Conan Doyle in the Daily Mail
From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Conan Doyle in the Daily Mail 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 gathers a series of Daily Mail references to Arthur Conan Doyle from 1899 to 1930, presenting newspaper extracts on his public life, opinions, literary career, and controversies.
Conan Doyle in the Daily Mail
ACD at the time of his 1894 American lecture tour.
An ACD Exclusive
Recent research by John Michael Gibson has brought to light a number of interesting items relating to Conan Doyle which appeared in the pages of the Daily Mail over a period of years. We are pleased to reproduce these items below. Mr Gibson has made some informal comment on certain items, but generally it has been felt preferable that, at this stage, the items should appear without comment, offering an opportunity for readers to make their own contributions in due course in the Letters section of ACD.
Tuesday, 13 June 1899
- ON SCRIP AND SCRIBBLING
- Dr Conan Doyle frankly confessed last night at the dinner of the Anglo-African Writers' Club, held at the Grand Hotel, that his ignorance about South Africa was absolute.
- That did not prevent the doctor making a humorous little speech.
- He had, he said, a pleasant feeling that to some extent he had encouraged local industries by investing a good deal more than he could afford in South African shares. (Much laughter.) He had at home a box full of scrip on which he occasionally sat and meditated. He thought perhaps he would have gone up' a good deal before the scrip did so. (Great laughter.)
- It was true that he did once write a book about South Africa. He had always found that if you wanted information on a point the grand thing was to write a book about it (laughter), and then the critics would tell you the rest. (Much laughter.)
John Michael Gibson comments: Conan Doyle admits his ignorance of South Africa as 'absolute' only a year before writing The Great Boer War; his ownership of South African shares, and he makes a veiled reference to The Firm of Girdlestone.
Friday, 17 January 1902
- LITERARY ATHLETES
- Mr Rudyard Kipling's views of the evils of athleticism are not shared by am considerable number of his literary fellows. Dr Conan Doyle made a speech a couple of years ago in which he said: 'The manhood of this country was the reserve force of this country They and he were the reserves of this country it was the sporting men, the boating men, the open-air men. the football men, the men who rode and shot, the cricketers of this country, who were the reserves.'
Saturday, 15 November 1902
- EMPIRE OF PING-PONGISTS
- Addressing the Boys' Empire League at Holborn last night, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said some people objected to the game of football and to boxing, but what of an Empire of ping-pongists and players of croquet!
- What if games were rough; that was what they were for Roughness was a different thing from brutality.
Tuesday, 27 January 1903
- Sir A. Conan Doyle, as president of the Boys' Empire League, has offered a prize of £10 for a patriotic song for boys.
Editors Comment. Entirely by coincidence, these references to the Boys' Empire League arrived at almost the same time as complementary items sent by Society member Martin Shone, who had acquired a copy of Young England: An Illustrated Magazine for Boys. Throughout the English-Speaking World (Twenty Fifth Annual Volume 1903-4) Monthly reports of the BEL's activities show that Conan Doyle served as the League's President, probably for the period from April 1903 to March 1904. The notes of the BEL's proceedings show:
- October 1903: 'League Handbook': '... It contains the names and addresses of all club secretaries at home and in the Colonies, together with other useful information, and portraits of Sir A. Conan Doyle, Archdeacon Sinclair, Sir John Cockburn, K.C.M.G., and other members of the Executive Committee.'
- November 1903: 'A meeting of the Executive Committee of the Boys' Empire League was held at the Chapter House, St Paul's Cathedral, on Thursday, October 8th. Sir A. Conan Doyle presided...'
- December 1903: ... the annual meeting and concert of the Boys' Empire League will he held at the Holborn Town Hall, Gray's Inn Road, W.C., on Friday evening, December 4th... Sir A. Conan Doyle is expected to preside.
- January 1904 (this item may relate to the Daily Mail news item noted above under the date 27 January 1903): 'LEAGUE PRIZE SONGS: The B.E.L. prize songs are now on sale to all members of the League and readers of the paper. The first prize song is entitled 'Sons of Britannia', words by Joseph McKim, music by Henry Clay Work; 2nd prize song, 'Song of the Empire', words by Lewis Mennich, music by Miriam Barlow; and 3rd prize song, 'Boys of Our Empire', words by Oscar Meggs, music by Miriam Barlow. A very striking design in colours has been specially designed for the covers by Mr John Hassall, the well-known artist.
- 'ADELAIDE AUSTRALIA BRANCH: The following books, with a large number of magazines, have been wided the library... "A Study in Scarlet"...'
- February 1904: 'League Handbook: ... together with other useful information and portraits of Sir A. Conan Doyle...'
