The New Student's Reference Work/Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

A. CONAN DOYLE

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, British novelist and physician, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland, May 22, 1859, and was educated at Stonyhurst, in Germany and at Edinburgh University, where he studied medicine, graduating in 1881 and taking his M. D. degree in 1885. While practicing at Southsea, he began to write for Chamber's Journal and other periodicals. He then essayed fiction at some length and published A Study in Scarlet, Micah Clarke, The Sign of the Four and The White Company. The success of these novels led to Dr. Doyle's abandoning medicine professionally. He then produced a clever series of detective stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, after which appeared The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, The Tragedy of the Korosko and other tales. He has also written verse and a play, A Story of Waterloo, which was successfully staged by Sir Henry Irving. Dr. Doyle has been a great traveler. When he visited South Africa and the scenes of the struggles between Britain and the Dutch burghers, the result was a work entitled The Boer War. He was knighted in 1902.