures with Sherlock Holmes (2013; but not in the online exhibit version)

 

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"Some Personalia About Sherlock Holmes" Manuscript Description

Autograph manuscript signed of an article, here entitled on the first leaf "Some Personalia About Mr. Sherlock Holmes."  It is written in black ink on the rectos only of 10 ruled sheets of 13 x 8 inches, and signed at end as "Arthur Conan Doyle | Crowborough | Sept 9."

 

This article first appeared in the December 1917 Strand Magazine on pp. 531-535.  It described the public's reaction to the Holmes stories and some of Doyle's real-life attempts at detection.

 

Library Catalog Record: 823.91 D598  D598.103

 

Provenance: See the donation history below.

 

Exhibited: Adventures with Sherlock Holmes (2013; but not in the online exhibit version)

 

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"An Essay on Intemperance" Manuscript Description

Autograph manuscript of an essay, here entitled on the first leaf "An essay On the Intemperance of our Country, the Cause of its Prevalence and the Means to be Adopted for its Suppression."  It is written in black ink on the rectos only of 42 ruled sheets of 7 3/4 x 6 inches.  The 42 sheets are sewn together by hand.  It is not signed, and no date or place of writing is given.

 

A nearly-identical copy of the first page, with a slight variant title and a capital letter "B" in the upper left corner, accompanies the sewn sheets and may have originally been part of the bundle.  At the top of this page, above the title, appears "The first essay that Arthur ever wrote for print" in what is probably the hand of Jean Leckie Conan Doyle, his second wife.

 

Library Catalog Record: 178.10942 D598

 

Provenance: See the donation history below.

 

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Donation History

 

Sir Arthur's three youngest children acquired the bulk of his papers after their mother, Jean Leckie Conan Doyle, died in 1940.  Adrian Malcom Conan Doyle, Sir Arthur's youngest son, married Anna Charlotte Anderson on 23 May 1938, and passed on his share of Sir Arthur's papers to her upon his death on 3 June 1970.  Anna soon offered much of this material for sale to the Toronto Library.  Although the library was unable to raise the funds to purchase the papers, Anna gained a positive impression of their Arthur Conan Doyle Collection and developed a good relationship with the Library staff.

 

Anna Conan Doyle died in 1990 and bequeathed a number of manuscripts to the Toronto Library.  The first of these, for the Holmes-related play Angels of Darkness, arrived at the library in 1992.  The three manuscripts noted above came to the Collection in September 2010.

 

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News Articles About the Manuscripts

 

Other Toronto Conan Doyle Material

 

The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Public Library holds numerous Conan Doyle rarities.  This includes a number of Conan Doyle manuscripts, many Conan Doyle letters and notebooks, first editions of his books, a Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 with the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes, and much more.

 

For details and links to photos of their holdings, see my page on Toronto's rare Conan Doyle material.  That page also has links to all of Toronto's online exhibits of Conan Doyle items.

 

 

Other links to Toronto resources

 

Toronto Public Library Home page

 

Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection

 

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My thanks to Peggy Perdue at the Toronto Public Library and to Cliff Goldfarb for their assistance with my research.  Photo courtesy of Peggy Perdue.

 

 

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