Conan Doyle, Arthur "Strange Secrets" [R. F. Fenno & Company, 1895]

DOYLE, Arthur Conan. Strange Secrets: Told by A. Conan Doyle and Others.

New York: R. F. Fenno & Company, 1895. First edition. 7.75" x 5.25", 287pp + 3 ads. Publisher's original purple cloth pictorially stamped in black, gray, and white with an Art Nouveau design to the upper cover and spine. Binding square with vibrant cloth and exceptionally bright cover decoration. Spine lettering crisp with only light rubbing at the head and a small slit to the upper spine. Front hinge just beginning at the title page. Interior clean with no ownership marks. An unusually well-preserved example with outstanding shelf appeal. Very Good+.

An attractive anthology of supernatural fiction featuring Arthur Conan Doyle alongside other popular late-Victorian authors. The collection includes Doyle's "The Ghost of Lawford Hall," presented as a "true story" of a haunted country house, together with ghost stories, mysteries, and uncanny tales representative of the era's fascination with spiritualism and the supernatural. The striking Art Nouveau binding is among the most memorable publisher's designs of the period and is increasingly sought after by collectors of weird fiction, occult literature, and decorative bindings.