His Creator is Tired of Sherlock Holmes
His Creator is Tired of Sherlock Holmes is an article published in the Daily Mail on 1st july 1930, including a part of an interview with Arthur Conan Doyle.
His Creator is Tired of Sherlock Holmes
Sir A. Conan Doyle is Bit of a Detective too.
CHARACTER'S ORIGINAL.
London.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes — who recently celebrated his 71st birthday — has decided he is tired of being known solely as the creator of that famous character.
He has been ill and does not feel equal to any prolonged effort in his literary work. But he is able to do short spells of work.
"Sherlock Holmes again, perhaps?" he was asked.
Sir Arthur looked severe.
"No, I have done with him," he said. "To tell the truth I am rather tired of hearing myself described as the author of Sherlock Holmes. One would think I had written nothing but detective stories."
The Scots Doctor.
"Was there a Sherlock Holmes in real life?"
Sir Arthur's reply was emphatic. He said:
"Most certainly there was. He was a doctor in Edinburgh — a Dr. Bell — under whom I studied. He had an almost uncanny gift for drawing large inferences from small observations."
"When I tried to draw a detective I naturally thought of Dr. Bell and his methods, and what he applied to the diagnosis of disease I applied to the diagnosis of crime.
"Watson was just the average man. He was not really stupid — simply an average man."
Sir Arthur has a true "detective mind." Lady Doyle spoke about it. She said:
"My husband has done the most wonderful Sherlock Holmes work himself. People have written him from all over the world, perhaps about a missing relative, seeking his help after police inquiries had utterly failed.
"He has investigated the cases himself, and sometimes has been able to write telling people where missing relatives would turn up — and they have really turned up even to the very day. He has marvellous powers of deduction..."
Sir Arthur's time now is taken up by his interest in the psychic.
"I have written ten books on psychic subjects," he said. "It is a labour of love, as the public don't read such books."
