Beschreibung:

Doyle (Arthur Conan, 1859-1930). Author, creator of Sherlock Holmes and writer on spiritualism. Autograph Letter Signed, ‘Arthur Conan Doyle’, The Compton Arms Hotel, Minstead letterhead, 9 December 1925, to Mrs Thorn, sending her an assortment of pamphlets (not present), discussing in detail, spirit phenomena, his own psychic experiences and further mentioning the infamous ‘Margery’ case, ‘…When your friend goes into a trance ask…who is the young man’s Guide…When any new entity visits or speaks you will say ‘Do you believe in God?… We - my wife and I - got a direct voice the other day at our second sitting for it. A clear ‘Good evening’ came from above our heads. We were thrilled…. I don’t know if you have followed the Margery case and the persecution of Mrs Crandon in Boston…’, very light stain to bottom of first page with no loss of legibility, 2 pages in a close hand, 8vo (Quantity: 1) Mina ‘Margery’ Crandon (1888-1941) was a Boston medium who found herself embroiled in one of the most bitter controversies in American psychic research. Her followers claimed that she was one of the greatest mediums who ever lived, while her critics called her a fraud: her most famous being the escapologist Harry Houdini whose obsessive crusade against her almost cost him his own career. In his introduction to a substantial article in the Boston Herald (26 January 1925) and published shortly after the present letter was written, Conan Doyle wrote – ‘It is Christmas morning and I sit at a table which is heaped with documents and photographs. They are the dossier of the Crandon case. Perhaps one should not work on Xmas day and yet there is no day so holy that one may not use it for the fight for truth, the exposure of evil and the defence of the honour of a most estimable lady. The Margery case will live in history and it is perhaps fitting that I should have some hand in the record since the matter was in a double sense of my begetting.’ The ‘Margery’ book to which Doyle refers in this letter, is likely to be J. Malcolm Bird’s “Margery” The Medium, (1925), which was written in support of ‘Margery’ Crandon. Conan Doyle became absorbed by spiritualism in later life, writing and lecturing on the subject. Interestingly, Conan Doyle was eventually buried in the churchyard of All Saints in Minstead Village having previously been buried vertically in Crowborough. A letter of excellent content and apparently unpublished.