Welcome to all my new followers. I hope you enjoy the blog.
I hope to get another post up soon, but in the meantime I’d like to share this 1927 interview (monologue, really) of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He speaks about his inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, and about his interest in spiritualism.
The sound quality isn’t that great, but it’s very cool to hear the voice of Conan Doyle coming to us across the years. The video is housed at the Internet Archive, but I found it at the Public Domain Review. Unfortunately, WordPress doesn’t allow embeds from archive.org — thank goodness it’s also on YouTube.
If you click through on the Public Domain Review link, be sure to scroll down to see their other featured public domain films, including an early Alfred Hitchcock (The Lodger), and the 1952 Academy award winning The Snows of Kilimanjaro (with Gregory Peck).
Enjoy.
Multo (Ghost) 
This was very interesting. I have a degree in English Literature and I was slightly disappointed when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn’t appear on my course. I was always interested in how the spiritual and scientific figured into his character of Sherlock. Great man, great post!
Thanks! I’d heard the story of how his fellow doctor had inspired Sherlock Holmes before, but it was great hearing the story in Conan Doyle’s own voice. I also hadn’t realized how long he’d been interested in spiritualism. I thought it had come to him later in his life.
Excellent find! I love how his Scottish brogue sneaks through here and there.
I enjoyed that too! It made me think of Sean Connery 🙂
(Such an American thing to say, I know…)
Very cool! Thank you for sharing. I love hearing how authors came up with their ideas.
You are welcome! It was neat to hear him talk about Sherlock Holmes.
How interesting. What a find!
Pretty cool, yeah?