DOYLE, Arthur Conan, Sir. Autograph manuscript signed ("Arthur Conan Doyle"), a draft of the Introduction to The Undiscovered Country , n.p., 20 March [1918]. 2 pages, folio, rectos only, professionally repaired along folds . [With:] Bayley, Harold, ed. The Undiscovered Country . London: Cassell and Company, 1918. 8 o. Original cloth. DOYLE AND SPIRITUALISM. A working draft of a brief introduction to a 1918 book The Undiscovered Country: A Sequence of Spirit-Messages describing Death and the After-World . Doyle's interest in the world of spiritualism began as early as 1881 after he attended the lecture of a spiritualist. He kept his rapidly developing fascination with the occult from public view in order to protect his reputation, but, in 1917 decided to reveal his support for the often criticized movement. Six months after his first public lecture on the occult, Doyle writes the introduction to a book based upon spirit messages received during automatic writing sessions. This draft, which has been altered in several places by the author, varies only slightly from its final printed form. Doyle begins; "In this valuable little book the question which will continually face the reader...will be how far these assertions as to the nature of life beyond the grave are true." Doyle endeavors to validate the accounts by noting: "these messages have been accompanied by an outbreak of preternatural happenings." Expressing great confidence in the conclusions suggested in the book, Doyle proclaims the strength of spiritualism: "For it is essentially a religious movement, and one which is destined, in my opinion, to affect profoundly the whole future of the world. It is a new wave rolling in from the dim immensity of the beyond, carrying cleansing & freshness to the somewhat stagnant pools into which our present religious systems have settled...it would be dangerous to forecast the effects of so tremendous a phenomenon as a full and new revelation from the next world...it is destined...to leaven all human thought and to unify all the creeds...The whole earnest world is looking for some religious revival which will make theology more human, which will reconcile it with science and reason, and which will get such a spirit into the world as will make impossible for even such frightful relapses into the dark ages as that which our generation has witnessed." Unfortunately, Doyle's solid reputation within the literary world was damaged by his support of spiritualism.
DOYLE, Arthur Conan, Sir. Autograph manuscript signed ("Arthur Conan Doyle"), a draft of the Introduction to The Undiscovered Country , n.p., 20 March [1918]. 2 pages, folio, rectos only, professionally repaired along folds . [With:] Bayley, Harold, ed. The Undiscovered Country . London: Cassell and Company, 1918. 8 o. Original cloth. DOYLE AND SPIRITUALISM. A working draft of a brief introduction to a 1918 book The Undiscovered Country: A Sequence of Spirit-Messages describing Death and the After-World . Doyle's interest in the world of spiritualism began as early as 1881 after he attended the lecture of a spiritualist. He kept his rapidly developing fascination with the occult from public view in order to protect his reputation, but, in 1917 decided to reveal his support for the often criticized movement. Six months after his first public lecture on the occult, Doyle writes the introduction to a book based upon spirit messages received during automatic writing sessions. This draft, which has been altered in several places by the author, varies only slightly from its final printed form. Doyle begins; "In this valuable little book the question which will continually face the reader...will be how far these assertions as to the nature of life beyond the grave are true." Doyle endeavors to validate the accounts by noting: "these messages have been accompanied by an outbreak of preternatural happenings." Expressing great confidence in the conclusions suggested in the book, Doyle proclaims the strength of spiritualism: "For it is essentially a religious movement, and one which is destined, in my opinion, to affect profoundly the whole future of the world. It is a new wave rolling in from the dim immensity of the beyond, carrying cleansing & freshness to the somewhat stagnant pools into which our present religious systems have settled...it would be dangerous to forecast the effects of so tremendous a phenomenon as a full and new revelation from the next world...it is destined...to leaven all human thought and to unify all the creeds...The whole earnest world is looking for some religious revival which will make theology more human, which will reconcile it with science and reason, and which will get such a spirit into the world as will make impossible for even such frightful relapses into the dark ages as that which our generation has witnessed." Unfortunately, Doyle's solid reputation within the literary world was damaged by his support of spiritualism.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
