The Parish Magazine No. 13
The Parish Magazine No. 13 is the newsletter of the The Arthur Conan Doyle Society published in november 1995.
The Parish Magazine No. 13
THE PARISH MAGAZINE is The Arthur Conan Doyle Society's twice-yearly collection of news, views, reviews, and all that is interesting in the world of Arthur Conan Doyle. It is the outlet for responses to and discussion of articles which appeared in the previous year's ACD - The Journal of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society, and members' comments are welcomed.
- ISSN 1350-2190
- THE PARISH MAGAZINE
- is edited by
- Christopher Roden & Barbara Roden
© 1995: The Arthur Conan Doyle Society
All individual copyrights retained by the authors.
No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the editors.
The views expressed in articles in The Parish Magazine are those of the respective contributors and not necessarily those of the editors.
All editorial correspondence should be sent to: The Arthur Conan Doyle Society, Ashcroft, 2 Abbottsford Drive, Penyffordd, Chester CH4 0JG Tel: 01244 545210
Minstead Church, the burial place of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is the subject of The Parish Magazine's front cover sketch.
THE PARISH MAGAZINE
ISSUE NUMBER THIRTEEN: NOVEMBER 1995
Editorial
This issue of The Parish Magazine appears much later than was intended, and we would like to apologise to members who must have been wondering exactly when they were going to hear something from the Society. The delay is due to a number of reasons, some personal, others deliberate, but one benefit to arise from it is that we are able to time the appearance of this issue with the publication of the first new biography of Arthur Conan Doyle to appear in a dozen years: yes, it really is that long since Owen Dudley Edwards's The Quest for Sherlock Holmes shook the Doylean and Sherlockian worlds with its trail-blazing approach to Doylean scholarship.
The much-heralded, latest biographical study is simply entitled Conan Doyle and comes from the pen of Michael Coren, a British journalist who moved to Canada in 1986 and who now lives in Toronto. Coren's previous forays into biography have included Gilbert: The Man Who Was G. K. Chesterton and The Invisible Man: The Life and Liberties of H. G. Wells, books whose mixed reception has led a number of us to speculate on exactly what kind of treatment Conan Doyle would receive at Coren's hands. Members and friends of the Society will now be able to find this out for themselves: we have negotiated special terms with the publishers, Bloomsbury, enabling us to make copies of the book available to members at post-paid prices which show a considerable saving on the published price-with the convenience of having the book delivered to your door. For full details of this offer, please see the separate advertisement and order form which are enclosed.
The Society's review copies of Conan Doyle have arrived within the last few days, too late for us to present a considered review in this issue. Instead, the 1995 issue of ACD will carry a multi-authored major review of the book, which will attempt to place Coren's contribution in the overall context of ACD biography. Our panel of reviewers will include Jon Lellenberg, who will assess how Coren answers some, if any, of the outstanding biographical questions posed in his 1987 review of previous biographical work, The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Canadian Doylean scholar, Chris Redmond, Richard Lancelyn Green, and Owen Dudley Edwards. Because we feel it important that Coren's book should be thoroughly reviewed in this year's ACD, publication of the Journal will be delayed until February 1996.
Interest in Conan Doyle is bound to be further stimulated by the publicity which will be given to Coren's book and, whilst this is no bad thing, we must try, whenever the opportunity arises, to see that ACD is accurately portrayed. We hear, for example, that Paramount is in the process of casting a film about the Cottingley Fairies. Besides dealing with the fairy episode, the film will also, apparently, cover ACD's relationship with Harry Houdini. We are in contact with the researcher on that project. How far we shall be able to influence him remains to be seen!
Conan Doyle's name was particularly prominent in newspapers around the world in late June and early July, through reports of the Sotheby's auction of Stanley Mackenzie's Collection. I personally found it very sad that a collection which had been so cherished by its owner, and which had taken so long to assemble, should be scattered to the four winds in the space of an hour, and could not help comparing the situation with that of the John Bennett Shaw Collection. I had the opportunity to raise the matter in interviews with the press, television, and radio, and it seems that a number of other groups have since picked up on my suggestion that there should be a national collection and exhibition of Doylean and Sherlockian material, which would have the capability of housing and displaying any such collections coming onto the market in future. That would, of course, be a major undertaking: one which would require major support and funding. It would also require the investment of a great deal of time and effort by a number of individuals, and we should be delighted to hear from anyone who feels that he, or she, is a suitable person to take on such a challenge.
Finally, we have some important news regarding the future of the Society. It is probably the worst-kept secret in the Sherlockian and Doylean world that Barbara and I intend to re-locate to British Columbia, Canada, and it seems likely that the re-location will take place in mid-1996. It is our intention to continue running The Arthur Conan Doyle Society from Canada, and we believe that with the aid of modern technology-computers, faxes, e-mail, and the Internet-we can do that just as efficiently as we have done in the past. We shall make arrangements for publications to be distributed to British members from within Britain; material for North American members will be distributed from Canada, which will mean that we shall be able to look at balancing subscription costs by removing the penalty currently suffered by North American members. We already have offers of help in Britain, but shall be pleased to hear from anyone who feels that they would like to assist the Society in some way. That is a request we have made before, with little or no response.
It's now very definitely up to you.
Christopher Roden
The Electronic Arthur Conan Doyle Society
It had to happen eventually, and in August we took the decision that we could delay no longer. In order to speed up response times to our growing number of North American contacts, we now have an e-mail address. Besides enabling us to reduce the amount of routine correspondence, and the paper and postage costs that that entails, early forays into a number of newsgroups have produced some valuable contacts. Our contact with The Hounds of the Internet means that we are getting information fed through to us much more quickly, and that we can respond to queries more quickly, too. And we have also seen practical benefits: a few new members have come our way from the Hounds, and we have been able to introduce publications like The Blood-Stone Tragedy to people who would, perhaps, not otherwise have heard of it.
Some discussion of ACD does take place in the Hounds group, but truly it remains (and why not?) a Sherlockian discussion group. No newsgroup exists purely for ACD at the present time — but that is no reason why one should not exist in the future. We'll be happy to contribute to such a group, but we have to be quite definite about the fact that it will not be us that organises it.
So, if any of our members feel that it would be useful to be able to discuss ACD within a newsgroup, we shall be glad to hear from them. And we'll be more than pleased to hear from a volunteer Newsgroup organiser!
If you want to contact either of us, or the Society by e-mail, the address is: [email protected]
Arthurdactylus conan-doylei
From The Times, 20 August 1995:
- A new species of pterodactyl, the giant winged reptiles that flew in the days of the dinosaurs, has been discovered by British scientists who have named it after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in celebration of his book The Lost World.
- While most people remember Conan Doyle for his Sherlock Holmes stories of the 1890s, his 1912 tale of an expedition to a South American jungle in which cavemen, dinosaurs and pterodactyls survived remains a classic among palaeontologists.
- Dr David Martill, of Portsmouth University, who has described the new species from a fossil, said: 'Arthur Conan Doyle was the first to popularise pterodactyls. We thought the discovery needed a name, so we have named it Arthurdactylus conan-doylei in his honour.' Dr Martill identified the new species with Dino Frey of the State Natural History Museum in Karlsruhe, Germany. He said the site where the fossil was found, at Shapada Do Araripe in northeastern Brazil, resembled Conan Doyle's mythical lost world.
- The fossil, which has a wing span of six metres, was discovered by peasants who make a small living digging in the area and selling their finds to traders in Rio de Janeiro. It was bought by a Swiss collector who sold it to the museum.
This announcement could not have come at a better time, as it preceded by a few weeks the publication of a new book by Michael (Jurassic Park) Crichton. That book's title? The Lost World. Mr Crichton has, of course, acknowledged that Conan Doyle was an influence on him, and this is, as Michael Meer demonstrated in his article for last year's ACD, recognisable in specific passages of Jurassic Park. It would have been appropriate for Mr Crichton to acknowledge ACD's influence in the book's acknowledgements. Sadly, though he saw fit to use ACD's title, he did not have the good grace to credit ACD's contribution.
