On June 26, Sotheby’s New York will be presenting “The Library of Dr. Rodney P. Swantko,” an auction that will include many rare first editions including the only handwritten draft of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s second Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four (1890). The auction will take place as part of Sotheby’s Book Week between June 11 and 26.

The rare book is estimated to make between $800,000 and $1.2 million at auction. If achieved, it would far exceed the current record for an autograph manuscript by Conan Doyle, set when a handwritten manuscript leaf from The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902) sold for $423,000 at Heritage Auctions in 2021. Swantko’s 1889 manuscript is one of very few handwritten novels by Doyle still held in private collections, and Sotheby’s is calling it “the most significant Doyle manuscript ever to come to auction.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four Manuscript (1889). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.

The Sign of Four (also known as The Sign of the Four), the second long-form novel starring the detective Sherlock Holmes, was commissioned by Philadelphia’s Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1889 while Conan Doyle was still practicing as a doctor in Portsmouth. The manuscript includes edits made in black ink by the author and pencil notes made by J. M. Stoddart, Lippincott’s’ copyeditor, when preparing the story to be released in America with American spelling. Stoddart had initially proposed the commission to Conan Doyle at a dinner in London’s Langham Hotel, also attended by Oscar Wilde, who agreed to write The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) for the magazine. Later, in a letter, Conan Doyle recollected the dinner party, writing: “I am curious to see Oscar Wilde’s novel. I hope it turns out well. Clever it is sure to be, but the art of storytelling is something more than that.”

The manuscript is signed twice by the author, and is accompanied at auction by a collection of letters between Conan Doyle and Stoddart, which traces the progression of the book. In these letters, Doyle praises the quality of the printing of the book, and expresses how happy he is with the accompanying illustrations.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four Manuscript (1889). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.

“The autograph manuscript of Conan Doyle’s iconic work, The Sign of Four, is an exceptionally rare piece of literary history, offering a unique glimpse into Doyle’s writing process,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts, adding that, accompanied by the letters, “the ensemble provides a rich tapestry of insight into the preparation of Holmes for an American audience, cementing his legacy in the pantheon of literature’s great characters.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four Manuscript (1889). Photo courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Swantko was a Chicago-based surgery specialist and passionate collector, known for his exceptional library of rare and important books. He made several considerable donations to charity, including gifting the Chicago History Museum a handwritten and signed copy of Carl Sandburg’s Chicago (1914). Almost all of his collection was procured via telephone bidding at major book auctions, making this upcoming Sotheby’s sale somewhat of a full-circle moment. Swantko passed away in 2022 aged 82.

More than 40 rare books and manuscripts from Swantko’s collection will be available at the auction, including a presentation copy of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843), inscribed by the author two days before the novella’s publication. Also featured are first editions of F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1925), L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), and Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), considered one of the rarest first editions of American literature and is expected to sell for $400,000–$600,000. Sidney Paget’s original drawing, titled The Death of Sherlock Holmes, made for Conan Doyle’s 1893 short story The Final Problem, will also be available as part of the Sotheby’s sale.