The Cerebral Tentacle No. 1862
The Cerebral Tentacle No. 1862 is the fourth issue of the magazine of The Arthur Conan Doyle Study Group, published in september 1997 by Mark Chadderton.
The cover is illustrated with a photo from The Strand Magazine (january 1913) with a Professor Challenger statuette to advertise Arthur Conan Doyle's novel The Poison Belt.
The Cerebral Tentacle No. 1862
Introduction
Thank you to all the members of this Branch Office who have taken the time to get involved over the last 43 months. We are counting on all the membership continuing to do this, as it is your participation in our Doylean studies that is crucial to our further progress. Interest in ACD is what we are trying to encourage, especially amongst the membership of the FMHC, and as previously stated in this newsletter — 'being a Holmesian is the soundest basic requirement to being a Doylean, as you already know a good deal of ACD through reading about Holmes & Watson' — therefore ; at your next FMHC related gathering, spread the ACDSG word and encourage others to join us, the more people we get, the better, in order that we will be more able to reflect the great diversity of ACD and his life through the interests and studies of our membership sharing their own Doylean knowledge.
Two areas which we would like to see flourish within the pages of this newsletter are reprints of rare Doylean items and more importantly — further discussion of any points raised or statements made, it is encouraging to report that some members have started to get involved in this way, and we can only hope that you all continue this.
Newsletter Covers
Please remember, we are always on the look-out for items of interest to use on the covers of this publication. Any ideas or submissions should be sent to the usual address given at the end of this newsletter. This quarter, we feature an interesting little piece from the January 1913 edition of the "Strand Magazine" (Issue #265). Green & Gibson ("A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle" OUP 1983) note that "The publisher mounted a special publicity campaign which included a plaster model of Professor Challenger, posters, display material, and the large paper edition, the latter proving an unexpected failure." (Page 170.)
Considering ACD's occasional use of disguise throughout his life (ACD dressed as Challenger, complete with bushy beard, within the photographic illustrations in the 1st Edition of "The Lost World"), it is tempting to suggest that the statuette of Challenger could also be an anachronistic portrayal of ACD playing football for Portsmouth F.C. where, during the 1880's ACD played either in goal, or as a full-back under the disguised name of "A.C. Smith". However, idle Doylean thoughts aside, it would certainly be of interest to know exactly how many of these 12" high statuettes were made, and if any are still known to exist ? Maybe one of our membership can supply the answer or location of any that remain ?
That Little Square Box
Contrary to what was stated in the last issue, the ACDSG will be issuing a separate publication of articles covering various aspects of this first chronological story from our basic study book, "The Conan Doyle Stories". Members are reminded that there is still time to submit an article on SQUAR (or perhaps just a couple of lines of your views), as we are honing to produce this at or around the same time of our next newsletter. There will, however, have to be a small cover price for this, of which finalised details will be sent out to members in due course.
Cross Indexing
Due to some inevitable duplication of subject matter between this publication and that of our parent company/study group ; subjects or items recently featured in the FMHC Journals will henceforth be noted for your convenience thus : e.g. (*NBSP8#30/p.53*) or (*FMHCMEMO#1/p.9*).
Yours Conanically,
Mark Chadderton — Editor.
- Copyright remains to the individual authors.
