Dangerous work
Subtitle: the diary of an Arctic adventure
By: by Arthur Conan Doyle ; edited by Jon Lellenberg and Daniel Stashower
Contributors: Lellenberg, Jon L., editor; Stashower, Daniel, editor
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Chicago; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 368
ISBN-13: 9780226009056; 9780226008868
Subjects: Scottish Authors; Description and travel; Diaries; Whaling
Description: "In 1880 a young medical student named Arthur Conan Doyle embarked upon the “first real outstanding adventure” of his life, taking a berth as ship’s surgeon on an Arctic whaler, the Hope. The voyage took him to unknown regions, showered him with dramatic and unexpected experiences, and plunged him into dangerous work on the ice floes of the Arctic seas. He tested himself, overcame the hardships, and, as he wrote later, “came of age at 80 degrees north latitude.” Conan Doyle’s time in the Arctic provided powerful fuel for his growing ambitions as a writer. With a ghost story set in the Arctic wastes that he wrote shortly after his return, he established himself as a promising young writer. A subsequent magazine article laying out possible routes to the North Pole won him the respect of Arctic explorers. And he would call upon his shipboard experiences many times in the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, who was introduced in 1887’s A Study in Scarlet. Out of sight for more than a century was a diary that Conan Doyle kept while aboard the whaler. Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure makes this account available for the first time in a beautiful facsimile edition that reproduces Conan Doyle’s notebook pages in his own elegant hand, accompanied by his copious illustrations. With humor and grace, Conan Doyle provides a vivid account of a long-vanished way of life at sea..."--Publisher description.
Table of contents: title: Facsimile of the diary; title: Transcript of the diary; title: Two non-fiction pieces by Arthur Conan Doyle about his experiences. The glamour of the Arctic ; and, Life on a Greenland whaler; title: Fiction pieces by Arthur Conan Doyle inspired by the voyage. The captain of the Pole Star ; J. Habakuk Jephson's statement ; and, The adventure of Black Peter.