“Again we are asked how a spirit can rap”: Capron and Barron, Explanation and History of the Mysterious Communion with Spirits, 79.
describes a private party in London: Winter, Mesmerized, 145.
Dickens was quite pleased: Kaplan, Dickens and Mesmerism, 70–90.
“The spirits of our departed friends”: Dods, Spirit Manifestations, 75–83.
“It would be difficult to determine”: Hardinge, Modern American Spiritualism, 55.
no more than 15 percent of Americans: Kramnick and Moore, Godless Constitution, 17.
When the suffragist Lucy Stone: Braude, Radical Spirits, 90.
“born and baptized”: Ibid., 59.
Dissident Quakers supplied the critical mass: Ibid., 57.
Susan B. Anthony would travel every summer: Ibid., 196.
Most other prominent abolitionists: Moore, In Search of White Crows, 71; Godwin, Upstate Cauldron, 149.
Left to fend for himself: Gauld, Founders of Psychical Research, 16–17.
On July 25, 1855, the poet: This account of an 1855 séance with Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning at the Rymer home is woven from four sources: Porter’s Through a Glass Darkly, esp. 50; Doyle’s Edge of the Unknown; Home’s memoir, Incidents in My Life, 106; and Browning’s Letters to Her Sister, 218.
CHAPTER FOUR: THE INVENTION OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
Though much has been written about Doyle’s early years, this chapter is primarily drawn from Doyle’s own recollections, in his autobiography and spiritualist writings.
But he soon discovered that Budd’s “practice”: Doyle, Memories and Adventures.
“As long as I was thoroughly unsuccessful”: Ibid., 57, 90.
“No man could have a more gentle”: Ibid., 65.
“I had ceased to butt my head”: Ibid., 656.
“in an intelligent Force”: Doyle, New Revelation, 15.
“I found myself, like many young medical men”: Doyle, Memories and Adventures, 77.
“each man in his egotism”: Doyle, New Revelation, 15.
“I had said that the flame could not exist”: Ibid., 35.
“I had always sworn by science”: Ibid., 36.
“I am afraid the only result”: Doyle, Memories and Adventures, 79.
“I read the book with interest”: Doyle, New Revelation, 17.
The Europeans could not claim: Ibid., 29, 30.
“Mrs. Fox Kane”: This anecdote of Maggie Kane’s last days is from R. G. Pressing, Rappings That Startled the World (Lily Dale, N.Y.: Dale News, 1942), 75–76.
“appropriately enough, through the dead letter office”: Doyle, New Revelation, 21.
“I was still a skeptic”: Ibid., 23.
“what proof was there”: Ibid., 28.
It was the first time he would go public: Doyle, Memories and Adventures, 80.
“a great root book”: Doyle, New Revelation, 32.
In a grainy black-and-white Movietone film: “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1930,” Fox Movietone News Story 6-962.
“weak as a child and as emotional”: Doyle, Memories and Adventures, 91.
CHAPTER FIVE: THE SCIENCE OF THE UNSEEN
James Hyslop, was hounded out of his faculty position: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 247–48.
“We are ill equipped for the investigation”: Oppenheim, Other World, 332.
“Above all, he could discern the value”: Lamond, Arthur Conan Doyle, a Memoir, 270.
“Each honest inquiry can only strengthen”: Doyle, Spiritualism and Rationalism, 141, in the Cambridge Scholars edition.
“I had been brought up deaf”: Hare, Experimental Investigation, 38.
“The result was not as he expected”: Alfred Russel Wallace, The Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural, 34. All of Wallace’s writings are collected on the excellent Web pages of Charles H. Smith, a professor and science librarian at Western Kentucky University (people.wku.edu/charles.smith/).
“The brave report”: Doyle, History of Spiritualism, 1:138.
“From the hour of the Hare report”: Doyle, Spiritualism and Rationalism, 137.
“Aunt Sara said she wasn’t dead”: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 97; Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 2.
In a trance, she got up from her chair: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 98; Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 3; Gauld, Founders of Psychical Research, 252.
Notably, all this took place in broad daylight: Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 98.
“I feel as if something were passing”: Piper, Life and Work of Mrs. Piper, 67.
Then she asked about a dead child: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 100.
James submitted a brief account: Gauld, Founders of Psychical Research, 253.
In late 1884, Hodgson went to Madras, India: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 83–91.
