The Editor's Commonplace Book (vol. 10)
The Editor's Commonplace Book [Vol. 10] is an article written by Christopher Roden published in the A.C.D. - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (Vol. 10, may 2000).
This article was a roundup of recent Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes items from newspapers, magazines, and related publications. It reports and excerpts various notices, including curriculum references, magazine articles, and commentaries.
The Editor's Commonplace Book
THE TITANIC COMMUTATOR, the Official Journal of the Titanic Historical Society (Vol. 23, No. 148) has a short article very much of relevance to followers of ACD, particularly his visits to North America. 'The Canada: Charles Hays' Official Car' provides details of the personal touring car of Charles M. Hays which has recently been acquired by the Canadian Railway Museum, and which is in the process of being restored. The Canada was the touring car made available to ACD for his 1914 visit to Canada. The invitation Conan Doyle received is noted in the Introduction to this Society's edition of Western Wanderings (1994, p. 9):
- The Grand Trunk Railway System will have a private railway car to meet you at Quebec or Montreal, will send you wherever you want to go in Eastern Canada, furnish you with the best on their steamers on the Great Lakes, have another car waiting for you at Fort William, and send you all over the western portion of the trip on their lines.
The Canada was built in 1897 by the Wagner Palace Car Co., at Buffalo, New York, for the use of Hays, General Manager of the Grand Trunk Railroad. The interior of the car is finished in mahogany, of plain design throughout, except the kitchen, which is cherry. The upholstery is dark green Ooze leather, and the floors are covered with green Wilton carpet with matching draperies. The floor space is divided so as to afford very ample accommodation. The two staterooms, which can be arranged en suite, are furnished with stationary beds and individual toilet accommodations. The locks and most of the other metal fittings in the car are of Persian brass, the washstands and accessories being of nickeline and are supplied with both hot and cold water service. In the observation room is a convenient piece of equipment in the form of a map rack, containing numerous maps showing the topography of various sections of the road, which are mounted on rollers for automatically folding them into the ceiling when not in use. The car is lit with Pintsch gaslights and heated with the "anti-pounding" steam-heating system. In the observation room is a speed recorder.'
The Titanic Historical Society was privileged to see the car as part of a private showing during the Titanic Heritage Tour IV.
There is a further connection between ACD and Titanic, not often noted. When ACD made the voyage to North America in May 1914, it was aboard Titanic's sister ship, the White Star Line's SS Olympic. One wonders whether the incidents of April 1912, and ACD's subsequent vitriolic correspondence with GBS, would have occurred to him during that crossing.
'I wonder that you have not yet enlightened your public with an account of the Giant Newt of Brent East, Watson. That is a story for which the world may be at last prepared'. Such was the beginning of Philip Howard's editorial contribution to The Times of 10 March, 2000. The Giant Newt, is Ken Livingstone; and the article comments on the machinations of Livingstone to become London's Lord Mayor. "A genius, Watson. ... The ability to spread his tentacles into every corner of the media Internet and Underground? The reputation for political genius based on a foundation of painted smoke? The facility with which he vanishes into thin air when anybody asks an awkward question? The egomaniac vanity?" "Great Scott, Holmes!" I cried. "You cannot mean...?" Holmes nodded gravely. "Who other than Moriarty, the Napoleon of Crime, would camouflage his plot to take over London behind a humble newt?""
The New York Times's Travel section (2 April 2000) carried an article entitled 'Deducing Holmes's City' by Stephen Kendrick. The article guides the reader around all of the well-known Sherlockian sites in central London. For a much more interesting read, however, and more detailed information on these, and many more sites, the reader is recommended to use Hot on the Scent: A Visitor's Guide to the London of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur M. Alexander (Calabash Press, 1999).
Something similar — 'Hot on the trail of the master of deduction' by Douglas McArthur (Assistant Travel Editor)-appeared in Toronto's Globe and Mail on 5 June 1999. McArthur (in the company of Society member Peter Calamai), however, strayed outside of London to take part in the Portsmouth, Southsea, and Hampshire tour conducted by Philip Weller (who, McArthur noted, 'made me ill at ease right off the bat. ... It wasn't long, however, before his unbridled enthusiasm... caught me in its grip'). The tour took in the Portsmouth, Southsea, Netley, New Forest, and Winchester sites (though, McArthur complained, they were given 'no time to visit the impressive cathedral, site of the grave of Jane Austen, even though Doyle and Lady Jean went inside it in 1924'). The article notes that Philip Weller's Deerstalker Tours organizes Holmesian and Doylean excursions, ranging from one-day visits within Britain to seven-day expeditions visiting Holmesian sites in continental Europe. The one-day tour of Holmesian and Doylean Hampshire sites, including guide and transportation, costs £25 a person (minimum two people). A two-day tour of Dartmoor is £50 a person, plus accommodation. Further information from Philip Weller at 6 Bramham Moor, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire PO14 3RU.
