The detective, no doubt, is one of the most popular and recognizable genres of literature. The first thing that comes to mind when you hear this word is a detective who is concentrating on investigating a brutal murder or a confusing secret. I immediately recall the names of the famous trackers: Miss Marple, Alan Pinkerton, Hercule Poirot and, of course, Sherlock Holmes. His name has already become a household name for a person with amazing deductive abilities and developed logical thinking. Notes on the adventures of this detective have long become classics of literature, but few people know what the author of Sherlock Holmes was, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Childhood and adolescence
Arthur Conan Doyle was born (the surname is sometimes spelled "Doyle" due to differences in English) on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the family of an artist and architect. Despite the fact that the boy’s father often drank, Arthur received a good primary education, and at the age of nine he was sent to a distant boarding school. Unfortunately, the writer had extremely negative memories of this place: disgusting food, corporal punishment, and a low level of teaching.
But it was in this unpleasant place that the future author of Sherlock Holmes discovered his talent for writing. It is because of this that Arthur Conan Doyle became popular among peers. Towards the end of his seven-year studies at school, he even began to publish his journal and try himself in versification.
Start
In 1876, Doyle became a student in the medical faculty of the University of Edinburgh. Studying was easy for him, so Arthur devoted his free time to literature. Already in his third year, he published one of his short stories in a Scottish magazine, and in the same year he published his article on medicine in an influential periodical. In 1881, a doctor-certified author, Sherlock Holmes went to West Africa as a ship's doctor. Before that, by the way, he already had the experience of long-distance sailing: the expedition to the Arctic was not in vain. Returning from the voyage, Doyle began to work as a doctor, and after a couple of years he defended his doctorate in medicine.
But for all the worries, he did not forget about creativity. In 1886, Arthur Conan Doyle became known as a prose writer. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" - the first stories of the famous detective story - appeared in the periodical.
Fame and ... throwing?
In 1889, Doyle with his wife and little daughter left Britain. An ambitious doctor decides to move to Austria, where he studied for some time to switch there from general therapy to ophthalmology, but after a couple of months the couple returns to London. Arthur for some time opens a private office, trying to combine medicine and literature, but in 1891 he completely leaves the universe under the name "Sherlock Holmes". The author of fascinating stories became more and more popular every day, he allowed himself to demand huge money for stories, and periodicals were ready to pay fabulous fees for the opportunity to print Doyle. At the same time, Arthur travels with his family around the world, writes, teaches at various universities. In 1897, returning to the United Kingdom, he tries himself as a playwright - and the world receives a theatrical version of Sherlock Holmes.
In December 1899, the Anglo-Boer War begins. Having abandoned the Sherlock Holmes series of stories, the author goes to the front as a volunteer doctor. Three years later, Arthur Conan Doyle received the prefix "sir" and the title of knight for serving Corona in difficult times of war. The experience was reflected in the book The Great Boer War.
After
After the war, Arthur once again leaves medical practice, this time for the sake of politics. True, he could not win even in the local elections, so he very soon abandoned this idea. In 1906, after the death of his wife, he married for the second time, and the new union brings him not only children, but also the inspiration for writing theatrical versions of some stories from the Sherlock Holmes series: the author of the work was able to achieve the production of The Colorful Ribbon, as well as “Brigadier Gerard” and “Rodney Stone” (in the latter case, the name was changed to “Terperley House”). In the same period, the “Hound of the Baskervilles” was published - a novel about one of the most famous cases of a brilliant detective.
But the sense of domestic debt was unbeatable, so it is not surprising that with the outbreak of World War I, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle again joined the ranks of volunteers in the British army.
Last years
Returning from a new war, the author of "Sherlock Holmes" discovers spiritualism. Unusual and, frankly, rare doctrine so fascinated Doyle that in 1922 he once again left Britain and left with his family in the United States, where he intends to seriously engage in the propaganda of spiritualism. He spent almost two years on the road, trying to interest as many overseas people as possible with esoteric teachings, but at the end of the twenties Arthur Conan Doyle returned to Europe. In 1929, he embarks on a journey through the countries of Northern Europe, during which he writes his last book, in no way connected with Sherlock Holmes, who had already bothered him (his author even tried to kill him once, but was forced to resurrect due to public pressure character).
On July 7, 1930, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle passed away. He was 71 years old.
Copycats
Passing by such a vivid and outstanding image as Sherlock Holmes is practically impossible, therefore, even during the life of its author, writers began to appear who expressed their vision of this unusual hero. Arthur Conan Doyle's son and Franklin Roosevelt, one of the most famous presidents of the United States, wrote stories about the fate of the detective.
In the nineties of the twentieth century, a huge number of books of the Sherlock Holmes series by other authors (A. Shaburin, V. Petrina, M. Trushin, etc.) appeared on the territory of the post-Soviet space, hinting that new stories were found in Dr. Watson’s suitcase . The number of imitators of the genius of Doyle is really huge, and, probably, in each version of the stories about the most brilliant of detectives there is something surprisingly intriguing.