- April 1904: 'It was intimated that Mr F. Carruthers Gould the famous cartoonist, had accepted the office of President of the League for 1904.'
Friday, 26 December 1902
- IN PRAISE OF AN EMPEROR
- REMARKABLE BRITISH TRIBUTES TO AUSTRIA'S RULER
- The London correspondent of the Neues Wiener Taghtan of Vienna has collected the opinions of a large number f leading public men in England on the testing in this country towards the Emperor Francis Joseph of Austra Among those quoted from are
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The personauty of the tapers Francis Joseph is esteemed in this very is the g degree. His can't, has kindly nature and his adversity are qualities which all Brisons can appreciate.
Tuesday 1 December, 1903
- 'OH, FOR AN HOUR OF FRY!'
- Speaking last night at the Authors' Club, where Mr C.B. Fry was the guest of the evening. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said the only place he would rather see Mr Fry than at the Authors' Club would be the Australian cricket field. He thought that before those five terrible test matches were over many would say. 'Oh, for an hour of Fry!'
Saturday, 8 October 1904
- THE LAST OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
- GREAT DETECTIVE TO RETIRE AT CHRISTMAS
- FROM CRIME TO BEE-KEEPING
- The world will learn with very great regret that December next will mark the final retirement from public life of the eminent detective, Sherlock Holmes.
- Despite his iron constitution and nerves of steel, Mr Holmes is at last feeling the strain of his great achievements. He will take a little place in the country, and with his magnificent record behind him will settle down to enjoy the remainder of his days in the simple pleasures of the idyllic life.
- The bald announcement of his retirement is chronicled in 'The Bookman' as follows:
- 'We hear that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has written for the Christmas number of the 'Strand Magazine' the last adventure of the famous Sherlock Holmes which he will ever chronicle. It is said to be 'The Adventure of the Second Stain'.
- Yesterday a representative of the 'Daily Mail' journeyed to the lovely Hindhead home of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to ascertain, if possible, the reasons and circumstances of the famous detective's retirement.
- SIMPLE COUNTRY LIFE
- 'A man must retire some time,' he said; he can't go on for ever. Yes, his retirement is now absolute and final. So far as I know there is not the slightest intention of his ever again entering on the work of the detection of crime. His last adventure will be a strenuous one, and will, I think, be on a level with some of his higher achievements. After it, he retires for good
- 'For a long time he has nursed the idea of a country life with its simple delights. He will take a little place and will go in for bee-keeping.
- 'Is there not a probability that a period of rest and country solitude may result in a reaction and throw him once more into the consideration of complex and dangerous problems?'
- 'From what I know, replied Sir Arthur emphatically. 'Sherlock Holmes's retirement will be final. He will not again emerge.
- It was pointed out to Sir Arthur that some years ago, after the memorable occasion of his encounter with Moriarty on the mountainside. the detective was lost to view for a considerable time; was, indeed, believed to be dead.
- 'Yes,' said the author thoughtfully, and I, for one, firmly believed that he was dead. It was merely by accident that i didn't chronicle the finding of his body. This time, however. his exit will be final.
- MAY WRITE A BOOK
- 'No, he won't marry. You will remember he has always wanted time to write a work on the scientific side of his experiences. It is possible that in his retirement he will put his mind on that.
- Speaking of incidents in the life of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur recalled Mr Gillette's preparation for the presentation of the famous detective on stage. Mr Gillette, he said, wired to me from America asking if he might marry Sherlock Holmes in the play. I replied at once. "Marry him, kill him, or do what you like with him!"
- 'Yes,' added Sir Arthur, 'I am rather tired of Sherlock Holmes. I expect the public is too. My first idea of him sprang from Dr Bell, of Edinburgh University, whom I knew when I was a medical student there. He had the clear-cut mind of Sherlock Holmes. He would tell the trade of a patient by little signs about him, and would often state what a person was suffering from before a word passed. Thinking of a detective story I decided that reasoning rather than coincidence should form its basis. Then my experience of Dr Bell suggested Sherlock Holmes to me.
- '"A Study in Scarlet" was the first book! published. It made no particular stir, Sherlock Holmes caught on when I began to write the short stories which appeared month by month. I had taken rooms in Wimpole-street with the idea of becoming a consultant on eye troubles. I used to wait there three or four hours every day for the patients who didn't turn up. I utilised my ume in writing the first of the Sherlock Holmes short stories.'
- From that casual beginning sprang the prominent public life of the renowned detective, who makes his farewell bow at Christmas.
Thursday, 19 October 1905
- 'SHERLOCK HOLMES' IN COURT
- Sir A. Conan Doyle, who is understood to be gathering material for a new series of Sherlock Holmes stories, dealing more especially with bank frauds, caused some surprise in the Liverpool Police Court yesterday by unexpectedly walking up the steps leading from the cells to the dock.
