conan doyle short biography

Like the elusive Sherlock Holmes, his most famous creation, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a man of many contradictions. Scientifically educated, he believed in s?ances and fairies. An advocate for more equitable divorce laws, he believed that women should be denied the vote. A humanist who identified with oppressed peoples, he staunchly defended English colonialism at its most aggressive. He dreamed of being a serious historical novelist, yet he is best remembered for stories that he considered pot-boilers. The product of a pragmatic, fiercely protective mother and a detached dreamer of a father, Conan Doyle became a man with astonishing self-confidence, a tireless self-promoter who also retained some measure of childish innocence throughout his life.

Arthur's parents, Mary Foley Doyle and Charles Altamont Doyle, had moved to Scotland from London, hoping that Charles could advance his career in architecture. Having inherited some measure of his family's artistic talent, Charles began with every hope of success, but never realized his dreams. Plagued by depression and alcoholism, Charles was a distant father and husband, becoming so detached from reality that he ended life in an asylum. With considerable charity, his son Arthur later said of him, "My father's life was full of the tragedy of unfulfilled powers and of underdeveloped gifts."

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The Eventful Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle led a life every bit as interesting as the exploits of Holmes and Watson.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is remembered today as an author and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, one of the most iconic fictional characters of all time. This, however, was just one role Doyle undertook during his long and eventful life – and one that he came to resent as time moved on. As well as being a writer, he was also an accomplished (though failed) doctor, a keen sportsman, and a would-be politician, among many other things. Here, we will explore the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, tracing the highs and lows of his extraordinary life.

A Difficult Start: Doyle’s Early Life

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 22nd May 1859 to Mary Doyle (née Foley), an Irish Catholic, and Charles Altamont Doyle, who was born in England but was of Irish Catholic heritage. His father came from an artistic family and followed the family tradition, working as an artist and a civil servant, though his fame would come to be eclipsed by his son’s.

By 1864, however, the family’s fortunes were in disarray, and the Doyle family itself was scattered across Edinburgh due to Charles Altamont Doyle’s struggles with alcohol addiction . During this time, Arthur Conan Doyle stayed with the reformer Mary Burton, who was the aunt of a school friend. Three years later, the family was once again living together under one roof, though in vastly reduced circumstances, taking up residence in an Edinburgh tenement flat.

Due to his father’s reduced circumstances and failing physical and mental health, Arthur Conan Doyle’s education was paid for by his comparatively affluent relatives. He attended private Roman Catholic schools in England, the first being the Jesuit preparatory school in Stonyhurst, Lancashire, from 1868 to 1870. From here, he went on to Stonyhurst College (of which he had few happy memories) before leaving in 1875 to spend a year studying at the Stella Matutina in Fedlkirch, Austria, to improve his German language skills. Though the Stella Matutina was also a Jesuit school, it was considerably less strict than his previous Lancashire schools had been, and it was here that he lost his faith and became an agnostic.

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Please check your inbox to activate your subscription, hard luck: doyle’s medical career & first forays into writing.

After leaving the Stella Matutina, Doyle enrolled at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, where he also studied botany at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh alongside his medical degree. In addition, he wrote fiction as a medical student, with his first published story, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,” appearing in Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal in 1879. During that same year, he also published his first academic article, “Gelsemium as a Poison,” in the British Medical Journal .

Thus, we can see how Doyle would later put his medical training to use in constructing murder mysteries for Holmes and Watson to solve. He also famously based Sherlock Holmes on his Edinburgh university lecturer Joseph Bell. The likeness between the two was immediately obvious to fellow Edinburgh man of letters Robert Louis Stevenson , who was a friend of Bell.

A year after these publications appeared, Doyle worked as a doctor on the Greenland Whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880. The following year, he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Master of Surgery from the University of Edinburgh. His time aboard the Hope of Peterhead had presumably given him a taste for life on the open sea, however, and he soon put his master’s degree to good use by becoming the ship’s surgeon on the SS Mayumba on a voyage to the coast of West Africa.

Upon returning to England in 1882, he made two abortive attempts to set up a medical practice in Plymouth and Portsmouth, respectively. (A decade later, he faced similarly bad luck when trying to set up a practice in London). He returned, therefore, to the University of Edinburgh, where he was awarded his MD in 1885, writing his dissertation on tabes dorsalis . While he struggled to make a living as a professional doctor, it is clear that Doyle was a highly intelligent man of science who was fully engaged in the medical debates of his time. He was a keen proponent of compulsory vaccination, for example, and was deeply interested in ophthalmology.

He had a similarly difficult time trying to make money from his writing. Though he made his name through his writings on Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson, the first novels Doyle wrote are, in fact, The Mystery of Cloomber (which was not published until 1888) and The Narrative of John Smith , which he did not finish and was only published posthumously in 2011.

After writing A Study in Scarlet – the first work to feature Holmes and Watson – in just three weeks, however, he did manage to secure a publication deal with Ward, Lock & Co., but, as a young and relatively unknown writer, he was paid just £25 for the story and all rights to it. In 1887, the novel was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual . Having received positive reviews, a sequel was commissioned by Ward, Lock & Co., which in turn led to the serial publication of The Sign of the Four in Lippincott’s Magazine in 1890. By this time, however, Doyle had become increasingly aware of the exploitation of his work under Ward, Lock & Co., with whom he severed ties.

This Sporting Life

One aspect of Doyle’s life that is less well-known is his keen interest in sports. His main sporting passion was cricket , playing ten first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club between 1899 and 1907. He also played for amateur cricket teams, including the Authors XI, which also included P.G. Wodehouse, A.A. Milne , and fellow Scott J.M. Barrie.

Perhaps more surprisingly, Doyle established the Undershaw Rifle Club after installing a 100-yard shooting range at his home. The range was open to men in the local area, as Doyle believed that the recent Boer War had demonstrated that British marksmanship left a lot to be desired. (In 1900, Doyle had been a volunteer physician in the Langman Field Hospital in Bloemfontein during the Second Boer War and went on to write The Great Boer War and The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct that same year. It was for this, Doyle believed, he was knighted in 1902). He would later go on to be part of the Rifle Clubs Committee of the National Rifle Association.

As well as this, Doyle was also interested in boxing and bodybuilding. While he was an amateur boxer, his interest in bodybuilding was that of an outsider rather than an active participant. In fact, in 1901, he was among the three judges of the first-ever major bodybuilding competition, held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

And, like many others in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Doyle was also interested in the Alps and Alpine sports, especially skiing. In December 1894, his article “An Alpine Pass on ‘Ski’” was printed in The Strand Magazine . Here, he outlined his own passion for skiing, waxing lyrical on the sublime alpine landscape that could be appreciated from the slopes.

Though born in Edinburgh, Doyle was of Irish Catholic descent and, though he later turned to mysticism, was brought up Roman Catholic. The question of Irish independence was a key political issue of the time, with Doyle (a Liberal Unionist) favoring British rule in Ireland.

Doyle, however, was a supporter of the campaign movement for the reform of the Congo Free State, spearheaded by the journalist E.D. Morel and the diplomat and Irish nationalist Roger Casement. Through his support of this cause, he came to know both Morel and Casement.

Following his work in Africa, Casement returned to Ireland in 1904 and joined the Gaelic League and, a year later, joined Arthur Griffith’s newly founded Sinn Féin. In support of the 1916 Easter Rising , Casement smuggled German arms and ammunition into Ireland for the rebels’ use. He was subsequently found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Though Doyle was a unionist, he argued that Casement was mad and so not liable for his actions. Doyle’s pleas were in vain, however, and Casement was hanged.

