R. IAN VISSER OF TORONTO, ONTARIO, is in the enviable position (well, at least from my perspective) of having access to the vast archives of the Toronto Star, in which he has found numerous pieces on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes going back more than a century, including some intriguing advertisements of the time featuring the Great Detective. Mr. Visser has been kind enough to send a few of these to me, with plenty more to come. As I receive them, I’ll clean them up and post them here, transcribing the contents when the quality makes them difficult to read.

Here is the first article, which covers a Canadian lecture by ACD, and which appeared in the Toronto Star on November 24th, 1897. It is transcribed below, and you can also download an image of the article, or a PDF of the full page.

An Author’s Life

Dr. A. Conan Doyle Sketches His Own Career.
Tells of the Creation of Sherlock Holmes.
An Interesting Lecture by an Interesting Man.

Dr. Conan Doyle gained success from writing a department of literature in which his heart never was. He said last night in his lecture at Massey [?] Music Hall that Sherlock Holmes was dead, and that he would not be resurrected.

It is the historical novel, with its gay, bright pictures of chivalry and deeds of daring like those in which Scott won his fame that the worthy author longs for and will make his future work.

Dr. Doyle says that he is not Sherlock Holmes. He claims no superiority as a detective. He says that he has been deluged with letters requesting him to attempt to solve mysterious [sic] but that he has never undertaken any case. He says he is not a sharp man, and that he only in writing puts himself in the position of a shrewd man and imagines what the shrewd man would do.

“It is rather embarrassing to speak about one’s self,” said Dr. Doyle when he began his address. “I would prefer to talk about some other author’s work, but I suppose all are interested in me on account of what I have written.”

Dr. Doyle is a giant in size. He looks to be about six feet four and is not at all slim. His style of lecturing is not at all attractive, and it was believed that had he chosen any other subject, as he said he had wished, that he would not have been so entertaining.

He stood all the evening behind a high desk, and spoke from a carefully prepared manuscript. The audience was a Sherlock Holmes-Conan Doyle one, and every one present listened intently to all that was said.

The lecture was an autobiographical sketch. It began with early reminiscences, when in childhood he met and sat on the knee of William Makapiece Thackeray. He hold of his first short story, written at the age of six, of his entrance into literary work and his short story writing.

When he came to tell of Sherlock Holmes he read some short sketches from the memoirs and adventures of the far-famed detective.

He told of his historical novels, of the writing of “Micah Clarke,” “The White Company,” “The Great Shadow” and “The Refugees.”

Of the last he spoke most probably because it was based on a Canadian subject. He said that his work in that had been a labor of love, for he had attempted to join together whatever interested two factions of the English-speaking race, whose common language had oftentimes been used only for libel and mutual reproach.

The program was completed by a reading from an unpublished piece, “The Lord of Chateau Noir,” which is one of the strongest extracts of all his works.

My heartfelt thanks goes out to Mr. Visser for taking the time and effort to make these articles available to us.

ERE’S A RECORDING that I’ve seen on several (supposedly) public domain archives, as well as some DVDs of public domain Holmes films, so I’m assuming that this file may be freely shared. I consider it one of the treasures of my collection: seven and a half minutes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking about the origins of Sherlock Holmes and his dedication to Spiritualism. The date ascribed to this file is 1930, which is the year of his death. Although I’m told second-hand that this recording may be found in the British Museum archives (along with a couple more), it is the only recording I think I have of his voice.

Download: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking, 1930 (2.7 MB)

If anybody has any more information on this file, or any more recordings of ACD that you wouldn’t mind sharing, I’d love to hear from you.

ONAN DOYLE WAS NO STRANGER to controversy, and in fact seemed to enjoy churning up his fair share every now and then. For example, he was a prolific letter-writer to the papers, he publically challenged what he saw as miscarriages of justice, and his latter-day lectures and articles on fairies and Spiritualism, replete with sensational photographic “evidence,” were obviously meant to stir his audiences to action. However, there were several controversies attaching themselves to him which weren’t of his own accord. Case in point: the Piltdown Man, one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century.

