Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters
Page 50
to Mary Doyle
Did you get a note recently from J? Because she was rather afraid that she had bothered you by it since she had not heard from you. A line in that direction would be a kindness. I don’t want her for several reasons to go abroad this year so use your influence, like a dear, in that direction. Half a J is better than no girl.
I have done three Gerard stories in one month and am very proud of it. I have not smoked for a month either. I dont know if there is any connection. I have the idea for many large works in my head. Innes and I go to Ashdown tomorrow after I have played my billiard match at the Sporting Club. I am in for their big Competition this year & may have a chance. The only bore is that if I win tomorrow I must appear again on Friday.
In the spring, Norman Hapgood, now editor of Collier’s Weekly in America, sent a striking offer in hopes of persuading the reluctant author to revive Sherlock Holmes for a new set of stories. Conan Doyle found it hard to resist. ‘I have had a great bargaining with those Americans,’ he reported to Innes on March 4th: ‘They offered 6000 [pounds] for all rights in six Holmes stories. I offer them the American rights at that figure. I could get at least 3000 more over here. I don’t know what will come of it.’
The final offer from Collier’s for the American rights was $25,000 for six stories, $30,000 for eight, or $45,000 for thirteen, irrespective of length.
‘Very well. A.C.D.’ he replied by postcard.
‘Good old Sherlock,’ said Innes: ‘I think he has had quite a long enough rest.’
to Mary Doyle MORLEY’S HOTEL, LONDON
I dont think you need have any fears about Sherlock. I am not conscious of any failing powers, and my work is not less conscientious than of old. I dont suppose any man has ever sacrificed so much money to preserve his ideal of art as I have done, witness my suppression of Girdlestone, my refusal to serialise ‘A Duet’ and my refusal to republish in a book the ‘Round the Fire’ series of stories.* But I have done no short Sherlock Holmes Stories for seven or eight years, and I dont see why I should not have another go at them and earn three times as much money as I can by any other form of work. I have finished the first one—the plot by the way was given me by Jean—and it is a rare good one. You will find that Holmes was never dead, and that he is now very much alive.
I have Touie up to see her Doctor. I hope to have a good report from him this afternoon. This evening I will take her to the theatre. A little change brightens her up.
My health is wonderfully good. I have lost nine pounds in a fortnight and I am like an athlete in training. Yet I am not ascetic and I enjoy life. A few simple rules have revolutionised my health.
The Mam, who years before had championed Sherlock Holmes at the end of the first set of stories, now had qualms about reviving Holmes. And despite his responses in his letters to her, so did Conan Doyle.
to Mary Doyle 16 BUCKINGHAM STREET, LONDON, APRIL 1903
May 13th is our fete day which we always observe with some little outing. Suppose we could run up only for two or three days to a Cromer hotel or cottage at that time it would be very delightful. See how it fits with your dates.
And then I have a further plan which I would like you to consider. The MCC play a series of matches, about 10 days, in June every year around Kenilworth, Leamington, Coventry &c. Now if I play for them this year could we not have rooms in some central quarter & have a sweet summer fortnight together. It would be grand. I could give you the exact date a little later.
[P.S.] I want a good open air summer—this has been my Annus Mirabilis for work, but all done so easily.
3 Brigadier Stories
1 Brigadier 4 Act Play
1 S. Holmes Story done
1 other plotted out.
All this year.
How’s that?
In the first of the new stories, ‘The Empty House’, the plot which Jean Leckie had suggested had Holmes faking his death at the Reichenbach Falls in 1893’s ‘The Final Problem’, and spending three years away to evade the murderous Colonel Sebastian Moran, Professor Moriarty’s surviving henchman. After returning to London finally (and sending poor unsuspecting Watson into a dead faint), Holmes lays a trap in Baker Street to catch Moran in the act of attempting to murder him.
Conan Doyle was also pleased with the next story, ‘The Norwood Builder’, though less with the third, ‘The Solitary Cyclist’. And Greenhough Smith also objected to two of the first three stories in the new series having no actual crime.
to H. Greenhough Smith HILL HOUSE HOTEL, HAPPISBURGH, NORFOLK, MAY 14, 1903
I think I take a fairly sane view of my own work. I can never remember an instance in which I have been very far wrong. This is what I think about these two stories.
The second ‘The Norwood Builder’ I would put in the very first rank of the whole series for subtlety and depth. Any feeling of disappointment at the end is due to the fact that no crime has been done & so the reader feels bluffed, but it is well for other reasons to have some of the stories crimeless.
Take the series of points, Holmes’ deductions from the will written in the train, the point of the bloody thumb mark, Holmes’ device for frightening the man out of his hiding place &c. I know no Holmes story which has such a succession of bright points.
As to the Cyclist story I did not like it so well nor was I satisfied with it & yet I could make no more of it. It has points but as a whole is not up to the mark. But if I get two right out of three it is as good a proportion as I have ever had. The Cyclist is a better story than 4 or 5 that have preceded it in the complete series.