Two New Plaques for ACD
Following the plaques which were unveiled in Upper Wimpole Street, London and Union Station, Indianapolis in 1994, ACD is commemorated by two further plaques unveiled this year.
The first is reported from Australia by Alan Olding, President of The Sherlock Holmes Society of Australia:
- 'I am sure you will be pleased to hear that, as a result of representations which I have made to the Minister for the Arts in the South Australian Government, Ms Diana Laidlaw, the department has agreed to fund the design, manufacture and installation of a plaque to commemorate the visit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Adelaide in September 1920.
- 'A number of local artists have been invited to submit designs, and a selection will be made in mid-September, with the plaque to be inaugurated during the month of October.
- 'It is to be installed in the pavement adjacent to the site of the hotel in which Sir Arthur stayed with his family, now occupied by a multi-storied car park.
- 'I understand there is a possibility that the plaque may be the first in a series to be placed in a 'Writers Walk' to remember celebrated authors who have visited this city.'
That is good news indeed, and our congratulations go to Alan Olding for his fine efforts.
The second plaque, unveiled in July by Mrs Georgina Doyle, is in a more unusual location: Phoenix Lodge 257 in Portsmouth, where ACD was a Brother from 1887-1889, and from 1902-1911.
The circumstances leading to this plaque are something of a mystery at the present time. We are told, however, that the plaque is approximately 250mm x 150mm and carries a simple statement of the fact that ACD was a Brother Mason at the Phoenix Lodge.
Anyone wishing to view the Phoenix Lodge plaque may find it a little difficult to do so: there is no caretaker on the premises and it is therefore necessary to contact a Lodge official to make prior arrangements for any proposed visit.
It has to be said that there is something rather gratifying in noting that the four plaques unveiled in the last two years have all been dedicated to Arthur Conan Doyle. Do we detect a gradual change of emphasis?
Jeremy Brett (1935-1995)
It is with great sadness that we report the death of Jeremy Brett on 12 September 1995.
Jeremy will be remembered by all involved in the world of Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes for his outstanding interpretation of Conan Doyle's detective creation. Jeremy was always keen to emphasise how important he felt it was that the Granada series should remain faithful to the original, and he is to be praised for the efforts he made to resist changes made by scriptwriters who, shall we say, felt that the original could be improved upon.
Jeremy became an Honorary Member of the Society shortly before its official launch in 1989 and was enthusiastic about our plans and progress.
An appreciation will appear in the 1995 Journal. We are also delighted to announce that Calabash Press will be publishing Bending the Willow: Jeremy Brett and Sherlock Holmes, an appreciation by David Stuart Davies, in the early Spring of 1996. Please telephone, write, or e-mail us if you would like to receive further details of this book when they are available towards the end of the year.
Notes and News
The Daily Mail for 2 June 1995 reported the sale of Mauricewood House at Milton Bridge, near Edinburgh, former home of Dr Joseph Bell. Savills, it was reported, were seeking offers of more than £325,000 for the Victorian mansion, which is built of stone with a spired tower, pepper pot turret and steep gabled windows. Accommodation includes a secret turret room reached through the master bedroom. There are seven bedrooms, four reception rooms and a self-contained flat, and the house is set in nearly two acres of wooded grounds. Any offers?
What is the connection between Frank Hersey of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and Dr John H. Watson, late of the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers and the Berkshires, and companion to Conan Doyle's master detective Sherlock Holmes? Well, do you remember Watson's wound-the one in the leg, and the one in the shoulder? Frank Hersey knows how they could both have occurred.
In 1931, Hersey was a signalman in Aklavik, a tiny settlement in the extreme northwest corner of the Northwest Territories. On the last day of that year, Albert Johnson, a trapper (later to be known as the Mad Trapper of Rat River) in nearby Fort MacPherson, shot a Mountie who was investigating him for trapping in aboriginal territory. On 17 February 1932, Hersey, who was part of the group pursuing Johnson, rounded a bend in the Eagle River when he spotted a man in the distance. In Hersey's own words:
- 'I recognised the snowshoes and I knew it was Johnson so I went for my rifle. Johnson tried to scramble up the eight-metre bank rising above the frozen river.
- 'I can't kill people very well so I shot at his pack. I hit him and he slid down the bank, then went and climbed up again. So I got down on one knee and fired again and down he came.
- 'But Johnson stood up again. All of a sudden I saw him reach behind his back for his gun.'
Hersey was not worried. He did not think Johnson could be accurate at that distance. But he was wrong. The bullet blasted through Hersey's knee, then his elbow, into his side and out through his back.
- All of this might just solve the problem of how Watson came to have two wounds.
- And Frank Hersey? He's still alive, and has just celebrated his 90th birthday.
Tangled Web Audio is a newcomer to the Audiobooks market that is worth keeping a look out for. Their first two titles are reviewed in this issue. For a complete list of titles available, contact them at 1063 King Street West, Suite 133, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 1L8. If you are a Net-surfer, you'll find them at 'http://www.eidos.ca/tangled/'.
The Life and Times of Crowborough Beacon Golf Club 1895-1995 is a handsomely produced book, with black and white and colour photographs, which offers a record of the first hundred years of the club. There are a number of mentions of ACD, who was captain of the club in 1910, and a communication is reproduced in which ACD offered to give the club five guineas for a cup. Unfortunately, no mention is made in the text as to whether this offer was accepted, what the Cup was called, or even if it still exists. It should perhaps be said that, unless you are looking to maintain copies of every reference to ACD, this is not an essential book. However, if you need to obtain a copy, you should contact Crowborough Beacon Golf Club, Beacon Road, Crowborough, Sussex TN6 IUJ, and send them £15, which will cover the cost of the book and postage wherever you live in the world.
The Douglas Wilmer Sherlock Holmes:
Our thanks to all who took the time and trouble to complete the petition to the BBC to have the Wilmer series repeated or made available on commercial video.
Even before the petition was presented, the BBC announced that a trial video with two episodes from the series would be issued early in 1996. No release date has yet been announced, and no indication has been given as to the programmes to be included. Watch this space, however, as we shall pass on information as soon as we have it.
In connection with the BBC's decision, we should all pass on a word of thanks to Tony Howlett of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, who has been battling away privately at the BBC for some years. It seems his perseverance is about to pay off.
The Society's publication of The Blood-Stone Tragedy attracted a deal of media attention when it was launched in June. The Mail on Sunday carried a full column report, and interviews were carried out with Christopher Roden and Michael Halewood for regional radio and television. A report of the book apparently made it to the pages of Bookdealer, the magazine of the antiquarian and second-hand book trade in Britain, as the following response, from Mr Nicholas Willmott of Canton, Cardiff, (and sent to us by Richard Dalby) appeared on 13 July:
- 'We were alarmed to read on p.5 of today's Bookdealer what appears to be a gross libel of the late Dr William Price of Llantrisant (1800-1893). You refer to a Conan Doyle tale being based on a 'real-life horror story' and refer to 'a Welsh doctor, William Price, (who) was caught by villagers when he attempted to burn alive his illegitimate son in a druid-style ceremony'.
- 'While the remarkable Dr William Price generously provided South Wales with ample material for scandal and gossip throughout his long life, unjustly to accuse him of infanticide seems a little harsh.
- 'Dr Price was certainly odd. Amongst other things he was a self-styled arch-druid, practised free-love, was a vegetarian, opposed vivisection, wore a large fox skin on his head and claimed that Homer was born just outside Caerphilly. Nevertheless he was a fine and popular physician, treating the poor free of charge. His popularity also rested on his having been a Chartist leader. After the 1839 Chartist march on Newport he escaped dressed as a woman to France where he became acquainted with Heine.
