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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and W. T. Stead: The Novelist and the Journalist
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Extract
Arthur Conan Doyle was among the Late Victorian literary figures whose early work was recognized by the renowned sensational journalist, W. T. Stead. As editor of the influential Pall Mall Gazette (1883-1890), Stead appreciated Conan Doyle's literary merit and published his short novel, The Mystery of Cloomber, as a serial in the Gazette during September, 1888. They were in many ways quite similar; both were “impatient with … slow and seemingly unprogressive methods” and often appeared to act as if “Nothing short of a cataclysm” would satisfy them. Yet, Conan Doyle and Stead differed on many issues, especially on the Boer War and, during the decades 1890-1910, on spiritualism. Nevertheless their relationship, although never close, was marked by mutual respect for the courage and sincerity which distinguished their lives.
In October, 1890, Conan Doyle, fatigued by the effort of completing and arranging for the publication of his novel, The White Company, became interested in Dr. Robert Koch's well publicized remedy for consumption and decided to journey to Berlin to study Koch's cure. On the way to Berlin, Conan Doyle visited Stead in London to obtain letters of introduction to the press. Stead, who had left the Pall Mall Gazette in January, 1890, to establish the highly successful Review of Reviews, not only complied with Conan Doyle's request, but asked the young physician to write an article on Koch and his research on tuberculosis for the Review of Reviews.
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References
NOTES
1 On the life and career of W. T. Stead (1849-1912), see Whyte, Frederic. Life of W. T. Stead (London, 1925), 2 vols.Google Scholar; Stead, Estelle W., My Father. Personal and Spiritual Reminiscences (London, 1913)Google Scholar; Scott, J. W. Robertson, The Life and Death of a Newspaper: An Account of the … Editors of the “Pall Mall Gazette” (London, 1952), 13–259Google Scholar; Baylen's, Joseph O. “W. T. Stead and the ‘New Journalism’,” Emory University Quarterly, XXI (Fall 1965), 196–206.Google Scholar
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