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The Narrative of John Smith by Arthur Conan Doyle:

The Publication of His Lost First Novel

By Randall Stock, July 16, 2012

 

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his first novel at the age of 23, but he later explained that this manuscript was lost in the mail and the story was never published.   In 2004 the British Library acquired a large collection of papers from the Conan Doyle family archives, including an untitled manuscript with much of his first novel.  See below for details on the manuscript, its history, and its publication by the British Library in 2011.

 

 

Book & Audio Book Details

 

In this previously unpublished story, Conan Doyle writes about a man confined to his room with an attack of gout, and uses this character to express his own thoughts and opinions on fields ranging from science and medicine to religion and philosophy.  Conan Doyle's first novel offers new perspectives on a man who would become one of the most famous authors in the world.

 

The Narrative of John Smith by Arthur Conan Doyle

ed. by Jon Lellenberg, Daniel Stashower, and Rachel Foss

 

 

"The heart of every lover of British writing will rejoice at this discovery of an early and as yet unpublished work by the creator of Holmes, Watson, Moriarty and Professor Challenger.  The breadth, depth and scope of Conan Doyle's knowledge and curiosity is often overlooked.  He was the first popular writer to tell the wider reading public about narcotics, the Ku Klux Klan, the mafia, the Mormons, American crime gangs, corrupt union bosses and much else besides.  His boundless energy, enthusiasm and wide-ranging mind, not to mention the pitch-perfect, muscular and memorable prose is all on display here in a work whose publication is very very welcome indeed."

—Stephen Fry, actor, screenwriter, author, playwright

 

A special slipcased cloth-bound edition, limited to 250 numbered copies is available from the British Library shop for £100

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History of a Lost Manuscript: The Narrative of John Smith

 

Conan Doyle began his literary career by writing short stories for magazines.  At that time, magazines typically did not identify the author of a story.  This limited an author's financial opportunities and public recognition, and Conan Doyle decided to write a novel.  He probably started writing it in 1883, and he first publicly described this effort some ten years later in the following magazine article.

 

My First Book: Juvenilia by A. Conan Doyle

The Idler Magazine, Volume 2, January 1893, pp. 633-640

...Yet my apprenticeship was a long and trying one.  During ten years of hard work, I averaged less than fifty pounds a year from my pen.  I won my way into the best journals, Cornhill, Temple Bar, and so on; but what is the use of that when the contributions to those journals must be anonymous? … After ten years of such work I was as unknown as if I had never dipped a pen in an ink-bottle...

 

And so at last it was brought home to me that a man may put the very best that is in him into magazine work for years and years and reap no benefit from it, save, of course, the inherent benefits of literary practice.  So I wrote another of my first books and sent it off to the publishers.  Alack and alas for the dreadful thing that happened!  The publishers never received it, the post office sent countless blue forms to say that they knew nothing about it, and from that day to this no word has ever been heard of it.  Of course it was the best thing I ever wrote.  Who ever lost a manuscript that wasn't?  But I must in all honesty confess that my shock at its disappearance would be as nothing to my horror if it were suddenly to appear again—in print.  If one or two other of my earlier efforts had also been lost in the post my conscience would have been the lighter.  This one was called "The Narrative of John Smith," and it was of a personal-social-political complexion.  Had it appeared I should have probably awakened to find myself infamous, for it steered, as I remember it, perilously near to the libellous.  However, it was safely lost, and that was the end of another of my first books.

 

 

Conan Doyle does not seem to have mentioned this story again.  In his 1924 autobiography Memories and Adventures he instead credits The Firm of Girdlestone as his "first attempt at a connected narrative."  That novel was written in 1884 and 1885, but it was not published until 1890, after both his first Sherlock Holmes novel and Micah Clarke saw print.

 

His biographers took him at his word, and for many years considered the manuscript to be lost.  Hesketh Pearson had access to the Conan Doyle archive of papers in the early 1940s for his biography Conan Doyle (1943).  He mentions The Narrative of John Smith but his comments indicate that he was relying on the Idler article or its reprints.