- 'At the age of 83 his 'companion', Gwenllian Llewelyn, bore him the first of three children, a son named Iesu Grist. Sadly Iesu Grist died of convulsions in infancy. When he attempted ceremonially to cremate the body in a barrel of vaseline he was arrested, cremation then being illegal. He was indicted at the Cardiff assizes in 1894, where he conducted his own defence. To great popular acclaim he was acquitted, but ordered to pay one farthing costs. It was by this judgment that the legality of cremation was first established.
- 'Incidentally he called his next son, who lived until 1963, Iesu Grist the Second. When Dr Price died he was, of course, cremated in accordance with his detailed instructions. A crowd of 20,000 attended the ceremony. A statue of Dr Price, wearing his characteristic outfit, can be seen in the centre of Llantrisant.
- 'Conan Doyle's anonymous libel of Dr Price is shabby enough, for it to be perpetuated in your columns 111 years on is clearly unfair to the memory of this radical, if eccentric, philanthropist.'
Despite this particular reaction, The Blood-Stone Tragedy has sold extremely well: at the time of writing there are a mere four unsold copies, although a small stock is still held by Rupert Books, 59 Stonefield, Bar Hill, Cambridge CB3 8TE (Tel: 01954 781861).
Miles Kington, humorous columnist for various British newspapers in his time, wrote this in his column for The Independent on 24 July:
- 'One of the least known of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works is a book called Through the Magic Door, which is not a work of fiction at all but a controlled, reminiscent ramble along his bookshelf, chatting about his favourite books as if he were on Desert Island Discs. At one point, in fact, he actually invents the idea of Desert Island Discs: 'Were I condemned to spend a year upon a desert island,' he says, 'and allowed only one book for my companion, it is certainly that [Gibbon's Decline and Fall] which I should choose....'
Nothing particularly remarkable in that quote, admittedly, but an unexpected column in which to encounter Conan Doyle, and an unexpected mention of Through the Magic Door.
Things really are looking up.
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The Gap on the Second Shelf (II)
R. Dixon Smith
'With five volumes you could just fill that gap on the second shelf. It looks untidy, does it not, sir?' — 'The Empty House'
III. Mysteries and Adventures.
London: Walter Scott, 1889. The Novocastrian Series. Pink paper covers, titled black. Dark green cloth, titled gilt. First edition, second issue: The Gully of Bluemansdyke, and Other Stories. London: Walter Scott, 1892. Yellow paper covers, titled red. Red cloth, titled black. First U.S. edition: My Friend the Murderer and Other Mysteries and Adventures. New York: Lovell, Coryell, 1893. The Belmore Series, No. 26. Light blue cloth, titled gilt.
Contents: 'The Gully of Bluemansdyke', 'The Parson of Jackman's Gulch', 'My Friend the Murderer', 'The Silver Hatchet', 'The Man from Archangel', 'That Little Square Box', 'A Night among the Nihilists'. (Continental edition also contains 'Selecting a Ghost', 'The Mystery of Sasassa Valley', 'Our Derby Sweepstakes', 'The American's Tale', 'Bones: The April Fool of Harvey's Sluice'.)
After Micah Clarke established his reputation as a successful novelist, Conan Doyle persuaded its publisher, Longmans, Green, to release a collection of his early short stories, which he had assembled before the appearance of Micah Clarke. But he soon learned that he had sold many of his early tales outright to the proprietors of the magazines in which they had appeared. Because of this, James Hogg, editor of London Society, put together a collection of all the Conan Doyle stories to which he held rights and published it, apparently between 1-15 March 1890, as Mysteries and Adventures. Conan Doyle was understandably furious, as the Longmans, Green collection, The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales, had just appeared on 6 March. When asked to comment on Mysteries and Adventures, he told the Birmingham Weekly Mercury.
- 'Mysteries and Adventures' is a pirated edition of tales written years ago in London Society-some of them when I was little more than a boy. It is rough on me having these youthful effusions brought out in this catchpenny fashion, but I have no legal redress. The less reviewed or read they are the better.
A second issue, entitled The Gully of Bluemansdyke, and Other Stories, appeared in 1892. An American edition was released as My Friend the Murderer and Other Mysteries and Adventures by Lovell, Coryell in 1893. Conan Doyle later acquired rights, and The Gully of Bluemansdyke and Other Stories was reissued in 1912 by George Newnes as No. 249 in their Newnes Sixpenny Copyright Novels series, with a short preface by the author, which drew attention to the early date of composition.
Apparently only 1,000 copies of Mysteries and Adventures were printed, of which those in paper covers are especially scarce. The publisher maintained that the collection had appeared in 1889, although there is no evidence of its having been issued prior to March 1890.
This little collection is not easy to find under any of its titles. There have been no modern reprints, and unless Conan Doyle completists are prepared to spend sizeable sums, this particular gap in their collections is going to be difficult to fill.
IV. The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales.
London: Longmans, Green, 1890. Dark Green cloth, titled gilt.
Contents: 'The Captain of the Pole-Star', 'J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement', 'The Great Keinplatz Experiment', 'The Man from Archangel', 'That Little Square Box', 'John Huxford's Hiatus', 'A Literary Mosaic', 'John Barrington Cowles', 'The Parson of Jackman's Gulch', 'The Ring of Thoth'.
As a result of the success of Micah Clarke, Longmans, Green published Conan Doyle's short-story collection, The Captain of the Polestar, on 6 March 1890. As the publisher did not expect exceptional sales, only 750 copies were printed; all were sold on the first day of publication, necessitating a further 750 copies, issued the same month.
Because of its limited print run, copies of the first edition of The Captain of the Polestar are fairly expensive, for they are not commonly encountered. Longmans, Green continued to reprint the collection for some years, however, and attractive reprints will suit most collectors' needs admirably.
V. The Firm of Girdlestone: A Romance of the Unromantic.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1890. Maroon cloth, titled black. First U.S. edition: New York: Frank F. Lovell, 1890. Lovell's International Series. Issued in both paper and cloth.
The Firm of Girdlestone is Conan Doyle's earliest surviving novel, begun in early 1884 and completed by November 1885. During the next five years, he tried without success to place it with a number of magazines. In Memories and Adventures, he recalled his efforts to see it into print:
- When 'Girdlestone' used to come circling back with the precision of a homing pigeon, I was grieved but not surprised, for I acquiesced in the decision.
He need not have. Its central figure, John Girdlestone, is an inspired character study, and the story of his firm's rise and fall-in all its melodramatic, Dickensian detail, including failed speculation, uninsurable steamships, and cold-blooded murder-remains a fine, riveting first novel. But in Memories and Adventures, published thirty-four years later, Conan Doyle was astonishingly blunt: 'Save for occasional patches it is a worthless book, and, like the first book of everyone else, unless he is a great original genius, it was too reminiscent of the work of others.'
Chatto & Windus put it out on 15 April 1890, and although its author thought little of it, the public regarded it more highly, it sold well and remained in print for more than a generation. As its publication preceded the Copyright Act of 1893, there were a great number of pirated American editions.
First editions are neither elusive nor particularly expensive, and attractive early reprints are even less expensive; either would quite nicely fill another gap on the second shelf. The 1980 reprint by Gaslight Publications, in their Conan Doyle Centennial Series, is also available for those seeking a modern, inexpensive reprint.
VI. The White Company.
London: Smith, Elder, 1891. 3 vols. Red-brown cloth, titled black. First authorised U.S. edition: New York: John W. Lovell, 1891. Lovell's International Series, No. 176. Tan paper covers, titled brown. Second U.K. edition: London: Smith, Elder, 1892. Red fine-grain cloth, titled black.
Following the appearance of The Sign of the Four in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in February 1890 and its publication in book form, as The Sign of Four, by Spencer Blackett during 1-15 October of that year, the first of Conan Doyle's mediaeval romances was published by Smith, Elder on 26 October 1891, following its serialisation in The Cornhill Magazine. This lively historical romance concerns the wanderings of Sir Nigel Loring's White Company in southern France during the Hundred Years' War between England and France the age of knights, chivalry, and heroism that so appealed to Conan Doyle's imagination. He brought to the novel his love of mediaeval history, infusing it with a zest that sparkles off the page.
