Arthur Conan Doyle, Creator of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, eventually studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, and built his writerly ambitions there. He published his first short story when he was only 20 and still deep in his medical training. He achieved his Doctor of Medicine in 1885 and continued professional studies as he continued to write and write and write. In 1886 he sold A Study in Scarlet, featuring a detective who was based on an instructor he had in medical school. It was published a year later, and the definition of what constituted a mystery in Western fiction began to be forever changed.
Within a few years of the debut of Sherlock Holmes, Doyle was ready to kill him off and move on to his many other projects, thus betraying a pattern of never quite understanding what was best for himself as a writer. Eventually, however, Holmes and Watson were featured in 56 short stories and 4 novels. The tension between rationality and suspense, between dissection and animation, was a powerful creative drive for Doyle. Sometimes he doesn’t seem to have understood it, and sometimes it is captured perfectly, flawlessly. It has been a gift to over a century of other writers, those who work within the canon’s inspiration and those who push back in various ways.
Doyle kept writing his science fiction and his beloved historical novels as he nailed down immortality with Sherlock Holmes. We carry what we can of what is in print. He is a good writer for that bridge age between YA and adult literature, by the way. And the comfort of his storytelling style, even when one thrills to the Hound of the Baskervilles all over again, makes him a writer for all ages and tastes and backgrounds. Enjoy!
Doyle's World Lost and Found: The Unknown Histories of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Doyle's World Lost and Found: The Unknown Histories of Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Doyle’s World is no ordinary biography about one of the world's most influential writers. It is instead a work that deciphers in particular the cryptic origins and actual scientific methods used by fiction's most famous consulting detective Sherlock Holmes—and a work that provides a detailed look into the psyche and working life of Holmes’ creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The book follows Doyle’s entire illustrious literary career, with emphasis on the Sherlock Holmes mysteries as they evolved from the late 1880s to the early 1900s. Revealed here for the first time—by son-father writing team Daniel Friedman, MD, and Eugene Friedman, MD—are the many inspirations behind the physical, emotional, and intellectual characteristics that Doyle wove together so deftly to bring his legendary sleuth to life. Readers are in for many surprises as the Friedmans bring forth tantalizing parallels between the literary realm of both Sherlock Holmes—along with his various other fiction and nonfiction works—and the actual events from Doyle’s childhood and early adulthood that served as frequent inspiration.
The authors offer answers to long-debated and mysterious questions, such as:
* From whom did Sherlock Holmes actually learn the art of detective work?
* Why did Doyle kill off Sherlock Holmes—and how did the country of Japan inspire how he brought his famous detective back to life after nearly a decade?
* What story elements did Doyle borrow from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island?
* How did Doyle apply his fervent belief in Spiritualism to a variety of Holmes stories?
* Who inspired Doyle to write about civil rights after a steamship journey in 1882?
* How did the women in Doyle's life come to influence the relationships with women that both Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson have across sixty written adventures?
Doyle’s World is divided into three sections. The first is dedicated to the elements—both good and bad—that comprised Doyle’s childhood and early adult years, and how an assemblage of persons and places and things from his life found their way into his literature. The second section emphasizes the highly complex themes and plots present in the Sherlock Holmes adventures, while it also thoroughly examines some of Doyle’s strengths—and weaknesses—as a public figure of his time. The Friedmans also reveal how Doyle was able to subtly incorporate his own political, social, and religious views—in particular, his passionate and often bewildering embrace of Spiritualism—into the Holmes stories. And in the third section, the authors offer two “lost” stories they uncovered that were written by Doyle under a pseudonym—accompanied by textual analysis with which they make their case.
This is a work of rich detail and in-depth scholarship that should win over both established fans of Doyle and devoted “Sherlockians” everywhere—and that will engage, and entertain, all others who enter this intriguing hall of literary mirrors.