In the lead-up to the First World War , Doyle donated ten shillings to the British Brothers’ League, an anti-immigration, proto-fascist pressure group whose views gained traction among a British public gripped by Germanophobia. However, Doyle was also involved in the case of Oscar Slater, a German Jewish man wrongly accused of murdering an 82-year-old woman in Glasgow in 1908. In 1912, Doyle (who, in 1903, founded the Crimes Club, in which members discussed crimes, criminals, and detection) published The Case of Oscar Slater , in which he marshaled the available evidence to argue that Slater was innocent. He continued to raise the matter publicly and paid the majority of the legal fees Slater incurred during his successful 1928 appeal.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Death & Legacy

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died suddenly of a heart attack at age 71 at his home in East Sussex. In many ways, his life was a series of apparent contradictions. Educated at private, fee-paying schools, his childhood was marked by financial instability due to his father’s ongoing struggles with alcoholism. An accomplished and trained physician, he failed to establish a career in medicine, and after finding fame as an author, he came to resent his greatest creation. He struggled to decide where he stood on the issue of freemasonry, joining and abandoning the order on more than one occasion. And while on one occasion he publicly supported the far-right and deeply xenophobic British Brothers’ League, he was also appalled by the miscarriage of justice in Oscar Slater’s case, which led to a German-born Jewish man being imprisoned for twenty years for a crime he had not committed. Doyle, then, was not an uncomplicated figure, and his life was a tale of extreme highs and lows that could have rivaled the narrative arc of even his most ambitious works of fiction.

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A Biographical Introduction

Dr andrzej diniejko , d. litt.; contributing editor, poland.

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Introduction

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is known all over the world as the creator of one of the most famous fictional characters in English literature, the master detective Sherlock Holmes, but he was much more than the originator of modern detective literature. He was a man of many talents and pursuits: a medical doctor, multi-talented sportsman, prolific and excellent storyteller, keen patriot and a staunch imperialist, as well as a campaigner against miscarriages of justice.

He tried his hand in many genres of fiction and poetry. He wrote detective stories, historical and social romances, political essays and an innumerable number of letters to the press, public figures, acquaintances and friends, to his adored mother and other family members. Last but not least, he was a formidable public speaker and a dedicated Spiritualist, who investigated and popularised supernatural phenomena. A Victorian to the bone, he cherished the ideals of duty, chivalry, honour and respectability.

The origin of the surname

Doyle had an ancient Irish surname, ranking twelfth in the list of the most common surnames in Ireland. It can be derived from the Gaelic Dub-Ghaill ('dark foreigner'), the name which the Celts gave to the Vikings, who began settling in Ireland more than 1,000 years ago, or from the Anglo-Norman surname of d'Oillys, who arrived in England with William the Conqueror and then settled in Ireland.

There is a controversy about the full name of the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories. He always signed himself: A. Conan Doyle. Whether Conan is a middle name or the first part of the compound surname is a matter of dispute among Doylists. The entry in the register of baptisms of St. Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian names, and 'Doyle' as his surname.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as a child, with his father Charles Altamond (Adcock 96).

The Doyle family originated in Ireland and were dedicated Roman Catholics. Arthur Conan Doyle's grandfather, John Doyle (c. 1797-1868), a tailor, was born in Dublin into a devoutly Catholic family. All John's siblings entered Catholic religious orders, but John, who exhibited artistic talents, decided to become a painter. In 1820, he married Marianne Conan, a daughter of a Dublin's tailor. In c. 1822, John and Mary Doyle moved to London with their baby daughter and rented a house in Soho, which was inhabited by artists and writers. John wanted to become a portrait painter, but soon he gained fame as a political cartoonist under the pseudonym of HB. In 1833, he moved with his wife and children to a large house near Hyde Park at 17 Cambridge Terrace, where he subsequently entertained notable people including Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, William Makepeace Thackeray, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, and Edwin Lanseer.

In 1832, Charles Altamont Doyle, Sir Arthur's father, was born. He grew up with one sister and three brothers. All his brothers made splendid careers: James William Edmund (1822-1892) was a historian and history illustrator; Richard (1824-1883) became a Punch cartoonist like his father; and Henry Edmund (1827-1892) became an art critic and a painter. In 1869, he was appointed Director of the National Gallery of Ireland.

Charles (1832-1893), Arthur's father, was not as successful as his elder brothers. Although he exhibited an original artistic talent, he was not able to earn a living from his paintings. At the age of 17, he moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, and got the job of a clerk in the Office of Works as an architectural draftsman. He rented lodgings in the New Town, a central area of Edinburgh, in a house owned by a Roman Catholic widow Catherine Foley. In 1855, he married his landlady's daughter, Mary Josephine (1837-1921), aged seventeen, with whom he had nine children, seven of whom survived infancy.

Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh. He was baptised two days later in nearby St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. Arthur was raised in a dysfunctional family because his father, an impecunious artist, was neurotic and could hardly support the family with a clerk's meagre salary. He developed a serious drinking problem, which eventually brought him to a mental asylum in 1881. Arthur's mother was a strong-minded Irishwoman, who traced her ancestry to the Plantagenets. She held the family together and carried the burden of running the household and raising the children. In his Memories and Adventures Conan Doyle writes that his boyhood in Edinburgh was

Spartan at home and more Spartan at the Edinburgh school where a tawse-brandishing schoolmaster of the old type made our young living miserable. From the age of seven to nine I suffered under this pock-marked one-eyed rascal who might have stepped from the pages of Dickens. [11]

Arthur's mother, who knew well contemporary English and French authors, was a masterful storyteller, and she inspired her son to take interest in history and literature. She exerted a strong influence on his future career. She told him stories of their family ancient aristocratic roots. At the age of about five Arthur wrote his first story, which had only thirty-six words. It was about a Bengal tiger and a hunter.

At the age of seven Arthur began his education at Newington Academy in Edinburgh. Then thanks to his mother and the financial help of his uncles, particularly, Michael Conan, a Paris correspondent for the Art Journal , Arthur received good education. First, he was sent for a year to Hodder, a prep school which prepared for a prestigious Jesuit school, Stonyhurst College, in Lancashire, which Arthur started in autumn 1870. As Andrew Lykett writes:

Stonyurst was conservative and ultra-montane. This meant that its Rector or Head, Father Edward Ignatius Purbrick, followed a firm papal line in seeking to stem the tide of materialism in post- Darwinian Britain. [Lycett 32]

Arthur did not like the strict discipline and excessive religious instruction which the Jesuits had imposed on pupils. He was soon disillusioned with the Christian faith and when he was leaving the school he became almost an agnostic. While at Stonyhurst College, Arthur edited a school paper called Wasp and next the Stonyhurst Figaro , in which he revealed his talent as a future story writer. He also became a keen sportsman. In his later life he played cricket, rugby, football and golf, and was a cross-country skier.

After passing the London Matriculation Examination at Stonyhurst, Arthur spent a year in a Jesuit grammar school, Stella Matutina, in Feldkirch, Austria, where he was to learn German. He did not speak much German because he was surrounded by other English boys, but he discovered the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe, such as “The Gold Bug” and “The Murder in the Rue Morgue,” which later exerted a great influence on his detective fiction. At Feldkirch he also edited a student paper, the Feldkirch Gazette , which carried the motto “Fear not, and put it in print.” However, when he wrote an editorial criticising the Jesuit teachers' custom of censoring the boys' letters, the paper was shut down. Arthur's uncle, Michael Conan, a famous journalist, encouraged him to write, but he did not take this idea seriously at that time. (Pascal 18)

As a young boy Arthur was an avid reader, and one of his most favourite books was Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe . His other early readings included the novels of Robert Michael Ballantyne, Mayne Reid, James Fenimore Cooper, and Jules Verne. He spent much of his spare time reading, and once he borrowed so many books from the local library that, as he recalls in Memories and Adventures , a special meeting of a library committee was held in his honour, at which a bye-law was passed that no subscriber should be permitted to change his book more than three times a day. (Pascal 13)

In 1876, Arthur Conan Doyle began to study medicine at his mother's suggestion at the University of Edinburgh, which had been one of the best medical schools at that time. He met Dr. Joseph Bell (1837-1911), the famous lecturer and an expert in the use of deductive reasoning, who inspired the character of Sherlock Holmes, and the physiologist, Professor William Rutherford (1839-1899), a model for Professor Challenger. He also studied under Sir Robert Christison (1797-1882), one of the founding fathers of modern toxicology. (Harris 449)

During his medical studies, Arthur desperately tried to earn money for his living and to support his family. 1879, he worked as a medical assistant to Doctor Hoare in the town of Aston (now a district of Birmingham); next he worked in Sheffield and in Ruyton-XI-Towns, Shropshire. As a student he began writing short stories to earn some extra money. His earliest fiction, “The Haunted Grange of Goresthorphe,” was rejected by Blackwood's Magazine , but The “Mystery of the Sasassa Valley” was accepted for publication by Chambers Journal . He also published a scientific article, “Gelseminum as a Poison” in the British Medical Journal .

