Lot 1069: DOYLE, ARTHUR CONAN, SIR. 1859-1930.

DOYLE OFFERS PRAISE AND CRITICISM TO ACTOR PORTRAYING SHERLOCK HOLMES.
Autograph Letter Signed (“A Conan Doyle”), 1 p, 8vo, London, n.d., [to O.P. Heggie], on letterhead of Hotel Metropole, complementing an actor on his performance, page lightly creased and thumbed mounting remnants at left margin of verso.

This letter descends through the family of actor Oliver P. Heggie, best remembered for his onscreen performance as the blind hermit who befriends Boris Karloff as the Monster in The Bride of Frankenstein. Earlier in his career Heggie appeared as Sherlock Holmes in Conan Doyle’s stage adaption of his story, The Speckled Band. During the run of the play, Heggie received this letter from Conan Doyle, offering praise and criticism in the same breath: “I thought your performance very good indeed. Many thanks for it. / I wonder whether it would be possible as you exit at the end of Scene I Act III to remove your disguise with a sweep of your hand on the ‘Now then, Billy!’ The disguise is so admirable that I fear many hardly realize that it is not a double.” Conan Doyle letters referring to or discussing Holmes are very rare.
See illustration.