An old favourite
I have a good sized Sherlockian/Doylean collection and there is nothing like a house move to make you go through it all and rediscover items that you'd almost forgotten that you had. In this particular instance I have been rereading the 1941 biography of Conan Doyle written by Hesketh Pearson.
In my opinion this was the first worthy biography in that it benefited from being the first to give the correct date for ACD's move to South Norwood (which ACD had got wrong in his own autobiography) and a lot more on that short period of Conan Doyle's life than any other biography up to my book The Norwood Author. The only biography I posses from before 1941 was written by a pro-spiritualist minister and was, largely, little more than a platform for expounding those beliefs.
My understanding is that Adrian Conan Doyle was not happy with Pearson's book when it came out as he considered that Pearson had failed to toe the family line. I believe (but could be wrong) that legal threats were made and such was the family anger (or at least Adrian's) that access to the family papers was curtailed and when they were made available again it was under very strict agreements.
It's a short book but a valuable one and in many respects is superior to that written by John Dickson Carr who did toe the family line.
For more information on Arthur Conan Doyle and his time at Undershaw please refer to my book, An Entirely New Country which is available through all good bookstores including Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Classic Specialities, and in all electronic formats including iTunes, Kobo, Nook and Kindle .
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| The 1943 paperback edition |
In my opinion this was the first worthy biography in that it benefited from being the first to give the correct date for ACD's move to South Norwood (which ACD had got wrong in his own autobiography) and a lot more on that short period of Conan Doyle's life than any other biography up to my book The Norwood Author. The only biography I posses from before 1941 was written by a pro-spiritualist minister and was, largely, little more than a platform for expounding those beliefs.
My understanding is that Adrian Conan Doyle was not happy with Pearson's book when it came out as he considered that Pearson had failed to toe the family line. I believe (but could be wrong) that legal threats were made and such was the family anger (or at least Adrian's) that access to the family papers was curtailed and when they were made available again it was under very strict agreements.
It's a short book but a valuable one and in many respects is superior to that written by John Dickson Carr who did toe the family line.
For more information on Arthur Conan Doyle and his time at Undershaw please refer to my book, An Entirely New Country which is available through all good bookstores including Amazon USA, Amazon UK, Classic Specialities, and in all electronic formats including iTunes, Kobo, Nook and Kindle .
The Norwood Author is available from all good bookstores, in many formats
worldwide including Waterstones UK, Amazon UK, Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble,
Amazon Kindle, iBooks for the iPad/iPhone, Kobo Books, Nook.
Close to Holmes is available from all good bookstores, in many formats
worldwide including Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iBooks for the iPad/iPhone.
Eliminate the Impossible is available from all good bookstores, in many formats worldwide including Amazon USA, Barnes and Noble, Amazon UK, Waterstones UK, Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Nook and iBooks for the iPad/iPhone.
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