Alfred Russel Wallace was especially peeved: Ibid., 119.
Phinuit claimed to be a French doctor: Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 18; Gauld, Founders of Psychical Research, 252.
“Phinuit began, after the usual introduction”: Gauld, Founders of Psychical Research, 254.
Phinuit said she was standing right there: Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 20.
Hodgson said nothing: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 135.
Hodgson didn’t even know his sister was expecting: Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 21.
James tried to make light of it: Piper, Life and Work of Mrs. Piper, 45.
Hodgson … was becoming obsessed: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 142–43.
“It happens that an uncle”: Gauld, Founders of Psychical Research, 255–57.
“I took every precaution”: Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 46.
And in his Proceedings report: Ibid., 65.
All this was true, and it was way past telepathy: Ibid., 66.
Pellew took over Mrs. Piper’s body: This conversation (p. 468) and many other particulars are found in Holt, On the Cosmic Relations.
Phinuit was speaking and George was writing with one hand: Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 75, citing Lodge, Survival of Man, 251.
“He was a very Saul”: Doyle, History of Spiritualism, 2:75.
Hyslop said the ghost of his father: Blum, Ghost Hunters, 245.
“keeping up a conversation”: Doyle, History of Spiritualism, 2:83.
In 1909, G. Stanley Hall: His cruelty to Mrs. Piper is documented in Blum, Ghost Hunters, 303 ff; Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 182; and in her daughter’s biography, Piper’s Life and Work of Mrs. Piper, 173–75.
In 1925, Sir William Barrett: Tymn, Resurrecting Leonora Piper, 191.
CHAPTER SIX: “SOME SPLENDID STARRY NIGHT”
He was just shy of thirty-eight: Carr, Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 101.
“I tried never to give Touie a moment’s unhappiness”: Ibid., 175–77.
A year after Touie’s death: Booth, The Doctor and the Detective, 267.
Though he generally wrote: Carr, Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 177.
“My dear fellow”: Ibid., 171.
“You know, Arthur, it would be strange”: Ibid., 172.
Sir Arthur’s nephew Oscar Hornung: Lycett, Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, 385.
“The Bowmen,” by the Welsh author Arthur Machen: The story of the Angels of Mons is retold in several places, including in “Smoke Without Fire: A Re-examination of the Angels of Mons,” militaryhistoryonline; “Angels of Mons,” firstworldwar.com; and Arthur Machen’s 1915 book The Bowmen and Other Legends of the War.
“Now Lodge, while we are not here as of old”: Lodge, Raymond, 90.
“the reference is to Horace’s account”: Ibid., 91.
“TELL FATHER I HAVE MET SOME FRIENDS OF HIS”: Ibid., 98.
“a man, a writer of poetry”: Ibid., 100.
“I have met hundreds of friends”: Ibid., 99.
“is particular that I should tell you this”: Ibid., 105.
The photograph arrived in Oliver Lodge’s mailbox: Ibid., 109.
It appears to have been sometime: Booth, The Doctor and the Detective, 312.
> “In spite of occasional fraud”: Item by A. Conan Doyle, Light, Nov. 4, 1916.
In 1916, during the Battle of the Somme: Details in Lycett, Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, 390, 399.
“He was a very perfect man”: Booth, The Doctor and the Detective, 311.
“on the whole, Evan Powell may be said”: Doyle, History of Spiritualism, 11, 210.
He had given many sittings: Psychic Science, July 1925.
After Doyle’s lecture that night: Conan Doyle described this key séance with Evan Powell in “A Wonderful Experience,” Two Worlds, Dec. 19, 1919, and in “A Wonderful Séance,” Light, Dec. 27, 1919. The full text of these items can be found in the Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia, arthur-conan-doyle.com. A description of the séance also occurs in Daniel Stashower’s biography, Teller of Tales, 346. Stashower writes that Doyle had described the séance in a letter to Oliver Lodge and later repeated it many times over the years.
“universal sorrow and loss”: Doyle, Memories and Adventures, 387.
“I have clasped materialized hands”: Ibid., 393, 394.
“Spiritualism has been for me”: Doyle, New Revelation, 103.
CHAPTER SEVEN: THE SAINT PAUL OF SPIRITUALISM
all twenty-four hundred tickets were sold out: Doyle to his mother (before the event), Feb. 1920, in Lellenberg, Stashower, and Foley, Life in Letters, 663.
