The Inner Room: Editorial (vol. 1 No. 2) - Revision history

TCDE-Team at 23:00, 14 March 2026

2026-03-14T23:00:35Z

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	\|summary=The editorial reflects on Arthur Conan Doyle's extraordinary speed and fluency as a writer, focusing on how The Sign of Four was conceived, written, and completed in barely a month amid multiple simultaneous projects. It uses this example to marvel at Conan Doyle's creative energy, noting that even a known factual error survived as a testament to his rapid, confident method of composition.		\|summary=The editorial reflects on Arthur Conan Doyle's extraordinary speed and fluency as a writer, focusing on how The Sign of Four was conceived, written, and completed in barely a month amid multiple simultaneous projects. It uses this example to marvel at Conan Doyle's creative energy, noting that even a known factual error survived as a testament to his rapid, confident method of composition.
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	''The Inner Room: Editorial'' ~~(or, How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote)~~ is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990.		''The Inner Room: Editorial [Vol. 1 No. 2]'' is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990.

	The editorial reflects on [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s extraordinary speed and fluency as a writer, focusing on how [[The Sign of Four]] was conceived, written, and completed in barely a month amid multiple simultaneous projects. It uses this example to marvel at [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s creative energy, noting that even a known factual error survived as a testament to his rapid, confident method of composition.		The editorial reflects on [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s extraordinary speed and fluency as a writer, focusing on how [[The Sign of Four]] was conceived, written, and completed in barely a month amid multiple simultaneous projects. It uses this example to marvel at [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s creative energy, noting that even a known factual error survived as a testament to his rapid, confident method of composition.

TCDE-Team: TCDE-Team moved page How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote to The Inner Room: Editorial (vol. 1 No. 2) without leaving a redirect

2026-03-14T22:58:06Z

TCDE-Team moved page How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote to The Inner Room: Editorial (vol. 1 No. 2) without leaving a redirect

← Older revision	Revision as of 00:58, 15 March 2026
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TCDE-Team at 21:00, 17 February 2026

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	\|author=David Stuart Davies		\|author=David Stuart Davies
	\|topic=Authorship		\|topic=Authorship
			\|summary=The editorial reflects on Arthur Conan Doyle's extraordinary speed and fluency as a writer, focusing on how The Sign of Four was conceived, written, and completed in barely a month amid multiple simultaneous projects. It uses this example to marvel at Conan Doyle's creative energy, noting that even a known factual error survived as a testament to his rapid, confident method of composition.
	}}		}}
	''The Inner Room: Editorial'' (or, How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote) is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990.		''The Inner Room: Editorial'' (or, How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote) is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990.

TCDE-Team at 00:05, 7 February 2026

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TCDE-Team at 20:24, 6 February 2026

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	\|topic=Authorship		\|topic=Authorship
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	''The Inner Room: Editorial'' (~~about~~ How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote) is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990.		''The Inner Room: Editorial'' (or, How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote) is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990.

			The editorial reflects on [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]'s extraordinary speed and fluency as a writer, focusing on how [[The Sign of Four]] was conceived, written, and completed in barely a month amid multiple simultaneous projects. It uses this example to marvel at [[Arthur Conan Doyle\|Conan Doyle]]'s creative energy, noting that even a known factual error survived as a testament to his rapid, confident method of composition.

TCDE-Team: Created page with "{{Cargo_Research_Articles |date=1990-03-01 |author=David Stuart Davies |topic=Authorship }} ''The Inner Room: Editorial'' (about How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote) is an article written by David Stuart Davies published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990. == Editorial == [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (march..."

2026-02-06T20:22:58Z

Created page with "{{Cargo_Research_Articles |date=1990-03-01 |author=David Stuart Davies |topic=Authorship }} ''The Inner Room: Editorial'' (about How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote) is an article written by David Stuart Davies published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990. == Editorial == thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (march..."

New page

{{Cargo_Research_Articles
|date=1990-03-01
|author=David Stuart Davies
|topic=Authorship
}}
''The Inner Room: Editorial'' (about How Fast Conan Doyle Wrote) is an article written by [[David Stuart Davies]] published in the [[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (Vol. 1, No. 2) in march 1990.

== Editorial ==
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1990-03-p85-the-inner-room.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (march 1990, p. 85)]]
[[File:Acd-society-journal-1990-03-p86-the-inner-room.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society]] (march 1990, p. 86)]]

Apart from the variety and quantity of output, one aspect of [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]]'s work that leaves me open-mouthed is the speed at which he wrote. Looking at some of the original manuscript pages of the [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] stories, one can see that after the words hit the paper, hardly any major revisions were made. The odd phrase and sundry felicities were tinkered with but in the main the final work, unlike this editorial for example, very much resembled the first draft.

It was interesting to note in [[Richard Lancelyn Green]]'s article "[[Conan Doyle's Pocket Diary for 1889]]" (A C D, Vol. 1, No. 1), that [[The Sign of Four]], whose publication we are celebrating this year, was written within a month of being commissioned. It is unlikely that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] had thoughts about such a story before he attended the now famous dinner on 30 August 1889 at The Langham Hotel with the editor of [[Lippincott's Monthly Magazine|Lippincott]]'s Joseph Marshall Stoddart, Oscar Wilde, and the Irish M. P. Thomas Patrick Gill. In fact, he wrote to Stoddart on 3 September saying:

: ''As far as I can see my way at present my story will either be called "The Sign of the Six" or "The Problem of the Sholtos". You said you wanted a spicy title. I shall give Sherlock Holmes of "A Study in Scarlet" something else to unravel.''

He may have been prompted to think of Holmes again as [[A Study in Scarlet]] had been reprinted earlier that year but, nevertheless, Conan Doyle talks of the story in only vague terms. And yet, his diary entry for 30 September states: "[[SIGN|The Sign of the Four]] finished and dispatched." — What alacrity!

[[SIGN|The Sign of the Four]] was written in the midst of other literary endeavours: on 19 August he started work on [[The White Company]], and in September he had begun revising his old novel [[The Firm of Girdlestone|Girdlestone & Co]]. which became [[The Firm of Girdlestone]], while at the same time attempting to assemble a series of short stories with a view to having them published in one collection. One can only wonder at the incredible mind and energy responsible for producing in so short, and apparently hectic, a time [[SIGN|The Sign of the Four]], perhaps the most cohesive and, therefore, the best of the Holmes novels.

The plot has greater dash than [[A Study in Scarlet]], and [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] plays a more integral part in the main proceedings than he does either in [[The Valley of Fear]] or [[The Hound of the Baskervilles]].

The speed with which [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]]' second investigation was completed no doubt explains why it was not until it was published in [[Lippincott's Monthly Magazine|Lippincotts]], both in Britain and America, in February 1890, that [[Arthur Conan Doyle|Conan Doyle]] spotted "one obvious mistake". As he wrote in a letter to Stoddart:

: ... in the second chapter the letter is headed July 7th and on almost the same page I talk of it being a September evening.

Despite his instruction that this "must be corrected in book form'', that mistake survives in printed editions today almost as a memorial to the way in which the book was created; to that Doylean flourish and celerity.

However, if we consider [[SIGN|The Sign of the Four]] in a wider context than the [[Sherlock Holmes|Holmes]] Canon, we can see not only that this splendid work was produced with great speed, but also at a time when so much else occupied the creative mind of the man who is the fount of this [[The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003)|Society]].

And having seen..... we can only marvel.

DAVID STUART DAVIES

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