Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters

by Неизвестный

  Well, you’ll see ‘The Cause and Conduct of the War’ soon, and you’ll see your son single-handed try to swing round the whole opinion of the world. Their gorge must turn against their long diet of lies.

  Britain finally won in May 1902 after a series of hard drives in which Innes saw a good deal of action. Conan Doyle’s pamphlet was distributed widely throughout Europe and the United States, with considerable positive effect upon Britain’s reputation.

  ‘I mean to have my pamphlet translated into every European language and sent to every deputy and editor in the world,’ he told Innes early in the year. He may also have pulled strings at Innes’s behest to have him sent to South Africa: ‘I have just written Coleridge Grove a strong letter about Africa,’ Conan Doyle, referring to the Military Secretary at the War Office, told Innes: ‘I told him I had been defending the honour of the Army in my pamphlet and I want the Army to do something for me in exchange. So perhaps it may come off.’ It was not information Conan Doyle shared with their mother.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, JANUARY 1902

  I have an invitation to dine with Lord Rosebery tomorrow, another to dine with Lady Jeune to meet the Princess Christian on Saturday, and another to dine with Joe Chamberlain on the 22nd—‘so far I’ve clambered up the Brae’ as Burns says. I suppose it is all the Pamphlet.*

  I hope a Times was sent you which contained a letter from me with some account of what I was doing. All is going wonderfully. But this letter had opened the floodgates and today I had 120 letters & a postcard. The postcard told me not to tell lies and to stick to writing penny novels—the letters contained £129 and many charming sentiments. I have now nearly £2000 so I will not fail in my plans for want of funds. The ‘Independence Belge’—a hostile organ & a very powerful one—has promised to print the whole of my pamphlet. I hope several other Continental papers will do the same. The chief paper in Norway has also come round. I enclose a cutting from ‘Le Siécle’ which of course was always on our side. I am sure that in 3 months I will have swung round the opinion of the whole Continent. It really would be fine, would it not? One of my correspondents today said a funny thing about the Germans. He said that it was not the first time that a ‘lying spirit had taken possession of a herd of swine’.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, FEBRUARY 1902

  I live—like my mother—writing letters all the time. I will send you a Times with an account of what I am doing. Please read it carefully & sympathise.

  All goes well. Norwegian translation, about to appear. French in a few weeks. German, Dutch, Spanish, Welsh, Portuguese, Hungarian, Italian all coming along.

  Is it not singular how Fate works. There is no question that had it not been for my dear J I should have gone to India this year. In that case I could not have done this, which is the greatest public work of my life—one which is enough to justify my whole life. This alone is enough to show that this is a high & heaven-sent thing, this love of ours, since such high things have sprung directly from us. First the ‘Duet’ and then this Pamphlet have come straight from our union, while there is no line which it has ever prevented me from writing. It has kept my soul & my emotions alive.

  It was so sweet of you to write her such a dear card & to offer her Annette’s bangle. I always feel that Annette knows and approves all we have done. We often have that sense of a Guardian Spirit.

  When I think of the difficult position in which I have placed that dear and sensitive girl, and of her loyalty at all odds to our love which brings her so little and bars her from so much I feel—and you must feel as you think of it—that there is nothing which I can do in the way of tenderness & thoughtfulness & love which can compensate her for it all. No man could owe a greater debt to a woman. Her influence upon me has always been of the highest—noble & sweet like her own nature. Our difficult circumstances have brought us both much pain, but it is the kind of pain one would not be without, an intimate chastening pain, which has something sweet and good in it also. And then the Sunshine comes also.

  [P.S.] Innes wrote to say he had his orders for SA but mentioned no dates.

  to Mary Doyle GOLDEN CROSS HOTEL, CHARING CROSS, LONDON

  J and I left London for Birmingham yesterday and were back at Keltners by 7.30. I bought such a beautiful motor car. It will be a great new interest in my life. It is a real beauty, a ten horse power Wolseley of the best make.

  Holden goes up on Monday to be turned into a chauffeur, and to learn not to say ‘Hud-up!’ to it. That will take three weeks. Then I shall go up, and we will bring it down together. I will be very careful. Even J is satisfied (that I wont hurt myself).

  I took her to see Dr Hoare’s house & all my old haunts. We had an idyllic day.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW

  Many thanks for your dear note and gift to J which I appreciate with all my heart. The plan is indeed charming. I will go out as you suggest. It will all fit in most beautifully. The only thing is that I would never wish Connie to do anything which was against her own feelings or which could in any way make a coldness between her and Willie. I would far rather the plan fell through than risk that. I sent the letter on to her and I will see her on Saturday when she will tell me her candid opinion about it. She knows that I will not misunderstand her.

