The odd friendship of Harry the skeptic and Arthur the believer
May 3, 2016 2:01 PM   Subscribe

Arthur Conan Doyle became interested in Spiritualism as early as 1886, inspired by the writing of the US High Courts Judge John Worth Edmonds, and confessing his belief in the supernatural in various publications, including The Coming of the Fairies, "a collection of facts" about the Cottingley Fairies, published a year after the start of an odd friendship. In 1920, Doyle received the book The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin from none other than Harry Houdini, the renowned magician turned resolute skeptic, yet the two became friends, discussing spiritualism in terms of faith and frauds, respectively.

Despite Harry's efforts to convince Arthur of the trickery inherent in magic shows, Doyle converted to the belief that Houdini himself was one of the most powerful mediums around. In an attempt to win Houdini over, Doyle's wife, Jean, performed a séance to contact Harry's departed mother, but the outcome was the beginning of the end if the two men's friendship.

Yet in the end, both made similar pacts with their wives. After Sir Arthur's death, news spread that he and his wife had previously arranged test communications in the event of the passing of either. Many claims were set forth, but whether satisfactory communication was established remains a question. And every Halloween for ten years after he truly became A Magician Among the Spirits, Bess Houdini stayed true to her pact with her husband and held a séance, waiting to hear his secret code. But she never received a message back from beyond the grave.


One would assume that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle didn't read Spirit manifestations examined and explained, Judge Edmonds refuted, or, An exposition of the involuntary powers and instincts of the human mind, written by John Bovee Dodds, a few years after Judge Edmonds book. From that scan of the book on Archive.org, you'll find a real treasure trove: the Harry Houdini Collection (previously), scanned materials from the Library of Congress.
posted by filthy light thief (20 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 


...together, they solve crime! in 2016's Houdini and Doyle miniseries.
posted by Iris Gambol at 2:43 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


Houdini was an amazing man. Doyle was a fine author, who pioneered a couple of different genres (before "genre" was even a concept) - but there are many fine authors. There was only one Houdini. Such a mix of hard work, showmanship, craft and skepticism!
posted by Kevin Street at 2:49 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


...together, they solve crime! in 2016's Houdini and Doyle miniseries.

... Now on FanFare!

I was lead to make this post by the background to A.V. Club's overview of the first two episodes:
At the height of their public dissonance, Houdini was joining forces with Scientific American magazine to publicly discredit mediums, and Conan Doyle was writing letters to Houdini insisting that such aggressiveness was hardly fair, given Houdini’s own obvious magical powers. You can’t make this stuff up.
Some of that SciAm bit is covered above the break (Harry Houdini, the renowned magician turned resolute skeptic), and more in PBS' coverage of The American Experience: Houdini.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:51 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Why was the turn of the century to the Roaring Twenties so full of iconic esoteric and adventurous figures? If only they banded together in some kind of league... a League of Real People.
posted by Apocryphon at 2:56 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


After finding a simpatico working relationship with HP Lovecraft when they collaborated on "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs", Houdini and HPL began work on The Cancer of Superstition, a Skeptical book which might've propelled HPL to the international stage sooner if Houdini hadn't died suddenly shortly after it was begun. The only known manuscript was recently discovered and sold at auction for $33K.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:20 PM on May 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


If I'm not mistaken William Shatner's first foray into historical fiction was about Doyle and Houdini. It was called Believe.
posted by Splunge at 3:24 PM on May 3, 2016


Both good men who held sincerely to their beliefs.

The problem was, Houdini didn't seem to understand that Doyle clung to spiritualism as a way for a grieving father to try to hold onto his son Innes, killed in WWI. Houdini was arguing his point based on science and verifiable proof, Doyle was arguing for faith and emotion.
posted by easily confused at 3:39 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


In 1920, Doyle received the book The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin from none other than Harry Houdini

As Jim Steinmeyer pointed out (in Hiding the Elephant, I believe), it was an odd situation for Houdini to write a book essentially trashing the man he took his stage name from.
posted by dr_dank at 3:40 PM on May 3, 2016


But by supporting Spiritualism so publicly and continuously, Doyle was inadvertently helping a legion of conmen (and women) defraud the public. Houdini was one of the few people willing to take a stand against the tide of magical thinking that was prevalent back then, by showing exactly how the mediums did their tricks.
posted by Kevin Street at 3:54 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


I think you need to take the technology of the time to understand why very smart folks like Doyle would maintain a belief in the supernatural. We had just begun to take control of the invisible force of radio waves, one of the best magic tricks ever was an electromagnet under the stage that cause a small case to become super heavy. From the point at that time what other forces could a 'special' person have control that we did not have the ability to measure?

