Conan Doyle archive rediscovered

A qualified surgeon and eye specialist, [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle] took a mobile hospital to the Boer war, wrote plays for Sir Henry Irving, stood twice, unsuccessfully, for parliament, was a historian, star lecturer and foreign correspondent, played cricket for the MCC, championed causes ranging from divorce-law reform to the Channel tunnel and, on occasion, became a consulting detective and righter of wrongs just like his greatest fictional creation. He devoted decades and a good part of his colossal earnings to the spiritualist movement, and was famously tricked by two mischievous young girls into believing in fairies.

The personal papers and memorabilia of Conan Doyle's great contemporaries have long since been laid out under glass at the British Museum or filed in the air-conditioned vaults of American universities. Yet, ironically, the writer who brings millions of pilgrims to London each year in search of Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson and Professor Moriarty -- and who has outsold J K Rowling and J R R Tolkien put together -- can be studied in only the most fragmentary detail. Since Conan Doyle's death in 1930, aged 70, the whereabouts of his private archive has been a mystery as tantalising as any ever unfolded at 221B Baker Street.

The entire cache has now come to light and is to be auctioned on May 19 at Christie's for an estimated £2m.

This a brief extract from a long and detailed article in today's Sunday Times Magazine.

UPDATE: Now a piece at the BBC. The presale estimate of the total value seems pretty reasonable, making one wonder what negotiations might have transpired prior to consignment. It may be hoped that the British Library or some similar institution can arrange a purchase en bloc, as with the Forbes Faberge collection at Sotheby's.

Posted by David on March 14, 2004 2:35 PM