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	Users of the Encyclopaedia Britannica CD99 (Multimedia edition) who are researching [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|ACD]], will find that the biography hyperlink on that CD directs them to the [[The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003)\|ACD Society]]'s pages.		Users of the Encyclopaedia Britannica CD99 (Multimedia edition) who are researching [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|ACD]], will find that the biography hyperlink on that CD directs them to the [[The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003)\|ACD Society]]'s pages.

	In addition to the stories listed in Volume 8, the following electronic texts have now been added to the site: '[[The Ring of Thoth]]', '[[The Black Doctor]]', '[[The Jew's Breastplate]]', '[[The Blood-Stone Tragedy: A Druidical Story\|The Blood-Stone Tragedy]]'.		In addition to the stories listed in Volume 8, the following electronic texts have now been added to the site: '[[The Ring of Thoth]]', '[[The Story of the Black Doctor\|The Black Doctor]]', '[[The Story of the Jew's Breast-Plate\|The Jew's Breastplate]]', '[[The Blood-Stone Tragedy: A Druidical Story\|The Blood-Stone Tragedy]]'.

TCDE-Team: Created page with " ''Notes and News [vol. 9]'' is an article written by Christopher Roden published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 9, june 1999). This text is a wide-ranging news and notes report on recent Conan Doyle activity, especially major auctions, new publications, Society projects, and web developments in the field. It highlights the growing vitality of Conan Doyle studies while also correc..."

2026-03-12T13:49:17Z

Created page with " ''Notes and News [vol. 9]'' is an article written by Christopher Roden published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 9, june 1999). This text is a wide-ranging news and notes report on recent Conan Doyle activity, especially major auctions, new publications, Society projects, and web developments in the field. It highlights the growing vitality of Conan Doyle studies while also correc..."

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''Notes and News [vol. 9]'' is an article written by [[Christopher Roden]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999).

This text is a wide-ranging news and notes report on recent [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] activity, especially major auctions, new publications, Society projects, and web developments in the field. It highlights the growing vitality of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] studies while also correcting press inaccuracies, announcing future Society publications, and recording notable discoveries, sales, and online interest.

== Notes and News ==
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p11-notes-and-news.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 11)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p12-notes-and-news.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 12)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p13-notes-and-news.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 13)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p14-notes-and-news.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 14)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p15-notes-and-news.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 15)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p16-notes-and-news.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 16)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1999-vol9-p17-notes-and-news.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 9, june 1999, p. 17)]]

Recent months have seen much activity in the auction rooms where Conan Doyle material is concerned. The major auction was held at Sotheby's. London on 17 December 1998, when several exciting and extremely interesting items came under the hammer. In the main, the lots formed the bulk of the Norman L. Rosenbaum collection, gathered in a seemingly unsystematic fashion over a number of years. Because a large number of duplicates were available, i.e., several first editions of The Hound of the Baskervilles, many items were held back to be auctioned at a later date (see below). Of the items that sold, the following may be of interest:

The autograph manuscript of the Brigadier Gerard story How the Brigadier Rode to Minsk', showing the story's original titling. How Brigadier Gerard broke his Parole'. The catalogue description notes: 21 pages, foolscap, written on rectos only, on two stocks of paper, attached at top comer by file-clip through a spindle hole, top right corners of four pages excised (not affected text), some light soiling and creasing, [1902]. The manuscript was originally acquired by Rosenbaum when the late Dame Jean Conan Doyle auctioned it for Air Force charities on 6 December 1984. Suggested catalogue price was £12-15,000. Price achieved was £13,800 (excluding buyer's premium).

A fine nineteenth century silver cornucopia, given to Conan Doyle by Rudyard Kipling, was estimated at £12-15,000. Price achieved was £11.500 (excluding premium).

ACD's Masonic Apron, of white kid leather lined with turquoise silk and trimmed with turquoise moiré, and with pendent purl wire tassles, together with its black morocco wallet, stamped in gilt Bro. A. Conan Doyle. Phoenix Lodge No. 257', blind stamped with masonic symbols was estimated at £3-4,000. The Apron did not sell during the auction, but was acquired privately later.

An apparently unpublished drawing of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget. 10 x 7 inches, estimated at £7-9,000 sold for £20,700.

