DOCSLIB.ORG

The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. Scription to the Magazine, Londoners Wore by Daniel Stashower

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. Scription to the Magazine, Londoners Wore by Daniel Stashower uscript pages a day in the throes of inspiration, "Aye, sir." "Not long discharged?" "No, sir." "A his sentences were always constructed, never Highland regiment?" "Aye, sir." "Stationed at dashed. The right word obsessed him. 'The Barbados?" "Aye, sir." It was a small step from difference between the almost right word and there to Sherlock's "Yon have been in the riglit word is really a large matter-'tis the Afghanistan, I perceive." difference between the lightning-bug and the Published in The Strand starting in 1891, lightning.' " the adventures of Sherlock Holmes became We love to linger in this "gigantic child- the Star Trek of their clay, and Conan Doyle hood." Certainly it was lit by lightning. But this grew "suddenly, colossally famous" for some- book is aptly titled. These were dangerous thing he considered far less noteworthy than waters. Almost nobody got out alive. his other writings. So popular were the detec- -Benjamin Cheever tive stories that, when the author killed off his celebrated character in 1893 (temporarily, as it TELLER OF TALES: clevelopecl), 20,000 people canceled their sub- The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. scription to the magazine, Londoners wore By Daniel Stashower. Henry Holt. 412 pp. black mourning bands, and members of the $32.50 Royal Family were said to be distraught. Conan On a summer night in 1930, some 6,000 Doyle expressed only relief. "If I had not killed well-dressed Londoners crowded into Royal [Holmes]," he said in a speech to the Author's Albert Hall. They had come to see and hear Club, "he would certainly have killed me.'' the renowned Scottish author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle never got his fondest wish-to Conan Doyle, for who111 a chair waited on the be viewed as a writer of the first rank. stage. One technicality set this hastily arranged Stashower makes a case for The White public appearance apart from countless others: Co112pany (1891) and other historical novels, Conan Doyle had died five days before. Seeing but doesn't pretend to share his subject's no sign of their man, skeptics began stealing enthusiasm for the occult writings. Many fine out of the hall. The emcee-a psychic of dubi- minds took up spiritualism at that time. W. B. 011s gifts-shouted, "He is here! He is here!" Yeats traveled far down the path of ghosts and Everyone stopped, and all eyes locked hungri- fairies, and, like Conan Doyle, had a wife who ly on the empty chair. practiced automatic writing. But where Yeats's Conan Doyle's latest biographer, himself a traffic in the supernatural yielded superb writer of detective novels, tackles the hardest poems such as "Lapis Lazuli," Conan Doyle's part of his job first: How could a writer of such resulted in a silly book about Atlantis. intelligence and principle, a gifted physician, Stashower has turned out an unselfcon- explorer, athlete, war veteran, husband, and scions, easy read-affectionate and fair-mind- father-how could this man have believed in ed, genially short on the naughty bits now spooks and fairies? A "cordial disbeliever," endemic to the genre. He hides a prodigious Stashower argues for "sympathy rather than amount of work beneath the surface, so that derision." After reading this account, few reacl- what the reader sees is not webbed feet pad- ers are likely to rush out to buy Conan Doyle's clling strenuously but a swan serenely floating. Coming of the Fairies (1922), but they will Conan Doyle and his brilliant detective both understand that there was more to his life than would have liked this book. Sherlock Holmes. -A. 1. I-lewat Born in Edinburgh in 1859, Conan Doyle grew up poor, the second son of an artistic, WALKER EVAAE. high-strung alcoholic father, and the lively, By James R. Mellow. Basic. 654 pp. $40 educated mother who111 he adored. He got a By 1956, when this biography ends, the 11110- decent (if detested) Jesuit education, and stud- tographer Walker Evans (1903-75) had done ied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. his most important work. In his last years, he One of his professors, Joseph Bell, had an spent too little time looking into a vie\ifinder uncanny ability to deduce an entire life story and too much time looking into a bottle. Still, from particulars of accent, clothing, and man- these final two decades of his life, for which the ner. "Well, my man," Bell would say to a plain- publisher appends a chronology, might have clothed stranger, "you've served in the army.'' given a perspective to Evans's achievements Books 139 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Automatic Writing and the Book of Mormon: an Update
    ARTICLES AND ESSAYS AUTOMATIC WRITING AND THE BOOK OF MORMON: AN UPDATE Brian C. Hales At a Church conference in 1831, Hyrum Smith invited his brother to explain how the Book of Mormon originated. Joseph declined, saying: “It was not intended to tell the world all the particulars of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.”1 His pat answer—which he repeated on several occasions—was simply that it came “by the gift and power of God.”2 Attributing the Book of Mormon’s origin to supernatural forces has worked well for Joseph Smith’s believers, then as well as now, but not so well for critics who seem certain natural abilities were responsible. For over 180 years, several secular theories have been advanced as explanations.3 The more popular hypotheses include plagiarism (of the Solomon Spaulding manuscript),4 collaboration (with Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, etc.),5 1. Donald Q. Cannon and Lyndon W. Cook, eds., Far West Record: Minutes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1844 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983), 23. 2. “Journal, 1835–1836,” in Journals, Volume. 1: 1832–1839, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, vol. 1 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, edited by Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008), 89; “History of Joseph Smith,” Times and Seasons 5, Mar. 1, 1842, 707. 3. See Brian C. Hales, “Naturalistic Explanations of the Origin of the Book of Mormon: A Longitudinal Study,” BYU Studies 58, no.
