The Cerebral Tentacle No. 1860
The Cerebral Tentacle No. 1860 is the second issue of the magazine of The Arthur Conan Doyle Study Group, published in march 1997 by Mark Chadderton.
The cover is illustrated with the article from The Idler (august 1894) titled People I Have Never Met — Dr. Conan Doyle including a quote and illustration of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Refugees.
The Cerebral Tentacle No. 1860
Introduction
Welcome to the second issue of the 'Cerebral Tentacle', which the Study Group is now hoping to send out Quarterly, this we think will be achievable, and with each members help and support, the currently small band of dedicated Doyleans who have so far joined, can benefit from each others knowledge. So, if there is anything that you wish to say upon matters Doylean, be it small or large — either a few lines or an article, send them in for inclusion in what, after all is YOUR newsletter. Any Doylean news will always be welcomed, just remember that because you know of something released or perhaps recently seen, doesn't necessarily mean that others will have seen or heard of this too.
Newsletter Covers
Any members who have any rarely seen pieces on ACD or unusual items suitable for reproducing as a 'Cerebral Tentacle' cover (i.e. one A5 size page), should send in their entry to either of the addresses printed at the end of this newsletter. The cover of this issue was part of a series of drawings running intermittently in "The Idler", all done by Scott Rankin. As well as the lovely depiction of ACD as 'Du Luht', (which should, of course be spelt — 'Du Lhut') from "The Refugees", other authors were also featured as a character from one of their own works, for example; Anthony Hope was portrayed as "The Prisoner of Zenda". It should also be added that the quote at the bottom of the ACD drawing is in truncated form and comes from Chapter XXXIII. — 'The Slaying of Brown Moose'.
Membership Fees & Involvement
Various people have enquired as to how much the membership of the ACDSG is going to be? The answer is that there will be no charge for the Newsletters sent out, or for the Bookmark detailed below. However, we do ask for your involvement through each member getting in touch at least once, between each issue of 'The Cerebral Tentacle' coming out. It need not be that article on one of the 'Conan Doyle Stories' that you intend sending in(?)... to continue your membership - all you have to do is write in and let us know you are still interested in what we are
"The Conan Doyle Stories" Bookmark
Hopefully, everyone who has the introductory newsletter will have been sent this lovely bookmark that the Study Group has recently produced. For those of you that have just joined, it is a laminated A5 sized bookmark incorporating over both sides; a chronological listing of the stories, a bibliographical reference for each stories original magazine (or book) appearance, the page reference and also a newly devised 5-letter code for each story in the style of the 4-letter 'Christ Codes' used by the FMHC for the 60 ACD Sherlock Holmes Stories. The bookmark has been produced as a 'research aid' for the initial 'study programme' that the group has undertaken, which is based on the 76 short stories collected in one volume entitled "THE CONAN DOYLE STORIES"... as stated in the last issue, the bookmark can be used to enable scholars to read the stories in the order that they were originally written, thus providing the opportunity to trace the developement of ACD's interests and writing style, from the earliest effort included, published in December 1881 — when he was serving as 'surgeon' on the steamer "Mayumba" to West Africa, aged just 22 — through to the 76th story of the collection published in October 1922 — being just a few weeks before ACD's spirit-guide 'Pheneas', "came through for the first time". Please note that the bookmark is designed with the page numbers of the MURRAY, GALLEY, WINGS & BLITZ EDITIONS of the book, so if you have the book in any of these editions, and you would like one of these invaluable research aids, then just write in for your copy — there is no charge, as hopefully the 'return on the bookmarks production' will be some scholarship from those of you who will utilise this item. If you however, have the book in a different edition to those listed, please send in your editions publisher details and page references, and we will try to customise the existing bookmark to suit your copy.
Bookmark Correction
All those members who have received their copy of the bookmark prior to this newsletter PLEASE NOTE — there is a small error contained on your bibliographical entry for
- Copyright remains to the individual authors.
