The Casebook of Solar Pons. Signed, First Edition

Derleth, August

Published by Mycroft & Moran, Sauk City, Wisconsin, 1965

About this Item

Sauk City, WI: Mycroft & Moran, 1965. First Edition. One of three thousand copies printed. Signed by the author, "Best Wishes, August Derleth", on the half-title, without further inscription. Octavo, 281 pp. Black cloth, with bright gilt illustration and lettering on spine. Near Fine, with small stains on front and top page edges (see scan), in a near fine jacket with small amount of rubbing at bottom front cover. Sharp copy. See all scans. When August Derleth wrote Arthur Conan Doyle in 1928 to ask if there were to be any more Sherlock Holmes stories, he was given a curt "no". Thus was born Solar Pons, the twentieth century flag carrier for Mr. Holmes and the brainchild of Derleth. At first cloning Holmes as Solar Pons and Dr. Watson as Dr. Lyndon Parker, and using essentially the same modus operandi for the pair, the talented Derleth couldn't help but insert himself, and Pons became his own man, still solving cases the same way as Holmes, but working in the 1920's and 1930's, and "not so much a 19th century man looking into the 20th as a 20th century man harkening back to the 19th". Derleth's body of work with this duo includes "In Re: Sherlock Holmes", "The Memoirs of Solar Pons", "Three Problems for Solar Pons", "The Return of Solar Pons", "The Reminiscences of Solar Pons", "The Adventure of the Orient Express", "The Casebook of Solar Pons" [this title], " Praed Street Papers", " The Adventure of the Unique Dickensians", "Mr. Fairlie's Final Journey", " Praed Street Dossier", "The Chronicles of Solar Pons", "The Solar Pons Omnibus Edition", "The Unpublished Solar Pons" and "The Final Adventures of Solar Pons". But the final adventures weren't; after Derleth's death in 1971, Basil Copper picked up the flag and as of 2002 was continuing to turn out Pons aggregations. And, as with Doyle's Sherlock Holmes phenomenon, fan clubs have sprung up - "Pontine Societies" - in both England and the U.S. L17n.

Seller Inventory # 000309

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Casebook of Solar Pons. Signed, First Edition
• Publisher: Mycroft & Moran, Sauk City, Wisconsin
• Publication Date: 1965
• Language: English
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)