It was a tumultuous time in the scientific world. The turn of the century brought with it a questioning of the established theories in almost every area of science. Medical researchers were delving into the true causes of diseases, physicists were plumbing the origins of matter, astronomers were shaping a new view of the cosmos, and biologists were hotly debating Darwin’s theory of Evolution, often finding themselves at odds with religious institutions, funders, and the fervoured opinions expounded daily in the papers. The one argument that continually broke apart the so-called scientific proof of the Evolutionists was the absence of the evolutionary bridge between the lesser primates and mankind, the Missing Link.

And then, in 1912, it was found.

The specimen, dubbed The Piltdown Man, caused an immediate sensation, providing seemingly verifiable evidence of Darwin’s theories. Science yet again asserted its superiority over religion and superstition, and the Piltdown Man became a rallying point for the much-berated scientific community. Unfortunately, it was eventually found to be a fraud. Scotsman.com presents an article entitled Conan Doyle and the hoax of the 20th century:

Forty years later when JS Weiner discovered that this so-called Piltdown Man was a fake made out of a 500-year-old skull and an orang-utan jawbone, the hunt began to find out who had perpetrated the fraud.

The main suspect has always been Dawson, possibly with the aid of his colleagues Sir Arthur Smith Woodward and Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French Jesuit who had also assisted at the dig. But there is someone else in the frame. According to one theory this man had the means, motive and opportunity. He is none other than the Scottish creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

I wish to draw your careful attention to the first comment, left by author Doug Elliott, who produced what I’m told is a remarkable book called The Curious Incident of the Missing Link. It apparently does an excellent job at debunking the claims that Sir Arthur was involved in this hoax.

For more information about the Piltdown hoax, see the Wikipedia entry and the many links at its page bottom, including the Piltdown Plot site.

N AN ARTICLE IDEALLY WRITTEN for newcomers to the Sherlockian mythos, the Crime Library site presents All about Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Bruno:

Created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and presented through the narration of the fictional Dr. Watson, Holmes is the most brilliant detective ever. His powers of observation seem supernatural until he utters the famous phrase, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” and proceeds to enumerate the logical steps that have brought him to a prescient conclusion. The most innocuous detail can lead Holmes to profound revelations. But where did these amazing powers of deduction originate? Did Sir Arthur Conan Doyle make up Sherlock Holmes out of whole cloth, or did he have a model in mind when he created the great detective?

Bruno seems to come at the topic as an outsider, but he has done due diligence with his homework here. The article covers a lot of ground and facts without getting bogged down in scholarly issues of debate, and although it barely skims the surface of Conan Doyle and Sherlockian matters, it may inspire readers to learn more. (Yes, there are a few small factual errors, but I think we can forgive him for those.)

HEN I READ A NOVEL like Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, a vivid setting is often constructed in my head, an environment that not only facilitates the story and offers milieu to the characters, but that also lives and breathes on its own. As I have the habit of reading in bed, I usually drift off to sleep clinging to fleeting fragments that I want –oh so much– to make real.

And then, someone lets me know that they are real.

From The Seoul Times: An Unearthly Plateau in Venezuela, which presents a unique travelogue with ACD’s The Lost World as an ever-present point of reference:

Seven years later, Everard Im Thurn and Harry Perkins made a successful ascent of Roraima, an ancient 9,219-foot sandstone mesa towering above the tropical rain forest and savanna. Im Thurn’s colorful account is believed to have partly inspired Conan Doyle’s 1912 sci-fi novel “The Lost World,” about a Jurassic Park-like plateau roiling with prehistoric beasts.

S ONE MIGHT GLEAN from its title, Skeptical Inquirer is a magazine devoted to “separating fact from myth in the flood of occultism and pseudoscience on the scene today.” I’ve read a few issues myself, and it truly is a fascinating publication. Exposés of Bigfoot, the Bermuda Triangle, cold fusion, lost continents, cryptozoological oddities, and so on are perfect fodder for research and dissection (or, if you would, ripping apart). If they had been around at the time of Conan Doyle’s conversion to the quasi-religion known as Spiritualism, unfortunately rife with charlatans lightening the wallets of gullible grieving people everywhere, there’s no doubt that poor ACD would have yet another periodical tearing at his beliefs.

