Photo and biography of Arthur Conan Doyle. Interesting Facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:45

Of course, when the name of Arthur Conan Doyle is heard, most immediately recall the image of the famous Sherlock Holmes, who was created by one of the greatest writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, few people know that there was a whole confrontation between the author and the hero, fierce competition, during which the brilliant detective was mercilessly destroyed several times with a pen. Also, many readers are unaware of how varied and full of adventures Doyle's life was, how much he did for literature and society as a whole. The unusual life of a writer named Arthur Conan Doyle, interesting biography facts, dates, etc. are presented in this article.

The childhood of the future writer

Arthur Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859 in the artist's family. Place of birth - Edinburgh, Scotland. Despite the fact that the Doyle family was poor due tochronic alcoholism of the head of the family, the boy grew up smart and educated. The love of books was instilled from early childhood, when Arthur's mother Mary spent many hours telling the child various stories drawn from literature. A variety of interests from childhood, a lot of books read and erudition determined the further path that Arthur Conan Doyle took. A short biography of the distinguished author is presented below.

Education and career choices

Education of the future writer was paid for by we althy relatives. He studied first at the Jesuit school, then was transferred to Stonyhurst, where the education was quite serious and was famous for its fundamental nature. The high quality of education at the same time did not compensate for the severity of being in this place - cruel corporal punishment was actively practiced in the educational institution, to which all children were subjected indiscriminately.

The boarding school, despite the difficult living conditions, became exactly the place where Arthur realized his craving for the creation of literary works and the ability to do so. At that time, it was too early to talk about talent, but even then the future writer gathered around him companies of peers, eager for a new story from a talented classmate.

By the end of his college years, Doyle had achieved some recognition - he published a magazine for students and wrote many poems, which were consistently praised by students and teachers. In addition to his passion for writing, Arthur successfully mastered cricket, andthen, when he moved to Germany for a while, and other types of physical activity, in particular football and luge.

When he had to decide what profession to get, he faced misunderstanding from his family members. Relatives expected that the boy would follow in the footsteps of his creative ancestors, but Arthur suddenly became interested in medicine and, despite the objections of his uncle and mother, entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. It was there that he met the teacher of medical science Joseph Bell, who served as a prototype for creating the image of the famous Sherlock Holmes in the future. Bell, Ph. D., had a complex temperament and an astounding intellectual ability that allowed him to accurately diagnose people by their appearance.

The Doyle family was large, and in addition to Arthur, it brought up six more children. By that time, the father had gone crazy, and there was practically no one to earn money, since the mother was completely and completely immersed in the upbringing of offspring. Therefore, the future writer studied most disciplines at an accelerated pace, and devoted the freed up time to part-time jobs as an assistant to the doctor.

After reaching the age of twenty, Arthur returns to trying writing. Several stories come out from under his pen, some of which are accepted for publication by well-known magazines. Arthur is inspired by the opportunity to earn money through literature, and he continues to write and offer publishers the fruits of his labor, often verysuccessfully. The first printed stories by Arthur Conan Doyle were "Sesassa Valley Mysteries" and "The American's Tale".

Medical biography of Arthur Conan Doyle: writer and physician

Arthur Conan Doyle's biography, family, environment, variety and unexpected transitions from one activity to another is very exciting. So, having received an offer in 1880 to take the position of an onboard surgeon on a ship called the Hope, Arthur sets off on a journey that lasted more than 7 months. Thanks to a new interesting experience, another story is born, called "Captain of the North Star".

The craving for adventure was mixed with a craving for creativity and a love of the profession, and after graduating from university, Arthur Conan Doyle got a job as an on-board doctor on a ship plying between Liverpool and the West African coast. However, as attractive as the seven-month trip to the Arctic turned out to be, so repulsive was hot Africa for him. Therefore, he soon left this ship and returned to the measured work in England as a doctor.

In 1882, Arthur Conan Doyle began his first medical practice in Portsmouth. At first, due to a small number of clients, Arthur's interests shifted again towards literature, and during this period such stories as "Bloomensdyke Ravine" and "April Fools" appeared. It is in Portsmouth that Arthur meets his first great love - Elma Welden, whom he is even going to marry, but due to the long scandals of the coupledecides to leave. All subsequent years, Arthur continues to rush between two activities - medicine and literature.

Marriage and literary breakthrough

Fateful was the request of his neighbor Pike to see one of the patients with meningitis. He turned out to be hopeless, but watching him was the reason for meeting his sister named Louise, with whom Arthur got married already in 1885.

After getting married, the aspiring writers' ambitions grew steadily. He had few successful publications in modern magazines, he wanted to create something big and serious that would touch the hearts of readers and enter the world of literature for centuries. One such novel was A Study in Scarlet, published in 1887 and introducing Sherlock Holmes to the world for the first time. According to Doyle himself, writing a novel turned out to be easier than getting his publisher. It took almost three years to find those willing to publish the book. The fee for the first large-scale creation was only 25 pounds.

In 1887, Arthur's rebellious temper takes him on a new adventure - the study and practice of spiritism. A new direction of interest inspires new stories, in particular about the famous detective.

