Conan Doyle's First Lecture
Conan Doyle's First Lecture is an article published in The Critic on 13 october 1894.
Report of the lecture "Readings and Reminiscences" given by Arthur Conan Doyle on 10 august 1894 at the Calvary Baptist Church, New York (USA).
Conan Doyle's First Lecture
Dr. Doyle faced his first American audience on Wednesday evening, at Calvary Baptist Church, and succeeded at once in establishing a firm bond of sympathy with his hearers. The lecture covered his career from the time when, as a child of four, he had sat on Thackeray's knee, to the publication of "The Refugees" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." Like all Anglo-Saxons, he dislikes talking about himself, and confessed so; but this diffidence gave additional interest to what he said. He wrote his first novel at the mature age of six, mingling up a man and a tiger in such a manner that he has not yet succeeded in disentangling them. Sherlock Holmes's prototype in real life was a Scotch professor of medicine, who showed remarkable powers in observing trifles and deducing therefrom the trade, habits and peculiarities of hospital patients. Accident, continued the speaker, plays an important part in most detective stories, and he resolved to eliminate that factor entirely from the exploits of his famous amateur detective. He illustrated this theory by reading parts of Holmes's adventures. After the book had been published a short time, he continued, people in all parts of the world began to write to him about mysteries, requesting him to solve them. "In fact,"
he added, "I never suspected that there are so many mysteries in real life."
His first short story appeared in an English periodical in 1878, and his first contribution to Cornhill was received by a literary critic with the kind remark that "if Thackeray could read this story, he would turn in his grave."
Dr. Doyle is not a finished speaker; but he is unaffected, sympathic full of confidence in the good-will of his audience. Of his popularity as a lecturer there can be no doubt. He was introduced by Mr. Mabie of The Outlook, whose reference to the possible reappearance of Holmes, with his wonderful gifts unimpaired, was well received. It brought an amused smile to Dr. Doyle's lips. The lecture was given under the auspices of the Young People's Association of Calvary Baptist Church, which has also arranged for lectures by Dean Hole, Gen. Lew Wallace and Mr. W. Hamilton Gibson. The proceeds are to be devoted to missionary and charitable purposes in this city.
