Sherlockiana @ JamesBickers.com

Wall Street Journal recently ran a rather lengthy excerpt from the new book, The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes, written by Andrew Lycett. The excerpt focuses on the events leading up to and culminating in the birth of the boy that would eventually grow up to be Sir Arthur.

Such professional brickbats did little to boost the mild-mannered man’s confidence, which had been further undermined when his second daughter Catherine died from water on the brain in October 1858 when she was six months old. As Dicky discovered when he passed through Edinburgh shortly afterward, Charles was in poor spirits and living in distressingly reduced circumstances at 11 Picardy Place when his first son arrived on the morning of May 22, 1859 and was given the names Arthur Ignatius Conan at his baptism at St. Mary’s two days later.

As usual among the Doyles, these names were carefully considered. Arthur signified history and place, albeit a romanticized version, looking back to King Arthur, the mythic architect of Britain; Ignatius faith, evoking the saint’s day on which Charles and Mary were married; and Conan kin, referring to the mixed Irish and European heritage of his mother’s forebears. These three strands were to battle for supremacy in Arthur’s personality.

You can read the whole excerpt here, or purchase the book here.

Filed under: Readings on December 12th, 2007