    [Show full text]
  • The Science of Mediumship and the Evidence of Survival
    Rollins College Rollins Scholarship Online Master of Liberal Studies Theses 2009 The cS ience of Mediumship and the Evidence of Survival Benjamin R. Cox III [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.rollins.edu/mls Recommended Citation Cox, Benjamin R. III, "The cS ience of Mediumship and the Evidence of Survival" (2009). Master of Liberal Studies Theses. 31. http://scholarship.rollins.edu/mls/31 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Rollins Scholarship Online. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master of Liberal Studies Theses by an authorized administrator of Rollins Scholarship Online. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Science of Mediumship and the Evidence of Survival A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Liberal Studies by Benjamin R. Cox, III April, 2009 Mentor: Dr. J. Thomas Cook Rollins College Hamilton Holt School Master of Liberal Studies Winter Park, Florida This project is dedicated to Nathan Jablonski and Richard S. Smith Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 The Science of Mediumship.................................................................... 11 The Case of Leonora E. Piper ................................................................ 33 The Case of Eusapia Palladino............................................................... 45 My Personal Experience as a Seance Medium Specializing
    [Show full text]
  • Automatic Writing by Sarah Tyler-Walters
    Automatic Writing by Sarah Tyler-Walters When we mention messages from Spirit most of us are familiar with the idea of these being spoken or delivered by a medium rather than in written form which gets sidelined for its flashier siblings. However, it is having a resurgence and rightly so. “What is it?” simply put it is communication from a Spirit through a medium in the form of written words (this can include drawings). Historically, even the use of an ouija board was thought to be a form of automatic writing. Though today we have a better understanding of the mechanics involved and can, therefore, be more accurate in the description; using Automatic Writing as an umbrella term. Spirit communication can come in pictures, sounds or feelings either via the mind as in Mental Mediumship or by blending with the energy system as in Trance/Physical Mediumship again two umbrella terms. Automatic Writing, therefore, has several levels to it, the lightest being Inspirational which uses the same techniques and mechanics as modern-day mediumship. The information is relayed from the Spirit through the upper chakra system into the mind and the medium then writes the information down. Then you have Channelled / Automatic which is done by the Spirit blending with the medium as for channelling or trance and moving the hand to write. The deepest level is Auto-script where the Spirit takes full control of the medium to write or draw, and there is no knowledge or memory of it by the medium. “What about your subconscious or ego?” Well yes, they can both write at the Inspirational level and often do when people are journaling for their own self- development.
