Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters

by Arthur Conan Doyle (Original Author), Charles Foley (Editor), Daniel Stashower (Editor), Arthur Conan Doyle (Original Author), Daniel Stashower (Editor), Charles Foley (Editor), Arthur Conan Doyle (Original Author), Jon Lellenberg (Editor)

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.24

  A collection of letters between Arthur Conan Doyle (author and creator of Sherlock Holmes) and his mother, covering most of his life, written between 1867 and the year of her death in 1921.

  Doyle was raised almost solely by his mother in Dickensian circumstances, (his father latterly suffered from dipsomania and epilepsy and so spent much of his later life in asylums).

  Since Sherlock Holmes's inception in 1887, he has been one of the best-known and widely read literary characters, and the subject of more radio and television shows and motion pictures than any other fictional character in history. Although Doyle and his Holmes continue to be much written about, talked about and adapted, this is the first time that this material, along with other personal papers, has ever been made available.

  Conan Doyle although most famously remembered for Holmes, was also a physician, sportsman, public figure, war correspondent, pioneer of science fiction, psychic investigator, and prominent spiritual missionary.

  These letters reveal fascinating portraits of Doyle: his trip to the Arctic aged 21 where he served as a ship's surgeon on a whaling ship; his unprofitable stint as a Harley Street doctor and his decision to abandon this in favour of writing, more money and the opportunity to help his mother to look after his many younger brothers and sisters; his friendships with J.M.Barrie (among others); his attempts to write material other than Holmes; and his involvement in the spiritualist movement - something that his mother, a devout Roman Catholic, was completely against.

  `Mam' as he called her, was his most loyal confidant, and his letters functioned to a certain extent as confession and cleansing penance, until his mother's death in 1921.

  The collection is annotated by Daniel Stashower, award-winning mystery novelist and author of the recent Conan Doyle biography Teller of Tales , and Jon Lellenberg, the U.S agent for the Conan Doyle estate.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $3.24

  These remarkably candid and previously unpublished letters between Arthur Conan Doyle and his mother, dating from 1867 until her death in 1921, paint a fascinating portrait of one of Britain's most beloved authors and a complex man who both embodied and defied the conventions of his time. More than seventy-five-years after his death, Arthur Conan Doyle remains one of Britain's best-loved authors. Famed as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle was a fascinating man in his own right -- physician, sportsman, crusader for social justice, war correspondent and military historian. From his early whale-hunting days to his later celebrity, Conan Doyle's life was as gripping as any of his own adventure tales. Throughout, his mother Mary Foley was Conan Doyle's principal confidante, the recipient of a stream of startlingly frank letters from her devoted son. Over a thousand letters between them survive from the time Arthur was sent away to boarding school in 1867, aged eight, until her death in 1920. They reveal a man whose early career was marked by a distinct lack of success as Conan Doyle struggled to establish a medical practice of his own, filling long, patient-less days by scribbling short stories that would result in the creation of Holmes. To Conan Doyle's chagrin, the detective would remain his most famous creation, vastly overshadowing the historical novels, plays and other writings on which he pinned his literary aspirations. In later years, Conan Doyle evolved into an impassioned public figure and highly opinionated commentator on the important issues of the day. A deeply moral man of uncompromising political convictions, he nevertheless spent much of his married life passionately in love with another woman. His Catholic mother, with whom he discussed the affair, approved and encouraged the relationship. And yet despite their close bond neither she nor public ridicule could convince him to abandon the eccentric spiritualist beliefs he embraced in later life. This stunningly candid volume of never-before-published letters sheds fascinating light on a man who has remained largely hidden behind his most famous character. Gracefully written and consistently revealing, these letters illuminate his life, character and career as never before.