Items unsold at this auction, together with further Doylean and Sherlockian material, will form part of the English Literature & History sale at Sotheby's on 15 July 1999. One lot in that sale is of particular interest, as it finds Conan Doyle telling in his own words why 'The Cardboard Box' was suppressed for so many years. The catalogue description of that item is as follows:

: Fine autograph postcard signed ('A.C.D."), to an unknown. recipient, discussing the duplication of the famous 'mind- reading episode' which occurs in the Sherlock Holmes stories 'The Adventure of the Cardboard Box' and 'The Adventure of the Resident Patient' AND REFERRING TO THE ILLICIT LOVE AFFAIR CONTAINED IN THE FIRST ACD The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society STORY WHICH LED TO DOYLE SUPPRESSING THE STORY IN ENGLAND, slight tear at top (not affecting text). Bignell Wood. Lyndhurst, 10 May 1927.
: ... There was a certain sex element in The Cardboard Box story and for this reason I discarded it when I published in book form. As there was a bit of good deductive reasoning in it I took it out and inserted it in another story [The Adventure of the Resident Patient]. Years late [sic per draft catalogue] I was publishing another S.H. collection and as I was rather short I put in the Cardboard Box after all. But I forgot that a bit of it had already been used....

The catalogue estimate is £1.000-1,500, which seems quite reasonable for a major piece of Sherlockian history.

A report of the 15 July auction will appear in Notes and News in the next issue.

It is a great pleasure to note that The Friends of the Arthur Conan Doyle Collection at the Toronto Reference Library, were able to make their first acquisitions for the Collection at the 17 December auction. Our congratulations. May these acquisitions be the first of many.

Christie's in New York was the venue for some record-breaking prices on 9 June 1999 when the original manuscript of 'Charles Augustus Milverton' went under the hammer.

22 pages, folio, 321 x 201mm, neatly penned in dark ink on rectos only of sheets of ledger-ruled foolscap, consisting of the author's calligraphic title-page

The manuscript shows the story's original title to have been 'The Adventure of the Worst Man in London'.

Included in this lot was Frederic Dorr Steele's original drawing of the character Charles Augustus Milverton, made in 1904 and published with the story in its first appearance in Collier's. Pen-and ink and black crayon on paper, 225 x 185mm. approximately, framed.

Christie's estimated this lot at $75,000-95,000. In fact it realised a staggering $220,000 (excluding premium), and was, we understand, purchased by a first-time private buyer from New Jersey.

The same purchaser also acquired a handsome Sidney Paget illustration from 'The Norwood Builder'. Estimated at $10,000-15,000, the hammer fell at $16,000.

Readers of this Journal will know how highly I regard The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, edited by Jon L. Lellenberg. The first edition was published in 1987, and was important to me in my plans for founding the Society. Much new biographical work has appeared since the book's first publication, of course. So much so that Jon Lellenberg commissioned new material for a second edition, which was included on the Insight Engineering CD-Rom The Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle' in 1997 (ISBN: 1-891631-02-0). (Incidentally, the CD-Rom also contains a facsimile of the first chapter of The White Company, by courtesy of Dr C.F. Kittle, besides text files of much of Conan Doyle's fiction and non-fiction.) Contributors to the original edition, which covered Conan Doyle biography and autobiography through Owen Dudley Edwards's The Quest for Sherlock Holmes, were Ely Liebow. Andrew Malec. Richard Lancelyn Green. Philip Shreffler, Nicholas Utechin, Bliss Austin. Howard Lachtman. Donald Redmond, Edward Lauterbach. Peter Blau. David Anderson. Christopher Redmond, and Jon Lelleberg himself, with a Foreword by Dame Jean Conan Doyle. New material for the second edition included 'Dissecting the Medical Doyle' by C. Frederick Kittle, M.D. (discussing Rodin & Key's Medical Casebook of Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle): Biography as Local History by Catherine Cooke (discussing Stavert's A Study in Southsea): A Difference of Vibration by Daniel Stashower (discussing Jones's Conan Doyle and the Spirits and Cooper's The Case of the Cottingley Fairies): Popular Biography Marches On' by Jon L. Lellenberg (discussing Coren's Conan Doyle and Booth's The Doctor, the Detective and Arthur Conan Doyle and 'Excavating Piltdown' by Douglas Elliott (discussing the recurring theme of Conan Doyle as a perpetrator of the Piltdown hoax).

It is, of course, the way with specialised productions, such as the Conan Doyle CD-Rom, that they invariably only reach a small part of the audience which would really appreciate them; and, of course, not everyone is inclined to make use of the computerised gadgetry required to access such media. In addition, we now have a further volume of Conan Doyle biography: Danie! Stashower's Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle (Henry Holt, 1999) (see note below), and the time is right for a new book edition of The Quest for Sherlock Holmes which will incorporate all of the material added since first publication and also include coverage of the Stashower biography. to be written for this new edition by Dr Philip Wilson. I am delighted to announce, therefore, that The Arthur Conan Doyle Society will be publishing a fully revised edition early in 2000. Further details will be available with the Winter issue of ACD.

