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ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: A LIFE IN LETTERS
by Daniel Stashower, Jon Lellenberg & Charles Foley
These remarkably candid and previously unpublished letters between Arthur Conan Doyle and his mother, dating from 1867 until her death in 1920, paint a fascinating portrait of one of Britain's most beloved authors and a complex man who both embodied and defied the conventions of his time.
More than seventy-five years after his death, Arthur Conan Doyle remains one of Britain's best loved authors. Famed as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle was a fascinating man in his own right—physician, sportsman, crusader for social justice, war correspondent, and military historian. From his early whale-hunting days to his later celebrity. Conan Doyle's life was a gripping as any of his own adventure tales.
Throughout, his mother Mary was Conan Doyle's principal confidante, the recipient of a stream of startlingly frank letters from her devoted son. Over a thousand letters between them survive from the time Arthur was sent away to boarding school in 1867, aged 8, until her death. They reveal a man whose early career was marked by a distinct lack of success as Conan Doyle struggled to establish a medical practice of his own, filling long, patient-less days by scribbling short stories that would result in the creation of Holmes. To Conan Doyle's chagrin, the detective would remain his most famous creation, vastly overshadowing the historical novels, plays, and other writings on which he pinned his literary aspirations.
In later years, Conan Doyle evolved into an impassioned public figure and highly opinionated commentator on the important issues of the day. A deeply moral man of uncompromising political convictions, he nevertheless spent much of his first marriage passionately in love with another woman. His Catholic mothers, with whom he discussed the affair, approved and encouraged the relationship. And yet despite their close bond neither she nor public ridicule could convince him to abandon the eccentric spiritualist beliefs he embraced in later life.
This stunningly candid volume of never-before-published letters sheds fascinating light on a man who has remained largely hidden behind his most famous character. Gracefully written and consistently revealing, these letters illuminate his life, character, and career as never before.
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE: A LIFE IN LETTERS
is published by Harper Collins on 17 September 2007
Order Your Copy Now from Amazon.co.uk
OR WIN A COPY BY ENTERING OUR QUIZ—WE HAVE FIVE COPIES AVAILABLE AS PRIZES
THE QUIZ
Prizes will be awarded to the first five all-correct (or nearest) answers
drawn from a hat on 16 September.
E-mail your entry to Christopher Roden
1. Conan Doyle had one brother and five sisters who survived childhood. Name the brother, and at least three of the sisters.
2. 'I was in my tenth year when I was sent to Hodder . . . it was a long journey for a little boy who had never been away from home before, and I felt very lonesome and wept bitterly upon the way.' In fact, in this passage from ACD's autobiography, his memory was playing him false. In what year did he actually go away to boarding school?
3. Which of the following were not among Conan Doyle's clubs: Athenaeum, Authors, Garrick, National Sporting, New Vagabonds, Pratt's, Reform, Travellers?
4. Of Conan Doyle's adult homes—Bush Villas, 12 Tennison Road, Undershaw, Windlesham—he only built one of them himself. Which one, and where was it?
5. 'Would you care,' said he, 'to start next week for a whaling cruise? You'll be surgeon, two pound ten a month and three shillings a ton oil money.' What was the name of the young man who changed Conan Doyle's life by offering him his berth aboard a whaling ship bound for the Arctic?
6. Name two actors whom Conan Doyle considered for the role of Sherlock Holmes before it went to William Gillette.
7. Adrian Conan Doyle said his father never used a typewriter. Name at least one person in Conan Doyle's households, besides paid secretaries, who did.
8. 'He is one of the sweetest-natured most delicate minded men I ever knew. He is 26, and an author—standing certainly much higher than I did at his age. The one bar to him is that he is not very strong—being subject to asthma, but it appears neither to affect his work nor his enjoyment of life.' Who was it who received such a glowing report from Conan Doyle to his Aunt Annette?
9. What instrument did Conan Doyle play in the Feldkirch school band?
10. Conan Doyle notoriously administered a certain drug to himself. Name it.
11. 'By Jove! Such a beauty! . . . We have been flirting hard for a week so that things are about ripe.' What was the name of the young woman who captured Conan Doyle's attention in the summer of 1881?
12. Sometimes a Sherlock Holmes story was suggested to Conan Doyle by someone else. Name the sources for 'The Copper Beeches', The Hound of the Baskervilles, 'The Empty House', and 'The Man Who Was Wanted'.
13. Which of the following contemporary writers, admired by Conan Doyle, did he never meet in person?: James M. Barrie, Walter Besant, W. E. Henley, Anthony Hope, Jerome K. Jerome, Rudyard Kipling, Andrew Lang, George Meredith, James Payn, Robert Louis Stevenson, Israel Zangwill.
14. 'Fancy Rhodes or Chamberlain or Kipling doing such a thing! And why should my standard be lower than theirs. . . . Think it over, dearest Mam, and realise what a come down it would be.' What was it that Conan Doyle was so dead set against doing, in this letter to his mother?
15. What do the following have in common: the Gresham Life Assurance Society, Subscription Balls, the Portsmouth Literary & Scientific Society, and Pompey?
16. When Conan Doyle was starting out as a writer, England's most prestigious literary magazine was The Cornhill. Who edited it, and what was the title of his 'breakthrough' story published in it?
17. The idea of the science-fiction movie Fantastic Voyage was foreshadowed in what piece of Conan Doyle's writing?
18. Which physician is out of place amongst the others in this group: Dr Charles Sidney Richardson, Dr Joseph Bell, Dr William Royston Pike, Dr George Budd, Dr Reginald Ratcliffe Hoare, Dr Robert O'Callaghan?
19. 'The first half is very good, the next quarter is pretty good, the last quarter is very good again, and it ends with a true heroic note.' Which novel of his is Conan Doyle describing in a letter to one of his siblings?
20. 'I can't attune my mind to fiction. I've tried but I can't', Conan Doyle told one of his editors. What had happened, and who was the editor?
(Questions © Jon L. Lellenberg, 2007)
Again, e-mail your entries to Christopher Roden, to arrive not later than 15 September 2007. No correspondence will be entered into. The judge's decision is final.