“a combative and aggressive spirit”: Doyle, Psychic Experiences, 117.
“Someone has called me”: Lellenberg, Stashower, and Foley, Life in Letters, 656.
“I go into battle”: Ibid., 665.
“This is a serious debate”: All quotations are taken from Verbatim Report of a Public Debate on “The Truth of Spiritualism.”
“Those who discharge promptly”: Greeley, Autobiography, 239.
“When the whole world is living vividly”: Doyle, Wanderings of a Spiritualist, 64.
“in short snip-snap sentences”: Doyle, Spiritualism and Rationalism, 151.
that’s just how Joseph McCabe died: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
“who had passed over”: Doyle, Wanderings of a Spiritualist, 5.
“big arresting presence”: Ibid., 31.
At the start of his first speech in Sydney: Sydney Morning Herald, Nov. 16, 1920, 9.
“A wise spirit control”: Doyle, Wanderings of a Spiritualist, 42.
“So amazing a phenomenon”: Doyle, History of Spiritualism, 2:214–15.
Wallace requested a sunflower: Alfred Russel Wallace, A Defence of Modern Spiritualism (Boston: Colby and Rich, 1874), 646.
“Almost at once he breathed very heavily”: Doyle, Wanderings of a Spiritualist, 46–48.
“I had an Indian nest”: Ibid., 128.
There, in the archives: Stanford Magazine, May/June 2000 and Sept./Oct. 2012.
“Who was the greatest medium-baiter”: Doyle, the opening words of “The Riddle of Houdini,” in Edge of the Unknown.
“What religion could there be in a jumping table”: Doyle, Our American Adventure, 10 (Cambridge Scholars ed.).
He’d been answering that question: Cf. Daily Chronicle, Feb. 20, 1919.
“Unselfishness, that is the keynote”: Doyle, New Revelation, 195.
“When I said that the average human being”: Doyle, Our American Adventure, 17.
He said most of the Bible was worse than worthless: Doyle, Vital Message, esp. 123 (Cambridge Scholars ed.).
“the sweetest soul that ever trod”: Lamond, Arthur Conan Doyle, a Memoir, 230.
“One thing that can safely be said of Paul”: Doyle, Wanderings of a Spiritualist, 38.
“When we translate Bible language”: Doyle, Vital Message, 164.
“Don’t tell me, Daddy”: Doyle, Land of Mist, 19.
“The differences between various sects”: Doyle, Vital Message, 135.
an eighth principle, recognizing Jesus: Lamond, Arthur Conan Doyle, a Memoir, 233.
In the last days of his life, infighting: Lycett, Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, 460.
“so scanty that I cannot bring myself”: Gibson and Green, Letters to the Press, 301.
American spiritualists were no better: Moore, In Search of White Crows, esp. 42–46.
“So soon as they become satisfied”: Banner of Light, Dec. 11, 1869, cited in ibid., 69.
It had a print run of fewer than a thousand copies: Lycett, Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, 458.
CHAPTER EIGHT: AN EMBARRASSMENT OF FAIRIES
“either the most elaborate and ingenious hoax”: Doyle, Coming of the Fairies, 3.
“If I myself am asked”: “Fairies Photographed: An Epoch-Making Event Described by A. Conan Doyle,” Strand Magazine, Dec. 1920.
“I was up the beck alone”: Cottingleyconnect.org.uk/fairies.shtml.
“Elsie and I are friendly with the beck fairies”: Ibid.
“The fact that two young girls”: Paul Smith, “The Cottingley Fairies: The End of a Legend,” in The Good People: New Fairylore Essays, ed. Peter Narváez (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997), 371–405.
“quiet, well-balanced and reserved”: Doyle, Coming of the Fairies, 10.
“throw [this news] into literary shape”: Ibid.
As other critics later pointed out: Ibid., 11.
“This bracket and plant are opposite my daily seat”: Baker, Doyle Diary, 48.
“These two negatives are entirely genuine”: Doyle, Coming of the Fairies, 25, 31.
Kodak declined to warrant the genuineness of the images: Cottingleyconnect.org.uk; Doyle, Coming of the Fairies, 17, 19.
“impressed me favourably”: Doyle, Coming of the Fairies, 19.
“entirely uninspired, and bore no possible resemblance”: Ibid., 33.
“most observers of fairy life have reported”: Ibid., 32.
