What I Wanted to Be

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia

What I Wanted to Be is a collection of interviews of famous men including Arthur Conan Doyle published in The Captain in april 1899.

The famous men were:

  • H. M. Stanley
  • George R. Sims
  • Major H. StreatFeild
  • Sir Henry Irving
  • Charles Wyndham
  • Arthur Conan Doyle
  • Grant Allen
  • Lord Brampton
  • Sir John Bridge
  • George Grossmith
  • L. Alma-Tadema
  • Sir John Lubbock
  • John M. Le Sage
  • A. W. Pinero
  • Sir Thomas Lipton
  • John T. Tussaud
  • W. S. Gilbert
  • S. R. Crockett
  • William Whiteley
  • George Alexander
  • George Manville Fenn
  • Wilson Barrett
  • W. G. Grace
  • Sir Arthur Arnold
  • J. A. Bailey
  • Sir Squire Bancroft
  • Phil May


What I Wanted to Be

The Captain (april 1899, p. 28)

Some Boyish Aspirations of Famous Men

I remember my master asking me what I would be. I said, "A civil engineer." He answered: "You may be an engineer, Doyle, but from what I have seen of you I should think it very unlikely that will be a civil one!"

A. Conan Doyle


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