In 1880, Conan Doyle took a break from his studies and went on a daring six-month sea voyage to the Arctic on the whaling ship Hope. All British whale ships had to carry a surgeon, even if he was a 20 year-old medical student. During the voyage Doyle wrote a fascinating diary which was published recently. This voyage inspired him to write the story, “The Captain of the Pole Star.”

Medical profession and part-time authorship

Finally, in 1881, Conan Doyle passed qualifying examinations and settled in the Portsmouth suburb of Southsea in the next year to begin his own medical practice. As a keen sportsman, he joined the Southsea Bowling Club and the North End Cricket Club, and started playing rugby. He also joined the Literary and Scientific Society. Soon he found out that he was not satisfied with his medical career and decided to try his hand in writing fiction. From a young age he found pleasure in writing letters and articles and, finally, composing short stories.

In Southsea, Doyle, aged 23, wrote articles and short stories for London Society , All the Year Round , Temple Bar , Lancet , and The British Journal of Photography . He also wrote his first novel, The Narrative of John Smith . Its manuscript was lost in the mail on its way to the publisher. Although not good fiction, the novel provides a fascinating insight into the young writer's mind. It was published in 2011.

This early novel is about a middle-aged man who is stricken with gout and confined to his bed for a week. He attempts to write a book, and expounds his views on topics such as medicine, religion, literature and interior design. Many of the opinions reflect the author's outlook, e.g. his belief in the importance of science and medicine, and his scepticism about religious dogma.

In the 1880s Conan Doyle continued his private medical practice at Southsea, which turned out to be far from prosperous, and published fiction in various magazines. In 1886, he wrote a novella, A Study in Scarlet , which introduced the character of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Because of its brevity it was not published as a separate book, but was included in Beeton's Christmas Annual in the following year. The Annual was not very popular and Doyle decided to write historical romances instead of detective fiction.

Conan Doyle often wrote to his mother about his longing to have a wife. Eventually, in 1885, he married Louise 'Toulie' Hawkins, whom he had met while treating her terminally ill brother Jack. Surprisingly, instead of going on a honeymoon with his young wife, he went on a tour of Ireland with the Stonyhurst Wanderers, the school's old boys cricket team. Four years later Arthur and Louise had their first child, Mary, and in 1892 their second child, Arthur, known as Kingsley.

In 1890, Conan Doyle studied briefly ophthalmology in Vienna. He then visited the Hygiene Institute in Berlin, where Robert Koch's cure for tuberculosis was being tested, and reported on the cure, first in a letter to the Daily Telegraph , and next in an article “Dr Koch and his Cure,” published in the Review of the Reviews . Although he had some doubts about the curative properties of the new procedure, he was impressed by Koch himself as “a model of scientist as hero.” (Kerr 84)

After return to England, Conan Doyle moved to London with his wife and daughter to start practice as an eye specialist at 2 Upper Wimpole Street. However, as he wrote in his Memories and Adventures , “not one single patient had entered the threshold of my room.” (96) Having no patients he had plenty of time to reconsider his career, and eventually, he decided to undergo a significant metamorphosis from doctor to writer (Kerr 91). In August, Doyle decided to give up medicine and make his living as a full-time professional writer. He next moved with his family to Tennison Road in South Norwood to concentrate only on writing. He published the first six “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” in the Strand Magazine , and in 1890, the second Sherlock Holmes novel, The Sign of the Four , in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine . When the stories were published in book form as The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), “the Baker Street mania finally swept the public. By then Conan Doyle had launched himself as a full-time professional writer.” (Dirda 12)

Life at Undershaw and Windlesham

In 1893, Louise was diagnosed with tuberculosis. During the first years of the illness, the Doyles spent much time in Switzerland, hoping that local climate would help her. While in Switzerland Conan Doyle practised winter sports and became the first British to cross the Alpine pass in snow shoes. After return from Switzerland to London, Conan Doyle met the novelist Grant Allen at luncheon, who told him that he had also suffered from consumption and that he had found the climate of Surrey beneficial for his health. Doyle rushed to Hindhead, the highest village in Surrey, with buildings at between 185 and 246 metres above sea level. He immediately bought a plot of ground, and commissioned a house to be built before leaving with his wife for Egypt in the autumn of 1895. The house, called Undershaw, which was designed for rest and recuperation of his wife, was ready in 1897.

During the years at Undershaw Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles , The Return of Sherlock Holmes , The Great Boer War , Sir Nigel , and many other short stories and nonfiction writings. Louise died in 1906 at the age of 49. Shortly after the death of his wife, Conan Doyle married Jean Leckie (1872-1940), a beautiful daughter of a wealthy Scottish family, who rode horses, hunted, and had trained as a singer. (Pascal 94) She turned out to be the greatest love of his life. He had met her at a party in 1896, while Louise was still alive and fell in love at first sight. It appears that the relationship with Jean was platonic until Louise died. They were married a year later and he bought the house Windlesham, near Jean’s parents in Crowborough, Sussex. Conan Doyle had two children with his first wife: Mary Louise (1889-1976) and Kingsley (1892-1918), and three children with his second wife: Denis Percy Stewart (1909-1955), Adrian Malcolm (1910-1970) and Jean Lena Annette (1912-1997).

Literary career

Conan Doyle’s literary output is prodigious. During his writing career Sir Arthur wrote twenty-one novels and over 150 short stories. He also published nonfiction, essays, articles, memoirs and three volumes of poetry. He left thousands of letters to the press, his mother (about 1500 letters), family, friends and acquaintances, including Winston Churchill, P. G. Wodehouse, Theodore Roosevelt, and Oscar Wilde. Jeffrey and Valerie Meyers, editors of The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reader: From Sherlock Holmes to Spiritualism (2002) write:

He shared Dickens's sense of justice and social responsibility, his warm humanity and delight in the lively individuality of the characters he created. Like Dickens, he published his stories and novels, often in serial form, in the weekly magazines that were the staple of popular entertainment in the late nineteenth century. Like his younger contemporary and friend, H. G. Wells, he used his scientific education and medical training in his fiction and challenged the prevailing belief in the idea of progress. Like Wells, he also became an important public figure whose opinion was sought on the crucial issues of the day, an influential speaker at a time when the lecture was a popular event. [x]

The Sherlock Holmes stories

Between 1887 and 1927, Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six stories with Sherlock Holmes, a brilliant London-based “consulting detective” famous for his astute observation, deductive reasoning and forensic skills to solve difficult cases. Holmes's fictional forefather was Edgar Allan Poe's detective C. Auguste Dupin, but it was Conan Doyle who first introduced to literature the character of the scientific detective. Holmes, one of the best known and most popular characters in English literature, is not only a successful master detective, but he is the epitome of the Victorian and imperial values.

Sherlock Holmes embodies the system that he comes to protect. He is the man of reason, of science, of technology; he is from the upper class and was educated at Oxford; he eventually becomes rich; and he frequents best city clubs and other haunts of the gentleman. [Lehan 84]

The first novel that introduced Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson of 221B Baker Street, London, A Study in Scarlet , a tale of murder and revenge, appeared in Beaton’s Christmas Annual in 1887, and the second, The Sign of the Four , in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine in 1890. After publishing the first set of Sherlock Holmes stories in the Strand Magazine between 1891 and 1893, Doyle was not particularly proud of his detective fiction. He planned to write an opera, a book of medical short stories and a Napoleonic saga. He believed that historical romances, and not his detective stories, were his most important work. (Wilson 22) In 1893, he tried to kill off Holmes at the height of his popularity by plunging him over the Reichenbach Falls with Professor Moriarty, Holmes's greatest enemy, but in 1902 Holmes appeared in The Hound of the Baskervilles because the reading public demanded further adventures of the great detective. As a matter of fact, Doyle did not bring Holmes back to life, but told a story that had taken place before his disappearance at the Reichenbach Falls. (Redmond 24) However, there was such a great public outcry that he eventually resurrected the master detective in “The Adventure of the Empty House” in the 1903 October issue of the Strand Magazine .

