12. CONAN DOYLE, Sir Arthur. (1857-1930)
Caustic observations on Christian Rome. Autograph manuscript [N.p.: n.d.]. 2pp., 8vo ( 190 x 160mm., 7 x 6 inches), black ink. "When one goes over the monuments of Christian Rome, those tumble down grotesque churches which seem as mouldy and impossible as the scheme of things which they represent, one feels that like the Iconoclasts of old that the best service to the human race would be their absolute destruction … How could progress come from a superstition as gross as ever set mankind grovelling."
[With:]
Autograph manuscript, titled "Impressions in Rome". [N.p.: n.d.]. 1p., 8vo ( 190 x 160mm., 7 1/2 x 6 inches), black ink. "The severe inside of the Church of St Maria Maggiore. The ceiling of the Church gilded by the first world gold which came from the new world …"
conan doyle’s agnostic views . Despite his Catholic Irish background and his schooling at the Jesuit Stonyhurst College, by the time he left school Doyle was an agnostic.
est. $700 – £1000