By the time they left, Wilde had committed to writing “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and Conan Doyle had agreed to write “The Sign of Four,” one of his most famous Sherlock Holmes stories.
Now, Conan Doyle’s letters recounting that fated dinner and his sole handwritten manuscript of “The Sign of Four” are being auctioned by Sotheby’s New York, alongside other literary treasures.
The manuscript alone is expected to fetch up to $1.2 million, given its unique significance and status as the most valuable Conan Doyle item ever offered at auction, a Sotheby’s statement said.
Courtesy Sotheby'sThe manuscript itself is exceptionally clean, bearing only Stoddart’s edits to Americanize spellings and a few crossed-out words as Conan Doyle himself tweaked his work.
All of Conan Doyle’s other surviving manuscripts, most of which reside in museums, similarly show little sign of being edited, Kiffer added.
Persons:
Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, J.M Stoddart, Wilde, Dorian Gray ”, Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle’s, “, ” Selby Kiffer, they’re, you’re, Kiffer, Doyle, ”, Stoddart, Holmes, Watson, Rodney P, Scott Fitzgerald, Gatsby, Scott, Zelda, Vladimir Nabokov, Graham Greene, Vera
Organizations:
CNN, Langham, Lippincott’s, Sotheby’s
Locations:
London, American, York, Chicago, New York