Doyle created the first truly great detective in fiction and gave a great impetus to detective story as a fictional form. The tremendous popularity of Sherlock Holmes in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods can be explained by the fact that he not only embodied the late Victorian faith in the power of logic and rationality, but above all restored confidence that the British were capable to maintain law and order not only in Britain but also in the Empire at large.

The Professor Challenger stories

Although the Sherlock Holmes stories are his best fiction, Conan Doyle wrote novels and short stories in many genres. These include historical fiction, horror and suspense, psychological thriller, science fiction, poetry, and plays for the stage. In addition, Sir Arthur wrote nonfiction works on a variety of subjects: essays on literature, accounts of England’s involvement in the South African War and World War I, memoirs and diaries, writings about photography, works on the paranormal, occult and Spiritualism .

Arthur Conan Doyle is also the author of fantasy and science fiction, which includes three novels and two short stories: The Lost World (1912), The Poison Belt (1913), The Land of Mist (1926), “The Disintegration Machine” (1928), and “When the World Screamed” (1929). The Lost World introduced his second most famous character, Professor George Edward Challenger, who guides an expedition deep into an isolated plateau in the South American jungle where some prehistoric animals (dinosaurs) and indigenous race of ape-like people still live. Challenger, a scientist of enormous intellect and adventurer, was designed to be a character to rival Holmes. The Poison Belt is an apocalyptic novel that features the same characters who appear in The Lost World . Astronomers discover that the Earth is about to be engulfed in a belt of poisonous gas “ether” from outer space. Prior to (apparently) extinguishing all life on the planet, the belt causes a mysterious outbreak of illness whose symptoms are irritability, loss of inhibition, coma, and (pseudo) death. (Harris 453) In The Land of Mist (1926) Professor Challenger is converted to Spiritualism.

The Challenger stories, which recall Jules Verne’s science fiction, are less popular of Doyle's fictions than the Sherlock Holmes stories. However, they contain interesting narrative structure and their themes concern imperialism, positivist science, the male role, evolution, degeneration theory and atavism. (Christensen 121)

Historical romances

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote several popular works of historical fiction. The first was Micah Clarke (1889), which is set in the seventeenth century during the Monmouth Rebellion. The White Company (1891) recounts the history of a company of medieval English archers during the Hundred Years' War, in the years 1366 and 1367. In 1906, Doyle published its prequel, Sir Nigel , which is set in the early phase of the Hundred Years' War. Doyle also wrote a series of short stories about a Napoleonic hussar named Etienne Gerard, which were first published in magazines and eventually in book form: The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896) and Adventures of Gerard (1903). They are “brilliant evocations of the Napoleonic ethos.” (Dirda 73) Earlier in 1892, he published The Great Shadow and Other Napoleonic Tales . It should be noted that Conan Doyle was often disappointed at being famous chiefly for the creation of the Sherlock Holmes character. He had a much higher esteem of his historical novels than the Sherlock Holmes stories.

Arthur Conan Doyle also wrote nonfiction. In 1907, he published Through the Magic Door , a long essay about the charisma and charm of books. He also wrote several books dealing with public topics, such as The Crime of the Congo (1910). He also published A History of the British Campaign in France and Flanders ( 6 vols., 1916-1920), and A Visit to Three Fronts (1916). In 1914, Doyle wrote several pamphlets about the war. In 1924, Doyle published his excellent autobiography, Mysteries and Adventures , which recounts his life from early childhood, education, voyages as a ship's doctor, medical practice in Southsea, his literary endeavours, experiences from the Boer war, legal and political campaigns, interests in sports, and commitment to spiritualism.

In 1900, Doyle served in the Boer War as a volunteer doctor in the Langman Field Hospital at Bloemfontein between March and June. After return home he wrote a lengthy book, The Great Boer War , which sought to justify the British cause and to emphasise the great need for army reform and modernisation. The book was hailed in the press for its accuracy and fairness. (Pascal 99) In 1902, Doyle received his knighthood from the British Crown for a pamphlet, The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct , in which he defended England's position in the Boer War in South Africa and for his service to the nation. He was reluctant to accept the title, but his mother talked him into it. (Pascal 103) There is also a theory that king Edward VII, who was an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes stories, knighted him to encourage him to write more stories about the 'master' detective'.

Interest in spiritualism

Arthur Conan Doyle became interested in the paranormal in the late 1880s and studied it for the rest of his life. In the last quarter of his life, he abandoned literary career and devoted himself to spreading the spiritualist message throughout the world. He lectured on spiritualism in Great Britain, Australia, and South Africa, and the United States, during which he covered 55,000 miles and addressed a quarter of a million people. In 1926, he published The History of Spiritualism in two volumes at his own expense.

Other accomplishments

Sir Arthur was a large, vigorous, active man, with all of the Englishman's traditional fondness for sports. Throughout all his adult life he wore the “walrus” moustache of the late Victorian era. He was an outstanding sportsman; he played football, and billiards. While living in Southsea he was a goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club. He was also a keen cricketeer. “For many years Conan Doyle even belonged to a rather literary cricket team called the Allahakbarries, its name punningly combining the Arabic formula praising God with a nod to the team’s captain J. M. Barrie (creator of Peter Pan).” (Dirda 13) Between 1899 and 1907, he played 10 first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club. He also practised boxing and was a pioneer motorist and a rally-driver. In the 1890s, he started ski-touring to Switzerland. He was an occasional bowler and keen golfer. In 1910, he was elected captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club, East Sussex.

Conan Doyle was always a partisan of the underdog. He campaigned successfully against miscarriages of justice. He conducted a long campaign to defend the half-British and half-Indian solicitor George Edaljii, who had been accused of mutilating animals. Julian Barnes' novel, Arthur and George (2005) recounts this episode in his life. Conan Doyle also campaigned for the release of Oscar Slater, a German Jew born in Upper Silesia, who was accused of murdering an old woman in Glasgow. Doyle exposed inconsistencies in the police investigation and Slater was finally freed.

Conan Doyle was also an early champion of building the Channel Tunnel, which, he believed, was necessary, “for the deployment of troops and armaments in France in an anticipation a German war.” (Wynne 21) For his various accomplishments he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Edinburgh in 1905, and was a knight of grace of the order of St. John of Jerusalem.

Death and legacy

Towards the end of his life Sir Arthur suffered angina which he contracted during his exhausting world tours. He died of heart failure on July 7, 1930, in Crowborough, East Sussex, leaving his widow Jean, their three children, Dennis, Adrian and Jean, and his daughter Mary, by his first wife. His eldest son, Kingsley, who served in World War One, was seriously wounded at the 1916 Battle of the Somme; later he developed pneumonia which he contracted during his convalescence and died in 1918 aged 25.

The last words of Conan Doyle were addressed to his wife. He whispered smiling to her: “You are wonderful.” (Davis xvi) He was 71 years old. Sir Arthur and his second wife are buried at the New Forest Church of All Saints, Minstead. Legend has it that as a devoted spiritualist, he was first buried in an upright position in the garden of his home at Crowborough. The house in Crowborough was sold, but the graves remained until 1955, when the Doyle family decided to fulfil Lady Jean's original wish that they be buried together at All Saints. The remains of Sir Arthur and Lady Jean were exhumed from the garden and reinterred in the churchyard. After a short private ceremony the couple were laid horizontally to rest. The epitaph on the gravestone in the churchyard at Minstead in the New Forest, Hampshire, reads: “Steel True, Blade Straight, Arthur Conan Doyle, Knight, Patriot, Physician & Man of Letters.”

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a versatile and complex personality; he was physician by education, keen sportsman, war correspondent, campaigner for social justice, creator of the world's most famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, author of historical and social novels, and active Spiritualist. As Douglas Kerr has written in his recent book: “Arthur Conan Doyle was, arguably, Britain's last national writer.” (13) An Irish by ancestry, Scottish by birth and upbringing, and British by choice, devoted to Crown and Empire, he still remains one of the most popular British authors and a national icon.

