Book description
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. 'Fairly hums with Conan Doyle's trademark enthusiasm.'
Independent on Sunday
'Superbly edited by three Conan Doyle scholars, (it) sheds new light on
the writer's work and inner life, as well as his various love affairs
and spiritualist crises…“A Life in Letters” is a monument to the
enduring popularity of the occupant of 221b Baker Street and greatest
investigator of all…This plum pudding of a book is essential reading to
fans of Conan Doyle.' Financial Times
'The selected letters…convey an almost physical presence of the author,
with his strange mixture of kindness and carelessness, overbearing
self-confidence and depressive self-doubt.' Economist
