When it comes local celebrities, I can’t think of anyone who stands in higher regard than the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle whose former home, Undershaw, has now been imaginatively redeveloped to house the excellent Stepping Stones school.
Sir Arthur comes to mind once more because of the announcement in the United States that a handwritten manuscript for one of his best-loved short stories is coming to auction this month.
The Adventure of the Dancing Men is the third of 13 tales from The Return of Sherlock Holmes, dating to 1903-04, after Conan Doyle revived his great detective, following popular demand, having previously killed him off in his fight to the death with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.
It’s a memorable story for several reasons, the most notable being the depiction of a cipher, using pictures of stick men, which Holmes has to crack.
The handwritten manuscript contains Conan Doyle’s original corrections as well as the dancing stick men themselves. The author donated the manuscript to charity to be auctioned off in favour of the Red Cross in 1918. The price fetched then is not recorded and, although it clearly sold again, has not appeared at auction for the past 90 years. The estimate now? A cool $500,000.