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Last modified 22 March 2016

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle biography

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. Doyle's family (Conan was his middle name, and it was only later in life that he began to use it as his surname) sent him to Jesuit boarding schools to be educated, and he later entered the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1881.

One of his professors at the university was Dr Joseph Bell, who became the model for Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. It was Bell who drummed into Doyle's head the importance of using his innate powers of observation to help him deduce the nature of a patient's affliction.

While in school, Conan Doyle began writing to earn a little extra money. His first story, The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley was published in the Chambers' Journal in 1879.

Shortly after, his father fell ill, and Doyle was forced to become the breadwinner for the family. He worked for a time as a ship's doctor, then opened his own medical practice near Portsmouth. In his spare time, he did more writing.

In 1885 Conan Doyle married Louise Hawkins, and had two children with her before she died following a protracted illness in 1900. In 1907 he remarried, to Jeanne Leckie, and had three more children with her.

His third attempt at a novel was A Study in Scarlet , the story which introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world. Study was published in Mrs. Beeton's Christmas annual, in 1887. Encouraged by publishers to keep writing, Conan Doyle wrote his second Holmes mystery, The Sign of the Four , in 1890.

So successful were these novels, and the stories which followed, that Conan Doyle could afford to give up his medical practice and devote himself to writing full time.

The first Sherlock Holmes short story, A Scandal in Bohemia , appeared in The Strand Magazine in 1891, to be followed by two dozen more stories over the next several years.

The stories proved enormously successful, but Conan Doyle tired of his own creation, and in 1894 he killed Holmes off in The Final Problem .

He underestimated the popularity of his creation. So great was the hold that the character of Sherlock Holmes had taken on the public imagination that Conan Doyle found himself at the centre of a storm of controversy.

He was inundated with letters of protest, including one from a female reader who addressed him simply as "You Brute!". He bowed to the inevitable, and revived the character of Holmes, who appeared in numerous short stories over the next 23 years.

But Conan Doyle did not confine himself to Sherlock Holmes; he wrote several popular works of historic fiction, including Micah Clarke (1888), The White Company (1890), Rodney Stone (1896), and Sir Nigel (1906).

Conan Doyle served as a doctor in the Boer War, and on his return he wrote two books defending England's participation in that conflict. It was for these books that he received his knighthood in 1902.

After the death of his son in World War I, Conan Doyle became interested in spiritualism. He was convinced that it was possible to communicate with the dead, and his views led to a certain amount of ridicule from more mainstream society.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930, and is buried in the churchyard at Minstead, Hampshire. He can rightly be credited with helping create the literary genre of the detective story. Though Edgar Allen Poe's Dupin predates Sherlock Holmes, it was the Holmes' stories that solidified in the public mind what a good detective should be.

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Sherlock Holmes novels

A Study in Scarlet: 1887 The Sign of the Four: 1890 The Hound of the Baskervilles: 1902 The Valley of Fear: 1915

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The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: 1892 The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes: 1894 The Return of Sherlock Holmes: 1905 His Last Bow: 1917 The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes: 1927

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The Surgeon of Gaster Fell: 1885 The Mystery of Cloomber: 1889 The Doings of Raffles Haw: 1892

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The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896) Rodney Stone (1896) Uncle Bernac (1897) The Tragedy of the Korosko / A Desert Drama (1898) The Green Flag and Other Stories of War and Sport (1900) Adventures of Gerard (1903) Sir Nigel (1906) The Croxley Master (1907) Waterloo (1907) Round the Fire Stories (1908) Songs of the Road (1911) The Last Galley (1911) The Speckled Band (Play) (1912) The Lost World (1912) The Poison Belt (1913) Danger! and Other Stories (1918) The Land of Mist (1926)

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The Life and Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the father of the great Sherlock Holmes, was born is Edinburgh , Scotland in 1856; the third of 10 children to a rich Irish-Catholic family. Even though his family was well-reputed within the small Irish community there, his father was an alcoholic, which made for a turbulent family life. Here, we take a look at how the writer developed and the experiences that gave rise to his finest and most famous works.

While his father remained unpredictable in his alcoholism, Conan Doyle’s mother, on the other hand, used to narrate imaginary stories to her sons and daughters. Those stories deeply influenced the soul of young Arthur, and as he later admitted, they even worked to smooth over his memories of a troubled childhood.

Doyle rejected his parents’ religion from a very young age; attracted not to the Catholic doctrines but to Spiritualism and – tellingly – becoming close friends with Harry Houdini along the way. This lead him to a belief in various metaphysical creatures, like fairies and imps, and he gradually became an apologist for fantastical convictions, even writing philippics on the subject intended for publication. The question of Doyle’s politics is a little more contradictory than his religious convictions, and blurred – even despite the faeries and fantastical creatures! He seems to have simultaneously supported the British Empire’s imperialist agenda and believed in the ideals of social justice, even making public statements in favor of the anarchists Sacco and Vinzetti , whom he believed to have been unfairly accused.

The Sherlock years

While studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, Doyle was also an obsessive writer, starting to create his own imaginary worlds and characters. His first detective story, Study in Scarlet , was published in 1887, introducing the character of the genius detective Sherlock Holmes and his loyal assistant John Watson for the first time. This book attracted limited attention and its author received only £25 for its publication. It was just the first of the 60 stories Conan Doyle wrote in the saga that was to become Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia , The Sign of Four , The Hounds of Baskerville – some of the writer’s most famous pieces – were still to follow.

In 1893, Doyle attempted to kill off Sherlock the detective in order to focus on his professed spiritualism and other interests. After incredible pressure from his readers however, he was forced to reintroduce Sherlock as a ghost in 1901 and publish a number of new stories, a period which lasted until 1928, when The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes , the last twelve short stories about his famous genius protagonist, was released.

The unique and unconventional character of Sherlock Holmes, formed by Doyle’s memories and friendships, fascinated millions of readers with his extraordinary ability to solve any crime using the skills of observation and deduction. Sherlock was not a “machine man”, though, he was rather a complex individual suffering from depression and mania and used various drugs from time to time – a picture of instability anchored by profound rationalism.

Influences and later years

Even though he is mostly known for his detective stories, Doyle was also a successful poet and a famous doctor. He took medicine classes at the University of Edinburgh and went to study ophthalmology in the Austrian capital of Vienna . A lot of authors were inspired by the character of Sherlock and kept on writing stories about him even years after Doyle had died at the age of 71. Sherlock has also influenced important creators of our age. One of the most successful and intriguing TV characters of all times, Gregory House , is apparently based on Sherlock Holmes, while his best friend, Doctor Wilson, is based on Doctor Watson. Doctor House, a genius drug addict, uses bizarre reasoning methods to solve the most difficult medical puzzles in the world; echoes of the Baskervilles and Sherlock abound!

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Biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, Author and Creator of Sherlock Holmes

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Arthur Conan Doyle (May 22, 1859 - July 7, 1930) created one of the world's most famous characters, Sherlock Holmes. But in some ways, the Scottish-born author felt trapped by the runaway popularity of the fictional detective.

Over the course of a long writing career, Conan Doyle wrote other stories and books he believed to be superior to the tales and novels about Holmes. But the great detective turned into a sensation on both sides of the Atlantic, with the reading public clamoring for more plots involving Holmes, his sidekick Watson, and the deductive method.

As a result Conan Doyle, offered great sums of money by publishers, felt compelled to keep turning out stories about the great detective.

Fast Facts: Arthur Conan Doyle

Known For : British writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. 

Born : May 22, 1859

Died : July 7, 1930

Published Works : More than 50 titles featuring Sherlock Holmes, "The Lost World"

Spouse(s) : Louisa Hawkins (m. 1885; died 1906), Jean Leckie (m. 1907)

Children : Mary Louise, Arthur Alleyne Kingsley, Denis Percy Stewart, Adrian Malcolm, Jean Lena Annette

Notable Quote : "When the impossible has been eliminated, all that remains no matter how improbable is possible."

