[DREAMLAND AND GHOSTLAND.] [ Vol I:] DREAM WARNINGS AND MYSTERIES. [Vol II:] STRANGE STORIES OF COINCIDENCE AND GHOSTLY ADVENTURE. [Vol III:] GHOST STORIES AND PRESENTIMENTS.

Doyle, A. Conan

[first tales in UK book form] [Together, three volumes.] London: George Redway, n.d. [1887 / 1888]. Original blue-grey cloth pictorially decorated in red and lettered in red and gilt.

First Edition, second (separately published) issue -- of the supernatural anthology containing six stories that "are the first by Conan Doyle to appear in book form in England." It was initially published by Redway as a three-decker (price 31/6) in October 1887, with the first copies bound (in red cloth) as Vols I-II-III of DREAMLAND AND GHOSTLAND: An Original Collection of Tales and Warnings from the Borderland of Substance and Shadow. It did not sell well as an expensive three-volume work, so in November 1888, Redway bound up additional sheets of the first edition as these three separately-titled (and separately-sold, at 6/-) volumes -- in blue-grey cloth pictorially decorated in red. The Preface (which mentions Doyle, plus one of his tales albeit mis-spelled) is retained. (There was later a third binding-up of light blue crackle-grain cloth lettered in gilt on the spines, with the Preface -- referring to "these volumes" -- properly removed.)

The first volume contains no Doyle contribution; the second contains his "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement"; and the third contains his "The Great Keinplatz Experiment," "Selecting a Ghost: The Ghosts of Goresthorpe Grange," "The Mystery of Sasassa Valley," "The Captain of the Pole-Star" and "John Barrington Cowles." Though NOT identified as being by Doyle in these volumes, these six tales are Doyle's first to appear in book form in England. (His first appearance anywhere was "Bones" in the four-volume TALES FROM MANY SOURCES published in New York by Dodd Mead in 1885.)

These volumes are in very good-plus condition, with very little actual wear (one nick in a spine-head, some of the original endpapers very slightly cracked); there is some general cover soil, and the spine gilt is less than bright. That said, this is a very uncommon edition, and these separately-sold titles are especially scarce as a complete set; furthermore, of the three binding states, these second-issue ones are the only ones to be properly-creepy pictorial. Green & Gibson C80; Sadleir (XIX) 741 (first issue in red cloth binding); see Muir Points: 2nd Series pp 104-105 and frontispiece plate. Housed in a clamshell case with leather labels, with three paperboard chemises within. Item #15189

Price: $5,250.00