Talk:Arthur Conan Doyle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.
Portal:Biography
 Biography Portal
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article. [FAQ]
A Wikipedian removed Arthur Conan Doyle from the good article list. There are suggestions below for improving areas to satisfy the good article criteria. Once the objections are addressed, renominate the article as a good article. If you disagree with the objections, you can seek a review.

Removal date: No date specified. Please edit template call function as follows: {{DelistedGA|insert date in any format here}}

Contents

[edit] Practical jokes

There's a story somewhat popular among preachers that goes like this: Doyle was a practical joker. Once he sent the same telegram to twelve of his friends: "All is discovered. Flee at once." All twelve left the country.

Google turns up a number of such citations [1].

<>< tbc

This looks like a hoax, or urban legend to me. I recall having heard something about it before, but almost every single citation I discovered turns up in a sermon, used to illustrate the well-travelled theme of guilt. The twelve friends can also be the twelve most important men in England. sjc

The plot of one of the Holmes stories, "The 'Gloria Scott'", hinges on such a message. --RjLesch

Thanks! I made the story a link so page visitors can read it. I scanned through it and see exactly what you mean. However, the message in that context isn't a prank.

<>< tbc

There are many more citations at Google attributing the quote to Mark Twain [2].

<>< tbc


[edit] Link suggestions

An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Arthur_Conan_Doyle article, and they have been placed on this page for your convenience.
Tip: Some people find it helpful if these suggestions are shown on this talk page, rather than on another page. To do this, just add {{User:LinkBot/suggestions/Arthur_Conan_Doyle}} to this page. — LinkBot 10:38, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Jean Conan Doyle

Is anyone familiar with what Copyrights to the Holmes character were held by Dame Jean Conan Doyle before her death? According to one biography her brother sold off some of the copyrights and original manuscripts in an illegal sale to an American University in order to retain his french estate. I was just hoping to beef-up the Jean Conan Doyle article with more info.

Also, pherhaps we could add more information around the legal copyrights of Conan Doyle. I know that he had to sell the copyright of A Study in Scarlet in order to get it publish and recived a total of 20 pounds for the story...but by the late 1980's Jean Conan Doyle could still axe certain Holmes publications and complained to the producers of Star Trek The Next Generation when Brent Spiner played Sherlock Holmes in a holodeck episode.

User:Dowew

In article 7 of his will Arthur Conan Doyle wrote: "My executors shall deal as they think best with copyrights, plays, cinema rights, or unpublished MSS, it being my wish that the advice and cooperation of A.S. Watt of 10 Norfolk Street be always obtained. The yearly income on the capital sums derived from such sources shall always be divided as already stated-one half to my wife, one half divided among three younger children."

(You can view jpgs of Doyle's will as well as the transcribed version here: http://www.foolscap-quill.com/sherlockholmes5.html )

This is a really bad way to devise (give by will) your literary property. The result was that the copyrights remained in the Doyle estate without a neutral party to oversee them.

Doyle designated his wife Jean and his eldest son Denis as executors. However, Doyle's children (especially Adrian, who is referred to as "Malcolm" in the will) and their surviving spouses and heirs have feuded over the copyrights for almost 70 years.

I don't believe this is matter that Wikipedia should get into the middle of.

DarleneCypserEsq 19:58, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 1929 ban

Quote from the article:His work on this topic was one of the reasons that one of his short story collections, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was banned in the Soviet Union in 1929 under the pretense of occultism.

Well, I have a book, published in the Soviet Union in Russian in 1978 (300,000 copies), which contains this collection. I can provide more precise data about that edition if someone desire.

Therefore, even if this ban was, it was cancelled later. I'll add this into the article now. By the way, if someone will find non-wiki information about that ban, please, add a link into the article or here, because, for example, I didn't hear about that ban at all. Cmapm 19:20, 9 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Father

"Richard Doyle's hopeless alcoholism is evident in all of the Holmes stories." "But, Doyle never once mentions alcohol in his stories." "That is why it is evident."

[edit] Against Koch and his proxies

The NEJM this week[3] gives a fascinating account how ACD traveled to Berlin to learn about Robert Koch's "treatment" for tuberculosis. He unmasked it as a speculative and probably irrelevant finding, and was vindicated in doing so. Perhaps this should be mentioned here. JFW | T@lk 23:45, 11 December 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Selected Bibliography?

Any particular reason why we only have a selected bibliography here? Other authors have complete bibliographies...

[edit] Delisted Good Article

This article is no longer a "good article" because it does not have any references. joturner 03:58, 13 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Arthur's father: Richard or Charles?