  The work progresses. ‘Le Livre mechant’ the principal French proBoer paper calls it, so they don’t like it. I chafe with slow translators and stodgy publishers but in some ways the delay is good as it has enabled me to get in an appendix with a lot of new stuff in it. I am now trying to arrange local Committees of British all over France & Germany to spread the book to their neighbours on a system. Their noses shall be rubbed in it.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW

  I had a pleasing experience the other day. I spoke for the Union Jack Club (for soldiers & sailors in London). Afterwards Lord Strathcona gave £1000 and said my speech had made him do so.* Was it not good? Sir Edward Ward (Undersecretary of War) wrote to me thanking me. I wrote back to say that if he really wanted to get level he had better bring Innes back & give him a Staff College billet. Nous verrons.

  [P.S.] Holden is in B’ham learning to ‘Mote’. I send his wife up next week.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, MARCH 1, 1902

  Innes is with 79th Battery Harrismith, Orange River Colony. He must have been in the thick of all the recent fighting with De Wet. This has ended successfully & the Boers numbers in that part are so reduced that I cannot think there will be much more in that quarter, so all is well.

  to Mary Doyle MARCH 14, 1902

  Dear old Innes! God guard him! He is in the very thick of it now. I wish I were riding beside him.

  All is very well with me in all ways. I fight hard against all the powers of darkness—and I win. I took up a French & a German paper the other day. One called my book ‘le livre mechant’ and the other ‘Das Buch der luegen’. I was pleased.

  Today is J’s birthday. We will spend it together.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW

  Just had a line from Innes. He is with Dunlops—not Donop’s—Column. I think they were in that second drive which followed the big successful óne. It must have been a great experience for I remember reading that they drove the country so completely that when they got to the angle they found it full of game—all the deer & antelope of the country.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW

  I am sending you Sir Edward Ward’s two letters. It looks well, does it not? Please send them on to Innes by this mail. I will write about it to him.

  I asked also for a Staff College appointment for Innes so I have not been too modest.

  With the war coming to an end, rumours began to circulate that Conan Doyle would receive an Honour for his defence of the British cause. His mother was delighted. He was not—and, as he left for Italy to visit his sister Ida and her family, he resisted the idea that he must accept what might be offered.

  to Mary Doyle MORLEY’S HOTEL, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON

  I fear, dearest, tha
t with all love and respect, I could never do your wish in this personal matter about titles. Surely you don’t really mean that I should take a knighthood—the badge of the provincial mayor. Nothing else will be offered. But if ever anything else should be offered you must remember that it is the silently understood thing in the world that the big men—outside diplomacy and the army where it is a sort of professional badge, do not condescend to such things. Not that I am a big man, but I have that within me which revolts at the thought. Fancy Rhodes or Chamberlain or Kipling doing such a thing! And why should my standard be lower than theirs. It is the Alfred Austin & Hall Caine type of man who takes rewards. Think it over, dearest Mam, and realise what a come down it would be. All my work for the State would seem tainted if I took a so-called reward. It may be foolish pride but I just could not do it.

  But I hope they will never ask me & then I shall never differ in opinion from my ambitious Mammie.

  Today, in an age of profligate knighthoods, this may sound precious on Conan Doyle’s part; but in fact he was echoing the views of other literary men at the time. Andrew Lang had addressed ‘the ardent question of titles and state honors’ a few years before:

  These, in England, are bestowed on rich political people, on members of the public service, on artists, and actors (once or twice), on doctors and scientific characters. Honors for literary men are rare. There was Scott’s baronetcy; he wanted it (as a man of family with feudal principles, not as a man of letters) and he got it. It is probable that several men of letters have managed to decline official honors. When Lord Tennyson accepted gracefully what his sovereign gracefully and gratefully gave, some literary persons ‘booed’ at him. The great poet neither coveted nor churlishly refused official recognition. To him the matter, we may believe, was purely indifferent. And it really is indifferent to most men of letters. Knighthoods, as a common rule, come to the beknighted because of their much asking, except when they come in an official routine, in the public service. Having nothing official about us, having no routine, we cannot look to receiving ribbons and orders. And, I hope, we cannot be expected to sue, and pester, and hint, and intrigue for bits of ribbons!*

  The American correspondent William Rideing put it even more bluntly, for the sake of his countrymen’s understanding: ‘A brewer or a distiller may have a peerage, but speak of making Thomas Hardy Earl of Wessex, or Meredith Baron Boxhill, and it is the “literary person” who laughs most.’†

  But the Mam insisted upon having the final word, and kept after her son as he sailed for Italy to visit Ida and her family.

  to Mary Doyle R.M.S. AUSTRAL, APRIL 1902

  The title that I value most, dear, is that ‘Dr’ which was conferred by your self-sacrifice & determination. I shall never descend from it to another. I sincerely hope I shall never be asked to.

  I left Touie in very good form at Morley’s, full of cheques & content. That dear Guardian Angel of mine was at the station, and came down (it was quite safe for there was a great crowd & bustle, no one knowing anyone & everyone very busy). She decorated my cabin with flowers & kissed my pillow on both sides. Poor dear, I last saw her pale face in the shadow of the shed as she tried to hide that she was crying. I tell you these things because you have insight and you know how the little things count in life. We left the very wharf from which the ‘Oriental’ sailed for Africa on that rainy day. I seemed to see you again on the quay, you dear little hen whose chickens are always scuttling out of the yard.

