4 7 Morley and Company

June 1999 Volume 3 Number 2 Sherlock Holmes "Your merits should be publicly recognizedn (STUD) : Morley and Company n early March of this year, Anthony religious group today, the Website for the J. Morley paid a visit to the Sherlock school states lLThevalues of individual &g- Contents Holmes Collections. He carried two nity academic strength, and tolerance upon large boxes brimming with "Holmes whch is was founded remain central to its and Holmes Related Materials"; books, character." These were the same values that Morley and Company booklets, and papers that had belonged to the Morleys considered in raising their sons. 1 his late father, Dr. Felix Morley. During his visit, Anthony took the opportunity to Christopher Darlington Morley, B. S. I. 100 Years Ago tour the Sherlock Holmes Collections, ("The Sign of the Four", 1944) was the and talk about the Morley family. eldest son. He was a novelist, dramatist, 3 essayist, literary columnist, anthologist and Dr. Felix M. Morley was the middle child editor of two editions of Bartlett's 50 Years Ago of the Morley brothers of Baltimore. Born Quotations. He shared his love of Sherlock in the 1890's, all three brothers attended Holmes with his younger brothers. Frank 3 Haverford College and were Rhodes Vigor Morley, B. S. I. ("The Three From the President Scholars at Oxford. Jim Bready wrote in Gamdebs", 1944) was the youngest of the the March 31, 1982 Baltimore Sun that boys. He was a mathematician and author "Each of them married once, had four of My One Contribution to Chess, The Great children, smoked, typed hunt-and-peck, North Road, and Literary Britain. He also Acquisitions lived in a prosperous great-city designed the Sherlock Holmes Crossword 4 suburb.. .the similarity in their tastes puzzle, "while escaping the boredom of a extended up to and included the distinc- trans-Atlantic crossing" (The Sherlock An Update from tion of having added eruditely to the pub- Holmes Crossword, Albert and Julia the Collections lished writings on Sherlock Holmes". Rosenblatt; The Norwegian Explorers of Minnesota, 1985). The puzzle first 5 Chnstopher, Feh and Frank were the sons appeared in the Saturday Review of of Frank and Lilian Bird Morley. Frank Literature on May 19, 1934. Musings Morley (1860-1937) was born in Suffolk, ~n~l&dand moved to Pennsylvania in 5 1887, teachmg at Haverford College until Will Crakes - 1900, when he became chairman of the mathematics department at Johns Hoplans Sherlockian Collector University He was an accomplished chess 7 player and editor of the AmericanJournal of Mathematics from 1900 to 1921. Haverford Using the Sherlock College, which plays such an important role Holmes ~ollections in the Morley farmly, is located near Phladelpha, and was founded in 1833 by 8 the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Jamie Hubbs and Anthony Morley Although not formally affiliated with any Remembrances Continued on Page 6 8 Fried3 of the Sherlock Holmes Collections P 1 guerre cover the individuality of the same critic.. [In] the Sketch, we come add to your Conan Doyle collection. upon a column of literary criticism Atch Dec. 25, 1961" Whoever 'Atch' signed by yet another symbol, '0.0.' might have been, he purchased this Yet, incredible as it may seem, the book for Hench from the catalog opinion of '0.0'is still the opinion of (#8 15, item #879) of Francis Edwards 'Claudius Clear,' of 'A Man of Kent,' of in London in 1961. the critic of the Bookman, of the critic A Duet with an Occasional Chorus was of the American Bookman, and of the originally published by Grant critic of the British Weekly. This, I One of Conan Doyle's most unusual Richards. Conan Doyle had decided hold, is not legitimate criticism." books was published in 1899. It was a that Richards, recently married, would tale of simple domesticity, the This critic, in all his incarnations, was be perfect one to publish it. Conan courtship and marriage of Frank Dr. Robert William Nicoll with whom Doyle always regretted that the book Crosse and Maude Selby. Conan Doyle Conan Doyle had a heated exchange. did not do well for Richards. The loved the book; the critics hated it. So heated that Nicoll (according" to Collections house two first editions, Conan Doyle's autobiography) "stated one pictured here, was signed by In a 1901 Preface to the book, Conan that he did not know whether to Conan Doyle. The book, with gilt- Doyle wrote that in Duet, "It is atmos- answer me in print or in the law edged pages, has been rebound and phere - the subtle, indefinable, golden- courts." Dr. Nicoll objected to a scene contains the bookplate of Charles tinted atmosphere of love - which I in Duet in which Frank meets his old Plumptre Johnson. have wished to produce." He treasured flame