Conan Doyle in Ghost Stories
Conan Doyle in Ghost Stories is an article written by Christopher Roden published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 9, june 1999).
This article explains Arthur Conan Doyle's presence in the pulp magazine Ghost Stories, both through nonfiction pieces about spiritualism and through reprints of his fiction. It also highlights the magazine's publishing history, notable contributors, and its value to Conan Doyle collectors and researchers.
Conan Doyle in Ghost Stories
When one speaks of weird-fiction pulp magazines, the name Weird Tales naturally springs to mind. In July 1926, however, a new magazine appeared, one which devoted its fiction entirely to ghost stories. Appropriately named Ghost Stories, it was a large format magazine, i.e., larger than the standard pulps of the day. Its immediate appearance was very garish — the first issue had a poorly drawn fanged phantom face filling up most of its highly pulpish cover, and looked every inch like it was trying to repeat the sensationalism of other magazines that had come from the Constructive Publishing Corporation, situated in the Macfadden Building in New York's Broadway-part of the large publishing empire of the health faddist Bernarr Macfadden.
The background and history of the magazine is long story, fully told by Mike Ashley in his Introduction to Phantom Perfumes and Other Shades: Memories of Ghost Stories Magazine, to be published by Ash-Tree Press in the near future. Suffice it to say here that Ghost Stories lasted for sixty-four issues, and was published in the period between July 1926 and January 1932.
Why should it be of interest to readers of ACD? Well, although the magazine was primarily fiction-oriented, it also published a number of non-fiction pieces relating to ACD. The October 1927 issue included 'Conan Doyle's Museum of Psychic Wonders' by Leonard Crocombe, likely a reprint of the article 'The World's Happiest Museum. Through a room of miracles with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle' which appeared in The Strand Magazine in May 1927. (The Ghost Stories appearance is not noted in Green & Gibson).
Two articles reprinted in this issue of ACD also appeared in Ghost Stories: one about ACD, and one by him. Horace Leaf's 'Conan Doyle's Last Words on Spiritualism' appeared in the October 1930 issue and are a reminiscence. Conan Doyle's own 'Houdini's Last Escape' appeared seven months earlier in March 1930. This seems to have been something of a scoop for the magazine: no further appearance of this article has been recorded, which would seem to make it a Ghost Stories original.
Four pieces of Conan Doyle's fiction appeared in Ghost Stories, with the titles being changed in two cases. None of these appearances are noted in Green & Gibson. 'Beautiful Basilisk' (a reprint of 'John Barrington Cowles') appeared in December 1929, while 'Playing With Fire' was in the December 1930 issue, followed by 'The Captain of the Polestar' in April 1931. Finally 'Mummy Number 249' (whose re-naming from 'Lot No. 249' is obvious) appeared in March 1931.
Ghost Stories attracted contributions by some of the best known. writers of the day: Agatha Christie, Cynthia Asquith, E. F. Benson, Robert W. Chambers, Conrad Richter, Theodore Dreiser, A.M. Burrage, Frank Belknap Long, Carl Jacobi, Robert E. Howard, and, as we have seen, Arthur Conan Doyle.
Mike Ashley comments, however, that the magazine was little known (certainly in the U.K.) and little collected. In consequence, copies attract good prices when the do appear. It could be worth keeping your eyes open!
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
