On This Day 25th March

 A Fishy Tale.

Conan Doyle OTD in 1885 attended the AGM of the Portsmouth Waltonian Angling Society and that is not some fish tale!

On This Day 16th March

Songs of the Road

Songs of the Road is a volume collecting 33 poems written by Arthur Conan Doylefirst published by Smith, Elder & Co. on 16 march 1911.

The volume is divided in three parts: 

• Narratives verses and songs
• Philosophic verses
• Miscellaneous verses

The book is dedicated: "To J. C. D. This-and All. February 1911."

Editions

• Songs of the Road (16 march 1911, Smith, Elder & Co. [UK])
• Songs of the Road (october 1911, Doubleday, Page & Co. [US])
• Songs of the Road (27 january 1920, John Murray [UK])
• Songs of the Road (february 1920, John Murray [UK])
• in The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle (21 september 1922, John Murray [UK])
• in The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle (14 september 1928, John Murray's Fiction Library [UK])

• Foreword

I. - Narrative Verses and Songs

• A Hymn of Empire
• Sir Nigel's Song
• The Arab Steed
• A Post-Impressionist
• Empire Builders
• The Groom's Encore
• The Bay Horse
• The Outcasts
• The End
• 1902-1909
• The Wanderer
• Bendy's Sermon

II. - Philosophic Verses

• Compensation
• The Banner of Progress
• Hope
• Religio Medici
• Man's Limitation
• Mind and Matter
• Darkness

III. - Miscellaneous Verses

• A Woman's Love
• By the North Sea
• December's Snow
• Shakespeare's Expostulation
• The Empire
• A Voyage
• The Orphanage
• Sexagenarius Loquitur
• Night Voices
• The Message
• The Echo
• Advice to a Young Author
• A Lilt of the Road

Foreword

If it were not for the hillocks
You'd think little of the hills;
The rivers would seem tiny
If it were not for the rills.
If you never saw the brushwood
You would under-rate the trees;
And so you see the purpose
Of such little rhymes as these.

Crowborough
1911

On This Day 16th March

 

A World's Fair Suggestion

A World's Fair Suggestion is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in The Daily Chronicle circa 16 march 1893.

Editions

• in The Daily Chronicle (circa 16 march 1893 [UK])
• in The Pall Mall Gazette (16 march 1893 [UK])
• in The Ipswich Journal (18 march 1893 [UK])
• in The Mid-Sussex Times (21 march 1893 [UK]) as The Two Great Homes of the Race: A World's Fair Suggestion
• in The Bognor Observer (22 march 1893 [UK]) as The Two Great Homes of the Race: A World's Fair Suggestion
• in The Chichester Observer (22 march 1893 [UK]) as The Two Great Homes of the Race: A World's Fair Suggestion
• in The Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald (25 march 1893 [UK])

Dr. Conan Doyle writes to the Daily Chronicle to urge the Government to send special representatives to the World's Fair. He says:— All plans for the future of our race which omit the United States are as vain as the planning of an arch without the keystone. No difference of government or manners can alter the fact that the largest collection of people of Anglo-Celtic descent in the world is to be found upon the other side of the Atlantic. If, therefore, the race is destined (as I firmly believe that it is) to become more homogeneous in the future, it is certain not only that this vast block of people must be regarded as a factor in the problem, but that their wishes will have a great deal to do with its solution. The centre of the race is shifting ever westward, until the British Isles represent its extreme fringe on one side, as Australia does on the other. If these world-wide communities are not to eternally oppose and neutralise each other, they must sooner or later be organized into a union of commonwealths which shall be founded upon no artificial treaty, but upon the permanent basis of common blood, and in the main of common traditions. But if this ideal is to be reached, then no opportunity should be lost of reminding the world that, in spite of the one great rift of the last century, the Anglo-Celtic rare is mindful of its common origin. The coming Chicago Exhibition affords an admirable opportunity for doing this... If four regimental bands, representing English, Scotch, Irish, and Welsh corps were to go, together with representatives of the Cape Mounted Rifles, or of the Victoria Rifles, or any other Australian corps, and of the Canadian Militia, it would, I think, meet the case.

On This Day 15th March

Arthur Conan Doyle Letter 

Mr. A. L. Brown and Sir A. Conan Doyle is a letter written by Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Scotsman on 15 march 1904.