- Accompanied by the chief constable, he had been going through the under-world of the police buildings in order to gather the local colour. As it happened, the court had just finished its business, and the stipendiary was busily signing documents before departure for the day.
- 'Sherlock Holmes' and the magistrate were introduced. Thereupon the stipendiary, Mr Steward, expressed his regret that the famous story-writer had not appeared a little earlier.
John Michael Gibson comments: This note is interesting in that only a year after stating that Sherlock Holmes's retirement was final, it is now reported that ACD was gathering material for a new series of Sherlock Holmes stories'. Conan Doyle was presumably in Liverpool on his way to, or from, the Scottish Border where he was standing for Parliament.
Monday, 25 December 1905
- BRITAIN AND GERMANY
- OPINIONS FROM ENGLISH PUBLIC MEN
- In order to gauge the extent of the feeling entertained in England against Germany, Dr M. Emst, the London correspondent of the Neues Wiener Tagblatt' has asked at number of representative men in this country to state their opinion on that subject. The following are a selection of the replies:
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE
- 'The cause, and the very just cause of the resentment, is this. We have lived to see German troops endure, upon a very small scale, the same difficulties which we, upon a very large scale, overcame in South Africa. We have lived also to see the much-abused concentration camps used by those who abused them; but we have not yet lived to hear any adequate expression of regret from the German people for the offensive and mistaken attitude which they assumed to us. It is for this reason that a very real dislike to Germany does exist in this country, whatever sentimentalists may say to the contrary.'
Thursday, 1 March 1906
- NOVELISTS AND THE STAGE
- SIR CONAN DOYLE'S VIEWS
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who is now daily attending the rehearsals of his new play, Brigadier Gerard', which Mr Lewis Waller will produce on Saturday night at the Imperial Theatre, is very enthusiastic about the stage, but nothing in the world, he says, would induce him to take an author's call, no matter how flattering it might be.
- 'I am only speaking for myself,' he said; and then, after all, my experience as a dramatist is not a big one. In fact it is a very small one, as "Brigadier Gerard" is the first whole-evening play for which I am entirely responsible.
- 'This play is not taken from my published stories. Some of the small incidents are, but the main plot is entirely new.
- Sir Conan Doyle is not inclined to think that the entrance of the novelist into the theatre interferes with the dramatist pure and simple. 'A stage taken by a dramatised novel leaves one less for the purely original — that is obvious; but whether a play that is dug out of the entrails of a novel is as good or better than the other sort depends on many things.
- 'If a novel is not dramatic it will not make a good play. There have been many instances of hugely successful plays taken from novels. I may mention, for instance, "Under the Red Rose", "The Little Minister", "Monsieur Beaucaire", and "Trilby". A play, however, carries with it a big responsibility. The man who writes a novel does not bring down a whole company with him if the public won't have his work.'
Friday, 25 May 1906
- BOOKS AND BOOKMEN
- LITERARY COINCIDENCES AND PLAGIARISM
- The action at law in respect to Leah Kleschna' has raised once again that very old subject which may be expressed thus: 'Coincidence or ——? So long as it remains possible that any two men may think alike, and quite independently create similar works of fancy, while other men may not scruple to adopt the children of others' brains, will the question of plagiarism be mooted...
- ... Perhaps the most remarkable case of anticipation is that told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. While at the Gemmi Pass he visited a mountain inn, where he learned that during the winter months, when the auberge was entirely cut off from all communication with the village below, two men remained in occupation. This immediately stirred his imagination. Supposing one of the men went mad, or one committed suicide, or — well, we can fancy what the mind that invented 'Sherlock Holmes' would make of that situation!
- Sir Arthur decided to weave a thrilling little story out of it, but before setting to work he chanced to pick up a volume by Guy de Maupassant, and there, under the title of 'L'Auberge', he found himself forestalled in every particular. He had never read the story before. He did not write his own; but one can imagine how he would have been beset by the plagiary hunters if he had not happened to read 'L'Auberge'.
Tuesday, 8 January 1907
- GERMAN THEATRE PIRATES
- DRAMATISERS' RAID ON BRITISH NOVELS
- Under shelter of the fact that England is not an adherent of the Berne Copyright Convention, German dramatic authors and theatre directors are engaged in wholesale piracy of English novels capable of dramatisation.
- Sir A. Conan Doyle's first intimation that 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' had been produced at the Secession Theatre, Berlin-where it was a failure, although it did better in Hanover was the telegram in the 'Daily Mail' from our Berlin correspondent, who explains that the authors-an insignificant actor and an unknown writer-forestalled the intention of the actor-manager Ferdinand Bonn. Herr Bonn has made a fortune out of 'Sherlock Holmes', in which he plays the title role, and he purposes dramatising 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and producing it at an early date.
