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Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
 British
author and creator of Sherlock Holmes, b. Edinburgh. Educated
at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, he received a medical
degree in 1881. In 1887 the first Sherlock Holmes story, A
Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton's Christmas
Annual. Doyle abandoned his medical practice in 1890 and
devoted his time to writing. Other works that involve the
sleuthing of the great detective include The Sign of the
Four (1890), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894),
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), The Return of
Sherlock Holmes (1905), His Last Bow (1917), and The
Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927). The brilliant and
theatrical Holmes solves all his extraordinarily complex cases
through ingenious deductive reasoning. His sober, credulous
companion, Dr. Watson, narrates most of the Sherlock Holmes
stories. The Holmes cult has given rise to several notable
clubs, of which the Baker Street Irregulars is perhaps the
most famous. Doyle also wrote historical romances, including Micah
Clarke (1889) and The White Company (1891). His
play A Story of Waterloo (1894) was one of Sir Henry
Irving's notable successes. Doyle also wrote two political
pamphlets justifying Great Britain's actions in the South
African War. In his later years he became an ardent
spiritualist and wrote a History of Spiritualism
(1926). He was knighted in 1902
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