Letter to Mr. Reid (23 december 1893)
This letter was written by Arthur Conan Doyle on 23 december 1893 from Kurhaus Hotel, Davos Platz (Switzerland) to Mr. Reid.
Letter
Davos Platz
Dec 23 /93
My dear Reid,
All the Compliments of the season to you! I should have written sooner, but I have been going too and fro in the world like the father of all fiction. There I am lodged at least 5000 feet nearer heaven than any man in Glasgow. Many thanks for the second copy of the little book, which I will plant in any sitch where I think it will sprout, and then clamour for a third. I hope the Magnum Opus progresses. I am up to my collar bones in a new book, and I can't make out whether it is the best or the worst thing I ever wrote. It might be the former without attaining any very alarming altitude, but if it is the latter then I weep for it. It is modern, realistic (or meant to be so) and life as I see it, but I may see it all wrong. Any way it will be distinct from any other book I know, which is just what makes me find it so difficult to assess.
My wife improves space, and we both think this the finest place on earth. I am learning Norwegian 'Ski' and come shooting down the hills, but not as a rule upon the 'ski'. However I get to the bottom all the same.
Give my regards to Hunter if you see him.
Yours very sincerely
A Conan Doyle.
I didn't send you the Refugees because I fancied it — I don't — but because you had not seen it. The Atlantic rolls between the two halves of my unfortunate yarn.
- Acknowledgements: Michael A. Meer Collection.
