A set of previously unseen papers belonging to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle have been donated to the National Library of Scotland (NLS).
The papers include journals, newspaper clippings, magazines and an index to all the Sherlock Holmes stories as well as short stories written by Doyle but not published.
His publisher, John Murray, found the papers after his death in 1930 and now they have been donated to the John Murray Archive collection at the NLS.
Murray himself said that the stories, far from being hidden gems, are "not very good and not used as the quality was too poor."
The stories include The Ghosts of Goresthorpe Grange, which Conan Doyle wrote when he was an 18-year-old medical student in Edinburgh and submitted unsuccessfully to Blackwoods magazine. The story, which first came to light in 2001, contains characters similar to Holmes and Dr Watson and shows Doyle was experimenting with these ideas from a young age.
Another of the stories is The Memoir of Sherlock Holmes – The Field Bazaar was published in an unnamed charity magazine in 1896 but never since.
David McClay, curator of the John Murray Archive at NLS, said: "Conan Doyle was a prolific short story writer and it is not surprising that some of these would fall short of his usual standards.
"It is clear from the note that Murray shared the opinion that these stories were not very good but they are of great interest, given Conan Doyle's status as one of the giants of English literature.
"It is sure to be of great interest to fans of Sherlock Holmes and academics who study the life and work of Sir Arthur."
The latest acquisition of papers completes the archive, the NLS said yesterday and include 80 volumes of principally business ledgers and 50 boxes of business, literary and family papers.
The John Murray Publishing House, established in 1768 by the company's Edinburgh-born namesake, was one of the great British publishing houses, with an unrivalled list of authors including George Eliot, Jane Austen, David Livingstone and Charles Darwin.
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