DOYLE, Arthur Conan; STEPHENS, Alice Barber, illustrator — Stark Munro Letters, the

London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1895. Mr. Stark Munro attempts to create a medical practice in partnership with the brilliant but unorthodox James Cullingworth.. DOYLE, Arthur Conan. The Stark Munro Letters. Being a series of sixteen letters written by J. Stark Munro, M.B. to his friend and former fellow student, Herbert Swanborough, of Lowell, Massachusetts, during the years 1881-1884. Edited and arranged by A. Conan Doyle. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1895. First English edition. Octavo (7 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches; 184 x 124 mm.). [vi], 346, [1, printers device], [1, blank] pp. Publishers 24 pp catalog dated August 1895 bound in at end. Inserted frontispiece by Alice Barber Stephens with original tissue-guard. Minimal scattered marginal foxing otherwise fine. Publisher's dark green cloth over beveled boards, front cover and spine lettered in gilt, black coated endpapers. A near fine copy. 7,500 copies were published on 5th September 1895 priced 6/-. The Stark Munro Letters is an epistolary novel that takes the form of twelve long letters written by J. Stark Munro between March 1881 and November 1884 and sent to his friend Herbert Swanborough of Lowell, Massachusetts. Stark Munro is a recent graduate from medical school, and the letters detail his attempts to create a medical practice in partnership with the brilliant but unorthodox James Cullingworth. The novel is in fact a thinly disguised account of Doyle's experiences with George Turnavine Budd with whom he was in partnership in Plymouth, before finally setting up his own practice in Southsea, Portsmouth in 1882. Green and Gibson A18a. .