Rivalry with a self-created literary hero

After "A Study in Scarlet", a work called "The Adventures of Micah Clark", as well as "The White Squad" saw the light of day. However, Sherlock Holmes, who sunk into the soul of both readers and publishers, asked to be returned to the pages. An additional impetus forThe continuation of the story about the detective was an acquaintance with Oscar Wilde and the editor of one of the most popular magazines, who persistently persuade Doyle to continue writing about Sherlock Holmes. This is how the Sign of the Four appears in the pages of Lippincots Magazine.

In subsequent years, throwing between professions becomes even more ambitious. Artur decides to take up ophthalmology and travels to Vienna to study. However, after four months of effort, he realizes that he is not ready to master professional German and spend time in the future on a new direction in medical practice. So he returns to England and publishes several more Sherlock Holmes short stories.

Final career choice

After a serious illness with the flu, which almost killed Doyle, he decides to stop practicing medicine forever and devote all his time to literature, especially since the popularity of his short stories and novels at that time reached its peak. Thus, the medical biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, whose books were becoming more and more famous, came to an end.

The Strand publishing house asks to write another series of stories about Holmes, but Doyle, feeling tired and annoyed by the annoying hero, asks for a fee of 50 pounds in the sincere hope that the publishing house will reject such conditions of cooperation. However, the Strand signs a contract for the appropriate amount and receives its six stories. Readers are thrilled.

Next sixshort stories Arthur Conan Doyle sold to a publisher for £1,000. Tired of "buying" for high fees and being offended by Holmes for the fact that his more significant creations are not visible behind his back, Doyle decides to "kill" the detective beloved by everyone. While working for the Strand, Doyle writes for the theater, and this experience inspires him much more. However, Holmes' "death" did not bring him the expected satisfaction. Further attempts to create a worthy play failed, and Arthur seriously thought about the question, can he even create something good, except for the Holmes story?

During the same period, Arthur Conan Doyle is fond of lecturing on literature, which are very popular.

Arthur's wife Louise was ill a lot, in connection with this, traveling with lectures had to be stopped. In search of a more favorable climate for her, they ended up in Egypt, where the stay was remembered for the carefree game of cricket, walks in Cairo and the injury received by Arthur as a result of a fall from a horse.

The Resurrection of Holmes, or Deal with Conscience

Upon their return from England, the Doyle family is faced with material problems caused by a dream come true - building their own home. In order to get out of the predicament in terms of finances, Arthur Conan Doyle decides to deal with his own conscience and resurrects Sherlock Holmes on the pages of a new play, which is enthusiastically accepted by the public. Then, in many of Doyle's new works, the presence of an unloved detective is almost invisibly noticeable, with the right to existwhich the writer still had to put up with.

Late love

Arthur Conan Doyle was considered a highly moral man with strong principles, and there is much evidence that he never cheated on his wife. However, he could not avoid a vicious love for another girl - Jean Lekki. At the same time, despite a strong romantic attachment to her, they got married only ten years after they met, when his wife died of an illness.

Jin inspired him to new hobbies - hunting and music lessons, and also influenced the further literary activity of the writer, whose plots became less sharp, but more sensual and deep.

War, politics, social activity

Doyle's later life was marked by participation in the Boer War, where he went to study the war in real life, but he was an ordinary field doctor who saved the lives of soldiers not from fatal combat wounds, but from typhus and fever that raged then.

The writer's literary activity marked itself with the release of a new novel about Sherlock Holmes "The Hound of the Baskervilles", for which he received a new wave of reader love, as well as accusations of stealing ideas from his friend Fletcher Robinson. However, they were never supported by solid evidence.

In 1902, Doyle received a knighthood, according to some sources - for services in the Boer War, according to others - for literary achievements. During the same period, Arthur Conan Doyle made attempts to realizehimself in politics, which are suppressed by rumors of his religious fanaticism.

An important area of Doyle's social activity was participation in trial and post-trial processes as a defender of the accused. Based on the experience gained while writing Sherlock Holmes stories, he was able to prove the innocence of several people, which made a significant contribution to the popularity of his name.

The active political and social position of Arthur Conan Doyle was expressed in the fact that he predicted many steps of the greatest powers in the First World War. Despite the fact that his opinion was perceived by many as the fruit of a writer's fantasy, most of the assumptions were justified. It is also a historically recognized fact that it was Doyle who initiated the construction of the Channel Tunnel.

New Landmarks: Occult Science, Spiritism

During the First World War, Doyle took part in a volunteer detachment and continued to make his proposals to improve the military readiness of the country's troops. As a result of the war, many people close to him were killed, including a brother, a son from his first marriage, two cousins and nephews. These losses led to the return of a keen interest in spiritualism, to the promotion of which Doyle devoted the rest of his life.

The writer died on July 7, 1930 from an attack of angina pectoris, this was the end of an impressive biography of Arthur Conan Doyle, full of surprises and incredible life turns. A photo of the writer adorns one of the walls of the famousLondon Library, perpetuating his memory. Interest in the life of the creator of the image of Sherlock Holmes has not faded to this day. A short biography of Arthur Conan Doyle in English is regularly included in British literature textbooks.