Conan Doyle's Pocket Diary for 1889
Conan Doyle's Pocket Diary for 1889 is an article written by Richard Lancelyn Green published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 1, No. 1) in september 1989.
The article analyses Arthur Conan Doyle's 1889 pocket diary, showing it to be a uniquely detailed record of his literary work, submissions, payments, and publishing negotiations rather than a personal chronicle. It demonstrates that 1889 was the year Conan Doyle came of age as a professional author, documenting the production and success of Micah Clarke, The Sign of Four, and the foundations of his later career.
Conan Doyle's Pocket Diary for 1889
Blackwood's Pocket-Book and Diary. 1889.
Conan Doyle's pocket diaries for 1889 and 1890 have only recently come to light. They were originally in the collection of Denis Conan Doyle rather than that of his brother Adrian (whose 'archive', used by Doyle's biographers, contained the ones for 1891, 1892, and those from 1894 to 1915). The 1893 diary was also among Denis Conan Doyle's papers and was part of the manuscript material sold to the library at Texas University, but the early diaries were kept by his widow and only resurfaced after her death in 1987.
The 'Blackwood's Pocket-Book and Diary' for 1889 measures five by three inches and has a light brown paper wrapper glued to the spine. It was issued by Griffith, Farran, Okeden, and Welsh and priced at 'One Penny'. The first pages contain an Almanack for the year with advertisements on the versos; then comes a 'Table of Expenses, Income, or Wages', an 'Interest Table for One Year', 'Stamp Duties' and 'Post Office Regulations'. There are four pages for memoranda (which are blank), then the diary itself which has a page for each week of the year. There are a further sixteen pages for memoranda at the end, followed by a continuation of the 'Post Office Regulations', a banking directory, details of members of the Royal Family, a list of the members of the Government, and several pages of publishers' advertisements. It's signed on the cover: 'A. Conan Doyle'.
The entries are short, sometimes laconic, invariably cryptic, and are exclusively concerned with literary matters. The diary makes no reference to other notable events which may have been expected to appear. Doyle does not mention the bath of his daughter in January, the death of George Budd in February, or Balfour's visit to Portsmouth in June, nor does he list the meetings of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society, his sporting fixtures, or other day to day appointments. There are a few brief references to sums of money which his wife 'Touie' and his sister Connie owed to the bank and of small amounts owed by other people, notes of the money earned by W. K. Burton from articles in the British Journal of Photography and a design for what appears to be a fence, but in the main the entries concern his novels, short stories, and articles, giving details of the magazines and publishers to which they were sent and of the arrangements reached for their publication.
It seems probable that the 1889 diary is the first. Before then Doyle had pasted the letters from his publishers into a large scrapbook which he had been given as a wedding present and against them had recorded the dates that the various books were written. The scrapbook includes the letters from Ward, Lock and Company concerning A Study in Scarlet, several letters relating to 'Girdlestone and Co.' (as The Firm of Girdlestone was originally known), and the letters of rejection for Micah Clarke. It also has the proofs of a story from All the Year Round, a copy of an article from the British Journal of Photography, the slip which accompanied the payment by the Cornhill Magazine for 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement', and much else besides.
The first entry in the diary is on 1 January 1889: '"Mystery of Cloomber" came out.' Other sources however suggest this was not the date of publication. The English Catalogue (which lists new books) shows that it was available during the last two weeks of December 1888 and even Harold Locke who rarely gives information about publication dates makes a point in his Bibliography of its having been issued in December. The most likely explanation is that the publishers, Ward and Downey, intended to issue the book at the beginning of January (and therefore dated the title page 1889) but as copies were available in December decided to bring the publication forward to take advantage of the Christmas market. Doyle is known to have presented a copy to the Town Library in Portsmouth on the 16 January 1889 and he had by then had it bound in a uniform style to A Study in Scarlet (which he had presented the previous year), but as he would have received advance copies this does not in itself provide evidence of the earlier date. A review of the book in the Hampshire Telegraph on 5 January 1889 suggests the later date, but again it is not conclusive as the review was probably written by a friend who may have received the copy and details of publication from the author himself. The only other reference to The Mystery of Cloomber comes at the very end of the year. On 31 December 1889, Doyle records: 'Ward & Downey sent £20. 0. 0 on Account for Cloomber. Sold 3866 Copies to date'
. As the publishers' ledgers are not thought to have survived, this offers a clue to the size of the original edition. It was perhaps 5000 copies — which would have been normal for a book in paper covers retailing at a shilling.
