Letter to Harry Price (12 september 1928)

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

This letter was written by Arthur Conan Doyle on 12 september 1928 to Harry Price about spiritualism.


Letter

15. Buckingham Palace Mansions
12th September, 1928.

Sir,

A man must be held responsible for what appears over his signature. If he has made a mistake he apologises publicly and withdraws. Those are two self evident propositions.

This absurd story (I say 'absurd' for how could any one kiss a flesh and blood hand and think it was ectoplasm) was started out of personal malice. It is obviously repeated by personal malice for what possible object could such a repetition have save to hold me up to ridicule and to weaken any authority I may have upon the subject.

I have sent to Light the letter which I addressed at the time to the paper which published Hartman's story. I had no knowledge as to whether they put it in — it is quite common, as you know. to make false assertions against spiritualism and to suppress the corrections. But my hook appearing at about the same time was in itself a correction, and the account in it has, so far as I know, never been questioned.

Yours faithfully,

A. Conan Doyle