 

John Dickson Carr also had access to the archives and even provides an inventory in The Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1949).  He does not list the manuscript, but it could have been overlooked as unused draft copy since it's untitled and in notebooks.  Indeed, Carr didn't list an exercise book containing the end of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Solitary Cyclist," but this later showed up in the family papers as I discuss in "The Trail of the Semi-Solitary Manuscript" in the Winter 2005 Baker Street Journal. 

 

One other biographer had access to the family archives in the twentieth century.  Pierre Nordon offered a mix of biography and literary analysis in his Conan Doyle (1966), but does not mention either the story or the manuscript of The Narrative of John Smith.

 

The first report of an existing manuscript appears to have come in late 1970.  Adrian Conan Doyle, the youngest son of Sir Arthur, died on 3 June 1970 and left a large collection of Sir Arthur's papers to his wife Anna.  She in turn engaged Lew David Feldman, of the House of El Dieff, as an agent to sell the material.  He produced a four-page catalog Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Archives that was distributed at the BSI Dinner in January 1971.  In it, he mentions an unpublished and untitled 155 page story, written as a first-person narrative in four small folio notebooks, and labels it a "thinly veiled intellectual autobiography."  Although Feldman does not identify it as The Narrative of John Smith, this is clearly the manuscript sold in 2004.  Feldman later offered much of the material to the Toronto Public Library and in various other catalogs, but did not include this manuscript.

 

For thirty more years the manuscript lay unremarked and virtually unknown in the Conan Doyle archives.  It came to light with the 2004 Conan Doyle sale at Christie's by the heirs of Anna Conan Doyle, in which Lot 11 was identified as Conan Doyle's first novel.  The British Library purchased the manuscript for £47,800  (US$84,606), and put it on display in December 2004.  The BL published the story for the first time in September 2011.

 

The manuscript's existence seems to conflict with Conan Doyle's 1893 account of it being lost.  However, since the story is not complete, this is almost certainly not the manuscript Conan Doyle sent to a publisher.  Instead it's probably a partial reconstruction by Conan Doyle. 

 

According to Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters (2007), Conan Doyle wrote to his mother Mary Doyle in February 1884 and told her "No I never got poor John Smith, I am going to rewrite him from memory, but my hands are very full now."  This phrasing supports his 1893 report of it being lost, and suggests the current manuscript is his incomplete attempt to rewrite the story.

 

See a photo of the manuscript and get a detailed description of the manuscript of The Narrative of John Smith.

 

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Review of The Narrative of John Smith

 

Conan Doyle's Lost First Novel Hints at Future Work

by Randall Stock, October 15, 2011

 

Conan Doyle's first published novel gave birth to Sherlock Holmes, one of the classic characters of fiction.  Yet Holmes did not simply burst into existence.  The author's previously unpublished first attempt at a novel includes many ideas and phrases that would find their way into A Study in Scarlet and other Holmes tales.

 

The Narrative of John Smith is not a mystery or an adventure story and does not include Holmes or Watson.  Conan Doyle later described it as having a "personal-social-political complexion" and it certainly has a semi-autobiographical flavor.  Ostensibly about a man confined to his room during an attack of rheumatic gout, the novel is really a platform for the author to muse on topics of the day and to highlight his studies and recent education.

 

Conan Doyle recognized the drawbacks to this sort of story.  In fact, at one point his main character even notes that "it is as impertinent as it is inartistic of a novelist to wander away from his story in order to give us his own opinions on this or that subject."  In this case there is very little story and quite a bit of opinion.  This volume should be read more as a notebook about Conan Doyle and the 1880s than as a novel.

 

Full of allusions, quotations, and references to contemporary matters, readers will find the introduction and annotations to be essential .  Fortunately the editors bring exceptional knowledge of Conan Doyle and his writings to their commentary.  An excellent introduction includes the biographical context for the book and a very even-handed assessment of it.  The end-notes span 17 pages and clearly explain the many points that would otherwise puzzle a casual reader.  They also highlight how Conan Doyle re-used portions of his text in later work.

