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607

Arthur Conan Doyle

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Arthur Conan Doyle

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Auction Date:2010 May 12 @ 10:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:5 Rt 101A Suite 5, Amherst, New Hampshire, 03031, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Partial unsigned portion of a larger handwritten manuscript on four lightly-lined pages, 7.75 x 10, entitled “Dwellers On The Border*.” A notation at the bottom of the first page reads, “An expansion of this general agreement is…found in ‘The Coming of the Fairies.” Manuscript reads:

“I propose in this article to discuss the evidence for the existence of elemental forms of life, invisible to the normal eye, which inhabit the same planet as ourselves. It seems to me that our knowledge of the ether vibrations which govern wireless are a great help to us in this connection, and that we can readily understand now what would have been incomprehensible, because there was no existing analogy, a few years ago. Let us suppose that the London centre was the only one known, and that we were in touch with it through our own receiving apparatus. That represents our reaction to the material world and normally we know of no other, just as the wireless recipient would know only London. But we find that by a very small change of vibration or wave-length we get Paris, Berlin, Constantinople, and London has vanished. Now if we apply that to psychic vibrations the analogy seems to me very close. As Paracelsus said, ‘Ut infra, ita supra’ (As it is below so it is above). A uniformity runs through the scheme of creation. The clairvoyant whose various powers of receptivity enable him to contact different types of extra-corporeal creatures, corresponds to the man who can switch from one centre to another, and he has the same difficulty in getting his results accepted as the owner of a wave-adjustment set would have if all the normal world was confined to one vibration.

All these evidences as to fairies sink into insignificance compared with the actual photographs which I have published in my ‘Coming of the Fairies.’ These, in the enlarged edition, cover cases from Yorkshire, Devonshire, Canada and Germany. Since its publication I have had an excellent one from Sweden. They are not all supported by the same degree of evidence, but each case is strong and all the cases taken together seem to me to be final, unless we are to reconsider altogether our views as to the nature and power of thought forms. No criticism has for a moment shaken the truth of the original Cottingley pictures. All fresh evidence has tended to confirm it. I refer readers to the book for the full detail.

Some final pages may be devoted to other forms of elemental life for which there is some evidence, though I admit that it is on a very different level from that which sustains the fairies. In Mrs. Tweedale's ‘Ghosts I have seen,’ a book which is far more thrilling than any sensational novel, and which can only be matched by the companion volume, ‘Phantoms of the Dawn,’ will be found several descriptions of fauns, satyrs, and even in one case of a troop of centaurs, which are picturesque and arresting, if not entirely convincing. I know Mrs. Tweedale personally--she is the daughter of one of the famous Chambers brothers of Edinburgh, and I am aware that she is the last woman in the world to exaggerate or trifle with truth. The more remarkable of these elemental stories, however, are given second-hand, so that she cannot be responsible.

There is one curious case which fits into the idea of a satyr-like creature who had by some mischance wandered out of his own vibration and got entangled in matter. I do not venture to say that this is the actual explanation, but I do maintain that the facts appear to be well-attested and that I know no other solution which would fully cover them. They are to be found in a book called ‘Oddities’ published some years ago. It is there shown that on a certain year in the middle of last century, after a slight snow shower, footprints of cleft goat-like feet which were most carefully observed, measured, and even photographed, were found over a hundred miles of ground in Devonshire. These footsteps had apparently all been made in the one night, and extended right across country over all obstacles, including the Teignmouth estuary, where the marks vanished at one side and reappeared at the other. They were, I quote from memory, about two inches by one in size. If the facts are correctly given, then an elaborate practical joke carried out by a number of people acting in collusion would be the only alternative to the preternatural one, which I have ventured not to maintain but to suggest as a remote possibility. The case attracted much attention at the time and tracings of the prints are to be found in an old number of the Illustrated London News.”

In very good condition, with some paper loss to edges of two pages, a small burn hole to the first two pages, a uniform shade of mild toning, some mild soiling, and some scattered light creasing.

Written around 1930, this document’s title, “Dwellers On The Border,” appeared in Doyle’s last work, The Edge of the Unknown, which was published in that year. These offered pages show the great author’s continued fascination with spiritualism, seances, and invisible fairies. Even though Doyle had created one of the most rational detectives of all time, he continued to be fascinated by such fictional creations as spirits—and duped by those who promoted such things—while spending the last years of his life promoting spiritualism around the world. He famously provided as evidence “fairy photographs” mentioned in this letter, not only accepting the photos as genuine but also writing two pamphlets and a book, The Coming of the Fairies, attesting to their authenticity. A passionate, if sadly misguided, argument. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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