My Virtual Reading Room

Reading the Television Sherlock Holmes...I have rarely enjoyed a book so much (which, for me, is saying a lot :)  Thank you again to ldymcbeth for the recommendation!  Here's a snippet about Conan Doyle sending The Study in Scarlet for publication:



On October 31, 1886--and all Sherlockians mark that date--Conan Doyle received a letter dated the previous day which brightened his heart--though not the financial ambitions with which he had set out.

'Dear Sir,' the letter said. 'We have read your story and are pleased with it. We could not publish it this year, as the market is flooded at present with cheap fiction, but if you do not object to its being held over till next year, we will give you 25 pounds for the copyright.'

The Height of the Ridiculous
Oliver Wendell Holmes

I WROTE some lines once on a time
In wondrous merry mood,
And thought, as usual, men would say
They were exceeding good.

They were so queer, so very queer,
I laughed as I would die;
Albeit, in the general way,
A sober man am I.

I called my servant, and he came;
How kind it was of him
To mind a slender man like me,
He of the mighty limb.

"These to the printer," I exclaimed,
And, in my humorous way,
I added, (as a trifling jest,)
"There'll be the devil to pay."

He took the paper, and I watched,
And saw him peep within;
At the first line he read, his face
Was all upon the grin.

He read the next; the grin grew broad,
And shot from ear to ear;
He read the third; a chuckling noise
I now began to hear.

The fourth; he broke into a roar;
The fifth; his waistband split;
The sixth; he burst five buttons off,
And tumbled in a fit.

Ten days and nights, with sleepless eye,
I watched that wretched man,
And since, I never dare to write
As funny as I can.