“Poor Sherlock Holmes—Hopelessly Crazy?”: Baker, Doyle Diary, xix.
“on the evidence I have no hestitation”: Doyle, Coming of the Fairies, 49.
“The wonderful thing has happened”: Ibid., 59.
In a second article for The Strand: Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Evidence for Fairies,” Strand Magazine, March 1921.
“No contrast could well be more marked”: Doyle, Coming of the Fairies, 115.
“I’ve told you they’re photographs”: Cottingleyconnect.org.uk.
“It was a wet Saturday afternoon”: Ibid.
CHAPTER NINE: THE STRANGEST FRIENDSHIP IN HISTORY
“If ever there was a whole-hearted believer”: Ernst and Carrington, Story of a Strange Friendship, 31.
“This is to certify that Mr. Harry Houdini”: Ibid., 76.
“I have always been a good boy, have I not?”: Ernst and Carrington, Story of a Strange Friendship, 26.
It was, he later said, his most difficult escape: Wikipedia, s.v. “Harry Houdini.”
Houdini’s onstage marvels were so remarkable: www.paranormal-encyclopedia.com, s.v. “Harry Houdini”.
“I have always wondered”: Ernst and Carrington, Story of a Strange Friendship, 44.
“Houdini, you know more about myself”: Ibid., 49.
“was a great master of his profession”: Ibid., 16.
“In a long life which has touched”: Doyle, Edge of the Unknown, 11.
“comes automatically to the mind”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 140.
“Until Thursday is over”: Ernst and Carrington, Story of a Strange Friendship, 137, 132.
“A retinue of rogues”: Ibid., 34.
“he has refused to discuss”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 141.
“I see that you know a great deal”: Ernst and Carrington, Story of a Strange Friendship, 51.
“the fervor with which [Houdini] carried on”: Ibid., 41.
“the most home-like home”: Ibid., 122.
Doyle was convinced that the study: Sandford, Houdini and Conan Doyle, 104.
“Houdini produced what appeared to be an ordinary slate”: This remarkable demonstration, described several
places, is described best in Carrington and Ernst, Story of a Strange Friendship, 245–50.
“Sir Arthur thinks that I have great mediumistic powers”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 159, 165.
From under his chair, he pulled out a picture: Sandford, Houdini and Conan Doyle, 134.
“The method in which Houdini”: Doyle, Edge of the Unknown, 33, 34.
“Smilingly, my good little wife said”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 150–51.
“Sir Arthur tried to quiet her”: Ibid., 152.
“It was a singular scene”: Sandford, Houdini and Conan Doyle, 137.
“I always read my beloved son’s mind”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 154.
“he looked up at me and I was amazed”: Doyle, Edge of the Unknown, 34.
“The Spirits have directed you”: Sandford, Houdini and Conan Doyle, 138.
“walking on air ever since”: Doyle, Edge of the Unknown, 33.
“There is a man here”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 155.
“Trusting you will accept”: Ibid., 158.
“in case of my death”: Carrington and Ernst, Story of a Strange Friendship, 176.
CHAPTER TEN: SEX, LIES, AND SÉANCES
On the steamy summer night: Most of the details in this chapter come from unpublished real-time notes of this séance, August 25, 1924, and personal correspondence from Dr. Le Roi Crandon to Conan Doyle, on file in the Arthur Conan Doyle archive housed at the marvelous Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin.
“too attractive for her own good”: Tietze, Margery, xxi, 9.
“a loud merry whistle”: Ibid., 23.
“I have said many times”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 270.
Walter was intrigued enough: Tietze, Margery, 3.
“deep and frivolous, superficial and solemn”: Ibid., 9.
At the conclusion of the sitting: Ibid., 16.
“was able to produce an extraordinary spectrum”: Ibid., 19.
“what amazing things people are willing to believe”: Ibid., 25.
“ANNOUNCING $5,000 FOR PSYCHIC PHENOMENA”: Ibid., 33.
“We continue to sit for the Scientific American Committee”: Le Roi Crandon to Doyle, Ransom Center.
“I am Houdini!”: “Mina Crandon & Harry Houdini: The Medium and the Magician,” Historynet.com.
“has collected every lie and innuendo”: Crandon to Doyle, Ransom Center.
“I see that you are on the Scientific American Committee”: Houdini, Magician Among the Spirits, 159.
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