Family and Personal Networks Biographical Books
Family and Personal Networks Biographical Books lists books about Arthur Conan Doyle's family, friendships, personal relationships, collaborators, social circles, and private or semi-private networks. These works examine Conan Doyle through the people around him: relatives, friends, associates, correspondents, local acquaintances, and figures who played an important role in his personal or public life.
The books are listed in reverse chronological order.
Books about Conan Doyle and Family/Friends
The Budds of the West Country
By Brian W. Pugh
Privately published
2012
90 pages
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The Budds of the West Country is a fully researched history of the Budd family in Devon and Gloucestershire, focusing on the family from 1716-1860. It contains the history of each family of the Budd dynasty, a family tree, a brief essay on Arthur Conan Doyle and the Budds, the relations and the census, plus many photographs of which some have not been published before.
Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini
By Christopher Sandford
St. Martin's Griffin
2011
304 pages
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Masters of Mystery studies the friendship between Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, two famous public figures whose relationship was shaped by admiration, disagreement, spiritualism, scepticism, and celebrity.
Bertram Fletcher Robinson: A Footnote to The Hound of the Baskervilles
By Brian W. Pugh & Paul R. Spiring
MX Publishing
2008
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A study of Bertram Fletcher Robinson and his connection with The Hound of the Baskervilles. The book examines Robinson's role in the background and genesis of Conan Doyle's famous Sherlock Holmes novel, making it a focused literary-historical study of one major work.
Buzzin In Sussex: An Investigation Into The Connections of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, His Family and Sherlock Holmes
By Brian W. Pugh
Privately published
2005
? pages
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Buzzin In Sussex investigates the Sussex connections of Arthur Conan Doyle, his family, and Sherlock Holmes. The booklet belongs here because it combines local history with family and personal associations, tracing the network of people and places connected with Conan Doyle in Sussex.
Out of the Shadows
By Georgina Doyle
Ash Tree Press
2004
382 pages
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Out of the Shadows is a family-focused biographical book about Arthur Conan Doyle's first family. Written from within the Doyle family circle, it gives particular attention to the domestic and personal side of Conan Doyle's life, making it especially relevant to studies of his family relationships.
Final Séance: The Strange Friendship Between Houdini and Conan Doyle
By Massimo Polidoro
Prometheus Books
2001
264 pages
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Based on original correspondence, photographs, and his own extensive research, Massimo Polidoro reconstructs this unusual friendship between a believer and a skeptic, which weathered mediums, seances, an apparition of Houdini's departed mother, automatic writing by Conan Doyle's wife, public debunkings, and hurt feelings.
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, Sherlock Holmes and Freemasonry
By Robert T. Runciman; edited by Philip L. Weller
Sherlock Publications
1993
20 pages (unnumbered)
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A study on masonic references in the Sherlock Holmes Canon and Arthur Conan Doyle's connection with Freemasonry. The text is a revised reprint of Robert T. Runciman's article first published in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum.
Doctor Joe Bell: Model for Sherlock Holmes
By Ely Liebow
Bowling Green University Popular Press
1982
270 pages
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Biography of Dr. Joseph Bell, the Edinburgh physician whose remarkable powers of observation and deduction inspired Arthur Conan Doyle in the creation of Sherlock Holmes. The book examines Bell's medical career, teaching methods, personality, and lasting influence on detective fiction through Conan Doyle's famous detective.
The Doyle Diary: The Last Great Conan Doyle Mystery
By Michael Baker
Paddington Press
1978
92 pages
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The Doyle Diary is a diary-sketchbook of Charles Altamont Doyle, father of Arthur Conan Doyle. The book inckludes an introductioon by Michael Baker, and a page transcription of the words of Charles Doyle as they appear in the diary.
Houdini and Doyle: The Story of a Strange Friendship
By Bernard M. L. Ernst & Hereward Carrington
Albert & Charles Boni
1932
250 pages
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Houdini and Doyle is an early account of the friendship between Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle. The book documents the personal bond between the magician and the author, and the spiritualist disagreement that eventually divided them.
