Amaranthine Produce New Fine Press Edition of Sherlock Holmes

Amaranthine Books is adding a new edition to its latest offering, a short story collection featuring 12 of Arthur Conan Doyle’s works about his fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of a Dozen Favourites.

Based in Croatia, Amaranthine Books is a small fine press publisher producing limited editions of important literary works. Until now, its editions have been produced as 'numbered' (260 or 300 copies) and 'lettered' (26 copies). With this newest title it has  introduced a third option, the Library edition which will be produced in 520 copies. 

"The idea behind this third edition was creating a collectors edition which, even though it’s still a luxury item, comes at a much lower price point, thus making it affordable to many more people," said a spokesperson.

The Library Edition of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of a Dozen Favourites consists of the short stories that were Arthur Conan Doyle's favourites - he ran a competition for readers of Strand magazine in March 1927 to guess which would make his top 12 in the run-up to the publication of his final volume, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. "When this competition was first mooted," he wrote, "I went into it in a most light-hearted way, thinking that it would be the easiest thing in the world to pick out the twelve best of the Holmes stories. In practice I found that I had engaged myself in a serious task." These are the dozen 'best':

• The Adventure of the Speckled Band
• The Adventure of the Red-Headed League
• The Adventure of the Dancing Men
• The Adventure of the Final Problem
• The Adventure of a Scandal in Bohemia
• The Adventure of the Empty House
• The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips
• The Adventure of the Second Stain
• The Adventure of the Devil’s Foot
• The Adventure of the Priory School
• The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual
• The Adventure of the Reigate Squires

The new Amaranthine edition comes in a slipcase with a combination of blind and gold blocking, and is bound in premium Fedrigoni Savile Row paper with a cutout in shape of Sherlock’s pipe on the front cover, featuring a tartan fabric below. Endpapers feature a wallpaper motif inspired by the wallpapers in Sherlock’s living room. Illustrations are by Manuel Šumberac, offering a 'blueprint' of each individual story. The book is printed letterpress on the company's own Heidelberg Cylinder SBG in Baskerville typography.

A similar Library edition will also be available for Amaranthine's next title, Catch-22.