'The White Company is the best thing I have ever done. I endeavoured in that to reconstruct the whole of the fourteenth century,' Conan Doyle later boasted. 'I read up no less than 150 books in preparation for that novel alone.' Indeed, he came to regard his historical romances of the Middle Ages as his highest literary achievements and the serious works he would most like to be remembered by. In Memories and Adventures, Conan Doyle wrote of it and its 1906 prequel, Sir Nigel:
- Encouraged by the kind reception which 'Micah Clarke' had received from the critics, I now determined upon an even bolder and more ambitious flight... Hence came my two books 'The White Company,' written in 1889, and 'Sir Nigel,' written fourteen years later. Of the two I consider the latter the better book, but I have no hesitation in saying that the two of them taken together did thoroughly achieve my purpose, that they made an accurate picture of that great age, and that as a single piece of work they form the most complete, satisfying and ambitious thing that I have ever done. All things find their level, but I believe that if I had never touched Holmes, who has tended to obscure my higher work, my position in literature would at the present moment be a more commanding one.
The White Company was issued in three volumes, commonly referred to as a triple-decker. James Payn, editor of The Cornhill Magazine, so admired the book that he remarked, in his Illustrated London News column for 14 November 1891, that
- It is a very 'Early English' story indeed, and yet there is such 'go' and vigour in it that the reader is carried back by it through the centuries, and seems to live again the life of his forefathers.... I have read nothing of the kind so good since 'Ivanhoe,' with which it has many points of resemblance.... Moreover, what is very rare in an historical novel, there is humour in 'The White Company,' as none who make 'Sir Nigel's' acquaintance will deny.
In the July 1914 Bookman, Arthur Bartlett Maurice displayed similar enthusiasm:
- In contemporary fiction one must look far for a more dramatic incident than the rescue of Sir Nigel and Bertrand du Guesclin by the English archers in The White Company
While Conan Doyle, in a symposium on the book he had most enjoyed writing, stated:
- Of my novels The White Company gave me most pleasure. I was young and full of the first joy of life and action, and I think I got some of it into my pages. When I wrote the last line, I remember that I cried: 'Well, I'll never beat that,' and threw the inky pen at the opposite wall, which was papered with duck's egg green!
If the world had yet to recognise in Conan Doyle a born story-teller who excelled best in stories of action and high adventure, it did once The White Company appeared. The novel was a lasting success, and the three-volume edition was followed by more than fifty reprint editions in quick succession on both sides of the Atlantic. As Conan Doyle biographer Pierre Nordon observed,
- The youthful facility with which the novel is written has for a long time past ceased to hide its permanent value, and professional historians have recognised in it exactly those qualities the novelist had aimed at. 'The White Company,' wrote G.M. Trevelyan, 'gives a spirited and well-informed if somewhat idealised picture of one of these 'companies' abroad.'
The three-volume first edition is very scarce and financially prohibitive for all but the most dedicated and prosperous Conan Doyle collectors, but one can choose from amongst dozens of attractive early reprints, including the second edition, which was the novel's first appearance in one volume. These are far less expensive, as is the John Murray reprint in The Conan Doyle Uniform Edition. Any of these will quite satisfactorily fill this particular gap on that second shelf.
The Stanley Mackenzie Auction
Sotheby's, London, 24 July 1995
Stanley Mackenzie's Collection had been known to all of us by reputation, but few of us had seen it, or were even aware of its extent. We knew there was a Beeton's Christmas Annual-indeed, that particular copy is probably the most photographed book in the world, we knew there were some charming film and theatre posters, which had been reproduced on postcards and as illustrations in numerous books. But Stanley was not the kind of man who would deliberately have made a public show of many of his prize possessions, and it was not until shortly after his death in February that we began to realise that the collection would cease to exist in a matter of months.
Stanley was the quiet gentleman of British Sherlockian circles, who was always helpful, and who enjoyed nothing more than engaging in quiet conversation about Sherlock Holmes. On the last occasion we saw him, at the launch party given by Royal Mail for the Sherlock Holmes stamp issue in October 1993, he was as cheerful as ever as we chatted away in the surroundings of Granada's Baker Street set, which now forms a part of the Granada Studios Tour.
When he realised that he was dying, Stanley made arrangements with Sotheby's for his Collection to be auctioned after his death, and the auction took place on 24 July.
Viewing of the collection was possible on four separate days before the sale itself, offering those who could reach London during that period an opportunity to derive the maximum benefit from viewing. Unfortunately, we were only able to make it for a short period on the Sunday afternoon, and for the hour or so before the auction itself on the Monday morning, and this gave us the opportunity for no more than a cursory inspection of items which were of interest to us.
Stanley's collection had been arranged into 54 lots, with major items such as the Beeton's occupying lots of their own. Items which were of interest to the average collector, however, were placed beyond their reach because many of the books had been arranged into two major lots, one of 225 volumes, the other of 400 volumes. Even before the auction, therefore, it was fairly obvious that it would be dealers who stood the best chance of obtaining the really interesting and important items.
The catalogue issued to accompany the sale was a collectible item in itself, specifying in detail the major items, but giving little or no detail of some of the gems included in the large lots. A detailed reading of the catalogue also made one realise that Sotheby's were hopelessly out of touch with the market for Sherlockian and Doylean items, as many of their estimates were quite obviously much too low. The Sotheby's estimate for the total Collection was £70-75,000, and this was widely quoted in the many newspaper reports that appeared leading up to the auction. My guess was that £125-130,000 was nearer the mark. The actual figure achieved was £147,580 (including premiums).
The event was extensively covered by the media, whose cameras lined one side of the auction room. The room itself was crowded-in all honesty with Sherlockians and Doyleans (after the relevant lots had been auctioned, only some twenty people remained in the room). The proceedings were business-like and well handled by Sotheby's-although the porters did make some errors in displaying items which were being auctioned, and a major slip was made when the Auctioneer announced the name of the purchaser of the Beeton's-which was supposed to be an anonymous purchase.
The lots are far too extensive to list in full here. There was Sherlockiana in abundance. Having said that, there were some rather nice items of purely Doylean interest: a set of the Author's edition in dustwrapper, two inscribed copies of Memories and Adventures, a fine copy of the Lamond biography, inscribed by Lady Conan Doyle, with a letter from her, and a funeral card signed by ACD on the occasion of his son Kingsley's death. There were letters, too, and a play script-Dawson Brothers, adapted by ACD from the novel of James Payn. There were association items: a meerschaum pipe used by Peter Cushing in the 1959 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, the 9ct gold cigarette case with a facsimile signature of Conan Doyle, which ACD gave to H. A. Saintsbury to mark his 1000th performance as Sherlock Holmes, two of Saintsbury's pipes; theatre programmes, and playbills, and much, much more.
Some of the major prices raised were as follows: The Beeton's went for £20,700; a first edition of A Study in Scarlet for £8,050; 225 volumes relating to Sherlock Holmes for £6,325; the lot of 400 volumes for £9,200; 688 single issues of the Strand for £10,350; the gold cigarette case for £5,290; a series of theatre posters for £4,600 (estimated by Sotheby's at £350-£500); a selection of Sherlockian memorabilia for £6,670 (again estimated at £350-£500); and a collection of Sherlockian paintings for £4,025.
Bidding was competitive, and chiefly from the dealers-the rest of us realised early on that there was no point in trying to compete with them. There was none of the possessive madness which has been suggested in some quarters: those of us who were there were naturally envious of some of the acquisitions, but sensible enough to realise that we could not be a part of the bidding. In some ways it was enough to be able to say, 'I saw that collection when it last existed in its entirety'. And that was, I think, the most poignant thing about the whole affair: that collection no longer exists in its entirety.
