Arthur Conan Doyle | Biography & Books

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Arthur Conan Doyle was a Scottish physician and writer who is best known for his detective stories featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. He was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a family of Irish descent. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was an artist and a chronic alcoholic, and his mother, born Mary Foley, was a devout Catholic.

Doyle was educated at the Jesuit-run Hodder Place and later at the Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, England. He then studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery in 1881. He worked as a ship’s doctor on a voyage to the Arctic and then as a physician in Southsea, England, before setting up a practice in Plymouth.

Doyle’s literary career began in 1879 with the publication of his first story, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley.” However, it was his creation of the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 that brought him fame and fortune. The first Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet,” was published in the Beeton’s Christmas Annual and was an instant success. The character of Holmes quickly became popular and was featured in a total of 56 short stories and four novels.

Aside from his detective stories, Doyle wrote historical novels, science fiction, and plays. He was also a political activist and wrote articles on spiritualism, which he believed in strongly. He was knighted by King Edward VII in 1902 for his services to literature.

Doyle married Louisa Hawkins in 1885, with whom he had two children. Louisa died of tuberculosis in 1906, and Doyle later married Jean Leckie in 1907. He had three children with her.

Arthur Conan Doyle died on July 7, 1930, at the age of 71. He is buried in the Minstead Churchyard in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. Today, he is remembered as one of the greatest mystery writers of all time, and his works continue to be popular and widely read.

GENRES
Fiction, Crime, Thriller

WEBSITE
https://www.arthurconandoyle.com/

Sherlock Holmes

A Study in Scarlet (1887)
The Sign of the Four (1890)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
The Field Bazaar (1896)
The Lost Special (1898)
The Man with the Watches (1898)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
The Valley of Fear (1915)
His Last Bow (1917)
How Watson Learned the Trick (1924)
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927)

Professor Challenger

The Lost World (1912)
The Poison Belt (1913)
The Land of Mist (1926)
When the World Screamed (1928)
The Disintegration Machine (1929)

Brigadier Gerard

The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896)
The Adventures of Gerard (1903)
Other stories (1894, 1897, 1910)

Historical Novels

Micah Clarke (1889)
The White Company (1891)
The Great Shadow (1892)
The Refugees (1893)
Rodney Stone (1896)
Uncle Bernac (1897)
Sir Nigel (1906)

Other Novels

The Mystery of Cloomber (1889)
The Firm of Girdlestone (1890)
The Doings of Raffles Haw (1891)
Beyond the City (1892)
The Parasite (1894)
The Stark Munro Letters (1895)
The Tragedy of the Korosko (1898)
A Duet, with an Occasional Chorus (1899)
The Maracot Deep (1929)

Poetry

Cremona (1898)
The Groom’s Story (1898)
Songs of Action (1898)
Shakespeare’s Expostulation (1909)
Bendy’s Sermon (1909)
Songs of the Road (1911)
The Guards Came Through, and Other Poems (1919)
Now, Then Smith! (1922)
The Poems of Arthur Conan Doyle: Collected Edition (1922)

Non-Fiction Works

The Great Boer War (1900)
The War in South Africa (1902)
Through the Magic Door (1907)
The Crime of the Congo (1909)
The Case of Oscar Slater (1912)
The German War: Some Sidelights and Reflections (1914)
A Visit to Three Fronts (1916)
The British Campaign in France and Flanders Vol. 1 (1916-20)
The British Campaign in France and Flanders Vol. 2 (1916-20)
The British Campaign in France and Flanders Vol. 3 (1916-20)
The British Campaign in France and Flanders Vol. 4 (1916-20)
The British Campaign in France and Flanders Vol. 5 (1916-20)
The British Campaign in France and Flanders Vol. 6 (1916-20)
Memories and Adventures (1924)
Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure (2012)