Sir, — I observe that Mr A. L. Brown, of Galashiels, has challenged some figures used in my address to the Imperial Union on March 4th. In that speech I compared the results of German and British trade between 1881 and 1901, showing that ours increased 37,000,000, while the German increased 77,000,000. In some extraordinary way Mr Brown seems to have supposed that I meant that trade increased to that extent in a single year. I was speaking of a series, and comparing the first with the last, so as to show the total result of the twenty years. I think my meaning must be perfectly plain to any unbiassed mind.

I may add that my other figures as to the decline in particular trades are taken from Mr Bolt Schooling's tables in his book "Mr Chamberlain's Proposal." Mr Schooling is a statistician of repute, and an accountant by profession, and his figures have never been shaken. It is a weak case which defends itself by misrepresenting its opponent. — I am, &c.

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

On This Day 14th March

Jean Leckie, ACD’s second wife, born #OTD 1874. Was hers the hand that rocked the planchette?

Jean Elizabeth Leckie (14 march 1874 – 27 june 1940) was the second wife of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. They married on 18 september 1907, but Conan Doyle was in love with her since 1897, a platonic love until the death of his first wife in 1906. They were installed in Crowborough (Sussex), where she gave him 3 children (Denis in 1909, Adrian in 1910, Lena Jean in 1912).

In 1897, when Conan Doyle met her, she was a tall, thin, and delicate woman, but also athletic and passionate.

In his Memories and Adventures (1923), Arthur Conan Doyle wrote:

« On September 18, 1907, I married Miss Jean Leckie, the younger daughter of a Blackheath family whom I had known for years, and who was a dear friend of my mother and sister. There are some things which one feels too intimately to be able to express, and I can only say that the years have passed without one shadow coming to mar even for a moment the sunshine of my Indian summer which now deepens to a golden autumn. She and my three younger children, with the kindly sympathy of my two elder ones, have made my home an ideally happy one. My wife’s people had a house at Crowborough, and there they had gone to reside. As they were very attached, I thought it would be a happy arrangement not to separate them, so I bought a house close by, named “Windlesham.” »

External Links

Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

This Month March

The Book I Most Enjoyed Writing

This month in 1922, The Strand Magazine first published a collection of authors' views of the books they most enjoyed writing. #ACD named his 'British Campaign in Flanders,' 'The White Company' and 'Rodney Stone.' 

The Book I Most Enjoyed Writing is a collection of short articles by various authors: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Miss Kathlyn Rhodes, Mr. Rafael Sabatini, Mr. J. D. Beresford, Mr. Bernard Shaw, Mrs. Baillie Reynolds, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, Mr. Compton Mackenzie, Mr. W. W. Jacobs, Mr. Frank Swinnerton, Miss Clemence Dane, Mr. Hugh Walpole, Mr. Barry Pain, Miss Sheila Kaye-Smith, Ian Hay (Major Beith, C.B.E.), Mr. Keble Howard, Mrs. Belloc Lowndes, Mr. H. A. Vachell. First published in The Strand Magazine in march 1922, and collected by George Newnes Ltd. in march 1927 in the book: What I Think (p. 80-81). In the same book, Conan Doyle also wrote How I Write My Books (p. 39-42) and The Greatest Hymns (p. 156).

A SYMPOSIUM OF WELL-KNOWN NOVELISTS

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.

I have never written to order in my life or sold any work until it was well on the way to completion. Therefore I have enjoyed writing every book, whereas, if I had written under pressure with a feeling of compulsion, I should never have regarded it as anything but a task. Naturally, as I regard the psychic question as the most important in the world, it is writing books on that subject which has given me most satisfaction, though the least productive from the financial point of view.

I had great satisfaction, also, from my "British Campaign in Flanders," because I had devised my own system of intelligence quite apart from (in fact, in opposition to) that of the War Office. I knew that my facts were true, and I knew that I had got them by my own wits, and that no one else had got them, and that was naturally a source of satisfaction. I have had little to change, save to fill up names and places which the Censor deleted. Of my novels, "The White Company" gave me most pleasure. I was young and full of the first joy of life and action, and I think I got some of it into my pages. When I wrote the last line, I remember that I cried : "Well, I'll never beat that," and threw the inky pen at the opposite wall, which was papered with duck's-egg green ! The black smudge was there for many a day.

"Rodney Stone" I enjoyed also ; for I always had, and have, a love of boxing and an admiration of the old fighting men, who were humble heroes.