There are those who say that the dispersal of the collection means that eventually those items bought by dealers will be made available to anyone who is interested in purchasing them. In some respects that is true, but a number of arrangements had been made prior to the auction with the result that a large number of items purchased by dealers are already in other private collections. One has to feel a little sadness that the collection is being broken up and scattered to all corners of the globe — I am certain that there would have been an outcry of horror if this had happened to the John Bennett Shaw Collection. And it is what happened to the Shaw Collection which should point the way for the future.
Unfortunately, Britain does not have a major centre where a Sherlockian and Doylean Collection could be housed, and no provisions exist to purchase a collection of this nature. The National Trust looks after Thomas Hardy's former home, and also that of George Bernard Shaw and others. Why should not similar treatment be given to Conan Doyle?
Our dream should be to see an International Centre for the study of Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes housed in one of Conan Doyle's former homes and run by a Charitable Trust. It is an ambitious plan, yes; but it is not impossible. Britain's National Lottery is now funding the Arts (or at least limited sections of the Arts). £58,000,000 was handed over to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden earlier this year-so there must be hope in that. It would take only a very small fraction of that sum to acquire either Undershaw or Windlesham and equip either property to Museum standards. We have to try. Were the ambition to succeed, collections such as Stanley Mackenzie's could be made accessible and available for all Sherlockians, in addition to adding a highly desirable tourist attraction to Britain's growing list. And it might be hoped that, in time, the bulk of available Conan Doyle material could be housed under one roof.
That is food for thought. Think on!
Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment unveils new home for its collection
I feel sure that we all breathed a sigh of relief when we read Malcolm Payne's report, in the April issue of The Parish Magazine, that the Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment had been offered a new home at Groombridge Place in which to house their collection of Conan Doyle memorabilia.
The Crowborough Establishment's collection is now housed in the old dairy building at Groombridge Place, through the generosity of Mr Andrew de Candole, and it really could not be in more suitable surroundings.
ACD was a frequent visitor to Groombridge, and used the house and its grounds, thinly disguised as Birlstone Manor, in The Valley of Fear. The house also features in the episode narrated as 'The Ghost of the Moat' in ACD's The Edge of the Unknown (1930).
The official opening of the new home for the collection took place on 1 July 1995. Invited guests made their way to the Baronial Hall, where Malcolm Payne introduced Sqn Ldr Philip Weller, who presented a slide show illustrating locations relevant to Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes. This was followed by a showing of the Fox-Movietone film of ACD, before guests moved on to the unveiling ceremony itself.
Following introductory remarks by Malcolm Payne, Sqn Ldr Philip Weller discussed Conan Doyle's associations with Groombridge; Catherine Cooke outlined her work with the Sherlock Holmes Collection at Marylebone Library, and Christopher Roden spoke on behalf of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society. Christopher commented as follows:
- How should we best remember Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
- Almost a lifetime has passed since his death in 1930, and yet he is probably more familiar to those of you gathered here today than he was to many during his own lifetime.
- The marvellous film recording which we have just seen means that our own, and future, generations can share a few brief moments in the company of this great man, and, for as long as we are able to invite him into our homes, he will never be forgotten.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-knight, doctor, patriot, campaigner, champion of the underdog-he was all of these things. But, of course, we remember him best for his most generous legacy-his literary legacy. And perhaps we overlook the fact that, when we read a Conan Doyle book, we are again inviting ACD into our home.
- Many years ago, John Murray, Conan Doyle's publisher, produced a slim leaflet entitled 'Conan Doyle-Teller of Tales'. The leaflet's cover announced: 'There's a Conan Doyle book for every taste'. And, of course, there is.
- None of you needs reminding of the Sherlock Holmes stories-sixty magical tales of ACD's detective creation; tales which, besides the adventure they offer, provide a concise social history of the period between the late 1880s and the First World War: a period Conan Doyle knew well.
- Many would argue that the Sherlock Holmes stories were Conan Doyle's finest work, and perhaps they are right. One cannot help but feel, however, that this judgment is often made by people who have not troubled to delve further.
- I like to think of Conan Doyle as a 'Pied Piper' of literature: the man who spirits us away from the humdrum and troubles of our daily existence with the music of his written word. And, in some ways, the range of ACD's work is somewhat like a symphony.
- We find the youthful enthusiasm of the first movement in novels like The Mystery of Cloomber and The Firm of Girdlestone. The writer then settles down to a more sedate pace: let's call the historical novels, exciting and rousing though they are, the andante.
- The romantic mood is provided by two short domestic novels-Beyond the City and A Duet. The rousing finale comes from Brigadier Gerard and Professor Challenger.
- And, throughout the whole, we find a kind of symphonic theme-the symphonic tone poem if you like that of the short stories: Sherlock Holmes; Ring and Camp; Pirates and Blue Water, medical stories, science fiction; ghost and horror stories. The range of themes, like that of all great composers, was immense.
- The range was that of a true innovator-for that is what ACD the writer was. The man who brought us Sherlock Holmes paved the way for many, if not all, fictional detectives for the next fifty years-and his influence is still acknowledged by modern writers of crime fiction.
- The man who gave us the horrors of 'Lot No. 249' almost certainly provided the inspiration for the film mummies which were to emerge from the Hollywood studios in the early 1930s. And he goes on providing inspiration to popular modern writers, a fact acknowledged by Anne Rice in her book The Mummy. The man who gave us The Lost World beyond all doubt provided the inspiration for Jurassic Park. And, of course, the first movie version of The Lost World directly inspired the greatest monster movie ever made, King Kong.
- For most people, so vast an output would fill many lifetimes, but this was not enough for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His many volumes of non-fiction highlight his campaigns, his concerns, and his beliefs-chiefly, of course, his Spiritualist beliefs.
- Our modern, materialistic world makes it difficult for us to understand and accept the vast amounts of time and money which ACD expended in the Spiritualist cause. He is accused of gullibility and naivety, yet all he was doing was following his beliefs and practising a religion. We have no way of knowing for certain whether some of the phenomena ACD witnessed were indeed genuine.
- It is understandable that there should be strong arguments on both sides. Yet to dismiss his beliefs without proper research is inexcusable. Perhaps, for the time being, the best we can say is that he may have been right about many things we do not understand, and hope that proper facilities may one day exist to enable the subject to be researched in an unbiased and professional manner. For now, let us remember ACD as a man who had the courage of his convictions; a man who had the courage to speak of his beliefs in the face of much scorn.
- We must remain uncertain about the true extent of ACD's literary legacy. The recent discovery of 'The Blood-Stone Tragedy', a new Conan Doyle short story, is the most exciting find of the last dozen years. And it may just be the tip of an iceberg: there is good reason for believing that more previously unknown stories will emerge in the next few years.
- The work of members of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society places the Society at the forefront of Doylean study. Our work has only just begun.
- And so, as we witness the unveiling of this latest memorial to ACD, in a place he knew well, in a place he featured in one of his stories, let us ensure that the work of Arthur Conan Doyle, master story-teller, remains in our minds, so that future generations may be able to remember him too.
Following his speech, Christopher, on behalf of the Society, presented Malcolm Payne with copies of The Blood-Stone Tragedy and A Regimental Scandal for the Crowborough Establishment's Library.
The official opening ceremony was performed by Mrs Georgina Doyle, standing in for Dame Jean Conan Doyle. Dame Jean had been expected, but had not arrived. However, some half-an-hour after the opening ceremony, Dame Jean, who had been delayed in heavy traffic, did arrive, and was able to look over the new collection, and enjoy a pleasant hour walking through the grounds at Groombridge Place.
Dame Jean was obviously thrilled by the collection's new home, and she spent some time sitting at the 'author's desk' which forms the centrepiece of the collection.
Once again, Malcolm Payne is to be congratulated on finding a new home for the collection, and Mr Andrew de Candole is to be thanked for his great generosity in making a building available to house it.