    [Show full text]
  • Glossary of Spiritualist Terms and Techniques
    A PPENDIX A Glossary of Spiritualist Terms and Techniques automatic writing. A Spirit uses the medium’s hand to write replies to any number of questions posed; also practiced by amateurs as a way of strengthening their spiritual powers. As an added feature, a magic pencil sometimes floats. In such instances, the Spirits are asking the medium to begin writing. How it is done: The pencil hangs on thin metal or glass wires. clairgustance or clairlience. A taste or smell associated with the Spirit. For example, if you are trying to contact your mother, who was fond of gardening, a waft of rose water might be introduced. How it is done: aromatherapy. dermography, also known as skin writing. The Spirits literally write words or pictures on the medium’s flesh. How it is done: Invisible ink, likely lemon juice, is used. When held up to a candle, the ink grows increasingly visible. ectoplasm. A pale, filmy materialization of the soul, produced by the medium when in a trance state. Likely invented by Leah Fox (circa 1860). The last manifestation of ectoplasm seems to have taken place in 1939. Cambridge University has a sample; it looks and feels like cheesecloth or chiffon. Female mediums sometimes stuffed ectoplasm in their vaginas, necessitating strip- searches. See also soul and Spirit’s progress. lampadomancy. Flame reading. The messages might be conveyed by changes in flame intensity, color, or direction. How it is done: Chemicals can be added to a segment of the candle to make the flame flicker or change color. On the direction of the flame: a small hole in the table may allow 164 Glossary of Spiritualist Terms and Techniques for a flue to affect air- current.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies in Shamanism
    SCRIPTA INSTITUTI DONNERIANI ABOENSIS I STUDIES IN SHAMANISM Based on Papers read at the Symposium on Shamanism held at Abo on the 6th-8th of September, 1962 Edited by CARL-MARTIN EDSMAN ALMQVIST & WIKSELL STOCKHOLM Studies in Shamanism Studies in Shamanism Based on Papers read at the Symposium on Shamanism held at Åbo on the 6th-8th of September, 1962 Edited by CARL-MARTIN EDSMAN ALMQVIST & WIKSELL STOCKHOLM Printed in Sweden by Almqvist & Wiksells Boktryckeri AB, Uppsala 1967 Contents Preface 7 HELMER RINGGREN The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History GUSTAV RÄNK Shamanism as a Research Subject. Some Methodological View- points 15 ERIK HOLTVED Eskimo Shamanism 23 ÅKE HULTKRANTZ Spirit Lodge, a North American Shamanistic Seance 32 HALFDAN SIIGER Shamanistic Ecstasy and Supernatural Beings. A Study Based on Field-Work among the Kalash Kafirs of Chitral 69 TONI SCHMID Shamanistic Practice in Northern Nepal 8z ARVID S. KAPELRUD Shamanistic Features in the Old Testament go JENÖ FAZEKAS Hungarian Shamanism, Material and History of Research 97 CARL-MARTIN EDSMAN A Swedish Female Folk Healer from the Beginning of the 18th Century 120 ODD NORDLAND Shamanism as an Experiencing of "the Unreal" 166 Preface On the initiative of Dr. K. Rob. V. Wikman, Professor Emeritus at the Finland-Swedish University of Åbo, (Åbo Akademi), the Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History organized in Åbo from the 6th to the 8th of September, 196z, a symposium on shamanism. The In- stitute is described below in an introductory article by its former head, Dr. H. Ringgren, now Professor in Old Testament Exegetics at the University of Uppsala.
    [Show full text]
  • Uncanny Indians
    ONE UNCANNY INDIANS SPIRITUALIST BELIEF AND PRACTICE At the center of the loosely defined Spiritualist Movement was the belief that the spirits of the dead could communicate with the living. Seen by many Spiritualists and Spiritualist scholars as beginning with the Fox Sister rappings in New York in 1848, Spiritualism emerged as a widely popular and progres- sive religious movement, predominantly in the Northeast, but which spread “steadily and rapidly … in the West, and in the Old World as much as the New.”1 Spiritualism as a movement continues to be loosely defined due to its nature; as an outgrowth of Reform Protestantism, Spiritualism was vehemently antiauthoritarian, which made organization of members and the declaration of a common creed nearly impossible.2 It is likewise difficult to specifically define the demographic composition of such a fluctuating constituency. Several scholars have noted the difficulty of pinpointing a Spiritualist constit- uency as a result of their own aversion to institutionalization. Brown’s research centered around the lack of organization among Spiritualists, the problems that led to disunity and noninstitutionalism, and the difficulty scholars have faced in attempting to impose order and a general definition on Spiritualism that did not exist in its own time.3 He asserted that attempting demographic coverage would be unproductive and unreliable.4 The difficulty of defining a body of Spiritualists, and the seemingly small return on such efforts, does not merit my attempting it here.5 Spiritualists did make some attempts to quantify their movement in both geographical and numerical terms. In her monograph Modern American 1 © 2017 State University of New York Press, Albany 2 The Specter of the Indian Spiritualism, the eminent medium Emma Hardinge Britten categorized the growth of the movement as follows: No year in the first epoch of modern Spiritualism [as opposed to the spiritualism of antiquity] has been more fruitful with events of interest than 1850.
