Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish author. He created one of the most famous fictional characters in English detective fiction, Sherlock Holmes.
For his education, he went to Hodder Place, a Roman Catholic School, and later attended the Stonyhurst College. He worked on the student paper called Feldkrich Gazette. Arthur’s uncle, who was a famous journalist, also inspired him to write. Arthur was an avid reader. His most favorite book was Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe Edgar Allan Poe’s works greatly influenced his detective fiction.
In 1876, he attended the University of Edinburgh and studied Medicine. His writing career also started during this time. The Haunted Grange of Goresthrope is one of his earliest works of fiction, from the 1870s.
Doyle first began writing short stories. In 1879, his first publication, the Mystery of Sasassa Valley, was published In the Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal. His non-fiction work Gelemimum as a poison was also published in the same years.
During his time as a medical student, he went on a sea voyage on the Arctic. On the journey, Doyle wrote a fascinating story called the Captain of the Pole Star (published 1890).
In 1880, he worked as a physician. Following his graduation, he became a ship surgeon aboard the Mayumba. The next year, he became a member of the ‘Literacy and Scientific Society.’
At the age of 23, Doyle became a full-time writer. He wrote short stories for the London Society, All the Year Round, Temple Bar, Lancet and the British Journal of photography. He began to write his first novel during this time. His first novel was the Narrative of John Smith, written in 1883. But, it was published much after his death in 2011 by the British Library.
In 1887, A Study in Scarlet was published in the Beeton’s Christmas Annual. It received good reviews and introduced the celebrated characters of Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson. Next, Doyle considered writing historical romances. He came up with his first historical novel, Micah Clarke in 1889. His novel the Mystery of Cloomber was also published in 1889 and the Firm of Grildstone was published in 1890.
The book was later made into a silent film. That year he published his second novel Sherlock series. It consisted of twelve stories where he reintroduced his famous detective character.
In 1893, the Parasite and The Memories of Sherlock Holmes were released. In the latter, the character of Sherlock Holmes dies. In 1893, Doyle co-authored the comic opera Jane Annie or the Good Conduct Prize.
He also opened the Savoy Theater in London. With his detective novel’s success, he became quite well-known all around the world. Doyle used his popular fictional characters Sherlock Holmes in more than fifty detective stories. He was the first one to explore the mystery genre with his detective novels.
He also released his poetry collection The Guards Came Through and Other Poems in 1919, and some non-fiction works like the Coming of the Fairies, The Case of Sprit Photography, etc.
He wrote short stories in many genres including horror, suspense, and psychological thriller and science fiction. His second most famous character was ‘Professor’ George Edward Challenger’. He was first introduced in the Professor Challenger stories in 1912.
This series contained science fiction stories. Doyle’s literacy work is enormous. In his lifetime, he wrote 21 novels and hundreds of short stories.
Arthur married twice and had five children. He died at the age of 71 on July, 1930, in England due to a heart attack.