We regret to announce that Malcolm Payne has advised us that, due to ill health, he no longer feels able to contribute a regular Crowborough column to The Parish Magazine. We should like to thank Malcolm for his contributions in the past, and to assure our readers that whenever we receive information from Crowborough, we shall do our best to ensure that it is published in these pages. Malcolm, we know, continues to devote as much of his energy as he is able to the activities of the Conan Doyle (Crowborough) Establishment, and is always pleased to hear from anyone who has a specific query on Conan Doyle's time in the town. When writing to Malcolm, please be sure to enclose a stamp or sufficient International Reply Coupons to cover any reply you may be expecting.
To Challenge the World
Petri Salin
In response to our invitation in the last issue of The Parish Magazine that members send in their reflections on favourite stories, Finnish member Petri Salin supplies these thoughts:
Professor Challenger seems to be having something of a welcome renaissance at the moment, with several publishers bringing out diverse editions of the Challenger novels, chiefly, of course, The Lost World. But much as I love The Lost World (I rank it among the two or three best novels Conan Doyle ever wrote-and it may even be his best), to my mind the pure, undiluted Professor Challenger is only to be found in the short stories.
As I listen to Glenn Gould playing the preludes and fugues of Bach's 'Das Wohltemperierte Clavier', I am once again re-reading 'When the World Screamed', this time in the brand new Wordsworth complete edition of the Professor Challenger stories which I have just purchased (simply couldn't resist it!). Perhaps the introspective meditations of Gould and Bach are not the ideal music to accompany one in the boisterous world of that wonderful egomaniac we know as Professor Challenger. He needs, I fear, music of a more voluble, a more substantial, a more histrionic kind. Mahler perhaps? 'Auferstehung' or 'Symphonie der Tausend'? Or perchance Wagner's 'Götterdämmerung' would be more appropriate? But no, the combination of Wagner and Challenger would be all too rich, too much of a muchness, and so I let the sounds of Gould provide me with a superbly soothing contrast.
'When the World Screamed'. I have always had rather a soft spot for that particular story. My fondness for it may well be partly of a sentimental nature, as it happened to be the very first non-Sherlockian story by Conan Doyle I ever came across. I have never quite gotten over it, and I believe I never shall. I still own that particular book: a Pan pocket book entitled When the World Screamed and Other Stories, and I still love the lurid cover depicting that magic moment when, deep down beneath the earth's crust, Malone and the Artesian expert, Peerless Jones (now isn't that a simply magnificent name?), lift away the tarpaulin:
- It was an amazing sight which lay before us. By some strange cosmic telepathy the old planet seemed to know that an unheard-of liberty was about to be attempted. Great grey bubbles rose and burst with a crackling report. The air-spaces and vacuoles below the skin separated and coalesced in an agitated activity. The transverse ripples were stronger and faster in their rhythm than before. A dark purple fluid appeared to pulse in the tortuous anastomoses of channels which lay under the surface. The throb of life was in it all....
What a marvellous story 'When the World Screamed' is. The world as a living organism swimming along in an endless cosmic sea, feeding on ether. And us-the whole human race!-as mere unacknowledged parasites and micro-organisms, our host entirely unaware of our very existence. What a breathtakingly bold concept! This is science fiction at its very best; this is what science fiction fans mean when they talk about a sense of wonder, this is an intellectual exercise that makes your head swirl when you stop to ponder on it for a moment.
'I propose to let the earth know that there is at least one person, George Edward Challenger, who calls for attention-who, indeed, insists upon attention.' So Professor Challenger goes on to drill a hole through the earth's crust and proceeds to give our beloved planet a nasty jolt. And attention is what he certainly gets-with shattering results. For a fleeting moment the earth is aware of Professor Challenger and-through him-the whole of humanity.
The splendid thing about the story is that not only is the concept mindboggling, it is also quite outrageous and well Conan Doyle knows it. Therefore he presents this brilliant yarn in a delightfully tongue-in-cheek manner, building it up to an impossible, unparalleled comic climax. 'When the World Screamed' is not only great science fiction, it is also one of Conan Doyle's masterpieces of humour, certainly as good and as funny as any of his Brigadier Gerard stories. How at ease he is, how unforced is his plotting; how elegantly he achieves his gigantic-not to say earth-shattering-effects.
But is the story science fiction-or humour? Well, it is both. And neither. What makes 'When the World Screamed' unique to me is that it is such a broad story, so all-embracing: science fiction, but not only science fiction; light Swiftian satire, but not only light Swiftian satire; natural philosophy, but not only natural philosophy, humour, but not only humour, horror even, but not only horror. The story is a well-balanced mixture of all of these ingredients, with all facets of the story enriching the whole. I honestly do not think that any of Conan Doyle's other short stories range over as much terrain and as many topics and moods as does 'When the World Screamed'.
What a great pity that Conan Doyle did not write any more Professor Challenger short stories. What wouldn't one give for a whole collection of the likes of 'The Disintegration Machine' and, of course, especially 'When the World Screamed'?
Mechanics and Ethics in 'The Creeping Man'
John Hall
One of the episodes of the deliberately controversial 1960s TV series Till Death Us Do Part [remade as All in the Family in North America — Ed] concerned the possibility of transplanting animal organs into human patients, a technique that was then just beginning to attract attention. The loud-mouthed star of the show, Alf Garnett, pointed out the impossibility of transplanting a pig's heart into a Jewish patient: it would be rejected by the recipient's body, he argued, because it was not kosher.
Although presented in an earthy, not to say crude, fashion, the ethical problem is an interesting one, and were that particular situation ever to arise there would doubtless be some lively debate amongst the rabbinical authorities. Some Christian denominations already object on moral grounds even to such generally accepted techniques as blood transfusion, and, given that some of the theories as to the origins and inter-species transmission of such things as AIDS or BSE are correct, it may well be that they have a valid point, and not merely ethically.
We can give thanks to all the gods ever created by Man that the religious aspects need not concern us overmuch here. The medical aspects, too, may safely be regarded as a matter for experts in that particular field. But we may be fairly certain about one thing, namely that whatever moral objections or medical complications might arise, neither a fundamentalist divine nor an atheist surgeon would actually expect to see the human recipient of a pig's heart go down on all fours and rootle about in the mud.
Yet this is the central theme — the central fallacy — of 'The Creeping Man'. We are asked to believe in a sort of instant Lamarckism, whereby the personality of the donor not only modifies, but indeed comes to dominate, that of the recipient.
The use, if not the acceptance, of this theme by Conan Doyle is interesting. The work of men such as Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley had been influencing biologists for almost a century, and it is out of the question to think that Conan Doyle, a qualified doctor, might have been unaware of that work.
On the other hand, it is perhaps not too fanciful to suppose that Conan Doyle's post-war Spiritualist beliefs, or perhaps more correctly the overall ferment of ideas, the upsetting of the old order by the Great War and its aftermath, which caused those beliefs, led to the deliberate disregarding of accepted biological theories in order to concentrate on the very relevant ethical issues which were, or would be, posed by the techniques being pioneered at the time.
This questioning of the morality of an exercise which is technically practicable, or nearly so, has the effect both of making 'The Creeping Man' superior to much of the output of such purely technologically oriented early writers such as Jules Verne, and also of foreshadowing the gloomy prognostications of such dystopian writers as Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Though by less time than might at first be imagined, for although we tend (aided and abetted by Conan Doyle's own somewhat hazy chronology of the canon) to locate Holmes and Watson firmly and fixedly in 1895, the publication of 'The Creeping Man' preceded that of Brave New World by little more than a decade.
Moreover, Conan Doyle, unlike some of the later writers, gives us a reasonably happy ending, in which Holmes's common sense — together with the very positive support of Roy, the wolfhound — triumphs over the amoral, if not actually immoral, purely scientific approach of Presbury and Lowenstein. Perhaps the closest parallel for 'The Creeping Man' in this respect is with some of the works of H. G. Wells.
Except for minority groups, the ethical considerations have, in practice, become secondary to the medical practicalities. Yet if some of the stories which are told about the sale of kidneys and the like by the poor of India or South America are true, then the ethical question facing us in the future may well be far more serious than those envisaged by Conan Doyle, although of a broadly similar nature.
