A Toronto library has one of the best Sherlock Holmes collections stashed away. One of the best-kept secrets in the city is the Arthur Conan Doyle Room, which is tucked away on the top level of the Toronto Reference Library.
It’s certainly worth the work for those who put out the effort. The collection is kept in a space that has been furnished to resemble Sherlock Holmes’ London flat at 221B Baker Street. This includes Victorian-era furniture, a Persian carpet, oak bookcases that reach the ceiling, and various artefacts and paraphernalia.
Sherlock Holmes sculptures, statues, toys, paintings, posters, paintings, meerschaum pipes, deerstalker caps, and curiosities like a chess set with pieces carved to look like Holmes, his sidekick Dr. Watson, and other series characters are all shown in the area.
The collection contains writings by Arthur Conan Doyle on true crime, history, spiritualism, and contemporary themes. He wrote in a variety of literary genres as well. But his most well-known creation, Sherlock Holmes, overshadowed all of his previous works, and this is evident in the collection. The collection contains several iterations of the Sherlock Holmes series, from the journals in which the stories initially appeared to first printings and contemporary imprints; translations to stage and movie adaptations.
There are several novels on Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, as well as works by other authors who utilise Doyle’s characters, known as pastiches. One of the pioneers of this early kind of “fan fiction” was Mark Twain. The collection also contains secondary sources, such as reviews, bibliographies, and biographies, that were written on Sherlock Holmes and were disseminated by various groups, commercial publishers, and university presses. Despite the fact that this is a collection of rare books, visitors are free to browse the books and touch them as they choose. It becomes much more amazing as a result of this.