- In an interview with the 'Daily Mail' correspondent, Herr Bonn affirmed his right to dramatise any English work without the permission of the author. Having drawn upon other Conan Doyle stories and the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Herr Bonn is convinced that he has written 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' in the author's conception, and will invite Sir A. Conan Doyle to witness the first performance. 'Sir A. Conan Doyle,' he said, 'is exceedingly popular in Germany, and the Berlin public would be delighted to have a glimpse of him.'
John Michael Gibson comments: This, and succeeding letters, provide previously unrecorded details of Conan Doyle's dispute over pirated plays in Germany.
Saturday, 19 January 1907
- A SURPRISE 'FIRST NIGHT'
- 'THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES' IN BERLIN
- (From Our Own Correspondent)
- Berlin, Friday, Jan. 18.
- Herr Ferdinand Bonn, Germany's leading actor-manager, sprung a sensational 'first night' upon a crowded house at the Berliner Theatre last night, when, after the first act of the advertised performance of 'Sherlock Holmes'. Herr Bonn came before the curtain and announced that the remainder of the evening's entertainment would consist of the performance of his adaptation of Sir A. Conan Doyle's 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.
- Herr Bonn informed me several days ago that he was preparing to produce 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' without Sir A. Conan Doyle's permission, because the latter said it was unnecessary. He had invited Sir Arthur to be present at the first performance.
Tuesday, 23 April 1907
- AUTOLYCUS IN GERMANY
- To the Editor of the 'Daily Mail'
- Sir,
- Your correspondent couples my name with two plays appearing in Berlin called 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles'.
- Would you kindly state that, save for the fact that the names of two of my novels have been stolen to make the titles, I have nothing to do with such plays, having neither written them, authorised them, or seen them. They have been invented by a certain Herr Bonn without any reference at all to myself.
- As the facts are well known in Germany, and as a law case is pending on the matter, your correspondent could have very easily found the true facts had he made any inquiry. I may add that both in literature and in the drama Germany appears to have a very low commercial morality. I have had several books sent me from Berlin with my name upon the cover but with no word of mine within them. Honest Germans should see to it for the credit of their country.
- ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
- Undershaw, Hindhead, Surrey
Monday, 6 May 1907
- GERMAN LITERARY PIRATES
- To the Editor of the 'Daily Mail'
- Sir,
- I note that the 'Daily Mail' has just published a letter from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle accusing certain of my countrymen of having stolen his titles 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' in order to palm off pirated imitations of his works upon the German public. Sir Arthur adduced this as a proof that business morality in this country is not very highly developed.
- In reply to this charge several German newspapers declare that England contains just as many literary pirates as Germany; and in proof of this a Bremen paper quotes chapter and verse.
- Well, sir, allow me to say that I publish a great many authorised German translations from English originals, so I may call myself an old 'pirate-hunter' in my efforts to protect my copyrights. And a long experience has convinced me that there is no country upon earth where literary piracy flourishes as it does in Germany. Among the ranks of such pirates are to be found persons of high social rank, decorated with orders, who show the most supreme disregard for the rights of others, and have to be fought in the law courts. The far-famed Barbary pirates are children compared with them.
- It is a sad thing for a German to have to make such statements as these. But it must be added in fairness that 'Germany' and 'German' in this regard include 'Austria' and 'Austrians'.
- ROBERT LUTZ
- (Sir A. Conan Doyle's German Publisher)
- Holderlinstrasse 32a, Stuttgart
Saturday, 1 June 1907
- PIRATED ENGLISH PLAYS
- A most bold and unabashed attempt to flout English literary and dramatic susceptibilities is planned, telegraphs our Berlin correspondent, by Herr Ferdinand Bonn, the eccentric Berlin actor-manager, who has been achieving fame and fortune with his pirated stage versions of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works. According to a local journalist, whom Herr Bonn asked to translate these versions into English, the actor-manager is actually preparing to produce his 'stolen' plays 'Sherlock Holmes' and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' in Great Britain.
- Although it is understood that the copyright laws afford the author no protection, I have seen a letter from Sir A. Conan Doyle to Herr Bonn's translator saying that the author will resist forcibly the German manager's audacious enterprise. Sir A. Conan Doyle's literary productions have been largely pirated in Germany, and he has several actions for damages now pending.