Violet Wright in Mancini's, an letters of praise for the book. One, from Other holdings include John Bennett out of the way establishment catering H. G. Wells (quoted in John Dickson Shaw's copy of the first Tauchnitz edi- to clandestine assignations. It was a Carr's biography), stated that Wells and tion (for which he paid $15); various shocking scene for Victorian tastes. his wife had liked the book "extremely" paperback editions; the 1990 Gaslight Over time, Nicoll and Conan Doyle and, Wells noted, "they're a middle Press reprint which contains an excel- became "very good friends and class couple and simple at that; but the lent discussion of the book by Peter Conan Doyle, as he notes in the 1901 ass of a critic seemed to think that this Blau; and a German paperback edition, Preface, "softened down some of the somehow condemned the book." Das Duet, published 1989 in Frankfort, crudities". also from Shaw's collection. w The issue of the critics was an impor- The softer side of Duet reflects Conan tant one for Conan Doyle and this book Bruce E. Southworth, B.S.I. Doyle's relationship with his wife in particular allowed him to vent his Louisa, who had been diagnosed with frustration with an abused system. In a tuberculosis some years before, and letter to the Daily Chronicle dated May Jean Leckie whom Conan Doyle had 16, 1899, Conan Doyle built his case. met in 1897 and would become his "There is an excellent and useful second wife in 1907. By 1899, most of monthly, The Bookman, in the columns Conan Doyle's family had met and of which the editor, a well-known crit- approved of Jean. Conan Doyle even ic, is naturally able to express his had the manuscript of Duet bound as opinion of any new book. The same a special present for her. As Daniel editor sends - or has until recently Stashower notes in Teller of Tales his sent - a letter to the New York biography of Conan Doyle, Duet is Bookman, and so exercises a double both "a tender and fitting tribute to influence on each side of the his dying wife, . [and at] the same Atlantic.. .There is a well-known week- time, his decision to present the man- ly, the British Weekly, which is edited uscript to Jean suggests that its pages by the same gentleman.. .In this jour- contained a message for her as nal this same gentleman can, and well. .Perhaps the novel allowed him does, review the same volume.. .In the to set out, in an acceptable way, his same paper there are two different hopes for the future happiness they columns of paragraphs devoted to lit- might enjoy" erary comment and chat, which are Sherlock Holmes Collections signed respectively by 'Claudius Clear' c he owns several variations of A Duet with and by 'A Man of Kent'. I am credibly an Occasional Chorus. One copy is informed that both of these noms de "A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus" inscribed to Dr. Philip Hench: "Dear 2 P Friends of the Sherlock HoZmes Collections Inc. of Garden City, N.Y. The contents large Morley Collection, shelved sepa- were identical to the Bntlsh, with the rately from the Sherlock Holmes exception of omitting the final essay, , Collections. Their edition of The Man "Great and Little Snoring", an essay of Who Made Friends with Himself has a some Sherlockian content which blue dust jacket, with title lettering in appeared only in the British edition. In yellow, and the author's name in white. addition to owning the first British and In this edition published by American editions, Shaw also had a Doubleday and Company, there is a 1968 edition, which was published by page which begins with the sentence Books for Libraries Press in Freeport, "Memo For This Private Edition". In the introduction to his Sherlock N.Y. All three editions carry Shaw's Morley wrote the letter dated February Holmes and Dr: Watson, A Textbook of notations as to the contents. The book 17, 1949 indicating that "The publish- Friendship, author Christopher Morley is dedicated to four of Morley's grand- ers have wished to print a few hun- wrote of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle that children; Alison Morley Cochrane, dred advance copies of this trouble- "There can scarcely be many examples Whitney Woodruff 11, Janet Fairchild some novel for old friends in The in literature where the writer of well- Cochrane, and John Christopher Morley Trade." An accompanying letter from loved books was so exactly what the - as "residuary dedicatees." The "trustee Doubleday Company's Sales Manager reader would hope him to be." The dedicatee" was Louis Greenfield, who Thomas Burns, daled April 19, 1949 same, it seems, could be written of himself played a role in the history of indicates that this special edition was Christopher Morley the BSI.

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