The next entry occurs two weeks later on 14 January 1889: 'Sent "The Great Brown Pericord Motor" to Longman'
. This story, which was not collected in book form until The Last Galley in 1911, is of a far earlier date than was once supposed. Harold Locke has recorded the reprint in the Pictorial Magazine for 7 January 1905 and in Green and Gibson there is the appearance in the first issue of Ludgate Weekly Magazine on 5 March 1892 (and in the Boston Yankee Blade two months later), but it seems that it had appeared before then. After being rejected by Longmans, Temple Bar (to whom it was sent on 22 January), and Tit-Bits (sent on 14 February and returned on 11 March), the diary states that it was forwarded to Tillotson on 26 March 1888. This was Tillotson's 'Newspaper Literature Syndicate' or 'Fiction Bureau' which specialised in the syndication of novels and short stories by 'eminent novelists and other well-known authors.' Doyle's letter survives. It was sent from Bush Villas in Southsea on 27 March 1889 (rather than the day before) and reads:
Dear Sir
I have been informed that short stories find a ready market with you — I therefore send one "The Great Brown-Pericord Motor" which may perhaps suit you.
I am the author of two shilling books "A Study in Scarlet" and "The Mystery of Cloomber" which have both had very good sales. I enclose press opinions of the former. Longman has just brought out a 6/- book of mine "Micah Clarke" which, judging from the press notices, is likely to be even more successful than the smaller ones.
Yours faithfully, A. Conan Doyle, MD
Tillotson must then have offered terms, for on 3 April 1889, Doyle wrote back in characteristic style: 'Dear Sir, All right. Yours truly, Arthur Conan Doyle, MD'
. The diary shows that it was formally accepted on 10 April and suggests that it was published twice during the year as he received two guineas (the cost of a single serial use) on 23 April and again on 13 December.
With hindsight the most important event in 1889 was the writing of the second Sherlock Holmes story, but as far as Conan Doyle was concerned the year was made memorable by the publication of Micah Clarke and the start on The White Company. Micah Clarke had been completed early the previous year and was offered to Blackwood's at the beginning of March 1888. Their reader found much that was good but complained of certain imperfections, such as the tendency of the characters to behave as if they were from the nineteenth century rather than the seventeenth. In April 1888 the book was offered to Richard Bentley and Sons and was rejected after a cursory examination on account of the lack of interest. It was also rejected by James Payn, the editor of the Cornhill, and by the People who returned the manuscript at the end of August. It then went to Longmans, Green and Company and was accepted on 29 October 1888 (with the offer of a ten per cent royalty). Andrew Lang, the reader who recommended publication, was a close friend of Charles Longman and a regular contributor to Longman's Magazine.
'Micah Came out'
is the entry for 25 February 1889 and this was the date of publication. If the author or publisher had any doubts about the merits of the book they were soon dispelled. On 16 April Doyle noted: 'Second Edition of Micah'
, stressing its importance underlining it. The first accounts were received on 20 October: 'Longman sold up to June 24/89 - 1948 [copies] - having on hand 939 of 2nd Edition. Cash due 54.0.8.'
It seems that there was a first edition of one thousand copies and that this was immediately followed by a further thousand. The second thousand may have been for the American sue (which is almost indistinguishable from the English edition except for the shorter imprint on the spine) or for a colonial edition (though none is known). The second impression (called the 'Second Edition') consisted of two thousand copies which were prepared in two batches of a thousand copies each: a thousand in April followed by a second thousand later in the year. The shortfall in the numbers was caused by the exclusion of copies sent for review, also of those which were damaged and those which were taken by the author (who gave a large number to his mother to whom it was dedicated as she wished to present them to members of the family). The accounts were made up on 1 December and three days later Doyle received £104-10-8 showing that the entire second edition was exhausted. The book was reprinted at a cheaper price early in the following year.
Although Longman issued the book is America there was abo an edition published in New York on 15 June 1889 by Harper and Brothers as Number 648 in the Franklin Square Library. There being no copyright agreement with England, American publishers were free to pate works by English writers (and vice versa), but small royalties were often paid to enable them to bring out the 'authorised edition'. The diary shows that this was the case as Doyle received £20 from Harpers on 31 July. The money was sent through James R. Osgood (who issued Harpers Magazine in London) and went in the first instance to Doyle's mother. Her letter of acknowledgement from Masongill Cottage (dated 31 July 1889) and a receipt for the £20 is preserved in the Harpers' archive. This represented the advance on a five per cent royalty.