Saturday, 30 November 1907
- DAILY MAIL BOOKS SUPPLEMENT. No. 50 MODERN WRITERS
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE
- During this last generation the reproach has often been levelled against our insular art that it is bourgeois, or philistine, if you will, in the lingo of another school. The French artistic sense lifts itself out of that ruck, whether for good or evil. It may go to the dogs, but it is not philistine, and the Quartier Latin dances the cancan on the possibility. To put it Gallicly, Art in France, in all its divisions, is declassé. There is no risk that the bulk of our English writers and painters will ever be declassés. They range themselves definitely in respectable streets and strata. Zola was a respectable bourgeois in his soul, but he was an exception across the Channel. Nowadays with us James Thompsons are equally exceptional. Taine's gruesome theory postulated a necessary insanity in genius, and he conceived of our literature as the product of melancholia. Black care sat behind writers like Swift and Cowper and Johnson, it is true, but our brightest wits, as Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon, and their compeers, were not affected by mental megrims. And if any shall throw up against one conspicuous case like Shelley or Byron, one may take refuge in Browning's phrase, that 'You judge your mind's dimensions by the shade it casts'.
- At least, our contemporary life does not favour aberrations as a mark of genius. It has been left for our age to establish the profession of Letters on an essentially respectable platform. Our authors move among us, and not in a class apart, something Bohemian and disreputable. They take part in affairs; they are our equals; they claim rights with us; they have done for ever with our patronage and their own irresponsible nonage. An author today is on the same footing as a lawyer, a doctor, a banker, or even an actor — he is an established factor in current life. Of this new state of affairs Sir A. Conan Doyle is typically characteristic. He stands among authors in the position in which, say, Mr Rufus Isaacs stands among barristers, or Sir Frederick Treves among doctors, or the Rev R. J. Campbell among ministers and pastors. He is a publicist, he is a philosopher, he is a man of affairs, he is a combatant in the political arena, and he is at philanthropist. All these things are possible under the new regime
- It is possible for us in our more pessimistic and reckless moods to lament the disappearance of the disreputable Bohemian, who had no object beyond his art, unless it were the bottle. But there is no going back for the clock; we are committed to the modern order. And Sir A. Conan Doyle represents it with dignity, with benevolence, and with confidence. In a way, he may be taken as the John Bull of Letters, with all the virtues and many of the limitations of that traditional and composite personality. He possesses the same solidity, the conscientiousness, the tolerance, the eminent sensibility, and the equally eminent practicality, the fairness and sense of justice, the scrupulous honesty, the complacency of temperament. It would be easy for the neurotic to feel safe with Sir A. Conan Doyle, as easy as for the impecunious to lean heavily on a prosperous banker.
- Yet it must not be forgotten that in our islands the original blood has been so happily reinforced, that it is often touched to strange issues. Jacques Bonhomme in France could be nothing but Jacques Bonhomme. On the other hand, our typical Briton of Letters may be, and is in this case, quickened, enlivened and refreshed by a gift of imagination. No one needs to be informed of that who has read Micah Clarke, or who has read 'The White Company', or who has read again 'The Stark Munro Letters'. In many respects the last-named book is Sir A. Conan Doyle's finest achievement. It displays his characteristic virtues, honesty of observation, sincerity of purpose, and a clean-minded interpretation. Those qualities and the capacity to tell a story with simple directness are his best equipment. He has made his name out of his story-telling capacity merely, and, no doubt, in his width of judgment he knows well enough that he has succeeded on his lowest form. He dressed the detective novel in a new guise, and verily he had his reward.
- 'THROUGH THE MAGIC DOOR'
- Poe was his master, as you may see from his literary confessions in "Through the Magic Door' (Smith, Elder, and Co.). Indeed, this book helps us to understand Sir Arthur. His individual frankness and honesty are manifest here. He has the courage of his convictions, and would never swerve a hair's-breadth from them. He is of the best old English stock of these isles. He is urbane, unemotional, or but intellectually emotional, and resolute. And he makes a very amiable and well-informed guide, if a little conditioned. We are allowed to see in his appreciation of others the sources of his inspiration. Poe was the godfather or step-father of Sherlock Holmes, and Poe Sir Arthur considers to be the finest writer of short stories in the world. In a collection of the Twelve Best he would include two by Poe, two by Kipling, and two by Bret Harte. In that last confession you get a key again, the key to Sir Arthur's sentimentality. But, mark you, it is our British humanitarian sentimentality, not the Gallic sentimentality of sex. The Frenchman weeps over the crisis in his relations with Julie; our voices, on the other hand, vibrate emotionally as we survey the human situation from a philanthropic point of view. I suppose it is the higher privilege and the higher view. Sir Arthur's manly voice (we feel it) shakes with emotion at human crises. He has that English sentimental strain in him. And opposed to it is the strong virility of his English stock. which displays itself in his love of the prize ring, and of the roar of drums and tramplings and conquests. He confesses that he places 'The Cloister and the Hearth first of all historical novels, sacrificing thus Esmond and all Scott, whom, nevertheless, he loves. Thus spake the author of 'The White Company". And as the author of 'The White Company" it will be no small thing to be known to fame.
