Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland and is best known as the man Sherlock Holmes, one of the most enduring, and recognizable fictional characters in English literature. Arthur’s mother, Mary Doyle, was a passionate storyteller and lover of books, and deeply influenced her young son. Arthur’s father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was an alcoholic whose excesses strained the family’s finances. However, when Arthur was nine, the wealthier members of the Doyle family offered to pay for him to attend a Jesuit boarding school. While those seven years away were punishing, it was there that Arthur discovered a talent for storytelling, as he often made up stories that enraptured younger students at the school.
Despite his gift for storytelling, however, Arthur went on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. While there, Arthur met a number of future famous writers, such as James Barrie, and Robert Louis Stevenson. But the man who left the strongest impression on the young medical student was a teacher, Dr. Joseph Bell, who was incredibly observant and logical, and had a particular skill in deducing and diagnosing patients. Dr. Bell would become the foundation for Arthur’s most famous character, Sherlock Holmes.
While studying at the University, Arthur wrote a short story entitled, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,” which was influenced by his love of Edgar Allen Poe and Bret Harte. The story was published in the magazine, Chamber’s Journal. That same year, he published a second story, “The American Tale,” in London Society, and it was through these stories that he realized that he could possibly make a living with his writing. However, he continued with his medical studies, and in his third year was offered a chance to go on an adventure to the Arctic Circle as the surgeon on a whaling ship called the Hope.
He returned to Edinburgh and obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree in 1881, and shipped out as a medical officer on another vessel to the west coast of Africa. It proved to be a short-lived adventure, as he didn’t find Africa as compelling as his Arctic adventure. Thus, Conan Doyle returned to England, and opened his first medical practice in Portsmouth. His practice would be marginally successful, and in 1885 be both obtained his M.D. and married his first wife, Louisa Hawkins.
Conan Doyle’s medical background and experiences would appear in several of his novels and stories. Curiously, despite his scientific background, he had obtained a fascination for the paranormal, and while at the University of Edinburgh became interested in spiritualism, a religion based on the belief that the spirits of the dead exist and have the ability to speak with the living. In 1886, at the same time that Conan Doyle was writing A Study in Scarlet–the first Sherlock Holmes novel that would make him famous–he was also writing a story about Buddhist monks in the afterlife called “The Mystery of Cloomber.” His works involving the supernatural would never truly be as well known, but later in life, he donated the majority of his writing time, and his profits to Spiritualism.
Despite finding success with his writing, his medical practice, and a happy family life, Conan Doyle was restless, and decided to leave Portsmouth. After a dangerous bout of influenza he ultimately decided to stop practicing medicine, and focus entirely on his writing. While that gamble paid off, he had other restless times when he made questionable decisions. In 1900, having a desire to experience the life of a soldier, and test his skills, he attempted to enlist in the South African War, and was rejected because of his age and weight, and thus volunteered as a medical doctor during the war instead. It was his service during this war for which he was knighted by King Edward VII in 1902.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wasn’t simply a prolific writer (he’s credited with having written nearly 200 novels, short stories, poems, historical texts, and pamphlets). Nor was he simply a husband (twice) and a father (to five). He was an adventurer who traveled all over the world, attempted to enter politics by running for office twice, witnessed truly horrific war fronts, and even defended accused men because he had a deep sense of justice.
He died of a heart attack in July of 1930.
Truly he lived a rich and full life.
Sherlock Holmes
Certainly what Arthur Conan Doyle is best known for are the 60 stories he wrote about the cold, detached, logical, and brilliant Sherlock Holmes. The character was somewhat based on Auguste Dupin, a detective created by Edgar Allen Poe, but the real influence for Holmes was Dr. Joseph Bell, a professor and forensic scientist at the University of Edinburgh. Holmes was written to be a man of incredible intellect and reason, a man of science, and ultimately would prove to be an innovator of forensic science. Conan Doyle was incredibly well-read and he wrote Holmes using forensic methods for solving crime that were years ahead of their time. Some of the deductive and observational methods Holmes used were not adopted by real police forces in Britain and America until years after the publication of these stories.
The first two Holmes novels, A Study in Scarlet (1887) and The Sign of the Four (1890) were well received, but Holmes’ true popularity started in 1891 when the first of a series of short stories was published in the Strand Magazine, for which the character became well known in Britain and especially in America. So popular was the character that when Conan Doyle, wishing to move on from writing Sherlock Holmes stories, killed him off in 1893 in The Final Problem, twenty thousand readers cancelled their subscription to the Strand Magazine. For the time, this was a uniquely powerful public reaction to a fictional character’s death. Public pressure (and a need for money) would cause Conan Doyle to write a ‘previously unpublished adventure’ featuring Holmes in 1901: The Hound of the Baskervilles. Legend has it that even King Edward VII was such a big fan of Sherlock Holmes that he knighted Conan Doyle in an effort to encourage new stories.
