Arthur Conan Doyle
A Scottish doctor who conjured the world's most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, then spent decades trying to escape his creation's shadow.
1859–1930 (age 71)·British writer and physician·Birthday: May 22
Biography
Arthur Conan Doyle led a life of vigorous contradiction. Trained as a physician at the University of Edinburgh, he found his true calling not in medicine but in the stories simmering in his imagination. His experiences under the stern tutor Dr. Joseph Bell helped shape the methodical genius of Sherlock Holmes, introduced in 1887's 'A Study in Scarlet.' The detective's meteoric popularity in The Strand Magazine made Doyle a wealthy man but also a frustrated artist; he famously killed Holmes off at Reichenbach Falls only to resurrect him due to public demand. Doyle's energies were vast: he stood for Parliament, served as a war correspondent, and campaigned for justice in wrongful conviction cases. In later life, he became a devoted and public advocate for Spiritualism, a passion that consumed him and often bewildered his literary admirers. His legacy is a singular paradox: the author of some of literature's most rigorously logical tales was, at heart, a relentless seeker of mystical truths.
#1 When Arthur Was Born
The biggest hits of 1859
Arthur's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1859Born
1864Started school
President: Abraham Lincoln
1872Became a teenager
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1875Could drive
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1877Could vote
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1880Turned 21
Edison patents the incandescent light bulb
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1889Turned 30
Eiffel Tower opens in Paris
President: Benjamin Harrison
1899Turned 40
President: William McKinley
1909Turned 50
Robert Peary claims to reach the North Pole
President: William Howard Taft
1919Turned 60
Treaty of Versailles signed; Prohibition ratified
President: Woodrow Wilson
1929Turned 70
Wall Street crashes, triggering the Great Depression
Gas: $0.21/galPresident: Herbert Hoover"Singin' in the Rain" — Cliff EdwardsBest Picture: The Broadway Melody
1930Died at 71
Pluto discovered
Gas: $0.20/galHome: $3,510President: Herbert Hoover"Body and Soul" — Paul WhitemanBest Picture: All Quiet on the Western Front
Key Achievements
- Created Sherlock Holmes, a literary character whose name became synonymous with deductive reasoning.
- Wrote 'The Lost World,' pioneering the genre of dinosaur-themed adventure fiction.
- Was knighted in 1902 for his literary work and his service in the Boer War.
- Successfully campaigned for the release of George Edalji and Oscar Slater, two men wrongly imprisoned.
- Authored over 200 stories, novels, and works of non-fiction across multiple genres.
Did You Know?
He played goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club under the pseudonym A. C. Smith.
He was a close friend of magic icon Harry Houdini, though they bitterly disagreed on Spiritualism.
He served as a surgeon on a whaling ship in the Arctic as a young man.
He introduced skiing to Switzerland as a sport, promoting it after a stay in the Alps.
“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”
