This is a bound copy of the Strand Magazine, published by G Newnes containing issues January to June 1893.  Strand V.

The Strand magazine was a Victorian periodical - so as well as containing the first published Holmes stories, they contain other articles and interesting stories of the day.

This one has a bit of an anomaly - it's been bound with an extra Sherlock Holmes story taken from Strand IV; The Adventure of Silver Blaze.  It is inserted just before The Adventure of the Cardboard Box.  Not sure why; maybe the previous owner had an incomplete set of Strand IV's and wanted to include the Holmes story in this bound edition.

It's 132 years old and contains the first printed copies of six Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and illustrated throughout by Sidney Paget (my preferred Holmes artist);

Strand Street Scene boards - scuffed in places with gold titling on the spine which is frayed (see photos), foxing throughout and some pages partially detached from the spine (see photos).  There are some pages that have small tears - the most significant being on the contents page.

I love these magazines, as well as the huge Sherlock Holmes interest, there are also lots of other Victorian related articles and stories.  They're fabulous!

I do have other bound copies of the Strand Magazine available; please ask if you are looking for a specific copy.

The Strand Magazine is of great importance to all collectors of Sherlockania as it contains the first published Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. 

Conan Doyle was to prove one of the Strand’s most popular (and prolific) contributors. From mid-1891 until his death in 1930, there was scarcely an issue that did not contain at least one of his stories or articles. The serialisation of The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901-1902 was estimated to have increased the magazine’s circulation by 30,000. 

While Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, they was not the work he valued the most. In fact Conan Doyle once referred to them as "an elementary form of fiction". He was very proud of his historical novels and considered them some of his finest work. Although his Sherlock Holmes stories were hugely successful Conan Doyle was concerned that they were keeping him from more important work. As early as 1891 he shared with his mother his concerns about Holmes. "He takes my mind from better things." As time went on Conan Doyle found himself more closely identified with Sherlock Holmes to the exclusion of his other works. "I weary of his name," he told his mother. In his own mind the matter was settled. Holmes must die. The only question was how? Conan Doyle wanted a dramatic finish for the great Sherlock Holmes. In 1893 Conan Doyle visited Reichenbach Falls in the northern Swiss Alps. The Adventure of the Final Problem was published in December of 1893. People were so upset that more than twenty thousand of them cancelled their subscription to The Strand magazine. 



When the first Sherlock Holmes short story –"A Scandal in Bohemia"- was published in the July 1891 issue of the Strand Magazine, circulation rose immediately. Arthur Conan Doyle had already published two full-length Holmes stories, A Study in Scarlet and the Sign of Four, neither approaching the success of the short stories that were to follow. Indeed, when The Sign of Four was published in book form in 1890, the Athenaeum commented "Dr Doyle’s admirers will read the little volume through eagerly enough, but they will hardly care to take it up again". However, within two years, the combination of Sherlock Holmes and the Strand had made Conan Doyle one of the most popular authors of the age. Fifty-six Holmes stories appeared in the magazine from 1891 to 1927, many of them illustrated by Sidney Paget’s now famous drawings.

The Strand also published Conan Doyle’s historical fiction such as Rodney Stone and The Adventures of Brigadier Gerard. An illustrated interview with him in 1892 included a postscript by Conan Doyle’s former teacher, Joseph Bell, the supposed ‘original’ Sherlock Holmes..