Thus the character was revived in 1903 with The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Despite prolifically writing many other works, Conan Doyle would continue to write stories about Holmes until 1928, when the last twelve stories were compiled in The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes is not the original fictional detective, but he is probably the most famous in English fiction. The character influenced detective fiction going forward, and established some of the widely used elements of that genre that are still in use today. Forensic science, of course, is one of those elements, but there is also the the notion of the arch enemy such as Professor Moriarty, a villain far too smart for regular police to capture and only able to be brought down by the detective. And finally, there is the detective’s partner, who is not as intellectual and thus has to have everything explained to him by the detective (and in the process, the story is explained to the reader). Despite Conan Doyle not considering detective fiction to be a high art, this became his most enduring legacy.
Nor has Sherlock Holmes’ popularity diminished since his creation. The novels and short stories continue to be highly regarded and widely read, and they have since resulted in the creation of the Sherlock Holmes Museum in London, and a practically occult following even today of the character in which people actually believe Sherlock Holmes was a real person. Holmes has been in adaptations in fiction by other writers, plays, radio, television, and film. What started as cheap entertainment for the masses in the late 1800s has since become a multi-billion dollar television and film sensation with over 250 screen adaptations of the character.
Why is Sherlock Holmes so famous? Holmes is compelling to readers of any era, with his genius deductive reasoning and always a proper gentleman, but he is also very human, suffering from an addiction to cocaine.
Other Writings
Arthur Conan Doyle once complained to his mother that, “Holmes takes my mind from better things.” Mary Doyle’s response was to object and say that her son did nothing better.
He famously did not think of detective fiction as a particularly high literary standard, since the stories were originally published as pulp fiction for the masses. He wrote the Holmes stories for the pay and thought the character overshadowed the work he wanted to be known for. Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in 1893 so that he could focus on what he considered to be more important writing: his historical and spiritual works. But immense public pressure caused him to revive the character and continue writing for Holmes until very late in his life. Still, he believed strongly that it would be his historical fiction that would be his lasting legacy. He was wrong, of course.
Conan Doyle had an incredibly prolific writing career. In addition to the 4 novels and 56 stories for Sherlock Holmes, he also wrote some of the earliest science fiction with his Professor Challenger novels such as The Lost World, (1912) a humorous novel whose main protagonist was quite the opposite of Holmes. This story was about a professor lost in a remote region of South America full of prehistoric creatures. There were 4 other Professor Challenger novels. Conan Doyle also penned 42 other fictional short stories and collections, 4 collections of poetry, 12 pamphlets largely on war and spiritualism, and 40 works on history, war, and spiritualism. He is credited with over 200 written works overall.
Mary Doyle’s words, however, proved quite prophetic. Despite Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s intentions, it is for Sherlock Holmes that he is best known, long after his death.
Family Life
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle married Louisa Hawkins in 1885, during the time his first medical practice in Portsmouth was doing well. She was the sister of one of his patients, and he later described his first wife in a memoir as “gentle and amiable.”
With Louisa he had two children, Mary and Kingsley. Despite the good and peaceful life he had with his family, Conan Doyle was ever restless and ever seeking adventure, particularly after he stopped practicing medicine and killed off Sherlock Holmes, both of which he believed freed him to do the important work of a serious writer. However, Louisa Hawkins Doyle was diagnosed with Tuberculosis in August of 1893 and only given a few months to live. Under Conan Doyle’s care, she lived a few extra years. The pressure of writing, caring for his sick wife, and then losing his father caused him to enter a depression. While he’d had an interest in spiritualism since university, it was during this period that he became seriously fascinated with ‘life beyond the veil’ and publicly declared his interest in spiritualism.
Conan Doyle carried on a platonic relationship with a beautiful and intellectual woman he met in 1897, Jean Elizabeth Leckie. He was thought to have fallen deeply in love with her even before Louisa passed in 1906. One year later, in September of 1907, he married Jean Leckie in a very public ceremony, and he moved with his new family to Sussex.
Jean Elizabeth was an excellent match for Conan Doyle, as she was an intellectual and ultimately very supportive of his writing, his adventures (which she joined him on), and even his religion. They had three children: Denis, Adrian, and Jean Lena. By this point in his life, Conan Doyle and his wife were deeply involved in spiritualism and their world travels with their three children were largely to take part in psychic crusades.
Kingsley, his son from his first marriage, died in WW1 in 1918.
None of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s five children had children of their own, so he has no direct descendants.
