J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement
Encyclopedia
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by a then-young Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, loosely based on the real mystery of the abandonment of the Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste
The Mary Celeste was an American brigantine merchant ship famous for having been discovered on 4 December 1872, in the Atlantic Ocean unmanned and apparently abandoned , despite the fact that the weather was fine and her crew had been experienced and able...
, published anonymously in the January 1884 issue of the respected Cornhill Magazine
Cornhill Magazine
The Cornhill Magazine was a Victorian magazine and literary journal named after Cornhill Street in London.Cornhill was founded by George Murray Smith in 1860 and was published until 1975. It was a literary journal with a selection of articles on diverse subjects and serialisations of new novels...
. One reviewer sought to attribute the story to Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, while critics compared it to Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
. Doyle changed the spelling of the ship from Mary to Marie Celeste. In 1887 it was included in the second volume, "Strange Stories of Coincidence and Ghostly Adventure," of the George Redway anthology, Dreamland and Ghostland. In 1890 it was published in The Captain of the Polestar and other tales. In 1922 it was included in the collection Tales of Pirates and Blue Water
It was presented as an eye-witness account of the end met by those on the mysterious "ghost ship." Much to Doyle's astonishment, some, including the Boston Herald, took the story as a true account.
Doyle's fictional story drew heavily on the original incident. Much of this story's fictional content, and the incorrect name, have come to dominate popular accounts of the incident.
External links and references
- Richard Lancelyn Green & John Michael Gibson, A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle, First Revised edition, New York, Hudson House, 2000.
- One site from todayinliterature.com
- E-text of Doyle's The Captain of the Polestar