- H. R. MARRIOTT WATSON
Friday, 23 July 1909
- THE TRAFFIC IN OLD HORSES
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S QUESTION
- To the Editor of 'The Daily Mail'
- Sir,
- No one can read without horror the article of your correspondent upon the traffic in old horses. The question now is, what can be done to stop or at least mitigate it.
- One would like, first of all, to know what the R.S.P.C.A. are doing. It is to check just such abuses that the public subscribes to their funds. Surely by judicious prosecutions it could be made a hazardous thing to pursue this trade. If additional inspectors are needed for the ports whence this horrible traffic is carried on, the public would, I am sure. answer any specific appeal. I should be glad myself to send £20 for that end.
- If the anti-vivisectionists would turn for a moment from imaginary horrors to real ones, why should they not employ some of their funds and energy in helping to combat this evil? The only permanent cure must come from some organisation which will keep pressure upon Parliament and upon the public conscience until a law is passed which will make such a traffic for ever impossible.
- ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
- Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex
John Michael Gibson comments: This, and subsequent items, are important as previously unrecorded items demonstrating Conan Doyle's involvement in the attack on the traffic in old horses.
Tuesday, 14 December 1909
- DEFENCE OF VIVISECTION
- LORD CROMER ON PARENTS' DEBT TO SCIENCE
- Lord Cromer, presiding at a meeting held at the Brighton Pavilion yesterday for the purpose of forming a Brighton and Sussex branch of the Research Defence Society, said that humanity was on the side of those people who devoted their time, money, and sometimes their health in endeavouring to preserve and prolong human life.
- It was with the bacteriologists and not with the anti-vivisectionists that the mother who leant over the sick-bed of her child should sympathise, and it was to them that husbands and wives owed a deep debt of gratitude that they were not separated owing to the ignorance of the causes that led to so many fatal diseases which had been the scourges of the past.
- In vivisection pain was very rarely inflicted, Lord Cromer added, amid mingled cheers and hisses.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said he respected the man to whom all life was sacred, but asked what about the man who sacrificed fowls, fish, sheep, and oxen upon the altar of his appetite, but denied to science the right to claim an occasional life for the cure of disease or the alleviation of pain? Of 88,000 experiments conducted last year 85,000 were merely inoculations or injections, and painless. Freight horses crossing to their doom at Antwerp suffered far more pain.
- During the meeting there were constant interruptions, and the Hon. Stephen Coleridge was among the interrogators.
Wednesday, 20 April 1910
- WORN-OUT HORSES
- LORD CARRINGTON AND 'THE DAILY MAIL'
- EFFECT OF NEW ORDER
- The further action which Lord Carrington, President of the Board of Agriculture, has taken with a view to improving conditions under which the traffic in decrepit horses is carried on between this country and the Continent, is generally regarded as an important advance towards cleansing the trade. of those inhumane features which have been repeatedly exposed in the Daily Mail. The text of Lord Carrington's new order, requiring notice of the intended exportation of all horses, was published in yesterday's issue...
- ... Sir Arthur Conan Doyle telegraphs to the Daily Mail: 'Compulsory examination would be the ideal condition, but this new order goes a long way towards ensuring that there shall be no gross abuses in the future. I think the country may thank and congratulate the Daily Mail for this advance.
Saturday, 23 January 1909
- SOLDIER'S LAST PROBLEM
- Among the curios of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's residence at Crowborough is a bandolier which was worn by an Imperial Yeoman during the war in South Africa.
- One day Sir Arthur, in the performance of his medical duties, came upon a soldier lying at full length upon the veldt. apparently absorbed in the study of a difficult chess problem. Before him on his knapsack was a travelling chess board, upon which the pieces of the problem were fixed. But the soldier was dead, himself checkmated ere he had found the solution of the puzzle.
- It was to this soldier that the bandolier belonged.
Thursday, 19 December 1907
- THE GREATEST BORE
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE ON SHERLOCK HOLMES
- Sir A. Conan Doyle was the guest of the evening at the New Vagabond Club Christmas dinner at the Hotel Cecil last night, and made an amusing reference to Sherlock Holmes as 'one of the greatest bores of modern times".
- He had always been expected, he said, to solve mysteries. but he had a curious experience in connection with a burglary at a local inn. He was called in, and proceeded to ponder and reconstruct the crime on theoretical principles. Meanwhile, the local policeman went out and found the man and conducted him to the police station.