Our own convictions may make us unable to follow Holmes when he says, 'The spiritual would not avoid the call to something higher,' but we can at least cynically accept that 'the material, the sensual, the worldly would all prolong their worthless lives', and agree that therein lies 'a very real danger to humanity'.
Notes from a Lumber-Room
Catherine Cooke
'A man should keep his little brain attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library where he can get it if he wants.' — 'The Five Orange Pips'
In the last issue I wrote about Conan Doyle's involvement with a couple of Spiritualist churches in south west London. One of these I was in Maple Road, Surbiton. At the time of writing I had not had the chance to visit Surbiton to find out if this church still stands. It does, at 103 on the corner with St. Leonard's Road, though it is no longer in use as a church. It was apparently built in the mid-nineteenth century in mock Norman style of yellowish brown brick; it boasts a small tower and a foundation stone bearing the date 1854. My sources tell me that over the door were the words Christian Spiritualist Church. There is no trace of this lettering now. It was, apparently, refurbished and rededicated in the 1920s, and it was as part of these events that Conan Doyle made his visit. It is now the OLC Electrical Distribution Warehouse.
One of the perks of working in a library is that you get to see The Bookseller every week. This is a trade magazine, 'The organ of the book trade', which discusses matters of interest to the trade such as mergers and take-overs and gives details of forthcoming books, TV tie-ins and the like. The 21st July edition arrived on my desk a couple of weeks ago. The cover sported the immediately recognisable shadow of a T-Rex skeleton and the date October 5. Now I have to admit that, while I have not read the book Jurassic Park, I did immensely enjoy the film. Turning to the first page I found a large advertisement:
- FIRST
- Jurassic Park sold over 20 million copies worldwide
- THEN
- The move became the most successful film ever made
- NOW
- MICHAEL CRICHTON
- THE SUCCESSOR TO JURASSIC PARK
- £100,000 promotion
- A massive full-colour national press campaign will be seen by over 30 million people Huge media attention for Michael Crichton with national TV,
radio and press interviews and features
- BESTSELLEROSAURUS
I can hardly wait to see what he has to say about this latest book, his inspiration and, above all, the reasons for his choice of title. For what has he chosen to call it? The Lost World.
There does seem to be something of a vogue for, how shall we put it, re-using Conan Doyle titles these days. In 1992 Maeve Binchy published The Copper Beech. On a crowded bus to Euston only yesterday I saw a poem in the series 'Poems on the buses' from Leaside Buses, by Angela Lord (London 1995). It appeared to be a love poem and was laid out somewhat like the Mouse's tail from Alice in Wonderland. Its title? 'Study in Scarlet'. Then there is the Mills and Boon offering Sherlock and Watson, which helpful members of staff keep sending me details of, just in case I want to get it for the Collection. We have some peripheral material, but nothing that peripheral! (For non-UK readers, Mills and Boon specialise in hyped, mass-market paperback nurse-meets-doctor stories, hot historicals and bodice rippers).
Michael Crichton's case, however, seems a bit different. Here we have an eminently successful author, whose probably most famous title was surely directly influenced by Conan Doyle's The Lost World, picking exactly that as the title for the sequel. The influence has not been overlooked. The Guardian on Wednesday 14th July 1993, for instance, gave a full page to the film Jurassic Park. a third of it looked at Arthur Conan Doyle.
- In the beginning was The Lost World. It was in 1912 that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his tale of Jurassic life in a South American enclave 'as large as Sussex' where 'the normal laws of nature are suspended'. With Sherlock Holmes and Baker Street already preserved in amber, Doyle, the confident imperialist, was free to incise the planet's crust... conquer death via spiritualism and, with Lost World, explore an antediluvian rookery of 'crawling, flapping... obscene reptilian life'.
Interestingly, the writer Nigel Fountain goes on to point out:
- And for Doyle, a normal, decent representative of his time, there was no need to concern readers with wacko ideas like ecology, preservation or respect for other life forms.
His final judgement, however, sounds a little harsh:
- The result is that The Lost World survives now as a hair-raising example of Edwardian Anglo-Saxon attitudes, a theme park for extinct Ubermenschen, Social Darwinists, and proto-fascists.
Are we to take Crichton's choice perhaps as a public homage to his inspiration? It certainly will not help anyone trying to look it up on Westminster Libraries and Archives' on-line catalogue-we already have 16 entries for Conan Doyle's book, though Crichton's will come first, since Westminster, in common with most other authorities, indexes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle under Doyle. Come to think of it, The Lost World does sound rather better than The Lost Theme Park.
Another perk of being in a library is that you can usually get your hands on new videos with little difficulty. I was able to borrow the recent double video of The Lost World and Return to the Lost World from Harmony Gold (1992). I was initially surprised that neither gave any credit whatsoever to Conan Doyle in the film credits, merely stating on the box 'Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Jurassic Adventures. Based on the books [sic] of the creator of Sherlock Holmes...' [one is tempted to add that these films are not among them]... this marvellous motion picture is a beast-feast of frights and fun, danger and delight as the daring adventurers discover a long-forgotten land of savage dinosaurs.' On the other hand, Robert Nye doesn't get any credit either-I have not read his Return to the Lost World, but judging from Christopher Roden's Autumn 1991 review, this is a completely different return. The executive producer of both is Harry Alan Towers and filming was done in Zimbabwe.
John Rhys Davies does his best as Challenger, though he is hampered by an adaptation worse than that of the 1960 film version of The Lost World directed by Irwin Allen. (Allen at least got value for money, since footage from his version turned up in two of his television series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Time Tunnel). David Warner likewise turns in a respectable Summerlee. Malone is joined by a female photographer who spends much of her time on her pet hobbyhorses of women's suffrage and animal rights; a 13 year old boy, and Malu, a nubile native translator in a bikini (cue for contained jealousy scenes between two females). There are a few big plastic feet, the odd huge eye seen through trees, and a tail, some of them in the opening credits, which rather ruins any suspense there might be in the first half of the film. There are also the obligatory cute sick baby dinosaurs for the females in the party, and presumably the audience, to coo over. Personally, I found Dino in 'Steven Spielrock's' live action Flintstones more convincing. Our heroes find two tribes, split from one original tribe by an evil witch doctor. You can tell the evil tribe: they eat meat, while the good tribe are vegetarians. All ends happily as the tribes reunite when the evil leader is killed.
The Return, not surprisingly, is worse. 'The industrialists' relentless search for oil has shattered the land's fragile ecosystem... Only now, they [Challenger et al] must outwit both man and nature to save themselves and the vulnerable creatures who inhabit The Lost World.' Vulnerable? A T-Rex? Try telling that to the guy who gets eaten in Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs are dying from a microbiologic contagion. Happily, a plant grows on the plateau which cures them of this (perhaps influenced by the plant which upsets the triceratops in Jurassic Park?) A T-Rex helpfully stomps on the industrialists' cooling pipe and their whole complex blows up. This, however, triggers a volcanic eruption which Challenger and his party must cap.
It makes it all the more depressing that Spielberg did not plump for Conan Doyle's The Lost World as his first dinosaur movie.
Finally, a thought from the 4th August Bookseller, from a review of Jeremy Lewis's Kindred Spirits (1995): 'There followed stints with... A. P. Watt, as 'the world's worst literary agent' (can this be true?)...' A. P. Watt was, of course, Conan Doyle's literary agent. I suppose every company goes through its rougher patches of staffing....
