Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a Scottish doctor and writer, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Four novels and fifty-six short stories about the consulting detective of 221B Baker Street, narrated by his friend Dr Watson, made Holmes the most famous fictional detective in the world. Doyle also wrote historical novels, the adventure novel The Lost World, and works on spiritualism.
Works
A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles
An Edinburgh doctor
Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on 22 May 1859, into an Irish Catholic family; his father, Charles, was an artist who struggled with alcoholism. Educated by the Jesuits at Stonyhurst, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1876.
There he was taught by Dr Joseph Bell, a surgeon famous for deducing a patient's occupation and history from small details. Doyle served as a ship's doctor on an Arctic whaler and on a voyage to West Africa, then set up a medical practice in Southsea, near Portsmouth, in 1882.
The birth of Sherlock Holmes
While waiting for patients, Doyle wrote stories. A Study in Scarlet, the first Holmes novel, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887; he had sold the rights outright for twenty-five pounds. The Sign of the Four followed in 1890, commissioned by an American magazine.
Success came with the short stories published in The Strand Magazine from July 1891, beginning with A Scandal in Bohemia and illustrated by Sidney Paget, who gave Holmes his deerstalker and sharp profile. Readers queued for each issue, and Doyle gave up medicine to write full time.
Killing Holmes
Doyle wanted to be remembered for his historical novels, such as The White Company, and found that Holmes took up too much of his time. In The Final Problem, published in December 1893, he sent the detective over the Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland, locked in combat with Professor Moriarty.
The public was dismayed. Doyle resisted for years, then published The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901–02, set before Holmes's death, and finally brought him back to life in The Adventure of the Empty House in 1903. The stories continued until 1927.
Causes and beliefs
Doyle served as a volunteer doctor in South Africa during the Boer War, wrote a defence of the British side, and was knighted in 1902. He campaigned for justice in real cases, helping to clear George Edalji and Oscar Slater, two men wrongly convicted.
After the deaths of his son Kingsley and other relatives during and after the First World War, he devoted himself to spiritualism, lecturing around the world on communication with the dead. He even defended photographs of fairies taken by two girls at Cottingley. He died at his home in Crowborough, Sussex, on 7 July 1930.
Anecdotes
Letters to Baker Street
Many readers believed that Sherlock Holmes really existed, and letters addressed to him at 221B Baker Street began arriving in London. The address did not exist at the time; when the street was renumbered, the letters were answered for decades by a secretary at the building society that occupied the site.
The doctor in goal
Doyle was a keen sportsman. He played cricket for the Marylebone Cricket Club, once taking the wicket of the great W. G. Grace, and he is said to have played in goal for Portsmouth Association Football Club, the amateur forerunner of the professional club, under the name A. C. Smith.
Frequently asked questions
How many Sherlock Holmes stories did Conan Doyle write?
Sixty: four novels (A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Valley of Fear) and fifty-six short stories.
Who inspired Sherlock Holmes?
Mainly Dr Joseph Bell, Doyle's teacher at Edinburgh, who could deduce a great deal about patients from their appearance. Edgar Allan Poe's detective Dupin was also an influence.
Why did Conan Doyle kill Sherlock Holmes?
He felt the detective distracted him from more serious work, especially historical novels. Public pressure eventually made him bring Holmes back.