Conan Doyle's First Novel

1895

S. S. McClure Tells How It Was Received In England.

S. S. McClure, in a recent interview, tells of his first acquaintance with Dr. A. Conan Doyle.

Mr. McClure said he was visiting Andrew Lang at St. Andrew's university, in Scotland. Mr. Lang said: "There is a young man named Dr. Doyle, who has written a capital shilling shocker (which is British for dime novel), and who is about to have a novel published by Longmans, and this man has a future."

"On my way back to Edinburgh," said Mr. McClure, "I purchased a copy of the shilling shocker, which proved to be one of the earliest and greatest of the famous Sherlock Holmes stories. I read it with unbounded delight. It was more than a shilling shocker. It was a great story, and although a detective story it certainly was a piece of literature.

"I continued my journey to London and purchased on the train copies of the two great critical journals, The Athenaeum and The Academy. It happened that both contained a review of Conan Doyle's new novel, 'Micah Clarke.' Dr. Doyle's name was then unknown to literature, and the book was heralded as a great work by a new writer. The Athenaeum scored the novel in strong terms and expressed wonder that any publisher should dare publish a book so dull. The Academy, on the other hand, praised the novel and rated it between 'Kidnapped,' by Stevenson, and 'Westward, Ho,' by Kingsley. It is needless to say that The Academy's verdict was the right one and the verdict of the public. I bought and read 'Micah Clarke,' and I instantly recognized the promise of this writer and arranged for his new novels and stories."

Marconi Listens for Signals from Mars, Doyle for Spirits

1922

MARTIANS AND SPIRITS

With Mars only about 40,000,000 miles from the earth, Marconi, the inventor of the wireless, is trying to get signals from that planet. True, the most powerful wireless outfits yet built on this planet are capable of sending messages only an infinitesimal fraction of that distance, but Marconi hopes the Martians can do better. That is, if there are any Martians.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle announces that he is installing a complete radio outfit in his London home, for use in his psychic investigations. He feels confident that by means of radio he will be able to communicate with the spirit world.

It might simplify things if the "spirit world" happened to be Mars. Then Marconi and Doyle could work together on the job.

Scoffing is easy, and it is also futile. Nobody can say with assurance that either of these gifted men is wrong. But certainly the chances of their being wrong are great. The least that can be expected of the public is an open mind, a willingness to be "shown." There is a long chain of "ifs" in both cases.

—The Monessen Daily Independent, Monessen, Pennsylvania, June 23, 1922, p. 3.

Chinese Lit Professor Discusses Chinese Lit

Madison, Wisconsin, 1921

CHINESE LIKE DOYLE'S YARNS

American Detective Stories Make Big Hit Among Oriental Students

A. Conan Doyle's detective stories and Stevenson's Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are "all the rage" among Chinese readers of today, according to Prof. Chia Len Chen in a talk on Chinese Literature Thursday afternoon in Bascom hall.

"The Chinese language is very difficult to learn," said Mr. Chen. "This is due to the fact that each word has four tones, each with a different meaning." He gave for am example the word "fang," meaning room and proceeded to pronounce it to show the difference in tone. Strangely enough, to the inexperienced American ear, each pronunciation sounded exactly alike.

"'Our robbers will not disappear until all the wise men are dead,' was the belief of a Chinese philosopher living in the third or fourth century B. C.," said Prof. Chen, in his lecture on The Essentials of Chinese Philosophy in Bascom hall Thursday night.

"This same ancient philosopher looked upon the taming of the horse, the making of pottery, carpenter work, weaving and all the advancing marks of civilization as an evil to the race," he said. "He could not see why nature should not keep its course as when man and beasts lived fearlessly together. As people got farther away from natural laws and living, the more corrupt they became and the more in need of sermons and music to keep down their evil passions, this sage believed.

"Confucius was the great moral teacher of the Chinese people. He taught 'Do not do unto others what you would not have them do to you.' The most brilliant exponent of the school of Confucius was Mencius.

"The first Chinese philosopher of which there is record was born in 804 B. C. and was 30 years the senior of Confucius. He wrote two books of his beliefs and observations consisting of about 5,000 words."


ENGLISH AUTHORS INFLUENCE CHINESE, DECLARES DR. CHEN

Modern Writers Not Recognized But Older Works Are Studied

All of the recent novels of China show the influence of the old school of English authors, especially Scott, said Dr. Chia Lin Chen Chinese scholar and educator, who delivered the first of a series of three lectures in Bascom hall yesterday afternoon.

More modern authors have not yet been recognized by the Chinese, but Shakespeare, Irving, Dickens and Scott have been translated into Chinese and are bases of study in secondary schools. The Sherlock Holmes stories of Conan Doyle are particularly popular in China, he declared.

Dr. Chen divided the Chinese literature into two classes, the classical, written before 1900, and the modern, written since then. The older is written in a poetic prose style, similar to the blank verse of the Shakespearean works, while the modern is written in a smoother and freer style. Dr. Chen translated several of the typical poems of the various dynasties since 1800 B. C. Their subject is chiefly of the ruins of the older dynasties or of the renowned beauties of the period in which they are written.

