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2025-05-31T13:57:06Z

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''Sir Conan Doyle's Career'' is an article published in [[The Telegraph (Brisbane)]] on 9 november 1907.

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== Editions ==

* in ''[[The Telegraph (Brisbane)]]'' (9 november 1907 [AU])
* in ''[[Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate]]'' (9 november 1907 [AU])
* in ''[[Brisbane Telegraph]]'' (11 november 1907 [AU])
* in ''[[Maryborough Chronicle]]'' (16 november 1907 [AU])
* in ''[[The Australian Town and Country Journal]]'' (11 december 1907 [AU])
* in ''[[The Examiner (Launceston)]]'' (1 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[Guyra Argus]]'' (9 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Cobar Herald]]'' (10 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Riverine Grazier]]'' (10 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Jerilderie Herald and Urana Advertiser]]'' (10 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Scone Advocate and Upper Hunter General Advertiser]]'' (10 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[Manilla Express]]'' (11 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[Western Herald (Bourke)]]'' (11 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Muswellbrook Chronicle]]'' (11 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Shoalhaven News and South Coast Districts Advertiser]]'' (11 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[Western Champion]]'' (17 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Richmond River Express]]'' (17 january 1908 [AU])
* in ''[[The Scrutineer and Berrima District Press]]'' (18 january 1908 [AU])

== Sir Conan Doyle's Career ==
[[File:the-telegraph-brisbane-1907-11-09-p17-sir-conan-doyle-s-career.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[The Telegraph (Brisbane)]] (9 november 1907, p. 17)]]

'''INTERESTING CONFESSIONS.'''

In the "[[The World, New York|New York World]]" has recently appeared a long and readable interview with [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]] from the pen of Mr [[Bram Stoker]].

<q>"My real love for letters, my instinct for story-telling, springs, I believe, from my mother, who is of Anglo-Celtic stock, with the glamour and romance of the Celt very strongly marked,"</q> remarked the novelist.

<q>"It is not only that she was — is still — a wonderful story-teller, but she had, I remember, the art of sinking her voice to a horror-stricken whisper when she came to the crisis in her narrative, which makes me goose-fleshy now when I think of it. I am sure, looking back, that it was in attempting to emulate these stories of my childhood that I first began weaving dreams myself.</q>

<q>"When I was six I wrote a book of adventure — doubtless my mother has it yet. I illustrated it myself. It must be an absurd production, but still it showed the set of my mind.</q>

'''TOLD TALES AT SCHOOL.'''

<q>"When I went to school I carried the characteristic with me. There I was in some demand as a story-teller. The only scholastic success I can ever remember lay in the direction of English essays and poetry. I was no good at either classics or mathematics; even my English I wrote as pleasure, not as work.</q>

<q>"In 1876 I drifted into the study of medicine. The reason largely was that my people lived in Edinburgh, and there was a famous medical school there.</q>

<q>"For four years I went through the curriculum. My people were not at that time wealthy, and it was a struggle to keep me at college. So I compressed my classes into the winter, and devoted each summer to serving as a medical assistant, and so earning a little money to help to pay the fees.</q>

<q>"I served in this way in Sheffield, in the country districts of Shropshire, and finally in Birmingham — a billet to which I returned three times.</q>

<q>"When I was nearly twenty-one a friend of mine, who had been surgeon to a whaler in the Arctic seas, told’ me that he was unable to return that summer, and offered me the billet. I was away for seven months in the Greenland Ocean. I came of age in 80 degrees. north latitude. </q>

<q>"On returning home from the Arctic I took my degree, having been thrown back one year by the fact of going north. I was twenty-two when I qualified, and, thanks to my numerous assistantships, had a very varied experience behind me.</q>

'''HE BEGAN TO WRITE.'''

<q>"After starting in practice I had much — too much — time on my hands; and then I began to write voluminously.</q>

<q>"I suppose that during those early years I wrote not less than fifty short stories. The first appeared in 1878, while I was still a student. It was in '[[Chambers's Journal]],' and was called '[[The Mystery of Sassassa Valley]].' I had three guineas for it.</q>

<q>"For ten years I wrote short stories; roughly from 1877 to 1887. During that time I do not think that lever earned £50 in any year by my pen, though I worked incessantly.</q>

<q>"Finally, in 1887 I wrote '[[A Study in Scarlet]],' the first book which introduced [[Sherlock Holmes]].</q>

<q>"I don't know how I got that name. I was looking the other day at a bit of paper on which I had scribbled 'Sherringford Holmes,' and 'Sherrington Hope,' and all sorts of other combinations. Finally at the bottom of the paper I had written '[[Sherlock Holmes]].' '[[A Study in Scarlet]]' appeared in a Christmas number of '[[Beeton's Christmas Annual|Beeton's Annual]].'</q>

<q>"My next book was '[[Micah Clarke]],' an historical novel. This met with a good reception from the critics and the public; and from that time onward I had no further difficulty in disposing of my manuscripts."</q>

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* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:Complete Works|Back to Complete Works]]
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Back to Conan Doyle]]

Sir Conan Doyle's Career - Revision history

TCDE-Team at 13:57, 31 May 2025