Verse gives greater pleasure than prose, for it is a more compact, carefully-chiselled article. There, also, I have had occasional satisfaction and occasional disappointment

On This Day 6th March

 The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales

The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales is a volume collecting 10 short stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published by Longmans, Green & Co. on 6 march 1890.

Stories 

• dedication by Arthur Conan Doyle
• Preface by Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Captain of the "Pole-Star"
• J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement
• The Great Keinplatz Experiment
• The Man from Archangel
• That Little Square Box
• John Huxford's Hiatus
• A Literary Mosaic
• John Barrington Cowles
• The Parson of Jackman's Gulch
• The Ring of Thoth

Editions

• The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales (6 march 1890, Longmans, Green & Co. [UK/US])
• The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales (april 1890, Longmans, Green & Co. [US])
• The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales (august 1891, Bernhard Tauchnitz No. 2762 [DE])
• Captain of the Pole Star (1891, Homewood Publishing Co. [US])
• The Captain of the "Pole-Star" (1894-1896, George Munro's Sons Library of Popular Novels No. 167 [US])
• Captain of the Pole Star (1895, Homewood Publishing Co. [US])
• The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales (1895-1897, E. A. Weeks & Co. Marguerite series No. 43 [US])
• The Captain of the "Pole-Star" (1896, George Munro's Sons Seaside Library No. 2077 [US])
• The Captain of the Polestar and Other Tales (october 1896, Longmans, Green & Co. colonial [UK/US]) 1 front. by Charles Kerr
• Captain of the Pole Star (1899, F. Tennyson Neely [UK/US])
• The Captain of the "Pole-Star" (1900, George Munro's Sons Savoy series No. 220 [US])
• The Captain of the "Pole-Star" (1900, George Munro's Sons Majestic series No. 59 [US])
• The Captain of the "Pole-Star" (1900, George Munro's Sons Crescent edition [US])
• The Captain of the Pole-Star (1900, Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. [UK])
• Le Capitaine de "l'Étoile-Polaire" (1907, Jules Tallandier [FR]) 6 short stories only
• The Captain of the Polestar (1912, Smith, Elder & Co. [UK])
• in The Crowborough Edition of the Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle vol. 23 (1930, Doubleday, Doran & Co. [US])

On This Day 5th March

  The Iconoclast

Illustrations by Joseph Clement Coll in New York Tribune (5 march 1911)

OTD in 1911, the New York Tribune first published ACD's short story 'The Iconoclast' (later 'An Iconoclast') which was included in the collection 'Tales of Long Ago' (1922). 

An Iconoclast is a short story written by Arthur Conan Doyle first published in the Associated Sunday Magazines (New-York Tribune, etc) on 5 march 1911.

Originally published as The Iconoclast then as An Iconoclast in collected volumes.

Editions

in New-York Tribune, Sunday Magazine (5 march 1911 [US]) as The Iconoclast, 2 illustrations by Joseph Clement Coll

in The Sun (Baltimore), Sunday Magazine (5 march 1911 [US]) "

in Buffalo Courier, Sunday Magazine (5 march 1911 [US]) "

in Denver Rocky Mountain Tribune

in Chicago Record-Herald

in Washington D.C. Star

in Minneapolis Journal

in Philadelphia Press

in St. Louis Republic

in The Boston Post

in Pittsburg Post

in The Last Galley: Impressions and Tales (1911) as An Iconoclast

in Мир Приключений (Adventure World) No. 6 (1912 [RU]) as Христианин (Christian)

in Tales of Long Ago (2 november 1922, John Murray's Fiction Library [UK])

in The Last of the Legions and Other Tales of Long Ago (autumn 1925, George H. Doran Co. [US])



On This Day 5th March

Scottish Border Amateur Athletic Association

ACD was elected as a Honorary Vice-Preisdent of the Scottish Border Amateur Athletic Association at their AGM OTD in 1904. ACD was a strong supporter his entire life of amateur athletics.

On This Day 4th March

Constance Amelia Monica (Connie) Doyle Hornung



Constance Amelia Monica (Connie) Doyle Hornung MARCH 4, 1868 - JUNE 8, 1924

The Doyle's sixth child and fifth daughter, Constance (called Connie) was born during a difficult time in the family; her grandfather, John Doyle had died that January, shortly after

visiting his son's family, and Charles was thrown into a fit of depression at the news. Later, as a combination of alcoholism and mental illness rendered her father increasingly unable to

care for his family, Connie followed her older sisters and became a governess in Portugal.