  Our itinerary will be something like this—leave Naples about May 7th, then Florence, Milan, Venice (for some days) Como, Maloja, St Moritz, Davos, Zurich, Divonne (rest cure place which I wish to investigate in France near Geneva—McClure says it saved his reason & life) and so on to Paris, London.* Nearly 3 weeks en route. It will be splendid.

  Already the virile Channel air has done me good. I don’t care a toss whether we have bad weather or not. It’s all a change.

  to Mary Doyle R.M.S. AUSTRAL, APRIL 1902

  I see two of Innes’ battery wounded on the 8th so he has been in an action—and a warm one judging by the other casualties. That was near Bethlehem on the O.R.C. The country however has been so cleared that I cannot think there can be any danger of serious fighting there, so dont let your dear motherly heart be sad.

  to Mary Doyle ‘THE ISLAND’ (AT NAPLES), APRIL 20, 1902

  Here I am—as you see. We had quite a charming voyage with pleasant people. But the Island is far better and more restful than the ship. I had a swim today and I feel much the better for it. I have a most charming room on the top of the house—such a view!

  I am sorry, my dear old Mammie, that you should have set your heart on that which is impossible. I assure you that if Jean & Lottie & you—the three whom I love most in the world—were all on their knees before me I could not do this thing. It is a matter of principle with me, I have never approved of titles, I have always said so, and no power on earth could make me take one. But I do hope that you also will come round to my view and see how paltry a thing a knighthood—the only thing I could be offered, is. Ida saw it as I do whenever I mentioned it, and I dont think I have one friend on earth, save your dear self, who would not be unanimous about it. I could imagine a man at the end of a successful career taking a peerage as a mark that his work was done & recognised (as Tennyson did) but that a youngish man could saddle himself with a knighthood—a thing which I who know the opinion of the world far more than you can do—assure you to be a discredited title, that is inconceivable. So, dearest Mammie, let us drop the subject, for on one hand I cant do it, and on the other it is very painful to differ from you.

  to Mary Doyle MAY 1902

  Just a word of love with a vile pen in acknowledgment of your birthday letter. You are a dear.

  What should I pick up in Venice but another Brigadier story—Venetian. I have finished it ‘en route’ and it will pay our Xs very nicely.

  I am told that I am 5 years younger in 6 weeks so my exodus has been for the best. We have had a splendid time. I get to London tomorrow. Home Wednesday May 28.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, JUNE 1902

  I had a note from Lord Middleton, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey yesterday, asking me whether I would like to be one of the Deputy Lord Lieutenants of the County as a sign of recognition &c.&c. I thought of my mothers sinful pride and I said that I would. I dont even know what it means but it sounds rather proud. I must get a new hat.

  I am going up tomorrow, if the weather is decent, to have two days of the Australian match. I wish you could all come & watch it with me. It is the most restful thing in the world. But lord, the weather!

  Now I must go on with my history. Does not South Africa go well? And does it not justify our action all through. How could we have got this good feeling save by a fair square fight.

  Your ever loving

  Deputy Lieutenant

  [P.S] I wonder what the dickens it is! J.P. or what? What amazes me most is that it comes through the War Office!

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, JUNE 1902

  Yes, I would take a CB,* dear. But a knighthood does jar upon me very much and I like it less the more I think of it. CB or baronetcy I would take. Better wait a few years for the latter.

  to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, JUNE 1902

  I shall want you to be here when Innes comes. Only so can we avoid tearing him wing from wing. He says ‘next month’ so make haste and get well.

  I shall have my Riflemen out & give him a real public reception with bands & banners. Wont he be surprised? Touie keeps very fit.

  to Innes Doyle UNDERSHAW, JUNE 14, 1902

  I can’t tell you how glad I am that you are out of the bullets. If you can clear the microbes now you will be quite all right. We are all delighted about the peace & about the good spirit which the Boers seem to have shown since. They really are a very fine lot of chaps—I dont know where we could find their equals. Flash vulgarity is the weak spot of our race, I think, and they seem to be without that, simple & honest.


  They’ve made me Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey for my pamphlet which was civil of them. I dont in the least know what it is. I am pushing on with my history all I can, and hope to finish in a week.

  Touie is in very good form. I have got a window for her at Morley’s Hotel for the Coronation.

  to Mary Doyle GOLDEN CROSS HOTEL, CHARING CROSS, LONDON

  You will be sorry to hear that poor Mrs H is quite ill. I motor back this morning to look after her. Poor lady, what a singularly amiable and gentle creature she has ever been. I much fear she will go. We have wired for Nem.*

  I enjoyed the Prince of Wales dinner. He asked that I should be placed next him. He proved an able, clearheaded, positive man, rather inclined to be noisy, very alert and energetic. He wont be a dummy king. He will live to be 70, I should say. We quite palled in a mild way. The other guests were the American Ambassador, Lord Alverstone, Alma Tadema, Mackenzie Wallace and Knowles (‘19th Century’).