Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Coming of the Fairies: Belief in Print
One of the most curious books associated with Arthur Conan Doyle is not a detective story. It is the record of a famous mistake—and a revealing document of the hopes that made it possible.
In 1922, the creator of Sherlock Holmes published The Coming of the Fairies through Hodder & Stoughton. His subject was a set of photographs taken at Cottingley in Yorkshire, purporting to show young girls in the company of fairies.
Photographs that became an argument
The first images were made in 1917 by Elsie Wright and Frances Griffiths. Conan Doyle encountered them during his investigations of spiritualism and wrote about the photographs in The Strand Magazine in 1920, before developing the case in book form. The photographs seemed to him to offer evidence that the invisible world might be real.
They were not universally believed at the time. Debate about their authenticity became part of the story almost as soon as they circulated.
What later came to light
In the early 1980s, the women explained how the fairy figures had been fashioned from paper illustrations and arranged with hatpins. The confession transformed the book's significance. It is no longer reasonable to present the Cottingley photographs as authentic evidence of fairies.
Why the 1922 book is still interesting
The Coming of the Fairies remains a valuable artefact of the history of photography, spiritualism and belief. It shows how images can acquire authority and how a gifted author might interpret evidence through his deepest convictions. The book is a document of its moment precisely because the photographs were staged.
For the collector
Identify the imprint and printing, confirm the presence and condition of the photographs, and examine any original binding or dust jacket. The edition belongs simultaneously to Conan Doyle collecting, photographic history and the literature of the supernatural.
Sources: Science Museum Group: The Coming of the Fairies; Conan Doyle Collection: The Cottingley Fairies.
Further reading at MFLIBRA
Robert Kirk’s Secret Commonwealth: From 1691 Manuscript to Printed Book · The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, and Fairies by Robert Kirk