Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Biography and complete works

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Author: Conan Doyle, Arthur

Date and Place of birth:
b. May 22, 1859, Edinburgh
d. July 7, 1930, Sussex, England

Life and Works:

Best known as creator of perhaps the most famous detective in fiction, Arthur Conan Doyle was born at Picardy Place, Edinburgh, on May 22, 1859, as the son of Charles Altamont Doyle, a civil servant in the Edinburgh Office of Works, and Mary (Foley) Doyle. Both of Doyle's parents were Roman Catholics.

The Doyle family was a large one—Arthur was one of ten children, seven of whom survived to maturity—and life was difficult for his mother, who struggled to bring up the children on the income of some Ł240 a year provided by her husband Charles, who pursued an unambitious life as a civil servant.

Whilst Charles Doyle also had artistic talents, he exercised his skills only intermittently, and lack of drive led to the loss of his post in the Office of Works in Edinburgh. After this he lapsed steadily into alcoholism, and his epilepsy grew increasingly worse, so that he was institutionalized for the final years of his life, finally dying in 1893.

The effect of his father's alcoholism on Conan Doyle was profound and, whilst he chose to draw a veil over this particular topic in his autobiography Memories and Adventures, alcoholism is dealt with rather severely when it appears in his later fictional work.

Doyle was educated in Jesuit schools. During this period Doyle lost his belief in the Roman Catholic faith but the training of the Jesuits influenced deeply his mental development.

Conan Doyle studied medicine at Edinburgh University from 1876 to 1881. Besides providing him with a medical degree, Edinburgh University also brough Conan Doyle into contact with two characters who were to be important models for future fictional creations: Professor Rutherford, whose Assyrian beard, prodigious voice, enormous chest, and singular manner became translated into Professor George Edward Challenger of The Lost World; and Dr Joseph Bell, whose amazing deductions concerning the history of his patients were to provide the ideas behind the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes.

Whilst at Edinburgh, Conan Doyle took various jobs to assist his mother with the family's upkeep, jobs which, as a medical assistant, took him to Sheffield, Shrophshire, and Birmingham, and further afield to the Arctic, where he served as a ship's doctor aboard a Greenland whater.

He started his practice as doctor in 1882 but had to abandon it relatively soon following the enormous success of his creation, Sherlock Holmes, who first appeared in A Study in Scarlet in 1887 in 'Beeton Christmas Annual.'. The novel was written in three weeks in 1886.

Initially the character did not have such an impact on people until the short stories, later included in the Adventures, began to be published in the Strand Magazine. Doyle wrote also other mysteries (The Doings of Raffles Haw, The Mystery of Cloomber and The Surgeon of Gaster Fell), collections of short stories, historical romances and history books on the Boer War and World War I.

Following the acceptance of A Study in Scarlet, for which he was paid the paltry sum of Ł25, Conan Doyle decided to test his powers to the full with a long historical novel. The outcome was the highly successful Micah Clarke, which finally appeared in 1889.

Unfortunately it was not the creation of Holmes that gave him the most satisfaction and Doyle was particularly annoyed that the success of his creation hindered his career as historian. The Strand Magazine started to publish The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes from July 1891. However, already at the end of 1891, Doyle planned to end the series and in 1893 he became so wearied of his detective that he devised his death in the Final Problem, published in the Strand in the December issue.

Doyle's readers expressed their disappointment by wearing mourning bands and Strand lost 20,000 subscriptions. In The Hound of Baskervilles (1902) Doyle narrated an early case of the dead detective. Because of public demand Doyle resurrected his popular hero in The Empty House (1903).

During the South African war (1899-1902) Doyle served for a few months as senior physician at a field hospital, and wrote The war in South Africa, in which he defended England's policy. The same uncritical atitbustude marked his history of World War I, The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1928 (6 vols.). He was knighted in 1902 for his activity in the Boer War.

In 1912 Conan Doyle was to introduce another famous character into the world of literature with the appearance of Professor Challenger in The Lost World, a tale of pre-history alive and surviving on a remote South-American plateau in wich he blended science fact with fantastic romance, and was very popular. The model for the professor was William Rutherford, Doyle's teacher from Edinburgh. Doyle's practice, and other experiences, expeditions as ship's surgeon to the Arctic and West Coast of Africa, service in the Boer War, defenses of George Edalji and Oscar Slater, two men wrongly imprisoned, provided much material for his writings.

Challenger was to have further adventures, including The Poison Belt which appeared in the following year.

By 1916, Conan Doyle's explorations into psychic matters had convinced him that he should devote the final years of his life to the advancement of Spiritualism. He began to write extensively on the subject, and to travel the world with his family promoting his beliefs.

Spiritualism became Conan Doyle's religion and his driving force, taking him to Australia, America, Canada, and South Africa for lecture tours which he recorded in various biographical studies.

Following a tour of Scandinavia and Holland in 1929, Conan Doyle returned to England exhausted, and suffered a heart attack. He remained weak and ill for several months and died in Crowborough, Sussex, England, on 7 July 1930.

Conan Doyle's contribution to the literature of the English language was immense. His major historical novels, The White Company, Sir Nigel, Micah Clarke, Uncle Bernac, The Refugees, and The Great Shadow are perhaps less well known today than the remarkable number of short stories, written chiefly for the popular magazines of his time: Tales of Adventure and Medical Life, Tales of the Ring and Camp, Tales of Pirates and Blue Water and Tales of Horror and the Supernatural. His major fictional creations, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger, and Brigadier Gerard have collections of stories of their own, collections which will continue to be read and enjoyed the world over for many years to come.