You will appreciate more fully now my intense disinclination to continue these stories which has caused me to resist all entreaty for so many years. It is impossible to prevent a certain sameness & want of freshness. The most one can do is to try to produce such stories that if they had come first and the others second, they would then have seemed fresh and good. That I hope to do and I don’t think we are much off the rails up to now. Anyhow I’ll do my best and no man can do more. The Americans have been asking me to make the series 12, but in view of your letter I will keep it to 8.*
You will never offend me, my dear chap, by saying what you think.
to Mary Doyle GRAND HOTEL, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON
I am sure there is great truth in what you say about the Stories. I count those three as two bulls and an outer, and that is as high a proportion as I have had in any consecutive three. I must have another bull for my fourth. No one could help me in my actual writing. It is only in talking over the plot before I begin that I get assistance.
The Dancing Men still hangs fire. I have really had so little quiet time. But it will come.
And for some time the editorial back-and-forth between Conan Doyle and Greenhough Smith continued:
to H. Greenhough Smith HILL HOUSE HOTEL
I think perhaps this would meet the case. I have a strong bloody story for the fourth ‘The Adventure of the Dancing Men’. We could put this third and so separate the two crimeless stories. That would give a stronger start to the series.
I must say that I cannot agree with your estimate of the ‘Norwood Builder’. I read it to a roomful of people and I was never more conscious of holding an audience absolutely spellbound.
The other is a dramatic & ingenious plot, but it is weakened by Holmes having little to do with the denouement.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW
I had intended to send £5 when I wrote. Perhaps this will cover both your journey and your bonnet. I have just finished my fourth story for the Strand. It is a ripper.
to H. Greenhough Smith UNDERSHAW
I have finished ‘The Adventure of the Dancing Men’. I hope it is long enough and strong enough to make a good story for your Xmas number.
Let me do a small grumble on my own account. That ‘Leather Funnel’ was literature, or as near literature as I can ever produce. It is not right to print such a story two words to the line on each side of an unnecessary illustrat
ion. It’s bad economy to spoil a £200 story by the intrusion of a 3 guinea engraving.*
Take the last of the Brigadiers also. My whole object is to give the reader a stunning shock by Napoleon lying dead at the crisis of the adventure. But the story is prefaced by a large picture of Napoleon lying dead, which simply knocks the bottom out of the whole thing from the Storytellers point of view.
Adieu—and don’t mind my grumble! I shall have another look at the Cyclist story now, and see if I can do anything more with it.
to H. Greenhough Smith UNDERSHAW
I have gone over the Cyclist again. It strikes me as a dramatic & interesting & original story. The weakness lies in Holmes not having more to do. But Watson now prefaces his account by meeting this criticism. I have gone over it carefully & can do no more to strengthen it. I consider that these four stories will beat any four consecutive Holmes stories that I have written.
About the picture I don’t object to its presence but to its making my story run in two-word lines.
[P.S.] The Dancing Men are being typed.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW
I am sending you the Dancing Men. You see that Norfolk is playing its part. I am now deep in a new one about Buxton—so you see it pays to take us out for an airing.
All well here. Touie is in excellent form—in spite of the rain. I am working hard & getting little cricket, but I will make up later. Mind our date is about July 20th for the Midlands. I do hope that it wont inconvenience you to come. Our headquarters will be Leamington—lodgings for choice. It will be splendid. We can work out details as the time approaches. I see no reason why I should say anything to anyone here about you being there, I am simply away on a cricket tour.
In later years Conan Doyle liked to tell of the Cornish boatman who said to him, ‘When Mr. Holmes had that fall [in 1893’s ‘Final Problem’] he may not have been killed, but he was never the same man afterwards.’* But not only was ‘The Dancing Men’ to the author’s satisfaction, other stories that followed in the series—‘Charles Augustus Milverton’, ‘The Six Napoleons’, ‘The Second Stain’—became Sherlock Holmes classics.
Not that the public was picky. When The Strand and Collier’s began to run The Return of Sherlock Holmes in October, the response was enormous. ‘Readers rushed to the bookstalls with the fierce resolve of shoppers at the January sales,’ says the history of The Strand Magazine: ‘Devotees were seen queuing at one of the largest public libraries for the chance of reading the latest story in the series. So pressing was the demand that closing time at the library was extended by half an hour on The Strand publication day, usually the third Thursday in the month.’†
He remained interested in politics, and the idea of a seat in Parliament still appealed to him. And A. Conan Doyle, now Sir Arthur, seemed an attractive candidate not only to Liberals but less aligned men of affairs as well.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW
I refused, as you know, to stand as Unionist Candidate for C. Edin. First I knew that (the war being over) the Unionist has no chance (2nd) I had no strong incentive, and am not an ardent party man. I have now had a requisition asking me if I would stand as an Independent if a strong Committee of men of all parties asked me to do so. This is a very flattering position. I have not answered yet. You must think it over & let me know when we meet. I would win on those lines. Is it worth it. I incline towards it.