While there, Connie met E.W. ("Willie") Hornung, a friend of Arthur's who was also a writer, and their courtship continued after she returned to England in 1891. They married in a traditional Catholic ceremony in 1893 and had a son, whom they named Arthur Oscar, in honor of Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde.

Of all the Doyle children, Connie alone retained her Catholic faith. It was therefore difficult for her and her husband to accept Arthur's relationship withJean Leckie, and they tried to convince him that its platonic nature made it no less improper.

This disagreement caused some painful exchanges between the two families, but it did not keep Arthur from promoting Willie's career, or providing financial help when needed. After Louise's death, the Hornungs withdrew their opposition. The Hornungs lost their son in Flanders, on July 6, 1915, and E.W. himself died in 1921. Arthur believed he received psychic

messages from them both.

On This Day 3rd March

 Embarcation Of Troops

The Times (3 march 1900, p. 8)

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer Oriental, Government freight vessel, arrived at Queenstown yesterday from the Royal Albert Docks, and embarked the 3rd Battalion Royal Scots (Edinburgh Light Infantry Militia), 502 strong, from Belfast, making the total on board 58 officers and 1,049 rank and file. The Oriental left at 4 p.m. The officer commanding during the voyage is Colonel Garstin, late of the Middlesex Regiment. The officers of the Royal Scots who embarked at Queenstown are :—

Lieutenant-Colonel E. J. Grant, Major R. Dundas, Major Lord Henry Scott, Captain Viscount Brackley, Captain and Adjutant G. H. Davidson, Hon. Major Lord Tewkesbury, Quartermaster and Hon. Captain W. F. Horniblow, Captain D. H. Forbes. C. P. B. Wood, Viscount Newport, and T. C. E. Goff, Lieutenants E. L. Strutt, A. M. T. Fletcher, E. F. Penn, A. Douglas-Pennant, and H. F. Collinridge, and Second Lieutenants R. J. Gibson-Craig, Sir S. H. Childs, the Hon. R. Brand, and E. J. F. Johnson.

Dr. Conan Doyle, who embarked in the Oriental at the Royal Albert Docks, as senior civil surgeon of the Langman Field Hospital staff, said, in the course of conversation at Queenstown, that he did not think six months hence would see the war at an end. The Boers had shown splendid fighting qualities, and did not fortify Pretoria for nothing. He thought that the Boers were now concentrating their forces in some centre, and that a great battle was imminent. Speaking as an Irishman, he thought the Royal tribute to the Irish soldiers very much deserved. The conduct of the Irish troops was admirable, and their bravery magnificent. They had proved themselves the finest infantry in the world. He thought that the final settlement would probably mean complete home rule for both Republics under the protection of the British flag. He proposed to write a short history of the war, but did not intend to contribute any correspondence from South Africa to any newspaper.

This Month March

Life and Death in the Blood 

This month in 1883, Good Words published an article by ACD entitled 'Life and Death in the Blood,' which touches on the role of vaccines and the lives of those who discovered them. 

External Links

Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopaedia

On This Day 1st March

 Arthur Conan Doyle Letter

OTD in 1919, The Daily Mail printed a letter from ACD denouncing the view that spiritualist phenomenon was no more than conjuring tricks.

Conjurers and Spirits

Daily Mail (1 march 1919, p. 4)

To the Editor of The Daily Mail.

Sir, — I had not intended to intervene again in this debate, but this continuous reference to conjurers leads me to remind those who write letters to The Daily Mail that Houdin, Bellachini, and Keller, whose names may certainly bear comparison with any living rivals, all admitted that the spiritual phenomena were something beyond their art. They examined Home, Eglinton, and the best mediums of their time.

The absurdity of the conjurer explanation becomes more manifest when one considers spirit photographs, clairvoyance, clairaudience, automatic writing, and all the other manifestations of forces outside ourselves. It is clear that whatever the explanation of them may be, it must be one single source from which they all bow. The spiritual explanation does cover them all.

But what has conjuring to do with the clairvoyance which, in a single case which I have explained, has described correctly a large number of our dead soldiers, imparting great consolation to their parents! Read the Rev. W. Wynn's "Rupert Lives," and ask what conjuring has to do with that. 

Arthur Conan Doyle,
Windlesham, Crowborough, Sussex.