''Teller of Tales: The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle'' by Daniel Stashower was published by Henry Holt at the end of March 1999 (ISBN: 0-8050-5074-4 US$32.50/Cdn$49.00: but check out amazon.com for special pricing). It's getting good press both from reviewers and Conan Doyle enthusiasts, and we look forward to carrying a multi-handed review in the Winter issue of ACD.

The Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel) No. 1 (19 Hill Street, Edinburgh EH2 3JP; Tel: 0131-225 7294) advise us of their 400th Anniversary Celebrations which will take place from 27 July through 1 August 1999. Conan Doyle was an Honorary Member of The Lodge of Edinburgh. The Anniversary Secretary tells me that the Lodge celebrates the oldest extant minute of 1599the oldest minute of any Masonic Lodge in the world.

''Lo Spiritismo'' by Michael W. Homer was published by Elledici (Turin) earlier this year (ISBN: 88-01-01451-1), and attracted comment in the Russian Press. The following was posted to The Hounds of the Internet on 29 April:

: Russian Press Report-book by M.W. Homer
: Conan Doyle Hated Sherlock Holmes [Kommersant (Moscow) 29.4.99)]
: Presentation of the book 'Spiritualism' by Michael Homer was held in Turin, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera told. The researcher who had familiarized himself with the yet-unknown correspondence of Arthur Conan Doyle and his Italian friends proved that the writer not only disliked his most famous literary hero, Sherlock Holmes, but wrote about adventures of the great detective with the only purpose, that is to raise cash for the principal activity of his life.
: Critics had already nicknamed Michael Homer's archival studies "the collapse of the myth about the 19th century genius of European positivism'. Indeed, the successes achieved by Sherlock Holmes with the use of the famous deductive method, made many generations of readers believe in the might of classic logic and the latest acheivements of science. However the time came when both Sherlock Holmes and Conan Doyle who had created him became victims of exposure.
: If one believes the new book, both Sherlock Holmes and all the stories where he acted were created by Conan Doyle with the sole purpose-to fund the development of spiritualism. A conclusion about Conan Doyle's 'spiritual circle of contact can be made from his letters as well. First and foremost, the famous Italian conjurer, magician and spiritualist Harry Goudini [sic] stands out of his friends in this keenness.
: An especial place among the newly found letters of Conan Doyle is taken by his correspondence with the Italian Prime Minister Francesco Crispi dated the second decade of this century. It turned out that the writer and the politician were linked by the ardent belief in the powers of spiritualism. It is from a letter to Crispi that we get to know about one of the most significant insights' of Conan Doyle. In 1917 the writer had a dream that something awful should have to happen in a place called Piave. In the end of the same year, the well-known battle between the Italian and the Austro-Hungarian armies happened on the banks of the Italian river Piave. More than 100 thousand died in the battle. The coincidence forced Conan Doyle to state: 'It was nothing but the message from the next world.' It is obvious that with similar beliefs, Conan Doyle had little liking for his hero. He hinted at that in many of his letters to his spiritualist friends. But there was a circumstance which forced the writer to accept Holmes: using his fees from the stories about the detective, Conan Doyle could participate in the development of the spiritualist movement in which the writer took a most active part from 1887 till 1916. It is known that in 1894 Conan Doyle put an end to the abhorrent detective using the hands of Doctor Moriarty in 'The Last Case of Holmes'. But in 1905 the needs of the spiritualist movement made the writer resuscitate his hero in 'The Return of Holmes'..
: Conan Doyle's letters illustrate his cooperation with the occult Society for Psychic Studies and participation in issuing the esoteric journal Light, too. This activity of the writer in the area of spiritualism was accompanied by huge 'sponsoring' expenditures and this couldn't be left unnoticed by his influential spiritualist friends. In 1895 Conan Doyle received the highest state award from the Italian Government, the Order of the Italian Crown. In Michael Homer's opinion, it was the Italian spiritualists' appreciation in support of the spiritualism idea. (Fyodor Kotrelev.)

There seems to be something that might be described as inaccuracy and mis-reporting about the above remarks, and I asked Michael to respond. He replied as follows:

: A recent posting on a Sherlockian group this morning ran commentary concerning an article which appeared in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, on 20 April 1999. The article was about a book I have written concerning Spiritualism (Lo Spiritismo (Leumann (Torino): Elledici, 1999) in which I made various references to Arthur Conan Doyle and his belief in Spiritualism. 1 have not been interviewed by either the Corriere della Sera or the Russian press. I have also not seen the text of the article published in Russia.
: Among other things the Russian press report claims-according to the posting-that 'The researcher who had familiarized himself with the yet-unknown correspondence of Arthur Conan Doyle and his Italian friends proved that the writer not only disliked his most famous literary hero, Sherlock Holmes, but wrote about adventures of the great detective with the only purpose, that is to raise cash for the principal activity of his life. In addition it states that the letters were dated in the second decade of this century'; and that [i]t is from a letter to Crispi that we get to know about one of the most significant "insights" of Conan Doyle.'
: Of course no claim is made in the book that either letter quoted was previously unknown. In fact citations to Pierre Nordon's book and to the Berg Collection at New York Public Library are given in the text of the book. Neither letter is written to Prime Minister Crispi and both were dated in 1895. The portions of the letters I quoted in the book are as follows:
: 'In 1895, while living at the Hotel Belvedere, Doyle reported to his sister that he had received "a letter from an Italian agent offering me a decoration (!) if I would allow Signor Crispi's [who at that time was the Italian Prime Minister] paper to translate The Naval Treaty' story [which was published in The Strand Magazine in 1893). It is funny, is it not? I wonder what it would be? Knight Commander of the Imperial Order of the Iron Crown of Lombardy' would do for me." [Quoted in Pierre Nordon, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. L'homme et l'oeuvre (Paris: Didier, 1964), 44n.56.]
: 'Despite Conan Doyle's initial scepticism, he apparently accepted the agent's offer. In a letter written the same year to a friend in the United States, Conan Doyle confirmed that he had been notified by the Italian Prime Minister, Francesco Crispi (1819-1901), that he had been awarded the "Cavalieri of the Order of the Crown of Italy", which he jokingly referred to as a "Cavaliere Rusticana". Conan Doyle also wrote that the Italian government "showed their enlightenment by making me a Cavalier of the Order of the Crown of Italy. I thought it was a joke, but as a large medal-beg pardon decoration has arrived I suppose it's all right." [Letter of Arthur Conan Doyle to Amy Ratcliff Hoare, 24 April 1895, Berg Collection, New York Public Library.]
: The article claims the following:
: 'Conan Doyle's letters illustrate his cooperation with the occult Society for Psychic Studies and participation in issuing the esoteric journal Light, too. This activity of the writer in the area of spiritualism was accompanied by huge "sponsoring" expenditures and this couldn't be left unnoticed by his influential spiritualist friends. In 1895 Conan Doyle received the highest state award from the Italian Government, the order of the Italian Crown. In Michael Homer's opinion, it was the Italian spiritualist's appreciation of his support of the spiritualist idea.'
: I made no such conclusion concerning Conan Doyle's receipt of the 'Cavalier of the Order of the Crown of Italy'-which is not the highest state award of the Italian government-and no reference to Crispi's belief in spiritualism is even mentioned in the book.
: The posting also quotes: If one believes the new book, both Sherlock Holmes and all the stories where he acted were created by Conan Doyle with the sole purpose-to fund the development of spiritualism. This conclusion is apparently based on the following text from the book:
: 'Conan Doyle "killed off" his most famous creation-to concentrate on more serious literary efforts and presumably to continue his studies of Spiritualism-by drowning him in Reichenbach Falls, near Meiringen in Switzerland. Conan Doyle became well acquainted with both Switzerland and Italy during the 1890s. Ironically, Holmes was resurrected, or at least "born again", from the waters of the Reichenbach in 1905 in "The Return of Sherlock Holmes" to help supplement Conan Doyle's income. Later books on Holmes-The Valley of Fear (1915), His Last Bow (1917), and The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)-helped enable Conan Doyle to actively pursue his missionary activities on behalf of Spiritualism.'
: I would suggest that the author of the posting read the book rather than rely on press reports in Russia which apparently quote press reports in Italy.

E-bay, the Internet auction house, continues to offer some interesting items. Recently, a paperback of The Black Ear by A. Conan Doyle, one of the Max Stein Detective Series, was offered, with bidding starting at around $20. Never heard of The Black Ear? Nor, I confess, had I. Richard Lancelyn Green, however, was able to provide the information that this particular volume was an imaginative reprint of 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement'. You never know what's out there!

Finally, the ACD Society's web page continues to attract attention. In the period May 1998 to May 1999, the site attracted 12,431 hits, with 10,241 individual visitors. An average of 33 visitors each day now browses the site. and interest peaked in March of this year, when 1,167 individual visitors (average 38.3 per day) accessed the site. Now if all of those people joined the ACD Society...

Users of the Encyclopaedia Britannica CD99 (Multimedia edition) who are researching ACD, will find that the biography hyperlink on that CD directs them to the ACD Society's pages.

In addition to the stories listed in Volume 8, the following electronic texts have now been added to the site: '[[The Ring of Thoth]]', '[[The Black Doctor]]', '[[The Jew's Breastplate]]', '[[The Blood-Stone Tragedy: A Druidical Story|The Blood-Stone Tragedy]]'.

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Notes and News (ACD Journal vol. 9) - Revision history

TCDE-Team at 21:53, 12 March 2026

TCDE-Team at 14:04, 12 March 2026