Author Biography

 In my English class we finished reading short stories written by various authors. After that, we had to pick an author whose writing we liked then write a bio on him.

I picked Doyle, the writer of the famous Sherlock Holmes stories!

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Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

“The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name (qtd. Good Reads).” Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle lived a singular life and, due to his many professions, accomplished much. He attributes a large amount of his writing success to his mother’s early influence. Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in Edinburgh Scotland. Seventy-one years later, he died on July 6,1930 in Crowborough, Sussex, England. His mother, Mary, taught Doyle to be a gentleman and sparked his love for words with her animated story telling. Doyle remembered, "In my early childhood, as far as I can remember anything at all, the vivid stories she [my mother] would tell me stand out so clearly that they obscure the real facts of my life (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography).” One of these facts included an alcoholic father who held the position of architect as well as painter (Arthur Conan Doyle Biography). Doyle’s mother helped create his life story, which later allowed him to design stories of his own.

On his ninth birthday, Doyle, funded by rich Doyle family members, was sent to England and put into a Jesuit boarding school. He spent seven miserable years there rebelling against the brutal and corporal punishment dealt at his school. The Doyle family tradition would have it that Arthur would become a painter, but he was otherwise influenced to pursue medicine by a border taken in by his mother, Dr. Bryan Walker. (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography).  In 1876, after leaving the Jesuit boarding school and graduating from Stonyhurst College, Doyle started his medical studies at Edinburgh University.  Between 1878 and 1880, while at the university, he found time to publish and write stores. In his third year as a student, Doyle worked on a ship as a surgeon for two years and then went back to school and received his doctorate in 1885. After marrying Louisa Hawkins, Doyle decided to start practicing medicine at Southsea England and did so from 1882to1890. His business was small because he turned some of his attention to writing since his early story Habakkuk Jephson’s Statement was a success. In March of 1891, Doyle, and his family moved to London where he started practicing ophthalmology (Arthur Conan Doyle Biography). After Doyle’ first wife died, he remarried, and became involved in spiritualism. Because of the influence he had from spiritualism, he wrote a series of articles about his new faith. During his life, Doyle participated as a doctor in a few battles, including the Beor war (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography). Doyle was a busy man as he juggled the role of doctor, ophthalmologist, father, husband and writer.  All of this played a role in preparing him for his writing success.

Though Doyle changed jobs throughout his life, writing was his major occupation during his later years. However, his medical careers prepared him for his greatest works. After an influenza attack, which almost killed Doyle, he stop working in medical field and began to pursue writing as an occupation. His stories were based off the scenes he saw while in battle. As he was a doctor himself, he created Dr. Watson, perfectly writing explicit and accurate details of medical life into practice. His medical background came out in his compelling and detailed writing. His most prominent works included Sir Niguel, Study in Scarlet, and The Hound of the Baskervilles (Arthur Conan Doyle Biography). After coming home from the Beor war, Doyle was knighted by King Edward VII for the services he had done for England. Sir Arthur was always restless and on the move, which was probably how he became inspired to write his famous stories (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Biography). This great author provided well-developed, spell-binding stories still popular today that have greatly contributed to mystery fiction.