Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Altemus – Altemus published the works of numerous authors whose works they were not authorized to publish. For the most part these were books not covered by the copyright act. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter was probably the most well known of the Altemus unauthorized books. In fairness however, perhaps the most well known and popular books”pirated” were the 4 books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. These were published as part of the Printemps Series.

The Printemps Series was a 25 book series published in its entirety in 1895 and only 1895. The cloth multicolored cover was the same for all this series’ books. It is presumed it was jacketed with a jacket that matched the cover but this has not been verified.

Confirming the scarcity of these books is the fact that the classic bibliography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by Green and Gibson only mentions two of the four Doyle books published in the series (The Sign of the Four and Beyond the City). Omitted are A Case of Identity and Other Stories (shown here) and A Study in Scarlet.

These books are without illustrations and are 6.5″ x 4.5″.

A Printemps Series advertisement as well as the cover of a Doyle book are seen below.

Printemps Advertisement

Printemps Book