 

Indeed, I was struck by how often I encountered something that was echoed in a Holmes tale or in other Conan Doyle writings.  There is an army officer with a "limp from a Jezail bullet in the knee," a doctor who acts as a sounding board for the main character, and a landlady who lives in the house.  Even more directly, he talks about "little brain-attics" where "new ideas elbow out the old ones," quotes that genius is "an infinite capacity for taking pains," and refers to the "fifth proposition of Euclid."  He also reworked substantial portions of it into his 1895 semi-autobiographical novel The Stark Munro Letters. 

 

Conan Doyle said his original manuscript for this story was lost in the mail, but he told his mother he would rewrite it from memory and this incomplete working revision appears to be the result.  The writing is uneven.  Some parts of it are rather slow going, though a few sections display his future skill as storyteller.  While it does contain some interesting ideas, predictions, and incidents, there is little character development and it is not successful as a novel.

 

However, it does succeed as a valuable source of new insights into the creator of Sherlock Holmes and his development as a writer.  An excellent introduction and extensive notes make it accessible to a wider audience, and all Doyleans should read it.

 

A Note on the Text:

The book includes a portrait photo of Conan Doyle as a young doctor, a photo of him in front of his Southsea home of Bush Villa, and a reproduction of the second page of his handwritten manuscript.  The transcribed text of the story incorporates his revisions without comment, but does indicate stricken passages.

 

 

The News & Press Reports section has links to other reviews, which are marked with an asterisk.

 

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About the Editors

 

Jon Lellenberg, U.S. agent for the family's Conan Doyle Estate Ltd., has written about Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes for more than 30 years.  He co-edited the award-winning BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters as well as the forthcoming "Dangerous Work": Diary of an Arctic Adventure.  Lellenberg's novel Baker Street Irregular was published in November 2010.  Some of his other books include The Quest for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (a study of how his life has been treated biographically), Nova 57 Minor (the story behind the supposed Sixty-First Adventure of Sherlock Holmes), and eight volumes of The Baker Street Irregulars History series (including Mid-Forties, Late Forties).

 

Daniel Stashower is a two-time Edgar Award-winning author who wrote Teller of Tales, a widely praised biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and co-edited both Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters and the forthcoming "Dangerous Work": Diary of an Arctic Adventure.  Some of his other recent books include The Beautiful Cigar Girl and The Boy Genius and the Mogul: The Untold Story of Television. 

 

Rachel Foss is Lead Curator of Modern Literary Manuscripts at the British Library.

 

You can listen to online audio interviews with the editors via links below in the Book Talk section.

 

For information on personal appearances by the editors, see the Events section.

 

Topics

 

Book Talk Audio Online

 

Podcasts and streaming audio let you listen to reports and interviews with the editors.

 

Co-editors Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower on the "I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere" Podcast

Jon and Dan are interviewed by Scott Monty and Burt Wolder in this 23 November 2011 podcast.

It's part of an excellent series from Scott and Burt on "I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere."

The 45-minute interview starts at the 4-minute mark and ends with news about an upcoming facsimile of Doyle's whaling diary.

 

Right-click the following link and choose "Save As" to download the interview in MP3 format (File size: 51.9 MB).

 

For some of the topics covered in the interview, see the episode page at:

http://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2011/11/episode-37-lost-conan-doyle-manuscript.html

 

 

Co-editor Rachel Foss on BBC World Service

Includes her interview, along with an extract from the audio book read by Robert Lindsay

This segment first appeared on the BBC World Update September 26, 2011 segment at 10:48 AM.

Listen to the BBC streaming audio interview with Rachel Foss (Flash, 4.5 minutes)

(The interview starts at the 43 minute mark of the program, and is available until October 3, 2011.)

