139 174
“I CAN ONLY ANSWER OBJECTIONS BY SAYING ‘I SAW IT’”
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DOYLE, ARTHUR CONAN. Autograph Letter Signed, “A Conan Doyle,” to
“My dear Woodward” [Arthur Smith Woodward?], declining to agree that what both saw
[at a séance?] was a turtle, thanking for a book, and relating that he found no fossils at
Bracklesham. 1 page, 8vo,“Windlesham” stationery; folds, faint toning along lower edge.
Crowborough, 5 October no year
[500/750]
“
I don’t know about the Admiral, but I can assure you that what we saw was not a turtle—
tho’ the idea of a turtle without his shell did occur to me. I’m afraid that in zoology as in
psychic matters I am drifting with the position where I can only answer objections by saying ‘I
saw it.’
“
. . . I went to Bracklesham for fossils but find that the famous beds are submarine!”
Arthur SmithWoodward (1864–1944) was a distinguished paleontologist who served over 40
years at the British Museum, and who, with Charles Dawson, claimed to have discovered fossilized
remains of a previously unknown early human: “Piltdown Man.” In the 1950s, the fossils
were found to have been forged. Some have suspected Doyle of having orchestrated the hoax.
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DOYLE, ARTHUR CONAN. Group of 4 Autograph Letters Signed, “A Conan
Doyle,” to various recipients, on various subjects. Together 5 pages, 8vo; both 1900 letters
mounted with one with loss to left margin and the other with scattered staining.
Hindhead, Surrey, vd
[600/900]
[14 October 1900], to “My dear Lucy”: “I am so very glad that the book pleased you. . . .
What a sad phase the [Boer] war has entered upon.There was something ennobling about our
defeats but this crushing out of the struggling nations is terrible & yet inevitable. . . .”
[12 November 1900], to “Dear Sir”:“It is unfortunate about ‘A Study in Scarlet.’‘The Sign
of Four’ you will learn about, by writing to J. Garmeson, Lippencott & Co . . . .”
20 November 1903, to “Dear Sir”: “. . . I would read some selections illustrative of British
and French life in historical times . . . drawn from ‘Rodney Stone,’‘The Refugees,’ and other of
my novels. . . .”
Np, nd, to “Dear Mr. Moschelles”: “. . . I fear that I am but a half hearted supported of your
cause, but Anglo American Arbitration does attract me very strongly, for I believe both nations to
be ripe for it. . . .”
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