Letter to Herbert Greenhough Smith (14 may 1903)
This letter was written by Arthur Conan Doyle on 14 may 1903 from Hill House Hotel, Happisburgh (UK), to Herbert Greenhough Smith, editor of The Strand Magazine.
Letter
May 14. 1903
My dear Smith
I think I take a fairly sane view of my own work. I can never remember an instance in which I have been very far wrong. This is what I think about these two stories.
The second "The Norwood Builder" I would put in the very first rank of the whole series for subtlety and depth. Any feeling of disappointment at the end is due to the fact that no crime has been done & so the reader feels bluffed, but it is well for others.
Take the series of points, Holmes' deductions from the will written in the train, the point of the bloody thumb mark, Holmes' device for frightening the man out of his hiding place &c. I know no Holmes story which has such a succession of bright points.
As to the Cyclist story I did not like it so well nor was I satisfied with it & yet I could make no more of it. It has points but as a whole is not up to the march. But if I get two right out of three it is as good a proportion as I have ever had. The Cyclist is a better story than 4 or 5 that have preceded it in the complete series.
You will appreciate more fully now my intense disinclination to continue those stories which has caused me to resist all entreaty for so many years. It is impossible to prevent a certain sameness & want of freshness. The most one can do is to try to produce such stories that if they had come first and the others second, they would then have seemed fresh and good. That I hope to do and I don't think we are much off the rails up to now. Anyhow I'll do my best and no man can do more. The Americans have been asking me to make the series 12, but in view of your letter I will keep it to 8.
You will never offend me, my dear chap, by saying what you think.
- Yours,
- A.C.D.
