Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Manning

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a writer of many books. He is most well known for being the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He was influenced to write by family, professors, and spiritualism ().

Arthur Conan Doyle was born May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh. He was the second born of seven children. His mother, Mary Foley, came from a military family; and his father, Charles Doyle, was a draughtsman who was an alcoholic. His family was a very devoted Catholic family (Cavandish, Marshall). Arthur was sent to Stonyhurst; a private school in Lancashire. After attending Stonyhurst, Arthur attended another Jesuit school in Austria. Here he decided to become a doctor (Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan).

In 1876 he entered Edinburgh University where he studied to become a doctor. He graduated from here at the age of twenty-two. There Arthur met Dr. Joseph Bell, his influence for Sherlock Holmes (). Dr. Bell had the ability to diagnose patients by their clothes, manners, behaviors, habits, and occupations. When Arthur’s father was put in a nursing home for alcoholism, Arthur had to help provide for his mother. He got a job as a surgeon on the ship called the Hope in 1880. The next year he took a journey on the SS Mayumba, a cargo and passenger ship heading for South Africa. On his way home he received a letter from George Budd one of his old friends. Together, in 1882, they started a medical practice together. After a short while Arthur ended their partnership in the business, because of the lack of patients due to not having enough money to pay the bill for the visit (Cavandish, Marshall).

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In 1883, Arthur joined the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society. He stayed here for the next nine years. In 1885, he met and married Louisa Hawkins. While in Southsea he created Sherlock Holmes to pass the time and make some money. In1887, he wrote the first Sherlock story, A Study in Scarlet. It was published in Beetons Christmas Annuals (Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan). A few years later, in 1891, Arthur published the second Sherlock Holmes story, The Sign of Four. After this he, had made enough money to travel. His wife and him traveled to a Berlin, and then after back home to London. In London he opened a consulting room. This did not turn out well, so he stopped practicing medicine, and began to write full-time (Cavandish, Marshall). In 1892 he published six more stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Arthur Conan Doyle disliked all the time he spent writing the Sherlock stories, so in 1893 he wrote The Final Problem. In this story he had Holmes killed off. The readers were very upset about the decision. They sent letters of rage to the editors of the magazine. ().

After Conan Doyle had solved his financial problems, he went back home to England. He followed his interest, psychic phenomena, by joining the British Society for Physical Research. During this time he turned toward writing dramas. At the age of forty Arthur Conan Doyle volunteered to enter the Boer War, but he was rejected. Though a year later he was accepted and sent to South Africa to be a physician in a private field hospital. After this he wrote his story on the war called The War in South Africa. Because of this Arthur was knighted by King Edward VII as Deputy Lieutenant of Surrey ().

In 1903 the Conan Doyle brought back Sherlock Holmes. He was offered a sum of money to bring him back, and write six more stories. The new story was called The Empty House. Although it got difficult with many problems throughout the years he accomplished writing the last six books. ().

In 1916 Arthur Conan Doyle got involved with spiritualism. In the next year he gave his first lecture on Spiritualism. He wanted to show the facts to the benefit of mankind. He did this knowing that his reputation and career would suffer (www.nuclues.com). He wrote many books and articles relating to his beliefs on spiritualism. Early in life he had also believed in Thought Transference and Table Turnings. In 1926 he published History of Spiritualism ().

On July 8, 1930 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died in his chair. A few days before his death he said “The reader will judge that I have had many adventures. The greatest and most glorious of all awaits me now.”(www.nuclues.com).