From a bibliographical point of view the most interesting entry in the diary concerns the second serial publication of Micah Clarke. It was known that the book had not been serialised before publication and that the shortened version had appeared in 1892 in Longman's School Magazine, but the diary shows that the whole novel was serialised nm 1889 after the appearance of the book. The entry on 31 May 1889 reads: '£15 from Manchester Exam. Per Longman & Co.'
This refers to the Manchester Examiner, the publishers of the Manchester Weekly Times. Micah Clarke was serialised there between 8 June and 28 September 1889. This early association with the Manchester Weekly Times has added interest as the same newspaper purchased the first shared rights to Uncle Bernac and 'The Fiend of the Cooperage' in 1897 (publishing them at the same time or a day or two before their publication in the Queen). The file for the newspaper in the Manchester Public Library from which the details in the Soho Bibliography were taken can now be shown to be incomplete and it is not true, as was supposed, that the 'supplement' was launched in 1897.
Soon after Micah Clarke had been accepted Doyle retrieved his earlier novel 'Girdlestone & Co.'. Even though it had been offered to Longman in May 1886 and rejected (as it had been by Temple Bar. Richard Bentley and Sons, and the Cornhill), the changed circumstances induced him to send it to them again, but it still found no favour and was returned on 29 March 1889. He therefore sent it to the People (which was owned by the proprietor of the Globe evening newspaper) and he probably did so because of an earlier letter from the editor, J. Madge. He had rejected Micah Clarke as unsuitable for a popular paper, saying '... it has next to no attraction for female readers who form undoubtedly a large percentage of our subscribers. Again it is hardly sensational enough.' Whatever its other faults, these criticisms could not be made against 'Girdlestone and Co.'. On 14 May 1889 the diary records: '"Girdlestone" to Madge, 367 Strand'
. On 15 June 1889 there is an entry: '£240-0-0 Madge & Co'
showing that the novel had been accepted. It was a large sum and two entries the following month show how the money was invested. £100 went into the 'Tramway Mortgage'
and £115 went on the mortgage of a house in Landport.
There are a few further bibliographical points about The Firm of Girdlestone on which the diary does not throw any light. These are raised by a short article in the 'Men and Things' column of the Echo for 28 September 1889. It described Doyle as being hard at work on a new historical novel and said that he only laid it aside 'to revise the proofs of "Girdlestone and Co.," which will soon commence running in a score of newspapers...'
. The problem is the change of name and the question of the wider syndication. The article shows that Doyle was using the original title as late as September and suggests that the change was made by the editor. As for the 'score of newspapers', the most likely explanation is that the high sum which he was paid was for all the English serial rights, including local and regional ones, and this may have led him to believe that after the appearance in the People it would be reprinted elsewhere (as may have been the case). The diary records the start of the main serial publication on 27 October 1889: 'Girdletone began to appear in the People'
, and it continued there until 13 April 1890. Shortly after the first part appeared Doyle offered the book to Chatto and Windus who accepted it the following January and published it after the serialisation had run its course.
Further references to The Firm of Girdlestone are found on 10 November 1889: 'Offered Girdlestone to Belestiar /sic/ for 12 p/c — £100 down'
; and on 17 November 1889: 'Accepted terms of W. Bellestiar /sic/ of 2 Deans Yard, Westminster for American rights of Girdlestone, £60 down and 12 p/c royalty.'
The interest lies in Doyle's brief association with Wolcott Balestier, a pale young American from Vermont who flashed like a meteor across the literary horizon between 1888 and his premature death in December 1891. He came to London to act as the agent for a New York publisher, John W. Lovell, and opened an office in Dean's Yard. He quickly made himself known to the literary lions, many of whom fell under his spell and he worked hard to foster the impression that he was destined for greatness. His intention was to bring order to the chaos caused by the lack of a copyright agreement with America and he hoped to do the same for the Continental copyrights by forming a partnership with William Heinemann. Their company, 'Heinemann and Balestier' were to be the publishers of the 'English Library' of English and American authors which imitated the Tauchnitz Edition published in Leipzig. Unlike A. P. Watt who was on the point of starting a Literary Agency which was to grow in size, Balestier lived just long enough to see his own plans come to nothing. In July 1891 a Copyright Act came into force negating the need for his services, and the 'English Library' was unable to compete with Baron Tauchnitz who had won the good will of many English authors by paying generous royalties though under no legal obligation to do so.
