Most Active Stories Thu October 25, 2012 From Ship To Sherlock:
Doyle's 'Arctic' Diary Originally published on Thu October 25,
2012 7:05 am On June 15, 1880, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a vivid
sentence in his diary. It read, "The only difference in the
weather is that the fog is thicker and the wind more utterly
odious and depraved." Knowing that he was the creator of
Sherlock Holmes, you might think Doyle is referring to the thick
London fog drifting outside the windows of 221B Baker Street.
But this sentence was written years before the first Holmes
novel and it describes a considerably harsher environment — the
thick fog and depraved wind of the Arctic, where Doyle traveled
when he was 20. Doyle's journals from that voyage have now been
published for the first time in a book called Dangerous Work:
Diary of an Arctic Adventure. Jon Lellenberg, one of the editors
of the book, joins NPR's Steve Inskeep to discuss Doyle's early
influences and the story of how he ended up on an Arctic whaling
ship. On what got Do