Early Life of Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle was born May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland. The family's roots were in Ireland , which Arthur's father had left as a young man. The family surname had been Doyle, but as an adult Arthur preferred to use Conan Doyle as his surname.

Growing up as an avid reader, young Arthur, a Roman Catholic, attended Jesuit schools and a Jesuit university .

He attended medical school at Edinburgh University where he met a professor and surgeon, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was a model for Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle noticed how Dr. Bell was able to determine a great many facts about patients by asking seemingly simple questions, and the author later wrote about how Bell's manner had inspired the fictional detective.

Medical Career

In the late 1870s, Conan Doyle began writing magazine stories, and while pursuing his medical studies he had a yearning for adventure. At the age of 20, in 1880, he signed on to be the ship's surgeon of a whaling vessel headed to Antarctica. After a seven-month voyage, he returned to Edinburgh, finished his medical studies, and began the practice of medicine.

Conan Doyle continued to pursue writing and published in various London literary magazines throughout the 1880s . Influenced by a character of Edgar Allan Poe , the French detective M. Dupin, Conan Doyle wished to create his own detective character.

Sherlock Holmes

The character of Sherlock Holmes first appeared in a story, "A Study in Scarlet," which Conan Doyle published at the end of 1887 in a magazine, Beeton's Christmas Annual. It was reprinted as a book in 1888.

At the same time, Conan Doyle was conducting research for a historical novel, "Micah Clarke", which was set in the 17th century. He seemed to consider that his serious work, and the Sherlock Holmes character merely a challenging diversion to see if he could write a convincing detective story.

At some point, it occurred to Conan Doyle that the growing British magazine market was the perfect place to try an experiment in which a recurring character would turn up in new stories. He approached The Strand magazine with his idea, and in 1891 he began publishing new Sherlock Holmes stories.

The magazine stories became an enormous hit in England. The character of the detective who uses reasoning became a sensation. And the reading public eagerly awaited his newest adventures.

Illustrations for the stories were drawn by an artist, Sidney Paget, who actually added much to the public's conception of the character. It was Paget who drew Holmes wearing a deerstalker cap and a cape, details not mentioned in the original stories.

Arthur Conan Doyle Became Famous

With the success of the Holmes stories in The Strand magazine, Conan Doyle was suddenly an extremely famous writer. The magazine wanted more stories. But as the author didn't want to be overly associated with the now-famous detective, he demanded an outrageous sum of money.

Expecting to be relieved of the obligation to write more stories, Conan Doyle asked for 50 pounds per story. He was stunned when the magazine accepted, and he went on to keep writing about Sherlock Holmes.

While the public was crazy for Sherlock Holmes, Conan Doyle devised a way to be finished with writing the stories. He killed off the character by having him, and his nemesis Professor Moriarity, die while going over Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland . Conan Doyle's own mother, when told of the planned story, begged her son not to finish off Sherlock Holmes.

When the story in which Holmes died was published in December 1893, the British reading public was outraged. More than 20,000 people canceled their magazine subscriptions. And in London, it was reported that businessmen wore mourning crepe on their top hats.

Sherlock Holmes Was Revived

Arthur Conan Doyle, freed from Sherlock Holmes, wrote other stories and invented a character named Etienne Gerard, a soldier in Napoleon's army. The Gerard stories were popular, but not nearly as popular as Sherlock Holmes.

In 1897 Conan Doyle wrote a play about Holmes, and an actor, William Gillette, became a sensation playing the detective on Broadway in New York City . Gillette added another facet to the character, the famous meerschaum pipe.

A novel about Holmes, " The Hound of the Baskervilles ", was serialized in The Strand in 1901-02. Conan Doyle got around the death of Holmes by setting the story five years before his demise.

However, the demand for Holmes stories was so great that Conan Doyle essentially brought the great detective back to life by explaining that no one had actually seen Holmes go over the falls. The public, happy to have new tales, accepted the explanation.

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about Sherlock Holmes until the 1920s.

In 1912 he published an adventure novel, " The Lost World ", about characters who find dinosaurs still living in a remote area of South America. The story of "The Lost World" has been adapted for film and television a number of times, and also served as an inspiration for such films as "King Kong" and "Jurassic Park".

Conan Doyle served as a doctor in a military hospital in South Africa during the Boer War in 1900 and wrote a book defending Britain's actions in the war. For his services he was knighted in 1902, becoming Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

The author died on July 7, 1930. His death was newsworthy enough to be reported on the front page of the next day's New York Times. A headline referred to him as "Spiritist, Novelist, and Creator of Famous Fiction Detective." As Conan Doyle believed in an afterlife, his family said they were awaiting a message from him after death.

The character of Sherlock Holmes, of course, lives on and appears in films right up to the present day.

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(1859–1930). A Scottish physician who turned to writing, Arthur Conan Doyle thought he would be remembered for his historical novels. His fame, however, rests on his creation of the master detective of fiction, the incomparable Sherlock Holmes. ( See also detective story .)

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on May 22, 1859. He was the oldest son of Charles Doyle, a civil servant. His parents were Irish Roman Catholics, and he received his early education in a Jesuit school, Stonyhurst. Later he got a medical degree at Edinburgh University. He started practice as a family physician in Southsea, England. His income was small so he began writing stories to make ends meet. In 1891 he decided to give up medicine to concentrate on his writing.

A Study in Scarlet , published in 1887, introduced Holmes and his friend Dr. John Watson. The second Holmes story was The Sign of Four (1890). In 1891 Doyle began a series for Strand magazine called “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.”

Sherlock Holmes became known to movie and television audiences as a tall and lean, pipe-smoking, violin-playing detective. He lived at 221B Baker Street in London, where he was often visited by Watson, an associate in the many adventures. And according to Doyle, it was Watson who recorded the Holmes stories for posterity.

Doyle said he modeled Holmes after one of his teachers in Edinburgh, Dr. Joseph Bell. Bell could, for example, glance at a corpse on the anatomy table and deduce that the person had been a left-handed shoemaker. “It is all very well to say that a man is clever,” Doyle wrote, “but the reader wants to see examples of it—such examples as Bell gave us every day in the wards.” The author eventually became bored with Holmes and “killed” him. In response to readers’ protests, Doyle wrote his next story explaining how the detective had miraculously survived the death struggle on the edge of a precipice. Stories dealing with Holmes’s exploits continued to appear almost to the end of Doyle’s life.

Doyle was knighted in 1902 for his pamphlet justifying England’s part in the Boer War , in which he served at a field hospital. He was married twice. The death of his son Kingsley in World War I intensified Doyle’s interest in psychic phenomena; in his later years he wrote and lectured on spiritualism. He died in Sussex on July 7, 1930.

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Conan Doyle Info

The life and work of sir arthur conan doyle.

• List of Sherlock Holmes Fiction
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Arthur Conan Doyle Biography

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Last Updated June 16, 2023 – Originally published June 24,2015

1859 – Conan Doyle is born on May 22 in Edinburgh, Scotland to Charles and Mary Doyle.

1868 – Conan Doyle is sent to Jesuit boarding school in England.

1876   – Charles Doyle enters a nursing facility to receive treatment for his alcoholism.  Conan Doyle attends the University of Edinburgh Medical School where he meets Dr. Joseph Bell , the person who inspired the character of Sherlock Holmes .

Joseph Bell – Inspiration for Sherlock Holmes

1879   – Conan Doyle’s work is published for the first time . The story is The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley .

1880 – He serves as ship’s surgeon on the Greenland whaler Hope.

1881  – A Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery are awarded to Conan Doyle.    He leaves from Liverpool to serve as shipboard medical officer on the steamer Mayumba.

1882 – Conan Doyle leaves for Portsmouth to establish his own medical practice.

1883 – He joins the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society.

1884 – J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement is published.

1885 – On August 5th, Conan Doyle marries Louise “Toulie” Hawkins .

1887 – A Study in Scarlet , the first Sherlock Holmes story, is published.

1889 – Mary, the first child of Conan Doyle, is born. Micah Clarke is published.

1890 – The Sign of Four is published.

1891 – Conan Doyle gives up his medical practice in favor of writing. The White Company is published.

