Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters

This book (edited by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, and published by Harper Press ISBN: 978-0-00-724759-2) contains letters written by Conan Doyle to, for the most part, his mother from when he was a small child away at school until shortly before his death. It does exactly as the title suggests, it lays his life out in front of you and, as a result, I feel that I know the writer intimately. And that word is very important, as these are intimate letters. These are not grandstanding letters written for publication in newspapers to express some important point about the events of the times, although Conan Doyle had strong views about a number of things and was not shy about expressing them publicly, at one point leading to a bit of a telling off from the army. These letters are the constant stream of communication between a mother and son at different ends of the country in the years before the telephone became common. Indeed, at times they reminded me more than anything of the weekly telephone conversations I have with my own mother.
Conan Doyle had an extraordinary life, which he appeared to live at the gallop. His writing is immensely important to him and you realise how much he wanted for it and how disappointed he was when, although commercially very successful, his books were not treated critically as he would have liked. His historical novels such as The White Company were treated as adventures, when he put a lot of research and wrote them, partially at least, with pedagogical intentions. Sherlock Holmes was an idea he enjoyed for a few stories but then wanted to move on. His mother persuaded him not to kill Sherlock off after about six stories, which was his original intention. However, as I have mentioned before, you do not get the impression that Holmes was a millstone around his neck; at times he would get an idea for a story and be completely wrapped up in it such as when he wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles and visited Dartmoor for inspiration. This was just not the area of his work that he cared about the most. He did appreciate the money it brought him and was happy to write Sherlock Holmes plays to ensure a tidy income for the year.
Conan Doyle's personal life was complicated by the fact that he married relatively young to a woman who developed tuberculosis, lingering on in illness for many years. One telling comment was when he wrote that he felt he had spent the past six years in a sickroom. During his wife's long illness he met Jean Leckie; the two fell in love, and had a platonic but very close relationship for the next few years. When his wife eventually died they married just over a year later. Some critics have apparently cast doubt on Conan Doyle's assertions that the affair was platonic, but his letters show that although he is always trying to engineer times when he and Jean could meet and spend a few days together in a hotel, they always had a chaperone with them (such as his mother). I don't see the value in enquiring further - does it matter? Conan Doyle was a strong supporter of divorce law reform for the rest of his life, though.
The letters from his childhood were interesting from the point of view of what they showed of a Victorian Catholic childhood. Then he moves to his life as a struggling young medic and the hardship of getting anywhere in the profession. At one point he mentions that people would rather be killed by an old man with a beard than cured by a clean-shaven young man. (Shortly afterwards he grew his moustache!) For a while, as he started his own practice, he had his younger brother living with him who was about eleven. They were very close and appeared to remain so through their lives.
Family relationships are very important to Conan Doyle; he has a bad patch near the start of his relationship with Jean when his sister Connie and her husband Willie (E W Hornung, the creator of the Raffles stories, which were inspired partly by his brother-in-law's success with Sherlock Holmes) do not approve of the situation. However, they come around and there are many stories of family gatherings.
The letters also give a good account from a personal point of view of the major events of the times in which, after he becomes a successful and influential writer, Conan Doyle often plays a part. Conan Doyle's mother was an intelligent and opinionated woman with whom Arthur was able to discuss his ideas, and often had to justify his position to her. There are a number of times when he writes in response to what was obviously an angry letter from his mother - I wish we could have seen more of the other side of the correspondence. One of their fiercest disagreements, though, appeared to be about a personal matter: whether Arthur should accept the knighthood that it was rumoured he was to be offered. He felt it would make him look ridiculous in the eyes of the literary world, but his mother was appalled that he should even contemplate turning down such an honour. She later castigates him for publishing a book as A C Doyle when he had been Sir A C for ten years.
He was very keen on being involved in military life, publishing pamphlets justifying Britain's position during the Boer War and even volunteering for duty as a medic. The view of the First World War near the end of the book is quite harrowing. At first there are cheery statements that it will not be a long war and there is the slightly ridiculous discussion about whether Conan Doyle should volunteer (as a man well into his fifties). Despite being advised by all his family, including his brother who was a successful career soldier, not to volunteer, he does - and is turned down. Then his nephews and eldest son quickly join up and are sent out to war.
As the war continues the view of it becomes bleaker and bleaker and the family suffers personal loss, as close family members are killed both during the fighting and as a result of the 'flu epidemic that followed it. This is the power of having a collection of such intimate letters, you clearly see the human effect of this terrible war.
Although he is very open about most things with his mother, there is one large part of his life which does not receive much discussion in the letters, although it is mentioned slightly in later letters after the War, and that is Conan Doyle's belief in spiritualism. His mother did not agree with his views and so there is little discussion of it until Conan Doyle is engaged in a touring lecture series on the subject. It is a shame, as it would have been very interesting to see how his beliefs developed and to hear more about the people he met. I think his autobiography may be a place to look for a fuller discussion of this aspect of his life.
Overall, at the end of the book I feel that I got very close to Conan Doyle, in a way that just reading his fiction would never have allowed, and know what he was like as a person.