Dr. Chen will speak on Chinese drama this afternoon at 4:30 in 165 Bascom hall.

—The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, May 13, 1921, page 3.

Alchemy, Spiritualism, Ghosts, Ectoplasm; Sharing the Secrets

1922--

LINKS THE ALCHEMIST WITH THE SPIRITIST

Ancients' 'First Matter' May Be the Mysterious Ectoplasm of Today

CAMBRIDGE. Mass., April 14-(By the Associated Press)-"It seems quite possible that the great secret of the ancient alchemist -- the nature of 'first matter' -- is the ectoplasm of the modern spiritist," said S. Foster Damon, a graduate student at Harvard university, in an interview today. Mr. Damon was named by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the man who had established the fact that the Alchemists were familiar with ectoplasm, described by spiritualists as a combination of matter and ether emanating from bodies of mediums, which makes possible spirit manifestation.

LITERARY RESEARCH

Explaining that he was speaking only of the results of literary research, Mr. Damon said he had never personally seen the material and had never attended a seance, but that a study of the writings of the alchemists had convinced him that the ancients were familiar with estoplasm.

"There is a striking parallel between the experiments of the modern spiritists and the alchemists," Mr. Damon said.

"This old school of thought, whose writings were published for centuries and whose secret was never officially given to the world, has interpreted in several ways but never satisfactorily. Few believe now that the alchemists were really attempting to make gold. In fact, they themselves issued many warnings against being interpreted literally.

NEW SCHOOL APPEARS

"About 1850 a new school of interpretation appeared which claims that the alchemists were mystics endeavoring to unite the soul with God. This school still has numerous followers, but they cannot explain what the alchemists were doing in the laboratories.

"That alchemy was concerned with physical things is obvious since modern chemistry developed from it. On the other hand, the alchemists were certainly concerned with metaphysics.

"Spiritualism may well furnish the link between the altar and the laboratory. Of spiritualism, I know nothing, but I could not fail to be impressed by the literary parallels between its writings and the works of ancients.

"The great secret of the alchemists centered about a substance which they commonly called the 'first matter or mercury.' To find this substance, which they distinguished from common mercury, was the first and most important step in their art."

"Too many persons," Mr. Damon said, "have insisted that they have seen, handled and analyzed ectoplasm for us to believe that it was anything intangible. On the other hand," he added, "chemists have found nothing remotely resembling it.

"It seems quite possible that the secret of the alchemists was estoplasm.

"I base this identification," Mr. Damon continued, "upon the many photographs and descriptions published by Mme. Alexander Bisson and Dr. A. Freihern Von Schrench-Notzing. Considering the obscurity of alchemistic symbolism, it is possible that no interpretation satisfactory to every one would be reached, but if so the ancient and modern investigators are certainly making the same mistake."

--The Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden City, Utah, April 14, 1922, page 7.

Marriages In Heaven, Says Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

1922
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MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN SAYS SIR CONAN DOYLE

NEW YORK, April 10.- There are marriages in the spirit world, but no births, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle said today.

The celebrated English creator of "Sherlock Holmes," who has come to America to lecture on matters psychic, made this statement, in giving reporters a more intimate view of the next world as he conceived it than on his arrival yesterday on the steamer Baltic.

Marriages, he said, were on a higher level than in this world. They constitute the mating of affinities and always continue happily. Indeed, he said, there was a very complex form of society of the world hereafter.

Sir Arthur said that the great agreement among spirits of various nationalities as to life in the spirit world will be one of the strongest proofs of the existence of such life. He added that the spirit world was all about us but that it was expressed in colors and sounds which our senses were too gross to understand.

Sir Arthur said that some ministers taught that it is hard to get into heaven, but a normal, decent person could not keep from going there after death.

Asked about a suicide, Sir Arthur said that no one could force the hand of providence, and that a suicide would have to bear in the spirit world the trouble that had caused him to end his life.

He said that the object of life was to spiritualize ourselves and that riches and successes here did not count against that.

Some Stumbling Blocks

Climatic conditions are one of the stumbling blocks in the path of mediums, declared Sir Arthur.

Expressing the belief that all could become mediums if the talent were developed, Sir Arthur said that it was through ectoplasm that conversation with the spirit world was conducted.

"Ectoplasm," he explained, "is a substance emanating from the medium. At first it is a vapor or gas, which becomes glutinous or puttylike, and in that state can be felt.

"I have felt it myself; it can be photographed. I have a number of photographs.

"It has been analyzed by Dr. Schrenck-Notzing in Germany and by Parisian scientists. It has been found to contain phosphates, carbonates and sulphates, and some other substance undetermined.

"It is only on ectoplasm that a spirit can materialize. A spirit passing through it becomes visible to the medium. I saw my mother's face in the ectoplasm following her death a few months ago. There is not the slightest question about that. It was while I was in Australia. The face seemed as solid as in life."

--Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada, April 11, 1922, page 5.