The Curious Incident of the Boxes

The NY Times has an interesting story this morning about a collection of boxes, their coming auction and a grisly murder... bq. For 25 years the cardboard boxes, more than a dozen of them, sat in a corner of a London office, gathering dust while lawyers argued about whom they belonged to and scholars dreamed about what was inside. But the auction this Wednesday of their contents, once belonging to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, has provoked another fight and a mystery almost worthy of Holmes himself. bq. The Conan Doyle archive � including his unpublished first novel, a rich cache of family letters and handwritten literary notebooks full of research and musings about works in progress � is expected to bring in about �1 million to �1.5 million ($1.8 million to $2.7 million), according to Christie's, which is handling the sale. But even as that auction house has attracted a stream of Conan Doyle enthusiasts thrilled at the newly released material, it has also been sharply criticized by some scholars and members of Parliament for allowing the sale because they say crucial legal questions remain unresolved. And the murder? bq. Adding to the sense of unease is the mysterious death of Richard Lancelyn Green, a leading Conan Doyle scholar and private collector, and a vociferous opponent of the sale. On March 27 Mr. Lancelyn Green, 50, a former chairman of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London and the author of several well-received books on Conan Doyle, was found garroted to death, strangled by a shoelace wrapped around a wooden kitchen spoon used to tighten its grip. The story continues with the provenience of the papers -- none of Doyle's children had children of their own so the family feuded over the remaining papers. Interesting turn of events...