1892 – Louise gives birth to Arthur Allyne Kingsley.  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is published.

1893 – Conan Doyle visits Reichenbach Falls. Louise is diagnosed with tuberculosis. Conan Doyle’s father, Charles , dies. Conan Doyle takes Louise to Switzerland because of her health. Conan Doyle joins the British Society for Psychical Research. The Adventure of the Final Problem is published.

1894 – The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes is published. Conan Doyle goes on a lecture tour of the United States.

1895 – Visits Egypt

1896 – Conan Doyle and family move back to England.

1897 – Conan Doyle meets Jean Leckie, the woman who would later become his second wife .

1899 – A Duet with an Occasional Chorus is published.

1900 – Serves in the Boer War.

1901 – The Hound of the Baskervilles is published in The Strand magazine.

1902 – The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Conduct is published.  Conan Doyle is knighted for this publication.

1904 – Conan Doyle is made a member of the Crimes Club. The Return of Sherlock Holmes is published.

1905 – Sir Nigel is published.

1906 – Louise dies at the age of forty-nine. Conan Doyle begins the investigation of the George Edalji case .

1907 – Conan Doyle marries Jean Leckie .

1909 – Denis Percy Stewart Conan Doyle is born to Jean and Arthur. Conan Doyle writes The Crime of the Congo .

Oscar Slater in 1908

1910 – Conan Doyle becomes involved in the Oscar Slater case . Adrian Malcom is born to Jean and Arthur.

1911 – Conan Doyle and Jean take part in the Prince Henry Tour .

1912 – The Lost World is published. Lena Jean Annette is born to Jean and Arthur. Conan Doyle argues with George Bernard Shaw about the Titanic .

1913 – The Poison Belt is published.

1914 – Conan Doyle visits the United States.

1915 – The Valley of Fear is published in book form.

1916 – Conan Doyle declares his belief in Spiritualism in the Light magazine.

1917 – Conan Doyle speaks publicly on Spiritualism for the first time. His Last Bow is published.

1918 – His son, Kingsley, dies. His brother, Innes, also dies.

“My Two Sweethearts”—Houdini with his mother and wife around 1907

1920 – Conan Doyle writes about the Cottingley fairies in the December issue of The Strand .  Conan Doyle meets Houdini .

1921 – Jean Conan Doyle discovers that she has the ability to do automatic writing.

1922 – The Coming of the Fairies is published. Jean Conan Doyle attempts to contact Houdini’s mother.

1925 – The Lost World is made into a film. The Land of Mist is published.

1926 – History of Spiritualism is published.

1927 – The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes is published.

1928 – Conan Doyle launches a five-month tour of Africa.

1930 – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle dies on July 7. They bury him at the rose garden in Windlesham.

Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, most famed for his four novels and fifty-six short stories about the "consulting detective" Sherlock Holmes, was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh to a Catholic family of ten. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was an architect and an artist. Unfortunately, his talents were shadowed by alcoholism and epilepsy. He eventually died in an asylum where he was institutionalized. As a result, the family suffered financially, though Arthur Conan Doyle's mother, Mary, was able to pay for his schooling at a Jesuit institution.

Doyle decided to pursue medical studies at Edinburgh University, and had to take a job as a doctor's assistant to pay for his school fees. He was already writing and publishing stories by this time, but he set up a practice in Southsea in the early 1880s. During this period, he completed the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet , which was published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887. Sherlock Holmes was modeled after Doyle's university professor, Joseph Bell, whom he greatly admired. Doyle wrote to Bell, "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes. ... [R]ound the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man."

However, there was also much of Doyle himself in the character of Sherlock Holmes, as Bell once remarked. Doyle is known to have been analytical, attentive to detail, methodical (though occasionally absentminded and clumsy), imaginative, and reserved. He even solved a mystery of a missing person in 1907 in only one hour's time. This case involved a countrywoman who was afraid that her cousin had been murdered; Doyle deduced from the man's bank records, however, that he had simply gone to Scotland.

In Doyle's two autobiographical works, The Stark Munro Letters and Memories and Adventures , he performed little analysis of either his own personality or spiritual problems. Like Holmes, then, Doyle concealed his personal self. Similar to Holmes, too, Doyle was known as an energetic and prodigious person, who also would disappear into his study for days. As his son, Adrian, remarked: "My memories as a youth are mottled with sudden, silent periods when, following some agitated stranger, or missive, my father would disappear into his study for two or three days on end."

Doyle published other historical works as he endeavored to write serious, "better things." However, he took advantage of the up-and-coming Strand Magazine (1891) by publishing short stories there for financial gain. The Holmes short stories that he contributed became very popular with the reading public. The editor of the magazine, George Newnes, was committed to high-quality production and plenty of illustrations, including the memorable visual image of Sherlock Holmes designed by Sidney Paget.

The popularity of the Holmes stories secured Doyle financial comfort and fame, but he soon tired of his hero and killed him off in The Final Problem (1893). However, he later returned to stories about his hero when the public clamor proved too difficult to ignore. All the while, though, Doyle wrote other works and took a post as a war correspondent in Egypt; supported the British management of the Boer War; he oversaw a field hospital in South Africa; and he was knighted in 1902. In 1902, Doyle penned one of his most famous Sherlock Holmes works, The Hound of the Baskervilles .

In 1912, Doyle wrote one of his other most enduring works, The Lost World . This science fiction tale centered on the character Professor Challenger's journey to the Amazon, where he discovered a place in which dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts still survived.

During World War I, Doyle became immensely interested in spiritualism, and he wrote many works on the subject. This new focus of his produced much criticism, especially regarding his support for the photographs of the Cottingley Fairies. Throughout this time, he continued to write poetry, short stories, pamphlets, and adventure novels. Some of his work dealt with humanitarian causes, such as The Crime of the Congo (1909), which excoriated the brutality of the Belgians in the Congo.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930 of a heart attack; he was 71 years old. He was married twice; his first wife Louise died from tuberculosis in 1906, and his second wife Jean survived him. He had five children in total. He was buried in an anonymous grave in unconsecrated ground outside a churchyard fence, on account of his avowedly Spiritualist religious beliefs. The graveyard was later extended and now contains his grave; there are still no public headstones, however.

Study Guides on Works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The adventure of the yellow face sir arthur conan doyle.

The Adventure of the Yellow Face is an 1893 short story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and featuring the characters Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. The story was initially written as a commission for Strand Magazine , with original...

• Study Guide

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of stories relating to the infamous character Sherlock Holmes, a notable detective who investigates various mysteries and crime set in the 1900s. George Newness publishing company first published...

• Lesson Plan

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes contains twelve stories written about the legendary consulting detective by his creator Arthur Conan Doyle. Like all the other Sherlock Holmes adventures, these stories were originally published in the Strand...

His Last Bow Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

His Last Bow is a Sherlock Holmes adventure published by Arthur Conan Doyle in England inside the September 1917 edition of the Strand Magazine by Colliers Magazine in the United States. Although considered part of the official canon, the story...

The Hound of the Baskervilles Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Hound of the Baskervilles was written in 1901, eight years after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had already 'killed off' Sherlock Holmes in his story, "The Final Problem." However, the novel was not a sequel - the events of The Hound of the...

How It Happened Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Few know Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's work outside of his most famous character: Sherlock Holmes. But Doyle was a prolific writer who crafted some of the best short stories in existence. One such short story is called "How It Happened," which was...

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes was initially published in 1894 after each of the individual stories contained within had appeared separately in The Strand magazine. This collection was the follow-up to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which...

The Return of Sherlock Holmes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Return of Sherlock Holmes almost quite literally begins with Dr. John Watson practically being assaulted by an “elderly, deformed man…with sharp, wizened face peering out from a frame of white hair.” In any other story, his constant companion,...

The Sign of the Four Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of the Four is a novel starring the characters Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it in 1889 after Joseph M Stoddart, the managing editor of Lippincott’s Monthly , commissioned the story. Lippincott’s was an...

A Study in Scarlet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet was written in 1886 and published in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887 by Arthur Conan Doyle. Doyle was rejected three times by publishers; Ward, Lock, and Company finally accepted it in 1886 with the caveat of it delaying...

