Document Collections
Document Collections brings together books that collect documentary material by, about, or directly connected with Arthur Conan Doyle and his creations. These volumes include letters, interviews, recollections, public statements, reception documents, and other first-hand or contemporary material.
The page is divided between document collections concerning Arthur Conan Doyle himself and document collections concerning Sherlock Holmes as a cultural figure. Autobiographical books written by Conan Doyle are listed separately under Autobiographical Works.
Conan Doyle Documents
Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Edited by Jon Lellenberg & Daniel Stashower
British Library
2012
368 pages
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Dangerous Work is an edited edition of Conan Doyle's Arctic diary, written during his 1880 voyage as ship's surgeon aboard the whaler Hope. The volume presents the diary known as the Log of the S. S. Hope, with editorial material, historical context, annotated transcript, illustrations and analysis of Conan Doyle’s early life, medical training, travels and later literary development.
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley
Penguin Press / HarperPress
2007
706 pages; British edition, 710 pages
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Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters collects Conan Doyle's correspondence, especially his long series of letters to his mother, Mary Doyle. Edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, the volume gives direct access to Conan Doyle's own voice across his schooldays, medical training, early struggles, literary success, family life, public campaigns and spiritualist years. It is both a major documentary source and an intimate self-portrait of Conan Doyle through his letters.
Recollections of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, by Residents of Crowborough
By Malcolm Payne & Philip Weller
Privately published
1993
26 pages
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Recollections of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, by Residents of Crowborough gathers local memories and testimonies about Conan Doyle from people connected with Crowborough. The booklet is a documentary source for Conan Doyle’s later years, his presence in the local community, and the memory of his life at Windlesham.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Interviews and Recollections
Edited by Harold Orel
Macmillan / St. Martin's Press
1991
278 pages
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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: Interviews and Recollections brings together contemporary interviews, memoirs and recollections concerning Conan Doyle’s life and career. Edited by Harold Orel, the volume provides documentary testimony from Conan Doyle’s own time and is useful for studying his public image, personal encounters, opinions, literary reputation and spiritualist commitments.
Letters to the Press
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Edited and introduced by John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green
University of Iowa Press
1986
376 pages
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Letters to the Press collects Conan Doyle’s published letters to newspapers and periodicals. Edited and introduced by John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green, the volume documents Conan Doyle’s public interventions on literature, politics, war, justice, spiritualism, social issues and current affairs. It is an important documentary collection for understanding Conan Doyle as a public commentator and campaigner.
Essays on Photography: The Unknown Conan Doyle
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Compiled with an introduction by John Michael Gibson and Richard Lancelyn Green
Secker & Warburg
1982
128 pages
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Essays on Photography collects Arthur Conan Doyle's little-known writings on photography, originally contributed in the 1880s to a leading photographic journal before his fame as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. The volume documents Conan Doyle's early technical, artistic, and practical interest in photography, making it a valuable documentary collection rather than a biography or critical study.
Sherlock Holmes Documents
The Sherlock Holmes Letters
Edited by Richard Lancelyn Green
Secker & Warburg; University of Iowa Press
1986; U.S. edition, 1987
272 pages
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The Sherlock Holmes Letters collects real letters sent to Sherlock Holmes, treating Conan Doyle's fictional detective as if he were a living correspondent. Edited by Richard Lancelyn Green, the volume documents the remarkable public belief in, affection for, and imaginative engagement with Holmes as a cultural figure.
"Dear Starrett—" / "Dear Briggs—"
Edited by John Nieminski & Jon L. Lellenberg
Fordham University Press
1989
128 pages
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A fascinating collection of correspondence exchanged between Vincent Starrett and Gray Chandler Briggs between 1930 and 1934. This volume, part of the Baker Street Irregulars archival-history series, includes annotated letters, related essays, appendices, photographs, and facsimile documents illuminating the early development of Sherlockian studies and the friendship between two important figures of the movement.