The magicians like Houdini knew that every medium was using a trick, and using it for often egregious theft of otherwise rational careful folks. Houdini's single handed stomping out and entire industry preying on poor hurting people for over a generation was one of the greatest benefits to society by one man.

I have a small theory of my own that some mediums are essentially faking themselves, there is a method called "cold reading" that uses psychological techniques to appear to read someones mind. I suspect some empathetic readers unconsciously use that, sometimes integrating a randomizing element like symbolic cards, to make seemingly accurate guesses or more than guesses. If they ask for money though, total scam artists.
posted by sammyo at 4:36 PM on May 3, 2016 [4 favorites]


The magicians like Houdini knew that every medium was using a trick

It's no accident that the modern skepticism movement is chock-full of magicians- they basically make understanding gullibility and the failings of human perception their lives' work!
posted by Pope Guilty at 4:45 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


I think you need to take the technology of the time to understand why very smart folks like Doyle would maintain a belief in the supernatural.

Yeah, it's easy to underestimate just how relatively mainstream spiritualism and spiritualist research was; for example, there are some incredibly heavy hitters associated with the early Society for Psychical Research (which tried to take a "scientific" and, therefore, often debunking approach), like Henry Sidgwick and William James.

Writing this about an hour away from the home of the Fox sisters. No supernatural influence involved.
posted by thomas j wise at 5:25 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Houdini was arguing his point based on science and verifiable proof, Doyle was arguing for faith and emotion.

And this is why you can't get anywhere arguing with someone whose emotion is running everything.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:48 PM on May 3, 2016


FairyTale: A True Story is a 1997 film all about this stuff.
posted by ovvl at 7:17 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yer' a wizard, 'Arry!
– No, really, no.
posted by Joe in Australia at 7:58 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


I was going to link to FairyTale: A True Story before ovvl beat me to it. I would say it's definitely worth seeing for people interested in this story, but unfortunately it manages to be a lot less fun than you'd expect for a movie about the Cottingley Fairies incident (starring Harvey Keitel and Peter O'Toole)!

People interested in this story should also check out The Doyle Diaries, a book collecting the fascinating illustrations that Doyle's father drew during his years confined to a mental asylum. He was a terrific artist and a genuinely tragic character. He believed in fairy folk, and I've sometimes wondered if Sir Arthur's insistent belief in the supernatural may have been partially an attempt to vindicate his poor, delusional dad.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 8:18 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Despite Harry's efforts to convince Arthur of the trickery inherent in magic shows

From reading the excellent biography Houdini!: the career of Ehrich Weiss : American self-liberator, Europe's eclipsing sensation, world's handcuff king & prison breaker by Kenneth Silverman -- himself a stage magician -- I leanred that Houdini's escape act originated specifically to discredit mediums, by demonstrating how the so-called mediums could rap on tables despite having supposedly been restrained.
posted by Gelatin at 6:09 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


In my job, I have read some of their unpublished correspondence, to each other and others. By the end, they were denouncing each other bitterly to their own public circles, while assuring each other privately that they were being maliciously misquoted and of course they were still the best of friends with the highest respect for each others' beliefs.
posted by Devoidoid at 7:08 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


dr_dank: As Jim Steinmeyer pointed out (in Hiding the Elephant, I believe), it was an odd situation for Houdini to write a book essentially trashing the man he took his stage name from.

From my read of that book, he wasn't so much "trashing" Houdin as he was debunking his claims, which seemed to pain Houdini a bit. He named himself "Houdin-like," so it felt like an ardent fan finding out their role model was a sham, and being crushed by that truth. Houdini was a skeptic who wanted to believe, but also believed in science and facts above superstition and gut feelings.


Devoidoid: By the end, they were denouncing each other bitterly to their own public circles, while assuring each other privately that they were being maliciously misquoted and of course they were still the best of friends with the highest respect for each others' beliefs.

Fascinating, thanks! I didn't want to be muck-racking, but I had hoped to find more of that back-and-forth online when I wrote up this post. Instead, there were more summaries of what they had each written and said than direct quotes or publications.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:56 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


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