Sherlock Holmes in Tauchnitz Editions

The Tauchnitz Edition included almost every significant novel written in English over a hundred year period, including of course the novels of Dickens, the Brontes, Hardy, George Eliot and a host of others, many of them now almost forgotten.  But surely some of the most significant, and the least forgotten, are the Sherlock Holmes novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.   They played a key role in spawning a whole genre of writing that still seems as popular as ever, had a lasting influence on a much broader range of English literature and continue to fascinate and stimulate new works.

So it goes without saying that they were published by Tauchnitz.  Not immediately, it should be said.  ‘A study in scarlet’, the first of the Holmes novels, was published in 1887 in a magazine, and initially attracted relatively little attention.  It was followed in 1890 by ‘The sign of four’ (originally titled ‘The sign of the four’) and it was really only after that that interest in the stories started to build.  The first book publication of ‘The sign of four’ was in October 1890 and the Tauchnitz Edition followed in February 1891.   Tauchnitz then published two other non-Holmes novels by Conan Doyle and a collection of short stories, before ‘A study in Scarlet’ appeared in March 1892.   The first printing of ‘A study in scarlet’ is therefore identified by the list of the 4 previous books by Conan Doyle on the back of the half-title, starting with ‘The sign of four’ and finishing with ‘The white company’.   Later editions list many more titles.   The first printing of ‘The sign of four’ of course lists no other Conan Doyle titles.

The first printing of ‘A study in scarlet’ lists 4 other Conan Doyle titles

After that, Tauchnitz published all the new Sherlock Holmes stories as quickly as it could get its hands on them.   ‘The adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ appeared in March 1893 (6 other Conan Doyle titles listed), ‘The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes’ in April 1894 (9 other Conan Doyle titles listed), ‘The hound of the Baskervilles’ in April 1902 (20 other Conan Doyle titles listed) and ‘The return of Sherlock Holmes’ in March 1905 (22 other Conan Doyle titles listed).   From the growing number of other titles, it’s clear that alongside these, Tauchnitz were also publishing other non-Holmes books by Conan Doyle.  There were also regular reprints of the Sherlock Holmes books, as always with Tauchnitz retaining the original publication date on the title page, but identified by higher numbers of other titles listed on the back of the half-title, or in the case of paperback copies, by the date at the top of the back wrapper.

The first printing of ‘The hound of the Baskervilles’ lists 20 other Conan Doyle titles

Conan Doyle produced no further Sherlock Holmes books until ‘The valley of fear’ in 1915, by which time Germany was at war with Britain and Tauchnitz was no longer in the market for the publication of English novels.   The book was instead published on the continent in the Nelson’s Continental Library, based in Paris.

When ‘His last bow’ appeared in 1917, it appeared in the other main series that had sprung up to replace Tauchnitz, the Standard Collection, published by Louis Conard.    So it was not until ‘The case-book of Sherlock Holmes’ was published in 1927 that Tauchnitz could add another Holmes title to its list.  This final title (volume 4790) listed only 23 other titles by Conan Doyle, although it was the 32nd title to be published, probably because several of the books had gone out of print.   For much of its existence, Tauchnitz had listed all previous publications and tried to keep them all in print as well, but by this time some pruning of the backlist had become almost inevitable.

   

19th century Tauchnitz editions are easier to find in hardback, 20th century ones in paperback

So sadly, despite a near 40 year publishing relationship with Conan Doyle, the entire Sherlock Holmes series is not available in Tauchnitz editions.   There are nonetheless 10 volumes, as part of a total of over 40 volumes by Conan Doyle, so the great detective gets rather more than an honourable mention in the history of Tauchnitz.

All originally issued as paperbacks, but 19th century books were bound in a huge variety of styles