BBC Online (18 June 1999) noted proposals for Britain's National Curriculum. The English Authors List ('English Heritage: two works of fiction by major writers published before 1914') includes 'Arthur Conan Doyle; e.g. Sherlock Holmes series'.
Pipes and Tobacco, September 1999, included a nice nine-page illustrated article, 'A Three-Pipe Problem', by Alan Smith, discussing smoking and Sherlock Holmes (both in Conan Doyle's stories and in media presentations). The article was accompanied by two quite interesting original pieces of artwork by Chuck Reagan, a composite of which adorned the cover of the magazine.
Joe Nickell, whose article 'Davenport Brothers: Investigating the Houdini-Doyle Dispute' appeared in ACD 9, covered some of the same ground in 'The Davenport Brothers: Religious Practitioners, Entertainers, or Frauds?' in Skeptical Inquirer (23:4, July/August 1999). Meantime, our latest biographer of ACD, Daniel Stashower, contributed another Houdini piece to American History: 'The Medium and the Magician', a study of Houdini's investigation of Mina Crandon ('Margery') (American History, August 1999).
'CONAN DOYLE AND THE STORY HE KEPT QUIET — Postcard written by creator of Sherlock Holmes reveals fears over tale of sex and murder.' So ran the somewhat dramatic headline of an article in Edinburgh's Evening News for 26 June 1999. It concerned comment over the postcard in which ACD noted his reasons for the suppression of 'The Cardboard Box': 'There was a certain sex element in the Carboard Box story & for this reason I discarded it when I published in book form. ... The article notes that an Edinburgh expert (Owen Dudley Edwards) believes Sotheby's staff fell for a red herring when they catalogued the item for auction. '[Edwards] said it was actually the author's mother who forced him to withdraw the story from a Sherlock Holmes collection.
'He believes she felt that the tragic tale of jealous love too closely mirrored the breakdown of her own marriage, which saw Conan Doyle's father become alcoholic and epileptic before his death in 1893 — just before the Cardboard Box was edited out. ... [Edwards] said: "When his dad died I think his mother said 'you oughtn't to publish this. The death of his father meant it suddenly became distasteful to be reprinting the story which had, possibly unconsciously, too much in common with what happened to his father."
'Sotheby's specialist Dr Peter Beal said: "This postcard would appear to confirm that he felt uncomfortable about the illicit love. affair appearing in England." But Mr Dudley Edwards... believes. Sotheby's deduction is wrong. "The reason given on the card is the official one given by Conan Doyle — but it may not be the real one," he said.
'He explained that Conan Doyle's father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was an artist working at the Office of the Surveyor General for Scotland but lost his job and became certified in the wake of his drinking bouts and epileptic fits.
'The family had a lodger, pathologist Dr Bryan Waller, who paid the family's rent for homes in George Square and Lonsdale Terrace and was one of the inspirations for Holmes.
'"Conan Doyle's father was jealous of Waller and had his suspicions," Mr Dudley Edwards said. When the marriage broke down in 1883, Conan Doyle's mother moved to Waller's estate in Yorkshire. Ten years later his father died-and within months the Carboard Box had bitten the dust. "It was obviously withdrawn. quite hurriedly. The sex reason was a good excuse. The real reason was that he was probably told by his mother 'you can't have The Cardboard Box'. He never reprinted it for 25 years, when his mother was very old-presumably she agreed to it at that stage."'
From 'Bent's Notes' (The Bookseller, 3 December 1999):
- 'Publishers are making a good deal of progress in the licensing of reprints in China. But there is still a way to go. Spotted recently, "Published by arrangement with the Penguin Group": Sherdlock Holems and the Mystery of Boscombe Pool."
If you enjoy 'surfing the web' for something a little different to do with Conan Doyle, you could do worse than check out <www.usa3.cricket.org>, the internet's cricket information site. One item I turned up recently was the scorecard for an Actors v Authors match at Lord's on 29 June 1905. Conan Doyle opened the batting for the Authors in the company of P. G. Wodehouse, but neither made much of an impression, scoring 2 and 0 respectively. Willie Hornung was also on the Authors' team, but did not bat in a total of 149 for 8 declared. The Actors easily passed that score in 28 overs, Conan Doyle being scored on most heavily. His bowling figures for the match were 8 overs; 1 maiden; 0 wickets for 45 runs. Not, it seems, one of his more impressive performances. Interestingly, the match was a twelve-a-side, one of a series of annual fixtures played on the main ground at Lord's.
