Dr. Conan Doyle's Talk (report 1 november 1894)
Dr. Conan Doyle's Talk is an article published in the Boston Evening Transcript on 1 november 1894.
Report of the lecture "Readings and Reminiscences" given by Arthur Conan Doyle on 31 october 1894 at the Association Hall, Boston (USA).
Dr. Conan Doyle's Talk
"Sherlock Holmes" had already captured most of the people who went to Association Hall to see and hear Conan Doyle last night, but it is probable that a large number transferred at least a part of the allegiance to the author himself and to the more serious ambitions in literature he confessed. These ambitions, it is true, have been largely realized during the past six years in the publication of several historical novels, representing much studious reading, and — "The Refugees" particularly, — a labor of love.
Dr. Doyle is not exactly a lecturer or a reader ; he is both ; he brings to his public, already in sympathy with him, exactly what it wishes, the sight of a favorite author and the knowledge of how and why he has written his books, and he illustrates his talk by reading a bit now and then from them.
Dr. Doyle began last night by saying that when the plane for his coming to America were being talked over, he wished to discuss other writers and their works, but it was represented to him that the public would not care for his critical opinion of others, and that there was a bond of sympathy between him and his readers. At this moment a single individual in the back of the mom struck in with wild applause which made the audience laugh and amused the speaker, and the personal interest all around was an atmosphere that could be felt for the rest of the evening.
Into the Edinburgh flat where he was born and where he lived as a boy came one day a man with a tremendous voice, which Conan Doyle, aged two, could hear roaring and rumbling in the next room after he was packed off to his crib. He had been fascinated by the strange nose of the man who held him on his knee ; he never forgot this earliest among his impressions ; it was his introduction to literature. The visitor was Thackeray.
The spinning of continued stories by his gifted mother for his benefit ; the attempt to write a story-book of his own "with illustrations by the author, at the somewhat immature age of six;" the love of reading which caused a circulating library to make a rule in his honor that no subscriber should be allowed to take out more than three books in one day ; the story of his school days and his life at Edinburgh University and as a student of medicine ; his trip to the Arctic region and to Africa — all these things were told or touched upon with a frank certainty of the friendship and interest of the vastly interested audience, which was heightened in charm by the kindly Scotch accent of the speaker.
For those who have read many times of the professor in Edinburgh who could reconstruct a whole personal history from a few fragments of evidence, it was pleasant to hear again of this original of Sherlock Holmes Dr. Doyle's experience when, after writing twenty-six stories about his semi-scientific detective, he killed him in a sort of self-defence was amusing, for people resented it as much as if he had killed a living man and wrote him most vindictive letters on his crime. During the lifetime of Sherlock Holmes he was constantly being sent for from all over the world, from Moscow and from the far west, to solve a mystery. "I had no idea there were so many mysteries in the world."
he plaintively remarked, and disclaimed special detective powers himself or the ability to tell all about a man from his waistcoat buttons. The cleverest touch in regard to Sherlock Holmes was in reply to the critics who said it was easy enough to do that sort of a thing. Dr. Doyle read an unexplained and unpublished scrap of mystery and left it to his critics to solve. Then followed the story of his writing of "Micah Clarke." "The White Company" and "The Refugees" followed, with heartiest praise of his masters, Sir Walter Scott, and Francis Parkman, whose great genius fame will honor more and more as time goes on. The entertainment closed with a reading of a short unpublished and very dramatic story, "The Lord of Chateau Noir." Dr. Doyle will return to Boston for a pair of lectures to be given in Association Hall on the afternoon and evening of Tuesday. Nov. 20.
