His Last Bow
Crowborough: 1917. Original handwritten manuscript, signed (entirely in black ink). A real, working manuscript, extensively corrected more so than most other Holmes manuscript we’ve seen. 2,881 words neatly written on just the recto sides of 14 leaves (of 24) including the first page and the last, in various sizes from 8” X 12 3/4” to 8” X 4” because Doyle cut this up and reworked it obsessively (the last page cut in half without loss). It is not complete, but it is what survived the publisher’s use. Stains on the blank backs, a small hole in each upper left corner for a securing brad, a few small chips at the blank edges, else very good. The most recent Holmes manuscript sales at auction (comparables) are for The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter, $350,000, HA, Jul. 16, 2022. and a single page from The Hound of the Baskervilles, a berserk anomaly at $423,000, HA, Nov. 6, 2021), and though The Hound is more famous to be sure, 14 pages is better than one page, and The Hound page was not signed, and our manuscript is signed. Very good. Item #782
Chronologically, this case was Holmes’ last employment, an espionage tour de force, set on August 2, 1914, 2 days before Britain’s entry into World War I, foretelling the war’s inevitability, and written while the war was still ongoing. It has Sherlock, at 60, drawn out of retirement by Britain’s Prime Minister, and playing an English–German double agent (Altamont) in disguise as an Irish American spy, with Watson as his chauffeur. The whole tale takes place in one evening and is the conclusion and dénouement of a 2–year case, and it is universally acknowledged as among the finest Holmes short stories, and the only one collected in a 1st edition that was titled after it. Said as simply as possible, but not any simpler, Sherlock Holmes is the most durable character in all of fiction and the tales are the most imitated, parodied, and adapted works in the English language.
“There’s an east wind coming, Watson.”
“I think not, Holmes. It is very warm.”
“Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age. There’s an east wind coming all the same, such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, Watson, and a good many of us may wither before its blast. But it’s God’s own wind none the less, and a cleaner, better, stronger land will lie in the sunshine when the storm has cleared. Start her up, Watson, for it’s time that we were on our way. I have a check for five hundred pounds which should be cashed early, for the drawer is quite capable of stopping it if he can.” –Doyle, the last lines of His Last Bow.
Price:
$200,000.00