Lore 263: Elementary (ad-free)

When we talk about the intersection of history and folklore, few individuals in history sat themselves so firmly on that target like well-known one man. The lesser known elements of his life, though, are the most fascinating.

Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by GennaRose Nethercott, and research by Cassandra de Alba, and music by Chad Lawson.

Sources:

• “Aleister Crowley & William Butler Yeats Get into an Occult Battle, Pitting White Magic Against Black Magic (1900).” Open Source. October 10, 2016. https://www.openculture.com/2016/10/aleister-crowley-william-butler-yeats-get-into-an-occult-battle.html

• “Arthur Alleyne Kingsley Conan Doyle.” Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Arthur_Alleyne_Kingsley_Conan_Doyle

• “Arthur Conan Doyle & Spiritualism: How Sherlock’s Creator Embraced the Occult.” History Answers. July 7, 2017. https://www.historyanswers.co.uk/people-politics/arthur-conan-doyle-spiritualism-how-sherlocks-creator-embraced-the-occult

• “Arthur Conan Doyle Biography.” Conan Doyle Info. June 16, 2023. https://www.conandoyleinfo.com/life-conan-doyle/timeline

• Beveridge, A. “What became of Arthur Conan Doyle’s father? The last years of Charles Altamont Doyle.” Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 36, 2006: pp. 264-270. 

• Bibby, Miriam. “The Cottingley Fairies.” Historic UK. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/The-Fairies-of-Cottingley

• “Biography.” The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Biography

• Booth, John. Psychic Paradoxes (Prometheus Books, 1986).

• Burton, Dan and David Grandy. Magic, Mystery, and Science: The Occult in Western Civilization (Indiana University Press, 2004). 

• “Charles Altamont Doyle – The Father of Arthur Conan Doyle.” Conan Doyle Info. June 23, 2016. https://www.conandoyleinfo.com/life-conan-doyle/family/the-father-of-arthur-conan-doyle

• Cicero, Chic, and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. “The Structure of the Golden Dawn.” Llelwellyn. May 15, 2002. https://www.llewellyn.com/encyclopedia/article/42

• Coldwell, Joan. “Pamela Colman Smith and the Yeats Family.” The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies 3(2), November 1977: pp. 27-34.

• Conan Doyle, Arthur. The Coming of the Fairies (Hodder & Stoughton, 1922). https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_Coming_of_the_Fairies

• Conan Doyle, Arthur. “Fairies Photographed.” The Strand. December 1920. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Fairies_Photographed

• Conan Doyle, Arthur. The New Revelation (Hodder & Stoughton, 1918). https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/The_New_Revelation

• Conan Doyle, Arthur. Pheneas Speaks (The Psychic Press and Bookshop, 1927). https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/Pheneas_Speaks#IITheComing_of_Pheneas

• Conan Doyle, Arthur. “A Test Message.” Light. July 2, 1887. https://www.arthur-conan-doyle.com/index.php/A_Test_Message

• “Conan Doyle’s Marriages.” Conan Doyle Info. February 9, 2023. https://www.conandoyleinfo.com/life-conan-doyle/family/the-wives-of-sir-arthur-conan-doyle

• Conliffe, Ciaran. “Mina Crandon, Psychic Fraudster.” HeadStuff. April 6, 2015. https://headstuff.org/culture/history/mina-crandon-psychic-fraudster

• Coren, Michael. “One Man’s Fall from Faith: The Spiritualism of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.” Crisis Magazine. October 1, 1992. https://crisismagazine.com/vault/one-mans-fall-from-faith-the-spiritualism-of-sir-arthur-conan-doyle

• “Cottingley Fairies: How Sherlock Holmes's creator was fooled by hoax.” BBC. December 4, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-55187973

• Courage, Katherine Harmon. “Scientific American vs. the Supernatural.” Scientific American. September 1, 2020. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientific-american-vs-the-supernatural

• Davies, Owen. “The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Origins of Wicca.” Yale University Press. October 31, 2023. https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2023/10/31/the-hermetic-order-of-the-golden-dawn-and-the-origins-of-wicca

• DeVinney, Jim. “Monument to the Fox Sisters.” Corn Hill. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://cornhill.org/monument-to-the-fox-sisters

• “Doyle Declares ‘Margery’ Genuine.” The New York Times. March 5, 1927. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/03/05/100015699.html?pageNumber=17

• Fairley, John, and Simon Welfare. Arthur C. Clarke’s Chronicles of the Strange and Mysterious (Guild Publishing, 1987).

