Canon Versus Conan

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

Canon Versus Conan is an article written by Penn Steele published in The St. Louis Republic on 26 november 1905.

An anecdote about the misunderstood between an Irish ecclesiastic named Canon Doyle and Arthur Conan Doyle. It was probably the Very Rev. J. F. Canon Doyle, P.P., Ferns.


Canon Versus Conan

The St. Louis Republic
(26 november 1905, sunday magazine p. 18)

Curious gleanings

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle tells this story against himself : The mother superior of a County Cork convent is a great admirer of Canon Doyle, a distinguished Roman Catholic ecclesiastic of that region. Entering a local bookstore, she picked up a copy of "Micah Clarke," and misreading the author's name as Canon instead of Conan, she purchased it. It was read aloud for edification at the midday meal in the refectory. The edification in the opening chapters was not flagrantly apparent. There was love-making, there was fighting, there was an unmistakably worldly tone. The novices were thrilled. The older nuns were startled.

"Well, well," said the mother superior, "the dear Canon is preparing as for a miracle of grace. The frivolous flirt and the bloody-minded heretical warrior will no doubt be converted in time."

Then came the awakening. Some one perceived that the title-page bore the word Conan instead of Canon. The discovery reached the ear of the mother superior.

"Well, well," said she, "the bookseller of whom we bought the book is a pious man, and now that we have paid for it, we should be wasteful not to read it to the end."