Short Stories

The Mystery of the Sasassa Valley (1879)
The American’s Tale (1879)
The Gully of Bluemansdyke (1881)
Bones (1882)
My Friend the Murderer (1882)
The Silver Hatchet (1883)
J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement (1884)
Crabbe’s Practice (1884)
The Fate of the Evangeline (1885)
A Psychologist’s Wife (1885)
A Midshipman’s Story (1885)
Cyprian Overbeck Wells, or A Literary Mosaic (1886)
Uncle Jeremy’s Household (1887)
The Stone of Boxman’s Drift (1887)
An Exciting Christmas Eve (1887)
John Huxford’s Hiatus (1888)
The Ring of Thoth (1890)
The Surgeon of Gaster Fell (1890)
The Voice of Science (1891)
The Green Flag (1893)
The Lord of Chateau Noir (1894)
The Debut of Bimbashi Joyce (1897)
The Croxley Master (1899)
Playing with Fire (1900)
The Leather Funnel (1903)
The Great Brown-Pericord Motor (1905)
The Pot of Caviare (1908)
The Silver Mirror (1908)
The Lord of Falconbridge (1909)
The Homecoming (1909)
The Terror of Blue John Gap (1910)
Giant Maximin (1911)
One Crowded Hour (1911)
The Fall of Lord Barrymore (1912)
How it Happened (1913)
The Horror of the Heights (1913)
Danger! (1914)
The Prisoner’s Defence (1916)
Three of Them (1918)
The Bully of Brocas Court (1921)
The Nightmare Room (1921)
The Problem of Thor Bridge (1922)
The Lift (1922)
A Point of Contact (1922)
Billy Bones (1922)
The Centurion (1922)
The Story of Spedegue’s Dropper (1928)

Articles

Life and Death in the Blood (1884)
The Geographical Distribution of British Intellect (1888)
The Bravoes of Market Drayton (1889)
The Duello in France (1890)
A Day with Dr Conan Doyle (1892)
An Alpine Pass on Ski (1894)
The Life on a Greenland Whaler (1897)
A Glimpse of the Army (1900)
Some Military Lessons of the War (1900)
An Incursion into Diplomacy (1906)
What Reform is Most Needed? (1911)
Western Wanderings (1915)
An Outing in War Time (1915)
Stranger than Fiction (1915)
Is Sir Oliver Lodge Right? Yes (1917)
What Will England be Like in 1930? (1917)
Some Personalia about Mr Sherlock Holmes (1917)
The Uncharted Coast (1919-20)
The Sideric Pendulum (1920)
Fairies Photographed (1920)
The Evidence for Fairies (1921)

Other Publications

Gelseminum as a poison (1879)
Hilda Wade, 12 (1900)
The Military Lessons of the War, a Rejoinder (1901)
A British Commando (1901)
Life After Death (1919)
Sherlock Holmes on the Film (1921)
The Cottingley Fairies (1923)
Haunting Dreams (1923)
The Forbidden Subject (1923)
How Our Novelists Write Their Books (1924)
W.G. Grace – A Memory (1927)
Houdini the Enigma (1927)
The Lord of the Dark Face (1929)
The Death Voyage (1929)

Spiritualist and paranormal works

Books

The New Revelation (1918)
The Vital Message (1919)
Verbatim Report of a Public Debate on ‘The Truth of Spiritualism’ between Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Joseph McCabe (1920)
The Wanderings of a Spiritualist (1921)
The Coming of the Fairies (1922)
The Case for Spirit Photography (1922)
Our American Adventure (1923)
Our Second American Adventure (1924)
The Spiritualist’s Reader (1924)
The History of Spiritualism (1926)
Phineas Speaks (1927)
Our African Winter (1929)
The Edge of the Unknown (1930)

Pamphlets

Great Britain and the Next War (1913)
A Full Report of a Lecture on Spiritualism Delivered by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at the Connaught Hall, Worthing on Friday July 11th 1919 (1919)
Our reply to the Cleric: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lecture in Leicester, October 19th 1919 (1920)
Spiritualism and Rationalism (1920)
The Early Christian Church and Modern Spiritualism (1925)
Psychic Experiences (1925)
A Word of Warning (1928)
What Does Spiritualism Actually Teach and Stand For? (1928)
The Roman Catholic Church: A Rejoinder (1929)
An Open Letter to Those of My Generation (1929)
The New Revelation (1997)