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ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859, studied in England and Germany and became a Doctor of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He built up a successful medical practice, but also wrote, and created his most famous character, Sherlock Holmes, in 1887. Following a less-successful practice as an oculist, Doyle concentrated on his writing career. He was proudest of his historical novels, such as The White Company, and in 1912 introduced his second popular character, Professor Challenger. But Holmes continued to be his most famous creation. Doyle felt that Holmes was a distraction and kept him from writing “better things” that would make him a “lasting name in English literature.” He killed his detective in 1893 in The Final Problem, only to resurrect him in 1903 due to public demand. Doyle wrote an astonishing range of fiction including medical stories, sports stories, historical fiction, contemporary drama, and verse. He also wrote non-fiction, including the six-volume The British Campaign in France and Flanders. His defense of British colonialism in South Africa led to his being knighted in 1902. By 1916 Doyle’s investigations into Spiritualism had convinced him that he should devote the rest of his life to the advancement of the belief. He wrote and lectured on the Spiritualist cause until his death in 1930. Stories by Conan Doyle also appear in Adventure Classics, and the upcoming Graphic Classics: Special Edition. | ||||||