• Fixen, Laura G. The True Secret Of Mind Reading As Performed By The Zancigs (Diamond Dust, 1912).

• Gaynor, Hazel. “Inside the Elaborate Hoax That Made British Society Believe in Fairies.” TIME.  August 1, 2017. https://time.com/4876824/cottingley-fairies-book

• Green, Richard Lancelyn, and John Michael Gibson. A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle (Clarendon Press, 1983).

• Hall, Harriet. “Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Vaccination.” Skeptical Inquirer. August 3, 2018. https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/sir-arthur-conan-doyle-on-vaccination

• Hiltz, Madeline. “How Two Young Girls Convinced the World That Fairies Exist.” The Vintage News. February 3, 2022. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2022/02/03/cottingley-fairies

• James, Jamie. “W.B. Yeats, Magus.” Lapham’s Quarterly V(3), Summer 2012. https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/magic-shows/w-b-yeats-magus

• Kalush, William and Larry Sloman. The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America’s First Superhero (Atria Books, 2006).

• Kerr, Euan. “Mary Losure explores the mystery behind the Cottingley Fairies.” MPR News. April 13, 2012. https://www.mprnews.org/story/2012/04/13/fairy-ring

• Jaher, David. The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World (Penguin Random House, 2016).

• Ludolph, Emily. “W. B. Yeats’ Live-in ‘Spirit Medium.’” JSTOR Daily. December 5, 2018. https://daily.jstor.org/wb-yeats-live-in-spirit-medium

• Magnusson, Magnus. Fakers, Forgers & Phoneys: Famous Scams and Scamps (Mainstream Publishing Company, 2006).

• Mann, Neil. “An Overview of A Vision.” The System of W. B. Yeats’s A Vision. July 12, 2004. https://www.yeatsvision.com/Overview.html

• “Margery Genuine, Says Conan Doyle; He Scorns Houdini.” The Boston Herald. January 26, 1925. https://www.loc.gov/resource/varshoud.hs040/?sp=1&r=-0.123,-0.065,1.318,0.644,0

• McKenzie, J. Hewat. Spirit Intercourse: Its Theory and Practice (Mitchell Kennerley, 1917).

• Melton, J. Gordon. “theosophy.” Britannica. April 5, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/topic/theosophy

• Mulholland, John. Beware Familiar Spirits (Arno Press, 1975).

• Nadis, Fred. Wonder Shows: Performing Science, Magic, and Religion in America (Rutgers University Press, 2005).

• Ossea Jr., Ken. “‘The Battle of Blythe Road’: When William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley Had a Magic Duel.” Mental Floss. October 17, 2022. https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/william-butler-yeats-aleister-crowley-magic-duel

• Price, Harry. Confessions of a Ghost-Hunter (Putnam, 1936).

• Princess Mary’s Gift Book (Hodder & Stoughton, 1914).

• “Princess Mary's gift book.” Royal Collection Trust. Accessed April 29, 2024. https://www.rct.uk/collection/1024334/princess-marys-gift-book

• “Prof. Zancig Dead; Had Studio Here.” Asbury Park Evening Press. July 30, 1929. https://www.newspapers.com/image/143064865

• Raine, Kathleen. “Yeats, the Tarot, and the Golden Dawn.” The Sewanee Review 77(1), Winter 1969: pp. 112-148.

• Sandford, Christopher. Masters of Mystery: The Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini (Macmillan, 2013).

• “‘The Battle of Blythe Road’: When William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley Had a Magic Duel.” Mental Floss. October 17, 2022. https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/william-butler-yeats-aleister-crowley-magic-duel

• Tymn, Michael, KM Wehstein and Robert McLuhan. “Margery (Mina Stinson Crandon).” PSI Encyclopedia. September 11, 2022. https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/margery-mina-stinson-crandon

• Wehrstein, KM. “Arthur Conan Doyle.” PSI Encyclopedia. May 10, 2022. https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/arthur-conan-doyle

• Wehrstein, KM. “Zancigs (telepathy stage act).” PSI Encyclopedia. April 29, 2024. https://psi-encyclopedia.spr.ac.uk/articles/zancigs-telepathy-stage-act

• “When Julia Child worked for a spy agency fighting sharks.” Washington Post. May 2, 2022. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/05/02/julia-child-hbo-oss-sharks

• Wilson, Philip K. “Arthur Conan Doyle.” Britannica. April 7, 2024. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Conan-Doyle

• Yeats, W.B. A Vision (Macmillan & Co., 1937).

• “Zancig.” The Courier [Tunbridge Wells]. August 30, 1929. https://www.newspapers.com/image/794613257