- Referring to the Great Wyrley case, Sir Arthur said he wished to hear of some redress and compensation for this unfortunate man. Moreover, considering how many unsolved mysteries there had been in the last few years, something ought to be done to bring the national scandal — that Scotland Yard was not called in till the local police had failed — to an end. It ought to be compulsory for the local police to call in the trained detective at once.
Monday, 31 January 1910
- HINTS FOR YOUNG WRITERS
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE ON THE FORMATION OF STYLE
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lady Doyle were the guests of the New Vagabond Club at a dinner at the Hotel Cecil on Saturday.
- In proposing the health of the guests of the evening Mr Henry Arthur Jones, who presided, said he felt he was right in calling upon Sir Arthur to justify his presence among them. Sir Arthur did not look like a vagabond, nor did he look like the creator of Sherlock Holmes. (Laughter.) What might they imagine the famous creator of the famous Sherlock Holmes to look like? They would picture him as mysterious, sharp- featured, lynx-eyed, slimly elusive, with a bundle of footprints in one pocket, a bunch of keys in the other, with damning proofs of convictions in his hat-lining, and all sorts of clues tucked up his sleeve. (Laughter.)
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, replying, said that as to the authorship of Sherlock Holmes he might as well unbosom and tell them that the real author of Sherlock Holmes was no other than Henry Arthur Jones — (loud laughter) — who years ago. brought him the manuscript, when he was at the height of his fame as a dramatist, and in a weak moment he (Sir Arthur) consented to put his name to it. (Renewed laughter.)
- Sir Arthur said he often got letters from young people asking how to enter a literary life. There were many things which went to make a great writer. One was style. No man in the world had had a natural style. To obtain style they must turn to the best writers and impregnate themselves with them. He was sure that Stevenson had helped many a lame dog into a 'style'. (Laughter.) The young writer also needed never-ending patience. When he began to play a game of ping-pong with himself on one side of the net and editors on the other, and his MSS as the ball, he needed as much patience and philosophy as any man upon this earth.
Thursday, 16 November 1911
- BOXING AS A SPORT
- A DEFENCE BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who as a sportsman has often 'donned the gloves' and as a novelist has written one of the best living stories on boxing (Rodney Stone'), yesterday expressed the opinion that it is impossible to eradicate the love for boxing as a sport in this country.
- Such decisions as that given at Birmingham in the Moran-Driscoll case, he told a representative of the Pall Mall Gazette, would only be to drive boxing underground.
- 'You can drive it underground, but you cannot stop it. Instead of having contests in the presence of the public, the Press, and the police, you will have it underground. You can have it in the back parlour of a public-house, but you are going to have it somehow. It is better, surely, to have it in the daylight, where, if there has been any brutality, there will at once be a shriek of "Foul" or "Shame".
- 'It is certain you will not stop it. That is absolutely impossible. I confess I do not understand where the line is going to be drawn between boxing and a veiled prize-fight. It was only our individuality and love of sport which gave us a chance of bringing out our manhood, but if one sport was to be cut down in this way it would do us a great deal of national harm.
Wednesday, 28 June 1911
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE
- LIVELY CRITICISM OF BROTHER DIRECTORS
- At the annual meeting of Cranston's Hotels Company, held in Edinburgh yesterday, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, one of the directors, made a statement regarding his position in the company.
- He said he had been attacked by the other directors and they had tried to thrust him off the board. He spoke against the inclusion on the board of Mr H. S. N. Callender, a partner of Mr R. A. Robertson, Edinburgh, another director, and of the proposal to make Sir Robert Cranston's son a director. He said he had felt compelled to protest vigorously against both of these deeds. He had been asked to resign; apparently the directors did not wish to have an independent director who was not afraid of them and who was prepared to take his own line on the board. He thought it was common sense that the shareholders should have such a man on the board. The Cranstons and Robertsons held the company in the hollow of then hands & Robert Cranston and he had worked together in politics, and he regretted that he could not work along with Sir Raben commercially He wanted relief from the board. but an independem man as his successor must be chosen If they put him off the board that would not end the matter. because he would continue to agitate as a shareholder. The practical solution was that he should be allowed to resign and that he should have the approval of a nominee whom he know
- Sir Robert Cranston expressed surprise at the attack and characterised it as most unfair.
- Mr R. A. Robertson. Edinburgh, one of the directors. moved that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle should not be re-elected.
- Sir Robert Cranston stated that the Waverley. Kenilworth. and Ivanhoe were the only hotels in the district in London that were turning people away.
- Mr Robertson's motion was declared carried.
