The Arthur Conan Doyle Collection Lancelyn Green Bequest


Treasure Of The Month - March 2011

Conan Doyle and the Supernatural - the Psychic Bookshop, Abbey House, Victoria Street, SW1, London

Psychic Bookshop London


Opened by Arthur and Jean Conan Doyle in 1925, five years before Arthur's death.  By this time he was fully convinced of the realities of the supernatural world, and the ability of mediums to contact the dead, as well as the existence of fairies which for some, including his good friend, Harry Houdini, the American escapologist, was too much - many thought he had taken leave of his senses.

One of Conan Doyle's last books The Edge of Unknown, sets out his supernatural/ psychic experiences.  It was published in 1930 just before he died at Crowborough. He had earlier written The History of Spiritualism and used his later fictional hero Professor Challenger to put forward more ideas on psychic abilities in The Land of Mists.  His interest had first been sparked away back in Southsea when friend and patient, General Drayson invited him to 'table-turning' sessions or seances in the 1880s


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