The Valley of Fear Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Arthur Conan Doyle published The Valley of Fear in serial form in Strand Magazine between September 1914 and May 1915. A book form followed the British serialization in 1915. The manuscript, 176 folio pages with Doyle’s deletions and revisions,...

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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

Table of Contents

Why is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle important?,How many books did Arthur Conan Doyle write?,where was arthur conan doyle born,arthur conan doyle familySir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, a name synonymous with mystery, detective fiction, and the indomitable Sherlock Holmes, stands as a towering figure in Scottish literature. Born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, Conan Doyle’s influence reaches far beyond his iconic detective stories.S ir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

Early Life and Education:

Conan Doyle hailed from an artistic Catholic family, with his father, Charles Altamont Doyle, being an artist, and his mother, Mary Foley, a vibrant storyteller. Despite financial struggles, young Arthur’s imagination thrived on the tales of chivalry spun by his mother. Educated at the Jesuit preparatory school Stonyhurst College, Conan Doyle later pursued medicine at the University of Edinburgh. His experiences at medical school significantly influenced his creation of the rational and analytical character, Sherlock Holmes.

Medical Career and Writing Beginnings:

After a brief stint as a ship’s surgeon that took him to West Africa and the Arctic Circle, Conan Doyle returned to Edinburgh to establish a medical practice. However, his love for storytelling soon eclipsed his medical career. Early attempts at writing involved contributing short stories to various magazines. In 1887, Conan Doyle achieved literary success with the publication of “A Study in Scarlet,” introducing the world to Sherlock Holmes.

The Sherlock Holmes Phenomenon:

Sherlock Holmes, with his razor-sharp powers of observation and deductive reasoning, became a global literary sensation. The serialization of Holmes’ adventures in The Strand Magazine propelled Conan Doyle to literary stardom. Despite reservations about being exclusively associated with Holmes, Conan Doyle continued to pen stories, including the celebrated novel “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1902). Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

Literary Diversity and Exploits:

Conan Doyle’s literary repertoire expanded beyond detective fiction. He delved into historical novels, science fiction, and adventure tales. Works like “Micah Clarke” (1889) and “The White Company” (1891) showcased his storytelling prowess in historical settings.

The Professor Challenger series, commencing with “The Lost World” (1912), ventured into science fiction, exploring the adventures of the brilliant and eccentric scientist. Conan Doyle’s interest in spiritualism found expression in works like “The Land of Mist” (1926), reflecting the early 20th-century fascination with the supernatural.

Military Service and World War I:

As World War I erupted, Conan Doyle, despite being in his fifties, volunteered for military service. Serving as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps and later as a lieutenant colonel in the War Office, his experiences during the war, including the loss of his son, profoundly influenced him and impacted his later works.

Personal Life:

Conan Doyle’s personal life was marked by both tragedy and triumph. His marriage to Louisa Hawkins in 1885 resulted in two children, but tragedy struck when Louisa died of tuberculosis in 1906. Devastated, Conan Doyle remarried Jean Leckie in 1907, and the couple had three children, bringing a new chapter of happiness to his life.

Spiritualism and Controversies:

Conan Doyle’s interest in spiritualism intensified after the death of his son Kingsley in World War I. He became an advocate, attending seances and endorsing mediums. This interest led to controversies, with skeptics challenging his scientific background and credibility.

Later Years and Legacy:

In the later years of his life, Conan Doyle continued to write and engage in public debates. Knighted in 1902 for his contributions to literature, he passed away on July 7, 1930, at the age of 71. His legacy endures through his diverse literary contributions, with Sherlock Holmes remaining a cultural phenomenon and a symbol of detective fiction.

Major Works

• “A Study in Scarlet” (1887): The debut novel introducing Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, setting the stage for a series of detective stories.
• “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes” (1892): A collection of short stories featuring Holmes and Watson, including classics like “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and “The Red-Headed League.”
• “The Hound of the Baskervilles” (1902): A standalone novel often considered one of the greatest detective stories, where Holmes investigates a legendary hound on the moors.
• “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” (1905): Another collection of short stories, marking Holmes’ return after his presumed death at the Reichenbach Falls.
• “Micah Clarke” (1889): A historical adventure novel set during the Monmouth Rebellion in the 17th century.
• “The White Company” (1891): A historical adventure set during the Hundred Years’ War, showcasing the exploits of a free company of archers.
• “The Lost World” (1912): A pioneering science fiction novel introducing Professor Challenger, who leads an expedition to a remote plateau where prehistoric creatures still exist.
• “Sir Nigel” (1906): A novel set during the Hundred Years’ War, following the adventures of Nigel Loring, a young squire.
• “The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard” (1896): A collection of short stories narrated by Brigadier Gerard, a Hussar officer during the Napoleonic Wars.
• “The Poison Belt” (1913): A science fiction novel featuring Professor Challenger and his colleagues, exploring the apocalyptic consequences of Earth passing through a belt of poisonous ether.
• “The Land of Mist” (1926): A novel delving into spiritualism and the supernatural, reflecting Conan Doyle’s personal interest in these themes.

Writing Style

• Conan Doyle’s writing style is marked by clarity and precision. His narratives are easy to follow, allowing readers to immerse themselves in the intricacies of the plot without unnecessary complexity.
• Conan Doyle excels in character development, particularly in the Sherlock Holmes series. The characters, especially Holmes and Watson, are vividly portrayed with distinct personalities, quirks, and evolving relationships.
• The author pays meticulous attention to detail, whether describing crime scenes, historical settings, or scientific concepts. This attention to detail enhances the realism of his stories and contributes to the immersive experience for the reader.
• Many of Conan Doyle’s works, especially the Sherlock Holmes series, utilize a first-person narrative, often through the perspective of Dr. John Watson. This choice allows readers to view the detective’s genius through the eyes of a close confidant.
• Conan Doyle’s versatility is evident in his exploration of various genres, from detective fiction to historical novels, science fiction, and spiritualism. His ability to adapt his writing style to suit different themes showcases his literary prowess.
• Dialogues in Conan Doyle’s works, especially those involving Sherlock Holmes, are notable for their wit and intelligence. Holmes’ deductive reasoning and sharp repartees contribute to the enduring appeal of the characters.
• Conan Doyle is adept at constructing engaging and intricate plots. The mysteries in the Sherlock Holmes stories, in particular, are carefully crafted, with twists and turns that keep readers captivated until the resolution.
• Beyond the surface-level mysteries, Conan Doyle’s works often explore deeper themes, such as justice, morality, and the human condition. This thematic depth adds layers to his stories, making them enduring and thought-provoking.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle , a literary luminary of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, has left an indelible mark on literature with his diverse and enduring works. From the immortal detective Sherlock Holmes to historical novels, science fiction, and explorations of spiritualism, Conan Doyle showcased remarkable versatility and literary prowess. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography and Works

His writing style, characterized by clarity, meticulous detail, and engaging plots, has transcended time, making his works accessible and enjoyable for readers across generations. The richness of his characters, particularly Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson, adds depth to his narratives.

Conan Doyle’s impact extends beyond the literary realm; his legacy endures as a pioneer in detective fiction and a master storyteller who navigated various genres with finesse. Through his contributions, he has become a perennial figure in the pantheon of literary greats.Why is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle important?,How many books did Arthur Conan Doyle write?,where was arthur conan doyle born,arthur conan doyle family

1. What are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous works?

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous works include the Sherlock Holmes series, with notable titles such as “A Study in Scarlet,” “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” Other renowned works include “The Lost World,” “Micah Clarke,” and “The White Company.”

2. How would you describe Conan Doyle’s writing style?

Conan Doyle’s writing style is marked by clarity, precision, and meticulous attention to detail. He excels in character development, uses first-person narratives effectively, and demonstrates versatility across diverse genres. His engaging plots and thematic depth contribute to the enduring appeal of his works.

3. How did Conan Doyle’s personal experiences influence his works?

Conan Doyle’s personal experiences, including his medical career, military service during World War I, and interest in spiritualism, had a profound impact on his writings. These experiences added depth and authenticity to his characters and themes, enriching the narratives in his diverse works.

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