Wikipedia currently lists illustrator Richard Doyle as Arthur Conan Doyle's father. However, in Victorian Fairy Painting, published by the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1997, Victorianists Pamela White Trimpe (p 58) and Jeremy Maas (p 17) list Richard's brother Charles as Arthur's father. Richard and Charles were born in London, which is where Richard also died. Charles, on the other hand, moved to Edinburgh. Both brothers were celebrated illustrators, but Charles less so, partly because he was institutionalized for alcoholism and epilepsy in the 1870s and remained "in and out of institutions" for the rest of his life (Trimpe 58). According to Trimpe, the work of Charles Doyle only resurfaced in the 1920s under the curation of his son, Arthur Conan Doyle.

Charles Altemont Doyle was Conan Doyle's father. I've corrected this Daibhid C 20:09, 14 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Portsmouth F.C.

This article says that Arthur Conan Doyle "helped form Portsmouth Football Club, playing as the club's first goalkeeper and occasionally as a right back between 1884 and 1890." Portsmouth F.C. calls that assertion "a common myth": "While Conan Doyle did play for an amateur side, Portsmouth AFC, that flourished from 1882 to 1894, the first goalkeeper of the professional era was Matt Reilly who previously played for the successful Royal Artillery team." Which of these is true? Aecis Appleknocker Flophouse 18:18, 14 May 2006 (UTC)

Apparently the latter: that he played for the amateur club Portsmouth AFC, but not for its successor, the professional Portsmouth FC. There's a book on the subject reviewed here (Sherlock Holmes Was a Pompey Keeper by Kevin Smith). Tearlach 08:35, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I also followed up on this some on the web; while a few sites mentioned Doyle playing as goalkeeper, none gave any sort of verifiable material supporting the supposition. On the Portsmouth F.C. official website, there is no mention whatsoever of Doyle in either the History or Trivia sections — which would be a surprising omission had he actually been on the team in any capacity. As such, I corrected the statement. Tijuana Brass¡Épa! 00:04, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] photographic memory

I've heard that Doyle had a photographic memory, going so far as to insert false weather accounts in his stories (e.g. since he had memorized the Farmer's Almanac, he would incorrectly state the weather of a given day in his works as a joke to himself). Can anyone verify this? - IstvanWolf 07:23, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Doyle as advocate of justice

I believe the following to be incorrect:

"Doyle was also a fervent advocate of justice, and personally investigated two closed cases, which led to two imprisoned men being released. "

I understand that the suspect in the first case, George Edalji, had already been released before Sir Doyle began investigations?

[edit] What's with

the vandalism ?

Undoubtedly the work of Professor Moriarty. I believe something's afoot! Gzuckier 20:29, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bio?

Why is this biographical part titled "Love Life"? Do I miss something here?

[edit] External links

Some external links were posted from User talk:72.138.243.62.

I deleted them, and received a very nice, detailed and professional followup from User talk:Arnold Villeneuve.

Comments, anyone? -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 06:07, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

I have no idea what the links were supposed to give, as they only generate gibberish in my Mac browsers (both Safari and Firefox). I would say the links do not belong here until they have a format which is accessible to everyone. If they contain information that is not already on the page, add that information to the page, and leave the links as references. Mlewan 06:40, 15 October 2006 (UTC)
I just tried it in Firefox on my Windows box and also on Firefox & Safari on my PowerBook G4. I see a tree view on the left side, with different chunks of text displayed based on where I click. I have no idea what to make of it. I've invited Arnold Villeneuve to explain it either here or on Talk:Winston Churchill. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 07:00, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] In popular culture

I've just done some fiddling with:

and proposed a similar one for Thomas Edison and was thinking it might be worth getting the ball rolling for Arthur Conan Doyle in popular culture. Off the top of my head there is Arthur & George, Necronauts, FairyTale: A True Story and Photographing Fairies. Anymore? (Emperor 19:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Cricket infobox

I've removed the cricket infobox. While the info in it is accurate, it gives the page the appearance of vandalism, and falsely implies that the man was mostly known as a cricketer. I've added the cricket stats as an external link, which is where I think they belong. --Trevor Burnham 03:45, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Doyle or Conan Doyle?

I had always assumed the correct form was eg 'Conan Doyle was a Scot' rather than 'Doyle was a Scot', but from the evidence of this article - and other subsidiary pages (eg Professor Challenger) - this doesn't seem to be the case. Are there any Conan Doyleans (or Doyleans) out there that can shed any light on this? I think we should be consistent and use either one form or the other.Ericoides 21:57, 5 November 2006 (UTC)

I think so too. His surname was Conan Doyle, wasn't it? All the category sorting is wrong too. Stephen Turner (Talk) 17:59, 9 November 2006 (UTC)
In fact, we had a strange mixture of "Doyle" and "Conan Doyle". I've changed them all to "Conan Doyle" now. Stephen Turner (Talk) 21:13, 16 November 2006 (UTC)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../a/r/t/Talk%7EArthur_Conan_Doyle_da29.html"