Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's lost diary reveals the origins of Sherlock Holmes
Fascinating case of Holmes and the Arctic adventure: Conan Doyle's lost diary reveals origins of super-sleuth
Read more: Credit where credit is due. . .
Think of Sherlock Holmes and most people conjure up images of foggy London streets or smoke-filled drawing rooms rather than the frozen desolation of the Arctic.
Yet a diary to be published for the first time next month suggests the seeds of the sleuth’s character may have been born while a young Arthur Conan Doyle was involved in an adventure on the icy seas.
The author, then a 20-year-old medical student, was hired in early 1880 as a ship’s surgeon on the Greenland whaler the Hope Of Peterhead and kept daily records of life at sea.
Called Dangerous Work: Diary Of An Arctic Adventure, the resulting manuscripts are his earliest known work and have been hidden from the public for more than a century. The facsimiles, photographs and annotated transcripts reveal how closely some of the foibles and passions of his fictional characters mirror his own.
For example, Conan Doyle’s exquisitely drawn image of himself as a warmly clothed pipe-smoker with a loyal canine companion could have been an early depiction of Holmes.
It is easy to imagine this upright figure, with a piercing stare and intense power of concentration, transposed to English moorland dressed in deerstalker and caped overcoat.
The figures of whalers intent on shooting their prey may have fuelled the budding author’s depictions of bloodthirsty and wicked criminals.
His imagination also appears to have been inspired by the sea’s lingering fog and mist, which would later provide the backdrop for his crime scenes. In an entry dated Thursday, July 29, 1880, he notes: ‘Horrible contemptible pusillanimous thickness over all.’
The diary records Conan Doyle’s fondness for tobacco, again a familiar trait in Holmes, who smokes all manner of pipes, cigarettes and cigars.
At one point he says: ‘Traveled (his mis-spelling) a considerable distance, and would have gone to the Pole, but my matches ran short and I couldn’t get a smoke.’
Lost and found: One of the annotated drawings in the Arctic diary
His final entry for the day is ‘gin and tobacco at night’. Then, on Friday, July 30, the author records: ‘Took no dinner but went to the masthead in preference, enjoying a pipe and the welcome sunshine.’ The diary is thought to have been in the archives of the British Library.
Jon Lellenberg, who has co-edited the volume with biographer Daniel Stashower, said: ‘We see the young medical student step outside the classroom into settings of high adventure and great peril, finding his way among hard men whose skill and daring he came to respect greatly.’
lDangerous Work: Diary Of An Arctic Adventure is published by the British Library on September 26 at £25 or can be ordered on Amazon.co.uk. Copyright 2012 Conan Doyle Estate Ltd
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183847/Sherlock-Holmes-Conan-Doyles-lost-diary-reveals-origins-super-sleuth.html#ixzz23oLUxmOE
I will be reading this book as soon as I get my hands on it :)
ReplyDeleteGreat find, John. You have been doing an amazing work on this site. Hats off to you, Sir!
Thanks. This sure does look like a great new book, and I to will be adding it to my wish list.
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