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Arthur Conan Doyle.
In The Critic of December 21, 1893, Conan Doyle wrote asking a favor (23: 362):
I have seen reviews in American papers of a collection of stories
under my name, entitled 'My Friend the Murderer.' Would you have the
goodness to allow me to state in your columns that the book is published
without any sanction of mine, and
that the tales in it were written many years ago, and were meant to have the
ephemeral life they deserve? It is a matter of very little interest to anyone
else no doubt, but it is slightly annoying to an author when work which he
has deliberately repressed is resuscitated against his wish.
220
Reform Club, London, 13 Nov. 1893.
The publishers of My Friend the Murderer wrote to
The
Critic to the effect that they, Lovell & Co., had bought the
stories
from "an agent" of Conan Doyle's named "Mr. Hogg" for "twenty-five
pounds" (Dec. 23, 1893). Conan Doyle's answer, dated January 7, 1894,
from Davos Platz, states in part, "I have no doubt that Messrs. Lovell
&
Co. have as much to complain of as I, but I would suggest to them that an
agent should be asked to furnish some credentials. I have never employed
any agent of that name, and my first intimation of the appearance of the
book was a review in an American journal" (24 [Jan. 27, 1894], 65). I have
not found an account of this contretemps in the literature on Conan
Doyle.
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