Letter to Herbert Greenhough Smith about The Lost Special
This letter was written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1898 from Undershaw, Hindhead, Haslemere, to Herbert Greenhough Smith, editor of The Strand Magazine, about The Lost Special.
Letter
My dear Smith
How curious that the thing should have been treated. I had not seen it and it is pure coincidence.
About the trains in the text that is all right. You see it is not an integral part of the story but merely a theoretical explanation put forward by a theorist. If the facts are wrong he is wrong but that does not matter to us. Though for that matter I should not in my own person hesitate at laying down a fresh line of rails — or a fresh railway line as I did in Story IV — if by so doing I could get my effect. One must be masterful in telling a story.
About that fourth Story if the artist draws a picture — as he will be tempted to do — of the train jumping down the shaft he simply gives the whole thing away. It would be a shame. Let his drawing be mysterious like the story so that the reader cannot quite understand it until he has read it.
- With all kindest regards
- Yours very truly
- A Conan Doyle.
- Yours very truly
May 26 or
The June 4th week end would suit us admirably if you cared to bring yours little boy down.
Have done No 5 — not very good.
