Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a writer best known for his creation of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. His father was of Irish descent and his mother Mary Foley was from Dublin. Doyle was a physician who was also a prolific writer.
Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1859. He was educated at the Jesuit school, Stoneyhurst College in England and later at another Jesuit School in Austria. He returned to Scotland in 1876 where he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.
Doyle began writing while he was still a student and his first short story The Mystery of Sasassa Valley was published in 1879. He qualified as doctor and completed his MD degree in 1885. He continued to write while practising as a doctor. However he later gave up medicine altogether to concentrate on his writing. Doyle married Louisa Hawkins in 1885. The couple spent their honeymoon in Ireland.
Apart from the 60 mystery stories featuring the detective character Sherlock Holmes, Doyle was also the author of plays, poetry and historical novels. In support of his friend Roger Casement he highlighted the horrors of the Congo in his 1909 pamphlet ‘The Crime of the Congo’. He tried unsuccessfully to save Casement from the death penalty in 1916. He died at the age 71 on July 7th 1930.
Arthur Conan Doyle was born in the year 1859 On This Day.
Conan Doyle