Conan Doyle's Life Story

NZ Truth, Issue 997, 3 January 1925, Page 13

Conan Doyle's Life Story

Pre-Spiritual Career He Tells of Sherlock Holmes and Many Other People The End of War : A CKemist on Each Side Will Advance With a Bottle At the age of sixty-five Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has told the story of his remarkable career — "Memories arid Adventures" — which for variety and ..romance could hardly be. exceeded. Among his stories of notable people is one of Oscar Wilde. When the subject of the wars of the future was being discussed, 'Wilde,: with intense drollery and with, possibly more truth than . even '..he- imagined, m describing what would happen said, "A chemist on each side will approach the frontier with a bottle."

Doyle began life m Edinburgh, which < by itself, is an inspiring start ' for any ) child, but there were other circum- < stances that told m his favor. From 1 the first Cohan Doyle possessed a fine constitution;., with great physical ] strength and endurance. ' ■ 1 'He lias' 'sampled almost every kind < of human • experience, and he, has ; known most of the remarkable men of 1 his time;' We judge from this book 1 that at the present period m his life the thing that gives' him most pleasure is the /study of the occult, and it is with pride: that he says he has already travelled more than 50,000 miles and has. addressed 300,000 people on this < subject. 1 " " ' ' i , BASIS OF HIS FAME. \ he may . himself think, we .1 can \assure, him that he .will /go down 1 to posterity as the inventor : of "Sherlock'Holmes," which .presents that! par- ] ticuiar facet of liis mind which appeals to/the popular imagination all round. • .'•; The D.oyles were : ' notable people. 1 John Doyle, who was none other than < the famous ■' "H.B." the ' caricaturist, I was; Gonan. Doyle's, grandfather. He drtw /with: his pencil gentlemen Tor 1 geritlemfen, and his satire- lay m the wit .of, the picture and riot' in /the misdraw^ - 1 ing of faces. . . J ■Dicky Doyle, whose whimiscal humor i made him famous iin "Punch," was .< Conan; Doyle's uncle, while his father ' was a gifted but ineffectual person who had. no appreciation of the reali- i ties. of life, and as a civil servant his ! income never rose above three hundred '• a year. There-are, many arid touching < allusions. to his mother. : ! ', She bqre; the sordid strain of bring- : ing up a large family on a very slender : income, but' she was justified by her 1 children's- ;couragje.' and help, and es- ( peciallypy that of/ her gifted son who < writes this rriemoir,:; ?'Of ten I said to her, 'When you are old, mammie, you shall,' have a velveit. dress and gold ■: glasses, arid, sit m comfort by the flre!'-" "Thank Godj" adds rpoyle, "it so came ' to i pass." • . •..; ':■'/'■ ■■•/ . '■ - • . We follow the author m ■ his frank \ narrative of his -career, from his early and pathetic poverty arid his Spartan i regime at school under a master, whom ' he calls "a pock-marked, one-eyed 1 rascal," to his further education at Stonyhurst (he . was : at. one. time m- .: tended' for a. priest), then to his' medi- : cal training m Edinburgh, interrupted suddenly by a whaling . expedition to the - Arctic^ ' which 'he • joined ■■• to' act- as surgeon.,. ' . ' ■ „ • ... . Later on he started m practice at Southsea. Servants 'being put of the jciu/;stipn ; because of 'the expense, he ;)polished;his own/brass plate/and swept ■his front steps each, morning. His, little - knickexbockered . „' brother. „ Innes

came from ; Edinburgh to ; help, and a letter from Innes to his mother is one of the most charming: . things m his book: „ "The patients are crowding m. We have made 'three bob this week. "We have vaccinated a baby arid got hold of a man with consumption, and to-day a gipsy's cart camel to the door, selling baskets and. chairs so we determined to let the man. ring as long as he liked. ; f //, HIS YEL,:p. "After he had.r ung two or three times'" Arthur yelled out at the. pitch of his voice,: 'Go away,' but the man rang "again so T. went down to the door and pulled open the letter box and cried out, 'Go away.' The man began L to swear at me and say, that he wanted to see Arthur. ■ . "All this time Arthur thought that the door was open,^ and* wafe yelling, 'Shut :" that door ! ' Then I * came upstairs ahd : told Arthur what the man had said so Arthur went down and opened the "door and we found that the gipsy's "child had measles. . . "After all we got sixpence out of them and that is. always; something." Cohan Doyle's first success m. literature was with "Chambers' Journal." But' full success : and ' fame did not come until he found himself capable of producing" something fresh, crisp, and workmanlike. , He thought of Joseph Bell, the re- I markable surgeon under whom he had studied m Edinburgh Infirmary, whose strong, point was diagnosis, not only of disease, but of occupation and character, and it-- was around Joseph Bell •as prototype- that the Sherlock Holmes stories were written. They, were offered to that inspired editor, Mr. Greenhough Smith, then, as now, con-, ducting the "Strand Magazine." ■ This became the turning point ; in Conan ;Doyle's career. He threw up medicine; and wisely grave up his life to. writing, and the only mistake he ever made was m- killing off "Sherlock Holmes." , The concern of the public at Holmes's' death; was very great. One: letter which Doyle received after this event began "You Brute." To a large number of readers all over, the world Sherlock Holmes was anything but mythical, and Doyle got many : letters addressed to him asking for Holmes's" autograph. \ . •', ; The . personalities m the book are well grouped, together m a chapter called "Some Notable People." This was, among other: good thin%3 ; a descriptidn/of.a house party at the late Lord Burnham's place, Hall Barn^ where , we 1 see Lady Dorothy Nevill, wfth.;her>mittened • -hands,, and "her prim, pussycat manner," retailing gossip _ about flirtations. . ,