Henry James and Edmund Gosse were both susceptible to Balestier's charm, but it was Rudyard Kipling on whom he had the greatest influence (a result, according to the most recent biographer, of some homosexual indiscretion). For whatever reason, Kipling agreed to collaborate with him on The Naulahka and dedicated Barrack-Room Ballads to his memory. He also became engaged to Balestier's sister, Carrie, and married her m some haste after his death. Despite his importance to Kipling and the impact he had on other authors, Balestier seems to have been no more to Doyle than an agent for a New York publisher who arranged the American edition of The Firm of Girdlestone. This was published the following year as number 65 in Lovell's International Series. Balestier also arranged the American edition of The White Company, while Heinemann and Balestier were to be the publishers of the continental editions of The Doings of Raffles Haw in 1892 and of Mysteries and Adventures in 1893.
The Firm of Girdlestone is dedicated to W. K. Burton whom Doyle had known since his childhood in Edinburgh and it was Burton's interest in photography which led Doyle to contribute articles to the British Journal of Photography. Burton was a regular visitor to Bush Villas and in 1884 both he and Doyle began writing novels. Although he left England in the Spring of 1887 to take up an appointment as Professor of Sanitary Engineering at the Imperial University in Tokyo, Burton continued to send articles to the British Journal of Photography and the diary shows that Doyle accepted the payments from Henry Greenwood (the proprietor of the magazine) on his behalf. During the previous year Burton sent three technical articles, four chapters of a series called 'Through Japan with a Camera', and a description of the 'Great Eruption at Mount Bandai.' The first article in 1889 appeared on 22 March ('The Stripping of Films from Gelatine Negatives for Photo-Mechanical Processes'), and the payment for this is shown in the diary on 31 March: '£1. 0. 0 W. K. B. Brit Journ Phot.'
. After a further article had appeared in April and payment had been made, Doyle noted in his diary on 22 May (his thirtieth birthday): 'Sent W. K. B. his money 38-2-0.'
This was the proceeds from all the articles to date. 'Through Japan with a Camera' was continued during the summer and three further payments were sent to Doyle because of it.
The most important entries in the diary relate to The Sign of Four which was written for Lippincott's Magazine. On 30 August 1889: 'Agreed to write Story of 45000 words for £100 for Lippincott'
; on 30 September: '"The Sign of the Four" finshed & dispatched'
; and on 2 November: '£100 from Lippincott'
. The details of the famous lunch at the Langham Hotel with J. M. Stoddart at which Oscar Wilde was also a guest have been described elsewhere and it is sufficient to note that Doyle had started The White Company on 19 August, but set it to one side to fulfil this important commission.
After The Sign of Four had been dispatched and because of his growing success, Doyle felt that he might now find a publisher for a collection of short stories. On 25 October his diary states: 'Wrote to Boys Own Paper, London Society, Belgravia, and Cornhill for tales'
, and four days later he wrote to Longman 'offering "Collected Tales"'
. Their response was favourable and on 6 November he 'Sent 10 Tales to Longman'
; then on 23 November: 'Agreed with Longman to publish "Captain of Polestar" at half profits'
. This very briefly is the publishing history of The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales which was published the following March and which despite the publisher's limited expectations sold well. The Boy's Own Paper supplied 'Cyprian Overbeck Wells' (which appears in the book under the subtitle 'A Literary Mosaic'). From London Society came 'The Man from Archangel', 'That Little Square Box' and 'The Parson of Jackman's Gulch'. 'The Great Keinplatz Experiment' was from Belgravia, and from the Cornhill he took 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement', 'John Huxford's Hiatus' and 'The Ring of Thoth' (the last of these was still awaiting serial publication and did not appear until January 1890). The title story was from Temple Bar, and 'John Barrington Cowles' which had appeared in Cassell's Saturday Journal completed the volume. There is no record in the diary of Doyle having written to the last named magazines, but they were acknowledged with the others in the preface to the book.
When Doyle wrote to James Hogg of London Society on 25 October 1889, he may unwittingly have drawn the editor's attention to his early stories which had been sold outright and this may be why Hogg chose to select the seven which were published without authorisation as Mysteries and Adventures. Alternatively, Hogg may have spurred Doyle into action as he was responsible for an anthology called Strange Secrets which was published by Chatto & Windus in June 1889. This contained stories taken from London Society including one by Doyle, 'The Secret of Goresthorpe Grange'. Hogg subsequently arranged an American edition of Mysteries and Adventures under the title My Friend the Murderer and Other Stories with all eleven stones from London Society as well as Doyle's first published story from Chambers's Journal Hogg was also probably responsible for the Continental edition published in the 'English Library'. A note in later editions of Mysteries and Adventures (after it had been renamed The Gully of Bluemansdyke and Other Stories) states that the book had first appeared in 1889, but neiter Doyle nor the English Catalogue were aware of it until March of the following year.