It’s no surprise, therefore, to see that a review of Massimo Polidoro’s book Final Seance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle appeared in its pages (in March 2002), and is now online for our reading pleasure. As one may discern from William Harwood’s opening paragraph, there seems to be a certain bias at work.

I have long been aware that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ended his friendship with Harry Houdini on account of Doyle’s blind, gullible belief in the very scam Houdini had disproven over and over. But not until I read Final Séance did I become convinced that incurable adherence to a security belief in the face of irrefutable evidence can only be described as a form of insanity. And I am far from the first person to reach that conclusion.

I don’t have the book yet, but the review seems to be overly critical of ACD’s devotion to his late-life cause, and to his insistence that Houdini was indeed tapping into the realm of the spirits. For example, there’s no evidence given in the review of the many other factors that led to his conversion to Spiritualism, its historical context, and why he thought it was such a worthwhile channel for his energies. It seems that the reviewer is dwelling less on the actual quality of the book, and more on the skeptical material it presents.

I’m curious if anyone here has read the book. Is it a good read? Is it balanced? Please feel free to leave a comment below.

AVE PARKER notes in his blog that The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Richard Lancelyn Green Bequest is allowing the public to view the late author and collector’s vast array of Conan Doyle materials in Portsmouth, England:

Portsmouth has been chosen by the late Richard Lancelyn Green as the home for his extraordinary collection of Conan Doyle-related books, papers, artifacts and assorted memorabilia.

Academics, specialists and the general public, will be able to access Richard’s life’s work, once it has been catalogued and made available.

There will be an introductory exhibition in 2006, and a more substantial display in 2007.

Green wrote extensively about Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes, and was the co-author/compiler of the definitive bibliography of ACD’s work, as well as various volumes of uncollected stories, letters to the press, and so forth, so this exhibition should be quite fascinating indeed.

The introductory exhibit started on June 10th and runs to September 24th. For further information, The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Richard Lancelyn Green Bequest Website has notes about the collection, as well as a PDF newsletter. Thanks, Dave!

OME of the most intriguing bits in the biographies of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle concern the strange relationship he had with the great escape artist and magician Harry Houdini. The latter needs no introduction, I’m sure: the tales of his death-defying stunts still amaze and astonish today. But what fewer people realise is that Houdini took it upon himself to expose those tricksters and charlatans working as so-called “mediums,” who were swindling gullible and grief-stricken people seeking only to hear from their dearly departed relatives and friends once more. Of course, one may contrast this to Sir Arthur, one of the greatest champions of the Spiritualist cause, and consider the two an unlikely pairing. Yet, the two were friends, though a falling-out seemed inevitable.

One of my favourite online essays delves into this relationship, and how it began and ended. The fascinating piece called Houdini and Conan Doyle: The Story of a Strange Friendship is by Massimo Polidoro, and appears courtesy of Uno Studio in Holmes, the Florentine Holmes website.

They were both profoundly interested in the subject of Spiritualism; however, their views differed completely. Houdini was the skeptic, the exposer of psychic frauds; Doyle the believer, the St. Paul of Spiritualism. How could these two persons have become affectionated friends and then bitter enemies is a fascinating tale which deserves telling.

Curl up with a nice cup of tea or cocoa and read the rest. More information can be found at Doyle, Houdini and The Strand Magazine (BakerStreetDozen.com), and Polidoro’s own acclaimed book on the subject, Final Seance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle.

O doubt many of my readers are familiar with the very wide range of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s influential works that were produced with astounding regularity before his death in 1930. But… did you know that he was also a gifted author after his death? Or so the late Ivan Cooke would have us believe, in his classic spiritualist book The Return of Arthur Conan Doyle, re-released in a 1994 edition called Arthur Conan Doyle’s Book of the Beyond.

