An autograph manuscript of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of Black Peter is to star in a sale of books and manuscripts at Christie's New York on June 19 with a $250,000-350,000 estimate.
The story was published in Collier's in 1904 and The Strand Magazine in 1905, later appearing in the collection The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905).
 Conan Doyle's The Adventure of Black Peter was first published in 1905 |
It concerns the murder of Black Peter, a violent sea captain killed by a mysterious harpoon-wielding assailant.
Doyle (1859-1930) spent a short time aboard an Antarctic whaler during the 1880s, an experience that informed the writing of the story.
The lot is inscribed: "To Mr. Collier with best Xmas wishes, December 1908 from Arthur Conan Doyle."
An unpublished collection of 41 typed and autographed letters by JD Salinger (1919-2010) will feature with a valuation of $180,000—240,000.
The lot is the largest archive pertaining to Salinger to ever appear at auction and is described as being "rich in literary, biographical and psychological detail."
The letters are all written to a woman named Christine C and date to between 1966 and 1976. They offer a rare glimpse into the inner mind of the famously reclusive author - in one section he writes: "The older I get, the more convinced I am that to be a success is to be a failure...
"A young guy drove up today looking for me. On the make, full of ambition, nervous and eager.
"It depresses hell out of me to see anyone or everyone aching to make it big on the world's terms, or some fraction of the world's terms...."
The auction will include Jack Kilby's prototype microchip from 1958, which led to the development of the modern era of computing.
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