The recent BBC2 Murder Rooms: the Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes brought forth all kinds of articles in the British press:
- 'Elementary! This is the real Sherlock Holmes' (Julian Champkin, Daily Mail, 20 May 1999)
- 'Television Review' (Robert Hanks, Independent, 5 January 2000)
- 'Ideal Holmes show' (Stephen Moss, The Guardian, 5 January 2000)
- 'The origins of Sherlock Holmes' (James Walton, Daily Telegraph, 5 January 2000)
- 'The real Holmes, I presume' (Christopher Matthew, Daily Mail, 5 January 2000)
- 'The "real" Sherlock Holmes' (Maxton Walker, The Guardian, 4 January 2000)
- 'The man who was Holmes' (David Pirie, Daily Telegraph, 29 December 1999)
to name but a few.
Michael Dirda, the Baker Street Irregulars' 'discovery' from their 2000 Birthday Festivities, and someone of whom I am sure the Sherlockian world will hear more in years to come, took his own unique look at Holmes and the BSI weekend in his column 'Excursions' (Washington Post, 6 February 2000).
The Technology section of The New York Times may not be the place you would normally expect to find an article on Sherlock Holmes, but the 2 December 1999 issue had just that. We live in internet-enabled times, of course, and 'Unraveling the Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes' by Michael Pollak was intended as a guide to some of the major Holmes-oriented sites on the net. For those who still need guidance in these matters, here are a couple of the major sites to check out:
Yoxley Old Place at <www.geocities.com/~sherlockian/index.html> and Chris Redmond's Sherlockian net at <www.sherlockian.net>.
Needless to say, the statue of Sherlock Holmes in London drew much press coverage and a little adverse publicity for some of the less judicious Sherlockians in attendance at the unveiling ceremony.
Whilst many individual donations were made to the fund launched by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, it seems that The Abbey National provided the bulk of the funding for John Doubleday's statue. Reports to us indicate that, once Prince Charles had confirmed his unavailability, the Abbey National stepped in and virtually took over proceedings: their Chairman, Lord Tugendhat, performing the unveiling ceremony.
'It transpires,' wrote David Stuart Davies, editor of Sherlock Holmes The Detective Magazine, 'that the Chairman of the Abbey National will be the person who unveils the statue and not anyone with Sherlockian or literary connections. The London Society have [sic] no choice in the matter. Indeed, it is a great pity-but we must not be downhearted. We've got the statue and that is what matters most. And those of us with an interest in Sherlock Holmes and his world know exactly who to thank for their dedication and hard work.'
That, I have to say, seemed to me to be somewhat ungracious. Isn't it acceptable that the Chairman of the major funding body should be the one to unveil the statue? Downhearted? We got the statue and that is what matters most? Well, all that sounds like gripe, gripe, gripe, and a lot of sour grapes to me. Hardly the altruism we might have seen from Conan Doyle, is it?
But more was to follow on the day of the unveiling. The Washington Post (24 September 1999) reported:
- '[Abbey National] was happy to comply when the Holmes Society asked it to fund, at long last, a London statue of Sherlock Holmes. And today Abbey National's chairman, Lord Tugendhat, unveiled the nine-foot bronze statue.
- 'The bank chairman is a collector of Sherlock Holmes first editions, but even he seemed unprepared for the fervor of the Sherlockians who had traveled from all over to be present for the great moment.
- 'When Tugendhat announced that his bank was "proud to be associated with the world's greatest fictional detective", the assembled fans booed. The banker looked stunned [I bet he did!], but afterward a Baker Street Irregular from Los Angeles, June Kinnee, explained what he had done wrong. "We didn't like that business about 'fictional'," she smiled. "To some of us, Sherlock's not fictional."
Now these are, indeed, deep waters, Watson! There have been varying reports of what happened-that there was discontent because people could not get the view of the event they expected to get; that the weather was miserable and everyone was wet; that people. couldn't hear and quite possibly-possibly-there is something in all of that. But to boo the Chairman of the Bank which provided the major funding for the statue, just for calling Holmes a 'fictional detective' (what else is he, for Heaven's sake?), is rank bad manners; and hardly a tribute to the memory of the man who first created that 'fictional detective'. When I read of the events, I, for one, was glad that my U.K. holiday last year didn't coincide with the statue unveiling, but instead took in the less turbulent gathering of a group of ghost story enthusiasts.
And finally, for those who collect vintage cars, the Brooks web site has details of the 1934 Mercedes-Benz 'SSK' Two-seat competition Spyder, one time vehicle of the Conan Doyle brothers, Adrian and Denis. That information is accessible at <www.specialcar.com/Brooks/b-110.htm>
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
