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Arthur Conan Doyle's handwritten spiritualism casebook, totaling 47 handwritten pages by Doyle, 6.5 x 8, circa 1921, bound in limp red cardstock wrappers, annotated on the front by Doyle, "Spiritual III." For many of his later years, Doyle intensely pursued his interest in paranormal phenomena, and by the end of World War I he identified himself as a Spiritualist, believing in a spirit world and the ability to communicate with those beyond the grave. He established the specialized Psychic Bookshop in 1925, devoted entirely to the sale of spiritualistic and psychic books; he later formed a small museum in the basement, showcasing various objects relevant to ghosts and the spirit world. In this extensive manuscript, Doyle documents various experiences with spirits and séances, and pens excerpts and summaries from various contemporary and historical works on those subjects.
Doyle's notebook begins with a description of an episode involving British trance medium Gladys Osborne Leonard: "Curnow in his automatic writing at home at the various messages headed 'Diana,' 'Minerva' and 'Crescent'—when he asked the reason for this the answer was Bacon could tell you. Shortly after he came across a book Baconiana which said 'the Crescent moon, together with Diana & Minerca who are associated with it, have been the symbols for the high powers of religion among Arabs, Egyptians, Indians, &c. Mrs. Leonard says that in all her experience (2 cases a day for 12 years) she has seen no case of obsession. Curnow slept in a haunted house at Sidney. A woman appeared: 'I'm Mary Ellis. What are you doing in my home, you mongrel. This is my home.' It was shown that she was the former drunken wife of a coalman of that name."
He continues with observations on ancient civilizations and lost cities: "Le Plongeon 'Sacred Mysteries of the Mayas' shows that the Yucatan temples show the same symbols as Egypt and India. In India as in Yucatan the red hand is printed. The hats in the temple carvings are the same as the hat of Lower Egypt. The snake appears as a royal emblem in each…They have an account of Atlantis. Atlantians were black. As Yucatan is only 70 feet above the sea it is strange it was not submerged….Le P claims that the alphabet is the same as the hieratic alphabet of Egypt. Marvellous!"
Later, he writes out an "Account of 'The Spirit World,' Dr. Eugene Crowell," beginning: "The medium was Chas Kenney—the control was mainly Dale Powen, who was acquainted with Kenney and who promised the author that he would come back & describe things. The author says that much. which was characteristic & individual was mixed up with it. No such creatures as fairies (!). Necessity of opening a window in a death room. Spirit is born naked but is instantly clothed. The nearest sphere about 500 miles from Earth. The spirit world is as noted, fixed as the Solar System."
He goes on to reference psychic medium Ada Besinnet, stage illusionist Howard Thurston, physicist Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe, Icelandic spiritualist medium Indridi Indridason, and Theosophical Society co-founder Madame Blavatsky. On the latter, he writes: "I defy anyone who reads Hodgson's report in Vol. III of the SPR records, and also 'A Modern Priestess of Isis' by Solovyoff (Longman Green & Co.) to doubt that Madame B was one of the great Imposters of History. It is a strange fact that a foul spring may sometimes produce a pure stream, and even if this old woman was diabolical in her methods she did turn the attention of Europe, partly by her bogus miracles & Mahatma letters, to the old wisdom of the East, which has since then influenced the lives of thousands of excellent men & women…She was, I think, the greatest liar of whom we have any record."
The last three pages, penned upside down, carry some of Doyle's handwritten botanical notes: "The violets and primroses are out and the warm weather just really beginning…Hyacinths are out in great profusion…The fields are full of a purple labiate flower with a pyramidal shape. This is certainly bugle."
In overall very good to fine condition, with creasing to the wrappers, the first several notebook leaves neatly removed (apparently by Doyle himself), and minor corner loss to several pages.
Provenance: Lot 456, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., June 30, 1982.
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