‘Ithink I stand near the dividing line—or sit on the dividing fence—of parties,’ he told a friend in November. ‘I can hardly picture myself standing against a Unionist but I can imagine myself as an Independent.’ The seat in mind was the one for Scotland’s ‘Border Burghs’, the towns of Hawick, Galashiels, and Selkirk. Its textile industry was depressed because of foreign competition, making free trade versus tariff reform the vital issue.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW
I have just finished No 9 Sherlock. Such a weight off my mind. Now only 3 more. 9 is a real good one too—one of the best.
I intend to go up to Hawick for a fortnight early in December and have a bit of a campaign. It will be a great adventure. My chance of winning the seat is not very rosey.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW
I am ashamed not to have written sooner—especially after the very dear letter which you sent me last, as beautiful and tender a letter as I have ever had. I work from morning to night and in that way I get the most out of my life. I am very busy now in preparing my big speech for Hawick on Dec 9th. I want to be at my top note that night. I shall have a very busy time in the Borders for a week, and I hope to leave my mark deep upon them.
Goodbye, my dearest Mam and all thanks for your dear words. I wish to be as good a son as you say I am, but I often fear that I get on your nerves, as one strong nature will on another.
to Mary Doyle LONDON, DECEMBER 22, 1903
This is my general plan, but it is all dependent above all upon your health and strength. But it will not be unpleasant to you, I hope, and will only entail a weeks absence from home. It is, I may tell you, all a surprise to Jean, to whom I said nothing of the matter until this morning. Of course she is now very keen.
My plan would be this. On Monday Jan 25th I would start by the day train, escorting J. to Edinburgh. We would pick you up at the nearest junction to you, or meet you at the North British Hotel—whichever was the most convenient from your point of view. That evening we should have [supper] together and have a real good old satisfying three cornered talk. Tuesday I should employ in going over my many speeches, and in the late afternoon I should go to Galashiels, leaving you both in Edinburgh. On Wednesday morning you would both join me at Galashiels—I’ll meet the train—We would then go together to Selkirk. I have the use of a motor so if it were fine we would motor over. It is only six miles. You would be present at my meeting that night, and it would be delightful to me to feel that you had heard me. You will sleep at the Selkirk hotel that night. On Thursday, if fine, we motor, if not we train to Hawick. There you will hear me on Gibbon. On Friday we wind our way back to Edinburgh where I make a big speech on Friday night. Saturday & Sunday we devote to going over some of our old haunts in Edinburgh, we will have some charming drives. I want to see some of your old haunts. Then on Monday we drop you at your junction and all is well.
Now is not that a good plan. It will turn what would have been a weeks hard labour to me into a great joy & memory.
to Innes Doyle UNDERSHAW, DECEMBER 25, 1903
I think I made an impression on the radical stronghold which I am attacking. My second attack begins on Jan 25 and will be carried on for a week. I have high hopes. [Thomas] Shaw is a pro-Boer & a skunk but a clever one. His seat was thought to be beyond the reach of attack. We will see.
I am an ardent protectionist because I think we can hold our home market so, we can get better terms from foreigners, and we have a core tool for cementing the Empire and giving a British subject an advantage over a foreigner. Why should we conquer one fifth of the world, at the expense of a thousand million pounds & countless lives & then get us no good out of it. I don’t see it. Let us play into each others hands.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, JANUARY 1, 1904
Let my first line on this New Year be to my dear old Mammie. I understand from J that you said something about meeting soon, so I do trust that you feel equal to our little Edinburgh jaunt. I am sure that you will be glad afterwards to have seen my 3 towns & to have understood exactly what I am doing. And yet I would not risk your dear health for any consideration.
1904! It will be a momentous year for me. I feel it.
1903! 13 Stories & a play! My health much improved. Collected Edition. Border Burghs. Sculpture machine.* It was my greatest year so far.
to Mary Doyle GREAT NORTHERN VICTORIA HOTEL, BRADFORD, MARCH 12, 1904
It seems strange & unnatural to be within a few miles and not to see you. The dinner here was a small one (Bradford Textile Society) but it was pleasant & my speech seemed to please them. Now I must have some res
t for I have been tried by my work lately. Good news from San Remo. Mrs H also doing well.
to Mary Doyle GOLDEN CROSS HOTEL, LONDON, MARCH 16, 1904
May all good be with you & may no trouble darken your soul.
I brought Billy up as far as Surbiton and we celebrated J’s fete day by a drive and a pleasant day in the open.† We have been together seven years from yesterday now, and our love has grown with the years.‡ We have had our shadows—caused by the intensity of our love and our most difficult position, which nothing but the most determined courage could overcome, but no man could have had a more tender & loving helpmate, nor one who really did help him more when it came to practical things. How many folk in the world would have ever had theirs tested as ours has been. I should think that our case was about unique.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW
I was sorry you thought Innes was seedy. I have never seen him look such a picture of health as on his last visit so I dont think there is cause for anxiety. If a man can play hard thro’ a hockey match he can have no weak spot in him.
I think his pecuniary position is very sound, and I believe I know exactly how he stands. However you can safely leave that in my hands and I will see to it.
Lottie & Leslie seem very happy here.* I think we shall have a jolly Xmas.