    [Show full text]
  • THE DEVELOPMENT of AUTOMATIC WRITING and OCCULT PHILOSOPHY in the PISAN CANTOS Katrina Johnson Clemson University, [email protected]
    Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 5-2013 POUND'S OCCULTISM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC WRITING AND OCCULT PHILOSOPHY IN THE PISAN CANTOS Katrina Johnson Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Johnson, Katrina, "POUND'S OCCULTISM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC WRITING AND OCCULT PHILOSOPHY IN THE PISAN CANTOS" (2013). All Theses. 1798. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/1798 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. POUND’S OCCULTISM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATIC WRITING AND OCCULT PHILOSOPHY IN THE PISAN CANTOS A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts English by Katrina Elizabeth Johnson December 2013 Accepted by: Dr. Catherine Paul, Committee Chair Dr. Susan Hilligoss Dr. Angela Naimou i ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis is to examine how occultism is a major influence within Pound’s writing as a result of his mentorship under Yeats from 1909-1916. Chapter One examines the connections between Pound’s time in London and his subsequent exposure to the occult. Alongside Yeats, Pound finds a use for his belief in the aristocracy of the arts through the occultist teachings of exclusivity and sharing of select knowledge. Chapter Two focuses on Pound’s development of the occult practice of automatic writing and its later use in The Pisan Cantos .
    [Show full text]
  • 4 / the Way of Surrender and Self- Expression
    4 / The Way of Surrender and Self- Expression he way of Za-Zen may be regarded as the way of surrender of personal preferences: an emptying oneself of pre- conceptions (in the intellectual aspects), greed (in the emotional), and self-will, in order to discover that enlightenment bypasses or is not dependent on the satisfactions of those habits that we call our personality. As well as the movement of surrender or letting go of something, we can also see that there is place in meditation for an attitude of surrender to. This might seem an attempt doomed to failure, if we consider that any surrender to our preferences is likely to leave us subject to those impulses in our personality that constitute the very prison or vicious circle that we want to transcend. If saying "No" to our little ego proves to be effective, could saying "Yes" to it be effective as well? In this, as in other things, paradoxes seem to be more compatible with empirical reality than with logical reasoning, and experience indicates that surrender to impulse may not be the blind alley that it seems to be. An anecdote may be appropriate here to suggest how a respect- ful attitude toward the spontaneous urge of the moment may become a key to the meditation process. This is a story about The Way of Surrender and Self-Expression 91 an ancient Hindu king who was very attached to his riches, and yet, having developed a feeling of the nothingness of hls vast wealth, was eager to meditate in order to apprehend the timeless reality.
    [Show full text]
  • Encyclopedia of the Unusual
    GEUUhttp-v1.quark 4/4/03 5:20 PM Page 1 GEUUhttp-v1.quark 4/4/03 5:20 PM Page 3 Brad Steiger and Sherry Hansen Steiger 1 Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Brad E. Steiger and Sherry Hansen Steiger Project Editor Permissions Product Design Jolen Marya Gedridge Lori Hines Tracey Rowens Editorial Imaging and Multimedia Manufacturing Andrew Claps, Lynn U. Koch, Michael Reade Dean Dauphinais, Lezlie Light Rhonda A. Williams © 2003 by Gale. Gale is an imprint of The Gale age retrieval systems—without the written per- Since this page cannot legibly accommodate all Group, Inc., a division of Thomson Learning, Inc. mission of the publisher. copyright notices, the acknowledgements con- stitute an extension of the copyright notice. Gale and Design™ and Thomson Learning™ For permission to use material from this prod- are trademarks used herein under license. uct, submit your request via Web at While every effort has been made to ensure http://www.gale-edit.com/permissions, or you the reliability of the information presented in For more information, contact may download our Permissions Request form this publication, The Gale Group, Inc. does not The Gale Group, Inc. and submit your request by fax or mail to: guarantee the accuracy of the data contained 27500 Drake Road herein. The Gale Group, Inc. accepts no pay- Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535 Permissions Department ment for listing; and inclusion in the publica- Or you can visit our Internet site at The Gale Group, Inc. tion of any organization, agency, institution, http://www.gale.com 27500 Drake Rd.
