Beschreibung:

DOYLE, Sir Arthur CONAN (1859-1930). Two autograph letters signed to Mr. [Ian A.] Aldis (Headmaster of Walsall Grammar School), Crowborough, 27 November [19]07 and Tunbridge Wells, n.d. [3 December 1907] , in both seeking his correspondent's help in connection with his investigation into the notorious Edalji case, 'During the Edalji persecution of 1892 the Walsall school key was stolen, and was left in the Edalji's grounds ... Can you recall whether some suspicion attached at the time to a rather unsavoury youth named Royden Sharp, or 'Spec Sharp'', and giving his reasons for suspecting Sharp to have been the author of 'scurrilous anonymous letters', and to have been guilty of the crime for which Edalji was convicted, 3½ pages, 8° , (the first splitting at folds); together with two autograph letters signed from Aldis to S. Powis, Dunwich, 1 and 4 December 1907 , forwarding Conan Doyle's letters and asking the recipient to look in the school's Abstracts of Reports books for any comments about Sharp. 4½ pages, 8° . Written during one of the two investigations in which Conan Doyle played the detective himself, in order to prove that an injustice had been done. George Edalji, a Birmingham solicitor, son of the Reverend Shapurji Edalji, a Parsee of Indian origin, was convicted in 1903 of a series of brutal attacks in which cattle and ponies were slashed and maimed. A number of abusive letters to the police, one signed with his name, were used as evidence by the prosecution. Some years before, Edalji's father had been the victim of a series of malicious letters and warped practical jokes, and the key to Walsall School was left on his doorstep. George was convicted by a combination of police ineptitude and racial prejudice, and served three years. He appealed to Conan Doyle for help on his release, and the writer devoted eight months to examining the case, and demolishing the police evidence, focussing attention on Sharp, who had been expelled from the school, after which Mr. Aldis, his correspondent here, had received poison-pen letters and threats. The recollection of a master that Sharp had been the culprit in the key incident assisted Conan Doyle in demonstrating that he was the perpitrator of the crimes of which Edalji was accused. The case is described in John Dickson Carr's biography of Conan Doyle. (4)