A Swiss Ban on Sherlock Holmes

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

A Swiss Ban on "Sherlock Holmes" is an article published in The Times on 14 february 1910.


A Swiss Ban on "Sherlock Holmes"

The Times (14 february 1910)

Our Geneva Correspondent says that the Federal Railway Company lately issued an order prohibiting the sale at their station bookstalls of all novels of the detective type. The works of Sir A. Conan Doyle and other English writers fell under the general hail. Sir Arthur, in a letter to the chief of the Federal Railway Company, points out that there is nothing in his detective stories to shock anybody, and that he is in no way responsible for the bad literature and worse morals of the stories which have inundated the Continent. The Swiss papers sympathize with sir Arthur and other foreign authors of repute who will suffer to a certain extent under the prohibition, but point out that the evils of poisonous "literature" have resulted in so many crimes of recent years among the Swiss youth, that very drastic measures are imperative. The authorities in several towns have followed the example set by the Swiss Federal Railway Company.