A collection of letters between Arthur Conan Doyle (author and
creator of Sherlock Holmes) and his mother, covering most of his
life, written between 1867 and the year of her death in 1921. Doyle
was raised almost solely by his mother in Dickensian circumstances,
(his father latterly suffered from dipsomania and epilepsy and so
spent much of his later life in asylums). Since Sherlock Holmes's
inception in 1887, he has been one of the best-known and widely
read literary characters, and the subject of more radio and
television shows and motion pictures than any other fictional
character in history. Although Doyle and his Holmes continue to be
much written about, talked about and adapted, this is the first
time that this material, along with other personal papers, has ever
been made available. Conan Doyle although most famously remembered
for Holmes, was also a physician, sportsman, public figure, war
correspondent, pioneer of science fiction, psychic investigator,
and prominent spiritual missionary. These letters reveal
fascinating portraits of Doyle: his trip to the Arctic aged 21
where he served as a ship's surgeon on a whaling ship; his
unprofitable stint as a Harley Street doctor and his decision to
abandon this in favour of writing, more money and the opportunity
to help his mother to look after his many younger brothers and
sisters; his friendships with J.M.Barrie (among others); his
attempts to write material other than Holmes; and his involvement
in the spiritualist movement - something that his mother, a devout
Roman Catholic, was completely against. 'Mam' as he called her, was
his most loyal confidant, and his letters functioned to a certain
extent as confession and cleansing penance, until his mother's
death in 1921. The collection is annotated by Daniel Stashower,
award-winning mystery novelist and author of the recent Conan Doyle
biography "Teller of Tales", and Jon Lellenberg, the U.S agent for
the Conan Doyle estate.
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