Teller of Tales

Winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Best Biographical Work, this is "an excellent biography of the man who created Sherlock Holmes" (David Walton, The New York Times Book Review) This fresh, compelling biography examines the extraordinary life and strange contrasts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the struggling provincial doctor who became the most popular storyteller of his age. From his youthful exploits aboard a whaling ship to his often stormy friendships with such figures as Harry Houdini and George Bernard Shaw, Conan Doyle lived a life as gripping as one of his adventures. Exhaustively researched and elegantly written, Teller of Tales sets aside many myths and misconceptions to present a vivid portrait of the man behind the legend of Baker Street, with a particular emphasis on the Psychic Crusade that dominated his final years-the work that Conan Doyle himself felt to be "the most important thing in the world."

ISBN 0805050744   Pages 487 ISBN13 9780805050745 (What's this?)   Volumes 001 Publisher Henry Holt & Company Inc   Weight (grammes) 821 Imprint Henry Holt & Company Inc   Published in New York Format Hardback   Height (mm) 235 Publication date 26 Oct 1999   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress PR4623.S73   Spine width (mm) 39 DEWEY 823.912   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC21

		Preface
		Introduction		3
1		The Empty Chair		9
2		The Cobbler's Lapstone		17
3		The Great Northern Diver		33
4		A Man of Doubtful Antecedents		43
5		Three Pounds of Furniture and a Tin of Corned Beef		58
6		"You Have Been in Afghanistan, I Perceive"		72
7		A Traveler from Slattenmere		87
8		A Singularly Deep Young Man		100
9		Reams of Impossible Stuff		116
10		The Two Collaborators		133
11		The Tremendous Abyss		145
12		A Skeleton in the Garden		160
13		Mr. Irving Takes Paregoric		174
14		Duet with an Occasional Chorus		189
15		Thoughts He Dare Not Say		205
16		The Helpful Mud Bath		217
17		The Footprints of a Gigantic Hound		233
18		The Bondage of Honor		249
19		A Perfectly Impossible Person		265
20		The Ruthless Vegetarian		281
21		England on Her Knees		292
22		An Audible Voice		304
23		The Flail of the Lord		317
24		Is Conan Doyle Mad?		333
25		Away with the Fairies		348
26		Pheneas Speaks		364
		More...

"A gripping sympathetic bio that proves that Doyle was anything but elementary." (Entertainment Weekly) "An appealing and much-needed biography of the man who created one of literature's renowned eccentrics." (The Wall Street Journal)

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