The Fiend of the Cooperage

Roger Casement was a guest at a Johnson Club supper in 1896. As was Joseph Conrad.*

Conan Doyle’s short story, ‘The Fiend of the Cooperage’ was published in 1897.  Doyle was a guest speaker at the Irish Literary Society, 13 February, 1897.

In the story, two men are isolated in the jungle and have only each other for company. ‘Dr Severall is a rank Radical and I am a good stiff Unionist’ They argue about Home Rule for two solid hours every evening.**

*John Stape, The Several Lives of Joseph Conrad,  p.133.

** Jane Stanford, ‘Moriarty Unmasked: Conan Doyle and an Anglo-Irish Quarrel’, 2017, p.38.

Irish Nationalist and Johnsonian Robert Lynd.

Lingering at the window of the Curiosity Shop opposite Dun Laoghaire library, I noticed a Penguin edition of ‘Dr Johnson and Company’ by Irish journalist and essayist, Robert Lynd (1879-1949).

Lynd was born in Belfast and moved to London in 1901.  He was a clubbable man,  a companion of the Cheshire Cheese, ‘fragile in his Rhymesters’ black cloak’.  He and his wife , Sylvia, a poet and novelist, entertained in great style.  He spoke at James Connolly’s funeral in 1916. He was a friend and admirer of Roger Casement.