    [Show full text]
  • Investigating Mental Mediums: Research Suggestions from the Historical Literature
    Journal of Scientifi c Exploration, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 197–224, 2010 0892-3310/10 ESSAY Investigating Mental Mediums: Research Suggestions from the Historical Literature CARLOS S. ALVARADO Atlantic University, 215 67th Street, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451, USA [email protected] Abstract—Mental mediumship is a complex process involving a variety of factors in need of further study before we can increase our understanding of the phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to offer ideas and topics for fur- ther research—mainly from the psychological perspective and with emphasis on the old psychical research literature. The topics discussed are mediumistic trance (e.g., function, stages, and depth, mediumistic mentation (e.g., imagery, symbols), the dramatic capabilities of the subconscious mind, the relationship between mediumship and psychopathology, the variety of experiences report- ed by mediums outside their performances (e.g., dissociative and ESP experi- ences), and the changing aspects of mediumship over time. It is argued that in-depth single case studies of specifi c mediums and interdisciplinary studies will greatly help us to understand mediumship more fully. Keywords: mediumship—mediumistic mentation—personation—iatrogenesis —trance—dissociation Mental mediums are individuals who claim to convey messages from discarnate spirits in such varied ways as impressions, visions, and automatic writing. Historically, this phenomenon has been important for its infl uence on psychological concepts such as the subconscious mind and dissociation (Alvarado, Machado, Zangari, & Zingrone, 2007), ideas of pathology (Le Maléfan, 1999), and for presenting phenomena that have provided both research topics and ideas for fi elds such as spiritualism (Tromp, 2006), psychical research (Inglis, 1984), and anthropology (Seligman, 2005).
    [Show full text]
  • Spiritualism Exposed
    All rights reservid Spiritualism Exposed BY F. ATTFIELD FAWKES mitb an 5ntroOuction b^ NEVIL MASKELYNE BRISTOL J.W. Arrowsmith Ltd. LONDON SiMPKiN, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd. 1920 M^^ ^0/f^IPf-^ CONTENTS Page Introduction by Mr. Nevil Maskelyne . 7 Part 1 11 What is Spiritualism ? —-The Genesis of Modern Spiritualism—Table-turning by Spirits—The truth about Automatic Writing and " Plan- chette "—" The Indicator." ' Part II. .27 Table-lifting and Human Levitation—Spirit Rapping—Spirit Writing on Slates—The Davenport Brothers. Part III 43 Spiritualist Seances—The Materialisation of — " Spirits "Something in it —Sleight-of-Mind —Self-Hypnotism. Part IV .61 Telepathy or Thought Messages—Why Mediums at all ? —Puerile Results of many Spiritualist Manifestations—Spiritualist Messages from Heaven ? — CONTENTS Part V 85 Clairvoyants and Fortune Tellers—Weak Points in Spiritualists' Evidencfi.—Illusion Hallucination —Spirit Photographs. Part VI. loi Madame Blavatsky—Oriental Magic—Emanuel Sweden borg. Part VII 119 Various Opinions—Statistics——Does Spiritualism emanate from Satan ? "VV'liat Result has Spiritualism to show ? VI INTRODUCTION In writing upon the subject of so-called "Spiritualism" one is faced with an initial difficulty of some magnitude. That is, in deciding upon the scope of one's article or book. For while all that common sense demands may be put into very few words, all that can be said would fill whole libraries. Thus any attempt to give a satisfactory resume of the subject naturally involves much deliberation in deciding what must necessarily be included and what may reasonably be left out. In the present instance Mr. Fawkes has done his work admirably.
    [Show full text]
  • The Esoteric Symbolism of Shamanic Trance and Altered States Phenomena
    The Esoteric Symbolism of Shamanic Trance and Altered States Phenomena The Esoteric Symbolism of Shamanic Trance and Altered States Phenomena By Ratka Relic The Esoteric Symbolism of Shamanic Trance and Altered States Phenomena By Ratka Relic This book first published 2020 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2020 by Ratka Relic All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-4999-2 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-4999-9 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................. 1 Chapter I .................................................................................................... 15 Shamanic Trance, According to Psychoanalysis 1.1 Trance and ecstasy as phenomena of the unconscious ........................ 15 1.2 The psychophysiology of altered states of consciousness ................... 29 Chapter II ................................................................................................... 43 Cultural Specifics of Trance in Buryat Shamanism 2.1. Shamanic trance as the phenomenon of traditional Buryat culture ..... 43 2.2. The genesis and origin of white
    [Show full text]