Puppet master

The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes

The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Andrew Lycett

Free Press: 576 pp., $30

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Although it is nearly 150 years since his birth, Arthur Conan Doyle continues to fascinate readers. Author of a dizzying array of novels, short stories, articles, essays and nonfiction books, he was knighted in 1902 for his service to the crown in defending the British conduct during the Boer War. Although his principal fame was as one of the two highest-paid writers of his day (along with his good friend Rudyard Kipling), Conan Doyle stood for Parliament twice, volunteered for service during the Boer War and World War I, and was active in organizing the defense of England. Late in his life, he became the leading spokesman for spiritualism.

"Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters" collects hundreds of unpublished letters, almost exclusively written to his mother. The editors (Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower and Charles Foley, all fellow Baker Street Irregulars and friends of this reviewer) have lavished the letters with careful annotations and contextual information, presenting the skeleton of a biography. Yet the letters reveal nothing of Conan Doyle's inner life and make little mention of his writing's contents.

Perhaps, as may be expected from someone writing to his mother, Conan Doyle confined his letters to tales of the family, reports of his successes (and failures), mentions of his encounters with celebrities and brief accounts of his adventures in the Arctic and Africa. What is lacking is the depth of thought that even Sherlock Holmes, that most rational of beings, displays. In such stories as "The Cardboard Box" and "The Naval Treaty," Holmes waxes philosophical about fate, beauty and education. Although Conan Doyle famously protested that "the puppet is not the master," these beautiful soliloquies must be seen as his own reflections, notably missing from his letters.

The closest Conan Doyle comes here to sharing his own deeper feelings is in writing about the Boer War, when he argues with his mother about his participation. She contends that "there are hundreds of thousands who can fight for one who can make a Sherlock Holmes" and that his loss would be the ruination of the family. Conan Doyle responds that his enlistment might inspire young men to do the same, adding: "I had grave doubts before war broke out, but ever since I have been sure that it was a righteous war & worth sacrifices."