From the White Eagle Lodge in Canada book review for Arthur Conan Doyle’s Book of the Beyond:

He spent his last years touring and lecturing about Spiritualism, at great cost to himself, his health and his family. Prior to his death, he vowed to his wife and family that he would contact them from the spirit world, thus proving to them the truth of life after death.

After his death, he realized that some of his teachings had been inaccurate. His greatest desire, apart from contacting his family, was to provide an accurate description of life after death. In this way he could also correct the misconceptions he had taught about Spiritualism.

The extraordinary revelations which followed apparently led to the formation of the White Eagle Lodge, which not only reviews this book, but (conveniently for us) also publishes it and offers it for sale online at $14.95.

Having read a fair amount of religious and spiritual literature over the years, I must admit, I am a little curious….

N today’s mobile society, it’s becoming far easier –and perhaps even more desirous– to bring Holmes with you in forms other than those derived from dead trees (as much a fan of dead trees as I am). We’ve already seen here how Old Time Radio shows can be snapped onto your iPod in a matter of minutes, but what about carrying the actual texts digitally?

While there are a number of online services that allow one to use a Palm or other PDA (personal data assistant) to download and read ebooks –that is, “electronic books” for those unfamiliar with the term– these are often rather expensive, with pricing approximately the same as published paper books. In the limited selection of classics available, this seems quite costly indeed, especially given that copyright has elapsed for most of them (there’s therefore no royalties to be paid), and there’s no physical materials or costs to pass long to the consumer.

Well, don’t fret, because many of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle can be downloaded for free at Blackmask Online : Mystery/Arthur Conan Doyle. They have a variety of formats, including ones that can be opened in Adobe Acrobat, or a regular web browser (the “zipped” archives). But I love this site because of the various mobile formats, and in particular the files readable under Plucker or iSilo on my Palm. All I have to do is download, drag them to my install bucket, hit the button, and a few minutes later, I have dozens of works ready to go.

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HERE comes a time in the life of every Sherlock Holmes fan that I call “the Grand Disillusionment,” coinciding with that moment when one learns about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his pursuit of Spiritualism. How could the creator of the world’s greatest thinking and reasoning machine –the one whose mottos include the need for data before theory, and “no ghosts need apply”– be taken in by a faddish movement dedicated to the discovery of what lay beyond the visible world, which proposed that knowledge was passed from the dead to the living via seances, and which was populated by charlatans and hucksters of every variety, employing gimmicks, fake photography, ingenious mechanical devices and scary voices in the dark to hook those eager to believe (and to pay)? How could this manly model of chivalry and good sense spend the last decades of his life –a time when most writers’ skills are keenist– championing such flaky ideas and promises using “evidence” such as photographs of spirits and fairies that a modern, more cynical eye can easily perceive as simplistic hoaxes?

It is at this point that many Holmes fans lose respect for Doyle and even walk away from the stories, for many readers have a deep-seated need to link the author with the work that they enjoy, and in this case, it can be difficult to reconcile the two. Even at the time, many readers grew tired and disillusioned by Doyle’s vehement championship of his cause.

This illustration by Bernard Partridge originally appeared in Punch Magazine, May 12, 1926. Doyle had mentioned more than once that he believed the popularity of Holmes was taking away from his more “serious” work. (Although in the latter years of his life, he reconsidered this opinion.) Here is the author, head in the clouds and shackled to the Great Detective. The accompanying poem reads (in part):

Your own creation, that great sleuth
Who spent his life in chasing Truth –
How does he view your late defiance
(O Arthur!) of the laws of science?

He disapproves your strange vagaries,
Your spooks and photographs of fairies;
And holds you foot-cuffed when you’re fain
To navigate the vast inane.

But, like many of the cases of his detective, what seems readily apparent at first can be quite deceiving in the bright light of the the full story.

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T “The Weald of Kent, Surrey & Sussex”, a site specialising in the people, history and genealogy of the area, can be found a page with a timeline of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s life, selections from John Dickson Carr’s The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a very interesting interactive family tree: The Weald - Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle:

Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger and Brigadier Gerard, lived at Windlesham in Crowborough with his second wife Jean Leckie and their family from 1907 until his death in July 1930.