Reviews
by Christopher Roden
DETECTIVE FICTION: THE COLLECTOR'S GUIDE (Second Edition)
by John Cooper & B. A. Pike
Scolar Press, 1994; x + 341pp; £39.50
ISBN: 0-85967-991-8
THE LOST WORLD AND OTHER STORIES
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Wordsworth Classics, 1995; 461pp; £1.00 or less; ISBN: 1-85326-245-5
THE COLLECTED BRIGADIER GERARD STORIES
THE BEST SHERLOCK HOLMES STORIES
by A. Conan Doyle
Hearthstone Publications, 1995; 420pp (Gerard), 380pp (Holmes);
£9.50 (paperback) £22.00 (limited edition hardback);
ISBN: 0-9520471-7-9 (Gerard paperback); 0-9520471-6-0 (Gerard hardback);
0-9520471-8-7 (Holmes paperback), 0-9520471-9-5 (Holmes hardback).
Also noted:
THE LOST WORLD
by Michael Crichton
Century, 1995; 397pp; £15.99 (but offered at prices as low as £7.99 at various outlets);
ISBN: 0-7126-76902
It makes no difference what I write about this book, for as the successor to Jurassic Park its blockbuster status is assured. Of the many routes he could have taken as a result of loose ends in the original book and film, Crichton has chosen to set this novel on the island of Isla Sorna, the base used by the In-Gen Corporation to breed the dinosaurs which would be housed on the Isla Nublar of Jurassic Park. The Lost World is a quick read, with precious little of substance, even though it's an enjoyable adventure, perhaps even more so than Jurassic Park, as Crichton dispenses with much of the scientific gobbledygook in favour of a psychological study of dinosaurs. Inevitably some rogue elements have developed, but who would have thought that T-Rex could turn out to be a big softie? And, despite the inclusion of names like John Roxton and Challenger in the book itself, and the borrowing of ACD's title, never a mention of ACD appears in the acknowledgements. Shame on you Mr Crichton!
NEVERMORE
by William Hjortsberg
Orion, 1995; 289pp; £15.99; ISBN: 1-85797-650-9
This addition to the recent crop of novels featuring ACD as a leading character finds the author involved in the investigation into a spate of serial killings in 1920s New York. With Harry Houdini and Conan Doyle both falling under the spell of the goddess-like Opal Crosby, a beautiful and seductive high-society clairvoyant, and with the ghost of Edgar Allan Poe appearing frequently to ACD, the reader is best left to judge whether this is something he, or she, is likely to want to read.
Interesting.
THE SIX MESSIAHS
by Mark Frost
Morrow, 1995; 404pp; U.S.$23.00; ISBN: 0-688-13092-5
The follow-up volume to The List of 7, which has ACD journeying to America for his first tour, accompanied by his younger brother Innes. During their voyage across the Atlantic, they are stalked by an otherworldly order of assassins attempting to steal a precious piece of the ship's cargo: a priceless book of ancient mysticism. We're promised a film.
List of 7. Six Messiahs. What will be number Five, I wonder?
Audio Books
SHERLOCK HOLMES TALES OF INTRIGUE SHERLOCK HOLMES TALES OF SUSPENSE
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by Edward Hardwicke
Tangled Web Audio, 1995; 2-cassette sets; US$16.95 each
(available from Tangled Web Audio, 1063 King Street West, Suite 133, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 1L8 (e-mail: [email protected]))
ISBN: 1-896552-00-5 (Tales of Intrigue), 1-896552-01-3(Tales of Suspense)
Tangled Web Audio is a new company from Ontario specialising in mystery and unabridged short fiction. The term mystery is used in the broadest sense, and their list includes detective, crime, horror, supernatural and dark fantasy.
For their first two titles, the Tangled Web team has pulled off something of a coup. Here, in two splendid sets, we have Dr Watson himself, in the guise of Edward Hardwicke, reading six superb stories from the Sherlockian canon. What better way to spend a winter's evening than to settle down in the company of our second favourite doctor as he recounts the following adventures: 'The Sussex Vampire', 'The Creeping Man', 'The Speckled Band' (Tales of Suspense) and 'The Crooked Man', 'The Greek Interpreter', and 'The Naval Treaty' (Tales of Intrigue).
Readers might recall that Edward Hardwicke read 'The Speckled Band' in a set of tapes produced for Marks & Spencer in 1987. This is not the same reading. All of the stories in these two sets are newly recorded and produced, and the tapes come handsomely packaged. Tangled Web has done a fine job-and so has Edward Hardwicke. Highly recommended.
FOUR GREAT ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by Douglas Wilmer
Penguin Audiobooks, 1995; 2 cassette set; £7.99; ISBN: 0-14-086218-8
Douglas Wilmer needs no introduction. His portrayal of Sherlock Holmes for the BBC series in the mid-60s is still fondly remembered by many, and indeed many regard him as the finest portrayer of Holmes on television.
The stories on offer here — 'The Speckled Band', 'The Devil's Foot', 'The Musgrave Ritual', and 'Charles Augustus Milverton' — were originally offered by The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, but they have now been professionally packaged by Penguin in a set which runs for approx. 3 1⁄2 hours.
Wilmer reads clearly and brings a range of accents to the characters, which makes this a highly entertaining few hours' listening, especially as the selection of stories on offer is excellent.
FOUR SHORT STORIES
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Read by Carl Rigg
Naxos Audio Books, 1995; 2 cassette set; £6.99; ISBN: 962634550-0
From time to time it is a pleasure to return to old favourites-those stories from Conan Doyle's pen which we all know are there, and which we too easily take for granted. Conan Doyle wrote many splendid tales of horror and the supernatural, and four of them are gathered here in a splendid value-for-money collection: 'The Horror of the Heights', 'The Terror of Blue John Gap', 'Lot No. 249', and 'The Sealed Room'.
Carl Rigg presents the readings in a straightforward, no nonsense manner and the set is highly recommended. Splendid stuff!
The Parish Magazine Quiz
So you think you know your Conan Doyle — I
There was a good response to this quiz, and a lot of nice comments from various members, generally saying that they appreciated having to think about the answers rather than just consult Sherlockian text books or run word-searches on their computers.
There were several all-correct submissions but the winner, drawn from the hat, was John W. Comstock of New York, and a prize is on the way to him.
The answers:
- 1. ACD's three children, Jean, Adrian and Denis.
- 2. The Stark Munro Letters.
- 3. The Mystery of Cloomber.
- 4. Mysteries and Adventures or The Captain of the Polestar.
- 5. The Tombs and Sing Sing
- 6. The Mystery of Joan of Arc
- 7. The Isle of Wight.
- 8. 'The Haunted Grange of Goresthorpe'.
- 9. George Bernard Shaw.
- 10. Edward L. Gardner.
So you think you know your Conan Doyle — II
- 1. What was Mr McArdle's profession?
- 2. In which story does the town of Rotherfield appear?
- 3. To whom did ACD dedicate The Firm of Girdlestone?
- 4. What major event in ACD's life occurred on 1 August 1885?
- 5. Adrian Conan Doyle wrote The True Conan Doyle as a response to a biography of his father. Which biography?
- 6. In which novel do Frank and Maude Crosse appear?
- 7. What was the Joyce-Armstrong fragment?
- 8. In which ACD story did a Unicorn appear?
- 9. Captain Hamilton Miggs appears in which novel?
- 10. Conan Doyle became a director of Raphael Tuck & Co. Ltd. What did the company manufacture?
As usual, there will be a suitable Doylean prize for the winner. Make sure your entries reach the editorial office not later than 31 January 1996.
| HEARTHSTONE PUBLICATIONS The Coach House, Munslow, Shropshire, SY7 9ET, England THE COLLECTED BRIGADIER GERARD STORIES Here at last are all the Brigadier Gerard stories for the first time arranged in historical order, so that readers may follow the exploits and adventures of Conan Doyle's most endearing hero against the unfolding drama of the Napoleonic wars. ISBN 0 9520471 6 0 (limited hardback edition) £22.00 Conan Doyle introduces his own choice of the best Sherlock Holmes stories. ISBN 0 9520471 8 7 (limited hardback edition) £22.00 Available from all booksellers or from Bailey Distribution Ltd |
- Article courtesy Christopher Roden, founder of The Arthur Conan Doyle Society (1989-2003).
