Toronto is filled to the brim with beautiful attractions. St Lawrence Market, CN Tower, Eaton Centre, Skydome, and Casa Loma tend to travel to the top of people’s minds. However, there are many wonderful hidden gems around the city if you’re curious and don’t mind a bit of an adventure.
Since 1971, the Toronto Reference Library in Bloor-Yorkville has been a delightful time capsule and appeals to mystery and literature fans! A remarkable collection of Arthur Conan Doyle books is tucked away on its fifth floor. Doyle was a very passionate man whose main claim to fame was penning the Sherlock Holmes mystery books and his devotion to spiritualism. Here you can find one of the first editions of A Study in Scarlet. This was the first instance of the mystery genre’s beloved Sherlock Holmes in print. This literary work is so rare that you have to book a time with the library to see it. Visitors enter the collection by going past the graphic arts section of the library, where they are greeted by glass doors leading to a three-part Victorian-styled room. The main attractions are a small room lined with bookshelves, a desk worthy of the ever-stoic detective himself, two benches, a chair, and a sealed-off marble-type stone fireplace.
The Room & Collection
The bookshelves comprise different editions of Doyle’s work dating back to the late 1800s, and the oldest pieces are tucked away in red protective sleeves to keep them safe. The rest of the collection centers around true Canadian crime and Sherlock, and there are works dedicated to Doyle’s passion for spiritualism, a trendy subject among the people of his time. Visitors are welcome to view the collection, look at the books, take pictures (but no flash!), and immerse themselves in Doyle’s world.
The collection started in 1968 with a purchase from a dealer named Hugh Anson-Cartwright. It comprised 150 volumes from the estate of a fellow collector named Arthur Baille. Many mystery fans are grateful for this lucky purchase because afterwards, an additional investment of 1500 volumes, packed to the brim with first editions, translations, and various more minor paraphernalia, grew and rounded out this budding collection. This significant boost came from an English collector named Harold Mortlake. Once 1970 rolled around, this mass of Sherlockian content grew again with the final major purchase from a judge and collector, S. Tupper Bigelow. Bigelow’s goal was to document the publishing history of one literary work. His contribution was around 200 editions of Sign of Four, the second novel about Holmes, his role in a pact between four convicts, the Indian Mutiny, and of course, stolen treasure.
Donations and smaller purchases have occurred since 1970, and the collection has grown more bountiful. Several pieces of work play an essential role in rounding out the uniqueness and range of talent Doyle displays in this collection. Specifically, Doyle’s unpublished play, Angels of Darkness, and the first print of Sherlock in the 1887 Christmas edition of Beeton’s Christmas Annual... For those interested in the visual arts and literature, the collection also boasts gorgeous illustrations by artists Sidney Paget and Frederic Dorr Steele, who are the most famous illustrators of the Holmes series.
Outside of this comfortable Victorian nook, there is another room. It is undecorated but 100% worth viewing. There is a beautiful, large, round, and period-appropriate table donned with a lovely chess set. Each piece represents a character of Doyle’s creation. Surrounding this table holds a unique treasure for those who speak languages other than English. Precisely, various renditions of Sherlockian stories published in multiple languages fill these shelves, evidencing the impact that a character of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mind has had on the world and culture, even over a century later! A unique sense of privilege came from viewing these because it shows that the arts are truly universal.
Beyond Holmes
Sometimes, fans of Doyle forget that he had a body of work outside of Holmes. He wrote plays, poetry, and historical work and even dipped into many more genres, thus proving that he was a skillful and well-rounded writer! He was an ardent supporter of spiritualism.
Doyle wrote a great deal about the Napoleonic Wars, with the crowning achievement being A Straggler of ’15. This story was eventually reworked in o the play Waterloo, which Sir Henry Irving used as a tool to play at the people’s heartstrings. Adding to his bibliography of historically based works, he wrote:
Micah Clark
Sir Nigel
The White Company
The Lost World
The Refugees
Journeying past the historically based works, Doyle also was passionate about fighting injustice from groups of people down to individual cases, and writing about military histories, purely from a non-fiction lens. Examples of his work from this genre include:
The Great Boer War
The Crime of the Congo
The Case of Oscar Slater
The Story of Mr. George Edalji
Doyle also wrote about his present-day through a fictional lens, which is an unexpected pivot for those primarily familiar with the Sherlockian works. Through the Magic, Door is one of those boo s recommended by the curator of this collection, and it still holds up as a pleasurable read.
During the last decade and a half of Doyle’s life, he dove in much more deeply than in his previous years into writing, promoting and explaining spiritualism. Using the basis of travel books or spiritual ism as a tool in his works of fiction, Doyle penned over a dozen books, seemingly endless pamphlets, letters, and more on the subject. Some results by Doyle on this subject are The New Revelation.
The Wanderings of a Spiritualist
The Coming of the Fairies
The History of Spiritualism
The Edge of the Unknown
How to get to the collection
Address: 789 Yonge St, Toronto, ON M4W 2G8
Parking: Free and accessible by transit
Transit: Just a short walk from Yonge Station
When visitors enter the building, they should take the elevator to the top floor. The top floor boasts a lovely view and makes a beautiful photo opportunity. After exiting the elevators, turn left and eep going to the back end of the building, where there is a glass vestibule.
When one visits the collection, there are some rules that are important to follow. Protecting the integrity of this lovingly c compiled and valuable collection is essential.
No flash photography
Purses and jackets must be hung up or placed in the corner of the room
No items other than the books on the table with the chess set
No food
Be careful with beverages
Be careful with the books
Conclusion
One of the beautiful things about Toronto is that it is packed with fantastic opportunities to learn, make memories, and see and do things that otherwise wouldn’t be possible. Toronto is more than just the CN Tower or the home to the Maple Leafs, Blue Jays, and Raptors. It’s home to history, art, and culture and full of surprises. We at Black Cat only discovered this collection by accident when we were sent an article about the group. It was a wonderful experience for the collector, bibliophiles, and mystery fans.
Useful Links
Toronto Reference Library - About the collection https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/signin
Digital Copy of A Study In Scarlet - https://digitalarchive.tpl.ca/objects/374064/beetons-christmas-annual-a-study-in-scarlet
Available at the Toronto Public Library
The Hound of Baskervilles: https://toronto.overdrive.com/media/784969
A Study in Scarlet: https://toronto.overdrive.com/media/784353
The Sign of Four: https://toronto.overdrive.com/media/785102
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: https://toronto.overdrive.com/media/785018