Two further works feature in the diary. On 17 April 1889: 'Sent "A Physiologist's Wife" to Longmans.'
The next mention is on 26 April when it was sent to the Cornhill Magazine and then again on 13 June when it was returned. The diary shows it was offered to Blackwood the same day (though this is a day after the date on the letter which accompanied it and which is preserved in the Blackwood archive.) On 28 June Doyle at last achieved his early ambition by penetrating the 'stout Scottish barrier' which had refused his previous work: 'Blackwood accepted Physiologist's Wife.'
The story — which Doyle said was written under the influence of Henry James — appeared in Blackwood's Magazine in September 1890 and was collected in Round the Red Lamp. The other work is his essay on Robert Louis Stevenson, 'The Methods of Mr. Stevenson in Fiction'. After being offered to the Fortnightly Review on 14 October, and to the Nineteenth Century on 26 October, it was sent on 21 November to the National Review, accepted by them on 16 December, and published in January 1890. It was reprinted in the Boston Living Age the following month and extracts were included in J. A. Hammertun's Stevensoniana in 1903, but it is otherwise uncollected.
There are three works which are not referred to in the diary: the reprint of A Study in Scarlet in March 1889, the anthology Strange Secrets issued in June, and 'The Bravoes of Market Drayton' which was published in Chambers's Journal on 24 August 1889. Doyle received no royalties from the first two and therefore had no reason to include them, but he should have received a payment from Chambers. Even if the article had been sent and paid for at an earlier date, he might have been expected to mention its publication. He is given as the author in an article which appeared in the magazine in 1895 alongside 'The Recollections of Captain Wilkie' — itself a very early story which had been discovered in their files, but there are no other known references to 'The Bravoes of Market Drayton' and until such evidence is found, a shadow of doubt must hang over the attribution.
Although the diary for 1889 docs not mention stories that had been long forgotten or articles that were never suspected, and though it does not refer to minor contributions made at the time (such as letters to newspapers) it does provide a very detailed picture of Doyle's literary work and adds important bibliographical information to what was already known. Because it was the first and because it chronicles the year in which Doyle came of age as an author, it is among the most important in the series.
The Manchester Weekly Times — Supplement for Saturday, June 8th 1889 Conan Doyle's Pocket Diary for 1889 shows this previously unrecorded serialisation of Micah Clarke.
NOTES
1. Hesketh Pearson refers to Doyle's pocket diaries on pp.84-5 of his biography: 'He began to keep a diary in January '91 and continued to do so for about twenty years; but as the entries were unusually laconic, and in later years were almost exclusively concerned with cash receipts and cricket results, we can learn little from them, though we shall find the diary for 1891, his annus mirabilis, illuminating.' He then provides copious extracts, and gives further extracts on pp. 106-7.
John Dickson Carr lists the pocket diaries in the 'Biographical Sources' at the end of his biography where they are described as being among the contents of 'Box No.6: 'Pocket diaries, 1891 - 1915, brief entries useful in verifying dates'.
2. The full details of the second serial publication of Micah Clarke, given in the style of the Bibliography, are as follows:
Micah Clarke. His Statement ... - Manchester Weekly Times [Supplement], 1889: 8 June, pp. 1-3, Chapters I-III; 15 June, pp. 1-3, IV-VI; 22 June, pp. 1-3, VII-IX; 29 June, pp. 1-3, X-XI; 6 July, pp. 1-3, XII-XIN: 13 July. pp. 1-3, XIV-XVI; 20 July, pp 1-3, XVII-XVII; 27 July, pp. 1-2, XIX-XX; 3 August, pp. 1-3, XXI-XXII; 10 August, pp. 1-3, XXII-XXIV; 17 August, pp. 1-2, XXV-XXVI; 24 August, pp. 1-2, XXVII-XXVIII; 31 August, pp. 1-2, XXIX-XXX; 7 September, pp. 1-2, XXXI; 14 September, pp. 1-2, XXXII; 21 September, pp. 1-2, XXXIII-XXXIV; 28 September, pp. 1-3, XXXV-XXXVI.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
