Most Popular Novelists (article 5 augut 1896)
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
This article was published in The Eastbourne Gazette on 5 august 1896.
Article
In the opinion of 156 readers of the Family Circle Edna Lyall (Miss A. E. Bayly) is the most popular novelist. Rider Haggard obtained 149 votes, Marie Corelli 117, Conan Doyle 111, Ian Maclaren 110, and Hall Caine 109. The greatest living English novelist — Thomas Hardy — is apparently out of favour with the readers of the Nonconformist paper mentioned.