John Michael Gibson comments: There is little recorded material on the subject of Conan Doyle as a business-man. This account is interesting therefore as it illustrates that he was in dispute with fellow directors of Bloomsbury Hotels.
10 February 1917
- SHERLOCK HOLMES MSS
- LATEST GIFTS FOR THE RED CROSS SALE
- Three sections of the original MSS of the 'Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' are contributed by the inventor of this great character, Sir Conan Doyle, to the sale of gifts which Messrs Christie will hold next month on behalf of the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John.
Saturday, 8 March 1919
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE'S SÉANCE
- MR MASKELYNE'S INVITATION
- Mr Nevil Maskelyne has invited Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be present at St George's Hall on Monday to see the first performance of a seance when, in full light, Mr Goff Godfrey will duplicate the manifestations described as having taken place at Cardiff, in the dark, at the séance recently attended there by Sir Conan Doyle.
- At a rehearsal yesterday a member of the audience tied up the 'medium' with 30ft. of rope, put him in a sack, and afterwards into a strait-jacket Mr Godfrey got free and performed feats with bells and tambourines. He took off his coat while tied to a heavy armchair hidden by light wereen. He afterwards got out of the trait-jacket, in the presence of spectators in 60 seconds
7 November 1919
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is suffering from gastric complaint. While it is stated that there is nothing in his present condition to give rise to any anxiety, it will probably be some little time yet before he can resume his public engagements.
17 May 1921
- CONAN DOYLE PLAY
- SHERLOCK HOLMES AT LONDON COLISEUM
- A new Sherlock Holmes play. 'The Crown Diamond', a one-act drama written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. gave yesterday's audience at the London Coliseum, W.C. a number of enjoyable thrills.
- Sherlock is in his Baker-street rooms with his faithful Dr. Watson, and a dummy figure of himself faces a window through which shots are momentarily expected. Colonel Moran, who has stolen "The Crown Diamond" is the prospective trigger puller. Sherlock Holmes is the victim.
- But instead of shooting through the window the colonel calls. So does his mate, a villainous pugilist. How Mr Holmes very ingeniously outwits them it would not be fair to say the climax is both clever and surprising.
- Mr Dennis Neilson-Terry, who plays Sherlock, looks much like pictures of the famous detective, but he makes Holmes a rather theatrical figure with a voice that would never have impressed such a scoundrel as Colonel Moran.
- That Sherlock had a boy in buttons to wait um at Baker-street came as a surprise it is to be hoped that the boy did not speak so affectedly as the one in 'The Crown Diamond' does.
15 July 1926
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE BEATEN
- The final heat of the Wright Cup Handicap, an annual even promoted by the Billiards Control Club, ended as a surprisingly easy win for Mr J. R. W Evens (rec. 60), who defeated Sir A. Conan Doyle (rec. 50) by 98 points at 250 to 152 The winner made a break of 36.
20 November 1929
- SIR A. CONAN DOYLE
- ACTION AGAINST OSCAR SLATER SETTLED
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is confined to bed at Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex, through overwork.
- Edinburgh, Tuesday
- Nothing more will be heard of the action brought by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle against Mr Oscar Slater.
- It was announced in the Court of Sessions here today that a settlement had been arrived at. The terms were not disclosed, but I learn on reliable authority that a payment had been made by Mr Slater to Sir Arthur.
- Sir Arthur began the proceedings in September for the recovery of money he had advanced towards the cost of Mr Slater's successful appeal against his conviction for the murder of Miss Gilchrist in Glasgow, in respect of which Mr Slater served nearly 19 years penal servitude.
- The conviction was quashed and Mr Slater received £6,000 compensation.
- Sir Arthur was one of the principal movers in the agitation for the reopening of the case, and made himself responsible for expenses up to £1,000. The amount he actually spent was £330. The present action was to recover £280 of that sum.
14 July 1930
- £15,000 REFUSED
- CONAN DOYLE'S DISLIKE TO 'SHERLOCK HOLMES'
- NEW YORK, Sunday
- The extraordinary popularity of the later Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in the United States is shown by the reappearance of his 'Sherlock Holmes' stories in the daily newspapers.
- Mr H. H. McClure recalls that his cousin, Mr S. S. McClure, who first acquired the Holmes stories 40 years ago, paid the author £9 each for six of the stories.
- They proved popular, and Mr McClure paid Sir Arthur (then Mr) Conan Doyle £11 each for another six.
- Then the author took a dislike to his famous detective and refused to write any more.
- Finally, under the persuasions of Mr Robert Collier, of Collier's Weekly, 'The Return of Sherlock Holmes' series came to life, for which Sir Arthur received £10,000 for the American rights. Later, said Mr H. H. McClure, when offered £15,000 for ten more yarns Sir Arthur refused to write them.
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
