The Wanderings of a Spiritualist

Arthur Conan Doyle

1921

"This is an account of the wanderings of a spiritualist, geographical and speculative. Should the reader have no interest in psychic things--if indeed any human being can be so foolish as not to be interested in his own nature and fate,--then this is the place to put the book down. It were better also to end the matter now if you have no patience with a go-as-you-please style of narrative, which founds itself upon the conviction that thought may be as interesting as action, and which is bound by its very nature to be intensely personal. I write a record of what absorbs my mind which may be very different from that which appeals to yours."

With the same engaging style as in his fiction, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes a fascinating travelogue about his spiritualism tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1920. He talks about the events of his tour, opposition to his spiritualist beliefs by the press, his support among the people Down Under as he lectures across the continent, and his own views on spiritualism. Although he wrote a bit about the occult in his earlier writings, it was the death of his son in World War I that started him on his quest for communication with his son’s spirit and his interest in and investigation of the spiritual, seance scene popular in England at that time, and now here in Australia and New Zealand. He also recounts various adventures and impressions of the sites he visits on his speaking tour.

Book publisher: George H. Doran Company
Book copyright: 1921
Book edition: First American Edition
Pages: 299 (332 bound pages)
Size: 5-5/8″ x 8-1/4″
Dust jacket: No
Illustrations: frontispiece and 12 photo plates
Digital edition © 2009 Curtis Philips. All Rights Reserved.

The Wanderings of a Spiritualist

Arthur Conan Doyle

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