A Duet with an Occasional Chorus (ACD Journal vol. 4)
A Duet with an Occasional Chorus [Vol. 4] is an article written by Barbara Roden published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 4, 1993).
This closing editorial argues that many of Arthur Conan Doyle's non-Sherlockian works had become scarce and inaccessible, and defends reprinting rare texts so readers can study them again. It highlights recent and planned ACD Society reprints, including The Wild Geese, The Immortal Memory, and Western Wanderings, as a practical way to widen access to Conan Doyle's lesser-known writings.
Article
Closing Editorial
It is really not surprising that Christopher and I cannot pass a bookstore without going in, just to have a look.' If the bookstore is a second hand one, then our first question is usually 'Do you have anything by Conan Doyle?'
Lately the answer has been negative more often than not; or, if the bookseller does have something by Conan Doyle, it invariably turns out to be a not terribly distinguished volume of Sherlock Holmes with an exorbitant price tag. If (wonder of wonders) there is something non-Sherlockian by ACD, then the price on the flyleaf is either incredibly cheap (reflecting the seller's ignorance of the rarity of the book) or is so far over the top as to be laughable. This, of course, reflects the belief that anything by Conan Doyle must be of immense value: after all, look how much a Beeton's Christmas Annual fetches these days!
It's hard to know sometimes what is a fair price for a book. So many factors go into determining the value, and in the end it depends on how desperately the purchaser wants a given volume. Of course, it doesn't matter how desperately you might want a book if it isn't available: which brings me back very neatly to the point I made about us having so little luck in tracking down non-Sherlockian works by Conan Doyle.
When we do find items at a reasonable price, we buy them, and three books (Our African Winter, My Religion and The Vital Message) were offered for sale in Parish Magazine Number Eight. All three books sold instantly, and by the time we had fielded all the phone calls and letters about them we realised we could have sold each volume a dozen times over.
This is encouraging, for at least it shows that there is a good deal of interest in Conan Doyle's other works: a field that has, up until now, often been ignored while everyone concentrated on Sherlock Holmes. The fact that the demand for the titles was so high also shows that there are a number of people who want the books but have not been able to find them. It is difficult enough to track down some of the books in England (and you can forget about finding any of the pamphlets), and it is even harder abroad. And this does not even take into account items of ACD's that were published many years ago in ephemeral form such as newspapers and have not seen the light of day since.
That is why we are happy to have been able to rescue 'The Wild Geese' from the oblivion it has fallen into over the last forty years. It is also why we decided to print a limited number of copies of 'The Immortal Memory', ACD's 1901 address to the Edinburgh Burns Club. A copy of the booklet was given to each person attending Edinburgh '93, and the remaining copies were offered for sale to members: and all of them were sold immediately.
We will be doing much the same thing in Toronto: plans are in hand to reprint another rare item by Conan Doyle, and copies of this publication will be given out to each attendee. On a somewhat more ambitious scale, we will also be reprinting Western Wanderings, Conan Doyle's account of his trip to North America in 1914. It was published in Cornhill Magazine in 1915: an American copyright edition of four small volumes appeared in the same year, and the work appeared (greatly condensed) as the chapter entitled 'To the Rocky Mountains in 1914' in Memories and Adventures. The work has never been reprinted in its entirety since 1915, however, and remains, in its original form, beyond the reach of all but the most fortunate collectors.
We are pleased to be able to reprint this and other rare works by Conan Doyle. There are, we know, some collectors who can only be satisfied with genuine first editions. For the rest of us, however, the text is what matters. And the more readily available these works are, the more we shall be able to learn about Arthur Conan Doyle.
Barbara Roden
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