 

Co-editor Rachel Foss on Radio New Zealand

Her interview was on their Morning Report for Monday September 26, 2011 and is available online

Interview Summary Page

Listen to the streaming audio interview with Rachel Foss (Windows Media, 3 minutes)

Download the interview in MP3 format or in Ogg Vorbis format

 

Co-editor Daniel Stashower on CBC/Radio-Canada

Dan's interview aired on the show As It Happens on June 7, 2011, and is available online.

Episode summary page: http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/episode/2011/06/07/tuesday-june-7-2011/

Conan Doyle's First Novel

The interview was in Part Two of the online audio, beginning at 12:35 minutes into Part Two.

Listen to just the portion of the streaming audio interview with Daniel Stashower  (6.5 minutes).

 

Online sample from the audio book version of the novel

Robert Lindsay reads from The Narrative of John Smith (YouTube, 6.5 minutes) with some related photos

 

Conan Doyle speaks about creating Sherlock Holmes

The British Library Sound Archive has an 8-minute recording of Conan Doyle, and provides a streaming online 2-minute excerpt of this actual recording of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking about Sherlock Holmes.  If this link does not work for you, try searching for "NP3794" in the BL Sound Catalogue, and then click the Details button for his Sherlock Holmes talk.  That catalogue detail page gives links to Electronic Access to listen to the recording.

 

For online audio with Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower about Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, see the Life in Letters Book Talk Audio section.

 

Topics

 

Events and Author Appearances

 

Listed in order by date:

 

September 9, 2011 – January 5, 2012: British Library Exhibition

Free Admission: Arthur Conan Doyle: The Unknown Novel

Items on display will include:

- One of the four manuscript notebooks of The Narrative of John Smith

- Part of the manuscript of The Stark Munro Letters

- Letters from ACD to his mother about his early attempts to get published

- Other ACD manuscript material

 

September 23, 2011: Daniel Stashower at the National Press Club in Washington, DC

The Red Circle of Washington, DC  Meeting Notes  Stashower Talk

Dan's topic is "Alas for the thing that happened: Conan Doyle's lost novel"

 

September 28, 2011: Launch Event for The Narrative of John Smith at the British Library in London

See Alistair Duncan's blog post with photos from the event

 

October 1, 2011: Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower at The Newberry Library in Chicago

Part of The Newberry Library Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes Symposium

Jon and Dan will talk about Conan Doyle's Lost Novel

 

October 2, 2011: Robert Lindsay on That Sunday Night Show

He will talk about the book and audio CD on the ITV1 Lifestyle Talk Show from 10.15-10.45PM

After it airs, the show might be available using the show's online ITV player

 

October 28, 2011: Co-editors at The Sons of the Copper Beeches Dinner in Philadelphia

Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower will speak about the book.

 

November 7, 2011: Co-editors at the Portsmouth BookFest in Portsmouth, England

Jon Lellenberg and Rachel Foss will talk about the book.

Portsmouth History Centre, Central Library, 7.30pm; for tickets see the Portsmouth BookFest 2011 Programme

 

November 27, 2011: Anthony Horowitz and Roger Johnson at the British Library

Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes - Anthony Horowitz in conversation with Roger Johnson

Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz talks about his upcoming Sherlock Holmes book and related matters with the editor of The Sherlock Holmes Journal

 

March 16, 2012: Two Conan Doyle books at the University Club of Chicago

Jon Lellenberg (co-editor of John Smith) and Michael Dirda (author of On Conan Doyle) will give a joint presentation on their two Conan Doyle books at noon for the University Club's Conan Doyle Book Lunch.

 

Topics

 

News and Press Reports

 

 

Related Pages

 

Description and Photo of the Manuscript of The Narrative of John Smith

 

Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters

 

Sale of the Conan Doyle Archives at Christie's in 2004

 

Census of the Conan Doyle Archives / Collection

 

More about Conan Doyle Manuscripts

 

Other Sherlockian rarities: Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 and Sidney Paget original drawings

 

Lists of each year's best Sherlock Holmes books & DVDs, the best Sherlock Holmes stories, and more Top 10 Lists.

 

 

Return to Manuscripts Home page and Introduction

 

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